The Museum of Pin-tiquities Trip Report

We just got back from MK... it's 12:45 am... and I'm tired. Still, I want to make this recommendation.

GO DO THE WISHES FIREWORKS DESSERT!

If you go on the evening that also has SpectroMagic, you will get to see both during your dessert party. And you'll die happy with the dessert they serve. It is non-stop and it is all you can eat! And boy, did we really fill ourselves with it!

Will have pictures later. Right now, I need some sleep.

Zz.

Here are some sights from the pin event.

This is the pin-trading area, where hundreds of pin traders trade their pins. It is scary to see some people walking in with suitcases and suitcases filled with pins.

There are pin trading games to be played, having long lines of course. In this one, you can trade 2 pins with whatever you see on the pin board within 1 minute. The pin board is "refreshed" every hour, it seems. Some of the pins you can find on the boards are the cast lanyard series that are released for the first time at this pin event, and also a few valuable limited edition pins.

I'm getting close to the front of the line in this pin trading game. They happened to refreshed the board when I was about 6 back of the line. I managed to get a couple of good pins in this one.

Some of the decor they have around the event. Remember, the theme here is "pin-tiquitties", so it has a lot to do with archeology and history.

I like this one because of Pluto!

Zz.

OK, here are pictures from the Wishes Dessert party from last night. WARNING: if your knees grow weak at the sights of amazing desserts, or if you go into a sugar shock at the sights of a lot of sugar, look away now!

Walking into MK.

The castle at dusk.

This is the area where we will have the dessert party.

The view of the castle from where we sat during the party. Great view of the hub!

Alright! Brace yourself. Here comes the delectable desserts!

Here's what we took on the first round.

Yes, the continued to replenish the desserts throughout the evening. There were also coffee, tea, juices, ice teas, and water.

We got to enjoy SpectroMagic while having our desserts. It wasn't a bad viewing area.

Here's Wishes from where we stood.

Great views, even if you lose a bit of the symmetry. Hint: the best viewing area is not way out in front, but further back along the railings, close to the service area. From there you don't have the overhanging at all to possibly block your view.

Zz.

Thank you.

It's hot and humid, but not horrible. I was expecting high 90's or evein 100, but we have been "only" in the low 90's so far. If you have a hat and drink lots of water, it isn't as bad as it could be.

Zz.

We started out the morning with going back to the pin event. We were early enough this time that the sniffing dog was still there at the World Gateway when we went through the bag check. (They use sniffing dogs on us pin traders so that we won't hold up the bag check line when security has to go through our bags).

The funny thing was that this dog were extremely uninterested in sniffing our bags. The security personnel had to cajole the dog into doing its job. It appeared that the dog would rather be elsewhere!

Anyhow, here are more photos from the pin event.

At 1:00 pm, Scoop Sanderson did one of his classic pin talks. He used to do this regularly on Main Street USA, but they stopped this a few years ago. Along the way there were a few surprise announcements (Oct. 1 this year will have some event to commemorate 20 years of pin trading at WDW), and next year, the Pin Celebration event will take place in ..... er .... AUGUST??!!

We picked up our parting gifts. The parting gifts actually were quite good this year.

We then ditched the pin event and went shopping at the Premium Outlet mall. They had a Disney outlet store, and a croc outlet store! Crocs, even Disney crocs, were roughly 50% off!

We then headed off to Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our dinner reservation at Sanaa. The lobby of Kidani Village is very nice, but very small when compared with Jumbo House (the original building at AKL). This isn't suprising since DVC resorts usually do not have grand lobby the way Deluxe Resorts do.

Of course, we had to check out some of the outdoor areas. This is the area right out in front of the lobby.

We then headed to Sanaa for our dinner. The food was excellent, although I would prefer a larger portion when compared to the price.

Short ribs with chicken and basmati rice.

Short ribs with shrimp and basmati rice.

Sustainable fish cooked in banana leaf. They "unleaf" the dish for you at the table.

At the end of our meal, we had a surprise for three of our friends. One was celebrating his birthday, while the other two were celebrating their anniversary. So we had arranged for cakes for them. Needless to say, they were pleasently surprised! I love surprises like that!

We had an extremely wonderful evening.

Kidani Village would be some place I would like to stay. However, there were a coupld of glaring "problems". First, the parking area is atrocious. After spending so much money on the decor and themeing of the resort, the parking area looks like it could be any generic parking garage. You park under the resort itself, and it looks like a concrete jungle. Zero attempts were made at even disguising the concrete slabs and columns and pipes, etc. Very disappointing.

Secondly, if you are simply visiting and do not know where you are, there are zero directions on where to park and how to get to the lobby. We were lucky that we somehow ended up parking close to the Timon elevator, and then we walked a short distance towards the lobby. If you didn't know any better and parked at, say, the Zazu elevator, you end up walking and walking along the resort corridor to get to the lobby, along the way thinking that you are completely lost.

The viewing area, while it looks rather nice, is also a bit disappointing. You can see the "guard" fence to prevent the animals from getting too close. It used to be that they hide this behind bushes or rocks at Jumbo House. Not here. You also get to see part of the "backstage" area where the animals are kept when they are not out on the safari grounds. I don't know if they plan on growing shrubs or trees to hide all of this, but it ruins the scenary a bit. There are just some small indications here and there that they didn't pay that much attention to detail with Kidani Village.

Zz.

The pin event continues on its final day today. However, we probably won't be there anymore. We're heading off to MK this morning for the Passholder/DVC members sneak preview of the Halls of Presidents. The Barack Obama animatronic will make its first public debut. I have no idea the size of the crowd for this one, so that's why we're going to show up when it opens at 11 am. We'll see how bad it gets.

No concrete plans for the rest of the day.

Zz.

You have some options on what to choose. It also depends on the location. Some locations have different options. It all depends on where the cake is made, and each resorts/theme parks have a particular cake source, I think. The one for AKL, from what I've heard, is made there.

I can't tell you where they are other than to say that the Timon elevator is closer to the lobby than Zazu. This is the elevator you take from the parking lot underneath the building. As you drive in, you simply drive through the parking area and you'll see the "names" being given to each section of the resort. I think if you're staying there, they'll tell you which section you should park in that will be closest to your room. Of course, the problem here is that for a guest that isn't staying there and is there for dinner or just to visit, you have no idea where to park to be closest to the lobby.

Zz.

We will be there till Noon on Wednesday before we head off to the airport.

Yes, I did see Obama. He took his oath of office again, and gave a short speech.

Zz.

Yesterday, we started the morning by walking around SSR's Carriage House area and the large pool next to it, while we sip our coffee/hot chocolate.

We then went to The Contemporary. A couple in our party wanted to go to the business center to pack things and ship them home, while we wanted to make a reservation for ........ PARASAILING on Tuesday! Yes, we are finally going to do what I've wanted to do for a long time! So it should be fun. If you hear someone yelling at the top of his lungs some time tomorrow morning, it will be ME!

View from an outdoor observation deck.

We then headed to MK for the preview of Hall of Presidents. They were "celebrating" when we walked in.

We are at the preview of HoP.

My review of the new HoP is that, while it is nice, it was disappointing when compared to the previous one. The last version had the presidents talking and interacting with each other. This one, most of the talking were done by Lincoln and Obama. I don't mind either of those, but there should be more of the animatronics, less "movie". We came to see the animatronics presidents, and that's what we should get, as much as possible. In my opinion, we didn't get as much as possble.

After HoP, we went to get something even more important - Dole Whip pinneapple float!

We then did Pirates and then Jungle Cruise. Our Jungle Cruise skipper was a riot! I offered her a "manwich" at the end, and she cracked up! You had to be there!

We left MK and took the ferry back to the Transportation Center.

We had a leisurely evening at Downtown Disney, and had dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant around here - Dakshin at Crossroads.

Today, several of our friends will be flying back home, so the number in our group will dwindle quite a bit. It will be sad because it is the beginning of the end of our trip. We will still meet up with a few of our friends who live here, but the reality of ending this vacation is slowly sinking in.

Zz.

I will be taking my camera, and my partner will be taking his camcorder when he is up there. So we plan on having both still and video shots - if they let us!

Zz.

Today was a leisurely day. We spent more time relaxing than anything else, especially because we were a bit tired and decided to just take it easy.

Late morning, we met up with a cast member friend, who took us to Company D and then to property control (or what they call "Cast Connections"). I took a few pictures while we were there, and here's a couple.

We then had a lovely lunch at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.

After lunch, we walked around the resort a bit. I went into the Bou-tiki store, and they had these large carvings all over the store that I find amusing.

More sights around the resort.

We then spent some time at Downtown Disney. Went into the Art of Disney store and bumped into this Mickey Vinylmation character. I don't get the fascination with the whole vinylmation thing, and that include the pins (which I don't collect). These things scares me!

We will probably turn in early this evening, since tomorrow might be a full day. Our parasailing is scheduled for 9:30 am, but the weather forecast doesn't look encouraging. So there's a chance that we might not be able to do this, but we shall see. The rest of the day will probably be spent at MK. We have a lunch reservation at Crystal Palace at 1:00 pm, and then a DVC member preview event at the Contemporary at 3:00 pm. So it will be a busy day.

Zz.

I just got back, it's late, and I'm pretty tired, so this will be a short trip report.

I did get to do the parasailing, but just barely. After I was up for about 10 mins, they had to reel me in because the had to come in because of the thread of lightning and the impending storm. So my partner could not get to do the parasailing, only me. I tried to get some pictures, but because of the high winds from the approaching storm, I was buffetted a lot up there, and I had to hold on many times since I felt like I was being tossed around quite a bit. So many of the pictures were quite blurry. But I think I have a few that might convey the amazing view up there.

This is the boat crew that was running the parasailing.

Here we are leaving the marina at the Contemporary

I'm up!!

Here, you get to see my feet dangling several hundred feet above the water.

It was a wonderful experience, but next time, I think I want to do this on a calmer day. I think I was getting a bit of a motion sickness during the last few minutes when it because quite rough being jostled around.

Zz.

We leave for home this afternoon (assuming the weather doesn't mess up our flight). It's been a great trip filled with lots of pleasant memories.

This will be my last transmission from the Most Magical Place on Earth. I will post more reports and pictures after I get home and recover a bit.

Zz.