akamaleficent
No Day but Today
- Joined
- May 14, 2001
we took a super shuttle to the airport at 4:30am. on sat dec 15 we were excited and all smiles while the other three passengers were fast asleep. we had no problem with customs and checking in this early. our flight left at 7:30 and we arrived in orlando on time. we got an Emerald Isle membership through the Disney Club so getting a car was so easy! we went right to the garage, picked out a Mitsubishi Lancer, it was my favorite color, blue, and were on our way.
it is always so exciting to pass through the "gates" into the world. i get choked up every time. we were some of the lucky one's that were upgraded form the pop century resort to AKL. we were very tired so thought we would try to check in early of possible, 12:30, and take a nap. at check in there was a problem with our reservation. we had already paid our balance in full, then a couple of weeks before we left we added on an extra night, and i had sent that payment in as well. at check in we were told that only the deposit of $118 had been put down. that was what i had sent to pay for that last night! we finally figured what had happened was, when i added the one night, they had cancelled the entire reservation, created a new one, and sent a refund check to me for the full amount of the first reservation. i was never told that this was how they had handled things, i assumed that we had just added another night. luckily i had all the paper work with me. we did not have the $598 to spare at this point, so they let us check in and asked if the person checking our mail could deposit the check if it got there while we were gone. we agreed to this and proceeded to our room.
we got re-fillable drink mugs $9.99 and i immediatly got in bed to take a nap, DBF was too exctied so he went for a swim. we had PS at Jiko's for 5:30 so we got ready and went down to eat.
Jiko's was fabulous. we started out with an onion and bacon flatbread that was suggested by our server and it was great. DBF had the chicken dish, which he liked and i had the meat stuffed papaya, which was amazing. and of course we had the chocolate orange candies, they changed the name of them so ask you server and they will know what you are talking about. i had two glasses of white wine which i really enjoyed. i told the server what qualities i liked in a wine and she brought two for me to try. i had one with the appetizer and one with my meal. the atmosphere was great and so was the service.
we were upgraded to a pool view room at check in, we were on the 1st floor and very close to mara, room#1026. we had 2 queen size beds, we used one for sleeping and one to put all the shopping bags,etc. on. we only ate at mara for breakfast once, i had a bagel, DBF had turkey wrap(?). there is a nice lounge over looking the ostrich part of the savanah by the check in desk. they have comfy chairs and a veranda you can go out on to see the animals. the savanah is beautiful and so is pool. the holiday decor was great. christmas-y within the safari style. check out went smooth (12/21), we had not received the check so they billed us later and the check arrived christmas eve.
character caravan, not worth it, there are 4 characters in the lobby, we got white rabbit, queen of hearts, and chip and dale, to me the chip and dale were really like one. it was not very crowded at the 9:10 time however.
we loved our stay at AKL and would call it a toss up between there and WL
it is always so exciting to pass through the "gates" into the world. i get choked up every time. we were some of the lucky one's that were upgraded form the pop century resort to AKL. we were very tired so thought we would try to check in early of possible, 12:30, and take a nap. at check in there was a problem with our reservation. we had already paid our balance in full, then a couple of weeks before we left we added on an extra night, and i had sent that payment in as well. at check in we were told that only the deposit of $118 had been put down. that was what i had sent to pay for that last night! we finally figured what had happened was, when i added the one night, they had cancelled the entire reservation, created a new one, and sent a refund check to me for the full amount of the first reservation. i was never told that this was how they had handled things, i assumed that we had just added another night. luckily i had all the paper work with me. we did not have the $598 to spare at this point, so they let us check in and asked if the person checking our mail could deposit the check if it got there while we were gone. we agreed to this and proceeded to our room.
we got re-fillable drink mugs $9.99 and i immediatly got in bed to take a nap, DBF was too exctied so he went for a swim. we had PS at Jiko's for 5:30 so we got ready and went down to eat.
Jiko's was fabulous. we started out with an onion and bacon flatbread that was suggested by our server and it was great. DBF had the chicken dish, which he liked and i had the meat stuffed papaya, which was amazing. and of course we had the chocolate orange candies, they changed the name of them so ask you server and they will know what you are talking about. i had two glasses of white wine which i really enjoyed. i told the server what qualities i liked in a wine and she brought two for me to try. i had one with the appetizer and one with my meal. the atmosphere was great and so was the service.
we were upgraded to a pool view room at check in, we were on the 1st floor and very close to mara, room#1026. we had 2 queen size beds, we used one for sleeping and one to put all the shopping bags,etc. on. we only ate at mara for breakfast once, i had a bagel, DBF had turkey wrap(?). there is a nice lounge over looking the ostrich part of the savanah by the check in desk. they have comfy chairs and a veranda you can go out on to see the animals. the savanah is beautiful and so is pool. the holiday decor was great. christmas-y within the safari style. check out went smooth (12/21), we had not received the check so they billed us later and the check arrived christmas eve.
character caravan, not worth it, there are 4 characters in the lobby, we got white rabbit, queen of hearts, and chip and dale, to me the chip and dale were really like one. it was not very crowded at the 9:10 time however.
we loved our stay at AKL and would call it a toss up between there and WL
Your dinner sounded great. I'd love to eat there one day.
