First stay at Kidani - help!?

[iluveeyore]

I cannot believe my waitlist came through for a savanna view studio at Kidani 2 weeks before we leave - I am so excited. We've stayed at Jambo and visited Kidani, but never stayed at Kidani.

What should I request? We like to stay on a top floor (we aren't taking kids and don't want to listen to the pitter patter of lots of feet!), and we will have a rental car, so which savanna do I request? I love giraffes, so those are a must from my balcony. And I don't care if we have a long walk to the pool.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[starry_solo]

Congrats!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Congratulations!

I don't want to set you up for disappointment but setting reasonable expectations are probably in order. We've stayed at Kidani (one of our home resorts) MANY times and this is my experience.

The trainers/handlers do many things to help control the movement of the animals, not the least of which is controlled feeding. Nonetheless, you have to remember that animals do what animals want to do. Different animals roam at different times during the day. Specifically, the giraffes tend to "make roost" (LOL) EXCEPT during feeding time. In my experience, they don't roam as much as some of the others. The zebras roam more at night.

Sunset Savanah is where you want to be.

Have fun!

 

[SamSam]

Sunset Savannah if you want giraffes! Sunset Savannah is our only request, but you have to know that requests are just requests, not guarantees.

 

[dgaston]

I understand you don't want the patter of feet, but I really like the option of the 2nd or 3rd floor at Kidani to be closer to the giraffes. Just my opinion.

 

[ShesAPirate]

We were on one floor up and directly to the right of the lobby on the Sunset Savanna, had the most amazing view ever. Here are a couple of pics:

We saw a ton of giraffes and zebras. It was awesome!

 

[hakepb]

I think there would be a greater chance to see giraffes closer to the lobby. The side farther fr Jambo seemed to have little giraffe activity except during feeding.

 

[2binak]

We requested and got "the end closest to Jambo twice", both times we had a rental car, and had plenty of giraffe, zebra & antelope activity every day & night.

 

[iluveeyore]

Thanks for the advice everyone (and the great pics!). I'm going to call in the morning with my requests. Can't wait

 

[LisaS]

We prefer to be on the lowest possible floor for the best animal viewing. Your view is not blocked by any tree tops and you are at eye level with the giraffes. The lowest floor in Kidani is the second floor (the ground floor is the parking garage). We've stayed on the second floor of Kidani twice and were never bothered by anyone walking around in the room above us. I did hear the washing machine but it was very faint.

I would request Sunset Savanna, ground floor. There does seem to be more animal activity near the lobby but we've seen a lot of animals in both the north and south wings but you do have to be in the room at the right times. Ask at the front desk about the feeding schedule.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We prefer to be on the lowest possible floor for the best animal viewing. Your view is not blocked by any tree tops and you are at eye level with the giraffes. The lowest floor in Kidani is the second floor (the ground floor is the parking garage). We've stayed on the second floor of Kidani twice and were never bothered by anyone walking around in the room above us. I did hear the washing machine but it was very faint.

I would request Sunset Savanna, ground floor. There does seem to be more animal activity near the lobby but we've seen a lot of animals in both the north and south wings but you do have to be in the room at the right times. Ask at the front desk about the feeding schedule.

I agree about the second floor. We had marvelous animal viewing in December at Kidani. Here are some pics we got from our 2nd floor room.

 

[Muhlenberg]

We just came back 10 days ago. We were on the 3rd floor, 4th bead in the South Wing ("bottom" of the "U"). We saw giraffes on many days, zebras, ostrich, elands, antelope most of the time. They do a good job at feeding the animals at several locations. Any of the rooms around that "loop" would have seen the same animals that we saw. Maybe near the lobby would have been better, as we didn't see many of the birds (vultures, etc.).

We had requested between lobby and Rafiki elevator, but obviously didn't get that. Our situation was more "difficult" as we had two rooms, one of which was a standard view, and we wanted to be near each other. My DH tried to see if there was anything else closer to the lobby, and there was not. However, we were STILL happy with our view. I'm just glad we weren't at the END of the wing as we had my 87 yo mother with us.

May you have a great view, whatever you get! I DO think that the CM's taking requests have a standard list to choose from, but online check-in, as of when we checked in, only had Sunset Savanna or Pembe Savannah.

 

[iluveeyore]

Thanks so much for those pics and more advice - I requested Sunset Savannah this morning with an upper floor - if we get lower floor, I won't mind a bit, and walking doesn't bother me, so if we are far away from the lobby I don't care. I know we'll enjoy it no matter where we are because the savannah views all look amazing! Getting excited now!