the Legend
Master of Attractions and TourGuide Hopeful!
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2001
- Messages
- 347
The Legend returns: Day 5 - Welcome to the Animal Kingdom Lodge!The Cast of 'The Lion King'.
Rob, your 36yo Storyteller, aka The Legend as Mufasa, Ruler of the Pridelands and guide to all the lands the light touches.
Lance, my 30yo Brother as Simba, the ignorant Cub who still need to look before he leaps ... or pounces.Summary for Tuesday 24 September.
- Morning - Breakfast. Check-out of the Wilderness Lodge.
- Visit Amex Centre @ EPCOT
- Visit Downtown Disney for some shopping
- Visit Typhoon Lagoon
- Afternoon - Check-in to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
- Evening - Chill-out at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Farewell Miguel and Wilderness Lodge!We were packed, everything was checked and ready to go. We went out to the Concierge to have our last Breakfast at the Wilderness Lodge. Grabbing our food, there was a large commotion downstairs. Looking over into the Lobby, the Character Caravan was here!
Wow, knowing the Caravan was in its last days, I was sure glad we got to see it in action! Eating Breakfast, we people-watched and recapped the last three days. We had had a great time and looked forward to returning to the Wilderness Lodge one day. The comfort and charm of the hotel had certainly rubbed off on us, but I was also excited about what laid ahead. 
Expectations were high, the Wilderness Lodge had set a standard and we were looking forward to seeing if the other Resorts could better it. Bell Services got our luggage and notified Valet to have the car out front. As we went past the Concierge desk for the last time, Miguel was at his post ready to face the next Guest. As we entered the elevators, some pleasantries were exchanged between Lance and the Bellman. I looked Miguel in the eye. He stared back. And like two Gunfighters passing in the night, I tipped my cap and carried on. Not a word was said. No words were needed. Adios, Amigo! Despedirse de Wilderness Lodge! 
Why I'm a big Softie!First stop for today was the Amex centre @ EPCOT. I wanted to know what the deal was with my credit card especially after the denial at Busch Gardens yesterday. Well to make a long story short, the Amex office only deals with American-issued Amex credit cards.
Foreign charge cards are fine but for their credit cards, you have to consult your local office. Great! 
Well, we decided to push on and go to Downtown Disney. Did some DVD shopping because the Virgin Megastore had a sale on at that time. When we left New Zealand, my recently-separated Sister had just bought a new big screen TV and DVD player. She was going through a 'Reliving-my-life-through-DVD' thing and was building a massive collection. Some titles were still eluding her though, notably '16 candles' and 'Pretty in Pink'. These Molly Ringwald classics were the Holy Grail of DVDs for her, so when the opportunity came to buy them here, I couldnt resist.
I was thinking of doing the big brother thing, you know, holding them ransom and having menial housework performed in exchange but in the end, I just gave them to her. The threat of her bringing over my Nieces, Destroyers-of-all-they-touch, was just too much to cope with. Yeah, Yeah, I know what youre thinking! I'm a big Softie, right? But hey, wotchagonnado?With plenty of time to kill, we continued to look through the stores but never made it past Pleasure Island. It was 1pm, the weather was hot and it was time to swim! So we left DD and headed across the road to Typhoon Lagoon!
Over the Moon at Typhoon Lagoon!This was my second time to Typhoon Lagoon and I find it more relaxing than Blizzard Beach, although BB has the way cooler slides. Getting a locker was easy and we found some good beach chairs at Out of the Way Cay, just south of Shark Reef. Dumped our towels and headed for Castaway Creek.
The Creek was full of empty donuts. Lance and I jumped in and floated all the way around. There were no traffic jams and going by the accents, there were a lot of Britons in the Park. 
Once we had completed a full circle, we went over to the Surf Bay. We started wading out and got to the 4-foot mark when all of a sudden WHOOSH! closely followed by screaming and running. The Wave hit us by surprise but we took it on ... and lost. Lance was knocked off his feet and I emerged from the Pool spitting water like an Italian Statue. We LOVED it! After chasing waves for what seemed like an eternity, we left the pool to search for the Storm Slides. There was no wait and we vitrually walked onto the Slide of our choice. I should've known I was in trouble when I saw the name of the Slides - Jib Jammer, Stern Burner and Rudder Buster. Fearing for the health of my backside, we decided on doing Jib Jammer first.RED LIGHT! GREEN LIGHT! ... Lance away! Weeeeeeee!
RED LIGHT! GREEN LIGHT! ... Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhh!
What a Great set of Slides and I am eternally grateful to Disney for the padded pool bottom!
With the Storm Slides conquered, we decide to finish our TL day with some raft rides like Gang Plank falls. This was the big family raft where the two of could ride together. Now Im not saying that we're big or anything. We're in shape. Round is a shape, right? Well when it came time to push off, our raft wouldnt move. We were grounded. I blame the lack of water beneath us which, despite my our best efforts, wasnt moving this raft. In a desperate move, I sat on the side of the raft and we started moving to the laughter of my Brother and the cheers of the waiting crowd. About then the Heavens gave a repeat performance of yesterdays downpour. There were no lightning warnings so the Park wasnt closing but it seemed people had had enough and decided to call it a day. Not seeing much fun in rafting in the rain, we decided to join the exiting hoarde. After handing in the locker key, I went with the Typhoon Lagoon Mug option for my deposit refund. It was a little after 3pm. We got changed and headed to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. 
Man, Those Guys were smooth!We got our first glimpses of the Lodge as we were driving up the road. It seemed a lot bigger than I thought it would be but I was very impressed with the way the African theme was executed. The Animal Kingdom Lodge shared many design traits with its sister resort, the Wilderness Lodge. It had a large entrance area with several Valet and Bell staff serving the vehicles there, as well as a set of Bus stops, that were quickly accessed via the resorts gift shop, the Zawadi. Except for the themeing, there was very little on the surface that differentiated it from the Wilderness Lodge. The difference, we found was in the staff. The CM's really went out of there way here. They were always cheerful and ready to help.
Our Bellman, Mark, was very friendly without being intrusive. He spent some time finding out about us, where we were from and what our holiday was like to date. His welcome was one of the most amusing, yet comfortable, we would experience on this trip. He had worked at the Wilderness Lodge before coming here. In his own opinion, he liked the Animal Kingdom Lodge better and assured us that we would love it here too. By the time he unpacked our bags, we were talking like two long lost buddies and he offered some excellent pointers for tonights chill out/rest up night at the Lodge.As we entered the Lobby, the day turned to night, "Hey! Who turned off the Lights?"
Wow, it was dark in here but once I adjusted, I found the Lobby was like a big camp out. I enjoyed the ambience. The Animal Kingdom Lodge was fighting tooth and claw for my #1 spot. It would not take long before it won me over and you can blame the great people they have here for that! Bellman Mark had done a bang-up job selling us on the Lodge and he passed us onto CM Claire for Check-in. Now CM Claire must've been here for a while because she knew everything there was to know about the Animal Kingdom Lodge. For our check-in, we got a virtual walking tour of the Lodge as well as recommendations for meals and activities. It was a hard sell without the 'hard' part and it was very enjoyable. After 15 minutes or so, we had our room, an explanation of the savannah name and what animals we could expect to see. Wow, we were so impressed! The Ghost of the Wilderness Lodge Check-in had surely been exorcised! As Bellman Mark, Lance and I made our way to the room, my mind cast back to a TR by Bob NC on these very boards. His Check-in CM, Mark, was smooth and it made me wonder if that was part of the training round here. Well, CM Claire was smooth too. How smooth? She was so smooth, we had walked up the Zebra trail and were standing in front of our room without any way of getting in! Seems after the whole check-in presentation, we had left without picking up our room keys. Bellman Mark let us in and we unpacked a few bags. I turned to Lance as he was looking through the Animal Kingdom Lodge Newsletter, Habari, and said, "Man, that CM was smooth!". I chuckled to myself knowing only me, Bob NC and a few hundred other DIS'ers knew what I meant! The Low-down on our Animal Kingdom Lodge Room!In the continuing quest to answer that question 'How was the room and what was it like?', I've included a few paragraphs to give you the 411:
Location/View: Our Room, 3484, was on the 3rd floor on an offshoot wing of the Zebra trail overlooking the Uzima Savannah. We had booked a Savannah view but didnt get to see much except the occasional Giraffe, Bongo and/or Boks passing by.
Besides that, our room directly overlooked the Spa, so we got to see a lot of half naked people at all hours. Unfortunately, this was not the wildlife we had signed up for. And to top it off, we had to consciously remember to close the curtains because the camera monitoring the balconies was right outside our room. 
If I had booked this room to see the animals then I would have been disappointed. However its close proximity to the Lobby, the Laundry, the Pool, the Spa and the Mara more than made up for any view shortfalls and we were glad to have relatively short hikes to the prime locations at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Furniture/Amenities: Our room came with 2 Queen Size beds, the standard set of Disney resort furniture and a hair dryer. You already know that the room is smaller than most rooms at WDW and that is no understatement. Saying that, we are relatively big boys (Think Boxer proportions) and we got around with no problems however I would not put more than two adults in a room like this. The Bathroom area included single basin and a dual Bath/Shower with a Massaging Shower head that was not as good as the one in our Wilderness Lodge Concierge room.
Mousekeeping: Although I was waiting for my first towel animal, it would not eventuate this stay. The room was always maintained well and they even worked with us on ocassion to find the best times to visit. The staff wre very friendly and the room was always returned to its very best each day.
Overall: If view was a priority then this room failed on all accounts. I did not feel I got my Savannah views worth but was fortunate to score this room using a very good AP rate. However saying this, I didnt think what I saw in the other Savannahs were any better than what we had. In the end, I think it comes down to the Handlers, the Animals and a Guests persistance to watch for animals that really determines whether a room has a good view or not. We were not making it a point to see Animals, so if some appeared we were thankful. On the upside, this room was close to everything and this sure saved some foot mileage. Would I recommend this room? Probably not but it depends on your expectations coming in. For the view, it goes wanting but for the location, its perfect!
The way to a Mans Heart is through his Belly!Needing to get our room keys and feeling a little peckish, we went on the hunt for food. The Mara sounded like the obvious place to go, since I was not in any mood for a full sit-down meal. We decided to start at the Lobby and work our way out from there. We found the ATM, Phones and more importantly, an Internet terminal
, near the entrance to the Kudu trail. We got our room keys and looked at some of the artwork in the Lobby, including that HUGE Ijele mask. We made our way downstairs, past the Victoria Falls bar, to the entrance of Boma. The Ladies of Boma, the Boma hostesses for want of a better name, were in full song. We took some time out to sit down and listen. They had people clapping and they even had some children with instruments join them. There were a lot of PS Floaters around too. You know, these are people with a PS that dont want to check-in a minute earlier or a minute later than the time allocated on their piece of paper. To pass time, they floated around taking in the resort until check in! Making a mental note to visit Boma, either for Breakfast or for Dinner, we made our way outside to the Pool Area. Following the path around, we came to the Mara, the Lodges Food court/Counter Service Restaurant. It was head-and-shoulders above the Wilderness Lodges Roaring Fork.
Like the Food courts at the All-Stars, the Mara uses big TV screens to project the different menu items to the people waiting in line. They also featured a few departures from the regular burger-fries-and-coke menu, such as Casserole served in a bread boule and a Corn and Chicken chowder. I settled down with a refillable mug, the Casserole and the Chowder. I'm not sure what Lance got but he managed to score a refillable mug and a very LARGE plate of food (All up $42.14, Yikes!). It was a great meal and we pretty much decided there and then, that the Mara would receive the rest of our meal business during this stay. My Apologies to the --++< Cult of Boma >++-- and its devout membership, but a conversion to your blind Following would not be occurring this trip. However, we promise to make the pilgrimage next year. After Dinner, we visited the Arcade for some quick games but they had nothing I fancied
so it was back to the room for some Sports and Music videos. All the events of previous days (e.g. the flight, the late night at Pleasure Island on Sunday, last nights football game etc) were finally catching up with us, so it was nice to get to sleep early. Lance wandered off to e-mail the folks back home while I fell asleep to music videos around 9pm. The Legend ratings for Tuesday 24 September.
The Weather continues to rock! Typhoon Lagoon, the Animal Kingdom Lodge in general.
Bellman Mark and Check-in CM Claire. The Ladies of Boma, The Mara. Leaving the Wilderness Lodge. 
Mixed feelings about our Room.Well they've settled into the Animal Kingdom Lodge. What next for our Boys? Read what happens in our next instalment 'The Legend returns: Day 6 - Phew! Phun at PhutureWorld and Phantasmic!'
