An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 About This Page:

[mandy1627]

What a great day at the Magic Kingdom! So glad to see that the magic is back for you! (Minus a few crazy kids in Boma? What's up with that?! My goodness...good for you for telling them off! ) I loved the character encounters, especially with Cinderella and Mickey and Minnie! I can't get enough of that excited look on Stef's face whenever she hugs a character. I believe that's how I look as well. Loved the "Yes, my mom!" answer to the mouse question. Too cute!

I also love all the purchases you made! I'm making a Disney shopping list in my head as I read your TR...

All your photos are amazing as well---as usual!!! I especially love those of AKL! I have never been there, and now I know I have to at least visit, if not stay there! It's beautiful! And I'm totally with you on the giraffes, they're some of my favorites and I love all the awesome pictures you got of them!

I can't wait to hear more!

[chezp]

What a wonderful time with all the characters!

[emilyandlogansmom]

Ooh! I love the new backdrops for photos with the princesses and Mickey & Minnie! The Photopass borders are great too!

I very clearly remember meeting Cinderella on our first trip and her saying to my daughter, "Oh, what a lovely dress. Did your mice friends help you make that?" I thought it was so clever and just adorable the way she carried it off.

I also must say that you are a VERY brave woman! Who wears white shorts to WDW?! I'd have those stained in no time. Murphy's law states that I'd sit down on the seat where some kid just had his dirty shoe.

Sounds like your day is off to a great start! Can't wait to hear more!

[honeybee723]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Cinderella asked Stefanie if she had any mice at home to help her with stuff. Stefanie’s replied, “Yes, my Mom!” So Cinderella asked if Stefanie’s Mice would like to be in the picture, too. That’s my kid!

That is adorable!!! Looks like you all had some wonderful character interaction as soon as you entered the park!

[Cam22]

Originally Posted by mandy1627

What a great day at the Magic Kingdom! So glad to see that the magic is back for you! (Minus a few crazy kids in Boma? What's up with that?! My goodness...good for you for telling them off! ) I loved the character encounters, especially with Cinderella and Mickey and Minnie! I can't get enough of that excited look on Stef's face whenever she hugs a character. I believe that's how I look as well. Loved the "Yes, my mom!" answer to the mouse question. Too cute!

I also love all the purchases you made! I'm making a Disney shopping list in my head as I read your TR...

All your photos are amazing as well---as usual!!! I especially love those of AKL! I have never been there, and now I know I have to at least visit, if not stay there! It's beautiful! And I'm totally with you on the giraffes, they're some of my favorites and I love all the awesome pictures you got of them!

I can't wait to hear more!

I was ordering my last batch (hopefully) of prints last night and I wanted to get some of the animals that I actually photographed from our balcony at Kidani. I had to chuckle at myself for all the pictures I took of giraffes. Someone will look at my photo files in the future and wonder about my giraffe obsession.

Originally Posted by emilyandlogansmom

Ooh! I love the new backdrops for photos with the princesses and Mickey & Minnie! The Photopass borders are great too!

I very clearly remember meeting Cinderella on our first trip and her saying to my daughter, "Oh, what a lovely dress. Did your mice friends help you make that?" I thought it was so clever and just adorable the way she carried it off.

I also must say that you are a VERY brave woman! Who wears white shorts to WDW?! I'd have those stained in no time. Murphy's law states that I'd sit down on the seat where some kid just had his dirty shoe.

Sounds like your day is off to a great start! Can't wait to hear more!

The white shorts are still white. My bad luck is with white shirts, which I love as they will go with anything. But the minute I wear one, I become a klutz with my food or drink. Later in an update I'll have a stain story for you all though!

Originally Posted by honeybee723

That is adorable!!! Looks like you all had some wonderful character interaction as soon as you entered the park!

Stefanie loved moving right to character interactions at the start. And I love that they were in the A/C.

[mommapants]

Great update Cam - loving it.

So cool to hear back from Disney - what address to send the e-mail to?

Also what is 9 points equivalent to? I'm not a DVC member so would that be like 1 night or 50% off or something??

[Cam22]

Originally Posted by mommapants

Great update Cam - loving it.

So cool to hear back from Disney - what address to send the e-mail to?

Also what is 9 points equivalent to? I'm not a DVC member so would that be like 1 night or 50% off or something??

I went on the Disney website and put contact in the search box for Walt Disney World. I was sent here Contact Us | Walt Disney World Resort

There is a drop down menu at one point to be specific about your e-mail. I chose one that involved concerns about my recent vacation.

9 points at AKL for the time we were there is about 70% of the points value of one night's stay at club level. Tuesday's stay was costing us 13 points, but that was whittled down to 4 points by this return. Pretty nice!

[OCEANGRLLG]

Ol Camthe pics of Stefanie with all the characters and just to cute, she looks so very happy and excited! What a wonderful day yall are havin so far!

[Bee]

All caught up! I can't wait to stay at AKL in August... We got a savannah view I hope I will get to see your friend

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I'm way behind, but I caught up finally! So sorry to hear about the check-in fiasco. My goodness how frustrating! I'm glad they took your complaint seriously and phoned you, though.

Those kids in the restroom... unbelieveable - good for you for speaking up. They should have been ashamed of themselves, my gosh! They were old enough to know better - and frankly the mother shouldn't have even considered sending a boy that age into the women's room.

As for the kid at Boma... I have to admit, I laughed - because it's something I could see Meredith doing. Not out of rudeness, so much as because I drill into her certain things - one of them being "don't cut in front of people in a line - patiently wait your turn." So therefore, my bossy, micro-managing daughter takes those rules very much to heart, and seems to think that it is her God-given duty to impart her wisdom and rules to everyone she runs into that isn't following the exact set of rules that she is, at the exact time that she is. It's a constant work in progress to drill into her that our rules are OUR rules, and that she must not worry about the behavior of others quite so much. It's also hard to explain that rules are ever-changing depending on situations (buffets, for example, vs. lines for a ride or a cashier).

LOVE the photos with the princesses! I am so excited for our October trip!! The photos are just getting me super hopped up about it all! Looking forward to more and more and more!

[DoraDoug]

Your pictures with the Princesses and Mickey and Minnie are priceless...and made me realize that I completely forgot about the new meet & greet areas while we were there! I'm glad to hear Disney took your comments to heart and even tried to compensate you for the hassle.

[luvnwdwgal]

Kudos to Eli! I'm so glad he took care of your situation for you! I've never seen AKL before so I think this year DH and I will make a visit after we get done with the park. Looking forward to more!

[Dlandmom2]

Congrats on getting some points back! I think Eli's conduct is what we expect of Disney. We all know things can go wrong at times, but it's nice to know that Disney usually will take the high road and try to make things better.

[mousestruck]

Finally catching up, Cam. Wonderful pics... and more great stories! So nice to hear that Disney took your complaint seriously and refunded your points. I'm sure that makes you feel a little better about your experience.

[lfredsbo]

Whew.............all caught up............as you know I was away for my "bubble time"!

what a yucky check in - glad that they took care of it in Disney fashion for you!

Now......my recent Disney withdrawls are even higher looking at all your photos!!! guess I have to get started on my TR soon to re-live it all over again!