Monday, August 9th, I woke up at the Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the very last day of the 30s. If you have to be turning 40, this is the place to do it, my friends. I got to have my coffee with the animals!
I was also up early enough that I was sitting right there, drinking my coffee when the food truck came by with breakfast for all the animals.
And those animals know it, as soon as the food truck pulls up, they are ready. The giraffe actually stuck his head in the truck a few times.
Everyone was up enjoying one last morning on the Savannah. I'm going to miss this view!
I thought about going to Jambo House for breakfast, but we had those little cereal boxes and the apple jacks were calling me. Also, who doesn't want to have a mimosa with their apple jacks on the last day of being 30?
Calib opted to have his cereal in a wine glass.
And we all chowed down on some leftover watermellon so we wouldn't have to cart it over to the next hotel.
Clint was only able to stay the weekend. He drove down with mom, but flew back. Monday morning she was off to drop Clint at the Orlando airport.
And she was even back before check out.
I'm not sure which room was my favorite, they were all so different. But, the two stories sure was fun.
So long, Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Pros of traveling with such a large group: we filled the elevator so we didn't ever have to share with strangers!
Inbetween our hotels, we opted to spend our afternoon at Blizzard Beach, the only open Disney water park. (Typhoon Lagoon hasn't reopened post-covid).
As we were buying our tickets, I noticed this sign and snapped a picture- thinking maybe we'd end up rained out. Turns out if you're there less than four hours before they have to close, you get a raincheck. We joked that it would be great if it could storm 3 hours and 45 minutes into our day. (spoiler alert!)
And then off we went to enjoy the slides, the lazy river, and the wave pool.
Calib was the only one brave enough to go on Summit Plummet (the tallest waterslide I've ever seen).
The rest of us either waited at the bottom, or went on the smaller slide...
and then waited at the bottom for Calib. But, that meant he had his own special cheering section.
And he made it!
Nice job Calib.
And of course, if you're going to a water park, you have to get an ice cream bucket.
Or two if you have a big group like us.
Somehow Cort's family had never had an ice cream bucket before.
It is a lot of ice cream, but it was gone in no time.
And while we were eating the ice cream bucket, we heard it... THUNDER! And everything shut down.
Just about three and half hours into our day.... so we got rainchecks for later! Even Cort and Holly got them, and their tickets were only like $5 through DVC.
It worked out perfect!
Because our room was ready. The last stop on our Disney hotel room tours were the Copper Creek Cabins at Wilderness Lodge. These are so fancy, you get your own special parking spots.
Then you just head over the bridge...
..and find your cabin.
Welcome to Cabin 8021!
These Cabins only sleep 8, so Cort's family had their own room at the lodge. Though, Garrett stayed with us both nights, and Gwen stayed with us on the second night. I thought we could all squeeze in, but there are only two bedrooms and two bathrooms in this one.
You come in to a really nice foyer.
And immediately to your left is the first bedroom. It has a queen sized bed.
And a cute window seat, and one of those pull down beds for kids (Garrett slept here).
On the other side of the hallway, to your right, is the Master Bedroom with a King sized bed.
YOu even have access to the screened in patio from the bedroom, but Ill get back to this in a minute.
The Master Bathroom, is of course, lovely.
Big bath tub.
Nice shower.
And a tv inside the mirror! Fancy!
Of course the room itself is nice, lots of storage and a big tv..
And some nice fancy features like a motion sensored light in the closet and double window treatments to make it really dark at night.
Back out in the wallway, on the left side you'll find the second bathroom, although it's a little divided.
YOu have a sink and a nice shower at the end of the hall.
And to your left is the toilet and another sink.
Also down this hallway, you'll find the stackable washer/dryer combo.
Keep straight down the mainhall..
And it opens up to a gorgeous living room/kitchen combo.
Compete with a huge table and seating for 8.
The kitchen is nice too. Lots of storage.
And a fancy fridge and pull out pantry.
The living room has all kinds of fun hidden features.
For one, the fireplace is see through. It's out on the patio and in the living room.
(Oh, there's no actual exit off the screened in patio, but a little half-screen door to use 'in case of emergency'-- or if you're Garrett, in case you need to let go the frog you caught.)
Back to the fireplace. It's so fun- it changes colors!
But there's also other controls...
To raise and lower window treatments for the whole living room area!
And we swung by Chicken Guy and picked up one of EVERY.SINGLE. sauce (we ordered online and when Asa showed up, they were all amazed we only ordered sauces and just had to meet the guy who did so).
There's not a lot of artwork here, but some cool stuff if you're looking at all the details.
But now, lets head out to the rest of the screened in porch. It's L shaped, and you saw the fireplace area. But, you also get a lovely picnic table--
--and your very own hot tub!!
Now what you don't see here is that the hot tub lights can change color, but more than that there are speakers out here- and you can play the music they're playing in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge right there in your room! (Which of course we did!)
Since we were all still in our swimsuits from Blizzard Beach when we arrived, we all hopped right on in the hot tub!
And then we changed and everyone started to relax a bit.
Asa and I took the opportunity to pop back over to Disney Springs to pick up some birthday donuts at Everglazed!
Look at these puppies, we got some good ones. (The Key Lime Pie was my favorite).
We also got ourselves some waffle fry nachos as a snack.
When we got pack the kids were screwing around..
And mom and Holly were preparing dinner. We brought our own chicken tenders and fries to go with all the dipping sauces.
And so we lined them all up and had a feast of dipping sauces and chicken tenders and fries!
When we were finishing up, we were greeted by a deer...
..and her baby! (She was actually back the next two mornings too).
I like Garrett freaking out here.
Later that night we played a shooting event.
I brought my ducks and cones along.
And your shooting medalists.
We also gave out medals for the Tobaggan Racers water slide we all went on at Blizzard Beach. There were two heats though, so double medals were rewarded. (Mom didn't actually finish third, but we gave her a Bronze particiaption medal).
Then Garrett and Peyton were off to do a little frog hunting.
And then it was fireworks time. You could catch some of them off in the distance. But, they played the Happily Ever After Music through the speakers on the patio. It was super cool. I LOVED it.
It's the first time I've seen Disney fireworks in years.
And we could also spot the Electrical Water Pageant too.
After all that excitement, we headed down to the pool for some late night swimming.
And instead of waiting for people to go through the shower, we got to sit and wait our turns in the hot tub when we got back.
Everyone got tucked in. Calib took the pull out couch, Peyton took the pull out chair, and Hayden made himself a bed on the floor- and we all waited till midnight for my birthday!
One last picture of us both in our thirties!
Counting down (Garrett, Hayden, Calib, Peyton and Asa all helped count down and then wished me a Happy Birthday!)
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