Thanksgiving AKL Kidani TR Updated 12/18

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Hello!
This is our trip report for Thanksgiving family trip.

Basic Info:

We are DVC owners at AKL and Aulani we own between my husband, me and my parents.

We stayed at AKL Kidani from Nov 22-30th.

We have the Sorcerer Pass, so we had 4 days to jam in a lot before we were blocked out.

Here is the whole family!

My parents in their 60s on the right... my dad loves AKL since he grew up in Kenya for a while and my mom loves being grandma going doing stuff with my son.

I am the Disney obsessed, classic disney mom.. now in my 40s... wow I am old now. Lol.

My son holding the dino nugget is 7 years old and loves dinosaur, star wars, and marvel. He also qualified for das under the new system.

My husband on the far left is in his 40s too, loves star wars and marvel and grew up going to disney, so wants to pass that on to his son.

I will be updating this as I go. I love putting in lots of pics of my trips!

Hopefully u can get some great tips from us

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

FRIDAY
Flying in
Check in
View

SATURDAY
Soarin
Sharks
Living with Land
Spaceship Earth
Moana
Space
Space 220
Space 2020 Part 2
Guardians and Figment
All the photos
France
Brazil and Belgium
My son and My mom are leaving
Hack Scare
Leaving Epcot

SUNDAY
Early Morning AK
Safari
Kevin
Santa
Yak and Yeti
Yak and Yeti part 2
Dinoland Fun
Chip and Dale!
Merry Menagerie
Rafikis Watch
Drawing

 

[bluecruiser]

One of my favorite DVC resorts, will be following along!



Pssst, it's spelled Kidani ...

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Friday:
We pack last night and parents slept over at our house since we are really close to the airport.

We drove in early to the airport because of we were afraid of security lines. Denver airport is under construction and we know the lines were moved around. We checked in with all of our luggage and yes the TSA pre checked line is in a completely different area. The line was not to long though so yeah!

Next went to United Club. My parents have all their perks with them. First time using this new club in DIA.

Mutiple floors to help spread out the crowds which it was packed soo good they made it so good big.

The breakfast was small but the gravey was really, really good... esp for being buffet airport food.




Also had to free mimosas..it is our tradition to start our vacation trips with a mimosas.

Next we head to the plane. Nice easy flight. No surprises which is great. My parents fly first class while we are in economy plus. Our economy plus seats our paid useing points.

We landed in Orlando. We are all super excited. My son was very excited to see his first xmas tree in the he airport.


We head to luggage and while we wait for luggage. I go and get a toll tag. These are really great, but you have to do all payment through their app so make sure you do it all ahead of time. The kiosk is near the rental areas. https://www.visitortollpass.com/?ga...eGnz0Y50TcAZ4GdtbXf-iZvPcWZXx0wwaAhs3EALw_wcB

I messed up and thought I pre made one and then had to do it there. It slowed it down.

Then after I went back up stairs to see if there luggage was done. It just got done. Luggage does seem to take a while here. Next we take all of our luggage down to rentals. We got our a van through Costco using Alamo. Always love Alamo and they were easy to work with and easy to pick out our mini van from the whole row..

While driving we got the text that our room is ready, yeah!

Next we drive down to WDW... we only do one circle lol. We missed the AKL exit was on the left and we were on the right.... we ended up going through the AK entrance gates... we said we were trying to get to the hotel... the gate attendant said it happens alot at this time and pointed us the right way.

We made it!!

We had them take out luggage to our room... we had a lot and they gave a Marcus mickey stickers! Made my sons day!


My parents dropped us off and they went off to go buy groceries.

Our room was a bit far from elevators and lobby... so we decide to check and see if we can move it. I told the whole family don't get your hopes up, it is Thanksgiving week soo probably cannot move it. They could not move the room like I thought... so we keep it.

Xmas decorations were not up yet. But we pop in the gift shop for some soda and zebra domes then we head our room.

Continue in the next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Now our room was far, very far from the lobby.. but close enough to Zazu elevators that if we parked next to them it was okay.
We ended up riding up the elevator with our luggage. The bell hop was very nice and friendly.

But we did love our view... soo it made it all worth it.
We got a 2 bedroom savannah.


I love walking in and seeing our names on the screens. I do love theming in the room... the room needs a little refurb... like that pull out couch and the old carpet... but I hope they don't take it sole. I love all the special touches throughout the rooms. We also love the 3rd bathroom best feature about these rooms.






This tile is my fav... if they tear down these completely do u think they would save the tiles and let us buy it?


We tipped our bell hop and he put in a order for us to get a blender for our stay.
We un pack and get comfy in our rooms. We have the room with the 2 beds. Which sound great in theory if our son would stay in his own bed... lol. He gets nervous in new rooms.

Then we eat zebra domes and save two for my parents. What better way to start the trip then looking off our balcony while eating zebra domes?



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[DisneyMountainWoman]

My parents came and we helped bring in the groceries.
Then we ate dinner on the porch. Our food was simple just food from Publix.

What a view though! We saw the cms put out the food and all the animals came!








Sorry that was probably too many pics of the animals but I could not help myself.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Then after dinner we head over to Jambo. I wanted to check out their bigger shop and then wanted to roast some marshmallows. That is when we found out it takes about 8 mins to get to Jambo lobby. Almost the same amount of time going to our own lobby... I am not joking we timed it. Lol.
We go out and check out more animals.



We chatted for a while with the cms. They know so much about the animals. They were soo good with him.

Then we headed over to the marshmallows roast. Disney has gone cheap and cut so much it is nice they have still kept this free. Now u can buy the kits but marshmallows are free so that is what we did.







Jambo one I think is more crowded than Kandi but the managed the crowd well.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next we did some shopping.

We went to the shop and we saw him carving. I love these extra touches. My son thought it was the coolest.

Next we checked out the store. This store is soo great... my son and me wanted everything.... lol. We choose one each. My son with a cute oalf hat.

I finally got AKL ears!! I have wanted ears for AKL forever!

Look how cute there.

Then we headed to bed. A great 1st day.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Saturday
Epcot day!

So today we woke up early and got virtual que for Gardians of the galaxy.
We made breakfast in the room. Always a nice way to save some money.
Also today is the last day for Food and wine festival. It will be our first food and wine festival so we are excited.

We drove to Epcot. Got a nice close parking spot.
Got in line.

They release us early to go wait in our different sections of the park. I think this is a great strategy to lesson the crowds. I make it to the front... we are heading to Soarin first.
I got burned another year trying for frozen or Remy and both broke down... so going for old reliable. Also found out they just updated to make the the Iffle tower more straight.

This pic shows where they have you wait.
Then they release us and we all head to Soarin.

There I noticed Ear Scout blogger. I watch his videos for strategies and in he is testing out if starting here is faster than frozen. Nice.


We head in pretty quick.
I am liking this strategy.
We are on the side... not the best seating but it is what it is.

We all loved this ride. The smells and the sights and yes the Iffel tower was straighter but from our side still some bendy.


Next we were going to ride Living with the land but it was down.


Continue on to the next post..

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

We head over to Figment but found out it was still closed too... bah... lol. Next try Nemo. We head into Nemo and we noticed the huge crowds going into Soarin. Our early time is up. We were able to get on before the crowds though and walked on to Nemo.


We love this ride.

I love how they mix digital with real fish.


Then I noticed there was no line from Bruce the shark pic so we get that done.



Then we noticed a cm with a table. My son loves this kind of stuff soo we stayed there for a bit while he chatted and learned from the cm.



Then we looked at all the cool fishes and sharks. When people say epcot is not for kids... I think they are wrong. My son loves this kind of stuff.



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[DisneyMountainWoman]

We stayed a while looking at all the cool fishes and sharks.








My son loved checking out the manatees. They had a cm keeper feeding them. Then my son ask them about a thing a saw on Animal Kingdom show on disney plus with the manatees and parasites... if u have not seen it is disgusting... the cm we were talking to was on that show and was there during the parasites... and she confirmed it was even more disgusting in person and still is the most disgusting thing she has ever done. Man all the cms have been soo good with my son. The magic is still there..






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[Nicnicnic.nic]

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

We went back to Living with the Land and it is open. It says it only 15 mins, so we get in the line.


And we find out why it was not open on time... they just put up the xmas decorations!!! I am soo excited. I did not think these would be up in time for us to see them.










We do a bathroom break and grab a quick bite.
We get this, the Honey Sugar Cookie. It is super cute with that little bee.

This is a great cookie, soft and have honey in it. It was soo lovely. And the honey comb on top was just perfect.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next we das Spaceship Earth. My son looves this ride, he really likes seeing himself on the rides.






And he loves the Globe.


And of course I do Instagram wall.


Next, we try Journey of Water by Moana. It is our first time doing it. It is super cute.



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[DisneyMountainWoman]

We had so much fun going through and interact with the water elements. Also my son is very sensitive to water spray and they are really good at making sure spray does not hit you if you do not want it. So great news for anyone else who was worried about that. We really loved this new area. We also saw Moana was meeting in the area. We passed since we can get see Moana alot in Aulani with shorter lines.






They had an official photographer there so we got our first offical photos.
They have some cute magic shots.




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[DisneyMountainWoman]

One of my favorite DVC resorts, will be following along!

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Welcome!!!

 

[Counting Stars]

I always enjoy your trip reports- Thanks for taking the time to share your adventures!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

We crossed over and watched a little of this show. I love epcot adding these little touches throughout. We stopped and watched it for a little bit and then moved on.

As we get closer to our next ride we saw Starlord out!!! Finally they are bringing some marvel characters over!! This is a big beef for me... there are soo many characters wdw could use in the parks that universal does not own... like black panther for example... but don't? Bah. Anyways we chatted and met with him super happy .

Then we did Misson space: green. Super cute fun ride. My son loved it.



Next we got to space to eat! Space 220!
I love how u check in feels very upscale.



I looove the going up into space and going down. Feels soo cool.




Then we step off...



Wow this place is really cool!

This is our first time and my son and frankly the rest of us our just stunned.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

I always enjoy your trip reports- Thanks for taking the time to share your adventures!

Ohh yeah!! Thanks you!!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I love the view...

They have little ships and things fly by.

I got the:
Shuttle Crew
Kettle One Peach and Orange Blossom Vodka, Vanilla, Tangerine, Red Bull and Tang Foam
$18.00


This was a classic orange crush drink. So if u like that u will like this.

My mom got the drink with smoke I think it was Black Hole Fashioned... we both video it soo no pic... lol.

When you book a reservation for lunch you have to do there lunch menue for $55, u get one app and one entree.

Apps





The apps every one really loved. The wagyu i got was melt in your mouth good. The presentation of them was great too.

My son got the cute little drink and chicken tenders. He liked them.



Also a fun thing they give you space cards.
My son loved these.




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