[DrDolphin]

Day 2 - Friday – October 10, 2003 – Walt Disney World – here we come!! Day 2 – Part One

Cheryl and I did not go to sleep until close to 2am, and woke up when the alarm went off at 6am. This would really affect us later in the day!! We were in the car by 6:15am headed to WDW. We got drive though from McDonalds for breakfast and were headed south. Originally we had planned to make a grocery run and buy bottled water, ice and breakfast foods at my local Winn Dixie – but as we got closer to leaving, we decided to leave the cooler at home. The drive to WDW was very uneventful (except for the construction on 95 and I-4) – in fact it went very quickly. We listened to my Disney CDs while driving down (Illuminations, Share a Dream Come True Parade, Fantasia…). We also listened to the Mary Poppins soundtrack and sang along with Jolly Holiday....

We drove though the gates outside Magic Kingdom (giggling like little girls) and headed to the Contemporary to stop by Shades of Green to get Cheryl’s Annual Pass. With that task completed – we hopped back in the car and headed to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Cheryl and I had both been very excited about staying at AKL!! Back in January we stayed at the Polynesian and really learned to love the amenities of the deluxe resorts, so we were exceptionally excited to stay at AKL since I have heard such fantastic reports about AKL. I went over to AKL back in September after the Danskin Triathlon to look around and was very impressed by what I saw. The theming was totally fantastic and Cheryl really wanted to see the animals outside her room....

We arrived at AKL right at 10am. We unloaded the bags, checked them with baggage service and I parked the car in the lot. I went into AKL to join Cheryl in the check in line. The place was a madhouse!!! Come to find out – this was Friday after the Press event as well as the 1st weekend that Wishes would be shown, the 1st weekend that Mickey’s Philharmonic would be open and the 2nd MNSSHP. We were told at check in that AKL was at 100% occupancy (wow!!). Amazingly enough - our room was ready (woo hoo) and we headed to the room.

A request for Zebra trail, 2nd floor on the Arusha Savannah had been submitted before we left for the trip – along with a note that this was our birthday trip. We got all that we asked for, with one exception – we were on Kudu trail, Arusha savannah, 2nd floor…. Room 2319. We headed to our room – and found it very funny that you had to get on an elevator to go DOWN to your room from the lobby!!! We laughed about it every time – it was definitely different than most hotels.

We got to the room and immediately went to the balcony to look around – and I started taking pictures!! We placed a call to baggage services to have all our stuff (and we had lots of it) delivered to the room. The bellman (ok – name completely eludes me) was there in 5 minutes and showed us all the details of the room – as well as warning us of the cameras that are on the rooms all the time and remembering to close the curtains nightly so as not to give security a good time!!! After getting settled in – we headed over to MGM for the afternoon…. Has anyone noted the hidden Mickeys IN the rooms at AKL??? We found them - -including the half of a hidden mickey - although I don't think that counts... If I can figure out how to post photos on this thing - I will add them so you can see them.

Next part - RNR is a bumpy ride, No Dame Julie for us....