AKL SAV or AKL CONCIERGE...HELP

[disneyma2]

Hello everyone,
We have a trip booked....DEc7-14th, staying at the FT Wilderness Cabins, we were there in Jan 04, then in Sept 03 we were at AKL SAV. Here are my questions, I got the discounted rate, just last night on the cabins 139/night total 1085, I could change it to AKL sav at 151 night, total 1179, or AKL C 335/night total 2615. My dd who will be 4 by dec, keeps begging to go back to the place with the animals on the balcony!!! Should we change our ressie? Is the concierge worth the extra $? Also if I booked the concierge, there is no guarentee that I would get a sav view correct? That part scares me, as to that's why we would go back, for the animals. Also, if I book concierge, what floor should I request? Geeze all these questions.......... I'm still anxiously awaiting the AP rates...will they be better then these rates? All you AKL FANS please help out!
Thanks )

 

[Fridye]

The AKL sav at 151 is a good rate. I don't know about the concierge rate. Two years ago on Thanksgiving we paid $275 inc. tax with the discount. If you go sav, I recommend arusha sav, zebra trail. If you go concierge, they will do their best to accommodate your request of a sav view. Request 5th floor instead of 6th due to the views being better and that the 6th floors are mainly reserved for "accessible" rooms. BTW, the concierge was fantastic!

 

[wannabee princess]

Well, my first thought was that the regular savanna view was definitely worth the extra $12 a night!

If you want to bump up to the concierge, I will say it is a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to anyone! If you can do the Sunrise Safari, it is probably one of the greatest experiences you can have that comes from staying onsite!

Also, it depends on if you can afford and will take advantage of the concierge. That is $184 difference. I think we easily saved more than $50 - $75 a day in snacks/breakfast by using the lounge (maybe more on a nonpark day?), but we only used it for breakfast and a few snacks on the days we went to the parks.

Concierge is on the 5th and 6th floors, and some of the 6th floor rooms are smoking optional. If you request savanna view when you book, you should be okay. You will be talking to the staff at the lounge prior to check-in also, so you can reiterate the importance of savanna view (no guarantee I guess, but I think they do a good job of making sure your requests are met).

As for the AP rates - no one knows if there will even be AP rates right now, so no idea if they will be better.

 

[Bojangles]

I don't think $185/night more is worth it. You are more than doubling your cost. We found that we didn't use the concierge services there enough to make the extra expense worth it.

 

[disneyma2]

Thanks to all your quick responses so far, you guys are great!!

For those of you that stayed AKL C, what kind of food offerings are there? What about beer for dh?
Thanks AGain ))

 

[justhat]

I stayed at AKL concierge in June, after 2 trips to AKL in a regular savannah room, and I will not be doing concierge again. It was nice to have the lounge for snacks, but that's all they were really-some goldfish crackers, gummy bears, rice krispie treats. The day we checked out we hung out in the lounge for awhile waiting for our towncar and we were there for the dinner offerings. They were nice-chicken, beef, couscous, and 2 other dishes I forget- but since we're never at the resort that time of day, we don't really get to take advantage of the dinner. Desserts were lacking, in my opinion after the GF concierge. They had cookies, brownies, and rice krispie treats. They also had liquors, but we don't really drink so not a big plus for us. They had a few beers, Casablanca being one I remember, but again, we don't drink much so I don't remember much about that. The one nice thing was the fridge containing sodas, as it was ncie to go by and grab a cold drink. But for the money we paid, we could have bought many cold drinks at the snack bar. Our main reason for concierge was to do the Sunrise Safari, mainly because of posts like wannabee princess

If you can do the Sunrise Safari, it is probably one of the greatest experiences you can have that comes from staying onsite!

After having done the safari, I can say I will never do it again, nor tell people it's worth it to stay in concierge for this. It was nice, but definitely not worth the money, as basically all we paid for was the breakfast. Now, the breakfast was good, but very expensive. The safari was the same as the regular ride but longer. We were in the same trucks, with the same cheesy storyline of the bridge not being able to hold us, and actually saw less animals because the ones at the beginning of the ride weren't out for the day yet when we started. The only difference, which is what made it longer, is that they stop so you can take photos of the animals. Now that's a nice feature, but I do have great photos from the regular ride, and really, how many photos of animals alone do you want!? I'm not saying it was a bad experience, because it wasn't, even though I know I'm making it sound that way. It was fun, but once was enough and it was overpriced in my opinion. Also, staying concierge means you're on the 5th or 6th floors, and the savannah views from there pale in comparison to the 2nd or 3rd floors.

So my suggestion would be to stay at AKL in a regular savannah room. Ask for a room on the 2nd floor. Like another poster said, Arusha Savannah, Zebra Trail is a great location (where we stayed on our first trip), but we've stayed on the Sunset and Uzima Savannahs too and they were very nice. Actually, I think we saw the most animals on the Uzima, but Arusha has the zebras, so it depends on what you're looking for.

 

[disneyma2]

Thanks for all the input. I changed our ressie to AKL SAV VIEW, and DD is thrilled!!!! I'm thrilled too for the price of 151 night
Happy Disney to everyone

Still waiting to seee what AP rates will be

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

What you ended up doing would have been my choice as well.

We have stayed at AKL SV and AKL CON and absolutely loved both. In fact, AKL is our second favorite Concierge experience at WDW. ( We slightly favor the Poly)

With that being said, $151 per night for the SV is a wonderful rate and even though we use the Concierge services, food, etc extensively, I would not pay $185 more per night...more than DOUBLE the room rate to stay there.

Have fun!

 

[wannabee princess]

Originally posted by justhat
Desserts were lacking, in my opinion after the GF concierge. They had cookies, brownies, and rice krispie treats. Our main reason for concierge was to do the Sunrise Safari, mainly because of posts like wannabee princess After having done the safari, I can say I will never do it again, nor tell people it's worth it to stay in concierge for this. It was nice, but definitely not worth the money, as basically all we paid for was the breakfast. Now, the breakfast was good, but very expensive. The safari was the same as the regular ride but longer. We were in the same trucks, with the same cheesy storyline of the bridge not being able to hold us, and actually saw less animals because the ones at the beginning of the ride weren't out for the day yet when we started. The only difference, which is what made it longer, is that they stop so you can take photos of the animals.

WOW!! What a difference in experiences!!!

First, the dessert offerings when we were there in Dec were MUCH, MUCH MORE EXTENSIVE!!!!! We had every single type of dessert that is on the Boma buffet during our stay!! In fact, dh said there wasn't any real need to visit Boma after eating so many of the same things for free at the CL! We had zebra domes and the tarts and the pineapple dessert and gee - everything that later I paid for on the buffet! We also had a great variety in the evening (appetizer sized, but still many of the items from Boma were there!) there were so many options, that we easily could have made a meal of what we got! I do agree that around lunchtime, the offerings were much lighter - definitely not intended to be a full meal! The liquors (we do imbibe) were of great variety and of not only good quality, but the wines and beer were not Strawberry Hill or PBR types!

As for the safari, it WAS totally amazing for us - not a word about the poacher storyline, except to say that we would NOT be hearing it! In fact, the bridge didn't even make a move as we slowly drove across it. Also, we had Joe (who used to be at San Diego Zoo and was one of the contributors to the original set-up of the AK safari as well as the AKL safari) and he was amazing! We didn't just "stop" for pictures, we had a mini lesson on each animal that we stopped by!! I wish you could watch and hear our video from that safari! He was so informative and interesting! We sat in the front, and I have to say, he welcomed questions from everyone! He had no idea what was going to be asked, but he took the time to go into detail when he answered! We learned so much! When we rode the ride later, we were amazed at how quickly the ride went in comparision to our first ride of the day (I think we rode at least three other times that same day!).



I guess my only thought is, I hope that others will take justhat's post to heart, so next time we can have fewer people staying concierge and even less wanting to go on the sunrise safari!

 

[justhat]

I could only wish that our safari was half as good as yours, wannabee princess. I had expected it to be much, much better and was kind of disappointed. Like I said, I did think it was a fun experience, but I wish I had waited till my daughter was older (or really till I have all the kids I plan to have) so that she could have enjoyed it cause I don't think we'll ever do it again. It's funny cause that bridge didn't move once when we were on it during the regular ride on our May and June trips and we thought they disabled that feature. And then on the Sunrise Safari, where I assured my husband they don't do the regular effects, sure enough, the bridge goes out on us! After we got off people were running into the line for the regular ride and my husband said "we might as well just have gotten here to ride the 1st truck of the day and had the same experience." I thought it was a bit better than that, but not much. For those of you who love the Sunrise Safari, I'm very jealous cause I apparently did not have one of their better trips. I do plan on trying the Sunset Safari, however, since I loved Jiko and would love to tour the Lodge savannahs. I just have to hope I can drag somone along to babysit my daughter since she can't come with us.

I do love the lodge, in fact it's my favorite resort and I plan to split my stay there in April! But I definitely found the concierge at the GF to be much better. Their desserts were incredible and they were always replenished as people ate them. At AKL one night, all that was out were oatmeal raisin cookies and 2 brownies. I took a cookie, headed back to the room, and 2 doors away from us I saw a tray with the bowls/plates from the concierge lounge, filled with Goldfish crackers, gummi bears, rice krispie treats, and chocolate chip cookies. Apparently that's where the desserts went that night. I wouldn't care if someone took every dessert for themselves if they ate them all, but to leave the half full bowls and handfuls of cookies/krispies out in the hall is wasteful. We never saw any of the Boma desserts, however. I wish we had as it's got a great selection, but none out during our trip.

Reports like yours were what made us choose concierge at AKL, so maybe one day we'll try it again in hopes of getting the service we've heard about.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Our experience in AKL concierge was like justthats. I had read about the sunrise safari and the need to experience it, and about the great offerings and service. I went for a birthday trip and may have had too high of expectations. We'd done Wilderness Lodge concierge and other off site concierge experiences and didn't find AKL's as good. I did like the smoothies and the cappucino maker...considering I don't really drink and was just there w/ my young child we didn't make use of the alcohol. We liked the dinner offerings but not as well as the WL's artiste fare type stuff. We found the service much better at WL. At WL they make towel animals and were extremely nice. At AKL they had lost our sunrise safari reservations (luckily I had kept my confirmation number so they fit us on the trip). Considering we'd make the concierge stay in hopes of the safari that would have been quite a disappointment had they not had an extra space (of course, probably due to our deleted reservations ). We found the Sunrise Safari as fun as the regular Kiliminjaro ride. We liked both experiences but the separate safari was no more interesting than doing it regularly. We liked the breakfast but we were full from our concierge breakfast, so didn't eat all that much. There were problems with us being checked out by accident so our locks were changed and they had to check us back in, then we were taken off the housekeeping loop so our room wasn't cleaned and we didn't get turndown service that night. The front desk fixed everything the next day.
We are huge AKL fans and go there a lot but definitely find the regular savannah view a much better value. Plus I LOVE the food at the Mara--especially the yogurt parfaits and the prime rib sandwiches. No reason for us to do concierge.
Hmmm, we also didn't get all the Boma desserts. Wannabe princess lucked out! We had rice krispie treats and cookies like justthat....at WL the offerings were more extensive. We haven't tried GFs conciege yet, but that's my favorite resort so hopefully for my birthday we'll do that next year. We are trying Beach club concierge this Thanksgiving. Very excited .

 

[wannabee princess]

It was interesting to hear another "not so great" review of the AKL Concierge and Sunrise Safari. I hope that things haven't changed permanently for the worse there! We were just back at AKL in July, but didn't stay concierge this trip, and we really missed it!

A thought crossed my mind as I read Ladyhawke10's report - who did you both have as your guide on your Sunrise Safari? The morning we went, there were two separate safari trucks going, and I don't know how the second truck ride was - it could have been just as poor as you and justhat experienced!

We had Joe (he is the same guide from the Travel channel specials - we always get so excited when we see him and someone in the family will say "It's Joe!!" ) and he was fabulous! I wonder if the other person was not as experienced or knowledgeable? Not trying to say she was unable to do a good job, but maybe she was just not as "into" the experience as Joe.

Also, if the only desserts are going to be cookies and rice krispie treats, we will be greatly dissappointed when we stay there again!

 

[justhat]

I really don't remember the name of our guide, but she was a woman. Both trucks that day had a woman. You'd think I would remember her name since we sat with her at the breakfast and talked about how she liked living in Phoenix (where she was from ) since we want to move there in 2 years. On the way to the safari, our bus broke down in the back of AK and we had to sit for 10 minutes waiting for it to work. I felt bad for the bus driver cause most of the bus was staring at him in anticipation, waiting to get ot the safari, and there was nothing he could do, he said it never happened before. It started again spontaneously (he had been trying periodically over the 10 minutes) so who knows what was wrong with it. Our stay was June 17-21, if that helps at all.

Ladyhawke10, I loved the GF concierge! We stayed there in May and June of this year and both times were great. It was RPC both times-once in a 2 bedroom suite in Conch Key and the 2nd time we actually stayed in the main building. With the suite, we could go to both concierges and often went to Sugarloaf as it was next to our building, but the desserts in RPC were the best part! In addition to the cookies, brownies, rice krispies (which were all at a kids table along with pb&j sandwiches), there were chocolate covered strawberries, fruit salad, at least 6 types of mini desserts (key lime pie, fruit tarts, etc.), and the liquors/cordials. Again, since I'm breastfeeding and therefore not drinking, I couldn't tell you what types of alcohol they had, but there was a spread everynight.

 

[mara61]

My DH and I also had a wonderful expierence with the Sunrise Safari. We were fortunate to have Joe as our guide. What an awesome guy. Now, perhaps they have changed it, but unless I missed it, no one made mention of the walking part of the tour or checking out the "backstage" area to see where the animals go at night. I would definetly do the tour again in a heartbeat! We were lucky to get a concierge rate of $250/night. No way could I pass that up. The food was wonderful and as for the goldfish, animal crackers, etc...that was in the kiddie section of the concierge lounge. We had more adult munchies...We ate breakfast most mornings at the lounge, thus saving c. $15/day. Add in our bottled water, soda, and the capps and latte's (I LOVE THAT DARN MACHINE!), I would say we saved around $40/day bringing our rate down to $210/night. Hoping to go back in a couple of years and stay at the AKL Conc. Sure do wish it could be this trip If you get a deal like I did, I say go for it! At the current rate though, I would wait and watch!

Mara

 

[disneyma2]

As you know I changed my ressie to akl SAV , am I able to upgrade when we check in to concierge if it available? Does anyone know the extra cost? I'm just curoius. Right now I can't justify the extra 185 a night for concierge, but maybe if it's less at check in, it could be possible! I wonder what the AP rate will be for Concierge....any guess's???

 

[Ladyhawke10]

I don't remember our guides name but I don't think it was Joe because it was his first day. He was a very nice person but the safari didn't seem that much different from the ride.

We only had concierge a few nights so I don't know if they rotate the dessert offerings or not. It could have also depending on when we went in the lounge. Sometimes the good offerings get picked up first and the cookies or whatever might be left. I don't know. I know some posters were writing that the Yacht Club's desserts weren't that extensive. At the WL it was all the tarts and stuff. I would stay in AKL concierge again if I got a really good rate. Our AP rate was about 275, but the savannah rates are still much cheaper so was planning on going back to a savannah view next time. That's a good idea--to ask at check in if there is a paid upgrade available. I might do that since I wouldn't mind being in either savannah and concierge is always nice to save on breakfast and have access to that great coffee machine (and the honey yogurt smoothies...I really loved those).

 

[punkin]

My limit for concierge at AKL is $75 oover the savannah room price. I don't think anything over that is worth it. I guess that's why I've only done concierge once. BTW our safari was nothing like the ride. It was slow; no stupid storyline; and we got to see the lions awake and active-not to mention the girafffe comming close enough to touch.

 

[wannabee princess]

I think when we were there in July (checking in for regular savanna) and I asked what it would be to upgrade to concierge I was told somewhere around $200 extra a night.

mara61 - Glad to hear you had a great experience (with Joe too!) - your and our safari sound more alike, except I don't remember any walking except the walk to and from the truck and then to Tusker House. We did have the backstage part, telling us all about the places where the animals were kept, where they did care, etc.

As a sidenote, how great Joe was - One of our favorite parts of the Sunrise Safari, was when Joe asked youngest ds which animal was his favorite (before we even left AKL). Ds said the cheetah, and Joe was very careful to say how the cheetah really didn't spend a lot of time out and hopefully we would see one. Well, wouldn't you know, the cheetahs were very active - we had never seen them quite as visible on any previous visit. They were up and out and came quite close to the edge of their area. Joe remembered ds saying they were his favorite, and seemed genuinely excited for ds that we were getting a great chance to see not only one, but both cheetahs!

 

[wannabee princess]

Originally posted by Ladyhawke10
We liked the breakfast but we were full from our concierge breakfast, so didn't eat all that much.

Just a quick reply to this - not any of the four of my family even remember food being available in the lounge that morning. Youngest ds remembers this because he was "starving" and he had to wait until we got to Tusker House. We were able to get drinks, but there was no food out.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Wow, the whole regular breakfast spread was out there for us.