Here's an update on AKL CL so far. We continue to be very impressed with everything! All the CMs we've encountered have been great. Very friendly and eager to help. Even with the volume of guests they deal with each day, they all take time to speak and even remember little things like your wine preference or where you're from. The food has been phenomenal. Here's what we've noticed so far food-wise:
Breakfast: quinoa porridge with cooked apples, oatmeal with a delicious toasted quinoa topping, pastries that rotate each day, boiled eggs, a wide assortment of fresh fruits, cheeses, a meat (yesterday it was a type of dried beef, this morning it was prosciutto), yogurts, and cereal.
Snacks: make-your-own trail mix, kettle chips with three different types of hummus along with other dips to dip them in, cookies, and homemade granola bars with Mickey sprinkles.
Tea: cookies, peanut butter brownies, rice krispy treats, and scones with clotted cream.
Supper rotates each evening. Last night we had chicken "bunny stew" in a little bread bowl that was ridiculously good, as well as a sausage stew with pap. Tonight was an African mac and cheese and a duck dish with couscous and dried fruits. Each night there is always a slightly different cheese assortment, along with breads and fresh veggies and different hummus types, preserved vegetables like olives and a chutney, delicious horseradish mustard, some sort of salad (tonight was chickpea and edamame), a small bite like couscous or a soup sample, and two hot dishes. Desserts are all pretty good, but we've been so full after supper we haven't had room for too many of them!
Wine and beer are all by-request. They are not visible to guests and are poured in the kitchen area and brought out to you. There is a merlot, a red blend, a white, and a sparkling. They also make mimosas and sangria out of the wine mixed with jungle juice. Beers are Tusker, Bud Light, Yuengling, and Heineken. CMs are more than happy to get drinks for you any time — we carried "to go" mimosas out to the bus stop this morning. The CMs are very strict about taking glassware out of the lounge, so all drinks need to be in plastic if taking them to the room.
Bus service has been good all except this morning, when the line to EPCOT was so long it would've taken 3 very full buses to accommodate. We ended up riding the AK bus over and catching a bus to EPCOT from there.
Turndown service has been spot-on. This is a change from BWI a few weeks ago where we only got it one night out of 4. Mousekeeping is great here too. The views from the CL rooms are lovely. We've seen tons of animals. All the CL rooms are on the 4th floor with the exception of 10 DVC timeshare condos on the 6th floor. Those units don't have good views according to the CMs and a DVC owner we met in the lounge. I think they're classified as standard view. All the 4th floor CL rooms have savanna views. I'm not sure why they decided to do this, but the entire 5th floor is DVC timeshare units as well. That used to be the CL floor originally, and now has no CL rooms on it. Kind of a shame they gave that floor away, tbh.
More to come. Let me know if y'all have any questions!