AKL Animals in by 5pm?

[bwbuddy5]

As I am debating a savanna view, I had an interesting conversation with a friend who had stayed there. He said his TA told him that since they won't be back to their AKL room most days until after 5pm, that he should just get a standard view room. She had told him they bring the animals in to sleep at 5pm. I thought that was a rather bizarre comment.

So, my real question, for those of you with savanna view rooms who seldom return from the parks prior to 5pm, how has the animal viewing from your balcony been?

 

[com_op_2000]

They have night viewing glasses of the animals on the savanna.
I have seen from my balcony zebra, giraffe, cows, and others out after 5 PM.
This is especially true during the time of year when the sun will stay up past 8 PM here on the east coast.

 

[Best Aunt]

Clearly this travel agent never heard about the Starlight Safari at the lodge. It starts at 10:00 pm.

The animals sleep on the savannas. They are brought into the barns for a short time each morning, one savanna at a time. So you might never see them out the window when you eat breakfast, if your breakfast time coincides with the barn time for the animals on that savanna.

I think the real question is - how much time will you spend looking out your window or sitting on your balcony? I discovered that even when the animals were out there, I wasn't watching them. When I was in the room, I was exhausted from spending time in the parks. I'm someone who keeps the drapes closed at all times and doesn't relax out on the balcony. Other people have different vacationing styles.

And how much will FOMO apply to you if you don't get a savanna view room? Will you be kicking yourself whenever you are in the room, thinking that you could be seeing animals outside your window?

 

[brooke789]

Yes, animals are definitely out at all times of day! My understanding is that they're trained to go to the pens for vet checks not to sleep.
We had a standard view and happened to be able to see the pen. We saw a lot of activity by the pen throughout the days. I actually remember most nights the kids wanted to run down the halls looking out each of the overlooks to see what the animals were doing. Absolutely lots of activity after 5pm each night!

 

[bwbuddy5]

I think the real question is - how much time will you spend looking out your window or sitting on your balcony? I discovered that even when the animals were out there, I wasn't watching them.

We will be party of 9 including a 4YO granddaughter who absolutely loves animals, and can't wait to watch them from her room. So, we'll actually be visiting parks morning and evening with a nap mid-afternoons. I figured a savanna view might maximize the viewing.

 

[Best Aunt]

We will be party of 9 including a 4YO granddaughter who absolutely loves animals, and can't wait to watch them from her room. So, we'll actually be visiting parks morning and evening with a nap mid-afternoons. I figured a savanna view might maximize the viewing.

OK, so a savanna view might be right for you. Ignore what the travel agent said.

 

[mousestruck]

Animals do go to pens in the morning and at certain periods throughout the day, but out most of the time. We've had wonderful views early morning, mid-afternoon and at night! We just love it and feel the experience is worth the extra money!

 

[DenLo]

We took the Sense of Africa Tour in June 2016 and we were told that the animal keepers begin calling the animals for the Pembe Savanna around 5:00 AM, then the keepers go to the Sunset savanna barn and call the animals for that savanna, then to Arusha, and Uzima barns and plus there might be another one out there. It takes approximately an hour per barn to check each animal to be sure they have not been injured or have any signs of illness. If an animal needs treatment it could delay the keepers from moving to the next barn. However, the animals are so used to doing this that sometimes they move towards their barns before they need to and hang out under the nearby trees so the keepers do not have to wait for them to arrive from a distance for their check up. We were lucky once to stay at a AKL hotel room where the animals waited for the Arusha barn to open right in front of our room. Sometimes the animals do not cooperate and the keepers have to really work at getting them. We saw Antole cattle (the ones with big horns) ignore a keeper for 20 minutes one morning. The keeper was finally standing the gate calling the lead animal by name and when he went in the rest followed. The animal keepers try very hard to keep the animals on the savannas until needed by going around early each morning adding new food to entice them to stay put. But it doesn't always work.

We have found that they release species of animals from each barn after they have been examined. So you might find that you have some antelopes but no giraffes. And the animals return to their areas at their own speed grazing and looking for food. So it might take them a while to get back to the lobby area which is farthest from the barns. People complain about the rooms that are far from the lobbies but these often see animals first.

BTW, our last stay at Jambo House we had different animals sleeping in front of our room almost every night.

Definitely do the night vision viewing at either Jambo House or Kidani Village if the children are old enough and responsible enough to hold those expensive binoculars. I think the one at Jambo House is best because it is really dark out there. I am still amazed the time I swore no animals were out and I lifted the glasses up and was shocked to see a giraffe not even 15 feet away.

Happy trip planning.

 

[Simba's Mom]

The animals go in in the morning, not evening. One of the joys is that if you wake up in the middle of the night and go out on your balcony, there are animals. They go in in the morning, about 8:00-9:30 or so for their vet checks. The animals are trained to respond to audio cues, so if you're out about then, you might hear them being called-triangle, whistle, etc. for specific animals. Actually, around 5:00, the truck somes out and provides "browse"-I find the best time for seeing animals is around dinnertime.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

That TA definitely doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

We found that Disney keeps in the animals in view during peak viewing periods, which include the late afternoon and the breakfast hours. The animals might become scarce during the hours when most people are at the parks. We were well pleased with the animal viewing. It seemed there were always animals right outside our room.

 

[johnsgrl]

We were there from 4/29 to 5/6, in a standard DVC studio and had animals at various times through the day and evening. One evening around 8pm we had outside our room 3 giraffes, 4 zebras, 4 wildebeest, a half dozen spring buck, an ostrich, 3 of the crowned cranes, and a stork all together for about a half hour.
Another evening the only visitor was the ostrich, who dropped down and laid an egg!
Some evenings nothing was outside when we looked, but you could still view animals from the savanna outlook so they were around.
So, no don't listen to anyone who tells you that you won't see any animals after 5 pm.

 

[Peaseblossom]

As others have said, no.

I once had a room by the barn on the sunset savannah - they brought the animals in very early in the morning for feeding and weigh-in and had them back out very quickly.

If anything, I've noticed the animals follow similar patterns as the people, at least in the daylight - early and late, they're more active, at the peak of the heat and humidity, less active.

Have you all seen this?!

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ogs-are-born-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-lodge/

 

[bwbuddy5]

We were there from 4/29 to 5/6, in a standard DVC studio and had animals at various times through the day and evening. One evening around 8pm we had outside our room 3 giraffes, 4 zebras, 4 wildebeest, a half dozen spring buck, an ostrich, 3 of the crowned cranes, and a stork all together for about a half hour.
Another evening the only visitor was the ostrich, who dropped down and laid an egg!
Some evenings nothing was outside when we looked, but you could still view animals from the savanna outlook so they were around.
So, no don't listen to anyone who tells you that you won't see any animals after 5 pm.

any pics? what was your room number?

 

[disneynutz]

These are wild animals that do pretty much what they want. Disney uses food to put them on display on the savannas and food to attract them to the barns. As a AKV owner we found that sometimes we would see more animals, other times not as many. For us after several stays, the novelty of viewing them wore off and we sold most of our AKV contracts.

Bill

 

[jo-jo]

We just came back, very unhappy with our savanna view room. It was right on the edge a savanna right next to the pool. We had some small animals and all the noise from the pool.

They offered to move us the next day, but we just moved from BLT and didn't want to move again. We had 4 adults and 2 kids , 9 suitcases and 4 bags of groceries.

 

[johnsgrl]

any pics? what was your room number?

Our room was 5257, waiting on DH to up load most of the photos, but hopefully this one works




as soon as the ostrich started acting strange the truck in the pic showed up and waited till she started to walk away from the egg, and they drove up and grabbed it. We were told there are no male ostrich on the savannas there so there was no chance of a baby ostrich in the egg. We actually went down to the outlook after it happened to find out why she would just leave the egg unattended.

 

[bwbuddy5]

We just came back, very unhappy with our savanna view room. It was right on the edge a savanna right next to the pool. We had some small animals and all the noise from the pool.

They offered to move us the next day, but we just moved from BLT and didn't want to move again. We had 4 adults and 2 kids , 9 suitcases and 4 bags of groceries.

definite bummer, what was your room number?

 

[jo-jo]

definite bummer, what was your room number?

7841

We had been to Kidani a bunch of times and always thought of sitting on the balcony, a quiet serene experience. Drinking coffee, reading a book, even whispering when animals came by. In that room, we had a compressor running for hours every morning, pool games in the afternoon and just general pool noise. Not what I expected while using savanna view points.

We have stayed at standard view rooms at BLT, BWV and Jumbo, you get what you get and we understood, save points and get a possibly rotten view. But we were paying for a savanna view.

And yes, as soon as we saw where we were, we went right back to the front desk. I was told they are at 100% and everyone else has already checked in. This was at 3 pm. I asked what about the online checkin or the when we checked out of BLT at 11, didn't that start the checkin for here? I was told no.

 

[bwbuddy5]

7841

We had been to Kidani a bunch of times and always thought of sitting on the balcony, a quiet serene experience. Drinking coffee, reading a book, even whispering when animals came by. In that room, we had a compressor running for hours every morning, pool games in the afternoon and just general pool noise. Not what I expected while using savanna view points.

We have stayed at standard view rooms at BLT, BWV and Jumbo, you get what you get and we understood, save points and get a possibly rotten view. But we were paying for a savanna view.

And yes, as soon as we saw where we were, we went right back to the front desk. I was told they are at 100% and everyone else has already checked in. This was at 3 pm. I asked what about the online checkin or the when we checked out of BLT at 11, didn't that start the checkin for here? I was told no.

I had always been concerned about the Pembe savanna rooms, especially since you automatically rule out seeing a giraffe from your room if you're there. With your comments, it makes my desire for Sunset savanna even stronger.

I hate that it ended up being a bad experience for you.