Meet me at the Snuggly Duckling! A June 2018 TR. UPDATED 3/8

Lifelong_Dreamer

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Jambo!

Welcome to my sixth trip report! Welcome back to those that followed along on my PTR and to those that have read in the past. Nice to meet you to all those who are new to one of my threads. Please say hello and don't be shy. I love chatting with Disney friends about past trips and future trips.

As you can probably tell by my greeting I stayed at the beautiful Animal Kingdom Lodge on this trip. This was our second time staying at AKL and it was even better than the first time!

Details of the trip
Dates: June 11-20
Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge
Travelling from: Ontario, Canada
Mousketeers: Me (Lessa) and Mom (Beth)
Number of trips to WDW: 7
Dining Plan: Nope!
Tickets: 9 day single park tickets
I'll give you a little bit of information about the both of us as I think it is always nice to know about the people in the report as it gives insight into the choices that were made and how things were done on the trip. It also makes it more fun to read and a bit more personal. :goodvibes

Lessa



I am a Registered Nurse professionally and an avid Disney lover and trip planner recreationally. ;) I first went to a Disney park way back in 1989 when I was very young. That trip was to Disneyland when we moved to Monterey, California. My next trip wasn't until 1997 when somehow my father was convinced to take a Christmas WDW trip (my dad hates Disney). After that it wasn't until 2007 that mom, my two brothers and I made it back to WDW and in my mind I view that as "the first trip". It is the trip that we all remember well and it was "magical". Ever since that trip I have been addicted and I always have a Disney trip in the works whether it is for me or helping a friend plan their own family vacation. I just love Disney and I don't think I will ever get tired of it.

I work a crazy amount of hours and if you followed my PTR you will know I am a sucker and can't turn down overtime shifts. I'm just no good at saying no. That works in my favour though as it helps me earn Disney money fairly quickly! It also means that when it comes time for a vacation I am ready for it!

Beth



Mom is also a big Disney fan and she gets all misty eyed when she thinks about her happy place. This vacation was my gift to her. Mom often deals with a lot of stress at her job as well so this was a needed break for her. Mom missed having my brothers along on the trip but she knows that they will be back to WDW with us on the next trip! Of note, Mom has multiple sclerosis. This can sometimes cause her to move slowly, experience nerve pain and have swelling. I designed this trip with relaxation in mind for two reasons 1)We need to learn to relax on vacation! :laughing: 2)I was hoping having rests in the middle of the day would help with Mom's symptoms.



That's it for the introduction. I hope that you all enjoy my report. I will do my best to update a few times a week. I love to take pictures so this report will be filled with many photos to accompany my stories. Please feel free to chime in so I know I'm not talking to myself. :cutie:
 
Back already?!? Wow! Time goes by fast :(

I'm excited to hear about your trip though. Hope you had an amazing time.
 


Following along! :wave2:

Thanks for coming over @Raeven

Back already?!? Wow! Time goes by fast :(

I'm excited to hear about your trip though. Hope you had an amazing time.

I know! The trip went so quickly, I really didn't want to leave.

We had a great time. 98% great 2% not so great. Can't help that though, nothing can be perfect!

Amen to that!!! And yet it is so hard at Disney:rotfl2::confused3

So true! I tried my best to have some more relaxing or slower moments this trip. Some days I was more successful than others. :laughing:
 


Joining in I have read many of your other TR’s, including your awesome trip to Turkey!

I am also a RN by profession and an avid Disney lover at all other times!!

I do not work OT much anymore but I sure did when I was younger!
 
I can't wait to read more! The last report I read was the one where you added the trip to Turkey in it...was that the last one?
 
Ready to hear all about your vacation. We were flying home on the 10th from NYC to WI and the plane next to us was flying to Orlando. I told my dh, I needed an "emotional" vacation. He just rolled his eyes at me.
 
Glad to be here. :daisy::daisy::daisy:

:welcome:

Joining in I have read many of your other TR’s, including your awesome trip to Turkey!

I am also a RN by profession and an avid Disney lover at all other times!!

I do not work OT much anymore but I sure did when I was younger!

Glad to talk to another Disney loving RN! I should probably work less OT than I do; maybe one day I will learn to say no. :laughing:

Following along! :)

:welcome:

Following! Your trip reports are great! Hope you and your mom had a fun trip!

Welcome back! Mom and I had a great time and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

I'm following along! Can't wait to hear about your experience with AKL; it's such a beautiful resort!

:welcome: AKL was a wonderful resort. I definitely feel that with this slightly longer trip I got to appreciate it more.
 
I can't wait to read more! The last report I read was the one where you added the trip to Turkey in it...was that the last one?

Yes, that was sadly the last one, the December 2015 report.

Ready to hear all about your vacation. We were flying home on the 10th from NYC to WI and the plane next to us was flying to Orlando. I told my dh, I needed an "emotional" vacation. He just rolled his eyes at me.

:laughing: As much as I love travelling other places I always have this part of me that just wants to go back to WDW.

Joining in! I'm new to your TRs but excited to read up your most recent trip!

:welcome:Glad to see a new face!

I am in. AKL is Awesome. One of our favs for sure.

:welcome: AKL is great, one of the best I think!
 
This post will be familiar to those of you that were following my PTR. It was the true start of the trip and does have some details in it that will come to play later in the trip so I decided to report it here.

Rewind 16 days ago to June 10, 2018.....

I am on vacation! Real vacation this time as I am out of town so can't pick up overtime! :laughing: I have a real problem and even though I was supposed to start vacation on June 3rd I picked up three 12 hour overtime shifts before our departure day of June 10th. :rolleyes:

For the first time in forever.... we decided to drive up to Toronto the day before our flight. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner as it made departure day so nice and relaxing. I definitely need to start spending the night in Toronto before my flights more often! Most of the time I end up having to leave home at 3am to drive the three hours to the airport and worry about traffic delays on the highway and then I am exhausted when I arrive at my destination. This way is definitely preferable! I tried to talk Alek and his girlfriend Sarah into staying in Toronto before our flight to British Columbia in the fall (7am departure!) but they don't want to try and book that extra day off from work so looks like we will be leaving the house at midnight! :crazy2:

I did most of my packing the past few days before departure so this morning it was just a final few things such as toiletries. I did manage to forget a few things though as is tradition! Nothing important so I was able to pop into Shoppers Drug Mart and pick them up easily. I had to purchase ear plugs (mom snores and I can't sleep through that racket), hair ties, and gravol (anti-nausea medication).

We left home around 2pm and it was an easy breezy drive to Toronto. Blue skies all the way and no traffic issues. Not even in Toronto which is a miracle. If you ever visit Toronto you will know what I am talking about. Driving the 401 (main highway in Ontario) through Toronto is a nightmare and sometimes it takes three hours to drive through the city. :crazy2: There is a toll highway that bypasses the city and is a dream come true but since I wasn't in a hurry this day I decided not to take it and risked the dreaded 401.

The one bad thing about leaving a day early is it means leaving our sweet kitties alone an extra day. Luckily we have a great neighbour that loves our cats and always watches them when we are away. Also, this trip my brother Alek was sharing responsibility for the house and the cats with our neighbour. The cats need extra attention when we go away now as our older cat Amber has hyperthyroidism and can only eat low-iodine food. This means that Hobbes, the younger cat, has to be fed regular food a few times a week in a separate room where Amber can't get the food so that he gets the nutrients that he needs. The rest of the time he eats Amber's thyroid food.
Even a few bites of regular food will give Amber's body enough iodine to cause her thyroid levels to spike again so it is really important that the food is kept seperate.

Amber



Hobbes




Anyways, back to our arrival in Toronto...

Once in Toronto we made our way to a MASSIVE mall - Square One Shopping Centre. Apparently this is the second largest mall in Canada.



When we were driving into the parking lot a guy drove by on a motorcycle in a full Batman get-up. His helmet even had bat ears on it. It was hilarious and I wish I could have grabbed a photo. Trip report fail. I figured it would be best if I continued to drive though rather than risk life and limb to take a photo of this hilarious guy.


We had never been to this mall before so we were amazed at the size. The reason for the trip was to purchase these beauties.



They were not sold in any of the stores near my town so I checked the Sport Chek website and it showed them available at their location in this mall so a shopping trip was born! Since we were about to fly off on vacation and spend oodles of money not to mention the luggage room we decided to not do too much shopping. I have a feeling though that this would be a dangerous mall for my bank account.

Naturally even though we weren't really shopping we had to stop in the Disney Store. I showed mom the Sebastian pool float that I am dying to buy. $75 though! Ouch!

Image from ShopDisney
file_f6e4bc9f.jpg

I also found the perfect outfit there for my breakfast at Trattoria al Forno. It was just my size!




:laughing:

Sorry for the blur, it was the best option of the photos mom took.

After checking out the Disney Store we decided to leave the mall as we weren't actually going to do any shopping other than for my shoes.

The hotel was a quick 15 minute drive and on the way we encountered this life or death situation.



I was so nervous that they were going to get hit. They were crossing eight lanes of traffic! The traffic doesn't look too bad in the picture but there were a lot of cars zooming by and when people stopped and put their flashers on to let the geese pass others started honking and being obnoxious. Luckily this family of 21 by my count made it across the street safely. What a relief!

Mom and I were staying at a Courtyard by Marriott for the night. I picked it as it was a 15 minute drive from the airport ($60 less than the Courtyard that is 2 minutes from the airport, obvious decision there). The hotel had also been recently refurbished! Mom and I were upgraded from a standard room to a Deluxe 2 queen bed room which meant it was slightly bigger and we got a balcony. Cool beans.



















Not much else to report. Mom and I grabbed dinner At Boston Pizza after checking into our hotel. Mom dug into the pizza before I could take a photo. I had to remind her that when on vacation you are not allowed to eat until all food is photographed! :laughing:



After dinner it was back to the hotel where we read a bit and I posted the previous version of this update. I had a hard time falling asleep, trip nerves, so I watched a bit of the new Beauty and the Beast on Netflix. I think I drifted off around 1am.

Coming up, we arrive in Disney World!

 
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Hello, joining in! :wave2: Sounds like it's going to be a fun trip! I'm sure you've heard this before, but you and your mom look like twins! Looking forward to the rest of the report! :goodvibes
 
I love your new sneakers! And that pic of the family of geese...so cute! When we were at Disneyland back in March, there were a couple of families of ducks that CMs kept watch over as the mama duck would march the babies over to the Rivers of America. It was so adorable.

LOVE your cat photos! 1 of our cats always sits in our open suitcases when we get them out, so your picture really cracked me up!
 

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