Time to Pet the Ghosts - A September 2015 Trip Report

[Jess_S]

We're recently back from a two-week vacation including 5 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I'm not ambitious enough to put together one of the amazingly detailed reviews that I enjoyed reading during trip planning, but I'm going to do my best to share some thoughts and impressions that I hope will be helpful to others. Spoiler alerts: WDW was way, way more crowded than I expected, but we still had an enjoyable trip.

Let's start with the background details:

Who: Jess_S (me), DH and Mini-DH (age 2 years and 11 months). I first went to WDW as a five-year-old, back when EPCOT was brand new. We stayed at the Howard Johnson's off-property and my only foggy memory is of a character breakfast near a monorail, so I'm thinking it was Chef Mickey's. I didn't fall in love with Disney until I participated in the College Program back in 2003. Getting a chance to make magic for guests made me appreciate the care and detail that Disney puts into the guest experience. Although I've had many visits to Disney Land over the past ten years, this trip was my first one to WDW since my CP. DH's last trip to WDW was also in 2003 when he visited me during my CP. Mini-DH had never been to WDW, but he is a Disney veteran, having visited Disney Land and done a Disney Cruise. Apparently, he doesn't remember any of it though. Just yesterday, he asked: "Mommy, what is Disney World?"

When: September 12-27

Where: Georgia and Florida, including our new favorite home away from home - AKL

Why: Our original vacation plan was to visit friends in Georgia and Florida, but we needed to break up the driving into manageable chunks so that Mini-DH would not have a melt-down in his car seat. When I looked at a map of Florida to see what was between St. Augustine and Fort Lauderdale, I was delighted to see Orlando pretty much smack in the middle. With the September resort discount and the fact that Mini-DH would not need park tickets, visiting WDW was much more affordable than I expected. I promptly booked a 5 night stay at my dream-resort, Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Trip Itinerary:
September 12: Fly from Boston to Atlanta
September 12-14: Atlanta
September 14: Macon
September 15-16: Savannah
September 17-19: St. Augustine
September 20-25: WDW
September 26-27: Fort Lauderdale
September 27: Fly from FLL to Boston

I'll skip over the non-WDW parts of our trip and pick up next time with arrival at AKL.

To Be Continued . . .

 

[Jess_S]

Day 1: Online Check-In and Impressions of AKL

{pictures to follow}

On our second day in Savannah, the weather turned from glorious sunny to gray and drizzly. But when we woke up on Sunday, the 20th (in a friend's guest room in St. Augustine), it was gloriously sunny and the weather report said there was a zero percent chance of rain in Orlando. Is there ever a zero percent chance of rain in Orlando in September? Clearly, the Disney gods were smiling upon us. We ate breakfast, packed and hit the road by about 11 a.m. Within five minutes of being in the car, Mini-DH and I put our Magic Bands on . . . just in case.

At around noon, while we were still on the road, I received a text stating that our room was ready. I spent some time trying to figure out the view and bed arrangement for room 4350 on the Kudu Trail -- but finally gave up playing with my phone and decided we would just be surprised. At around 1 p.m. we arrived at AKL. The first things we saw were the parking lot and bus area and I had a moment of doubt about whether AKL would be as great as I was expecting. That doubt was put to rest the moment we were welcomed home and stepped into the gorgeous lobby.

Online check-in was seamless. We bypassed the front desk and headed straight to our room. We then tested all 3 Magic Bands and each one opened the door. Finally, we pushed the door open and saw . . .

Two beds, some lamps and other assorted furniture. If you were expecting a giraffe right inside our room, I'm sorry to disappoint. As soon as we were in the room, I made a dash for our balcony, where I was rewarded with a view of several zebras! We had a standard view room, so I was beyond delighted. The area that our room overlooked seemed to be behind a barn where some of the animals slept. Though it was not as pretty to look at as a savannah, we did see animals daily which beats the heck out of the parking lot view that was equally possible. For those interested in our room request success rate, I made two requests: king bed and Kudu Trail, so we got exactly 50% of what we asked for.

Overall, I was very happy with AKL and felt we didn't even scratch the surface of what there was to do and see there. There was, however, one very unpleasant issue with our room. The previous occupants had apparently been ill. How do we know this? Eau de vomit, of course. The bathroom, chairs in the tiny seating area and entry-area carpet all had that distinctive odor. I called three times over the course of our stay to complain about the smell and each time a small area of the carpet or furniture upholstery was cleaned. Because there was never a comprehensive cleaning of the room, the vomit smell was never completely eliminated. I tried to give Disney the benefit of the doubt here, but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed. Not one person I spoke to ever apologized that we were being inconvenienced or expressed the slightest indication that maybe we shouldn't have to smell someone else's vomit in our resort room.

On to more pleasant things. Our first order of business once we were settled into our room was to put on our bathing suits and head down to Mara -- the QS restaurant -- to grab some lunch.

Mara Mini Review​

Atmosphere: Like most of AKL, Mara has an African theme. There are little nods to that in the decor and in the menu (for example, Bobotie is on the breakfast menu). But really, there's not much the differentiates Mara from any other Disney resort QS location. Mara has indoor and outdoor tables, but we always opted to eat by the pool.

Our Order: One Falafel Platter with Fries; One Falafel Platter with Couscous

Rating: The falafel was disappointing. The falafel balls themselves (which were actually patties) didn't have any seasoning to speak of and the toppings weren't enough to add much-needed flavor to the sandwich. The fries tasted like fries and the couscous was the surprise hit of the meal for me (maybe because the falafel was so ho-hum). It had a nice selection of veggies and a pleasant vinegar-based dressing.

Would We Go Back: We wound up returning to Mara during our trip mainly because it's the only QS at AKL. Overall, the vegetarian options other than the falafel were pretty limited, so we tried to eat elsewhere when we could.

 

[hmstinnett1s]

Following along! We were there the same week and thought the same thing- it should have been less crowded!

 

[Jess_S]

Oddly enough, it made me feel better to check the revised crowd predictions during our trip and see that it was actually way more crowded than initially forecast. Until I did that, I was thinking, "If this is a crowd level 6, then there's no way I'd ever come back in the summer." Knowing that it was actually an 8 made the wait times seem less outrageous. I'm curious to see how the crowds this year will impact the discounts offered in the future.

 

[Jess_S]

Last night, I finally started working on my photo album for this trip and it reminded me about how hard I failed at finishing this trip report. Since there's really no way I'm going to be able to do a detailed report at this point, I did want to share a few thoughts I had about what I would have done differently.

Here are the mistakes I made with this trip in no particular order:

• Booking too many ADRs. At almost 3, my son had little to no interest in sitting down for table service meals. Though we only booked 4 over our 5 days, 4 was too many. Until my son is old enough to enjoy restaurant dining, I will stick to no more than 1 table service meal every other day.

• Not sticking to my plan re which parks to visit on which day. My husband decided that he wanted more MK time during our trip, so we went to MK on an extra magic hour day. The difference in crowding between the EMH day and the other day we went according to our touring plans was night and day. That's not to say that we ever had a day with light crowds -- but the EMH day almost made me claustrophobic.

• Not seeing a manager about our vomit smell room. For a few weeks after our trip, I was disappointed in the non-response we got on this issue. As a former CM, I should have known better and gone to a manager the first time the room wasn't properly cleaned. I wouldn't let this issue prevent me from staying at AKL again, but smelling someone else's vomit the whole trip did add a little gray cloud to the experience.

• Not eating breakfast before my 10:30 breakfast ADR. Not eating makes me hangry at home. Why did I think I wouldn't be hangry at WDW? The combo of no eating and bus delays on our way to MK (a 30 minute wait) made for a grumpy morning for me. Then I had my breakfast and magically the rest of the day was fun. Lesson learned, I hope

• Not knowing that only select attractions are open at AK during morning EMH. This was a minor issue, but whenever you don't walk extra in heat and humidity, you win, says I.

And trip highlights:

• Lunch at Tusker House. This was a wonderful experience from start to finish -- and to think I only booked lunch because breakfast ADRs were unavailable. The buffet options were wonderful with so many good things for vegetarians to eat. Our server was wonderful. And my son was delighted to see Donald and "Girl Donald."

• Taking the first train of the day to Planet Watch in AK. My son had the whole petting zoo to himself for a good 20 minutes. He loved having his own herd of goats.

• Agent P's World Showcase Adventure. My son and I had so much fun with this game during our time at Epcot. I'm not sure my son followed the whole plot, but he loved that he was tapping a touch screen and stuff was happening.

• Popping my sleeping son in his stroller, covering him with towel sprayed with OFF and enjoying the lounges at the resort and in Disney Springs. We had never previously thought to go out with our sleeping son in tow before, but knowing that he was welcome pretty much everywhere at Disney made us give it a try. We enjoyed an outdoor concert at Disney Springs, had dinner at Raglan Road and drinks in Victoria Falls Lounge. We just kept my son's stroller facing us so that we could see him and were able to enjoy a drink and actual adult conversation.

• The bus back from Epcot on our first night. We stayed for Illuminations and somehow my son managed to stay up for it. He promptly conked out in his stroller as we slowly exited the park -- as did many other kids. The bus back to AKL was packed, but all of the guests on board worked together to make sure all of the kids and parents holding sleeping kids got a seat. There was a whole row of dads holding sleeping babies and toddlers. Two other dads who had a good leaning spot near the door took all the folded up strollers so that those of us who were standing would be able to hold on. Then they carried all the strollers off the bus and opened them when we arrived. Seeing that many strangers cooperate and help each other was magical.

 

[Jess_S]

And finally, a word of explanation on the trip report title. It came from the following exchange:

DH: Would you like to go on the Haunted Mansion?
Me to DS: Do you want to go? It has ghosts?
DS: Yes!

(10 minutes pass waiting in line)

DS: When do I get to pet the ghosts? (Apparently, he thought they were some type of goat after the previous day at AK).