Dawnflower
My husband proposed to Minnie Mouse!!!!
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2004
- Messages
- 171
Part one of the trip involved a 14 hour drive, a flat tire, an enraged possum, a 4 year old on a hungar strike, and a new stance on DVD players in the car! Also, great time with husband, and the ABC's of a triptik, and cell phone calculaters.
Part two of the trip...we drove up to AKL and sucked in our breath, we would not allow ourselves to see it until we where staying there! It is truely beautiful. We unloaded all of our belongings and went to check in, oh its 8:30 a.m. Our room was not available so we called to make a PS for Boma for breakfast, we got in in 30 minutes.
Boma for breakfast... Not impressed! They had a fruit bar that was normal but everything else seemed to be odd. If you are planning to eat familiar things here, they are few and far between, the waitress offered us a juice, which was very good, however we wanted coffee, and milk. This seemed to really put the waitress out that we requested the coffee and the milk. We where seated by I am guessing 2 sisters, that had like 6 kids between them, they seemed to follow the "if I don't see it, I don't have to deal with it" form of parenting, kids SCREAMING, demanding, and ripping things out of each others hands, and playing in the isles while people with hot plates of food tried to traverse around them without being injured or injuring one of them. Anyway, for future reference, DH and I are somewhat foodies, we like to try new and interesting things, but we also like good ol American Cuisine.
We finish breakfast and leave to go to the Car Care Center to have a new tire put on the trusty family Volvo station wagon. We are in and out in 1 hour with a quality tire to replace the one that had the flat. Large run on flat tires that morning at CCC, something about hurricans (hurlicans (because they hurl things everywhere) ) and nails. Met 2 wonderful families in the waiting area, but I digress.
We call AKL at 12:30 and our room is ready, we are on 4th floor Giraffe trail, pool view, yes, every morning we saw a variety of animals from the Uzima savana walking around behind the pool! A tip here, leave your binoculars out on your balcony all the time, the temperature change from room to outside seemed to have my binocs fogging up the first day. The room is just as we requested, a bunk bed and a queen, bunk bed had nice rails and DS was in heaven. I unpacked the luggage and "moved in" for the week, we went for a swim in the pool and relaxed.
The pool- WOW it was not your standard "blue" pool, it was very much like swimming in an oasis, (or what I would imagine that to be like). The pool area had tons of shaded places, secluded places, sunny places to relax and enjoy, (although with a 4 year old not a whole lot of that going on.) DS had is life jacket but AKL also has many in small sized to use if you like.
We dried off and wandered around the inside of the resort, looked out all of the windows, kicked the proverbial tires so to speak and found that we really loved this place, the views are as everyone says! FANTASTIC!!
We decide to check out The Mara, get our cups, and see what the game room offers. The Mara as access only from the outside, don't love that as its quiet a trek if your leaving to head to the parks, you have to exit out the lowest level at the back, short walk and there you are. Anyway, the game room GALAGA!! for those that understand that statement!! Whoo HOOO!!
We never made it back after that first afternoon but I sure did have a great 15 minutes!!
Off to dinner, we head to CR for dinner at Chef Mickey's!! OMG! we always make this the first dinner, sort of a family tradition! we had PS at 5:00 and there was a mass of people, the manager comes out and tells everyone that unless they have a PS there was absolutely NO SEATING to be had that night, one lady asked if there where any no shows could they get a seat, the manager explains that they are over booked and there would be NO SEATING without a PS. I see a mother and grandfather with a little boy off to the side, the mother walks the manager off to the side and you can tell she is rather desperate for a seating, it is her little boys birthday and the lady at the front desk assured her that if would show up at 5:00 they would be able to seat her without a PS! The manager is NOT budging! I had made 2 PS that night as I was not sure the time of our arrival that day, I pulled the grandfather off to the side and tell him that I have a PS at 7:20 and offer to give him my name and PS number so that DGS has a happy birthday, the mother request that I go tell the manager that I don't want my PS and that she is taking it, I finally convince her to leave the manager out of the loop, take my name and PS number and enjoy her meal! The grandfather and DGS where extremely happy! not so sure about the mother but whatever, had a great meal, DS did eat a bit, but the character interaction was awsome, not sure how I feel about parents letting their children run up to the characters while they are at my table, one family kept MInnie distracted for well over 5 minutes and they where seated in a different section! So great dinner and back to the resort for some swimming, story telling, and relaxing! Story telling was ok, the mosquitos about carried us away, so we left before it was over. The beds where very comfy, and turndown service was a very nice touch, a pile of chocolates left on the pillows and african proverbs!
Part two of the trip...we drove up to AKL and sucked in our breath, we would not allow ourselves to see it until we where staying there! It is truely beautiful. We unloaded all of our belongings and went to check in, oh its 8:30 a.m. Our room was not available so we called to make a PS for Boma for breakfast, we got in in 30 minutes.
Boma for breakfast... Not impressed! They had a fruit bar that was normal but everything else seemed to be odd. If you are planning to eat familiar things here, they are few and far between, the waitress offered us a juice, which was very good, however we wanted coffee, and milk. This seemed to really put the waitress out that we requested the coffee and the milk. We where seated by I am guessing 2 sisters, that had like 6 kids between them, they seemed to follow the "if I don't see it, I don't have to deal with it" form of parenting, kids SCREAMING, demanding, and ripping things out of each others hands, and playing in the isles while people with hot plates of food tried to traverse around them without being injured or injuring one of them. Anyway, for future reference, DH and I are somewhat foodies, we like to try new and interesting things, but we also like good ol American Cuisine.
We finish breakfast and leave to go to the Car Care Center to have a new tire put on the trusty family Volvo station wagon. We are in and out in 1 hour with a quality tire to replace the one that had the flat. Large run on flat tires that morning at CCC, something about hurricans (hurlicans (because they hurl things everywhere) ) and nails. Met 2 wonderful families in the waiting area, but I digress.
We call AKL at 12:30 and our room is ready, we are on 4th floor Giraffe trail, pool view, yes, every morning we saw a variety of animals from the Uzima savana walking around behind the pool! A tip here, leave your binoculars out on your balcony all the time, the temperature change from room to outside seemed to have my binocs fogging up the first day. The room is just as we requested, a bunk bed and a queen, bunk bed had nice rails and DS was in heaven. I unpacked the luggage and "moved in" for the week, we went for a swim in the pool and relaxed.
The pool- WOW it was not your standard "blue" pool, it was very much like swimming in an oasis, (or what I would imagine that to be like). The pool area had tons of shaded places, secluded places, sunny places to relax and enjoy, (although with a 4 year old not a whole lot of that going on.) DS had is life jacket but AKL also has many in small sized to use if you like.
We dried off and wandered around the inside of the resort, looked out all of the windows, kicked the proverbial tires so to speak and found that we really loved this place, the views are as everyone says! FANTASTIC!!
We decide to check out The Mara, get our cups, and see what the game room offers. The Mara as access only from the outside, don't love that as its quiet a trek if your leaving to head to the parks, you have to exit out the lowest level at the back, short walk and there you are. Anyway, the game room GALAGA!! for those that understand that statement!! Whoo HOOO!!
We never made it back after that first afternoon but I sure did have a great 15 minutes!!
Off to dinner, we head to CR for dinner at Chef Mickey's!! OMG! we always make this the first dinner, sort of a family tradition! we had PS at 5:00 and there was a mass of people, the manager comes out and tells everyone that unless they have a PS there was absolutely NO SEATING to be had that night, one lady asked if there where any no shows could they get a seat, the manager explains that they are over booked and there would be NO SEATING without a PS. I see a mother and grandfather with a little boy off to the side, the mother walks the manager off to the side and you can tell she is rather desperate for a seating, it is her little boys birthday and the lady at the front desk assured her that if would show up at 5:00 they would be able to seat her without a PS! The manager is NOT budging! I had made 2 PS that night as I was not sure the time of our arrival that day, I pulled the grandfather off to the side and tell him that I have a PS at 7:20 and offer to give him my name and PS number so that DGS has a happy birthday, the mother request that I go tell the manager that I don't want my PS and that she is taking it, I finally convince her to leave the manager out of the loop, take my name and PS number and enjoy her meal! The grandfather and DGS where extremely happy! not so sure about the mother but whatever, had a great meal, DS did eat a bit, but the character interaction was awsome, not sure how I feel about parents letting their children run up to the characters while they are at my table, one family kept MInnie distracted for well over 5 minutes and they where seated in a different section! So great dinner and back to the resort for some swimming, story telling, and relaxing! Story telling was ok, the mosquitos about carried us away, so we left before it was over. The beds where very comfy, and turndown service was a very nice touch, a pile of chocolates left on the pillows and african proverbs!
I've often heard the staff telling people that the characters will come RIGHT to their table if they just wait, but I guess you just can't get the message across to everybody.
