Day 6: Saturday, May 1: Heading to WDW - Checking into the Animal Kingdom Lodge, then going to the Animal Kingdom
Weather: Mid to high 80s. Perfect all day.
Today we head to the World. We all sleep a little on the late side (around 8:00). Then we head to the Islands Dinning Room for breakfast. It was fantastic again. The resort offered express check out, which was great. We said good bye to my family (except my brother and SIL, since they would be meeting us in the parks some days) and we hit the road by 11:00.
We were standing in the AKLs lobby by 11:30. Wow!
It really is impressive. Check in was a breeze and the good news is the room was ready. The bad news, it is not on the savannah we requested. We followed the procedure set out on Debs website for faxing room preferences for both the AKL and the Poly. The problem is that four days (which is the number of days you are supposed to fax your preferences to the Room Assigner) before we arrived at the AKL, we were on the road and we didnt get to the RPR until after 9:00 p.m. and there was nowhere on site to send a fax at that time. So our fax went out a day late. We had requested the Arusha Savannah. We got the Sunset Savannah.
I quickly, and very politely, asked the CM if there was anyway we could be switched to a room overlooking the Arusha Savanah. I got a quick there are none available despite the fact that he made no effort to check.
It was kind of early and I suspect that there were probably plenty of rooms available of the Arusha Savannah that day. But I was determined not to start off the Disney portion of our vacation on a bad note, so onto room 5271 we went. Of course, as soon as we entered the room, we all went directly to the balcony to find . . . no animals. But we were not concerned at all about that because we knew wed see plenty over the next three days.
The problem with the Sunset Savannah is that it is small, not so pretty (it almost looks like someones backyard) and you can see a parking lot and some billboards in the not too far distance. The Arusha Savannah, by contrast, is much bigger and more beautiful. It's also more convincing; it looks like you are on the edge of an African animal preserve. It also has a better animal variety (Giraffe, Zebra, Tommies, and most of horned animals). The only animals on the Sunset Savannah are Giraffe and Ankole Cattle (both of which are also on the Arusha Savannah). The Sunset also has a wide selection of birds, including Ostrich and Vultures. But my wife and I are not into birds; we usually bypass bird exhibits in zoos and I have still never seen Flights of Wonder. Birds just dont do it for us. The bottom line is that the Sunset Savannah is not the best savannah for us. The good news about the Sunset Savanah is that because it is small you will see the wildlife when it is out. In fact, after about 15 minutes, my kids were going crazy when they saw four Giraffe waltzing under our balcony to a feeding tree not more that 20 yards away. Throughout our stay, we almost always had great views of the wildlife outside our room. Plus, the Arusha Savanah (the one we wnated) has plenty of public viewing spots, including spots by the pool and Arusha Rock. So we knew we would always be able to go over and see Eland, Gemsbok, Impala, Kudu, Bongo, Wildebeest and some of the other animals not on our savannah.
After getting settled in the room, we decided to explore the resort and grab a bite from the Mara. Let me give you my first impressions of the AKL: The lobby is amazing and the savannahs are beautiful. Arusha Rock and the pool area are pretty cool and offer great views of the wildlife. The resorts interior hallways are dark, but I liked it a lot. And I appreciated the artwork and authentic African pieces sprinkled throughout the resort. My one and only qualm is that many of the hallways had a rather unpleasant odor. The smell was unrelated to the animals. It smelled like a mix of old food and cleaning solutions. Kind of like they were trying to cover up restaurants dumpster. Dont get me wrong, it was not terrible, but it was always there. Unfortunately, the corridor leading to our room was one of the corridors that had it. You couldnt smell it in the room, but it made what would otherwise be a pleasant walk through the hallways quite unpleasant. The room was well done. We had bunk beds, which my kids loved. And while it was dark too, it went with the theme.
Lunch at the Mara was nice. The Mara was smaller than I expected, but it was not crowded. The food was good. The soups were a little spicy for my taste, but they were well made. The price was right too. We got the refillable mugs, but didnt use them much because our room was kind of a trek from the Mara. We gave the Mara a solid B.
It was only 2:00 so we decided to head over to the AK. We drove over and were surprised how quickly we got there. My DW and I love this park. We honeymooned at WDW in early April, 1998 and got to go to the AK before it was open to the public. It was open only to resort guests. Asia still wasnt open and a lot of the attractions were closed. But it was a very cool experience.
After activating our APs, we went straight to the Boneyard. My kids had been good way too long, and I knew they must have been storing their energy to abuse us later that night. So the Boneyard seemed like a good preemptive strike to let them burn it off. It was kind of hot so we cut them off after about a half hour. We got them some fluids, threw them in their double stroller and took them to the Tree of Life. This was my kids second time at AK, but they didnt see the TOL on their first trip. They loved it. It was about 3:15, so we walked over to Africa, got some snacks and secured a great spot for the parade. I also walked over and grabbed some FPs for Kilimanjaro Safaris, which gave us a perfect return time of 4:15-5:15 (right after the parade). We loved the parade, a first for all of us ("A-"). After that, we used our FPs and hit the safaris. The animals were definitely out, despite the fact that it was still kind of hot. Then we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. It was just before park closing, but the wildlife experts were still going out of their way to tell us about the animals. In fact, Kudos to every CM we saw on the way out of AK. Despite the fact that it was the end of a pretty hot day, everyone was smiling and thanking us for coming.
We ordered room service that night for dinner. The service was not as nice as the RPRs. There was no table; just a tray, that would become one of many sitting in the hallway for hours. And, the CM who brought the food was not so friendly. The good news was it was not very expensive. We got sugar cane chicken for an appetizer (which was great), my wife and I got burgers and the kids got chicken fingers and PBJ. The kids meals were really good and I enjoyed the sugar cane chicken. The burgers stunk. They kind of made me wonder what they do with the animals that expire on the savannahs.
Overall, AKL's room service gets a "C". After dinner, we went animal watching for about an hour and then called it a night.
Weather: Mid to high 80s. Perfect all day.
Today we head to the World. We all sleep a little on the late side (around 8:00). Then we head to the Islands Dinning Room for breakfast. It was fantastic again. The resort offered express check out, which was great. We said good bye to my family (except my brother and SIL, since they would be meeting us in the parks some days) and we hit the road by 11:00.
We were standing in the AKLs lobby by 11:30. Wow!
It really is impressive. Check in was a breeze and the good news is the room was ready. The bad news, it is not on the savannah we requested. We followed the procedure set out on Debs website for faxing room preferences for both the AKL and the Poly. The problem is that four days (which is the number of days you are supposed to fax your preferences to the Room Assigner) before we arrived at the AKL, we were on the road and we didnt get to the RPR until after 9:00 p.m. and there was nowhere on site to send a fax at that time. So our fax went out a day late. We had requested the Arusha Savannah. We got the Sunset Savannah. I quickly, and very politely, asked the CM if there was anyway we could be switched to a room overlooking the Arusha Savanah. I got a quick there are none available despite the fact that he made no effort to check.
It was kind of early and I suspect that there were probably plenty of rooms available of the Arusha Savannah that day. But I was determined not to start off the Disney portion of our vacation on a bad note, so onto room 5271 we went. Of course, as soon as we entered the room, we all went directly to the balcony to find . . . no animals. But we were not concerned at all about that because we knew wed see plenty over the next three days. The problem with the Sunset Savannah is that it is small, not so pretty (it almost looks like someones backyard) and you can see a parking lot and some billboards in the not too far distance. The Arusha Savannah, by contrast, is much bigger and more beautiful. It's also more convincing; it looks like you are on the edge of an African animal preserve. It also has a better animal variety (Giraffe, Zebra, Tommies, and most of horned animals). The only animals on the Sunset Savannah are Giraffe and Ankole Cattle (both of which are also on the Arusha Savannah). The Sunset also has a wide selection of birds, including Ostrich and Vultures. But my wife and I are not into birds; we usually bypass bird exhibits in zoos and I have still never seen Flights of Wonder. Birds just dont do it for us. The bottom line is that the Sunset Savannah is not the best savannah for us. The good news about the Sunset Savanah is that because it is small you will see the wildlife when it is out. In fact, after about 15 minutes, my kids were going crazy when they saw four Giraffe waltzing under our balcony to a feeding tree not more that 20 yards away. Throughout our stay, we almost always had great views of the wildlife outside our room. Plus, the Arusha Savanah (the one we wnated) has plenty of public viewing spots, including spots by the pool and Arusha Rock. So we knew we would always be able to go over and see Eland, Gemsbok, Impala, Kudu, Bongo, Wildebeest and some of the other animals not on our savannah.
After getting settled in the room, we decided to explore the resort and grab a bite from the Mara. Let me give you my first impressions of the AKL: The lobby is amazing and the savannahs are beautiful. Arusha Rock and the pool area are pretty cool and offer great views of the wildlife. The resorts interior hallways are dark, but I liked it a lot. And I appreciated the artwork and authentic African pieces sprinkled throughout the resort. My one and only qualm is that many of the hallways had a rather unpleasant odor. The smell was unrelated to the animals. It smelled like a mix of old food and cleaning solutions. Kind of like they were trying to cover up restaurants dumpster. Dont get me wrong, it was not terrible, but it was always there. Unfortunately, the corridor leading to our room was one of the corridors that had it. You couldnt smell it in the room, but it made what would otherwise be a pleasant walk through the hallways quite unpleasant. The room was well done. We had bunk beds, which my kids loved. And while it was dark too, it went with the theme.
Lunch at the Mara was nice. The Mara was smaller than I expected, but it was not crowded. The food was good. The soups were a little spicy for my taste, but they were well made. The price was right too. We got the refillable mugs, but didnt use them much because our room was kind of a trek from the Mara. We gave the Mara a solid B.
It was only 2:00 so we decided to head over to the AK. We drove over and were surprised how quickly we got there. My DW and I love this park. We honeymooned at WDW in early April, 1998 and got to go to the AK before it was open to the public. It was open only to resort guests. Asia still wasnt open and a lot of the attractions were closed. But it was a very cool experience.
After activating our APs, we went straight to the Boneyard. My kids had been good way too long, and I knew they must have been storing their energy to abuse us later that night. So the Boneyard seemed like a good preemptive strike to let them burn it off. It was kind of hot so we cut them off after about a half hour. We got them some fluids, threw them in their double stroller and took them to the Tree of Life. This was my kids second time at AK, but they didnt see the TOL on their first trip. They loved it. It was about 3:15, so we walked over to Africa, got some snacks and secured a great spot for the parade. I also walked over and grabbed some FPs for Kilimanjaro Safaris, which gave us a perfect return time of 4:15-5:15 (right after the parade). We loved the parade, a first for all of us ("A-"). After that, we used our FPs and hit the safaris. The animals were definitely out, despite the fact that it was still kind of hot. Then we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. It was just before park closing, but the wildlife experts were still going out of their way to tell us about the animals. In fact, Kudos to every CM we saw on the way out of AK. Despite the fact that it was the end of a pretty hot day, everyone was smiling and thanking us for coming.
We ordered room service that night for dinner. The service was not as nice as the RPRs. There was no table; just a tray, that would become one of many sitting in the hallway for hours. And, the CM who brought the food was not so friendly. The good news was it was not very expensive. We got sugar cane chicken for an appetizer (which was great), my wife and I got burgers and the kids got chicken fingers and PBJ. The kids meals were really good and I enjoyed the sugar cane chicken. The burgers stunk. They kind of made me wonder what they do with the animals that expire on the savannahs.
Overall, AKL's room service gets a "C". After dinner, we went animal watching for about an hour and then called it a night.
