The Birthday Trip

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 12:49

ZapperZ

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The Birthday Trip

Hello Friends,

I am less than a day away from our trip to WDW. If you have followed my previous trip report, you'll remember the purpose of this trip. We are going there to celebrate my partner's birthday, and also a trip to celebrate life. Needless to say, I am very looking forward to this trip.

There will be 5 of us leaving from Chicago early, VERY early tomorrow morning. We will all be staying in DAK villas at Jambo House, with savannah view rooms. That in itself is an attraction.

We have a reservation for dinner tomorrow evening at Boma, which is my most favorite place to eat in all of WDW. I've also ordered a surprise birthday cake that no one knows about (so don't breath a word of this!) for the birthday dinner at Chefs de France. The only hiccup that we encountered was that we heard the news of the revive of the monthly Pin Trading Night at WDW, and it will be held on April 30, during our birthday dinner. Luckily, we managed to move that dinner a day earlier, and all of us will be able to attend (at least for a short while), the pin trading night event.

Other than those, we have nothing planned and hope to play by ear on what we will do. We will definitely be at the F&G Festival, will do lots of pin trading with cast members, collect more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards, and will also be meeting up a few of our cast member friends who live down there.

I still have a lot to do today. I've barely started packing, I still have to go in to work this morning since I have a meeting at 11:00 am, and who knows what else I am forgetting. So this is going to be brutal. All this while making sure I get to bed by 7:00 pm so that we can be out of the house by 3:15 am tomorrow morning. Ugh!

As usual, I will be blogging live on my blog, and will try to log daily reports on here while all this is going on.

Cheers!

Zz.

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 13:06

disneydoc

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Looking forward to it Z! I LOVE AKL, and totally agree that it is indeed an attraction in and of itself. Can't wait to hear about Boma, and your other adventures.

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 13:09

ocarina

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Sounds brilliant - I hope you have a wonderful time and I look forward to reading all about it

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 13:54

BuffaloBill

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NHShorty and I got home from the world last night. Had a great time. Crowd levels were very reasonable. Have fun. Wish we were still there.

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 15:04

Kris1971

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Have a great trip Z!

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 15:22

MrHub

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Have fun Zz, will be waiting for you reports.

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 16:07

Allie

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I always enjoy your trip updates, Zz! Hope you all have a fantastic trip!

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 16:25

Mrs. Minnie

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Can't wait to get a little bit of the magic from your TR! Have a fantastic time!

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 16:26

Vettelover

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Have a great trip and make sure you bring DONALD.

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 18:38

Belinda

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Have an amazing celebration vacation Zz!

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 20:07

PirateGirl

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Have a great time Zz. Look forward to reading your TR and your blog.

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 21:57

JoAnn C

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have a great time

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Fri, 04/26/2013 - 23:59

ZapperZ

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Thanks everyone.

Vettelover wrote:

Have a great trip and make sure you bring DONALD.

Oh, don't you worry. Donald is already on top of everything.

Zz.

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 00:44

Vettelover

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ZapperZ wrote:

Thanks everyone.

Vettelover wrote:
Have a great trip and make sure you bring DONALD.

Oh, don't you worry. Donald is already on top of everything.

Zz.

I figured he would be.

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 02:22

Kristen K.

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How wonderful! Have a great trip and I look forward to reading all about it!

Sat, 04/27/2013 - 05:08

Sally-Ann

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Have a wonderful trip, love your TR they always make me smile

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 07:37

ZapperZ

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It's 2:30 am and I'm awake! {yawn}

We have another 45 minutes to get everything ready. I think I packed everything. What did I forget?

Donald? Check.
Trading pins? Check.
Annual pass? Check.
iPad? Check.
Wallet? Check.
Poncho? Check.

I guess we have everything we need. I guess I'll sign off now, get something to eat, and get ready to go. My next transmission will be from the Most Magical Place on Earth.

Cheers!

Zz.

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 13:52

ZapperZ

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Just landed at MCO. We are almost there!

Zz.

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 21:11

ZapperZ

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Greetings from the mMost Magical Place on Earth.

We are in our lovely room at AKL. The animals are out. Will post pictures later.

Spent part of the afternoon at MK and got our Sorcerers cards. Went to a Publix to do our shopping, and now we are back in our room to chill out a bit befor our dinner at Boma this evening.

We will probably turn in early tonight since we have been up since 2:15 am this morning. I'm tired!

Zz.

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 21:14

PirateGirl

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I'm sure you are tired. Enjoy your dinner and get some well deserved shut eye.

Sat, 04/27/2013 - 21:59

ZapperZ

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Here are a few photos from today.

We spent the afternoon at MK.

We took the ferry to get back to TTC and saw the progress on the DVC villas being built at the Grand Floridian.

The following two photos are from the balcony of our room.

We are about ready to walk downstairs to Boma.

Zz.

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Sat, 04/27/2013 - 22:23

Kris1971

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Looks like a beautiful day in the world! Enjoy!

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 00:00

MrHub

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That looks like the exact same view we had. When we stayed there.

Sun, 04/28/2013 - 12:10

ZapperZ

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Good morning. It is a gorgeous morning at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

This is a report from last night's terrific dinner at Boma.

The carving station and the condiments to go with it.

Other entree

Side dishes

However, most the night, I was hovering over here, the soup and stew station. The seafood stew with couscous was killer! I could park myself in front of it and just suck it all up.

This is another of my favorite, the hummus station with pita and flatbreads.

Some the exotic salads. Love that watermelon rind salad. It is so unique in flavor.

Of course, there is dessert.

Donald certainly enjoyed a plate of it. Here he is deciding on what to eat first.

The birthday boy had a special dessert plate brought in from the kitchen.

It was a terrific evening. This dinner reinforced my opinion that Boma is my most favorite place to eat in all of WDW.

BURP!!!

Zz.

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 13:03

ZapperZ

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We made an unplanned activity. We will be doing the wanyama safari this evening.

Zz.

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 13:51

Sally-Ann

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ZapperZ wrote:

We made an unplanned activity. We will be doing the wanyama safari this evening.

Zz.

Cool, I look forward to reading about that as we want to do that in October. Did you book it when you arrived? I am not sure if I can book it in advance.

Boma looks amazing and I am glad Donald enjoyed his dessert

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 14:21

Kat

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Awesome pictures: I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your Trip Report! Boma looks amazing; i've never eaten there but it's definitely on my list!

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 18:41

Eeyore

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Awesome pics!!!

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 18:46

crazycatperson

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Those photos of Boma bring back happy memories. We were there Saturday two weekends ago, and we love it. Hope the rest of your vacation is as much fun and as delicious as dinner was.

Sun, 04/28/2013 - 19:33

ZapperZ

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Sally-Ann wrote:

ZapperZ wrote:
We made an unplanned activity. We will be doing the wanyama safari this evening.

Zz.

Cool, I look forward to reading about that as we want to do that in October. Did you book it when you arrived? I am not sure if I can book it in advance.

Boma looks amazing and I am glad Donald enjoyed his dessert

This is unplanned. We checked this morning, and a party of 12 cancelled. So we booked it. Typically, you do need to make an advanced reservation.

We just got back to AKL to drop our stuff before making our way to Jiko for the start of the tour. This is going to be fun. The weather is excellent.

Zz.

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Sun, 04/28/2013 - 21:53

MrHub

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Have fun and I'll add .

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