We arrived at AK on Wed., 2/4 about 1:30. What a gorgeous lobby! Mary Lou checked us in and when I asked something about the room, she said they were "pre-assigned." Our room, #5415, was ready so that was great. It was a 1BR Savanna View. The view was spectacular and we were pretty much in the center area, able to see many more rooms to our right and our left. We had a very large balcony, which due to the unseasonably cold weather (25-year record lows) went unused, but we totally loved seeing all the animals right out the window, and squealed like children every time we saw a new one. We dutifully checked off each and every one of them on the guide. It was freezing out there every morning, in the 30's, and it didn't really warm up our whole time there. Because of the weather, we decided to skip the parks that day and just hang around the hotel. It really is magnificent. Having the Deluxe Dining Plan for this leg of the trip let us splurge, so we had dinner at Jiko that night and it was wonderful.
The next morning we found the newspaper outside our door, a pleasant surprise. I didn't think DVC got the paper, but it was outside everyone's room. We had an early breakfast at Tusker House with good food and great character interaction. On Kilamanjaro Safaris there was no music, no Wilson and no Big Red or airplane. When did they change that? It was so cold, I don't think Kali River Rapids was even running. We didn't see any rafts in the water. We got right into the earliest showing of Nemo and it didn't even fill up. That's the first time I ever saw an empty seat there. One time, we actually had to stand in the top row through the entire show. It's our favorite show at AK. We finished up AK by one, and then went to meet our guide at SS to add the four BLT points that I whined about incessantly on a previous post. I never thought we would be able to change from 64 to 68, but I guess we were able to because it was within the ten-day rescind period. First we toured the models and as many others have stated, we really loved them. DH thought the layout of the 1BR made the living area seem so much larger than the BWV, and having the two bathrooms was a real bonus. Our guide came back with the paperwork for the 68 points and said "I know you don't want 100 points, but I just want to let you know about the free three-night cruise." DH did not want to spend the money, but I pointed out how perfect the three night stay at AKV was going and how much better three nights would be than two and I said I wanted to use the money I got when I retired two years ago, so after all that, our guide had to change it again to 102 points. I was super-excited and we were told we would be in the system immediately so we'd be all set to book on Sunday, the 8th. I can't wait to stay there! Later that evening we drove over to the BW for dinner at Flying Fish, and celebrated our new purchase. Just think, we'll be 114 when that contract expires, ha, ha!
Friday morning, we discovered Mara. What a treat! I finally see just what we are missing at the BWV. No wonder everybody complains about the lack of counter service there. We got to use our mugs and have some snacks for breakfast, it was great. Using mugs in the past at BW usually entailed long lines at the bakery, so we never really got any use out of them. What a difference! Next we headed off to MK. We had a fun time as always, then because we had an early Fantasmic Dinner at Mama Melrose's later, we decided to just get some egg rolls to hold us over. It really shouldn't take about twelve minutes to wait on two people, but it did, and then when it was our turn, we were told that we couldn't get the pork and shrimp egg roll as a snack. I pointed out that it's right on the sign that it's included, but we were told because it has "protein," it doesn't count as a snack and the machine cannot count it as a snack. If they just taped over the DP sign, there wouldn't be any questions. Annoying, but we got plain egg rolls and moved on. Overall, the park didn't seem too crowded, but the wait at Peter Pan was 40 minutes or more every time we went by. We drove over to DHS and had dinner at MM. It's not one of my favorites, but it was okay. You no longer line up at Oscar's with the dinner package. You line up with everyone else, then when you get to the top, you give in your ticket and they siphon you off to the right, same seats as always. I didn't remember the "snow" on the steps in Fantasmic and thought maybe the show would be different, but it was pretty much the same as always, except the Indians didn't go on stage and fight. It looked like the men were just fighting with each other. It also seemed like there might have been a few different scenes projected on the water, but sometimes I just imagine that kind of stuff, so who knows? I do know they only had Ariel and Eric come around on the floats even though they still had Belle's and Snow White's music also. Strange!
Saturday morning we had breakfast at Boma. It was excellent. We were sorry to leave AKV as every single cast member we met there was very pleasant and friendly. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would not hesitate to return. (The only negatives: The lighting in the room was very dim, next time we'll bring some 100 watt bulbs. Also, the heat/AC didn't have a turn off button. If the heat got too hot, and you turned it lower, rather than stopping the heat, it turned on the AC. Not what you want when it's 40 outside.)
The next morning we found the newspaper outside our door, a pleasant surprise. I didn't think DVC got the paper, but it was outside everyone's room. We had an early breakfast at Tusker House with good food and great character interaction. On Kilamanjaro Safaris there was no music, no Wilson and no Big Red or airplane. When did they change that? It was so cold, I don't think Kali River Rapids was even running. We didn't see any rafts in the water. We got right into the earliest showing of Nemo and it didn't even fill up. That's the first time I ever saw an empty seat there. One time, we actually had to stand in the top row through the entire show. It's our favorite show at AK. We finished up AK by one, and then went to meet our guide at SS to add the four BLT points that I whined about incessantly on a previous post. I never thought we would be able to change from 64 to 68, but I guess we were able to because it was within the ten-day rescind period. First we toured the models and as many others have stated, we really loved them. DH thought the layout of the 1BR made the living area seem so much larger than the BWV, and having the two bathrooms was a real bonus. Our guide came back with the paperwork for the 68 points and said "I know you don't want 100 points, but I just want to let you know about the free three-night cruise." DH did not want to spend the money, but I pointed out how perfect the three night stay at AKV was going and how much better three nights would be than two and I said I wanted to use the money I got when I retired two years ago, so after all that, our guide had to change it again to 102 points. I was super-excited and we were told we would be in the system immediately so we'd be all set to book on Sunday, the 8th. I can't wait to stay there! Later that evening we drove over to the BW for dinner at Flying Fish, and celebrated our new purchase. Just think, we'll be 114 when that contract expires, ha, ha!
Friday morning, we discovered Mara. What a treat! I finally see just what we are missing at the BWV. No wonder everybody complains about the lack of counter service there. We got to use our mugs and have some snacks for breakfast, it was great. Using mugs in the past at BW usually entailed long lines at the bakery, so we never really got any use out of them. What a difference! Next we headed off to MK. We had a fun time as always, then because we had an early Fantasmic Dinner at Mama Melrose's later, we decided to just get some egg rolls to hold us over. It really shouldn't take about twelve minutes to wait on two people, but it did, and then when it was our turn, we were told that we couldn't get the pork and shrimp egg roll as a snack. I pointed out that it's right on the sign that it's included, but we were told because it has "protein," it doesn't count as a snack and the machine cannot count it as a snack. If they just taped over the DP sign, there wouldn't be any questions. Annoying, but we got plain egg rolls and moved on. Overall, the park didn't seem too crowded, but the wait at Peter Pan was 40 minutes or more every time we went by. We drove over to DHS and had dinner at MM. It's not one of my favorites, but it was okay. You no longer line up at Oscar's with the dinner package. You line up with everyone else, then when you get to the top, you give in your ticket and they siphon you off to the right, same seats as always. I didn't remember the "snow" on the steps in Fantasmic and thought maybe the show would be different, but it was pretty much the same as always, except the Indians didn't go on stage and fight. It looked like the men were just fighting with each other. It also seemed like there might have been a few different scenes projected on the water, but sometimes I just imagine that kind of stuff, so who knows? I do know they only had Ariel and Eric come around on the floats even though they still had Belle's and Snow White's music also. Strange!
Saturday morning we had breakfast at Boma. It was excellent. We were sorry to leave AKV as every single cast member we met there was very pleasant and friendly. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would not hesitate to return. (The only negatives: The lighting in the room was very dim, next time we'll bring some 100 watt bulbs. Also, the heat/AC didn't have a turn off button. If the heat got too hot, and you turned it lower, rather than stopping the heat, it turned on the AC. Not what you want when it's 40 outside.)
