Booked first Kidani stay

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Thanks to a gracious friend, we have been invited to stay in a 2bedroom savannah view villa for 7 nights in December at Kidani. He has asked I take the lead on planning so right now it's just my family (myself, DH and DS3) and our friend but likely a few extra people.

Of course it's still far away but the planning has begun, I wonder if there is anything special to AKV to make sure we include? I will probably leave most mornings open so we can enjoy the animals from the balcony and we will have at least 2 pool days. Is it ever beneficial to go to the Jambo pool?. What about night vision of animals (I think I read somewhere to do that)?

Thanks for any tips you have. So excited to plan this unexpected trip!

 

[DrPhysics]

Sanaa is right there, and it's great. We also enjoy hanging out with our kids in the very cozy community room, and they love playing the drums with the drummers at Jambo. Boma is wonderful for the variety.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Sanaa is right there, and it's great. We also enjoy hanging out with our kids in the very cozy community room, and they love playing the drums with the drummers at Jambo. Boma is wonderful for the variety.

Thank you. We love Boma, might try Jiko over Sanaa this trip. We got my son one of the mini drums on our last trip so he will love that. Do they have a schedule or do you just have to hope and catch them one day?

 

[pogopossum]

Night viewing is actually pretty fun. Can't promise that you'll see a lot of animals, just depends on their behavior at the time. But the night we went out maybe we were lucky, we saw several different animals. I wish I had my own goggles to view on my own.

 

[wdrl]

One thing I always look forward to when staying at either Kidani or Jambo is interacting with the cultural representatives. They are a great source for information about the animals and their behavior. But what is even more interesting is talking to them about their home countries. For almost all of these cultural representatives this is their first time outside their own country, so its interesting to hear their impressions of life in the United States. One time I had a very interesting conversation with a cultural representative from South Africa where he was trying to explain cricket to me and I trying to explain baseball to him.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Night viewing is actually pretty fun. Can't promise that you'll see a lot of animals, just depends on their behavior at the time. But the night we went out maybe we were lucky, we saw several different animals. I wish I had my own goggles to view on my own.

We might order our own! Maybe we can spot some from our room.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I'm not sure what time they take the animals in for their check-ups, but I think it's in the mornings. Someone might be able to chime in with that information. I'm just thinking it might be better to leave the afternoons open for viewing.

I also think there is a free cultural tour at Sanaa. We have done the free tour of Boma and Jiko. Unfortunately, after several attacks (a few of which resulted in ER visits) including one after this tour, I discovered I am allergic to the flaxseed in their bread service. So I won't be doing that tour anymore. But the tour is very interesting. Not sure it would interest your young son, though, but I think the adults in your group would enjoy it.

 

[mckenk]

When we went 18 months ago they had drumming at Kidani. We just happened to be walking through and saw it, and my kids joined in. It was awesome - one of my favorite memories from that trip. They asked my (then 6 year old) daughter to start a song, and she tapped a few beats on her drum, and they took it and made a cool jam out of it.

They had night viewing at Kidani by the fire pit every evening.

Sanaa was AMAZING! I can't wait to go back there.

 

[drusba]

With a 3-year-old and the expectation of two pool days, you should consider putting in a room request through Member Services for Sunset savanna view (Sunset has giraffes), and close to the Rafiki elevator (down that elevator to ground/parking lot floor gives you shortest possible walk from building to a gate to the pool area). Moreover with a 3-year-old, the Kidani (rather than Jambo) pool is the place to be because its kids water-play area cannot be beat.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I'm not sure what time they take the animals in for their check-ups, but I think it's in the mornings. Someone might be able to chime in with that information. I'm just thinking it might be better to leave the afternoons open for viewing.

I'll be sure to check on that before making plans around it's, thanks

With a 3-year-old and the expectation of two pool days, you should consider putting in a room request through Member Services for Sunset savanna view (Sunset has giraffes), and close to the Rafiki elevator (down that elevator to ground/parking lot floor gives you shortest possible walk from building to a gate to the pool area). Moreover with a 3-year-old, the Kidani (rather than Jambo) pool is the place to be because its kids water-play area cannot be beat.

Thanks for the great tip!

 

[lorenni]

For your kiddo, when we were last there they had activities for kids and for each one they earned a bead (for example a little bead shaped like a drum after participating in a music activity). My son loved collecting the beads and doing the activities. It was a great thing to fill an hour here or there. And he ended up with a cute souvenir.

 

[kniquy]

Definily plan some meals at the resort -- we just did Boma breakfast and were blown away with how good it was. We did Sanna for dinner, it was good but we have amazing indian food at home so it didn't wow us. There is night time animal viewing, One of the restaurants does a restaurant tour around 4pm. They do movies. The only thing to factor in your planning is the bus service. We were just there last week. The buses usually come frequently but the ride to MK was at least 25 minutes. HS and Epcot were around 15 minutes and of course AK was a short ride.

The animal viewing from your room is great but sometimes the animals are not out early -- we encountered this after our Boma breakfast . I'm not sure if it was just this particular day or just this savanna, but it was after 10:30a and the animals were just starting to be brought out.