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?

 

[VAfamily1998]

I stayed in a Savanna view room (I think it was 3323 or very close) in 2016. I was out of the room for most of the day and sometimes saw animals on the savanna and sometimes didn't.

I was in a standard view room (3378) last month and only had one park day, so we were in and out of the room at various times the other day. There was always SOME kind of animal in view--sometimes ostritch, zebras, giraffes, ankole cattle, and even a red river hog (I think?)! We were there for one of the run Disney races and had to wake up before 3 am--I was out on the balcony with some coffee and there was a giraffe sitting out there! It was dark so I could just make out the image...but I had never seen a giraffe sit like that. It was awesome!

So I'd say that I actually saw MORE animals from my non savanna room--but the rest of the view was not as pretty. From my non savanna room you could see a large (kind of ugly) building and some ugly fencing. The savanna view room was just all pretty "savanna"

 

[MHDTS]

Often there is a CM out at the public viewing area in the evening talking about the many animals roaming about. We have seen animals late into the evening, so you should have good viewing after 5 p.m.

 

[Jennasis]

They do have the night vision goggle at the lobby overlook area so you can look at the animals in the dark so there must be some out there after 5pm lol.

 

[buzznina]

Yep, that is when the street lights come on
When we were there we had 3 or 4 of the wilda beasts sleeping just outside our balcony at night, so there is some activity at night. We would watch mostly in morning when everyone is getting ready.

 

[AngiTN]

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?

That is flat out incorrect. Shame on that TA

 

[bwbuddy5]

That is flat out incorrect. Shame on that TA

Not to mention the lost commission!

 

[AngiTN]

If I remember correctly, during our time with the CM that work with the animals at the Lodge they only bring in the animals for 1 hour a day, to give the staff a time free of animals to clean up the savanna. I think this is very early morning but I'm not positive on that. I know on both of our stays at AKL we never saw a time with no animals

 

[jaiminee krikit]

We stayed at AKL last summer. Our first night, we didn't arrive until 2am. The first thing DD14 did was go to the balcony to see if she could see anything. It was pitch black out, but we could HEAR animals out there. A little creepy, but there was something out there. We couldn't tell what it was but it breathed pretty heavily lol. I do remember waking up a couple of mornings and we couldn't see many animals, but more were brought out before we would leave for the parks (giraffes and zebras and such).

We booked a standard view room and requested Kudu Trail view. When I got the text the morning we were leaving, I was ecstatic to see our request had been granted. Our view was slightly obstructed - there was a fenced area below our line of sight - but we could see everything. I don't know how often standard rooms get "obstructed" savannah views, but the gamble paid off for us!

 

[AngiTN]

We stayed at AKL last summer. Our first night, we didn't arrive until 2am. The first thing DD14 did was go to the balcony to see if she could see anything. It was pitch black out, but we could HEAR animals out there. A little creepy, but there was something out there. We couldn't tell what it was but it breathed pretty heavily lol. I do remember waking up a couple of mornings and we couldn't see many animals, but more were brought out before we would leave for the parks (giraffes and zebras and such).

Often you can't see them because it's their choice to be out of view, not that they've been removed from the savanna totally. Their areas are large and you can't totally see them from any 1 location

 

[Rose7777]

We were at Kidani recently and there were pretty much always animals in view from our room. Giraffes, zebras, ostriches, wildebeests, and crowned cranes were the most common.

 

[Minnesota!]

What the others have said - 5pm is not curfew. That TA needs some schooling

 

[gillep]

If I remember correctly, during our time with the CM that work with the animals at the Lodge they only bring in the animals for 1 hour a day, to give the staff a time free of animals to clean up the savanna. I think this is very early morning but I'm not positive on that. I know on both of our stays at AKL we never saw a time with no animals

This is what the animal handling CMs told us when we did the Wanyama Safari. The animals also walk around a lot in order to find more food, so you may not be able to see any animals from your room, but that doesn't mean they aren't on the savannah, it just means they aren't in front of your room on the savannah.

 

[scrapquitler]

We saw a lot of animals at night. During the middle of the night (like after 11pm) there didn't seem like as many, but the CM told us that many of them have a spot where they like to go and sleep...they are there, but you might not see them because they are behind some trees or something. We did see the Cattle all night long right in front of our balcony, and there were other animals around the edge of the places where the 'pond' was.