The Good, The Bad, & the Nuts! ...ANYONE GOING MAY 8-15?

[All7OfUs]

You've found some phenomenal savings, Tanya!! WOW!

Sounds like a "Marv-elous" Meet is in the works. Hope you get a few more takers as well. And you are going to LOVE your solo time!! IT's the BEST!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

I booked my room for my last 2 nights. The only studios available were old key west, Saratoga, and animal kingdom lodge-savannah view. I passed on OKW because we've already stayed there many times. Then I passed on akl because I will still have the scooter and everything requires a bus from there. So I went with Saratoga because I could always catch a boat or take the path over to downtown Disney. Now I am rethinking my choice. I will really only be gaining one day. Danny and the boys won't leave until sat evening. I will have all day Sunday to myself, then Monday I will have to catch magic express to the airport late morning. I'm wondering whether I could fill a day at the lodge without going anywhere. I could sleep in, watch the animals (actually not something I see myself spending a lot of time doing), hang out by a pool, and eat at one if the restaurants that my husband would never eat at.

I also checked my flights again online and saw that my flight down went from 137 to 94. I wasn't sure if airtran credited for price decreases, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Ten minutes later I had a 43 credit. I have to use it by February, but if I decide to pay to pick my seat instead of waiting until 24 hours before I can use it towards that too.

So the trip is coming together

 

[Flossbolna]

I booked my room for my last 2 nights. The only studios available were old key west, Saratoga, and animal kingdom lodge-savannah view. I passed on OKW because we've already stayed there many times. Then I passed on akl because I will still have the scooter and everything requires a bus from there. So I went with Saratoga because I could always catch a boat or take the path over to downtown Disney. Now I am rethinking my choice. I will really only be gaining one day. Danny and the boys won't leave until sat evening. I will have all day Sunday to myself, then Monday I will have to catch magic express to the airport late morning. I'm wondering whether I could fill a day at the lodge without going anywhere. I could sleep in, watch the animals (actually not something I see myself spending a lot of time doing), hang out by a pool, and eat at one if the restaurants that my husband would never eat at.

I also checked my flights again online and saw that my flight down went from 137 to 94. I wasn't sure if airtran credited for price decreases, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Ten minutes later I had a 43 credit. I have to use it by February, but if I decide to pay to pick my seat instead of waiting until 24 hours before I can use it towards that too.

So the trip is coming together

If you can change your reservation, I would highly recommend to go with AKL! It is such a beautiful resort and you can easily spend a whole day there without going to a park. There are several outlooks form where you can see the animals and there are always cultural representatives from Africa stationed there to talk to about the animals or about their homecountries. There is a culinary tour in the afternoon at Jiko and Boma. There is a "cultural safari", a talk by a CM about his/her African homecountry in the evening and all kind of other activities as well. Both the Kidani and the Jambo House pools are wonderful places to hang out at and you can use the walking path between Kidani and Jambo with your ECV without having to go on a bus. I think AKL is the one resort which is truly a destination in itself!!

 

[englishrose47]

As an Ex Don't GET it person!!I have to say it only took 1 trip to convert me !!I actually remember telling Judy "Do I have to go with you "Then once I knew I had no choice the natural planner in me found the Dis and the rest is history !!By the time we went I was well prepared and Judy was very impressed with my planning skills !!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

As an Ex Don't GET it person!!I have to say it only took 1 trip to convert me !!I actually remember telling Judy "Do I have to go with you "Then once I knew I had no choice the natural planner in me found the Dis and the rest is history !!By the time we went I was well prepared and Judy was very impressed with my planning skills !!!

Well, you are obviously smarter than the people referenced in my previous post! . It baffles me that people can experience Disney and not feel the magic. . I guess every one of those people who doesn't get it and doesn't go back won't be in line ahead of me.

 

[mom3sonstt]

If you can change your reservation, I would highly recommend to go with AKL! It is such a beautiful resort and you can easily spend a whole day there without going to a park. There are several outlooks form where you can see the animals and there are always cultural representatives from Africa stationed there to talk to about the animals or about their homecountries. There is a culinary tour in the afternoon at Jiko and Boma. There is a "cultural safari", a talk by a CM about his/her African homecountry in the evening and all kind of other activities as well. Both the Kidani and the Jambo House pools are wonderful places to hang out at and you can use the walking path between Kidani and Jambo with your ECV without having to go on a bus. I think AKL is the one resort which is truly a destination in itself!!

Uh......I changed it yesterday. i checked the points and it was only 5 more than Saratoga, but about 10-15 less than I thought BW or BC would have been. I thought about the fact that Danny will never want to eat at any of the AKL restaurants, and that after nearly two weeks down there I will probably be ready for a day of just hanging out before I have to go home again. Now I need to decide if I want to book boma for breakfast on Sunday, sleep in, have a late leisurely breakfast and explore the resort all day. Or if I want to book it as my going away meal on Monday.

Danny was surprised I changed....he thinks I won't like being out there. We stayed there one other time and it felt like we were so far from everything, but there was "nowhere for him to eat", and we were there for a short time in December and were trying to hit all the parks to check out the decorations. Plus we were there with friends who travel at a much slower pace than we do. It's time to give it another chance.

 

[Flossbolna]

Uh......I changed it yesterday. i checked the points and it was only 5 more than Saratoga, but about 10-15 less than I thought BW or BC would have been. I thought about the fact that Danny will never want to eat at any of the AKL restaurants, and that after nearly two weeks down there I will probably be ready for a day of just hanging out before I have to go home again. Now I need to decide if I want to book boma for breakfast on Sunday, sleep in, have a late leisurely breakfast and explore the resort all day. Or if I want to book it as my going away meal on Monday.

Danny was surprised I changed....he thinks I won't like being out there. We stayed there one other time and it felt like we were so far from everything, but there was "nowhere for him to eat", and we were there for a short time in December and were trying to hit all the parks to check out the decorations. Plus we were there with friends who travel at a much slower pace than we do. It's time to give it another chance.

Great!! I hope you will like it! I can understand that with an ECV the busses are a pain, but otherwise I never found AKL too secluded. Yes, you can't see another resort from there. But once you are on the bus it goes direct without another stop at other resorts.

Where are you staying: Jambo or Kidani? And which kind of view did you get? When are you leaving on Monday? Maybe an early lunch at Sanaa might be a nice last meal as well?

 

[mom3sonstt]

Im staying at Jambo with a savannah view. I won't have Dany's "good" camera, but I will have a decent camera so hopefully the animals will "perform" for me! When we stayed before it was at Kidani, but the restaurants I wanted to try were at Jambo, so when the CM who switched me said she had both available, I went with Jambo.

I know in theory AKL is so far away from everything - but, yeah, the scooter adds to the sense of isolation. We'll have to see how I do all week, maybe I can sneak off somewhere without it.

I assume I will be picked up around 11 ish. My flight leaves at 2:30 - so if they pick up 3 hours early it would be 11:30. That's why i was considering my Boma breakfast that day. But since I have to pack up and check out I don't want to feel rushed either.

 

[glennbo123]

It's great to see that you'll be staying at AKL. I hope you'll love it as much as we do!

 

[Flossbolna]

I think Jambo will give you more the feeling of being at a resort that is worth it to stay at for a full day.

You might want to consider to ask for a specific view, there are three different savannas at Jambo. When you look at the park map, you see that the largest part of the building is kind of U-shaped with the lobby at the bottom of the U. the wing to the left is Kudu trail and the wing to the right is Zebra trail. The savanna inside the U is Arusha savanna, the one to the right of the U (this is the one that is shared with Kidani) is Sunset savanna and the one to the left is Uzima. On Sunset and Uzima the savanna does not come all the way to the building, there are so called "people pens", evacuation areas for hotel guests in case of fire etc, which have to be kept seperate from the animals of course. Therefore many people prefer Arusha. But we really liked our Uzima view because you did not see another building in the background, only trees. Sunset has become much nicer and larger since they built Kidani and it is very popular now as well.

Another idea might be to request a room on Zebra trail close to elevator due to mobility issues since this will give you easy access to the pool and Mara.

If you are thinking about tackling a park without the ECV from AKL I would suggest DHS: At least when we stayed at AKL in 2010, the AKL bus stop was closest to the entrance and the walk from to the turnstiles seems to be the shortest of all parks. And DHS does not require much walking in general.

 

[All7OfUs]

Great to see you going with Jambo! I think there looks like enough to do there that you can come up with something to photograph or see, or experience without even leaving that often. You'll have a great time!!

 

[englishrose47]

One Day I will stay at AKL !!!!It is the only Deluxe I would be interested , and the only moderate is POFQ ! AKL just because of the Animals and POFQ cuz it is small and I don't like the big spread out ness of so many others !!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

It's too hard tp multi quote on this thing so I'm not gonna try.

Glenn: I'm hoping I like it too! We did stay at kidani before, and other than a little parade through the lobby one time, I didn't notice much in the way of activities. I'm hoping that staying at the "main" lodge will have more going on.

Magdalena: does DVc cover all of the savannas? I knew it was a regular (non-DVc) resort first, then they converted some of the rooms. But I guess i thought they just did it in one area. . For no more than I'll be there I doubt if I'll requests certain area. I can spend some of my time checking out the other savannas from the other viewing areas.

I'll probably waver back and forth about visiting a park that day until I wake up that morning. It will also depend on how I get along with the buses throughout the trip. If I feel comfortable enough I may go ahead and take the scooter with me. That's the good thing about going solo.....I don't have to really plan ahead!

Liesa: I sure hope so! I made a comment to Danny about not having his good camera (big ol nikon with extra lenses and stuff) and he said that I would still have a good one. So hopefully I'll come up with a few good shots.

Rosie: i hope you can get to AKL sometime too. I was never interested in staying anywhere but old key west. It was our home resort, it has the largest rooms of all the DVc resorts, and you can park right in front of your door. Then they reopened the tree houses and we just HAD to stay there. On that trip we were at the studios our last night and mark wanted to go to epcot. We knew there was a way to walk from one to the other, so Danny took him in search of the way. That's when they discovered boardwalk and beach club, and how easy it was to get to the 2 parks from there. So that's where we've been staying since then. Once I break free from the scooter I'd like to try wilderness lodge. Bay lake doesn't really interest me, unless we go for a short trip around Halloween sometime then we could walk over to mk for the Halloween party. But we've seen the model rooms and the modern decor just doesn't feel like home. We have stayed at port Orleans before....and would again if we had to pay for our rooms.

 

[mom3sonstt]

Little more trip news. Mark finally decided to ask his friend, so it looks like well be a party of 5. Adam went with us in 2008 (old key west) and 2009 (tree houses), he couldn't go last year because he had some family stuff going on that he needed to be home for. That means it's a good thing I booked my flight home while the price was cheap, because now with the 4 of them in the car, there is no room for me.

I was also able to change my only ADR from 4 to 5. Right now I have us booked for supper at the garden grill on marks 18th birthday. This used to be a must do meal for us, but they cancelled breakfasts so we switched to lunch, then they cancelled lunches! this will be our first time trying it for supper.

 

[All7OfUs]

If breakfast and lunch were Must-dos for your family, then I'd venture to guess that dinner will be just as nice for you! Glad you got a better time slot.

 

[mom3sonstt]

If breakfast and lunch were Must-dos for your family, then I'd venture to guess that dinner will be just as nice for you! Glad you got a better time slot.

. By changing from 4 to 5, I meant by adding Adam to our group. Our reservation time went from6:35 to 6:40.

Since it's marks birthday, I'm hoping that the characters get the message and antagonize him sufficiently.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

It's too hard tp multi quote on this thing so I'm not gonna try.

just hit the button next to the quote button for each one that you want to reply tooo, its that easy...
after you click on it click on the next one you want and so forth, then hit reply on the bottom or hit quote on the last one and type back to the people.

 

[All7OfUs]

. By changing from 4 to 5, I meant by adding Adam to our group. Our reservation time went from6:35 to 6:40.

Since it's marks birthday, I'm hoping that the characters get the message and antagonize him sufficiently.

ooooooh... sorry, my bad.

I get it now, really, I do

 

[mom3sonstt]

just hit the button next to the quote button for each one that you want to reply tooo, its that easy...
after you click on it click on the next one you want and so forth, then hit reply on the bottom or hit quote on the last one and type back to the people.

I can do it ok on the coputer - but on the ipad everything is a hassle. Even quoting a long quote is a pain because I cant scroll down to the bottom of it I have to "trick" it. Multi quoting would be just too much trouble.

 

[mom3sonstt]

ooooooh... sorry, my bad.

I get it now, really, I do