Accomodations…..

This being only our second trip to Disney, we can’t really say we are “seasoned” Disney travelers. We only really know the different levels of hotels and what each one was. Last time we went, we took the least expensive option since we were carting along two young kids that really couldn’t have cared less about the hotel room and we knew we would spend little time there. We had a great time, the room and hotel was fun and quirky and quite comfortable.

This time around, we had decided to go middle of the road, but at the last minute, J made an “executive decision” to upgrade, since with our job changes we had a bit of extra money in the bank , if you ask me we should have left it there, but I digress….he tried to surprise me, but I got the mail and realized our itinerary was wrong. So for weeks ahead, I rode him, and whined that we were spending too much money, and that we didn’t need to spend the extra money, etc etc etc…I am sure he could use a few other words to describe what I was doing….His reasoning being , it is most likely the last time we would be going to Disney with the kids, and other than a full condo that we couldn’t afford, this was one of the only resorts that offered seperate beds for the kids, and besides he felt we all deserved it.

**Disclaimer – this is only a fraction of our pictures, you want to see more, I am sure I can show you more, but the pictures also do not do the resort justice, it is something that truly needs to be experiences rather than described. I highly recommend if it is in your budget, to stay here**

Let’s just say, I shut up quick when we got there…..

This was on our bed when we arrived.

I can not say enough about the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Lure of the animals aside, the vibe of the resort is upbeat and ethnic, and fun, yet at the same time, serene – unless you know where to look you barely notice the check in desk. I also love how Disney does attempt to staff their resorts with persons hailing from the geographical area the resort is supposed to emulate.

And even though everyone warned us that we may not see any animals, and oh they would only be out in the early morning, and oh it is so hot in the middle of the day – I think it was a good omen that these beauties greeted us day one, and every day we were there, and believe it or not usually in the middle of the day.

This guy, and yes he was a guy, even decided to camp out two nights right in front of our room. Pretty darn cool to watch a giraffe go through the motions of laying down.

This is a really neat fire place inside the hotel. I loved the pattern of the iron work…..

This was an outdoor fireplace that C insisted I take a picture of, I do not imagine it gets much use in the summer, but it has a “No smoking” sign hanging on the rail. That cracked C  up.

There is a large “island” type walk out into the “savannah”, that also houses a large group of birds, pelicans included. Very different from the pelicans we see at the shore. There was  also a large section of flamingos.

All of these bamboos fences look out on the birds or savannah…..this is our wild animal.

C took this, it took many many tries! :)

This is the exit to this island. On either side covered with metal work are the stairwells.

This is the view from the back of the resort, where this island is, through the lobby toward the front door, from the lower level…..

This is the view from the upper level. The level our room was located.

 

The view from our room…..that is our rail…to the left you can just see the end of that “island” I was just referring to.

This is also a view of that island. All over the fencing there as well are educational information on the animals you were seeing. I of course don’t really remember the names, and I kept the card from our room but am presently way to lazy to go look to tell you!

This is the view from the upper level looking down on the pool.

These interesting creatures are cattle…..the really sad thing is that the one on the bottom picture, had a permanent head tilt. Like one horn was larger than the other or something. He ate normally, walked around all day, didn’t seem to bother him. You can not remove these horns as their blood flows through them to cool their body temp, so I guess the poor guy was doomed to a life of walking with a head tilt.

 

Then there were zebras…..

And antelope of many types…..

So I suppose I had to eat crow and admit that it turn out to be a pretty interesting resort and made our stay even better.

And I think we have now covered all the “major” points of our trip – all that is left are my fav shots and character photos! Saved those for last.