EEPPPP! The most wonderful time of the year in the most magical place! 8/11 Update!

[dreamerchic33]

Heyyy everyone!!!
Welcome to my trip report!!

This trip took place in December 2013 at the AKL-Jambo, in a one bedroom savannah view room! We were on the deluxe dining plan with non-hopper park tickets...this has been our favorite trip yet!!



This is me and my hubby!
I am Christina, a 29 year old social worker from NY.
That is my hubby, Scott, 34 year old, works in the credit industry.
We will be married three years this upcoming October..
I am a born and bred Disney fanatic and hubby is a disney newbie!

I hope you will read along!!

xxoo

 

[dreamerchic33]

Chapters
arrival
the room
a sleigh ride, a tepee, and a wonderful dinner
our morning at AKL
starting our day at downtown disney
more downtown
splitsville
'Ohana
the start of Epcot
More of Epcot

 

[dreamerchic33]

We booked the first flight leaving to Orlando on the Saturday after thanksgiving! I wanted the first flight in case of travel delays...So I had the day before our trip off to get prepped and do some online black-friday shopping...It was such a busy day, I did not have a minute to relax...Now, I work a night shift, I thought it would be best to just stay up through the night and not sleep...in hindsight, I should not have done this lol..I should have just slept a few hours...Oh welll...

We got to the airport realllyyyy quickly and there was no one in the airport....I was so surprised!




We got our typical airport breakfast


Ohhh I should mention, this was our first trip with an SLR camera...

We had a great flight down to Orlando, our row of three did not have a third person...I was able to get some shut eye on our flight, so that was good..

This was our first experience with the magic bands as well...I did not realize you could use them for the DME, so naturally, I had to dig through everything to find them...I am so sorry to everyone that was behind me! We also got right to where we needed to be for the DME, so yay to not getting lost...

Not before long did we check in to AKL

Holy. insane. beautiful. perfect place!



I was in love...so was hubby...

We stayed in the lobby for a little bit before heading to QS to get some breakfast.. I had a platter with mickey waffles, potatoes, eggs, and a biscuit...Scott had the featured breakfast flat bread..These are the only two food pictures I do not have...these were great meals!!

We walked around the resort a little bit more before getting the text that our room was ready!




I could not get over how insane the christmas decor was!
I was in tears with excitement (this was a theme hah)!

 

[dreamerchic33]

our room










To this day, I wish our bathroom looked like that!
The room was just beyond my wildest dreams!
We booked the 1 bedroom just to splurge and we had the points, so why not. This will be amazing for when we have a family...

We took a ton of animal pictures, read info about the resort, and dozed off for a nap with stacey!!

 

[dreamerchic33]

We had a night at the FW planned!
I was so excited, I really could not contain myself hahah




We had a date with a stunning horse names Brodie...


This was such a magial experience! I highly reccomend it! The tour was fantastic and our guide really made it a magical experience!!
After our tour, we took the bus to the main area as we had reservations for artist point!




A little story about these tree pictures...the PP CM told us this tradition about having pictures taken with certain items on the tree...that in taking a picture with the tepee, you will have years of luck, love, and abundance. Along with good fortune to come our way...My family had been (still is) going through some difficult times and so to hear this man say this to me was so much more than one could imagine..I had a burst of tears and we hugged...it was so emotional (i am tearing up just writing this). He told me that I had a beautiful soul and that although i had tough times ahead, better times were coming.




Next up was dinner at Artist point...They sat us a little early which was fantastic....The chef came to talk to me about my allergies...I hate having to do this and feel like such a pain but he was wonderful!











All i can say is that this hands down, one of the BEST meals we have ever had!!! We will come back here without a doubt!!

We walked around the resort a little after dinner and took a taxi back to AKL...we met an awesome driver and we kept his number for the rest of our trip..

We got back to AKL, walked around a bit more and went to sleep...

it was a truly magical day!

 

[dreamerchic33]

We allowed ourselves to sleep in this morning and hubby wanted to head down to Boma for breakfast. I was concerned we would not get seated without an ADR as it was packed. But, it was fine, we were seated pretty quickly!

I loved the feel of this resturant! Our waiter had the chef come over to go over allergy information with me and then we headed up to the buffet.




Mid-way through our meal, they had the drumming ceremony...I loved this more than i can put into words!


After our meal, we strolled around a bit before heading to the room and preparing for our day!





It was a great start to the morning!

 

[dreamerchic33]

We got showered, dressed, and ready for the rest of our Downtown day!

We were at the elevator and then saw giraffes...now they are my most favorite of favorite animal, so we had a little photoshoot!




Next we had a little photoshoot in front of the AKL tree




We went to the bus stop..




We got to downtown and ohh man, the decor is so beautiful!



We went through some shops before deciding on Wolf gang puck express for lunch...I wanted a salad and pizza but reallllly wanted to try the mac and cheese...so i though we were ordering a side dish and so came a HUGE serving lol..oh well...






So super delish! I was not over to moon with the mac and cheese...but overall, great meal!

 

[dreamerchic33]

We headed over to where they were doing construction; i am really excited to see it when its complete!




We did some shopping all around....a few things for christmas and our place. We also typically buy traditional things (magnet, pens, outfits for xmas morning).

It was such a nice lazy day at the Downtown...

Next up...Splitsville!

 

[dreamerchic33]

We headed to splitsville for our reservation...


We had some drinks while we were bowling...

I have to say we had a blast doing this...
We then went for our dinner reservation, we were seated outside which was nice as it had cooled down a bit...







Our meal was great!
We wandered around the area a little bit more before heading back to the AKL..

 

[glennbo123]

Gotta love Christmastime at AKL! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[dreamerchic33]

Gotta love Christmastime at AKL! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Hi! Thanks for reading along!

 

[dreamerchic33]

So the next morning, we got ready for an 'Ohana breakfast and Epcot day!
I did not realize until after i took quite a few pictures, that they were coming out all blurry.

We took the bus to MK and monorail to the poly...


He was so excited!
We had gotten photopass + for this trip and so pictures at Ohana's were included.





Sooo good! we just love it here!

Mickey, I adore you!
I do not think I mentioned that during this trip we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and hubby's birthday!

He was very excited when they started to sing to him!


We were playing a funny "strike a pose" camera game..



After a great start at the Poly, it was time for Epcot!!

 

[dreamerchic33]

After a little epcot photshoot, we headed to test track for our first set of fast pass+ tickets..I was excited to see the new setup!

We loved it!

We played around in some stores...i tried this on and decided we need to have a sweater christmas party!

This castmate was awesome!


We then headed to Mexico!

While we were taking these pictures, the PP wished us a happy anniversary and this little girl came running over to us. She wished us a happy anniversary and gave us her Soarin' fast passes! I was floored! I looked at her mom who told me that they were unable to use them and her daughter had been trying to find someone to give them to and she picked us! What a little After a princess hug, i cried (naturally hahah) and we headed into Mexico!

And then we headed toward Soarin'

Epcot, you are perfect

We went to the Land

Had an amazing ride on Soarin' and headed to figment!



Next, we run into the best PP ever!

 

[Cando86]

Loving your report! AKL and WDW in general during Christmas is absolutely beautiful.

Your food pictures are making me hungry!

Looking forward to more!

 

[dreamerchic33]

Loving your report! AKL and WDW in general during Christmas is absolutely beautiful.

Your food pictures are making me hungry!

Looking forward to more!

Hi!!! Thanks so much for reading along!

 

[dreamerchic33]

So we left the land and figment and we were headed back to the countries!
We saw a PP and stopped, we started taking some pictures


While we were taking pictures, we were having a little chat with the PP who had the most adorable accent...
I'm not sure quite how it happened, but he said a command, we followed, and then the three of us bursted into a laughing fit...literally
After this, he said we had to finish our photoshoot, but I could not keep it together, because he kept making me laugh and Scott was going along with it...Now i was crying because I was laughing sooo hard...


It was one of my favorite interactions with a CM...Hubby's too...
We decided to watch the Christmas Joyful Show, which was FANTASTIC!