JAMBO! The UN-official AKL Thread ~ UPDATED(short film/pg 8 & slideshow/pg 12) Part 2

[disneytraveler]

Have a great trip and say to Mickey for me!

 

[Cass]

Have a great trip Oh-the-anticipation!

 

[DVD CM]

I have nothing to add - except - LESS THAN 3 WEEKS TO AKL!
We've requested Zebra trail, 2nd or 3rd floor - Arusha Savannah - etc. etc.

The trip is for our wedding / engagement Anniversary so I hope we get a good to great view. Though I think it will be hard to balance the dichotomy of: Get to the parks early vs. Stay a while and look at the aminals (yes I said 'aminals') . . . .

Anyone have any idea just HOW early the aminals start creeping about the Arusha savannah? A friend who has stayed there told me they start playing drum music early in the morning . . . . and the animals know the music means "FEEDING TIME" - how early does that begin? Sun rise?

Also - does anyone have any info on the Night Vision viewing (how does one sign up? Or do you have to sign up at all?) The Story telling (do you just wander up?) the approximate wait for a Boma dinner WITHOUT reservations on a weeknight in late October / early November - and is it likely that you can schedule "spur of the moment" spa action within 24 hours?

Thanks in advance!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Have a great trip Oh The Anticipation! I look forward to your trip report.

Anyone have any idea just HOW early the aminals start creeping about the Arusha savannah? A friend who has stayed there told me they start playing drum music early in the morning . . . . and the animals know the music means "FEEDING TIME" - how early does that begin? Sun rise?

They play drum music? And how early is early? lol I am looking forward to SLEEPING on my trip, after months of wedding planning I just want to sleep in as long as humanly possible the first day!

Maybe one of our recent AKL visitors can help answer this? Shyjade?

 

[John's Mom]

They play drum music? And how early is early? lol I am looking forward to SLEEPING on my trip, after months of wedding planning I just want to sleep in as long as humanly possible the first day!

Maybe one of our recent AKL visitors can help answer this? Shyjade?

We've stayed at the AKL several times and have never been woken up by drum music.

Just wanted to say Best Wishes on your upcoming wedding. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time at the AKL on your disneymoon.

 

[jennz]

strange question...we usually get the refillable mugs when we go and I was filling them the other day and noticed the AKL mugs hold much more than the others. Does anyone know if this is still true? Our AKL mugs are 4 yrs old. Just hoping I can get more diet coke in my mug!

 

[Cass]

That's coz it's always hotter at AKL/DAK we get dehydrated faster.

 

[scoutsmom99]

 

[Kristina]

I'm sure this has been asked but I haven't been able to read the whole thread so I apologize. We will be having dinner at Boma in mid dec. and I'm wondering if anyone can give us any tips on what not to miss at the Lodge? We will get there a bit before sundown to see the outside areas. Any other tips first timers viewing the Lodge at Christmas?
Thanks !

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

I'm sure this has been asked but I haven't been able to read the whole thread so I apologize. We will be having dinner at Boma in mid dec. and I'm wondering if anyone can give us any tips on what not to miss at the Lodge? We will get there a bit before sundown to see the outside areas. Any other tips first timers viewing the Lodge at Christmas?
Thanks !

We enjoyed the night vision goggles and the firepit outside has night time story tellers which sounds interesting to me.

 

[Kristina]

Oooh cool, night vision goggles, you mean you can try them even if you're not staying at the resort? Where would we get them? The storytelles sound interesting to me too! Thanks !

 

[tinknme]

Hello everyone!

We arrived home last night & had a wonderful time! Our stay at AKL was just as I had hoped. We were upgrade to a Savanna view, room 2554. Yes we were close to the people pen, but we had a wonderful view & saw plenty of animals

The boys loved the resort & got plenty use of the pool. Riley was well know in the gift shop & on our last night was asked to lead the parade through the lobby. Housekeeping was wonderful & left us a couple of nice towel animals. We came back one night & had a monkey hanging in our window & the next day had an alligator on our bed

I did not take alot of pictures of the lodge, but I will post some later. Here is a picture from our balcony:

I loved waking up in the morning & just watching all the animals! All the CM we encountered were fabolous, bus transportation was not a problem at all. One day coming back from MGM we had the bus all to ourselves. The longest wait we had for a bus was to DTD.

We ate at Boma 3 times, once for breakfast & twice for dinner. I finally tried the butternut squash soup & wow was it yummy!

I was sad to leave, but I know we will be back. I am already talking to dh about going next year for Christmas. He does not like to do Disney much, but I know he would enjoy this resort.

All I can say is WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[disneytraveler]

I am glad you enjoyed your stay at the the lodge ,Tinknme.
Cant wait to see your pictures to!

DVD CM- You can just walk up to the night vision area. There is no sign up
for this .

 

[disneytraveler]

Animal viewing with Night Vision goggles , you follow the signs from Flamingo
Pond . The African Folktales are at Arusha Rock Firepit. I did not get a chance to see the folktales but maybe next time. When i was there the storytelling was done at 730pm.

 

[TyRy]

Yep- we arrived home on Thursday from a split stay at WL and AKL. I'll have to get to trip reports soon, but we hated to leave AKL after only 5 days. On first glance I was actually disappointed (I can hear the gasping, but hold on)...it didn't seem to have the magic of our MK view at WL. Well - that was gone by the 2nd day. We truly loved the AKL and considered it more realxing than the WL. Here's just a pic from our pool view room.

We took literally a thousand photos, so I will try and add them all to the appropriate threads soon.

Ty

 

[Viki]

Welcome back, Ladies. Can't wait to see all the photos and read the Trip Reports!!!

 

[Flossbolna]

I just wanted to say Hi! I have spent most of this weekend having lots of fun reading through this thread (I am at page 188 so far...) and love it!!

I am really excited because I will be stayin at AKL February 7 to 15. Originally a friend and I (we had been to WDW in 2004 together) were talking about a quick one week trip in November 2006. However, flights were really expensive for the dates that we could get off from work, so the idea of a longer Florida vacation in February came up. Now we will be in the USA for 2 and a half weeks!

And I sold her on the idea of staying more than four days (there are only four parks, what would we do on the other days, was her question! ) by suggesting staying at a nicer hotel, so we could enjoy the pool and things like that. I was thinking of one of the moderates, but my friend then came up with: How expensive is the place where we had the great African buffet? I never thought I would find anyone crazy enough to be willing to spend so much money on a trip to WDW with me!

So now we are all set, we have a pool view because no standard rooms were available. But after seeing all the pictures, I am really glad we took the pool view, we will be really happy with this!

Sorry this turned in such a long post, I am just soo excited and had to tell some people, who know what I am talking abaout!

 

[Cass]

Looking forward to the trip reports and photos, glad everyone had a nice time

 

[John's Mom]

Jambo, Flossbolna!

Any questions about the AKL, ask away. There are a lot of knowledgeable people on this thread.

 

[GEM]

Does anyone here know the hours for Victoria Falls and for the pool bar?

Can anybody tell what I'm looking forward to . . .