LIVE from AKL - FINAL THOUGHTS -

[chocovrdmicears]

Absolutely postively in LOVE with the resort!!!!

Checked in Saturday night - booked a pool view room - got a pool view room and we love it. We are on the Giraffe Trail, second floor - brilliant location! There are some trees blocking the actual view of the pool, but that is just fine with us! We are a 2 minute walk to the pool and a 4 minute walk to the Mara.
The room was super clean when we checked in and Mousekeeping has been fabulous. The kids are LOVING this resort. The have already participated in 2 bead activites...and we spent an entire afternoon at the Pool. Hubby and I got to sit in a lounge chair and relax for a beautiful 4 hours while the kids were enjoying the poolside activities. They played Bingo, had a hula hoop contest, played Mickey/Pluto (Marco/Polo) and a bunch of other fun things..those fabulous CM's at the pool do an amazing job of keeping all the kids happy for hours. They have Movies every night by the Flamingo pond..planning on watching one at some point.
We had 1 dinner at the Mara - I had the veggie flatbread - very good but SUPER salty. DH had the nightly special..ribs with rice and veggies and LOVED them. We have found it to be very clean and the CM's there are very helpful.

If you have any specifics that you need to know..just ask and I will try and answer! We are here until Sunday.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

flyer in the room when we arrived:

Save 35% on Deluxe Villas and Deluxe resorts.

not sure what the details are on mods or values.

dates:

8/5-10/6
10/21-11/3
11/11-11/17
11/25-12/1
12/9-12/15

 

[ashleypmo]

Oooh-- can't wait to read more! We'll be there next spring, and I'm so excited!

 

[jdcthree]

Sounds great! If you get a chance, could you post the daily activity schedule? I would love to see it.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I'll try not to be envious as I am sitting in my living room while missing WDW.
I've never stayed at AKL.
I can't wait to hear more.

I hope the rest of your trip is amazing!!!!

 

[magicLAL12]

chocovrdmicears-

We will be arriving this Saturday evening!
Did you use ME from the airport? I was just wondering how long it took for your luggage to arrive after checking in, if you did!

Your post has made us SO much more excited to get there- only 4 more days for us! How are the buses/transportation?

 

[Rychelle924]

Awesome!' we want to stay there for our trip next December!! Can you see animals from the pool view room?

 

[mmmears]

Glad to hear you are loving your time at AKL -- it's such an amazing resort!!! We'll be there in a few days!

 

[sdkuhn77]

We check in Monday and I do have some questions:

1. How are the busses to the parks? How long does it take to get to parks?
2. How are the mosquitos? Should I bring something to put on the balcony to keep bugs away at night?
3. Anything off the wall we need to bring to make our stay more enjoyable? I have binoculars, but don't if we should bring anything else.

Hope you have a great trip there! I am starting the process of packing but not really motivated. Not even Mickey can get me in the mood to pack for 4 people and load the car up! LOL!

 

[Heather1979]

We check in Monday and I do have some questions:

1. How are the busses to the parks? How long does it take to get to parks?
2. How are the mosquitos? Should I bring something to put on the balcony to keep bugs away at night?
3. Anything off the wall we need to bring to make our stay more enjoyable? I have binoculars, but don't if we should bring anything else.

Hope you have a great trip there! I am starting the process of packing but not really motivated. Not even Mickey can get me in the mood to pack for 4 people and load the car up! LOL!

Aw YAY! OP- enjoy every second of your trip, I loved AKL! I'll try and answer these questions- I was there a month ago...

1. We had pretty good luck with the buses, and mind you, I was there with 2 impatient toddlers. I think one time we had a bus oops where it took about a real half hour for a bus to come. (That's me looking at my watch, not imagining how long we were there). Aside from that one time, we had good service.

2. the mosquitos? I never experienced them. I am from NJ (mosquito country) and I suspect that part of why I didn't have an issue was that we had a Savanna view and the balcony was dark.

3. I'd bring a lighted mirror if you do makeup while there- the hotel was awesome, but our villa seemed pretty darkly lit (if that makes sense).

Have a great time!

 

[sdkuhn77]

Aw YAY! OP- enjoy every second of your trip, I loved AKL! I'll try and answer these questions- I was there a month ago...

1. We had pretty good luck with the buses, and mind you, I was there with 2 impatient toddlers. I think one time we had a bus oops where it took about a real half hour for a bus to come. (That's me looking at my watch, not imagining how long we were there). Aside from that one time, we had good service.

2. the mosquitos? I never experienced them. I am from NJ (mosquito country) and I suspect that part of why I didn't have an issue was that we had a Savanna view and the balcony was dark.

3. I'd bring a lighted mirror if you do makeup while there- the hotel was awesome, but our villa seemed pretty darkly lit (if that makes sense).

Have a great time!

Thanks a ton! I will bring a lighted mirror.

Another question: What is the freezer like in the fridge? We are staying Arusha view Club level, so we just have a regular hotel room. We are bringing our cooler and didn't know if small ice packs would fit in the freezer. Hoping to pack our drinks in a small cooler for the day.

Thanks!

 

[TrinaLovesDisney]

JEALOUS! We will be at AKL for the week of the 4th of July and I'm so pumped! Enjoy yourselves!

 

[KatMark]

Absolutely postively in LOVE with the resort!!!!

Checked in Saturday night - booked a pool view room - got a pool view room and we love it. We are on the Giraffe Trail, second floor - brilliant location! There are some trees blocking the actual view of the pool, but that is just fine with us! We are a 2 minute walk to the pool and a 4 minute walk to the Mara.
The room was super clean when we checked in and Mousekeeping has been fabulous. The kids are LOVING this resort. The have already participated in 2 bead activites...and we spent an entire afternoon at the Pool. Hubby and I got to sit in a lounge chair and relax for a beautiful 4 hours while the kids were enjoying the poolside activities. They played Bingo, had a hula hoop contest, played Mickey/Pluto (Marco/Polo) and a bunch of other fun things..those fabulous CM's at the pool do an amazing job of keeping all the kids happy for hours. They have Movies every night by the Flamingo pond..planning on watching one at some point.
We had 1 dinner at the Mara - I had the veggie flatbread - very good but SUPER salty. DH had the nightly special..ribs with rice and veggies and LOVED them. We have found it to be very clean and the CM's there are very helpful.

If you have any specifics that you need to know..just ask and I will try and answer! We are here until Sunday.

So glad you are loving it; we were there in September and hope to be back there in May 2013 for our 30th wedding anniversary. ENJOY!

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Sounds great! If you get a chance, could you post the daily activity schedule? I would love to see it.

This is the May Activities flyer:

12:30 - Medallion Rubbing in Jambo House lobby
2:00 - African Face Painting in Mara
2:00 - Games poolside *bead activity
3:00 - Pin Trading with the King Pin in Marketplace (M-F)
4:00 - Cultural Tour of Sanaa
4:30 - African Inspired, Disney Designed (paid activity)
5:00 - Music of the Savanna in Sunset Lounge *bead activity
6:30 - African Folktales
7:30 - Cultural Safari Jambo House
8:15 - Primal Parade - Zawadi Marketplace


ANIMAL PROGRAMS
9:30 - Flamingo Acitivty - Flamingo Pond *bead activity
10:30 - Animal Tracking - *bead activity
1:00 - Animal Enrichment *bead acitivity

9:30 Night Vision Animal Viewing

CULINARY
1:00 - Cookie decorating @ BOMA
1:30 - Celebrate with Chekeni


POOLSIDE ACTIVITIES:

The activities start at 1:00 and depending on the day they offer:
BINGO, Disney Trivia, Close Counts (?), Quotables

from 2:00 - 5:00 they have Wildlife Games poolside:
Mickey/Pluto, Critter Roundup, Jenga Challenge, Musical Rings, Hula Hoop contests and some crafts

at 5:00 they have a Pool Party with music, dancing and other games

and at 9:00pm they have a nightly movie. This weeks schedule:
Winnie The Pooh
Homeward Bound
The Muppets
Monsters Inc
WALL-E
The Lion King
A Bugs Life

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Sorry for the late reply - We spent a VERY wet day at MK today - definately not *scattered showers* - it rained most of the day and it rained HARD. Thank God for ponchos and Crocs...still had a fun filled day!

Awesome!' we want to stay there for our trip next December!! Can you see animals from the pool view room?

We cannot see animals from the pool view room - we have spent a lot of time at the various animal viewing areas. We watched some Giraffes have dinner last night. Amazing.

We check in Monday and I do have some questions:

1. How are the busses to the parks? How long does it take to get to parks?
2. How are the mosquitos? Should I bring something to put on the balcony to keep bugs away at night?
3. Anything off the wall we need to bring to make our stay more enjoyable? I have binoculars, but don't if we should bring anything else.

Hope you have a great trip there! I am starting the process of packing but not really motivated. Not even Mickey can get me in the mood to pack for 4 people and load the car up! LOL!

We have a car - so I can't speak about the buses. I will say the drive to AK is literally 4-5 minutes...and the one time I was paying attention it took us about 12-14 minutes from the time we pulled out of the MK parking lot in our car, until the time we arrived at Jambo House
I have not seen a single mosquito here yet. Some other weird FL bugs maybe, but random..nothing I would say requires anything special.
I agree with the PP - the one thing I noticed is that bathroom is dark and the sink/mirror area is not fantastically lit.
I can't think of anything else yet...but based on today BRING PONCHOS AND SHOES THAT CAN GET WET!!

Thanks a ton! I will bring a lighted mirror.

Another question: What is the freezer like in the fridge? We are staying Arusha view Club level, so we just have a regular hotel room. We are bringing our cooler and didn't know if small ice packs would fit in the freezer. Hoping to pack our drinks in a small cooler for the day.

Thanks!

There is no freezer in the fridge.

chocovrdmicears-

We will be arriving this Saturday evening!
Did you use ME from the airport? I was just wondering how long it took for your luggage to arrive after checking in, if you did!

Your post has made us SO much more excited to get there- only 4 more days for us! How are the buses/transportation?

No ME - We always rent a car.


OT: We actually dined of property tonight I know..I know... But this is our first time without the Dining Plan..so we figured we would expand our horizons. Had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes - it is a 10 minute ride from AKL and it was awesome. Super yummy and VERY budget friendly. The whole family loved it.

Tomorrow we are off to AK in the morning..hoping from some SUN so we can spend the afternoon at the pool..then DHS tomorrow night for the first time this vacation!

any other questions..ask away!

 

[Z28KatCar]

So excited to hear more about your trip and maybe see some pictures. We are going to be staying CL at AKL next summer and my DH and I having so much fun planning this trip.

I am very interested in the activities that they offer each day. I would love to hear about them. Do they provide you with a list each day or are they set for the week so you can make plans around them? What movies are they showing at the pond? Sorry for all the question.

Have a great time and thank you in advance.

 

[maryj11]

Wow you are getting so many questions I feel bad for asking another one. I have asked this on here today and got 2 different answers. So I thought I would ask you since you are there and can look.
If we get a ground floor pool view room can we walk out our patio to the pool or do we have to walk down the hall and out ? One person on here said there are rails you cant get over and the other said yes you can walk right out from the patio ?
I hope the rest of your days will be nice and sunny

 

[jdcthree]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post the activities! I appreciate it!

 

[jdcthree]

I am very interested in the activities that they offer each day. I would love to hear about them. Do they provide you with a list each day or are they set for the week so you can make plans around them? What movies are they showing at the pond? Sorry for all the question.

Check post #14.

 

[erinscreen]

OT: We actually dined of property tonight I know..I know... But this is our first time without the Dining Plan..so we figured we would expand our horizons. Had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes - it is a 10 minute ride from AKL and it was awesome. Super yummy and VERY budget friendly. The whole family loved it.

I LOVE sweet tomatoes (also known as souplantation for west coasters). I am enjoying these tidbits as I will be there on Friday! Thanks for sharing