EilonwyWanderer
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2017
Did my father-in-law come for Thanksgiving and stay until 3 days before we left? Yes. Did he sleep in my sewing room so that I had to move my machine downstairs to finish the little Elsa and Anna dresses before we left? Yes. Did I sleep at all? No! But we made it and despite a couple of challenges this trip was MAGICAL so let's get to it!
Day 1
Against ALL ODDS our waitlist for a concierge AKL studio came through for the first two days! So we didn't make any plans for the first day since we knew that there would be free food and we could just relax. I'd switched our flights to an earlier one once we knew, so that meant waking up at 4:30 am to make sure everyone was at the airport for a 7 am flight. We flew Delta and they did something I've never seen before: they gave us free snacks! Stuffy Bear and my youngest were very happy about that.
The flight was uneventful but this would be the first time we were taking Sunshine Flyer and I was not impressed. We figured out where they were, stepped outside into a SEA OF PEOPLE. Like a huge crowd just milling around. There were no signs anywhere. But there was a guy that called out 'Animal Kingdom Lodge' as soon as we stepped out, so QR code in hand we walked forward. He then started yelling at us that we needed to go to the back of the line to check in! And I was like okay where is the line? And he just kept yelling to go back and check in. So we headed back to the doors because that's how large of a group there were and people filed in behind us. After a moment a random guy who was waiting for a bus said "nono, check in is over to the left we're all just waiting." So we walked over to the left where there was a check in person hidden behind the crowd. There were also people just milling around waiting in front so we waited for another couple of minutes before someone said they weren't waiting to check in they were waiting for a bus and finally got to the lady who was checking people in. With a clip board. She wrote our information down and then sent us back to the bus where the guy had been yelling earlier. It was pure disorganized chaos and I think we'll stick with Mears and their nice lines next time.
But we finally get to AKL and boy do I love staying at this resort. For 2-3 days. I find bus transportation to just be bad, but for a couple of nights I can deal for nice views. We had already activated our bands so we get into the elevator and...they don't work to take us to the 6th floor. We get out on the 5th and my husband goes down to the check in desk to figure it out.
They can't figure it out, so we get an escort up to the concierge level still toting all of our luggage. They have us leave it by the desk since they were busy with another person and tell us to go sit down, relax, and have some snacks. We're all just soaking it all in when a guy comes up and asks if we're X safari. We say no and the people at the table beside us wave him down. He heads over to them and...well. I'm not going to say he craps all over DVC members, but it really sounded like he was saying in not so many words that they save the "absolutely gorgeous safari views" for the paying guests and the pool views for DVC members. It left a sour taste with us but whatever, we're at Disney, we're not going to dwell on it. We finally get called over to the desk to officially check in and get our welcome package with another person who was very nice. We say we're going to go to the pool and go look at the animals while we wait for our room assignment and ask if we can leave the luggage with them. They say no, take it down to bell services. We say okay and head down there.
We check our luggage in without issue and go to the store to look around. Not ten minutes later we get the text that our room is ready! We go up to take a look and, lol, it's a pool view. We are lowly DVC members after all, but it's fine, we really aren't picky. Since it was so soon after we checked our luggage in my husband just goes down to bell services rather than calling to collect it.
But they can't find it. They come out three times to ask him to describe it. Our luggage is a very unique color (a light blue-purple I've never seen anywhere else) but more recognizable is the bright orange Elena child's suitcase we have. They can't find it. They can't find it so badly they ask my husband to go in the back to look for it! He does. It's not there. Worse? They can't find the guy that checked it in for us. Is he on break? Is he gone for the day? No one knows. They have no answers so they say they'll call us.
He has sent me a bunch of angry text messages in the meantime as this unfolds, so I go out to the concierge desk to check to see if they might've sent the luggage up to them? Nope. By this time I am a little panicked. That has all of our clothes in it! We're still wearing our long sleeves and long pants from traveling. It has all the kids' princess dresses in it! The only thing I packed in the backpack I kept with me were the two dresses I sewed and the swimsuits. I get back to the room and someone is calling our phone. It's bell services!
...to ask if we had the luggage up there. I'm like no, I believe my husband is down with you looking for it. Yes, he is, they say, but they were just hoping it had already been delivered. I'm like...why don't you know??? My husband gets back up to the room and is very angry about the whole thing. I'm pretty mad too, so we decide to just go out and look at some animals, go see how far the walk to the pool is, and otherwise try to pretend we are not screwed if our bags are not found. I'm not going to lie, as we do so I'm looking around to see if anyone is wheeling our luggage around! But we see some giraffes, walk over to Kidani to check out the kids play area which was closed last time we were there (and my kids are immediately like LET'S GO SWIMMING!), we look at the Christmas decorations, and then head back to the room so it's been about two hours. As we're heading back through the Jambo lounge WE SEE OUR LUGGAGE! It's on a cart right in front of Bell Services! We are so happy and the guy takes it up with us. We ask where they found it and he says "in the back." My husband is skeptical and asks which back since he went through every part of where they store the luggage earlier. The guy stammers a bit and finally just tells us that the guy who took the luggage never checked it in, whatever that means. But we're just happy to have everything finally!
We change into our swimsuits and go have a blast at the Kidani pool. My oldest is all about the water slide, which turns tragic as we get out and she has clearly had some kind of reaction to the chlorine. Thankfully that resolves with a quick shower, but would be a recurring issue throughout the trip and was something I didn't know could happen! We spend the rest of the evening at the hotel, eating the delicious food (omg the Durban chicken is amazing!) and looking at the very awesome decorations. We decide to turn in early since we had Magic Kingdom in the morning and we wanted to get there first thing!
Next up: Magic Kingdom for a day!
Day 1
Against ALL ODDS our waitlist for a concierge AKL studio came through for the first two days! So we didn't make any plans for the first day since we knew that there would be free food and we could just relax. I'd switched our flights to an earlier one once we knew, so that meant waking up at 4:30 am to make sure everyone was at the airport for a 7 am flight. We flew Delta and they did something I've never seen before: they gave us free snacks! Stuffy Bear and my youngest were very happy about that.
The flight was uneventful but this would be the first time we were taking Sunshine Flyer and I was not impressed. We figured out where they were, stepped outside into a SEA OF PEOPLE. Like a huge crowd just milling around. There were no signs anywhere. But there was a guy that called out 'Animal Kingdom Lodge' as soon as we stepped out, so QR code in hand we walked forward. He then started yelling at us that we needed to go to the back of the line to check in! And I was like okay where is the line? And he just kept yelling to go back and check in. So we headed back to the doors because that's how large of a group there were and people filed in behind us. After a moment a random guy who was waiting for a bus said "nono, check in is over to the left we're all just waiting." So we walked over to the left where there was a check in person hidden behind the crowd. There were also people just milling around waiting in front so we waited for another couple of minutes before someone said they weren't waiting to check in they were waiting for a bus and finally got to the lady who was checking people in. With a clip board. She wrote our information down and then sent us back to the bus where the guy had been yelling earlier. It was pure disorganized chaos and I think we'll stick with Mears and their nice lines next time.
But we finally get to AKL and boy do I love staying at this resort. For 2-3 days. I find bus transportation to just be bad, but for a couple of nights I can deal for nice views. We had already activated our bands so we get into the elevator and...they don't work to take us to the 6th floor. We get out on the 5th and my husband goes down to the check in desk to figure it out.
They can't figure it out, so we get an escort up to the concierge level still toting all of our luggage. They have us leave it by the desk since they were busy with another person and tell us to go sit down, relax, and have some snacks. We're all just soaking it all in when a guy comes up and asks if we're X safari. We say no and the people at the table beside us wave him down. He heads over to them and...well. I'm not going to say he craps all over DVC members, but it really sounded like he was saying in not so many words that they save the "absolutely gorgeous safari views" for the paying guests and the pool views for DVC members. It left a sour taste with us but whatever, we're at Disney, we're not going to dwell on it. We finally get called over to the desk to officially check in and get our welcome package with another person who was very nice. We say we're going to go to the pool and go look at the animals while we wait for our room assignment and ask if we can leave the luggage with them. They say no, take it down to bell services. We say okay and head down there.
We check our luggage in without issue and go to the store to look around. Not ten minutes later we get the text that our room is ready! We go up to take a look and, lol, it's a pool view. We are lowly DVC members after all, but it's fine, we really aren't picky. Since it was so soon after we checked our luggage in my husband just goes down to bell services rather than calling to collect it.
But they can't find it. They come out three times to ask him to describe it. Our luggage is a very unique color (a light blue-purple I've never seen anywhere else) but more recognizable is the bright orange Elena child's suitcase we have. They can't find it. They can't find it so badly they ask my husband to go in the back to look for it! He does. It's not there. Worse? They can't find the guy that checked it in for us. Is he on break? Is he gone for the day? No one knows. They have no answers so they say they'll call us.
He has sent me a bunch of angry text messages in the meantime as this unfolds, so I go out to the concierge desk to check to see if they might've sent the luggage up to them? Nope. By this time I am a little panicked. That has all of our clothes in it! We're still wearing our long sleeves and long pants from traveling. It has all the kids' princess dresses in it! The only thing I packed in the backpack I kept with me were the two dresses I sewed and the swimsuits. I get back to the room and someone is calling our phone. It's bell services!
...to ask if we had the luggage up there. I'm like no, I believe my husband is down with you looking for it. Yes, he is, they say, but they were just hoping it had already been delivered. I'm like...why don't you know??? My husband gets back up to the room and is very angry about the whole thing. I'm pretty mad too, so we decide to just go out and look at some animals, go see how far the walk to the pool is, and otherwise try to pretend we are not screwed if our bags are not found. I'm not going to lie, as we do so I'm looking around to see if anyone is wheeling our luggage around! But we see some giraffes, walk over to Kidani to check out the kids play area which was closed last time we were there (and my kids are immediately like LET'S GO SWIMMING!), we look at the Christmas decorations, and then head back to the room so it's been about two hours. As we're heading back through the Jambo lounge WE SEE OUR LUGGAGE! It's on a cart right in front of Bell Services! We are so happy and the guy takes it up with us. We ask where they found it and he says "in the back." My husband is skeptical and asks which back since he went through every part of where they store the luggage earlier. The guy stammers a bit and finally just tells us that the guy who took the luggage never checked it in, whatever that means. But we're just happy to have everything finally!
We change into our swimsuits and go have a blast at the Kidani pool. My oldest is all about the water slide, which turns tragic as we get out and she has clearly had some kind of reaction to the chlorine. Thankfully that resolves with a quick shower, but would be a recurring issue throughout the trip and was something I didn't know could happen! We spend the rest of the evening at the hotel, eating the delicious food (omg the Durban chicken is amazing!) and looking at the very awesome decorations. We decide to turn in early since we had Magic Kingdom in the morning and we wanted to get there first thing!
Next up: Magic Kingdom for a day!
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