The Shirey Family Blog - Michael, Joanna and Lincoln

Last day...

So very sad to wake up on the last day of vacation but as luck and some planning would have it, we'll be back at the House of Mouse in December (love the way Mickey decorates for Christmas).

Packing up the room didn't take too long and then we were off to Downtown Disney for breakfast and some quick shopping.

Wolfgang Puck Express does a nice breakfast - Belgian waffles, omelets, etc.

Lincoln did some shopping at the toy store (he had spending money from Wewa). We bought a couple of more Halloween costume pieces at World of Disney and then the boys went to Team Disney while I visited Guest Relations. Had to renew my Annual Pass while in my renewal discount period plus it is nice to get 15 months for the price of 12!

Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village was a really nice place to stay. Animal watching from the room/balcony was good some days and not so good on others. We were on Sunset Savannah where 100 animals live - giraffe, zebra, wild hogs, ostrich, eland, etc. They are on the Savannah 23 hours a day; only taken back to the barn for a quick checkup and for food once daily. They are however still "wild" and it is a large savannah so there is never a guarantee you are going to see anything. As I think I mentioned early on, DVC should have done a full quick service restaraunt here... While it was a pleasant walk, sometimes you just don't feel like walking that far for dinner. It should also be mentioned that it is a long walk down the hallways from the lobby. We spent the majority of our vacation in the very last room... It felt like miles by the end if the day (Lincoln would run it in the mornings but by evening he would state he was out of energy about half way down the hall).

We had a great time eating at Food and Wine and discovering the little things again with Lincoln - the firetruck, piggy game and music robots at Innoventions, the garden trains in Germany, riding the monorails, riding the train and watching all the ducks at Magic Kingdom, etc.

We're on the road now and the closer to home we get the more the Disney magic wears off. If only Walt had figured out how to truly bottle it...

Thanks for reading and remember... "it all started with a mouse" (W Disney).

Oct 25, 2009

Oops, hit the wrong button and published last post without finishing it!

Anyway, shopping at Pirates was a success.

Another tip... I had bought light sticks that you can hook together to make necklaces for a $1 at Target as well as some Mickey light up toys for $1-2. These worked great for Lincoln instead of buying the $15 ones in the parks. Don't get me wrong, Grandma still bought him a couple of the less expensive ones (LOL) but the Target ones were a big hit as well.

Back to the hotel for a decent (early-ish) bed time.

Oct 25, 2009

When Lincoln got up from his nap we decided to head to the pool. Someone forgot his bathing suit - lucky for him, the store in the hotel had one in his size.

The pool at Kidani Village is really nice. It has two slides - one for big kids and one for the little ones. It has stairs to enter as well as a zero clearance (gradual slope) feature. There are two spas tucked away for the adults. Separate from the pool is a kids water zone. There are water canons, popping water, a little whirl-pool... All kinds of things for kids (abd kids-at-heart). I think Michael enjoyed shooting the other kids with the water cannons as much, if not more than, Lincoln.

Just a quick tip... Disney may heat the pools but the water felt REALLY cold. I think they only heat it enough to keep it from dropping in to the 70s. This was pretty close to that judging by the way Grandma's pool has felt after a rain storm.

After pool time we headed back to Magic Kingdom hoping we could luck in to dinner like we had at Boma the night before. Sadly our luck had run out. We ended up at Pecos Bills for burgers. Lincoln had corndogs from a booth outside.

Next on the schedule was a visit to the Pirates gift shop for some Halloween costume accessory shopping. Got some cool st

Oct 24, 2009

OK, I can't believe we have been here a week. Last week this time we had just arrived and Michael and I were getting ready for Party for the Senses. Where has our vacation gone?

This morning we went back to EPCOT to complete the dining "tour" and for another round of the Piggy game (for those of you just reading, piggy game has nothing to do with eating around the world but is a game about financials at Innoventions!).

It was crazy hot in the park and the food booths were super crowded by Noon. The locals come in on the weekends and it was not much fun with the heat and crowds.

Lincoln was a trooper and snacked on a few of the items with us. His pick for the day again... pizza. LOL. And then ice cream.

We ran in to Father Frank from home... Very unexpected but a nice surprise. He took our picture, need to get a copy.

We're back in the room now. Lincoln is napping and we are thinking a nice wrap to the vacation will be some pool time.

Oct 24, 2009

Friday morning was spent packing up the room, checking-out, checking back in and browsing at Downtown Disney. Grandma and Grandad were leaving so we moved to a smaller room. And no trip to WDW is complete without last day shopping at Downtown.

After a quick bite to eat, G and G headed back to Goose Creek and we went on a Disney transportation tour. We took a bus to Wilderness Lodge. Walked through the beautiful lobby and down by the pool. From there we took a boat to Magic Kingdom and then a monorail to the Polynesian. It was back on a bus to the Animal Kingdom to watch the Jammin' Jungle parade. While I don't think Lincoln saw quite as much magic in this parade as he had with Spectromagic and the various fireworks (he kept asking where it was), he did enjoy waving to the cast members and characters and dancing to the music.

Couple of quick notes... Lincoln loves the boats, buses, and monorails and since we had time to kill waiting on parade time, the transportation tour was a good solution. Have I mentioned the FL heat is back? Sunday was sweater weather, where oh where did that weather go?

Back to the story... We finally got our room assignment and went back to the hotel. Much closer to the lobby this time (no half mile walk from the bus stop) and on the 5th floor (elevator time for L - woohoo!).

Dinner, dinner, dinner... What should we do? L had not had a nap and was really tired. We called Dining and they said Boma was booked - we didn't think L could handle Sanaa or Jiko being that tired. So we headed over to Jambo house anyway to try our luck figuring we would end up at Mara for quick service if necessary. We checked at Boma desk, they said the walk-up wait was 30 minutes. 30 seconds later our pager went off. Woo-hoo, Boma twice this week!!

Back to our new room and to bed, it was a long day.

Oct 24, 2009

Post-surgery (Thursday evening)... Grandma decided her toe was feeling better and Michael and I had a Vodka tasting to get to so we all went back to EPCOT.

I discovered I am not a hard core Vodka fan but I can appreciate the differences between Chopin (potato-based) and Grey Goose (rye-based). They did make us a strawberry balsamic martini that was quite yummy.

While we were Vodka-ing (with a blonde haired presenter who didn't look much over 21), Lincoln and the grands played a few more rounds of the piggy-game - oh my!

Then it was off to sample more food. At this point I've lost track of what we tried each day. All I can say is we didn't duplicate much and we found very little we didn't like. (There were a few booths skipped still just to save time. It wasn't our plan to be out late.)

Michael did convince me to go in the Mexico pavilion to the new Tequila bar. We had a flight of high-end tequilas. He enjoyed it... I took a sip of each... My limit when it comes to that stuff.

That's about all for Thursday.

Oct 24, 2009

In-room surgery... I'll leave it up to Grandma to explain in detail but the short story is she got a HUGE blister on the tip of her big toe early in the week. By Thursday it was clearly under the nail and pushing the nail up off the nail bed. When we all got back from AK, Michael set up a mini-surgical suite and within a few minutes the toe was on the way to recovery.

Oct 23, 2009

Ok... To clear up any panic or confusion, all the regulars were back in Off Kilter last night. Maybe they have some back up guys or maybe I had had too much wine as Michael tried to hint at (sadly, I hadn't).

Now on to the real story...

Yesterday was Animal Kingdom day. Grandma didn't join us, she hurt her toe on one if the first days and it was really bothering her.

The rest of us had a great time walking both animal spotting trails (gorilla, tigers, bats, meerkats, etc.) and riding the safari. Did you know there were traffic jams on the Serengeti? Evidently the giraffes were out for a stroll right down the middle of the road. Good for us since they were still pretty close when our truck got there.

Lunch was Flame Tree and then back to the from for nap and surgery... To be continued.

Oct 22, 2009

It's all becoming a blur and vacation seems to be ending too fast but here goes...

Yesterday was an all EPCOT day. Breakfast at Sunshine Seasons (is that the name?) and then we rode through Living with the Land. Michael, Dad and I then did a wine seminar - three Pinot noirs from La Crema (owned by the daughters of Kendall-Jackson). Lincoln and Grandma played in Innoventions again. Lincoln should be an expert at the Piggy inflation game - he loves it!

While we were at the room for Lincoln's nap, Grandma and Grandad toured the world for more food (which translates to more cheese soup for Grandad).

After nap and a disasterous wait for the bus, we all met back at EPCOT. Michael and Lincoln went back to Innoventions while Grandma, Grandad and I went to a culinary presentation. We were given a glass of Pinot and the chef made a "berry-misu". Quite yummy and I think I might try to make it for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Off to roam around the world after that. Foods enjoyed... Nectar Imperial Champagne, Shrimp Stew (Brazil), Beef Empanada and Beef with Chimichurri sauce (Argentina), Snapper Escabeche (Spain), Mealie soup (South Africa), Paprika Beef stew and Leth Riesling (Austria), Crawfish Stew and Praline Bread Pudding with Bourbon sauce (New Orleans), and a Beef Roll (Japan). Wow, that sounds like a ton of food now I type it all up!!

After that we enjoyed the sights of World Showcase and picked a spot for Illuminations. Again, not being sure how Lincoln would like it we didn't grab a prime spot anywhere, just stopped between Canada and the UK about 5 minutes before showtime.

Illuminations was great as always. Lincoln loves the "magic" which I think translates to fireworks specifically.

Side note to any Off Kilter fans - when did the band members change? Jamie is still there as the leas but the bass player and lead guitar are both different. We only caught a brief portion of their show Saturday night and it sounded OK... But somehow I had missed that news.

That about wraps up our Wednesday adventure. Stay tuned...

Oct 21, 2009

Yesterday Michael and I went to Ikea while Grandma and Grandad took Lincoln to Magic Kingdom. From what I hear they rode Pooh and Dumbo, ate some ice cream and Lincoln spent a lot of time at the two little playgrounds chasing/being chased by various other children. I also hear that there was photo taking with Pooh and Tigger... I won't be giving Mom my Photopass again!

Michael and I went to EPCOT for a Cognac tasting... Sorry folks, I'm not a fan. We then enjoyed some food around the world... Rock shrimp ceviche (Chile), Lobster and scallop Fisherman's pie (Ireland), Cheese soup (Canada), Dulce de Leche cookies (Chile), and Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki (Greece) just to name a few. We also sampled a few wines along the way. Then it was back for a Salmon based culinary demo with a Pinot Noir and another Wine Seminar featuring three wines from Puglia, Italy (one white and two red - blah!). We took Mom to that one with us.

In between all of the culinary adventures, we had met up with Lincoln and the Grands and Michael and I spent some time playing with Lincoln while Grandma and Grandad went to grab a few bites to eat (cheese soup is always on Dad's list).

Innoventions is a bigger hit than I expected. Of course Lincoln loves the firetruck you can play with but he also liked the robots that play music at your "command" and the Piggy game (really a lesson on inflation and economics but L didn't care).

Another great day!