GeorgiaTiggerGirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2004
- Messages
- 390
My DS (20), who will still vacation with me, and I spent August 23-26 at AKV. It was a great trip!
AKV:
* Beautiful resort. Staff was friendly and efficient.
* Loved the Savannah view. Enjoyed watching many animals, especially the giraffes (what a cute baby!) and the cranes who were protecting their eggs 24/7! Thanks to whomever suggested taking binoculars!
* Food was good although we only ate from Mara food court and breakfast at Boma. We will try it for dinner next time!
* Overall, we were impressed with the resort. I am still partial to VWL, but AKV is a close 2nd with BCV (my favorite resort is really wherever I am at the time!!) We want to return to AKV!
Food:
* No DDP this trip; too much food! We ate one Table Service each day and filled in with snacks or Counter Service.
* Trails End Dinner - Delicious; possibly our best meal of the trip!
* Crystal Palace Lunch - Very good food and character interaction. A nice cool break from the heat!
* Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner - Also delicious (love that ham!). Chip (or was it Dale?) was funny to watch observing the downpour that fortunately we missed). Will miss this as a character meal but will return.
* Boma Breakfast - Very good; I was trying so hard not to overeat, so I sampled just a little of most everything. Great service!
Parks: Since this was a quick trip, we planned to hit our favorites and not try to cram too much in....so as usual we were at rope drops, took breaks (I napped and enjoyed the balcony view!), and went back in the evening.
* Sunday at MK/Epcot - Most rides were 20-30 minutes until late morning. Our thrill of the trip was getting Dream Fastpasses after leaving Space Mountain (we received the pin sets in November!). Evening was spent at Epcot enjoying Off Kilter & the British Invasion!
* Monday at AK/MGM - EMH day so we toured from 8-2 and really enjoyed it. Love my tigers on the trail in Asia! Rode Expedition Everest until I couldn't anymore! (Wish there were more single rider lines) Used passfass for the Safari, and we did the walking treks while we waited for our time. Even though it was cooler, evening hours at MGM were not worth it in my opinion. Star Tours was a walk-on, but everything else was 40-50' at best, with Toy Story Mania a 70' wait. It think the morning extra hours are best for serious park touring with minimal waits!
* Resturants, restrooms, and parks in general were fine as far as cleanliness was concerned. Cast members were fine.
****My new tradition is to use the last day of a trip as one of rest/relaxation. We slept late, went to the pool and DTD. I was not as tired when we got home (helpful since I returned to work Thursday!).
Tried to keep this brief, but it was a GREAT trip. Sadly, we probably won't return to WDW until late November/early December 2009, unless I sneak in a short solo trip. Will try to make a solo trip to HHI in April/May.
AKV:
* Beautiful resort. Staff was friendly and efficient.
* Loved the Savannah view. Enjoyed watching many animals, especially the giraffes (what a cute baby!) and the cranes who were protecting their eggs 24/7! Thanks to whomever suggested taking binoculars!
* Food was good although we only ate from Mara food court and breakfast at Boma. We will try it for dinner next time!
* Overall, we were impressed with the resort. I am still partial to VWL, but AKV is a close 2nd with BCV (my favorite resort is really wherever I am at the time!!) We want to return to AKV!
Food:
* No DDP this trip; too much food! We ate one Table Service each day and filled in with snacks or Counter Service.
* Trails End Dinner - Delicious; possibly our best meal of the trip!
* Crystal Palace Lunch - Very good food and character interaction. A nice cool break from the heat!
* Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner - Also delicious (love that ham!). Chip (or was it Dale?) was funny to watch observing the downpour that fortunately we missed). Will miss this as a character meal but will return.
* Boma Breakfast - Very good; I was trying so hard not to overeat, so I sampled just a little of most everything. Great service!
Parks: Since this was a quick trip, we planned to hit our favorites and not try to cram too much in....so as usual we were at rope drops, took breaks (I napped and enjoyed the balcony view!), and went back in the evening.
* Sunday at MK/Epcot - Most rides were 20-30 minutes until late morning. Our thrill of the trip was getting Dream Fastpasses after leaving Space Mountain (we received the pin sets in November!). Evening was spent at Epcot enjoying Off Kilter & the British Invasion!
* Monday at AK/MGM - EMH day so we toured from 8-2 and really enjoyed it. Love my tigers on the trail in Asia! Rode Expedition Everest until I couldn't anymore! (Wish there were more single rider lines) Used passfass for the Safari, and we did the walking treks while we waited for our time. Even though it was cooler, evening hours at MGM were not worth it in my opinion. Star Tours was a walk-on, but everything else was 40-50' at best, with Toy Story Mania a 70' wait. It think the morning extra hours are best for serious park touring with minimal waits!
* Resturants, restrooms, and parks in general were fine as far as cleanliness was concerned. Cast members were fine.
****My new tradition is to use the last day of a trip as one of rest/relaxation. We slept late, went to the pool and DTD. I was not as tired when we got home (helpful since I returned to work Thursday!).
Tried to keep this brief, but it was a GREAT trip. Sadly, we probably won't return to WDW until late November/early December 2009, unless I sneak in a short solo trip. Will try to make a solo trip to HHI in April/May.
We did EE one am 5 times before 10am one morning!!
We were hopeful but it didn't happen. Off to plan the next trip! 
