Chuckdaddy
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
- Messages
- 65
We are winding down our first trip to Kidani. It's been an action packed week and we are taking it easy tonight before our drive back to Atlanta, so I thought I would share my thoughts with you.
First, the disclaimer. Only my DW and I made the trip. We are in our early 40s and have owned DVC for about three years. Our home resort is BWV, which we bought primarily for use during F&W. We have previously stayed at BWV and SSR.
We originally planned to leave home on Sunday, stay somewhere along the road that evening, and then get up and drive to AKV on Monday. However, excitement got the best of us so we decided to drive all the way to WDW on Sunday. I called member services about 4:30 p.m. on the way down and the only studio availability they had was at SSR. I was surprised that there wasn't anything at AKV or OKW, but that's what the guy said. So, we ended up in a studio at SSR on Sunday night, which was fine. We stayed in the Grandstand section. There was plenty of parking, and it looked like that section was hardly occupied. The room was clean. No complaints. I drove over to Artists Palate to pick up dinner. We had a flatbread and a sandwich. It was late when we finished, so it was off to bed.
We awoke Monday morning and drove over to Kidani. We walked up to registration about 10:30 a.m. and were very pleasantly surprised to learn that they had a savanna view studio ready for us. We thought that we would have to drop the bags with bell services and then kill a few hours before getting a room. Our room was #7964 and overlooked the Sunset Savanna.
We had some very good food while here, and some not as good. Monday we drove over to DTD to do a little shopping, pick up our annual passes, a TIW card and have lunch. I was surprised to learn that we were getting 20% discounts at WOD and just about everywhere we could get an annual pass discount. This held true throughout the entire trip, both in the parks and in the resorts. I thought it was a 10% discount on merchandise, but we just kept getting 20%. After shopping, we ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe. It was OK, but not as good as it had been on past trips. Later that night we went over to California Grill and had a delicious meal in the bar area consisting of a yellowfin tuna dish and a flatbread, along with a few drinks. Since we were running a little close on time and since we didn't want to fool with changing busses, etc., we took a cab from Kidani. It was about $25 with tip, one way. On the way back, we rode the monorail around the lake and then took a bus from MK to AKV. Took an extra 20 minutes or so, but really not too bad.
Tuesday we got up and went to MK. The crowds were pretty light. We rode a few rides and then got a turkey leg for lunch. My DW loves them and had been looking forward to it all day. As it turns out, we think the turkey leg tried to extract its revenge on us. My wife got sick within 30-45 minutes of eating it, and my (normally iron clad) stomach got pretty rumbly as well. We ended up stopping at just about every restroom on the way to the first aid station on Main St. They gave her some immodium, which seemed to help, but we decided to return to AKV as a precaution. It was a good thing we did, as she got worse before she got better. We did tell Disney about the suspected turkey leg, but they really didn't seem to pay much attention. Thankfully, her illness was pretty short-lived. Tuesday night we ate at Sanaa. We absolutely loved the bread service and dips. We had naan, onion kulcha and prantha breads. They were dipped in some type of red chili sambal, tamarand chutney and hummus. All very delicious. The main dishes (chicken tandoori and red curry chicken) were both good, but the bread was the bomb. We also had it delivered once through room service, and it was just as tasty.
Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom. There was a 10 minute wait for Everest. Love that coaster. It was a lot of fun. We also saw the Flights of Wonder show, which is very entertaining if you've never seen it. It's funny and the birds are magnificent. We used a fastpass for the safari and got some good pictures there. Wednesday evening we ate at Kouzzina. DW and I are Food Network fans, so we were interested to eat at a Cat Cora restaurant. Unfortnately, we didn't feel the food lived up to her reputation. It wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good, but it just wasn't great and definitely didn't make us go "wow." I really would have rather had the old Spoodles menu.
On Thursday, our plan was to make up for the missed half-day at MK because of the turkey leg. So, we were set to go to MK in the early morning and then EPCOT later in the day. We were at MK by about 8:30 a.m. It was pretty cold for the whole trip, with lows in the 30s or 40s, so that early in the morning it was certainly chilly. But, the MK was awesome. We went in and rode Space Mountain first. It was my first trip on it since the refurb. I have to say that I miss some of the old touches, particularly the flying asteroids (my DW calls them "flying cookies") overhead in the final part of the line. We had a 20-30 minute wait for Space Mountain, then we went over and rode the cars at the racetrack (another 15 minute wait). After that, we walked over to fantasyland and never had to wait more than 3-4 minutes to ride anything. We rode Peter Pan, then jumped right over to Small World. No wait for either of them. We rode Haunted Mansion, then Pirates. Still no wait. It was insane. We had so much fun just darting from ride to ride. We left the MK for EPCOT and lunch. We walked all around the world showcase and ate in Japan for a very nice lunch. I was disappointed that the Malestrom was closed for mechanical problems, but we rode the boat ride in Mexico (again with no wait at all - not that it gets really crowded, but still nice to have no wait). We must have walked miles upon miles on Thursday, so we came back to AKV to refresh before dinner. I drove over to the Dolphin and we at at Todd English's Bluezoo. The service there was great. We had a tuna tartar appetizer and a half-dozen oysters that were very fresh. The main reason we came, though, was to try the sticky soy glazed fried lobster. We split one for our entree. We had high hopes, because our apps were each so delicious. Ultimately, the lobster fell short. It was a two pound lobster, that they pull the claw and tail meat from, then batter and fry it in chunks which are then tossed in a sticky soy glaze. Imagine sort of a General Tsu chicken dish from your local chineese joint, but made with lobster instead. It was good, but did not any more than that. The meat was a little tough and it was on the edge of being undercooked. Again, good but not any more than that, which is a shame for a $60 entree.
Today, we got up and made our way to DHS. It was the first time we really had an issue with bus service during our trip. Bus upon bus upon bus came and left for every other park, but we probably waited 30 minutes in the chilly air before our bus came. Previously, I debated driving over to the park, and I wished that I had done so. Once we got to the park though, all was good. I really love DHS. The art deco buildings really appeal to me, and Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith coaster are two of my favorite rides. We walked right in to the coaster. No more than a 5 minute wait. That ride rocks. So much fun. After that, we went to TOT and waited about 10-15 minutes to ride it. Really not bad at all. Following that, we walked around the park, did a little shopping and started getting hungry (see a recurring theme here). Our feet and legs were really beat, particularly from yesterday, so we just came back to the room for a nap. One of the nice things about DVC is that we know we'll be back, so we don't feel like we have to commando through the parks. I drove over to Jambo tonight to pick up dinner at The Mara and bring it back. We had the 1/2 chicken and a flatbread. Both excellent.
Now for my wrap-up thoughts:
On a positive note, we had plenty of animals to view from our balcony all week, and that was pretty neat. Lots of cattle, zebra and giraffe. That is one of the big reasons we wanted to give AKV a visit, and we were not disappointed. Got lots of good pictures. We also loved the underground parking close to our room. Our "complaints" for the trip basically mirror many that you have probably read before. The walk from the lobby to our room was long, and there was another building farther out than ours. From the lobby elevator to our room was 385 steps (I actually counted it once). After a long day of hoofing it in the park, you feel the distance. Also, it's just a pain to have to walk almost a 1/2 mile roundtrip to go pickup something at the lobby (or whatever). I also feel it was a mistake to omit a counter service restaurant here. Sanaa is great and room service is nice, but sometimes you just want a CS option like The Mara. This place is big enough for one.
I had one issue with maintenance that never was resolved. The HVAC unit made a metallic "bang" sound about every 20 minutes. I can't figure out why, but it was noisy enough to wake me up a couple of times. I called maintenance, but they didn't fix it. They came, but must not have stayed long enough to hear it. It was fairly bothersome, but not so much that I was willing to pack up and switch rooms.
My take on Kidani is that it is a great choice for families or folks who want to be out there "on their own." We did not use the pool, but it looked very nice and would be great for kids. In our case, DW and I don't have kids and really like being more centrally located, which is why we bought at BWV. For us, Kidani is just too far from everything, even with a car available. Don't get me wrong, it is a lovely resort and I'm glad that we came and tried it once, but I don't think we'll be staying here again. For others in a different situation, I can see how this would be a first choice.
First, the disclaimer. Only my DW and I made the trip. We are in our early 40s and have owned DVC for about three years. Our home resort is BWV, which we bought primarily for use during F&W. We have previously stayed at BWV and SSR.
We originally planned to leave home on Sunday, stay somewhere along the road that evening, and then get up and drive to AKV on Monday. However, excitement got the best of us so we decided to drive all the way to WDW on Sunday. I called member services about 4:30 p.m. on the way down and the only studio availability they had was at SSR. I was surprised that there wasn't anything at AKV or OKW, but that's what the guy said. So, we ended up in a studio at SSR on Sunday night, which was fine. We stayed in the Grandstand section. There was plenty of parking, and it looked like that section was hardly occupied. The room was clean. No complaints. I drove over to Artists Palate to pick up dinner. We had a flatbread and a sandwich. It was late when we finished, so it was off to bed.
We awoke Monday morning and drove over to Kidani. We walked up to registration about 10:30 a.m. and were very pleasantly surprised to learn that they had a savanna view studio ready for us. We thought that we would have to drop the bags with bell services and then kill a few hours before getting a room. Our room was #7964 and overlooked the Sunset Savanna.
We had some very good food while here, and some not as good. Monday we drove over to DTD to do a little shopping, pick up our annual passes, a TIW card and have lunch. I was surprised to learn that we were getting 20% discounts at WOD and just about everywhere we could get an annual pass discount. This held true throughout the entire trip, both in the parks and in the resorts. I thought it was a 10% discount on merchandise, but we just kept getting 20%. After shopping, we ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe. It was OK, but not as good as it had been on past trips. Later that night we went over to California Grill and had a delicious meal in the bar area consisting of a yellowfin tuna dish and a flatbread, along with a few drinks. Since we were running a little close on time and since we didn't want to fool with changing busses, etc., we took a cab from Kidani. It was about $25 with tip, one way. On the way back, we rode the monorail around the lake and then took a bus from MK to AKV. Took an extra 20 minutes or so, but really not too bad.
Tuesday we got up and went to MK. The crowds were pretty light. We rode a few rides and then got a turkey leg for lunch. My DW loves them and had been looking forward to it all day. As it turns out, we think the turkey leg tried to extract its revenge on us. My wife got sick within 30-45 minutes of eating it, and my (normally iron clad) stomach got pretty rumbly as well. We ended up stopping at just about every restroom on the way to the first aid station on Main St. They gave her some immodium, which seemed to help, but we decided to return to AKV as a precaution. It was a good thing we did, as she got worse before she got better. We did tell Disney about the suspected turkey leg, but they really didn't seem to pay much attention. Thankfully, her illness was pretty short-lived. Tuesday night we ate at Sanaa. We absolutely loved the bread service and dips. We had naan, onion kulcha and prantha breads. They were dipped in some type of red chili sambal, tamarand chutney and hummus. All very delicious. The main dishes (chicken tandoori and red curry chicken) were both good, but the bread was the bomb. We also had it delivered once through room service, and it was just as tasty.
Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom. There was a 10 minute wait for Everest. Love that coaster. It was a lot of fun. We also saw the Flights of Wonder show, which is very entertaining if you've never seen it. It's funny and the birds are magnificent. We used a fastpass for the safari and got some good pictures there. Wednesday evening we ate at Kouzzina. DW and I are Food Network fans, so we were interested to eat at a Cat Cora restaurant. Unfortnately, we didn't feel the food lived up to her reputation. It wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good, but it just wasn't great and definitely didn't make us go "wow." I really would have rather had the old Spoodles menu.
On Thursday, our plan was to make up for the missed half-day at MK because of the turkey leg. So, we were set to go to MK in the early morning and then EPCOT later in the day. We were at MK by about 8:30 a.m. It was pretty cold for the whole trip, with lows in the 30s or 40s, so that early in the morning it was certainly chilly. But, the MK was awesome. We went in and rode Space Mountain first. It was my first trip on it since the refurb. I have to say that I miss some of the old touches, particularly the flying asteroids (my DW calls them "flying cookies") overhead in the final part of the line. We had a 20-30 minute wait for Space Mountain, then we went over and rode the cars at the racetrack (another 15 minute wait). After that, we walked over to fantasyland and never had to wait more than 3-4 minutes to ride anything. We rode Peter Pan, then jumped right over to Small World. No wait for either of them. We rode Haunted Mansion, then Pirates. Still no wait. It was insane. We had so much fun just darting from ride to ride. We left the MK for EPCOT and lunch. We walked all around the world showcase and ate in Japan for a very nice lunch. I was disappointed that the Malestrom was closed for mechanical problems, but we rode the boat ride in Mexico (again with no wait at all - not that it gets really crowded, but still nice to have no wait). We must have walked miles upon miles on Thursday, so we came back to AKV to refresh before dinner. I drove over to the Dolphin and we at at Todd English's Bluezoo. The service there was great. We had a tuna tartar appetizer and a half-dozen oysters that were very fresh. The main reason we came, though, was to try the sticky soy glazed fried lobster. We split one for our entree. We had high hopes, because our apps were each so delicious. Ultimately, the lobster fell short. It was a two pound lobster, that they pull the claw and tail meat from, then batter and fry it in chunks which are then tossed in a sticky soy glaze. Imagine sort of a General Tsu chicken dish from your local chineese joint, but made with lobster instead. It was good, but did not any more than that. The meat was a little tough and it was on the edge of being undercooked. Again, good but not any more than that, which is a shame for a $60 entree.
Today, we got up and made our way to DHS. It was the first time we really had an issue with bus service during our trip. Bus upon bus upon bus came and left for every other park, but we probably waited 30 minutes in the chilly air before our bus came. Previously, I debated driving over to the park, and I wished that I had done so. Once we got to the park though, all was good. I really love DHS. The art deco buildings really appeal to me, and Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith coaster are two of my favorite rides. We walked right in to the coaster. No more than a 5 minute wait. That ride rocks. So much fun. After that, we went to TOT and waited about 10-15 minutes to ride it. Really not bad at all. Following that, we walked around the park, did a little shopping and started getting hungry (see a recurring theme here). Our feet and legs were really beat, particularly from yesterday, so we just came back to the room for a nap. One of the nice things about DVC is that we know we'll be back, so we don't feel like we have to commando through the parks. I drove over to Jambo tonight to pick up dinner at The Mara and bring it back. We had the 1/2 chicken and a flatbread. Both excellent.
Now for my wrap-up thoughts:
On a positive note, we had plenty of animals to view from our balcony all week, and that was pretty neat. Lots of cattle, zebra and giraffe. That is one of the big reasons we wanted to give AKV a visit, and we were not disappointed. Got lots of good pictures. We also loved the underground parking close to our room. Our "complaints" for the trip basically mirror many that you have probably read before. The walk from the lobby to our room was long, and there was another building farther out than ours. From the lobby elevator to our room was 385 steps (I actually counted it once). After a long day of hoofing it in the park, you feel the distance. Also, it's just a pain to have to walk almost a 1/2 mile roundtrip to go pickup something at the lobby (or whatever). I also feel it was a mistake to omit a counter service restaurant here. Sanaa is great and room service is nice, but sometimes you just want a CS option like The Mara. This place is big enough for one.
I had one issue with maintenance that never was resolved. The HVAC unit made a metallic "bang" sound about every 20 minutes. I can't figure out why, but it was noisy enough to wake me up a couple of times. I called maintenance, but they didn't fix it. They came, but must not have stayed long enough to hear it. It was fairly bothersome, but not so much that I was willing to pack up and switch rooms.
My take on Kidani is that it is a great choice for families or folks who want to be out there "on their own." We did not use the pool, but it looked very nice and would be great for kids. In our case, DW and I don't have kids and really like being more centrally located, which is why we bought at BWV. For us, Kidani is just too far from everything, even with a car available. Don't get me wrong, it is a lovely resort and I'm glad that we came and tried it once, but I don't think we'll be staying here again. For others in a different situation, I can see how this would be a first choice.
Very interesting... I could just picture every location and situation you were describing. Gosh, its been since May and I miss Disney! We are headed to AKL in about a month, then switching to BCV for the remainder of the stay. The most dissapointing part of your story was absence of the flying cookies at Space Mountain. Boo. We have chuckled about those for YEARS. Sad to hear those silly things are gone even though they were... silly. They definately looked like big cookies and we enjoyed guessing when was was coming up next as we waited in the long line. I broke the news to my kids and they let out a big OH NO...not the cookies!!! By the way....did the "rockets" you sit in change or are they the same? Thanks for sharing again.
