From Europe to Africa in America - A Sisters' Expedition

[bumblebeeRN]

what an awesome experience you have! very lucky! I can't wait for one day to be able to say that I went to europe!

 

[lovealldisney]

I am so excited to have found this TR!
It seems my DH and I will be having the reverse vacation to yours
My DH and I will be making a trip to Germany in September this year and 2 places we intend to visit is Berlin, and Nuremburg. We are so excited this is our first European trip, we are celebrating our 20yr anniversary!!

It would be fun to have a Europe DIS meet!

I am loving your trip so far. I love to here about the travel to Disney part, so many leave that out. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Flossbolna]

I wonder why they don't give ME booklets to overseas customers?? We didn't have to check in at the desk and were on our bus in 15 minutes-- we were then the first stop (POR) and it only took about a half hour to get there. I personally thought ME was the greatest thing ever! What you described sounds nightmarish!! However, you're right-- it's just not worth it to shell out cash for a town car.

ME was wonderful as well, when we stayed at the Poly last year and were the first stop! I think they want to save overseas postage?? Actually, not getting the documents is no hassle at all, the stop at the counter was not longer than two minutes or so.

I'm loving the updates. I'm always most interested to read TR's from people who don't live in the USA and the airline food porn helps too!

~Beka~

Beka, I am glad you are enjoying the updates. More will come soon!

Now why in the world would they take you to Beach Club if nobody had to get off there? That seems crazy to me.

Who knows, I think the bus driver got confused??

Darned bus time eating up your AKL and WDW time! So glad you made it to the hotel. Can't wait for more!

We stayed at the BC last trip and absolutely loved it. Nothing like the convenience of a 5-minute walk to World Showcase!

I think the BC is slowly growing on me, I really like the look of the rennovated rooms. The room rate however...

Immigration used to say, "Welcome Home" to us in Chicago or Washington Dulles or National. Not anymore. It's very sad to have been gone for 3 years, and then just be made to feel like you're an unwanted visitor.

Anyway, this ME process has me just a little, little bit nervous. Will I find it without wasting precious time? Will I have to go to 5 resorts to "get home"? Will I have all the right documents?? It is just all so confusing to me!

Glad you are on your way!!! Now we get to see some Disney!

ME really is a breeze, don't worry about it!! I think the many resorts where an issue for us because we were arriving pretty late at night. And finding it is no problem!!

 

[Flossbolna]

oh that sounds like a long bus ride after such a long journey...BUT honestly for the 30 minutes you'd have saved...just flat out easier I think to do ME unless you have a pressing reason to do the towncar thing.

I agree, it's just that 30 minutes at the end of such a long travel day seemed so much longer. I think Katharina did mind the trip much less, she got to watch new things from her window... The only intersting thing I found out during that bus trip was the fact that there is a road which goes under the waterway which connects the lake between BC and BW with Epcot - just like at the MK...

That's too bad that you got stuck at the end of the route for drop offs on the ME bus. I've always been lucky - both POFQ and AsSp were either first or second to be dropped off. One would think though that they would know that no one was getting off at Beach Club and could just skip it.

I've had to make multiple stops on the way home, but at that point I'm usually so tired I don't even care. I just want to take a nap.

I think the bus driver really just made a mistake about the BC... AKL always seems to be the last resort to be dropped off, but the other two times, it was only Pop and CSR before AKL...

It must depend on how many people they have to fill a bus as to the amount of stops....usually when I go to Kidani or Jambo there is just a stop at CBR and Pop....when I go in a few weeks I have my first night at Pop due to weekend
DVC points being so high...it will be hard for me to get off then and not my usual stop at AKV

Tracy

Yes, that's my experience, too. If it hadn't been so many resorts, I would have actually liked the fact that we went to other places than the two that I already know!

Sometimes it is really nice to be the (spoiled) little sister, I think I got quite a lot of that in the trip

When Flossbolna started taking pictures of the video I was a little nervous - it is quite odd, isn't it? And with a terrorist attempt just one month earlier I was afraid how poeple would react. But then I remembered that we had taken pictures of our food before that and by doing so exposed ourselves already as crazy tourist

Being the lawyer the only thing I was thinking about was: is this a copyright infringement if I post these picture on the DIS?

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm finally caught up - looks like I was able to jump in at the right time. I'm glad your travels did not seem too bad. I think I with you Floss - I just also have the "Reisefieber – traveling fever. " as I check everything a million times. Then again add that to my absolute panic of flying and I should probably be in the hospital!

Good to know that there are other sufferers out there as well! At least I rather enjoy flying - at least until I start thinking about what might go wrong... But I usually can make myself stop thinking that quickly!

what an awesome experience you have! very lucky! I can't wait for one day to be able to say that I went to europe!

It was a wonderful trip! Going to Europe is actually easier than it might sound to you! I hope you will make it here one day.

I am so excited to have found this TR!
It seems my DH and I will be having the reverse vacation to yours
My DH and I will be making a trip to Germany in September this year and 2 places we intend to visit is Berlin, and Nuremburg. We are so excited this is our first European trip, we are celebrating our 20yr anniversary!!

It would be fun to have a Europe DIS meet!

I am loving your trip so far. I love to here about the travel to Disney part, so many leave that out. Thanks for sharing.

Hi and welcome to our TR! How exciting that you are travelling through Germany, you are the second reader here who will be in Germany soon! Please feel free to ask if you have any questions about Germany!

 

[Flossbolna]

Update will follow in next post....

But first I have to tell you that Katharina and I agreed on changing the layout of the TR a bit. Since I found out that the Dining Review Board now has a three months limit on dining reviews, we will not be doing one right now. Instead we will do the reviews as part of this TR and then (most likely) post them as a dining review over there once we are finished with the TR. So the good news for you, dear readers, is: you will get all in one place. The bad news for anyone not interested in detailed descriptions of our meals is: bad luck, you will have to filter those out!!

And Congratulations to nodnol: you graduated to Mouseketeer!!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Finally we arrived at AKL!! It was so great to finally arrive there. I love the AKL lobby and it was such a great feeling to walk into the hotel knowing that we were checking in and would be able to return to this grand lobby every day to out vacation because this was our home, we weren't just coming here for a meal or so.

And even though we did not take this picture then, here a picture of the AKL lobby, because it is just such a great place:

(this is actually a 2008 picture...)

I have to admit, I was not overwhelmed by Jambo House when we entered that first night. I think I was too tired for that. But I was also far from disappointed. I think I just saw too many pictures of it, I had a feeling like “yes, this is great – exactly as expected – now let us get quickly to our room”

We had checked in online, so we looked out for the special counter for online check-in, but nobody was there. Borrowing another 2008 picture, online check -in would have been all the way to the left:

There wasn't a long line at the normal counter and we quickly got to talk to a very nice CM from Japan who unfortunately was a bit difficult to understand. The check in was very quick and when she got our package and showed us our room location I knew that we had been lucky: no view of a pool under renovation for us, but a savanna view!!

The CM told us that the pool was being renovated (we had known this beforehand) and that we could take a shuttle to the Kidani Village pool. She also handed us a folder with further material. The room keys came in a little card board pouch which also had a folded paper with information on AKL in it. I thought that this was a very nice addition, I did not get that before.

We then started to walk away from the front desk and suddenly remembered that we were supposed to get our vouchers etc. from our travel agent at check in as well. So we returned to our CM (she was luckily still free) and she quickly found it. But she also noticed something on our reservation and made us wait a bit longer while she went searching something. She quickly came back with a birthday button and wrote Katharina's name on it. And then presented it to Katharina.

We absolutely forgot to mention this in the introduction, Katharina's birthday is on February 3 and so we were celebrating it on our trip. Not only had I requested it to be noted on our resort reservation, I had also added it to all of your ADRs!!

After we had gotten the additional packet we went in search of our room: 3524, on the same floor as the lobby and the fourth pod from the lobby on the Zebra trail. We overlooked the Uzima savanna, just above one of the “people pens”.

You can see it's location here, this is the park map we got at check-in:

It took me several days to understand and memorize the layout of AKL, I nearly got lost several times on my way back from the Mara I never realized you had problems with that... But I think both of us tended to walk past our room on a regular basis for some strange reason...

Before I give you a review of the room and the location, here are the pictures:

and our first towel animal, a mouse!! Mouse and sheep are my favourite animals :

The room was very clean and generally in good shape, only one drawer in the armoire was giving us a bit of trouble. We had a lot of brochures on the table as you can see. Some might be interested to know that we had a rebounce offer (which we did not use) and an offer from DVC for a 100 $ gift card if you go on a tour. I was a bit tempted to do that, but we never ever had the time and I think I would feel guilty to go on the tour if I did not really intend to buy...

The location of the room was also pretty good. We did not feel that the walk to the room was too long. Of course it would have been nicer to be a bit closer to the lobby, but the few yards did really not matter to us. We were close to the Mara and to the pool which was good, especially when we went to the hot tub!

The upgrade to savanna view was wonderful. At first I was a bit disappointed about the people's pen and when we walked out on the balcony I realized that we were able to hear some traffic in the distance. So my first instinct was to have mixed feelings. But in German we say: “Einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul” which translates into: don't look into the mouth of a horse you have received as a gift and means that you ought not to try to find fault with things you got as a gift – and an upgrade is a gift in a way. Actually the next morning when we saw the sun rise over the horizon and were able to really enjoy the savanna, my attitude had already changed a lot and I grew to love the location. Actually Katharina and I agreed later on that the great thing about our location was that we were not looking towards another building, but out into the wild. Which I already observed and commented on the first night – I liked it from the very first moment when I drew back the curtains!!!!

Next: Dining Review Introduction

Or on with the TR: Chapter 5: Dinner at Mara

 

[kid-at-heart]

Being the lawyer the only thing I was thinking about was: is this a copyright infringement if I post these picture on the DIS?

If I may add my own , that is funny. As a professor I would have been thinking the same thing. Every year at our school there are many discussions on copyright infringement and what we can do and cannot do regarding copyright items.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Hooray, an update! I am glad you ended up with a nice room.

 

[podsnel]

We have the same saying! We say "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth". And until you explained it, I really had NO idea what it really meant! Thanks!!

I am very glad you ended up liking your room- I love AKL, it's so unique.

And I'm VERY glad you're adding the dining reviews here!

 

[manntra]

I am also glad you are adding the dining reviews here.....hope there are plenty!!
The AKL lobby is just beautiful isn't it.....and the smell.. I kind of miss the lobby when I stay at Kidani but I always visit for Boma/Jiko and I like the quaintness of the Kidani lobby and for me the bathroom in the one bedroom Kidani reaffirms my reason to stay there!!
I ALWAYS forget my room number!! This time I have vowed to take a picture of it with my phone so I can remember! Oh by the way did you enjoy your iPhone?

Tracy

 

[swwake]

I love the idea of food reviews included!

OH, you make me so excited to stay at AKL for the first time. Glad you ended up loving your location. I can imagine that sunrise is quite awesome.

Question - how do you feel about the bedspreads? For a deluxe, I've always thought they look a bit chintzy in the pictures. Maybe they are better in person. I agree they fit the theme, but I would like more luxury (like we had at BC). Just curious on your thoughts.

 

[burly]

Trip report and dining report in one. It's all good with me.

 

[Flossbolna]

If I may add my own , that is funny. As a professor I would have been thinking the same thing. Every year at our school there are many discussions on copyright infringement and what we can do and cannot do regarding copyright items.

I see that the copyright lobby is doing a great job!

Hooray, an update! I am glad you ended up with a nice room.

I really hope to do more regular updates from now on!

We have the same saying! We say "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth". And until you explained it, I really had NO idea what it really meant! Thanks!!

I am very glad you ended up liking your room- I love AKL, it's so unique.

And I'm VERY glad you're adding the dining reviews here!

Intersting how some of these saying are really universal. Often there are sayings which mean exactly the same, but still are different. For example instead of the "early bird catches the worm", we say "morning hour has gold in its mouth" sounds pretty gross actually when you think about it, but that's just the way it goes...

Good to hear that adding the dining reviews here is a popular decision!

 

[Flossbolna]

I am also glad you are adding the dining reviews here.....hope there are plenty!!
The AKL lobby is just beautiful isn't it.....and the smell.. I kind of miss the lobby when I stay at Kidani but I always visit for Boma/Jiko and I like the quaintness of the Kidani lobby and for me the bathroom in the one bedroom Kidani reaffirms my reason to stay there!!
I ALWAYS forget my room number!! This time I have vowed to take a picture of it with my phone so I can remember! Oh by the way did you enjoy your iPhone?

Tracy

I can see the point that the Kidani DVC accomodation is preferrable since it was built for that purpose. Goood idea to take a pic with your phone! I am really enjoying my Iphone, but during the trip it mainly just lived in the room safe. I had my old phone to use with the US SIm card...

I love the idea of food reviews included!

OH, you make me so excited to stay at AKL for the first time. Glad you ended up loving your location. I can imagine that sunrise is quite awesome.

Question - how do you feel about the bedspreads? For a deluxe, I've always thought they look a bit chintzy in the pictures. Maybe they are better in person. I agree they fit the theme, but I would like more luxury (like we had at BC). Just curious on your thoughts.

The inclusion of the food reviews seems to be generally approved.

Seeig the sunrise was really a special bonus for this room! On the bedspreads: They look better in person than on the pictures. The colours aren't that bright in natural light, I think the flash makes them look so harsh. BUT I agree with your general opinion. In Germany we don't have this sheet and blanket system which seems to be standard in the US (and the UK and France btw). We have a duvet. Just to illustrate what I am talking about, this is a rather typical German (or even perhaps central European) bed:

I think Disney just started to abandon the bed spreads rather recently at the Deluxe resorts. I remember seeing the first pictures of the rennovated BC rooms (wasn't that rennovation happening when you stayed there?) and being very excited that this was finally "real" bedding! Or perhaps the Contemporary refurb was the first? All refurbs at deluxes since have converted over to this more luxurious/modern look. But AKL hasn't had a decor refurb since it was opened up. I keep thinking that it must be on the list next since Poly and WL were refurbed rather recently.

But I must say that the bedspreads where in great shape, they looked very fresh and clean. And they add colour to the room.

Trip report and dining report in one. It's all good with me.

I am glad that you approve!!

 

[annichan]

Hi Flossbolna,

I didn't know the policy had changed on how long dining reports are allowed to take until completion - how am I ever gonna get my next one finished? The last one took me nine months to finish
I am glad to hear that you will include your dining reports here, and looking forward to them!

I am also glad to hear that there is a chance of "real" bedding at the resorts - I must say that I can never get used to the American way of making a bed, I always end up ripping all the sheets out and it looks terribly untidy

Oh, and by the way, we have the saying "the early bird catches the worm" in Germany too, my grandmother used to say that a lot - maybe it's just a regional thing, though?

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Flossbolna,

I didn't know the policy had changed on how long dining reports are allowed to take until completion - how am I ever gonna get my next one finished? The last one took me nine months to finish
I am glad to hear that you will include your dining reports here, and looking forward to them!

Hi Annichan, I only picked it up because Brenda (oybolshoi) mentioned that she would not do a dining review for her next trip either. I have no idea, what is behind this rule change, but that's what it is. I guess one needs to write most of it before starting to post it... So I guess you need to write a TR as well to hide your dining review until it is finished and you can start posting it then... Just as we do it!

I am also glad to hear that there is a chance of "real" bedding at the resorts - I must say that I can never get used to the American way of making a bed, I always end up ripping all the sheets out and it looks terribly untidy

Same here! That's one reason why I am not so keen on renting DVC points, I really need a maid to make the bed in the morning....

Oh, and by the way, we have the saying "the early bird catches the worm" in Germany too, my grandmother used to say that a lot - maybe it's just a regional thing, though?

I was thinking that I have heard it in German, too, but I wasn't sure wether this just wasn't a direct translation which started to be used because it came up in films etc. Like "Pass auf Dich auf", which I am sure is only used in dubbed films as a translation of "take care". But is your grandmother uses is, it must be proper German!

 

[All7OfUs]

YAY!! An update, from my lucky German Friends- who happened to score a very sweet upgrade!!! That's awesome!! I'm really praying that we get upgraded somewhere in our triple-hop stay!!

I'd love to stay at AK someday... whistful thinking...

I'm so, so, so glad you gave me a head's up on the dining report time limit! I had no idea. I was definitely planning to do a separate review, but now will have to re-think that. Maybe on here IS the way to go, then transfer it later over there.

Hmmmm????


I live the duvet cover idea MUCH better than sheets, blankets, etc.... fewer places for creepy crawlies to hide and fester.


Glad you went back and got a birthday button- seems like that might come into play later

We get to go over to the AKL/V 3 times on our trip and am so excited to see it!! Your pictures are getting me even more ansty!

 

[lovealldisney]

In Germany we don't have this sheet and blanket system which seems to be standard in the US (and the UK and France btw). We have a duvet. Just to illustrate what I am talking about, this is a rather typical German (or even perhaps central European) bed:

When looking at hotels/B&Bs for our up coming trip to Germany I was wondering about the beds. I didn't realize that you only use a duvet. I was like where are the sheets? Blankets? It makes sense now.

 

[Flossbolna]

YAY!! An update, from my lucky German Friends- who happened to score a very sweet upgrade!!! That's awesome!! I'm really praying that we get upgraded somewhere in our triple-hop stay!!

The upgrade was really nice and I am glad that I finally got to stay in a savann view room. I will keep my fingers crossed for you for an upgrade at the Poly to theme park view!

I'd love to stay at AK someday... whistful thinking...

Well, you are getting the Poly this trip which is kind of similar...

I'm so, so, so glad you gave me a head's up on the dining report time limit! I had no idea. I was definitely planning to do a separate review, but now will have to re-think that. Maybe on here IS the way to go, then transfer it later over there.

Hmmmm????

I think many people haven't realized it yet...

I live the duvet cover idea MUCH better than sheets, blankets, etc.... fewer places for creepy crawlies to hide and fester.

And the duvets are always covered fully by duvet covers. So you don't have a comforter or a blanket that may have been used by whoever...

We get to go over to the AKL/V 3 times on our trip and am so excited to see it!! Your pictures are getting me even more ansty!

I noticed your three visits to AKL. You will be able to really explore there!

When looking at hotels/B&Bs for our up coming trip to Germany I was wondering about the beds. I didn't realize that you only use a duvet. I was like where are the sheets? Blankets? It makes sense now.

What a funny coincidence that Susans question got me to explain about German bedding which then was helpful for you! I really like not having to deal with sheets and blankets in hotels here, because you have the duvet cover all around the duvet and thus no contact with anything someone else might have touched.