Ottawa Family Kidani Village December 2010 Trip Report

[OttawaWendy]

Jambo everybody!

Welcome to the Ottawa Family trip report. I will be primarily responsible for this TR, but OttawaMum may step in from time to time to correct me.

A while back someone asked whether readers preferred their trip reports in one thread, or a new thread for each day. Generally folks liked the one thread format, but the minority liked being able to read the report without necessarily reading all the comments. In light of that desire, I will try to update this first post with a link to each of my posts.

This report will be a mix of text and photos (more in the chronicler realm than actually good pics), with some focus on food and animals.

Is everyone ready? Very good, let's begin.

December 18 - Travel, Raglan Road, Epcot

December 19 - Epcot morning including Living with the Land
December 19 - Epcot World Showcase including Via Napoli
December 19 - Time at Kidani
December 19 - Sanaa

December 20 - DHS
December 20 - DHS end, transition, supper
December 20 - MK evening, parade, Tomorrowland
December 20 - MK evening, Fantasyland, Liberty Square
December 20 - MK evening, lights

December 21 - Hollywood Brown Derby lunch
December 21 - Time at the resort, MO meet

December 22 - Breakfast, AK Maharajah
December 22 - Maharajah Tigers
December 22 - Mararajah Birds, Asia monkeys, Pangani
December 22 - More Pangani
December 22 - Pangani gorillas
December 22 - Tusker House, Finding Nemo
December 22 - AK at night

December 23 - Animals from the balcony
December 23 - Around the resort
December 23 - Savannah viewing area and Community Hall
December 23 - Sanaa lunch part 1
December 23 - Sanaa lunch part 2
December 23 - Jiko

December 24 - Going home, one last look around

The Wrap-up

[DVC-Paul]

I love Ottawa Family TRs! Bring it on!

[beansprout]

Subscribing...I don't want to miss the fun!

[janet1106]

Jambo to you.
Looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

[Brian5581]

Thanks for taking the time, Wendy. Looking forward to your report!

[OttawaWendy]

Our first flight was departing Ottawa at 5:50, so we woke at 3:15 a.m., and pulled into the Park-n-Fly lot about 4:30 a.m. and were at the airport by about 4:45. We had no troubles dropping off our bags and getting through security.

Our first flight was to Montreal, which is about 40 minutes in the air. For those who don't know, US-Canadian border services for air travel are always in Canada (fewer points of entry on our side of the border). So we arrived in Montreal and had to leave security, and then go through American customs and then through security again.

Irritating travel story: U.S. Customs guy says "So you passed off the kids to your husbands and are heading down to Disney World - nice!". Really? This is the most logical explanation you can think of for why two women, one pregnant, might be travelling together to Disney World? I know you work for a government that won't recognize our marriage, but you live in Montreal full time - surely it must rub off!

Anyway, our flight from Montreal was quite late in departing (something needed fixing and then we had to do de-icing) and we arrived in Orlando about 2 hours late. We checked in with Magical Express, gave them our baggage claim tags (because we signed up too late to receive the special ME tags), and got on board the coach.

When we got to AKV, our room still wasn't assigned, so we picked up my ECV from the Valet, and dropped a carry on with bell services. We were very late for our Raglan Road ADR, but assumed there likely would still be room as it was still mid-afternoon. First stop in Downtown Disney was Guest Services to buy Annual Passes and our Tables in Wonderland card. Then on to Raglan Road, who had no trouble fitting us in.

I started with a Magner's cider.



OttawaMum is vegetarian (eats fish, but is actually allergic to chicken and has intolerances to other meats) and is now gluten-free. That creates some challenges so we saw chefs at every restaurant. At Raglan Road, her favourite appetizer with gluten was the Goat's Town, and they were able to make that gluten-free for her by carmalizing the goat's cheese instead of the usual coating.



I have always wanted to try Dalkey's Duo, the battered cocktail sausages. I never have because we've mostly been on the dining plan while eating here and this is considered an appetizer for two. So this is something I had been looking forward to. However, my review is that it wasn't as good as I thought it would be, and it is definitely something I would only order as an entree for one, or to share if I were there with another meat-eater.





For an entree, OttawaMum had a special gluten-free fish and chips. We decided that wasn't going to be available anywhere else, and it was a very good choice. She says it was delicious - a good quality piece of fish and a light batter.



We were absolutely starving when we got to Raglan Road, having eaten only some minor amounts of food since breakfast at 3:45 a.m. Although I had planned to have only Dalkey Duo and the bread pudding, I saw Paddy's Pork on the menu when it had been missing the last time we were here. I decided to order that too, although I knew by the time I'd eaten a quarter of the appetizer that it was a mistake. I ended up eating about 2/3rds of the pork, and about 1/3 of the potatoes, and didn't order dessert. I ate the rest of the entree for breakfast. It was sad that I missed the dessert.



We went from Downtown Disney to Epcot, because we both really like Criminal Minds and Thomas Gibson was the celebrity narrator that night for the Candlelight Processional. We quickly got our pass to check in for a Kim Possible Mission and then went to the stand-by line for the middle Candlelight Processional. Although we only arrived about 10 minutes before the show, and about 5 minutes before they started letting people in from the stand-by line, we did get admitted. I don't have a camera that can really take night pictures, but I will say we enjoyed the show very much. I think we both particularly like that they sang Il est Ne which made us feel right at home. The only one they sang that I didn't know is They Rejoiced with Great Joy.





We checked in late for our Kim Possible mission and were assigned to Germany. It was fun as always and we especially liked the miniature train as always.



We went to Karmel Kuche and unfortunately the caramel was not gluten safe so OttawaMum couldn't eat any. I got an apple, and had them cut it in quarters, and ate half the apple and took the rest home.

We went back home to Kidani Village and our room was ready. It was a long day but an excellent beginning.

[jrbdad]

Thanks Wendy, looking forward to it.

[OttawaWendy]

Originally Posted by DVC-Paul

I love Ottawa Family TRs! Bring it on!

Thanks for the compliment.

Originally Posted by beansprout

Subscribing...I don't want to miss the fun!

Thanks. I like doing them.

Originally Posted by janet1106

Jambo to you.
Looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

It was a good trip.

Originally Posted by Brian5581

Thanks for taking the time, Wendy. Looking forward to your report!

I like taking the time, it helps me remember our vacations. I especially like the HHI report, which makes me relaxed every time I read it.

Originally Posted by jrbdad

Thanks Wendy, looking forward to it.

Thanks very much. I hope it will be enjoyable.

[jrbdad]

Yes - after your HHI TR, you have alot to live up too. One of my favs.

[OttawaMum]

Originally Posted by OttawaWendy

Jambo everybody!

Welcome to the Ottawa Family trip report. I will be primarily responsible for this TR, but OttawaMum may step in from time to time to correct me.
...
more in the chronicler realm than actually good pics....

The word is pictures...I hope to see better grammar in the future.