Just back...the good and the less good

[DisGirl819]

Hi all! I love the "Just back" posts and thought I'd write my own listing the great, the good and the less good (since really, nothing was really bad except one CM encounter...which for a week was pretty darn good).

The great:

AKV-Kidani Savanna View room: totally worth the cost...beautiful views, we saw zebras, ostriches, giraffes, and tons of other animals (antelope and cattle, etc) every single day. The Savanna guides that are stationed on the overlook are amazing, we spent at least 30 minutes talking to them about the animals, where they're from, etc and my 5 yo DD made good friends with one and we talked to her two days in a row.

Eating at Boma: 4 meals there...all of them delicious

Garden Grill: Fantastic character interaction again, the characters really play with kids and with each other, our amazing server Ellyn...we've had her on two different trips now

Liberty Tree Tavern lunch: amazing, yummy...eat the ooey gooey toffee cake

Kilimanjaro Safari: SOOOOO much better this trip than before. My DS loved it and didn't want to get off. Go early morning, all the animals including the crocodiles were active (except the lions)

AKV Kidani pool: great for younger kids and has a great slide

Pirates and Pals fireworks voyage: Fantastic viewpoint of the fireworks! Captain Hook and Smee were hilarious, my DD did the crocodile motions with her arms and Capt. Hook hid behind his arms, she LOVED that interaction.

Hoop Dee Doo: Definitely a MUST do for us. We all loved it.

CRT breakfast: Wonderful meal, it was fantastic. We had a 10:20 ADR which was perfect, it wasn't terribly busy.

In fact, we didn't find anything terribly busy this past week with some things downright empty. We did leave the parks every afternoon as it was just too hot to stick around.

The less good things:

Pirates and Pals party (before the fireworks) was not so great, the food wasn't great and it was really just a big holding room for everyone

DxDDP: Waaaaaay too much food. We left with 23 credits unused

Big tour groups were everywhere, we managed to mostly avoid them, but they bogged down bag check getting into Epcot one day and it made for a LOOOOOONG wait.

It was pretty rainy there, every afternoon/evening, which made plans a bit more tricky with my grandparents (in their 80s).

AKV-Kidani: THE WALKING...I requested a room near the lobby, I got a room in the LAST bunch of rooms away from the lobby...it was a half mile walk to our room from the lobby and about that to Jambo house. It was pretty inconvenient and way more walking than my grandparents wanted to do.

Bus transport from AKV was a pain, we usually stay at BCV and are not used to all that waiting and the long drive to MK (it was nearly 30 minutes one way) and the ridiculously long drive to DTD (nearly an hour one way).

BBB Sofia hairstyle: It is cute, but it fell out after about 4 hours, I had to constantly keep re-pinning DD's hair. I would NOT recommend that hairstyle. Plus the crown was super uncomfortable and she took it off after 1 hour. I wish she would have gone with one of the buns, that was great last time.

 

[patty57]

Glad you had fun. Totally agree about the toffee cake.

 

[disneynanacat]

Thanks for the review! Love just back posts too. I've stayed at AKL several times but this coming trip will be a first at the villas. I request close to lobby too. Lol. Hope we get it. Glad you got to see a bunch of animals. We're only staying last two nights of our time there and I've worked to where we only busing to ak so hopefully not too bad. Although I don't recall buses being too bad on previous stays. Sounds like a great trip and thanks for sharing!

 

[Disco]

Sounds like my stay at the AKL, my room was at the very end of the corridor. It was like a half mile walk to the bus every morning which really stacked up after full days in the park.
I don't know why they stuck the AK stuff so far off on their own because it does make bus trips longer to everything else. And considering there are no other transportation options, it makes it a bit of a pain.
However, I loved the resort so much I think that it was worth it.
Sounds like you had a great trip!

 

[nlm74]

Thank you for posting this. I've been searching the boards about the Sofia doo and have found nada. I switched our BBB to Downtown Disney JUST to get the Sofia package for my DD but looks like I may be switching back to MK.

 

[nikki071406]

Has anyone seen pics of the hairstyle actually done not just the pic of the example?

 

[Reddog1134]

You stayed at Kidani and didn't have a meal at Sanaa?

When we stayed there in 2010, I requested 2nd floor near the lobby. We got 5th floor, end of the hallway (opposite side of Jambo). The only rooms further than ours were the Grand Villas.

 

[Brian_WDW74]

Per the Looking for the Live Report and Just Back Threads? sticky thread, I have moved this thread to the Trip Reports forum.

 

[mattsdragon]

We stayed at Kidani our last trip. Agree with the walking. We were directly in the middle between elevators. . .huge pain. And the shop there is measly.

Sanaa was AMAZING, as was the pool and our view.


Posted from Disboards.com App for Android

 

[DisGirl819]

Sounds like my stay at the AKL, my room was at the very end of the corridor. It was like a half mile walk to the bus every morning which really stacked up after full days in the park.
I don't know why they stuck the AK stuff so far off on their own because it does make bus trips longer to everything else. And considering there are no other transportation options, it makes it a bit of a pain.
However, I loved the resort so much I think that it was worth it.
Sounds like you had a great trip!

We loved the resort too, thats why it was good and not so good. Its worth it to stay there and see the animals, an amazing experience.

Thank you for posting this. I've been searching the boards about the Sofia doo and have found nada. I switched our BBB to Downtown Disney JUST to get the Sofia package for my DD but looks like I may be switching back to MK.

I had to talk the stylist into using some hair gel, they don't even use gel in this style, which is ok if that is what you want but it didn't stay in even with gel.

Has anyone seen pics of the hairstyle actually done not just the pic of the example?

I can post pics of DD after I get them uploaded to my computer

You stayed at Kidani and didn't have a meal at Sanaa?

We did eat at Sanaa...we really disliked it. But Indian food is not our thing, the meal too 2.5 hours and with two young children it was not working in our favor.

Per the Looking for the Live Report and Just Back Threads? sticky thread, I have moved this thread to the Trip Reports forum.

Thank you! I didn't realize there was a separate forum!

 

[nlm74]

I can post pics of DD after I get them uploaded to my computer

Would LOVE to see pics. Maybe I'll try and talk my DD out of it and to just get a reg bun. We have Princess Breakfast the next day and I'm assuming she will want to be dolled up as a princess to meet the princesses.

 

[nikki071406]

That'd be great would love to see pics

 

[Reddog1134]

We did eat at Sanaa...we really disliked it. But Indian food is not our thing, the meal too 2.5 hours and with two young children it was not working in our favor.

I'm not usually adventurous with food so when I like something "unusual" I assume everyone else MUST love it.

 

[DisGirl819]

I'm not usually adventurous with food so when I like something "unusual" I assume everyone else MUST love it.

Haha it was a nice place and the bread service was delicious but it wasn't our style of food. I'm glad there are options out there for every palate but I also wished that AKL/V had one more average dining option that wasn't a buffet. We ate at Boma four times.

 

[wiigirl]

That'd be great would love to see pics