cottontail
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2001
- Messages
- 3,122
Hello Just back from a ten night split stay at AKL and Poly Concierge.
Loved both of them. AKL: Just a beautiful resort, building lobby fantastic lots of carvings, it is dark though, but that is part of the feel of the resort, the room worked well for us, we had bunkbeds, queen bed, the little wall between the beds and double sinks acted as an area to dressed. We loved the balcony, to rest on watching the animals. My adult daughter was really taken with sitting on the balcony and just watching what was going on in the savannah. We were on arusha savannah, just right of arusha rock, and a watering hole right of our room.
Our first night, I woke up could see flashing lights, thinking a storm was coming in, I put on my eyeglasses looked out to see a huge giraffe, about 15 feet from my balcony, with others snapping pics of it, with three zebra running in circles, just beautiful and magical, this was about midnight.
To me the best time for viewing was at around 7 a.m. the animal handlers come out in a pickup truck and put food out, and up in trees for the giraffes, all the animals are around them. Saw a handler hugging a giraffe, and hand feeding them from the back of his pickup, just a wonderland of animals.
The ankole cattle, kind of got angry at a new patch of tall grasses that took landscape people an hour to plant, they jumped in it, pulled it out with their long horns, quiet amusing to watch, it was almost like they were taking a hissy fit cause something new was on the savannah.
Talked to lots of young people from south africa. We enjoyed it so much here we added a fourth day to our three day stay before going to the poly. Received all of my room requests, which was nice. But I have to agree with others the room is on the small side, but done up very nicely.
The pool area was great, hubby and daughter were swimming the first day watching the giraffes alongside the pool area. Lots of nooks and crannies around the pool to sit and relax, beautiful lush plantings all around.
Did not get a chance to eat at any of the akl restaurants this time. But the food smelled very good.
The poly concierge. A bit of disney magic here, a bottle of champagne, two glasses, and truffles with happy 25th anniversary written in chocolate. A gift basket with lots of treats. Received my request for location room 1532, patio.
Now the room here was alot bigger than the akl, small fridge, beautiful done bathroom, green marble, clean, in fact a new shower liner was put in.
The room when we entered smelled like the carpets had been shampooed, no musty smell in room. The beds were comfortable, queen size, a twin size day bed, that did squeek when daughter turned but very comfortable for her.
We did not get lieys on arriving, I had to go to the main building and ask for them. The woman there was very friendly and gave me one for my son and hubby and said give a big hug to them.
Loved the ducks, bunnies, birds who came to our patio every morning, sometimes quacking, or even knocking on the glass with their beaks, we hand fed them whole wheat bread. The staff in the concierge lounge were tremendous, very friendly, accommodating, the food was enough for two meals a day for us and snacks all day, I would grab a piece of fruit and muffin for my midday snack, if we did a resort day, apples, oranges, bananas, pears available all day. My son and daughter liked the hot oatmeal every morning. The guava juice, just the best.
The 5 to 7 offerings very good every night, penne pasta, grilled chicken breast with salad, chicken chow mein, mexican night tacos, and shushi night had alternate turkey with swiss cheese sandwiches lots of turkey on them, with a large bowl of cut up melons and grapes, and a platter of cut up vegetables. Big bowl of pudding for children, strawberries and sandwiches. The deserts were a nice touch too. Lots of wine and liquors.
Chef Dick made a beautiful display of animals, birds, palm trees out of carved fruit and vegetables. We met chef Dick and chef Leonard, both very nice. Met the famous Scott also, as I said they could not do enough for us.
The grounds are fabulous, lush just beautiful, mommy ducks and baby ducklings in little streams. I have two number one resorts now. We felt the heat of 93 F. really put a damper in our park days, could only tolerate it till about 1. p.m., did more resort days this trip, missed early entry greatly, as I cannot take the heat and I would get alot done on those early entry days. But still had a very nice time. They said it was 10 degrees hotter than normal.
Next time I will go in the 70' F if I can. We added another day to our poly stay, instead of doing universal, as son got sick at disney quest, daughter got sick from a motion ride at wdw, so we felt we would try universal another time kids voted to stay at the poly one more day rather than change resorts a third time.
Bye,
Deb.
Loved both of them. AKL: Just a beautiful resort, building lobby fantastic lots of carvings, it is dark though, but that is part of the feel of the resort, the room worked well for us, we had bunkbeds, queen bed, the little wall between the beds and double sinks acted as an area to dressed. We loved the balcony, to rest on watching the animals. My adult daughter was really taken with sitting on the balcony and just watching what was going on in the savannah. We were on arusha savannah, just right of arusha rock, and a watering hole right of our room.
Our first night, I woke up could see flashing lights, thinking a storm was coming in, I put on my eyeglasses looked out to see a huge giraffe, about 15 feet from my balcony, with others snapping pics of it, with three zebra running in circles, just beautiful and magical, this was about midnight.
To me the best time for viewing was at around 7 a.m. the animal handlers come out in a pickup truck and put food out, and up in trees for the giraffes, all the animals are around them. Saw a handler hugging a giraffe, and hand feeding them from the back of his pickup, just a wonderland of animals.
The ankole cattle, kind of got angry at a new patch of tall grasses that took landscape people an hour to plant, they jumped in it, pulled it out with their long horns, quiet amusing to watch, it was almost like they were taking a hissy fit cause something new was on the savannah.
Talked to lots of young people from south africa. We enjoyed it so much here we added a fourth day to our three day stay before going to the poly. Received all of my room requests, which was nice. But I have to agree with others the room is on the small side, but done up very nicely.
The pool area was great, hubby and daughter were swimming the first day watching the giraffes alongside the pool area. Lots of nooks and crannies around the pool to sit and relax, beautiful lush plantings all around.
Did not get a chance to eat at any of the akl restaurants this time. But the food smelled very good.
The poly concierge. A bit of disney magic here, a bottle of champagne, two glasses, and truffles with happy 25th anniversary written in chocolate. A gift basket with lots of treats. Received my request for location room 1532, patio.
Now the room here was alot bigger than the akl, small fridge, beautiful done bathroom, green marble, clean, in fact a new shower liner was put in.
The room when we entered smelled like the carpets had been shampooed, no musty smell in room. The beds were comfortable, queen size, a twin size day bed, that did squeek when daughter turned but very comfortable for her.
We did not get lieys on arriving, I had to go to the main building and ask for them. The woman there was very friendly and gave me one for my son and hubby and said give a big hug to them.
Loved the ducks, bunnies, birds who came to our patio every morning, sometimes quacking, or even knocking on the glass with their beaks, we hand fed them whole wheat bread. The staff in the concierge lounge were tremendous, very friendly, accommodating, the food was enough for two meals a day for us and snacks all day, I would grab a piece of fruit and muffin for my midday snack, if we did a resort day, apples, oranges, bananas, pears available all day. My son and daughter liked the hot oatmeal every morning. The guava juice, just the best.
The 5 to 7 offerings very good every night, penne pasta, grilled chicken breast with salad, chicken chow mein, mexican night tacos, and shushi night had alternate turkey with swiss cheese sandwiches lots of turkey on them, with a large bowl of cut up melons and grapes, and a platter of cut up vegetables. Big bowl of pudding for children, strawberries and sandwiches. The deserts were a nice touch too. Lots of wine and liquors.
Chef Dick made a beautiful display of animals, birds, palm trees out of carved fruit and vegetables. We met chef Dick and chef Leonard, both very nice. Met the famous Scott also, as I said they could not do enough for us.
The grounds are fabulous, lush just beautiful, mommy ducks and baby ducklings in little streams. I have two number one resorts now. We felt the heat of 93 F. really put a damper in our park days, could only tolerate it till about 1. p.m., did more resort days this trip, missed early entry greatly, as I cannot take the heat and I would get alot done on those early entry days. But still had a very nice time. They said it was 10 degrees hotter than normal.
Next time I will go in the 70' F if I can. We added another day to our poly stay, instead of doing universal, as son got sick at disney quest, daughter got sick from a motion ride at wdw, so we felt we would try universal another time kids voted to stay at the poly one more day rather than change resorts a third time.
Bye,
Deb.
