Wanyama Safari and Dinner

[JESSketeer]

Hello!

Has anyone ever tried the Wanyama Safari and Dinner at AKL? I was reading into it and may be interested in trying it out. For those of you who have done this, is the experience worth it? What exactly does the Safari Tour include? Would you recommend it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[TDC Nala]

Yes I would recommend it.

Should mention that it is open only to guests of the Animal Kingdom Lodge or Villas, including DVC members. Guests staying at club level get a discount, but you don't have to be staying club level. If they don't fill it up they sometimes offer slots to guests staying at club level in other resorts. The Wanyama Safari is not available on the Disney Dining Plans.

It's also restricted to children age 8 and older. Parents who want to do it may consider sending younger kids to Simba's Cubhouse.

When I did this, the Villas/Kidani section did not exist, so it was a tour only of the AKL savannas in an open vehicle. You get up close and personal with the animals. The dinner is served family style at Jiko, using items from their regular menu. You eat with the other guests on your tour (the guides don't stay and eat). Dinner includes wine for guests over 21 who want wine.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We thought it was incredible, and well worth the price! Would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[Midnyghtchilde]

I did this for my honeymoon in September 2010 and it was fantastic and I would do it again in a heart beat.

As has been pointed out, its only open to AKL guests, but you don't have to be concierge or any special level to do it.

The tour is limited in size to I think 12 people. It may seem odd to have dinner with a bunch of strangers, but it just works out with Disney magic. We all met in the lobby for our tour - they start in the mid afternoon and its an early-ish dinner. The Safari part was somewhere around 1.5 hours or so and it is lead by 2 of the keepers who work the hotel savannahs. They are incredibly knowledgeable and you'd expect and share all kinds of interesting facts about the animals they care for. The tour actually starts in the Kidani village savannahs and then winds its way back through all 4 Savannahs. There is 1 Savannah at Kidani you don't get to enter - or at least, we didn't, because it houses some animals that need more peace and quiet, and some ground hornbills who are too friendly with the vehicle (we were told they like to jump on the vehicle and under it and thus they cant drive without worrying about the birds. Said bird then ran to the fence, with a bug in its beak, and tried to give it to our truck. As we rolled along, the hornbill followed us against the fence all the way until we were out of site - so he is rather overly friendly!). There are lots of photo ops and the giraffe's especially come right over to the truck - or the truck will drive right over to them!

If you like close ups with the animals and talking to the keepers, its an amazing tour. I'm a zoologist by degree (but dont use it in my job ) so I loved it. Dinner at Jiko was delicious but it is done semi-family style - all of you are at one table. And they give you copies of the menu for the night to take with you when its done. The chef comes out a few times and explains the dishes and what some of the ingredients are and how the wine pairings match up. It was a very nice night and we really felt it was well worth the cost when we went for the amount of attention we got.

 

[dopeynme]

Not to hijack the OP's thread, BUT......

DH and I are doing this tour on Monday and we can't decide....should we video or use still camera? Might be nice to have photos of and with animals....but video would capture the experience.

One of each is not an option, I am a terrible photographer and I get excited and forget to take pictures!

 

[MartDM]

We thought it was well worth it and will be back to do it again when DS is old enough. We really loved the close up interactions with the animals and the opportunity to ask the guide lots and lots of questions about how they care for the animals, etc. We also learned a lot about the individual animals as well - our guide shared many great stories about several of the animals and their unique personalities.

As for PPs question about pictures, that's a tough call. The ride is bumpy so taking still pictures would be tough except when the vehicle is stopped, which is only sporadic. But, if you are too excited to take pictures at that point anyway, you'll miss your shots. Plus, if you are so busy taking pictures, you might miss the experience itself. I'd say this is more of a video type of encounter. You're probably not going to get many amazing shots anyway with a still camera but you'll want that video to remember the experience by IMO.

The dinner was an incredible chef's tasting/wine pairing with the best of everything on Jiko's menu. With the exception of one couple the folks on our tour were very interesting and lovely dinner companions (the couple in question were body builders and tediously spent the whole meal analyzing the caloric content of each dish and bragging about their physiques they wouldn't eat anything offered by the chef & demanded plain poached chicken and steamed veggies only...Really? Why bother??) . Most of us reveled in the gluttony and overindulgence of the experience

 

[JESSketeer]

Not to hijack the OP's thread, BUT......

DH and I are doing this tour on Monday and we can't decide....should we video or use still camera? Might be nice to have photos of and with animals....but video would capture the experience.

One of each is not an option, I am a terrible photographer and I get excited and forget to take pictures!

That's a great question!! Feel free to ask whatever you'd like!

Enjoy your safari dinner

 

[JESSketeer]

Thanks everyone! We are planning on staying at AKL so I definitely think the Wanyama Safari and Dinner will be a must do!! Super excited!

 

[OhThePain]

We did this on our first night last trip, shortly after I proposed to my now fiancee and I have to say this was one of the all-time great WDW experiences, IMO. Everything from being out on the savannahs, the great guide, the awesome service and the fantastic feast at Jiko made it a real standout experience. While it is not cheap, we felt that for everything that it is it was a great deal.

The only things I would recommend doing is to not do it on your arrival night. I lost a lot of sleep in the 180 days leading up to the meal just dreading something going wrong that would cause us to miss it. That would be a nice amount of $$$ down the drain. With that being said, my other suggestion is to do it early in your trip. You learn a lot about what you will be able to see and hear out on the savannahs durring your stay and a lot of the people who were on the safari with us were leaving in the following day or 2 and said they wish they had done it earlier in their trips.

 

[JESSketeer]

We did this on our first night last trip, shortly after I proposed to my now fiancee and I have to say this was one of the all-time great WDW experiences, IMO. Everything from being out on the savannahs, the great guide, the awesome service and the fantastic feast at Jiko made it a real standout experience. While it is not cheap, we felt that for everything that it is it was a great deal.

The only things I would recommend doing is to not do it on your arrival night. I lost a lot of sleep in the 180 days leading up to the meal just dreading something going wrong that would cause us to miss it. That would be a nice amount of $$$ down the drain. With that being said, my other suggestion is to do it early in your trip. You learn a lot about what you will be able to see and hear out on the savannahs durring your stay and a lot of the people who were on the safari with us were leaving in the following day or 2 and said they wish they had done it earlier in their trips.

First and foremost, congratulations on your engagement, what a great way to celebrate!

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely keep in mind that we should do it early in our trip! After reading everyones thoughts, this sounds like such a great experience you can't miss!!

Just to get an idea, and to help budget out this trip, around how much did this experience cost? The official Disney site states over $60 per person, but if I could get a better idea of the cost, it would help alot!!!

 

[TDC Nala]

As of 11/21/11 the price is reported as $190.64 per person including tax and gratuity.

 

[ChloroFiend]

That sounds about right. We did it the first week of January (Marathon Weekend) and had an amazing time. We had some great guides, excellent animal encounters, amazing food, and some really enjoyable people along on the tour.

I was somewhat skeptical at first but it ended up being one of the better experience we've had at WDW.

 

[FirstTimeDisneyVisit]

going to have to start saving up some more ! but this sounds amazing !

 

[Midnyghtchilde]

That sounds about right in price. I think when we did it a few years ago it was about 179$/each. Considering the multi-course dinner with wine pairings, the price really isn't bad.

I also second the suggestion to do it early in the trip but not the first day. You learn a lot and can use it for better animal viewing while you're staying there. It will also show you Kidani's savannahs and you'll want to walk over there later (its only like 5-7 minutes away walking) and view them again!

@MartDM - oh my! Those dinner companions would have driven me nuts! I agree, why bother?! We had a lovely dinner with an older group who were celebrating an anniversary and a birthday - he was 97 years old! They made the whole table guess his age - no one guessed over 70! One other couple was an anniversary and we were our honey moon, so we had a lot of great conversations. It was a great experience. I just remember the desert wine was phenomenal and harissa is a new favorite spice in my house since then!

 

[Midnyghtchilde]

Oh and for photos... I used my still camera, which is a Nikon d40. I brought some lenses but ended up primarily using a zoom because it was a nicer lens. A lot of people on my safari had just point-n-shoot cameras. The truck rolls pretty slowly and stops often for pictures, so still cameras work fine.

But if you tend to forget to snap the pictures then maybe video is better :-D

The hardest part of the whole safari was not touching the animals that were *right there* in arms reach beside the truck!!

 

[JESSketeer]

That sounds about right in price. I think when we did it a few years ago it was about 179$/each. Considering the multi-course dinner with wine pairings, the price really isn't bad.

I also second the suggestion to do it early in the trip but not the first day. You learn a lot and can use it for better animal viewing while you're staying there. It will also show you Kidani's savannahs and you'll want to walk over there later (its only like 5-7 minutes away walking) and view them again!

@MartDM - oh my! Those dinner companions would have driven me nuts! I agree, why bother?! We had a lovely dinner with an older group who were celebrating an anniversary and a birthday - he was 97 years old! They made the whole table guess his age - no one guessed over 70! One other couple was an anniversary and we were our honey moon, so we had a lot of great conversations. It was a great experience. I just remember the desert wine was phenomenal and harissa is a new favorite spice in my house since then!

That sounds great, getting to share the experience with such nice people! I hope to have good company too when we go!!

 

[JESSketeer]

Oh and for photos... I used my still camera, which is a Nikon d40. I brought some lenses but ended up primarily using a zoom because it was a nicer lens. A lot of people on my safari had just point-n-shoot cameras. The truck rolls pretty slowly and stops often for pictures, so still cameras work fine.

But if you tend to forget to snap the pictures then maybe video is better :-D

The hardest part of the whole safari was not touching the animals that were *right there* in arms reach beside the truck!!

My boyfriend's godmother is actually letting us borrow her still camera, which I am so excited for!!! I will hopefully get some amazing shots!

If the animals really do get that close, I have no idea how I'm going to stop myself from reaching out!!!