Review of our 1st trip home to AKV

ead79

<font color=#FF0066>Disney Bride!<br><font color=v
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We returned last week from our 1st trip home to AKV. We had a savannah view studio.

I received my first "Welcome Home" at the security shack, which got us off to a nice start. It's the little things, I guess.

After check in, we went up to see our room--room 5214. I saw on the map that we would be on the sunset savannah, which I initially wasn't thrilled with. I was afraid we'd hear construction noise or see very few animals. Fortunately we didn't notice any construction noise, and we saw a nice variety of animals very close up. Though the sunset savannah view isn't as expansive as the Arusha savannah view, we were happy to see so many giraffes so close to our balcony. We also saw ankole cattle, ostriches, and a zebra.

We were pleased with our room apart from a few minor housekeeping issues. There was a sticky substance on the fridge handle (my guess is someone spilled a Coke), and we found someone's left over coffee grounds in the coffee pot, but a quick call to housekeeping had that fixed up no problem. I do hope that they try to be as thorough as possible with housekeeping given that you don't get it daily.

My other minor complaint is the lack of closet space in the wardrobe. For some reason they designed the bar to hold your hangers to only go through half the wardrobe, using the other half for extra bedding and the vacuum. I would've preferred to have the bar extend the whole way to give more room for clothes. We were there for a short stay, and our clothes were a bit of a tight fit. I think they expect you to use the drawers which is fine.

I do have a question about towels for you DVC veterans. When we checked in we had 4 bath towels, 1 bath mat, 2 hand towels, and 3 washcloths. That was just as I expected except for the odd number of washcloths. I have no problem using a towel, bath mat, or hand towel multiple times, but I do like to use 1 washcloth per person per night. I wash my face with one at night, then re-use it in the shower the next day. After that I like a new one. What number of washcloths should we get in a studio for a 3 night stay? We were able to get some brought up with no problem (and no charge, which we would've been happy to pay if needed). Also, I saw a paper towel holder--were we supposed to get a roll of paper towels?

So overall we were very pleased. We're happy we joined DVC, and very happy to own at AKV. We just love the theme there and the wonderful restaurants. In the future I think a one bedroom would be preferable to a studio so we could wash our towels and for more closet space, so I think we'll be creative with using our Starwood Preferred Guest points to stretch our DVC points to get us a 1 BR.
 
We just returned from AKV too. We were probably there at the same time as you. I'm glad you enjoyed your stay. AKV is my wife's favorite DVC resort, so it was our second time there in only 3 months! We love Jiko and Boma, and the whole look and feel of the resort.
 
We were just there the first week of March and had some housekeeping issues also. They never removed a completely full can of trash below the sink from the people who stayed before us. Yuck! I also requested a savannah room that didn't overlook the construction and although we checked in at 10 am and our room wasn't ready until 4 we were looking smack at it. Kind of kills the view.
 
Regarding the washcloths, I would expect you would get four. It may have been an oversight, but also, sometimes one of the washcloths has been turned into a cute little towel animal somewhere. Last time, we had a little creature on our nightstand made from one of the washcloths.

Glad you had a good stay overall!
 

We had some minor housekeeping issues at AKV concierge last week as well. Nothing bad enough to complain about though. I was a bit disappointed in the way the kitchen was arranged though, and they seriously need to reconsider the lighting in the bathrooms at AKV.
 
We returned last week from our 1st trip home to AKV. We had a savannah view studio.

I received my first "Welcome Home" at the security shack, which got us off to a nice start. It's the little things, I guess.

After check in, we went up to see our room--room 5214. I saw on the map that we would be on the sunset savannah, which I initially wasn't thrilled with. I was afraid we'd hear construction noise or see very few animals. Fortunately we didn't notice any construction noise, and we saw a nice variety of animals very close up. Though the sunset savannah view isn't as expansive as the Arusha savannah view, we were happy to see so many giraffes so close to our balcony. We also saw ankole cattle, ostriches, and a zebra.

We were pleased with our room apart from a few minor housekeeping issues. There was a sticky substance on the fridge handle (my guess is someone spilled a Coke), and we found someone's left over coffee grounds in the coffee pot, but a quick call to housekeeping had that fixed up no problem. I do hope that they try to be as thorough as possible with housekeeping given that you don't get it daily.

My other minor complaint is the lack of closet space in the wardrobe. For some reason they designed the bar to hold your hangers to only go through half the wardrobe, using the other half for extra bedding and the vacuum. I would've preferred to have the bar extend the whole way to give more room for clothes. We were there for a short stay, and our clothes were a bit of a tight fit. I think they expect you to use the drawers which is fine.

I do have a question about towels for you DVC veterans. When we checked in we had 4 bath towels, 1 bath mat, 2 hand towels, and 3 washcloths. That was just as I expected except for the odd number of washcloths. I have no problem using a towel, bath mat, or hand towel multiple times, but I do like to use 1 washcloth per person per night. I wash my face with one at night, then re-use it in the shower the next day. After that I like a new one. What number of washcloths should we get in a studio for a 3 night stay? We were able to get some brought up with no problem (and no charge, which we would've been happy to pay if needed). Also, I saw a paper towel holder--were we supposed to get a roll of paper towels?

So overall we were very pleased. We're happy we joined DVC, and very happy to own at AKV. We just love the theme there and the wonderful restaurants. In the future I think a one bedroom would be preferable to a studio so we could wash our towels and for more closet space, so I think we'll be creative with using our Starwood Preferred Guest points to stretch our DVC points to get us a 1 BR.

a towel suggestion.....use the trash/towel service for $15 per day for studios. We use it for about 5 nights of our trip. We get fresh towels every day....THIS is a treat for us. I don't like having to reuse the towels...they never really dry in the humidity.
glad to hear you loved your first stay. ;)
 
We were in an AKV studio March 1 - 8. Loved the views of the Arusha Savannah and just a quick nearby elevator ride to the pool and Mara (cafeteria). My son really enjoyed doing the "bead" activities at the resort and overall it was a magical time. Only two minor complaints. When we checked in there was a towel in the tub. Hopefully it was just one they were using to clean the tub with. :) Also, our studio had a connecting door and we could hear EVERYTHING in the room next door (word for word conversations). Normally we just tried to tune it out, but one night after 11:00 PM when my son was getting upset because he was tired and they were still laughing and talking pretty loudly, I knocked on the wall and they quieted right down. I don't know if this is true for other rooms with connecting door since this is the first time we've had one.
 
Thanks for the report. We're soaking up everything we can in preparation for our first trip home to AKV in October.
 



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