Back from 1 week at AKL

[Mr Man]

We had a great time. The AKL is a truly unique experience. I highly recommend it if you get the chance to stay there.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the resort (and that I know the answer to).

A little bit of info about our stay:

We were there from Sun to Sat.

We had a savannah view room. 3rd floor (I think it was 3402 but will have to check- definitely Zebra Trail). It was the very first room off the lobby to the right (if you are looking at Arusha Rock). Extremely convenient for access to lobby/restaurants/pool/shopping. Not so good for animal viewing though (but what a view of the Rock! ).

Boma was excellent B-fast and dinner. 2 thumbs way up.

My DW absolutely went crazy for the Zebra domes.

Room service was very good also (and convenient with 2 tired kids at the end of the day).

Kids loved the pool and slide. The slide while a bit short, was very easy for my 6yr old DS (his first time on a slide). He rode it literally hundreds of times during our stay.

Pool bar was great for me........ah that Zebra Amber.......

Buses were excellent. The best resort bus service we have seen yet (as compared to POP/FW/SSR/POLY/WL).

Regards,

 

[wvdislover]

We just got back, too. We must have passed your room every day--we were in 4459, so we walked past your room to go to the elevators! Our DD6 was the one who was singing EVERY time we walked down the hall, no matter what time it was. She was usually singing either Part of Your World (Ariel) or Big Blue World (Nemo). BTW, I agree--this resort is absolutely beautiful!!! We may never stay anywhere else again!

 

[septbaby]

We just switched our Aug 2008 ressie from WL to AKL, so glad to read both your comments. What was your experience with Mara, what meals do you eat there? We'll be on the Dining Plan.

Did your children participate in any of the kids activities?

Anything you feel is a don't miss/gotta do? Boma dinner is already on the list. We only have a 4 night stay. We'll be at Pop for 2 nights before getting to AKL.

 

[Mr Man]

We just got back, too. We must have passed your room every day--we were in 4459, so we walked past your room to go to the elevators! Our DD6 was the one who was singing EVERY time we walked down the hall, no matter what time it was. She was usually singing either Part of Your World (Ariel) or Big Blue World (Nemo). BTW, I agree--this resort is absolutely beautiful!!! We may never stay anywhere else again!

Ah yes, the hallway singers......we sang along too (Zone the zone, let's explore the zones of the 7 seas.......)

Just kidding, we heard very little hallway noise in the room.

 

[Mr Man]

We just switched our Aug 2008 ressie from WL to AKL, so glad to read both your comments. What was your experience with Mara, what meals do you eat there? We'll be on the Dining Plan.

Did your children participate in any of the kids activities?

Anything you feel is a don't miss/gotta do? Boma dinner is already on the list. We only have a 4 night stay. We'll be at Pop for 2 nights before getting to AKL.

Mara was just ok for me. It did not have a very broad selection. Nothing stood out but then again, nothing was bad. Solid good food but not a lot to choose from. The only thing I did not like was no Kid's meal pizza. I mean c'mon......... You can buy Zebra domes at Mara (nice touch). Also, you can buy jars of the Boma mustard to take home (I bought 3). That stuff is great on pork loin. They have another mustard/horseradish sauce. I think it is called salena (sp) or something similar. Very good also.

DS6 did a few kid's activities (when we could pull him away from the slide that is). Every afternoon at 3pm, they announce at the pool what activities they will be doing and then they line up next to the arcade and start the project of the day. DS6 made me an african mask of some sort (strangely enough, it looks like an ashtray-I love it- must take up smoking)

At night, they do story-telling and finish it up with a loud raucous parade around the lobby with drums and hollering and such. Nice way to end the day for the kids.......

My biggest regret is not trying Jiko. As it was free dining we made our ADRs at the 6 mo mark and did not "tune" them up. Most restaurants were packed during our visit. Will definitely try it next time. We did do the Jiko culinary tour in the late afternoon. Got to try a few items. My DW is a General Mgr at a restaurant and really enjoyed this tour.

Regards,

 

[septbaby]

Thanks, have you stayed at any other resorts? How did Mara stack up to those food courts? I really felt Roaring Forks was small with an extremely limited menu, especially if you're a vegetarian. We eat fish and that wouldn't help us there.

Disney saves pizza for kids TS meals. The only other way to get pizza is to use a park CS that doesn't have a kids menu (Cool Wash in Epcot, Pizza Planet at MGM, etc.). We had 2 adults and a child. I just ordered a pizza combo meal, he ate the pizza and I ate the salad and whatever leftovers he gave me! Hmm, hope we don't regret skipping Jiko, we loved Narcoossee's on our last trip. Boma is a gotta do, but we only have 4TS, so we'll see.

 

[Mr Man]

Thanks, have you stayed at any other resorts? How did Mara stack up to those food courts? I really felt Roaring Forks was small with an extremely limited menu, especially if you're a vegetarian. We eat fish and that wouldn't help us there.

Disney saves pizza for kids TS meals. The only other way to get pizza is to use a park CS that doesn't have a kids menu (Cool Wash in Epcot, Pizza Planet at MGM, etc.). We had 2 adults and a child. I just ordered a pizza combo meal, he ate the pizza and I ate the salad and whatever leftovers he gave me! Hmm, hope we don't regret skipping Jiko, we loved Narcoossee's on our last trip. Boma is a gotta do, but we only have 4TS, so we'll see.

I have stayed at POP, WL, AKL, POLY, FW so far. Of them all, I would say POP is the best & Captain Cook's at POLY is a close second. POP has a very large selection and the food was very fresh.

I think Roaring Forks and Mara are very similar now that you mention it.......

 

[wvdislover]

We enjoyed the food at Mara. I did pizza and burgers. I did notice that they had a fried shrimp dish that looked pretty good. They also had salad, I think (maybe chicken caesar?). At breakfast time, we usually got donuts (which by the way are actually Krispy Kreme donuts--I saw them taking them out of the box) or muffins and paid cash for them (I'm not going to waste snacks or CS on a 99 cent donut!).
My DD's 6 and 10 did one of the bead activities--an African music activity at around 5:30 in the afternoon. They really seemed to enjoy it. Wish we'd been able to do more, but we didn't schedule any days to just spend at the hotel, and we had ADR's every evening. I really hated that I missed the culinary tour at Jiko, but it just didn't fit this trip. I'll really have to make sure that we schedule a hotel-only day next trip.
As for the pizza and kids stuff, here's the one that really confused me. At AK, Pizzafari doesn't have pizza on their kids menu--only PB&J and cheese quesidillas How much sense does that make? Shouldn't a pizza place offer a kid's pizza?

 

[Lanie]

Could you please tell me what the Jiko culinary tour is? It sounds right up our alley!

 

[PlutosFriend]

Glad to hear you had a great stay at AKL. We will be staying there for the first time this October. It's getting closer !!

 

[newjmom]

Did your children participate in any of the kids activities?

Anything you feel is a don't miss/gotta do?

Same question? Going next month with DS7 and DS5 and wondering if any activities in particular (besides pool slide ) they would like ?

 

[Mr Man]

Did your children participate in any of the kids activities?

Anything you feel is a don't miss/gotta do?

Same question? Going next month with DS7 and DS5 and wondering if any activities in particular (besides pool slide ) they would like ?

One thing I forgot about. The night-time animal viewing (with night vision goggles that the CM's carry) was very cool. Our 6 yr old thought this was "big stuff". We did it twice.

Afternoon activities by the pool at 3pm vary, but I never heard a complaint from DS6. Also, crafts table is right next to the arcade, so he does crafts for a while......and then goes and plays his beloved Star Wars video games for a while........and Mara is right next door to replenish re-fillable mugs.......

Ah.....bliss.

 

[newjmom]

did u have any probs with transpo to MK? Worried it may be too far for Ds's And ? if we should switch a few nights to a monorail hotel.

 

[Belle18]

We just got back from a week there. I fell in love with this resort. It was wonderful. We also had a great location room 4405..not savannah view but a very nice view out toward the pool area. We loved the pool, the kids loved the slide. My kids did some of the activities with the guides and got beads on a rope like string for completing them. It was very informative and there were hardly any kids doing it so they weren't crowded. The guides were so nice to the kids. We liked Mara and thought they had plenty of choices for us and the kids. But if your kids are like mine, don't sit by the TV showing the Mickey cartoons...LOL mine wouldn't eat and just wanted to watch! I don't want to stay anywhere else now...i just loved it!

 

[Mr Man]

did u have any probs with transpo to MK? Worried it may be too far for Ds's And ? if we should switch a few nights to a monorail hotel.

I can state with confidence that bus transportation for AKL was the best I have experienced at any of the WDW resorts I have stayed at (POP, WL, AKL, POLY, FW).

We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus to any park. Buses were seldom full. The only bus stop I recall being far away from the park was at EPCOT. The rest were agreeably close.

The ride to MK was the longest ride but was not uncomfortably long.

Monorail resorts are nice for MK (and kind of nice for EPCOT-good bit of walking to the TTC though). For the others, you are using the bus (unless you have private transportation of course). I wouldn't worry about it, AKL will be fine (my opinion, yours may vary). FWIW, we did AKL with a DS1 & DS6. Worked out fine.

 

[RLRDA]

I can state with confidence that bus transportation for AKL was the best I have experienced at any of the WDW resorts I have stayed at (POP, WL, AKL, POLY, FW).

We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus to any park. Buses were seldom full. The only bus stop I recall being far away from the park was at EPCOT. The rest were agreeably close.

The ride to MK was the longest ride but was not uncomfortably long.

We stayed for 5 nights at the end of August and will agree with this statement 100%. Unless it was just luck (which I doubt) we never waited long at either the resort or the parks. I think people get nervous that they will feel "too far away" by staying at AKL/AKV but it's not the case. That being said, the resort does give you the feeling of being away from it all with the African savanna theming.

 

[raven69david]

We may never stay anywhere else again!

Our sentiments exactly. We stayed August of '06 and we're hooked. We'll be back there in about 2 months and have already planned our December 2008 to AKL again.

 

[Jillpie]

I love these AKL threads now, as we will be there (villas) for the first time in April. I have a question, if you arrived at about 8 pm, what would you do with 2 teenage boys and spouse? Is the pool still open and how late does it stay open? I just took a look at the prices for Boma, yikes for dinner, it would be 104.00 for the 4 of us!! Thats pretty steep, I think we'll be hitting Mara alot. My DH loves to cook and says that he'd LOVE to try Jiko, but a 37.00 filet mignon?? Does anyone get price shock when they see this stuff or is it just me. I still cannot wait to stay here and see all the animals, especially first thing in the morning.

 

[lilyv]

I love these AKL threads now, as we will be there (villas) for the first time in April. I have a question, if you arrived at about 8 pm, what would you do with 2 teenage boys and spouse? Is the pool still open and how late does it stay open? I just took a look at the prices for Boma, yikes for dinner, it would be 104.00 for the 4 of us!! Thats pretty steep, I think we'll be hitting Mara alot. My DH loves to cook and says that he'd LOVE to try Jiko, but a 37.00 filet mignon?? Does anyone get price shock when they see this stuff or is it just me. I still cannot wait to stay here and see all the animals, especially first thing in the morning.

Know what you mean about sticker shock, but, we just save ahead, plan to spend some $$$ for a few really great table service meals. I think you might really regret not eating at Boma's or Jiko's. They are that GOOD!

The atmosphere and service at these restaurants are not to be missed, IMO.

I wouldn't hesitate to take teens to either (or preferably both) places.

 

[PolyAddict]

I can state with confidence that bus transportation for AKL was the best I have experienced at any of the WDW resorts I have stayed at (POP, WL, AKL, POLY, FW).

We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus to any park. Buses were seldom full. The only bus stop I recall being far away from the park was at EPCOT. The rest were agreeably close.

The ride to MK was the longest ride but was not uncomfortably long.

Monorail resorts are nice for MK (and kind of nice for EPCOT-good bit of walking to the TTC though). For the others, you are using the bus (unless you have private transportation of course). I wouldn't worry about it, AKL will be fine (my opinion, yours may vary). FWIW, we did AKL with a DS1 & DS6. Worked out fine.

We too have stayed at Poly, CR, GF and POR, but by far AKL has the best bus transport. I thought I would miss my monorail, but no such thing. The only thing that upsets me now is they removed the deluxe rooms so now a family of 5 has to get two rooms or a 1 bedroom villa and for those prices it's hard for me to justify. I am looking forward to leaving someone home in the near future and going to AKL again!!!!!