I usually do the online check in. I think they do assign those rooms in advance, but, whether they are "better" rooms is questionable. We usually stay at Kidani. When we stayed at spring break, our room was the second to last on the 4th floor on the corridor closest to Jambo. If we had been able to leave the building at the end of the corridor, instead of back tracking, it would have been a five minute walk to the Jambo house lobby. As it was, it was a 10 minute walk to the Kidani lobby.
When we stayed in June, we were assigned a room on the outer curve on the opposite side of the building. As a matter of fact, we had stayed in the room before, in summer of 2010. I almost went back to the lobby to complain, because it is right next to the rooms that were changed from "savanna" to "standard" view. We had a great view of the fence, and could see the humans working quite well most days. There are different animals on the different savannas, and on this particular one, there were various types of antelope and cattle--Thompson's gazelle, another type of gazelle that liked to hide in the trees in front of the human work area, Ankole cattle. They were fun to watch. There were some vultures, and blue herons (which are native to Florida, of course), that would chase the okapi away if they got too close. I think they had a nest there, next to the water hole in the area. So, even theough the savanna wasn't deep, and didn't have the headliner zebra and giraffe, it was entertaining. Our neighbors were also quite entertaining--they thought the okapi was a result of mating between a giraffe and a zebra. I guess they weren't zoologists.
Bill 
