It is indeed a beautiful resort. We didn't get to do as many of the activities at the resort as I would have liked - didn't do the story telling. We did use the night vision scopes. There was always someone in the lobby with something interesting to look at or hear about the decorations.
I did not ask for the upgrade at all. I never even faxed in a request. I did note when we made the reservation that we would like connecting rooms, that's it. When we checked in (early, at 9 a.m.) we asked again for the connecting rooms and were upgraded to the savannah room. Of course the rooms weren't ready that early, but we hit the parks.
As far as the slide, my son (9) loved it. He went down it over and over. It wasn't high at all.
Mara had good food. there wasn't a very extensive selection but the food was good. They had the standards - hamburger, chicken fingers, pizza. They also had a few different selections such as the tandori chicken pizza (very good), African stew (didn't try), and a chicken dish (didn't try). One thing I loved was in the carry and go section, they had pre-boxed desserts of the zebra domes and the chocolate mousse dessert from Boma. Also, in the carryout section they had a prime rib sandwich that is excellent.
HOpe this helps some.
ONe thing I forgot to add about the staff - We received the wrong picture twice from Dinosaur at AK. The ladies in the gift shop were so wonderful about getting this corrected. I had orginally purchased a 5x7. Since it kept getting messed up (the picture they kept printing off was the family after ours), they gave us two 8x10s. Also my son really got into the pin collecting while we were there and one of the ladies helping us told him since he had so much trouble getting his picture she was going to give him two rare pins which she did. She also told not to let anyone talk him into trading those two. I
