Late report on June Grand Gathering

Hi, folks

I'm very late in reporting on our 10-person grand gathering 6.17-6/23 (followed by a 6/23-6/28 "just us" stay)....apologies! But here goes:

1.  The 10-person grand gathering was at Kidani....it was me, my DS, DIL, DGS (he turned 2 during this trip) and my DIL's mother, brother 1 and his 4-person family (including 2 kids, ages 13 and 10), and brother 2. It was WONDERFUL...I had a studio while the other 9 shared a 2-br ... I spent quite a lot of time over at the 2-br (which was chaotic and tornadic---a neat and clean group they are not!). When I checked in I explained that I was on both reservations and wanted my magic band keyed to my studio, but wanted a key card so I could come and go in the 2 BR....it took the very nice CM at the Kidani front desk a while to figure it out, but he did and it worked flawlessly (I did use a variation of my name for the second reservation--my initials instead of my full name; don't know if I "needed" to do that, but that's how I did it and it worked well.) Disney had located my studio across the hall from the 2BR, but I asked for the first available studio--I had arrived quite early (9:30 a.m.) and my little DGS was due to arrive well before 4 and would be in need of a nap. The nice CM noted that he did have an available studio but it was clear on the other side of the resort and did I really want to be that far away from the 2-BR? At the time I thought I did (and in retrospect, think I would have made the same decision). But it did turn out to be less than ideal to have to do that 3/10 of a mile trek (per fitbit) every time I went back and forth between my room and the family's villa...but I'm a walker and in the end it was no big deal....and I treasured the peace of my own sleeping space (and the ability to give DGS a noise-free nap on occasion)...it was definitely worth the long walks to and from....

2.  I wound up having significant computer issues while I was there--not Disney's fault in any way (the problem was my laptop)....but figured out the issues and resolved the problem relatively early-on. Lots of help from my software engineer DS, including his willingness to buy me a new mouse at WalMart (they'd driven down and so had their car, and were going to WalMart anyway on a "supplies run.")

I also forgot that I would need make-up and a nice top while there (I had a business zoom presentation to do for which I needed to "dress for success.")--so I fired up amazon.com and ordered both a top and some make-up and had the packages sent to Kidani. That worked out well, but took a bit of luck. The CM couldn't find my package after I got the notice that amazon had delivered it and so went to consult with another CM in the back....turns out that Bell Services had it and was in the process of redirecting it to the "other" villa (the 2-BR) rather than to my villa (which I had specified on the order). That CM had the package in her hands at the time of the inquiry so it was very easy for them to verify that it was my package and hand it over. There was no fee at Kidani for the package delivery..

3.  Most of our group was inexperienced at Disney....my DS and DIL are frequent visitors, but the rest of the crew had not been to Disney in many years, and had only been once before. So it was a pretty new experience for most of the group. We learned early-on that things would work best if we felt free to do things together or separately, depending on who wanted to what and when. DS, DIL and I revolved our plans around DGS' schedule (eating and napping); the others were more flexible. But we all prioritized spending time with each other, so we did a whole lot of things together. We had a few moments of less-than-happy kids (typical pre-teen, teen and toddler stuff and no big deal), but otherwise no melt-downs of any kind (unusual for a Disney trip!)...

4.  We were fortunate that my DIL had decided to share her work anniversary bonus w/all of us during this trip. It allowed for lots of extraneous spending, including 3 days of Genie+ for the whole group and several otherwise-extravagant meal experiences. My DS turned out to be a genius at Genie+--he figured out how to use it efficiently and effectively and wound up scheduling a lot of rides with minimal "nose-in-the-phone" time. He also used individual Lightning Lane purchases liberally. So we all got to ride Flight of Passage, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rise of Resistance, Millennium Falcolm Minnie & Mickey's Runaway Railroad, Tron, Space Mountain, Dinosaur, the Safari ride, and other favorites without long waits. And since it was "monopoly money," we didn't worry about ride reservations that turned out to not work, time-wise. But we all agreed that with some time-planning and judicious use of Lightning Lane individual purchases, we'd likely never use Genie+ again....it worked well for us this trip, but not so well that it would be worth the time (the primary reason for some of us) or money (the main issue for others of us) as a general rule. We did, however, appreciate the ability to use individual lightning lane purchases. One big reason was the ability to choose a time for the ILL rides rather than relying on "what's available" for Genie+ rides (and then going back in to look for changes as the days progressed).

5. Dining was pretty good. We'd spent some significant time planning ADRs (and stalking, where required, to get them)....We did StoryBook Dining at WL one night and everyone loved it. We did Space 220 (that took a LOT of stalking and we could only do a reservation for 8--but that wasn't a big deal; I'd already been there and was happy to take DGS back for his nap while the others did that experience), and we all agree that it was cool for the first few minutes -- riding the "rocket ship" up to the restaurant, and the first few minutes of "the view." The food was better than ok, but not great. Again, it was unanimous that it was a "one-and-done" experience; we were all glad to have experienced it (altho in my case it had been on a previous trip), but it wasn't so cool that we'd want to spend the time and money to do it again We also did Biergarten as a group (the kids (adult kids as well as real kids) really really enjoyed the music and dancing, and the food was "fine." Not great, but certainly good. None of the rest of our eating was all that memorable--neither good nor bad. I personally got very tired of Mara--ate there 7 or 8 times the five days we were there. Not enough variety for me for that many meals in that short a time frame. But what I ate was good and it was convenient.

6.  . I really like Kidani/Jambo, but tend to feel "trapped" at AKL...I'm a hiker for exercise and you can't go very far at AKL on foot...but on this trip I did find a road leading out of Kidani back by the sports courts that let me hike for almost 2 miles. That helped. The pools are good but their hours don't work for me. I alternate hiking (4-5 miles at a time) with swimming (for 75 minutes) for my workouts, and neither pool at AKL opens prior to 10 a.m. And they both got too crowded to allow for exercise swimming within minutes of opening. So AKL is not a top-of-my-list choice for a place to stay at Disney World...but I do like the resort even though it requires me to get creative about getting my workouts in...and the family loved watching the animals and the general ambiance of the resort.

7. Summary of the six-day Kidani trip: It was fantastic. Wonderful people, so much fun....(the 10-year-old and 13-year-old really loved their principal souvenirs: building a robot and building a droid at Hollywood Studios)...I'd do it again in a heartbeat, and they all say they're eager to plan another trip, too. A fantastic use of a LOT of my points--major really good memories made. After all the horror stories we've all read about grand gatherings gone wrong, it's so nice to know they can go so very right, too....ours was purely wonderful....

I have to stop here now, as I'm out of time right now. Will post a summary later of the just-as-fantastic (maybe even better) 6 days at the Beach Club w/my DS, DIL and DGS that was the back half of this trip. Dani

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