Our 'Ohana is Making a Splash on Safari: Reporting LIVE from...AKL (8/6)

[iloveeeyore]

AKL is somewhere we've dicussed possibly staying one day, if we ever decide to diverge from the Poly. I'm just not sure we could! (props to you for having the strength to leave! ) From what you say it sounds awesome!

Yes it is hard to leave the Poly, but if it means spending more time in WDW I will do it! We are really enjoying it here and it is so richly themed, like the Poly, I believe most Poly lovers would really enjoy AKL. Their are ways in which it is better but many in which it is not so good. I will do a full comparison when I get home but let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We arrived out at Rafiki's Planet Watch by about 10:30 and the vets were just finishing a diagnostic bronchoscopy on a baby gazelle who bad been injured and has suffered some complications including consolidation in one o her lungs. Then we saw a short exam and blood draw on a pelican with muscular atrophy and low bone density of the left leg. They are tryin to determine the cause and think it might be a bone infection. It is so cool to watch these procedures and hear the vets explain how they take care of the animals. Seriously, this is probably our family's very favorite thing to do at AK after EE. You can go right up to the area where they load the train and ask what procedures are scheduled for the day. Make sure they radio over and ask, because the schedule changes based on new problems arising.
Affection section is also nice and Herd loves llamas so he was in his glory petting Dusty.

We got back to Africa by about noon and did a few more things before leaving the park. It surprised me that there was a pretty long line of people headed to AKL so I guess the bus hadn't been by for a while. We waited about 10 minutes and then 2 buses came at exactly the same time. We stopped at Kidani on our way back so it took about 8 minutes to get to Jambo.

We had a delicious lunch at the Mara, swam, watched animals, grabbed some refreshment in the lounge, and rested before heading downstairs for the wanayama safari.

 

[iloveeeyore]

The Wanayama safari was fantastical! We checked in at Jiko at 3:45 for our 4:00 safari and were given ice cold bottles of Dasani water. We met our guides who escorted us to our safari vehicle. There were twelve of us, three families, each with 2 children. Everyone was very nice and thrilled to be there. All o the kids were in the same general age range which was especially nice for them. Our guides were Amanda who has special knowledge about Sunset and Pembe savannasand Jennifer who is an expert on Arusha and Uzima. It was great to be with them for 90 minutes and they shared lots of stories about individual animals. For example, poor Bubba, one of the ankole cattle om Arusha, keeps his head tilted to the side. We now know that this is because a few years ago he had an ear infection that affected his equilibrium. Despite months of antibiotics and even removing his inner ear, he is still crooked. He's eating and behaving fine though and they tried keepin him in the barn for a while but he got depressed.

We were so close to the animals it was amazing! One-eyed Mary the ostrich even came over to peck us. Very cool!

Dinner at Jiko followed and it was outstanding. Delectable. Unforgettable! Such a gorgeous restaurant, beautiful ambiance and lovely company. And the FOOD! It was one of the best experiences EVER!

 

[iloveeeyore]

This morning was a late start morning before world showcas afternoon/ eve. We were excited to try the beading activity for teens/adults in Simbas Playhouse. This activity is scheduled on saturdays and tuesdays 10-1. It was tons of fun. Belle and Hedcules each made a bracelet and I made a pretty ankle bracelet. The cost is $1.50 per inch and we spent about an hour. There were lots of beads to choose from and you could make pretty much anything you wanted. We loved it!

 

[iloveeeyore]

After the beading as were ready to head to Epcot. We got to the bus stop at 11:13 and waited 16 minutes for a bus. In the time we waited, we saw 2 buses for AK, 2 for MK, 1 for DHS and 1 for DTD. Once we were on the bus it only took 13 minutes to get to Epcot. We were at world showcase with fastpasses for soarin' before noon.

We decided this would be a great time to try la cava de tequila. I was disappointed to learn that the margarita flight is not available on weekends! Oh, well, I had to pick just one. It would be the blood orange one for me. Aladdin had a tequila shot served inside a hollowed out lime with a homemade shot of sangrita on the side and some interesting seasoned salt. We also ordered some tapas for the table. Everything was delicious and we loved spending about an hour in the beautiful environment. We also did our last two KP countries, France and England, and saw some of the street shows. We wanted to see Sergio in Italy, but he doesn't perform on Saturdays. Our favorite is serveur amusant in France. We were so hot and tired and decided we needed to get out of Epcot. (Though it was very hot the past few says, it has cooled off considerably from last week). Our dinner was at FF on the boardwalk but not until 6:05. We grabbed a quick cheese plate and baguette from France and headed over to the friendship boat dock. We waited a out 10 minutes for one to come, and after it did we waited another 10 minutes sitting on the boat waiting for it to depart. The ride itself was about 5 minutes. We knew it would have been much faster to walk, but we were just done with walking for the day. By the time we arrived at boardwalk, our batteries felt a bit charged, and we were able to walk its length and also rent a surrey bike for 4! His was $22 for the half- hour and we were able to cruise around Crescent Lake 3 times. We probably had enough time to go around once more if as really worked hard, but if was still pretty hot and we were getting tired and sore now. There are some little hills around that lake and peddling a party of 4 up some of those hills can be a little tough. It was fun, though!

As decided to check out he inside of the boardwalk, and we asked the concierge if it would be possible foe us to look at an unoccupied guest room. She showed us a beautiful corner room and it was very big and airy, reminding us how small our room here at AKL feels. The room was great but the resort not so much our style, so we don't think we would rank it high on our list of places we'd love to stay. If we stay in that area (and we hope we can some day), we would prefer YC for SAB or S/D for nurse rates.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

This morning was a late start morning before world showcas afternoon/ eve. We were excited to try the beading activity for teens/adults in Simbas Playhouse. This activity is scheduled on saturdays and tuesdays 10-1. It was tons of fun. Belle and Hedcules each made a bracelet and I made a pretty ankle bracelet. The cost is $1.50 per inch and we spent about an hour. There were lots of beads to choose from and you could make pretty much anything you wanted. We loved it!

I wonder if they do beading at the Poly or if that is an AKL activity? My DD would be in heaven if she could bead necklaces on vacation

 

[bwmmfan]

subing

 

[iloveeeyore]

I wonder if they do beading at the Poly or if that is an AKL activity? My DD would be in heaven if she could bead necklaces on vacation

There is no beading activity at the Poly; as far as I can tell, this is unique to AKL. However, almost every day the Poly hosts an "Island Arts and Crafts" activity in the Neverland Club...whether or not this sometimes consists of beading, I'm not sure.

subing

Thanks for reading!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Hi, everyone! We are home now . Soooo sad to leave WDW, but I have to say, it was probably our bestest trip EVER! So many wonderful events and fun activities!

Sorry my posts were sometimes short and I didn't stay very up-to-date. This was because my phone, snazzy as it is, really drains its battery fast, and most of the time we were living in the moment. I would take my time to update my report sometimes when I was on a bus, or waiting for an event to begin, but most of the time in those situations I was taking the time to hold Aladdin's hand or talk to one of my kids. We don't always have time to share intimate moments like that and I wanted to capitalize on every opportunity.

But I will try to fill you in now on our last few days..

 

[iloveeeyore]

So Saturday evening after the surrey bike and exploring the Boardwalk Resort area, we were able to check into Flying Fish cafe. We were given a beeper and told that they would be seating people in 10 minutes, and that the beeper would work everywhere on the boardwalk. We elected to just find some benches and sit to enjoy the view (did I mention the surrey bike was kind of tiring)? We were beeped in 10 minutes flat, and went into the FF, which is a gorgeous, whimsical restaurant. It reminds me very much of Jiko in flavor, with Jiko being similar but more elegant and less whimsical. The whimsy worked beautifully on the boardwalk, we really loved the decor. Our server was Tim, who was terrific, always there when we needed something without being intrusive. Our food was very good, also, with the winners of the night being the mussels appy (we licked the bowl clean...well we used bread mostly, but that sauce was out-of-this-world!) and the scallops and strip steak entrees.

After dinner we walked back to Epcot, did a few attractions that were still open, and then found our place for our last chance to view IllumiNations (third time of the trip, we love this show). We stood behind the roped off area at the entrance to world showcase so we could make a quick exit. The show actually started several minutes late, we were wondering what the problem was, thinking maybe there was an electrical storm in the area? Turns out, the globe was having technical problems. It wasn't rotating at all, and in the end, it didn't open for the torch inside to light. This was a little disappointing but we didn't mind too much since we had seen it twice already. I actually kind of liked that the globe wasn't rotating, I was able to see the images on it much better.

We boarded the bus which was waiting at the stop, and continued to wait until the bus was really jam-packed. I guess from the time it started moving it took a little less than 25 minutes to get back, because we had to stop at kidani first. I know we were back before 10, because when I went up to the lounge for a drink, the desserts were still out, maybe for another 5-10 minutes or so. I was still full from dinner at Jiko earlier in the evening, but I admit I tasted the caramel cheese cake, it was delicious!

We went to bed early that night because we had to get up a little extra early..had to be in the lounge between 6:30 and 6:45 for our Sunrise Safari!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Sunday, 8/8 - Kilamanjaro Sunrise Safari and AK

So we got to the club lounge at around 6:45 where we checked in and each received one of these:

a bright orange bracelet that says Kilamanjaro Sunrise Safari (I'm still wearing mine, it is a stylish souvenir!).

We had some coffee and juice and then went down to the lobby and gathered in front of the giant Igbo mask for a head count, and were lead onto 2 Disney transport buses that would take us through some backstage areas on the way to the back door of Africa and onto the safari ride. They brought us in this way so we wouldn't have to walk all the way through the park, I suppose, but Disney does not like taking guests through backstage areas so much, and they did mention that they would appreciate us not taking any photos until we were back on-stage. We filled almost 2 safari ride vehicles, maximum I believe was 64 (whatever the number fills 2 vehicles) and our group was just a few short of this. We had to wait several minutes at the vehicle loading area, and then once aboard, we were taken on about a 1.5 hour tour of the African savanna.

This tour was amazing! Our guide was Mel, who was so great! The weather was perfect for the event, overcast (a rainy day predicted) and not too hot, and most of the animals were very active. We were able to watch 4-month-old elephant Luna playing with her mom for a while. That was my favorite part, as I love elephants and those babies are just so cute. We also got very close to both white and black rhinos, giraffes, vultures, crocodiles, zebras, hippos, sable, okapis lots of other types of birds. We saw the lions, they were very mellow up there on their rock, but we got to see them, which hasn't always happened for us on the regular ride. I loved that the vehicle would stop any time we asked, and we could take tons of pics and ask questions, which were always thoroughly answered.

After the ride, we walked to the Pizzafari restaurant, where we had a nice buffet, with many types of breads and fruit, scrambled eggs and an omelette (didn't like those) a few types of sausages, bacon, ham with pineapple, potatoes, french toast sticks, fried banana french toast, fried plantains. The chef came out and welcomed us and explained all the food. There was a nice woman sitting next to us with some kind of dietary restriction and she had many people come out and explain what she could and couldn't eat; they fixed her some special pancakes.

Overall this was a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to anyone!

We stayed in AK for a while, got a chance to do the Nemo show during the rain storm, then enjoyed E:E again (oh, BTW, Yeti is NOT working, we got the Disco version only, and he has been down for "quite some time" per Mel. There is no intention to fix it until the ride gets its rehab, which is not scheduled any time soon), Maharaja jungle trek before the next storm, Flights of Wonder for our first time ever. If you are like us, and you always skip FoW, see it! It is short and very great! My kids were pretty amazed by this show. We did a little shopping on Discovery Island then headed back to AKL for some R&R and packing before dinner at Boma. Mostly, I hung out in the lounge, Aladdin did some packing, Belle and Herc took naps. Deep-sleep kind of naps. Had to shake them to rouse them kind of naps.

Boma was the meal we were all probably least excited about. We had been there before on a "bad" day. Mostly a bad day for us, not the restaurant, but we had been hesitant to give it another try. I have to say this was the happiest surprise of the trip. WE LOVED IT!!!! Everything was so delicious and each of us found something different that was our favorite and we wanted more of. My favorite course was the salads (except the watermelon rind salad, which disgusted me last time and I didn't want to take any chances, even though it looked a lot more appealing this time), Aladdin loved the meats, Belle was really into the soups and Herc liked the side dishes, espcially the fufu and the corn/spinach pudding which we all agree was yummy yummy!

After our delicious dinner we had to take one more dip in the pool and soak in the hot tub, since the next day was MK all day and packing day. Well the rain storms of the day had apparently left the hot tub quite littered with debris, and the scoop-neck top of my one-piece bathing suit was evidently acting as a skimmer for all this debris, and when I took my shower I came to discover, amongst other things, a giant dead ant in my bathing suit! EEEWWW! TRAUMA! I haven't quite recovered. I think they're taking the theme of this resort a little far with the giant ants in the pants!

 

[bjakmom]

EWWWW!
We will be checking into AKV Kidani in only 2 weeks
Not staying CL this trip, but we have done Sunrise Safari on two previous trips and we also LOVED it - my pictures from SS are fabulous! Glad to hear Boma is still top notch - we will be celebrating DGrDs 7th b'day there. DNeph and DGrD always adore the CMs from Africa who run the kid's programs - they have always been so wonderful.

 

[MainStreetFireman]

You found so much time to post responses to questions and update your thread, and, yet, it did not hamper our vacation one bit. Not even once did it interfere with dinner, or an attraction, or one single family moment.

On the contrary, it seemed to enhance our enjoyment of what we were experiencing. We had found so much help on the DISboards that your desire to "give back" was very sweet and eadearing. I loved it when you would announce that you wanted to stop in some place to get an answer to a questions from "one of your Disney peeps".

It truly was a great trip. Your "investigations" were just more Disney adventure for our family to enjoy.

Just sad that we couldn't bring the Red River hogs home from AKL...

 

[iloveeeyore]

You found so much time to post responses to questions and update your thread, and, yet, it did not hamper our vacation one bit. Not even once did it interfere with dinner, or an attraction, or one single family moment.

On the contrary, it seemed to enhance our enjoyment of what we were experiencing. We had found so much help on the DISboards that your desire to "give back" was very sweet and eadearing. I loved it when you would announce that you wanted to stop in some place to get an answer to a questions from "one of your Disney peeps".

It truly was a great trip. Your "investigations" were just more Disney adventure for our family to enjoy.

Just sad that we couldn't bring the Red River hogs home from AKL...

That is soooooo sweet, Aladdin! You were so supportive of my every whim, from the very beginning of the planning, and you never once seemed irritated when I was posting. It's great to know that you weren't just humoring me! You ARE the BEST (even now that we are home)!

And about those Red River Hogs...we COULD get a doggie...just kidding!

 

[iloveeeyore]

EWWWW!
We will be checking into AKV Kidani in only 2 weeks
Not staying CL this trip, but we have done Sunrise Safari on two previous trips and we also LOVED it - my pictures from SS are fabulous! Glad to hear Boma is still top notch - we will be celebrating DGrDs 7th b'day there. DNeph and DGrD always adore the CMs from Africa who run the kid's programs - they have always been so wonderful.

I know, right!!! EEEEWWWW! Aladdin was in charge of the camera during the SS and while I'm sure he got some great shots, he is still working on uploading them, so I will try to add some tomorrow. We probably won't stay CL again, at least not unless we get a GREAT deal, or travel with some other family members who really want to do the SS. I think I would prefer a savanna view on a lower floor. If we ever get back to AKL, I think I would book savanna view and request 2nd floor. We didn't get up to the lounge as much as I would have liked, and were almost never there during the 5-10 pm time-frame, when all the goodies are available. The staff was definitely top-notch!

Boma was unbelievable! Not sure if our incredibly pro-Boma response is the effect of our very low expectations; we were really blown away by ALL of the food at AKL!

 

[iloveeeyore]

We scheduled the latest possible flight home so that we could fully enjoy our last day in WDW! Our flight was 7:35pm, which meant we were scheduled on the 4:30 ME bus to MCO. Our plan was to make RD in MK and play as much as we could until about 3. The goal was to check our bags with airline check-in (I forgot to mention that Karen in the Club lounge checked us in for our flight the previous night so at least that was done already), check our carry-ons with bell services and catch a bus to MK by 8:15. We weren't AS anxious to be belly-up to the rope on this day, as we had already done everything in MK we wanted to do, and this was more like a BONUS day, just to repeat the favorites. We had to check the bags with airline check-in BEFORE we left for the park, because it closes at 1pm!

We weren't as efficient with the packing as we had hoped, and we ended up not even getting to the lounge for breakfast until 8:20. We ate really quickly and went down to the bus stop by around 8:30. A bus showed up just a few minutes later (lots of people were already waiting, so it must have been a while since the last bus). It took 17 minutes to get to MK from AKL. We were at the security check when the welcome ceremony began. We were able to watch the rest of it from outside the turnstiles, and when it ended, we leisurely made our way into the park and up Main Street.

They have beautiful tiaras in a store on the right as you face the castle -"Crystal Arts." I stopped in to scope it out for my peeps! These run a little more expensive than the ones I've seen elsewhere, between $20 and $60. I did notice because there was one I had my eye on the whole trip. I don't know if it was exactly the same in each place or if it had minor differences, but the basic shape was about the same. It was $52 in this store vs. $35 in the others...BUT, it had combs on each end to anchor it, while in the other stores, it just had pin loops.

It rained on and off this day, and was mostly overcast in between showers, so at least it wasn't too hot most of the time. We had our ponchos handy since we knew we'd be riding splash and possibly getting rained on and did not want to be wet for the flight!

We were able to do Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion x2, Splash, BTMRR, Peter Pan and Philharmagic before lunch (again, not necessarily in that order ). Everything was walk-on! We ran into another family on pirates, and the mom said "Wow! We have been here 4 days and we still haven't waited more than 5 minutes for anything!" We could have done slightly more before lunch, but we sent Aladdin from JC to Space Mtn to get FPs at around 10:25, and Belle and I had to wait about 20 minutes for them to return. Space Mtn was "down" at the time Aladdin and Herc were there, and the FP return time was 3:15 pm by 10:30 am (I'm guessing it had been down for a while)!

Lunch was at Pecos Bills, which is kind of a last day tradition for us, though Columbia Harbor House was in the running. We love CHH, but the kids were feeling more like burgers than CHH fare, so PB's won. I kind of wish we had chosen CHH. I love that Hummus sandwich with broccoli slaw, and I'm still craving one right now. Even all my dining at AKL did not fully slake my desire for hummus. And PB's was having a little bit of an "off" moment. Dry burgers and stale-ish fries. It's the fixin's bar that keeps calling us back, I suppose.

After lunch we rode Splash again, (by now the wait was 90 minutes!) HoP (you know you've had a good, long and relaxing trip to WDW when you hit HoP twice - and we even waited almost 15 minutes because when we showed up, one had almost just started!), Buzz, got Dole Whips and finally rode Space Mtn with our 3:15 FPs (60 minute stand-by line). I have to say, the interactive games on the stand-by line in Space look pretty cool. We never got to try them because we only rode either 1st thing in the am when they weren't on, or with FPs, which by-pass them. Oh, well, maybe next time? Nah, we'll always try to avoid that stand-by line.

We caught a bus back to AKL at about 3:53 - now Aladdin was getting pretty nervous about the time, but we got there right around 4:20. Not quite enough time to run up to the lounge for drinks, even. We got our cary-ons from bell services and right around 4:30 the ME bus showed up.

I know, I know, every trip must come to an end. Ours was long and satisfying in every way (except no hummus sandwich for me...gotta go back!)!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Thanks for the live postings and your follow up! It was nice to live through the vacation with you

 

[iloveeeyore]

Thanks for the live postings and your follow up! It was nice to live through the vacation with you

You are welcome! Thanks for reading! Have a WONDERFUL trip, Tinkebellie! I am jealous that you have have your trip ahead of you. I am sadly tickerless!

 

[iloveeeyore]

It took one hour to get to MCO. AKL was the first stop, maybe 3 families got on; we did not stop at Kidani, but did stop at POP and were on our way, but then had to turn back for a surprise stop at CBR to pick up a few extra people. No biggie. They allow plenty of time.

Security at MCO was unexpectedly smooth. No long lines like we have experienced at MCO a few times in the past. By the time we were through security, we were ready to be home to our sweet kitties. JetBlue was terrific! On time, a little early even, and we would absolutely not hesitate to fly with them again! (And we are always extremely polite to our flight attendants!)

Aladdin was stressed out. He was feeling like he would have preferred an earlier flight. Lots to do once we get home. It could wait until tomorrow I reminded him. We were in the MK all day today! And it was AWESOME!

The whole vacation was awesome.

 

[TheNewMrsB]

Aww, I always feel sad when I hear about the end of someone's trip - but you seem to have definitely made the most of yours, which is what's most important! Loved reading along and am looking forward to checking out the dining report!