Florida, Food, Jungles and Yaks: Part I

**Exhale****

It's been a crazy month. But we survived and are getting settled into a new home. I'm just getting a few moments to post about our trip to Florida last week. This was our second year going to Disney and this time we stayed at Animal Kingdom's Kidani Village. This was only our second trip and I can already feel myself getting acclimated to planning a successful trip.
Like many people could tell you, planning a trip to Disney World is an art! If you don't plan it ALL in advance, you could face quite a few disappointments. From Dinner reservations to fast passes, you definitely have to be prepared. And we were! Here are some of the highlights of our trip this year and places I recommend, don't recommend, etc.My sister is a Disney Travel agent and she planned our trip last year which then led me to plan my own this year. I could do an entire post dedicated to the do's and don'ts of Disney….but if you are interested in that, just click on her link over to the right in the sidebar there.

We started our trip running down the airport terminal like the scene from Home Alone when the family is running to catch their flight. We have Boston to thank for that. But once on the plane, we ordered some drinks and Scarlett insisted we do a cheers to our vacation.  We didn't oppose.


We arrived at the beautifully designed Kidnai Village where the animals roamed around freely outside of our villa balcony. Giraffe's walking around outside our window and all.  We dined at Sanaa Restaurant that night, which was really worth the pricier menu. Scarlett was really into the Nan. Every night, they held a campfire where they roasted Marshmallows and then an outdoor movie for the kids. Scarlett loved this almost as much as the Magic Kingdom! The resort was rather dark, mostly because of the African theme, I found myself longing for that bright, airy feeling of the Beach Club Resort that we stayed at last year. The pool was smaller but there was an awesome mini slide as well as an adult slide that slid into the pool. Scarlett was obsessed with that every time we went out to the pool.

I am warning you there will be a lot of food photos. We ate A LOT this time. Probably too much. We dined at a few notable restaurants: Le Cellier's Steakhouse in Epcot, Yak & Yetti in the Animal Kingdom and Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom. All were superb and I'd go back in a heartbeat. Scarlett's favorite was of course Cinderella's castle which I will talk about in Part II of this vaca post. Le Cellier's Steakhouse probably had one of the best steak's I've ever eaten. Yak & Yetti was Asian fare that I could. not. stop. eating. I left that place wobbling. We spent a lot of time in the Animal Kingdom Park this time since last year the day we went was a washout. Scarlett kept finding water to splash around in and so bringing multiple changes of clothes for her was imperative.

Most evenings, we ended up at the Maji pool bar with drinks by the hot tub, which was a favorite of mine. We didn't bring our Cannon Revbel this time around so all these photos were taken with my iPhone 5S. I know some of them are grainy/not the best quality but they are memories to me just the same :)

I'll post the second part of our vacation tomorrow.

The best little traveler. 

Sanaa Restaurant

Yak & Yetti. I HIGHLY recommend the Cream Cheese stuffed Wontons for dessert.

One of my favorite restaurants.

Loved this little vehicle.

Mid-Day Snack.

Coloring in Asia.

Part II here.