Anyone done Sunshine Safari?

[mikki.young]

Now that this is open to folks staying with DVC at AKL our last minute trip to Kidani meant that we able to try and get on this and have managed to book it for the day after arrival. Given we normally wake up way to early the first morning this doesn't seem to be a problem (apart from having to get our APs activated the night of arrival and that is just a bit time consuming).

Anyway has anyone been on it and got any feedback? it's a new experience for us!

 

[RobynPrincess]

I think you mean the sunrise safari. We haven't done it yet but we are booked for October!

 

[disneyholic family]

we did it several years ago - we stayed in AKL concierge just to be able to do the sunrise safari

it was outstanding, but then again we lucked out and got Mr. Animal Kingdom himself, Joe Rohde, as our guide (he designed animal kingdom).
From what i understand, that was very unusual.

So i don't know if our amazing experience was specifically due to his being our guide. But we loved every minute of it!!!

 

[mikki.young]

Yes I did mean sunrise - doh!

Joe Rohde!!!! Very lucky! Very interesting man. Heard him at the 10th anniversary of the park explaining how the design evolved. Fascinating!

 

[skier_pete]

we did it several years ago - we stayed in AKL concierge just to be able to do the sunrise safari

it was outstanding, but then again we lucked out and got Mr. Animal Kingdom himself, Joe Rohde, as our guide (he designed animal kingdom).
From what i understand, that was very unusual.

So i don't know if our amazing experience was specifically due to his being our guide. But we loved every minute of it!!!

Wow! That would be amazing.

 

[disneyholic family]

Wow! That would be amazing.

the funny thing was, we had no idea who he was at the time...
we did notice that the CMs who checked us in for the safari seemed to be surprised about something, but we didn't understand why....
later in the day, when we were chit chatting with a CM, we said how we'd been on the sunrise safari that day and how wonderful it was..
and how our guide had a weird long feather earring in one of his ears..
the CM nearly swallowed his tongue he was so shocked and excited..
then he pulled in a bunch of other CMs and they were amazed that he had been our guide and told us how lucky we were to have had him as a guide..
but they were totally appalled that we had no clue who he was......

although we did know how great the tour was at the time because his knowledge was so amazingly vast (and we're total geeks, so the more nitty gritty you feed us the happier we are)..

when we got back to AKL, we asked the concierge if that indeed had been the great and powerful Joe Rohde, and he said, yes absolutely.
That every now and then he would take out a group because he enjoyed doing it so much!!!
I don't know if he still does.
Let me think how many years ago this was. Maybe the first or second year they did the sunrise safari - i don't know how long they've been doing it.
Probably the first year.

 

[skier_pete]

been our guide and told us how lucky we were to have had him as a guide..
but they were totally appalled that we had no clue who he was......

It's funny how some of these people are rock stars to the hard-core Disney fan, while the vast majority of people would have no clue who they are.

It's like when we were out at DLR and our group ran into Bob Gurr (Legendary Disney Imagineer - if you aren't aware click here) in the lobby of the Grand Californian and he was kind enough to take pictures with all of us.

Returning home I would try to explain to people what a big deal it was to have a picture with Bob Gurr, and pretty much everyone looked at us like we were off our rockers.



Sorry to take this so off topic. We just became DVC members and I really want to do the Sunrise Safari as well, so am looking forward to hearing more comments. Booking it with the chance of getting Joe Rhode might just be enough reason to do it!

 

[disneyholic family]

It's funny how some of these people are rock stars to the hard-core Disney fan, while the vast majority of people would have no clue who they are.

It's like when we were out at DLR and our group ran into Bob Gurr (Legendary Disney Imagineer - if you aren't aware click here) in the lobby of the Grand Californian and he was kind enough to take pictures with all of us.

Returning home I would try to explain to people what a big deal it was to have a picture with Bob Gurr, and pretty much everyone looked at us like we were off our rockers.



Sorry to take this so off topic. We just became DVC members and I really want to do the Sunrise Safari as well, so am looking forward to hearing more comments. Booking it with the chance of getting Joe Rhode might just be enough reason to do it!

great story!!! He's definitely an imagineering rock star!!!!!!!
and you're right, except for the disney crazed (as we clearly both are!!), i would doubt anyone has ever heard of either of them!!
their loss!!