AK Animal Inventory

[bwbuddy5]

We stayed in Kindani from June 11-18 this summer .OH BOY DID WE SEE ANIMALS. I used touring plans to scope out our room- 7738. It's directly in front of a feeding station and on the second floor- below tree line. My son went crazy every morning seeing the zebra run, the ostrich play and the giraffes feed. It is true that they don't come out right away in the am. So some mornings when we did rope drop we would miss them, but sure enough when we got home for nap and pool in the mid afternoon, they were all back. Each night hubby and I would have a cocktail and watch them play again.

That's great, did you specifically request that room, or just that area? Great pictures. Your schedule sounds like ours, except in our case, it would be grandkids!

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

When we stayed at Jambo on Arusha Savannah (it was a resort room, not DVC), we saw great numbers of zebras, giraffes. etc right outside our window from, say, daybreak to 9AM, and again from around 5PM to sundown. I even got some great pictures after dark. In the middle of the day, there were a few, but they were pretty scarce. I remember thinking at the time that if I arrived mid-day and then spent time in the parks commando-style (rope drop to closing), I might never see an animal. But if you can be in your room at the peak times, it is magical.

 

[disneynutz]

Thinking about it, the reason that we are selling the last of our AKV contracts is that the idea of turning animals into a business no longer appeals to us.

Bill

 

[bwbuddy5]

Thinking about it, the reason that we are selling the last of our AKV contracts is that the idea of turning animals into a business no longer appeals to us.

Bill

Not sure that belongs in this thread, but thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Mommymalinoski]

That's great, did you specifically request that room, or just that area? Great pictures. Your schedule sounds like ours, except in our case, it would be grandkids!

Yes! We specifically requested that room! We had to wait a bit to be checked into it, but we just went to the pool. You can start faxing the requests to the hotel starting 30 days before your check in. I faxed them at 30 days and 15 days before. The number can be found online. You can also request TOURING PLANS to do it if you have a membership with them.

My advice is to do the same. Also, When you check in just ask nicely if they received your requests and think that they could do something to accommodate you in that room or something very close to it. You may have to wait a bit for the room, but if your patient they should be able to accommodate you

 

[Mommymalinoski]

Thanks. I didn't ask my question very well. I understand that they would never combine animals that don't get along, but do they ever switch animals between savannas? If not, are there certain species that are predominantly at either Kidani or Jambo?

I think this webpage may be super useful to you: http://allears.net/acc/faq_akl.htm.

 

[DenLo]

Thanks. I didn't ask my question very well. I understand that they would never combine animals that don't get along, but do they ever switch animals between savannas? If not, are there certain species that are predominantly at either Kidani or Jambo?

Jambo House and Kidani Village share the Sunset Savanna depending on the location of your room. The animals can be moved around by cast members but some never move, Okapis are always on Pembe, the Somalian wild asses are always on Uzima (they have wild in their name for a reason), no zebras on pembe because they upset the okapi. Elderly animals also are frequently kept on Pembe where is it quieter. So sometimes you might see a giraffe on Pembe.

I expect they don't move between the savannas much because they need to be trained to come in the barn for their daily inspection and if they are on the wrong savanna they couldn't get to their normal barn because of the fences. I know they move the animals around because I have seen the large Ankole cattle on different savannas. And they really had trouble getting them into barn on Pembe the first time I saw them there.

 

[DenLo]

I'm not sure if you know but you can fax a request in for the room you want up to 30 in advance. It doesn't always work. But it has gotten me a few choice rooms. There is no hurt in asking. The worst that can happen is they say it's not available.

Were you in a hotel room or a DVC room? DVC members are not supposed to fax.

 

[Mommymalinoski]

DVC- didn't know you weren't supposed to fax, this is the first I'm hearing of that. They did not say anything to me about it, and they gave me the room acknowledging my fax no problem.

 

[sndral]

Thanks. I didn't ask my question very well. I understand that they would never combine animals that don't get along, but do they ever switch animals between savannas? If not, are there certain species that are predominantly at either Kidani or Jambo?

Jambo House and Kidani Village share the Sunset Savanna depending on the location of your room. The animals can be moved around by cast members but some never move, Okapis are always on Pembe, the Somalian wild asses are always on Uzima (they have wild in their name for a reason), no zebras on pembe because they upset the okapi. Elderly animals also are frequently kept on Pembe where is it quieter. So sometimes you might see a giraffe on Pembe.

I expect they don't move between the savannas much because they need to be trained to come in the barn for their daily inspection and if they are on the wrong savanna they couldn't get to their normal barn because of the fences. I know they move the animals around because I have seen the large Ankole cattle on different savannas. And they really had trouble getting them into barn on Pembe the first time I saw them there.

My understanding is based on 5 stays, all at Jambo (4 DVC villas,) 3 Wanyama safaris and 1 lunch with an animal specialist at Sanaa. Things change, so my info. may not be 100% accurate.
Pembe has it's own barn which is not tall enough for giraffes - so I'm surprised to read that a giraffe was on Pembe. This last December they had a male zebra and a female with baby zebra on a section of Pembe that they had fenced off. AK is part of a breeding program for that species of zebra and initially they had a stallion with the females on Sunset but that was too disruptive so the smaller pens on Pembe were the solution, plus two of the female zebras don't get along with each other so they alternate which is on Pembe and which on Sunset. Sunset has it's own barn, a small herd of zebra, lots of bird species and several more animals. It's also the largest savanna.
Arusha and Uzima are the same size and they share a barn - so they bring the Arusha animals in and feed/medicate/check them then let them out and bring in the Uzima animals.
The 3 large savannas (Sunset, Arusha and Uzima) all have giraffes these days and usually at least a pair of zebras.
They do move animals around - for example Gordon, my avatar pix, started out in the park, but his interest in the Kilimanjaro Safari ride trucks created a problem so he was moved to AKL Uzima savanna. His fascination with trucks continued and he started lurking near Uzima's exit gate to intercept the safari trucks, so he was moved to Arusha savanna where he was last Dec.. Not sure where he is now as he was happily destroying some stands of foliage on Arusha last Dec..
So there's occasional movement of animals between the park and the lodge and among the savannas at the lodge to deal w/ issues that arise.
At Jambo the villas are on the 5th & 6th floor, whereas at Kidani you could be on any floor. If seeing animals was my sole aim, I'd opt for Kidani hoping for 2nd or 3rd floor Sunset savanna view. The villas are bigger & have more bathrooms at Kidani as well and the park buses stop there first. Personally I love the ambiance of Jambo's lobby, the proximity to Mara, the size of Jambo's pool, etc. so I tend to end up at Jambo.

 

[bwbuddy5]

My understanding is based on 5 stays, all at Jambo (4 DVC villas,) 3 Wanyama safaris and 1 lunch with an animal specialist at Sanaa. Things change, so my info. may not be 100% accurate.
Pembe has it's own barn which is not tall enough for giraffes - so I'm surprised to read that a giraffe was on Pembe. This last December they had a male zebra and a female with baby zebra on a section of Pembe that they had fenced off. AK is part of a breeding program for that species of zebra and initially they had a stallion with the females on Sunset but that was too disruptive so the smaller pens on Pembe were the solution, plus two of the female zebras don't get along with each other so they alternate which is on Pembe and which on Sunset. Sunset has it's own barn, a small herd of zebra, lots of bird species and several more animals. It's also the largest savanna.
Arusha and Uzima are the same size and they share a barn - so they bring the Arusha animals in and feed/medicate/check them then let them out and bring in the Uzima animals.
The 3 large savannas (Sunset, Arusha and Uzima) all have giraffes these days and usually at least a pair of zebras.
They do move animals around - for example Gordon, my avatar pix, started out in the park, but his interest in the Kilimanjaro Safari ride trucks created a problem so he was moved to AKL Uzima savanna. His fascination with trucks continued and he started lurking near Uzima's exit gate to intercept the safari trucks, so he was moved to Arusha savanna where he was last Dec.. Not sure where he is now as he was happily destroying some stands of foliage on Arusha last Dec..
So there's occasional movement of animals between the park and the lodge and among the savannas at the lodge to deal w/ issues that arise.
At Jambo the villas are on the 5th & 6th floor, whereas at Kidani you could be on any floor. If seeing animals was my sole aim, I'd opt for Kidani hoping for 2nd or 3rd floor Sunset savanna view. The villas are bigger & have more bathrooms at Kidani as well and the park buses stop there first. Personally I love the ambiance of Jambo's lobby, the proximity to Mara, the size of Jambo's pool, etc. so I tend to end up at Jambo.

Thanks for that great detail, I think I'm convinced of Kidani, especially after watching videos of the water area there. To me, the only two drawbacks would be no quick service restaurant, and I'll miss not seeing that grand lobby at Jambo House. How long of a walk is it to the Jambo House from Kidani (all of my family are walkers anyway)? Do any buses or shuttles run just between just Kidani and Jambo?

 

[bwbuddy5]

One other thing that I read on another website appears out of date given your detailed Savannah description. Do you agree?

Out-of-date?: "For instance, ostriches can only be found on the Sunset savanna, zebras are only located on the Arusha savanna, kudu are only found on the Uzima savanna. Giraffes are the only animal found on all three savannas."

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks for that great detail, I think I'm convinced of Kidani, especially after watching videos of the water area there. To me, the only two drawbacks would be no quick service restaurant, and I'll miss not seeing that grand lobby at Jambo House. How long of a walk is it to the Jambo House from Kidani (all of my family are walkers anyway)? Do any buses or shuttles run just between just Kidani and Jambo?

It's a short walk. Going slowly maybe 10 minutes lobby to lobby. And you can catch any park bus at Kidani to ride to Jambo. And the DS bus to ride from Jambo to Kidani. They also have a van they run between the two.

Regarding the animals, they do mix things up so any list would only be what's happening at that time. We did the Savannah tour several years ago and at that time they had no giraffe on Uzima. Next trip they were back. If your at Kidani though and want giraffe its a no brainier though - request sunset. It's had giraffe every time we've stayed there.

 

[sndral]

One other thing that I read on another website appears out of date given your detailed Savannah description. Do you agree?

Out-of-date?: "For instance, ostriches can only be found on the Sunset savanna, zebras are only located on the Arusha savanna, kudu are only found on the Uzima savanna. Giraffes are the only animal found on all three savannas."

Out of date, Sunset has the most zebras these days. Arusha and Uzima usually have a pair. The Ostriches are still on Sunset (and one of them was moved there from the park due to bad behavior years ago.) Not sure where the Kudu are - I think I remember seeing them on Uzima, so they may still be there.
As KAT4DISNEY indicated it's easy to get from Kidani to Jambo. As a guest at Kidani, you are welcome to enjoy all of Jambo's amenities, including swimming in Jambo's pool. Be sure to spend some time enjoying Jambo's lobby, the Arusha overlook behind the lobby and the Uzima overlook out by Jambo's pool as well as Jambo's large gift shop. It's a 10-15 min. walk between Kidani and Jambo, there's a shuttle van that runs between them or hop a park bus to ride from Kidani to Jambo and a Disney Springs bus to ride from Jambo to Kidani.

 

[bwbuddy5]

Are there scheduled animal feedings that can be viewed by visitors? What other types of events are typically on the viewing schedule?

 

[Simba's Mom]

Are there scheduled animal feedings that can be viewed by visitors? What other types of events are typically on the viewing schedule?

Unfortunately, there aren't scheduled animal feedings. However, it didn't take me long to figure out that the food truck came through around 4:30 every night, so you can bet that I was out on my balcony, binoculars in hand. Also, there's the lunch with an animal keeper at Sanaa, and every time I've gone, I've gotten information on times, etc. (like which sound is for which animal). The only activity where animal feeding is included is a flamingo feeding activity-for me, that wasn't too interesting.

 

[kreckl]

Curious- where do you all get your specific animal info?

 

[bwbuddy5]

So, it looks like from our poll that roughly 20% of Jambo guests didn't see many animals while closer to 10% of Kidani guests didn't see many animals. For those of you who have been to both locations, would you agree?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So, it looks like from our poll that roughly 20% of Jambo guests didn't see many animals while closer to 10% of Kidani guests didn't see many animals. For those of you who have been to both locations, would you agree?

The poll allowed multiple votes, Kidani is quite a bit larger so more will probably have stayed there and it's a pretty small sample. Timing of when people are out on the balconies matters a lot too. So, no, I don't personally think Jambo guests see fewer animals than Kidani.

 

[bwbuddy5]

Unfortunately, there aren't scheduled animal feedings. However, it didn't take me long to figure out that the food truck came through around 4:30 every night, so you can bet that I was out on my balcony, binoculars in hand. Also, there's the lunch with an animal keeper at Sanaa, and every time I've gone, I've gotten information on times, etc. (like which sound is for which animal). The only activity where animal feeding is included is a flamingo feeding activity-for me, that wasn't too interesting.

Makes me curious - has anyone ever gone to the trouble of posting a chart that shows the times on each savanna which seem to be the optimum viewing times? Is it always when the food truck comes out, and does the resort desk always have those schedules?