Sorry drenkey and Steffi, I didnt see your replies till I posted mine.
Drenkey is there anything youd specifically like to know about? We much preferred the mansions to the AB section but then we dont like brown so we found them a bit drab. I hope I dont get flamed for that, but everyones tastes are different. We thought all the mansions were beautiful and found all convenient to the island crossing over to the food court, etc. But we do enjoy walking so others might think it further!
I used the laundry at POR one pm the bath had a line across it and I bought one from home and everything was dry overnight without using the driers. I was wary of them as I'd read that they sometimes burnt clothes and on a low heat they were pretty ineffective. I was glad I saved my money the air conditioning did the job!
I havent seen the food court at ASMovies which I've heard is the best but I'm sure PORs must be the second best we really liked it. I met a very nice fellow Brit in the laundry and she raved about Boatwrights too they went every day. And she said her family (we dont have children) loved the quiet pool at the mansions. They were in Magnolia Mansion and loved it and POR as much as we did. Cant think of anything else off the top of my head so I hope that helped!
Steffi, the change to POR went as smooth as butter, though the one to AKL wasnt as easy. We ended taking our room requests to both these hotels. At POR, I gave it to Matt who was such a nice man. He sorted everything out there and then and he organised one of our (if not THE) highlights of our trip. I put in our letters that the trip was a combined sixth wedding anniversary and VERY belated honeymoon (this was quite true as my parents had given us money for a honeymoon as our wedding present but for various reasons wed never taken it. It got splurged on WDW!) This made Matt laugh. About a quarter of an hour after we arrived, a CM knocked on the door with balloons and a signed photo from Mickey and Minnie, wishing us a magical stay. We were SO happy! It may have helped that Eliza who took our booking wrote that we were a wonderful couple, please give us a magical time. Eliza was definitely another highlight! We had a LOT of problems booking but she was pure pixie dust!
This is SO long I'd better précis the rest! AKL check in staff were not very good they lacked warmth and were very cliquey. DH wasnt impressed - he has a lot of experience with hotels. The rest of the staff was excellent. Our letter wasnt passed on but our room was perfect anyway, second floor Arusha savanna, perfect view. (Watching the animals from our balcony was definitely a highlight). The check in CM tried to steer us away from it though, to another savanna we knew wasnt as good (birds, air conditioning units, kitchen smells). Very strange. And we werent given the code needed to find out if our room was ready but housekeeping was perpetually engaged anyway. Bell services was very efficient we handed our bags in and they brought them to our room less than a minute after I phoned.
There were many other highlights (especially the mousekeeper at POR) but youve probably all fallen asleep by now. I'm aiming to do trip reports expect them to be l-o-n-g. It was all so magical! Sweet dreams to you all!
Was the food bad-tasting? overpriced? small in quantity? limited menu?
