sam_b
I don't even want to think about how much this has
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2002
- Messages
- 96
Hello,
Came back a couple of weeks ago and these are some brief comments on the trip:-
Animal Kingdom Lodge
Cannot fault the theming and it was defintely a jaw dropping moment walking into the lobby.
Had a Savannah view booked and specifically asked at check in not to have a people pen view. The CM assured me that she was looking for a nice room for me. After walking almost to the end of one part of the horseshoe, I raced out onto the balcony and saw...a people pen! I complained and we were moved to a room right on the other side - I wasn't impressed with the view - fences and a dirt track but we decided to sleep on it. Turned out to be one of the best views because it was a feeding station - every morning we saw 6 wildebeest, 3 zebra, 3 giraffe, 3 ankole cattle, assorted antelopes and some bongos and ostrich in the adjoining savannah.
Overall, although I enjoyed my 6 nights there, I would probably not go back - I would be just as happy in Port Orleans.I found the downside to AKL was that you were very aware of all of the other people in the hotel - it was pretty noisy and people shouted and shreiked on their balconies - it wasn't quite as tranquil as I imagined. The food in Boma wasn't very good (considering its a taste of Africa, the food was remarkably American - Prime Rib etc! with a few samples of African dishes) and the food court area wasn't a patch on the moderates. Also, if you stand on the Arusha Outlook at night, you can see right into people's bedrooms - not very private - I'm glad our room was at the end! I think that the moderates generally feel more secluded and peaceful. Also you can walk for miles to get to the lobby and food areas - and you have to walk miles to get to your car if you self park. I thought the shop was good but would liked to have seen some 'Fair Trade' products, I have as suspicion that Disney probably does not pay a fair price for African crafts.
The Hard Rock Hotel was pretty good - the room was nice and we enjoyed the boat ride to Universal. We found that we missed Downtown Disney though and that CityWalk really didn't have much to offer us at night.
We didn't pay any carpark charges - could be because we didn't use the room key to enter? We pressed for a ticket everytime we entered the carpark and used our room key to leave - the $7 per day parking charge never showed up on our bill.
The Hard Rock All Access card worked a treat - cutting out a 90min wait for a table at Hard Rock Cafe and we really enjoyed the FOTL access in the parks.
We thought that Vigin's service had deteriorated - I can understand it post Sept 11th - but I wish that they would acknowledge that they have had to make cuts - it annoyed me that they are hoping that no one will notice that they no longer offer drinks with the same generosity of old! I found it was hard getting even soft drinks out of them. Got exit seats on the way out, but on the way back, even though we checked in over four hours early we couldn't get exit seats. Am happy to report we were not charged for them - I would def NOT pay £50 for them, especially if you get the window exit seat with less room.
Overall it was a great and relaxing holiday - we played lots of mini golf, shopped lots (yes more than my customs limit), enjoyed Disney Quest most evenings and did brief forays into the parks to ride just our favourites.
Came back a couple of weeks ago and these are some brief comments on the trip:-
Animal Kingdom Lodge
Cannot fault the theming and it was defintely a jaw dropping moment walking into the lobby.
Had a Savannah view booked and specifically asked at check in not to have a people pen view. The CM assured me that she was looking for a nice room for me. After walking almost to the end of one part of the horseshoe, I raced out onto the balcony and saw...a people pen! I complained and we were moved to a room right on the other side - I wasn't impressed with the view - fences and a dirt track but we decided to sleep on it. Turned out to be one of the best views because it was a feeding station - every morning we saw 6 wildebeest, 3 zebra, 3 giraffe, 3 ankole cattle, assorted antelopes and some bongos and ostrich in the adjoining savannah.
Overall, although I enjoyed my 6 nights there, I would probably not go back - I would be just as happy in Port Orleans.I found the downside to AKL was that you were very aware of all of the other people in the hotel - it was pretty noisy and people shouted and shreiked on their balconies - it wasn't quite as tranquil as I imagined. The food in Boma wasn't very good (considering its a taste of Africa, the food was remarkably American - Prime Rib etc! with a few samples of African dishes) and the food court area wasn't a patch on the moderates. Also, if you stand on the Arusha Outlook at night, you can see right into people's bedrooms - not very private - I'm glad our room was at the end! I think that the moderates generally feel more secluded and peaceful. Also you can walk for miles to get to the lobby and food areas - and you have to walk miles to get to your car if you self park. I thought the shop was good but would liked to have seen some 'Fair Trade' products, I have as suspicion that Disney probably does not pay a fair price for African crafts.
The Hard Rock Hotel was pretty good - the room was nice and we enjoyed the boat ride to Universal. We found that we missed Downtown Disney though and that CityWalk really didn't have much to offer us at night.
We didn't pay any carpark charges - could be because we didn't use the room key to enter? We pressed for a ticket everytime we entered the carpark and used our room key to leave - the $7 per day parking charge never showed up on our bill.
The Hard Rock All Access card worked a treat - cutting out a 90min wait for a table at Hard Rock Cafe and we really enjoyed the FOTL access in the parks.
We thought that Vigin's service had deteriorated - I can understand it post Sept 11th - but I wish that they would acknowledge that they have had to make cuts - it annoyed me that they are hoping that no one will notice that they no longer offer drinks with the same generosity of old! I found it was hard getting even soft drinks out of them. Got exit seats on the way out, but on the way back, even though we checked in over four hours early we couldn't get exit seats. Am happy to report we were not charged for them - I would def NOT pay £50 for them, especially if you get the window exit seat with less room.
Overall it was a great and relaxing holiday - we played lots of mini golf, shopped lots (yes more than my customs limit), enjoyed Disney Quest most evenings and did brief forays into the parks to ride just our favourites.
I was very interested to hear your thoughts on both resorts - I assumed that as a resort guest you wouldn't pay parking at the Hard Rock.
