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

[kimmar067]

....You know MK is busy when there is a wait to get on the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse!....

......

 

[kimmar067]

A few more from our recent trip...Sitting here at work missing AKL

...as usual, simply AMAZING!!!! Thanks, Jeff, for sharing.....

 

[kimmar067]

..and WDW, even though that part of our trip ended already on 2/15. We had a brilliant time, I have lots of pictures (some quite interesting ones I hope) and will write more soon. At the moment the 6-hour jet-lag does not let me think straight and I can't yet get the pictures off the camera as the airline lost my bag with the cable in it! So, I promise a detailed report later! Just wanted to say that AKL was absolutely fantastic. I wish I could go back there immediately!

...oh my goodness...hope it shows up really soon! Glad to hear that you had a wonderful time at AKL...... [can't wait for your TR and pix....]

 

[kimmar067]

I have not been on the sunset but the sunrise was wonderful. There is also
a breakfeast buffet afterwards thats is reallly nice in the DAK. The sunrise safari is the same one at the park but without the speel about the poachers and big red the elephant. It is also at a much slower pace ie mine safari was
about 45- 1 hour or more. You can ask questions and take as many photos as you want . It goes in a at different route to. They give you a fast pass to take the ride the usual way.

...you enter the park via the CM entrance and wind up near the back of the park, by the train....yes, our 'safari' lasted for almost an hour, and you could see the CM's [vets] interacting with the animals first thing in the morning....also, the breakfast was really delicious!

 

[wallyb]

We did both.
Loved both!

 

[jaycns]

I have more photos of the safari to but they are not as nice as his.

I would love to see them! And I bet you might be surprised by how much we like them!!

 

[Flossbolna]

As promised, my report about our stay at AKL. It somehow became very long, so I will be splitting it up in a few posts. I have divided it up into different topics, so you can read just the parts you are interested in. Of course, if there are any additional qustions, just go ahead and ask, as you see, I like writig about AKL (even though being there would be even better!!!) Here it goes:

I was staying at the AKL February 7-15 with a friend as part of our 18 day vacation in Florida. We had been to WDW in 2004 and stayed at POR. We liked that hotel a lot and thought it was very beautiful. When we were planning this trip, my friend asked how much more expensive it would be to stay at the hotel where we had eaten at the African restaurant and we found out that the non-savannah-view rooms are not so much more expensive than the moderate resorts and decided to splurge a bit and go with the hotel that we both thought was so very beautiful!

We both absolutely loved the AKL and on the flight back home to Germany we both commented on how much we would prefer to go and stay another week at AKL instead of going home. And I am usually the type to look very much forward to my own place after having been travelling around for some time.

As my camera cable still hasn't made it to my place (however, I know now that my suitcase has arrived in Germany, they just have to deliver it to me) there are no pictures yet, but I will be adding a few pictures later on as well as post others seperately.

Arrival:

We arrived at MCO at 7:10 pm. It took us some time to get out of the plane, but then we were quickly on board the ME bus. We were waiting for a bit until the bus took off and then the bus first went to Pop Century and Coronado Springs until we finally got to AKL. So all in all it was not the fastest trip to the lodge you could have, I think it took us about 90 min from landing at MCO. But it was absolutely hassel free and that is just what we wanted after arriving in a foreign country at a time that was for us well beyond bed time (7 pm Orlando time was like 1 am German time). We definitely would not have wanted to drive a car through the darkness!! So we were sitting in a comfortable bus, saw a neat video and had a really nice driver telling us things about the parks. Just perfect for us!

Check-In was very quick, there was no line and we got quickly set up with all the park maps and our Keys to the World. The cast member at check in suggested that we should go to lobby concierge to get a print out of our ADRs which I did the next morning. It was good that I did that. My travel agent (I used a US based internet travel agent and was very pleased with her service, especially that she was able to apply a code to our reservation when it came out in November!) had made quite a few ADRs for us and for some reason, Disney had decided to misspell my name on a number of them. So when I first got the print out, there were only two ADRs listed, but the concierge cast member suspected that my name might be misspelled and was able to find all the other ones as well. So I knew how to "misspell" my name when I checked in at these restaurants! Of course I would still have had the sheet from my travel agent with the confirmation numbers...

Room:

We had booked a pool-view room with two double beds. I had only put in a request for a higher floor as I could not make up my mind, which side of the pool I would prefer. We ended up in room no. 4456 which is on Zebra trail, on the arm that goes off to the right (the room opposite us would have been overlooking Uzima Savannah). We were the third room on this arm, so far enough away from the corner, but still close to the elevator, which would take us down to an exit to the pool and to Mara.

The room was great! It was very clean, we had some tiny towel animals waiting for us in there.

We spent a lot of the time in the room on the balcony which had a great and unobstructed view of the pool area, which we thought was extremely beautiful! Our balcony was very sunny in the afternoon which was great for us as the temperatures were in the low 70's and then even getting a bit cooler, so sitting in the sun was great. It was also nice that the balcony warmed up a bit more than other places. So a great location for the cooler times of the year, but it might be too hot to be out there in the warmer months!

I liked the air conditioning that could be set to a certain temperature which was then maintained automatically. I preferred this much to the airconditioning at POR which was much noisier. The only problem we had was that we never figured out how to switch it off if we wanted to have the door to the balkony open. Depending on the temperature outside it suddenly started to heat the room immensly or turned it into a fridge... But that might just have us being stupid and not bothered enough to actually ask someone.

Housekeeping was great, we got plenty of towels and soaps. We got new toiletries nearly every day, however towards the end, we got new shampoo every day, which we did not use, but did not get any new shower gel, which we actually used. That was a bit strange. The new H2O stuff is very good, I especially loved the shower gel and the lotion. The shampoo and conditioner were good, but I have very curly hair and my own shampoo is better for my hair. But if I had forgotten my own shampoo I would have used it happily and I am very difficult with my shampoo!!!

I liked the decor of the room very much, as I am a great fan of the African look, I have a huge wall hanging that I bought on my trip to Namibia and it looks extremely like the bed spreads at AKL! So I felt like at home.

I had read that the rooms are very dark and was a bit afraid of that, however I never found the lighting insufficient. Reading in bed was no problem at all and the light over the vanity area was brilliant, I looked great in it!!! (But if you like to see evry imperfection of your skin, you would not be happy with this light) We had no noise problems at all. We heard a girl in the room next to us being very excited for a brief moment, other than that, we never heard our neighbours, even though there was a connecting door to the room next to us. Neither did we hear people talking on the hallway. We could hear people in the pool, but when the door to the balcony was closed, it was not loud at all, even though they were shouting.

We found the space to be very adequate for two adults, but we thought there was not that much drawer space.

 

[Flossbolna]

I actually got the title wrong on the first part, it was February 7-15, but I do not know how to edit the title...

Here is the next part:

Restaurants/Bar:

We ate at all three restaurants and liked all three of them. I am planning on writing a dining report, so I will only write a few general comments:

Mara:
We got the refillabel mugs and they were a very useful investment. We were lucky insofar as Mara was not far from our room, so getting refills was very quick. We were on the DDP and used a lot of our snack credits here, mainly for breakfast, but also for snacks in the afternoon and we had one counterservice breakfast. Nearly all of our days we were at the park of the day for park opening, came back for a break in the afternoon and headed off to the parks and/or dinner again in the late afternoon, coming back around 9 or 10pm. So the times that we went to Mara, we never found it very crowded. On our last day we had breakfast there at 8.30am and it was crowded then, but manageable. I liked the decor at Mara and everything was very well maintained. I became a great fan of the decaffeinated diet coke that was available there!

Boma:

We had dinner here once. We also had an ADR for breakfast on our last day, but could not face to eat a lot of food again. So there is a reason, why I have to return: eat breakfast at Boma!! We had been to Boma before in 2004 and liked it then and liked it again this time round. I found it interesting, that most of the food was for us adventurous because it mixed a lot of sweet and savoury taste. In Europe this is quite uncommon, but I think it might be more common with American food. I did not find the main dishes to be so spectacular, but the salads, soups and appetizers were great, as well as the rice. I made a meal out of these and then had trouble trying some of the desserts. I think we had the same dishes as on our last visit, so next time I will make sure to get there on a different day of the rotation!

Jiko:
We absolutely adored this restaurant!! We had accidently dinner here on Valentines Day (without being a couple, we just wanted to have a special dinner on our last evening at WDW which turned out to be Feb 14) and thought that this would be the perfect place for Valentines Day dinner! It was the most quiet restaurant of all that we ate at. The food was incredible and the service was perfect. Our server was Shellie, I think she was recommended by someone else a few posts back and I can only second that recommendation. Actually on the table next to us was a couple who obviously knew her well and told her that they had specifically requested her. It was most definitely worth the 2 TS coupons on the plan and I would not hesitate to go there if I had to pay OOP!!

Bars:
As my friend does not drink, we never made it to Victoria Falls, but it looks like a very comfy place. I once got a drink at the pool bar, a non-alcoholic pina colada with rasberry. It was nice, but a bit too sweet for me.

 

[Flossbolna]

Lobby/Grounds:

Well, what is there to say: It is the most amazing and breathtakingly beautiful hotel I have ever seen!! I loved the attention to detail, it just seemed to be so perfect! Actually staying at the Lodge we were able to appreciate it even more than we had been able to on our previous visit. I spend quite some of our non-park time wandering around the hotel, exploring. I regularly checked the savannas and there was regularly something to see out there.

Pool:

In my opinion the best pool ever! I love being in the water, so nearly every afternoon I was at the pool. For me the water was warm enough. As I said before, it was not really hot while we were there (actually great wheather for the parks), so it was good that the pool was heated. I noticed that the water temperature seemed to vary from day to day, there were definitely warmer and colder days. I had the impression that on days with a lot of sunshine the water would be warmer, but could not really determine a pattern. The chairs directly at the pool seemed to be in very high demand, but there were plenty of chairs a little bit further away which were available and it was much quieter there, too.

I also made frequent visits to the hot tub, often in the evening with a drink in my refillable mug before going to bed. Even though it was quite chilly, the hot tub heated my up enough that I was okay for the short walk to the elevator!

Shop:

I actually never bought anything at Zawadi Marketplace, but loved to walk through there on the way from the bus back to the room. It has a very good selection and I was quite tempted by a few things, but I did not want to buy too much due to custom limits of goods I could take back home with me. However, I picked up things I bought at the parks there a few times and it was allways quick and effecient.

Transportation:

We did not have a rental car during our stay at WDW. We did not miss it. I actually timed most of our wait times and driving times to the parks. The by far longest wait was one afternoon at Epcot where we just saw the bus pull away when we got to the bus stop area. We then waited 13 min for the next bus to arrive and another four minutes until it pulled away. But on other occassions when we just missed a bus, the next bus was around sooner, more like 10 min. Most of the times we just got to the bus stop when there was already a bus, sometimes we ran towards a bus. When we saw a bus was about to leave, we started to wave at it and it would quickly stop and let us jump on board. Bus drivers were very good to watch out for people arriving at the bus stop who might still want to get on the bus before they finally pulled away. The driving time to the parks was not too bad either, even MK and Epcot were generally around 15 min, perhaps a bit more, but not 20 min. Only DTD was really a 20 min drive. And of course, once the bus pulled away from the bus stop, the next stop was your destination (with the exception of the MGM bus which made a brief stop at Blizzard Beach). There allways seemed to be plenty of busses and we were only twice on a bus where not everyone had a seat, but we were generally on the busses quite early in the morning and trying to go to the parks that were recommend as at least crowded for the day. We absolutely loved the busses, but then neither my friend nor I own a car and we both rely on public transportation on a daily basis. And even though public transportation at home is very good the Disney busses were heaven!

We then picked up a rental car on our leaving day from Alamo at the Car Care Center. We had a shuttle which picked us up at AKL and took us there and service there was quick.

Activities:

We did not take part in as many activities as I had hoped. 7 full days are just too little time! I did go to the night vision goggle look-out (conveniently located near the hot tub). It was interesting to see through these, however I actually like the night view of the savannah with the artificial moon light better. There were allways cast members that were nice to chat to, so I regularly had a brief look before my visit to the hot tub. I also went on the culinary tour. This was a bit strange. First I showed up five minutes late because the alarm clock in our room was 5 minutes slow (I only noticed then, when I was told at the Jiko podium that I was late for the tour, so better make sure that the alarm clock in your room shows the correct time!!). Since I was the only person on that day wanting to take the tour and the chefs already had started their thing and could not take me on the tour anymore, I just got a tour of the rooms of Jiko by the cast member from the podium. This was really interesting and I learned a lot about the decor of Jiko which was great. He then took me to Boma where unfortunately the chefs had a special meeting so I had to wait for about 10 minutes until one of them came to take me to the buffet line. His name was Edgar and he was very nice. Unfortunately because of this meeting, the foods were not out yet, so I got an explanation of dishes I could not see. However, he got some potato and bacon soup for me which was extremely good and managed to find some deserts for me to try, mango tarts and zebra domes. It was interesting, but I felt like I was inconveniencing people that were busy with other things (even though non of my two guides were implying this in any way!!). Unfortunately we were eating at Boma on a different day, so most of the dishes he told me about were not available when we were there, I would therefore recommend doing the tour on the day you are actually eating at Boma or on a day that offers the same selections. I am glad I did it, but it was just not their best day... I guess another reasn to return to do the tour again. And I am sorry that I missed the cultural tour...

 

[Flossbolna]

Cast Members:

They were great!! We did not notice any decline in friendliness in the cast members in general and most definitely not at the AKL. The only cast members that seemed to be very indifferent (not unfriendly or rude, but just not very friendly either) were in general the cast members at the desks of the table service restaurants when we checked in, with the exception of Jiko and the California Grill. Otherwise, they mostely gave us the pager without saying anything about how long the wait might be and sometimes without explaining the pager at all. What was especially nice for me was that at AKL I met two cast members from Namibia. One was Bianca who was at the Arusha Rock lookout one early morning where we started to chat a bit as I have been to Namibia on holiday and told her that I thought her country to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. When I mentioned that I was from Germany it turned out that she was actually from a German family in Namibia (Namibia was a Germany colony until 1918 and there are still German settlers living there) and we switched over to speaking German and she told me about how her whole family is German speaking and that they eat German food and follow German traditions. That was very interesting!! The cast member seating us at Jikos was from Namibia, too, and had had German in school, so she still remembered a bit of it and was excited to try it out on us!

Construction:

If I had not read about it here on the DIS-Boards, I would not have known about it while staying there!

Conclusions:

As I said before, I would love to get back there as soon as possible. There have been many things I have been asking myself before this trip, so I would like to specifically adress these issues:

1: Is it worth staying at a deluxe?
I always thought I am the person to mainly run around the parks and that I just needed a place to sleep at night. When we started to plan the trip I had envisioned us staying at Pop Century. It was mainly because I knew that my friend likes to relax at the hotel that we were thinking about someplace nicer. Now I have quite changed my mind: It was totally worth staying at AKL! I prefer the concept of indoor hallways (that's what I am used to), I loved my own private balcony, I like everything to be in one building (and we had a decent location in this huge building). I loved coming home to a beautiful resort and walking around there. The pool was great. It was just a great experience! I am not sure whether I would stay at another deluxe. First, most of the others are more expensive, GF and Poly have several buildings, so I would not be in the same house as the services and you do not have a guaranteed blacony at (most ? of) the others. I think I would like to try and stay at the WL, but I guess I would be sad to stay at WDW and not be at AKL!! To be honest, I think in the future it will either be AKL or a Value Resort for me... Can't really see the point of the Moderates any more (besides the quiet pools perhaps)

2: Is AKL too remote from the parks?
For us: No, it isn't. I guess it might depend a bit, where you spend most of your time. We found the bus system efficient in getting us to the parks and back. WDW is generally very spread out and I am certain, that there is no hotel that has a short commute to every park and we devide our park time quite equally between the four parks. Travel time to Epcot and MK was manageable and to AK it was just a few minutes.

3: Would we feel left out if we stay in a pool view room?
I really did not want to spend the money for a savannah view, but after reading so much about AKL on the internet I thought perhaps we should have... The pool view worked great for us!! First of all, I think pool view rooms all have a pretty good location with regard to closeness of food, busses and of course the pool. Second, the pool is just beautiful. Third, I am not someone to sit and look out on the savannah for any longer amount of time, I am more the type to have a look to see what is there and then move on, so checking out the different viewing locations worked really well for me!


So that's it for now, pictures will follow soon!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Cast Members:

They were great!! We did not notice any decline in friendliness in the cast members in general and most definitely not at the AKL. The only cast members that seemed to be very indifferent (not unfriendly or rude, but just not very friendly either) were in general the cast members at the desks of the table service restaurants when we checked in, with the exception of Jiko and the California Grill. Otherwise, they mostely gave us the pager without saying anything about how long the wait might be and sometimes without explaining the pager at all. What was especially nice for me was that at AKL I met two cast members from Namibia. One was Bianca who was at the Arusha Rock lookout one early morning where we started to chat a bit as I have been to Namibia on holiday and told her that I thought her country to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. When I mentioned that I was from Germany it turned out that she was actually from a German family in Namibia (Namibia was a Germany colony until 1918 and there are still German settlers living there) and we switched over to speaking German and she told me about how her whole family is German speaking and that they eat German food and follow German traditions. That was very interesting!! The cast member seating us at Jikos was from Namibia, too, and had had German in school, so she still remembered a bit of it and was excited to try it out on us!

Construction:

If I had not read about it here on the DIS-Boards, I would not have known about it while staying there!

Conclusions:

As I said before, I would love to get back there as soon as possible. There have been many things I have been asking myself before this trip, so I would like to specifically adress these issues:

1: Is it worth staying at a deluxe?
I always thought I am the person to mainly run around the parks and that I just needed a place to sleep at night. When we started to plan the trip I had envisioned us staying at Pop Century. It was mainly because I knew that my friend likes to relax at the hotel that we were thinking about someplace nicer. Now I have quite changed my mind: It was totally worth staying at AKL! I prefer the concept of indoor hallways (that's what I am used to), I loved my own private balcony, I like everything to be in one building (and we had a decent location in this huge building). I loved coming home to a beautiful resort and walking around there. The pool was great. It was just a great experience! I am not sure whether I would stay at another deluxe. First, most of the others are more expensive, GF and Poly have several buildings, so I would not be in the same house as the services and you do not have a guaranteed blacony at (most ? of) the others. I think I would like to try and stay at the WL, but I guess I would be sad to stay at WDW and not be at AKL!! To be honest, I think in the future it will either be AKL or a Value Resort for me... Can't really see the point of the Moderates any more (besides the quiet pools perhaps)

2: Is AKL too remote from the parks?
For us: No, it isn't. I guess it might depend a bit, where you spend most of your time. We found the bus system efficient in getting us to the parks and back. WDW is generally very spread out and I am certain, that there is no hotel that has a short commute to every park and we devide our park time quite equally between the four parks. Travel time to Epcot and MK was manageable and to AK it was just a few minutes.

3: Would we feel left out if we stay in a pool view room?
I really did not want to spend the money for a savannah view, but after reading so much about AKL on the internet I thought perhaps we should have... The pool view worked great for us!! First of all, I think pool view rooms all have a pretty good location with regard to closeness of food, busses and of course the pool. Second, the pool is just beautiful. Third, I am not someone to sit and look out on the savannah for any longer amount of time, I am more the type to have a look to see what is there and then move on, so checking out the different viewing locations worked really well for me!


So that's it for now, pictures will follow soon!

What a wonderful and thorough report! Thank you for taking the time to share!

 

[Donald is #1]

Cast Members:

They were great!! We did not notice any decline in friendliness in the cast members in general and most definitely not at the AKL. The only cast members that seemed to be very indifferent (not unfriendly or rude, but just not very friendly either) were in general the cast members at the desks of the table service restaurants when we checked in, with the exception of Jiko and the California Grill. Otherwise, they mostely gave us the pager without saying anything about how long the wait might be and sometimes without explaining the pager at all. What was especially nice for me was that at AKL I met two cast members from Namibia. One was Bianca who was at the Arusha Rock lookout one early morning where we started to chat a bit as I have been to Namibia on holiday and told her that I thought her country to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. When I mentioned that I was from Germany it turned out that she was actually from a German family in Namibia (Namibia was a Germany colony until 1918 and there are still German settlers living there) and we switched over to speaking German and she told me about how her whole family is German speaking and that they eat German food and follow German traditions. That was very interesting!! The cast member seating us at Jikos was from Namibia, too, and had had German in school, so she still remembered a bit of it and was excited to try it out on us!

Construction:

If I had not read about it here on the DIS-Boards, I would not have known about it while staying there!

Conclusions:

As I said before, I would love to get back there as soon as possible. There have been many things I have been asking myself before this trip, so I would like to specifically adress these issues:

1: Is it worth staying at a deluxe?
I always thought I am the person to mainly run around the parks and that I just needed a place to sleep at night. When we started to plan the trip I had envisioned us staying at Pop Century. It was mainly because I knew that my friend likes to relax at the hotel that we were thinking about someplace nicer. Now I have quite changed my mind: It was totally worth staying at AKL! I prefer the concept of indoor hallways (that's what I am used to), I loved my own private balcony, I like everything to be in one building (and we had a decent location in this huge building). I loved coming home to a beautiful resort and walking around there. The pool was great. It was just a great experience! I am not sure whether I would stay at another deluxe. First, most of the others are more expensive, GF and Poly have several buildings, so I would not be in the same house as the services and you do not have a guaranteed blacony at (most ? of) the others. I think I would like to try and stay at the WL, but I guess I would be sad to stay at WDW and not be at AKL!! To be honest, I think in the future it will either be AKL or a Value Resort for me... Can't really see the point of the Moderates any more (besides the quiet pools perhaps)

2: Is AKL too remote from the parks?
For us: No, it isn't. I guess it might depend a bit, where you spend most of your time. We found the bus system efficient in getting us to the parks and back. WDW is generally very spread out and I am certain, that there is no hotel that has a short commute to every park and we devide our park time quite equally between the four parks. Travel time to Epcot and MK was manageable and to AK it was just a few minutes.

3: Would we feel left out if we stay in a pool view room?
I really did not want to spend the money for a savannah view, but after reading so much about AKL on the internet I thought perhaps we should have... The pool view worked great for us!! First of all, I think pool view rooms all have a pretty good location with regard to closeness of food, busses and of course the pool. Second, the pool is just beautiful. Third, I am not someone to sit and look out on the savannah for any longer amount of time, I am more the type to have a look to see what is there and then move on, so checking out the different viewing locations worked really well for me!


So that's it for now, pictures will follow soon!

Excellent report! Thanks so much for the insight. I will be making my first visit to the AKL and I also have a pool view room. I am glad to hear how much you enjoyed the view from the room!

 

[schdp]

What a great report!!! Thanks for sharing... Only 6 more months for us til AKL Good thing I have summer to keep me occupied

 

[CJsMom]

Thanks so much - the detail in your report was great and I am SO looking forward to the AKL. In 9 months. And 1 week. And 5 days. Sigh.....

 

[Disney8704]

Looks like we'll be there around the same time. Me and DH are staying pool view room. Originally standard but when we changed our dates all they had left was savannah and pool view with bunk beds. Im really hoping disney will give us an upgrade to savannah being we will be celebrating our anniversary plus they can give the room to a family who needs bunk beds. We are going from 12-6 to 12-16. We are planning on eating at Boma that night around 5pm.

Thanks so much - the detail in your report was great and I am SO looking forward to the AKL. In 9 months. And 1 week. And 5 days. Sigh.....

 

[kimmar067]

We did both.
Loved both!

....

.....show-off.....

 

[kimmar067]

Flossbolna ~

I thoroughly enjoyed your in-depth and inciteful report....can't wait for the pix to follow....!!!

 

[ms_mckenna]

Great trip report! Thanks so much for sharing. Makes me want it to hurry and be July. :

 

[d4est]

Here! Here! That was so fun to read. It was really inciteful for those of us who have never been! Thank you!

 

[CJsMom]

Looks like we'll be there around the same time. Me and DH are staying pool view room. Originally standard but when we changed our dates all they had left was savannah and pool view with bunk beds. Im really hoping disney will give us an upgrade to savannah being we will be celebrating our anniversary plus they can give the room to a family who needs bunk beds. We are going from 12-6 to 12-16. We are planning on eating at Boma that night around 5pm.

AKL seems to give a lot of upgrades so you just may get one! Especially since it's your anniversary. That's great that you are staying for 10 days!! We'll be there from 12/9 - 12/16. Probably not eating at Boma since no one in my family will eat "different" food except me.