I have been visiting Disney World for as long as i can remember (38yrs old). My Disney-nut aunt worked part time at the local Disney store as a second job just to be there. When DVC became available for employees, her and my Grandfather purchased a contract for OKW and we've enjoyed annual trips ever since.
Last year my Grandfather (due to age) and Aunt (due to lack of organizational skills
) added me to the contract to manage and pay fees going forward. Usually our trips include Aunt, Brother, Niece, Myself, Wife, and our five kids. We had always done grand villas but now that the kids are older we stayed off-site last year which resulted in having quite a few points to splurge.
So for my wifes birthday this year, we decided to take a trip to Disney! To the one resort i had never seen.... and... with... no... kids!!!
Day 1
So, day 1 actually started at about 12:15am which is when i got home from a beach volleyball tournament (maybe a little saucy). Not having to worry about kids I maybe procrastinated on my packing a little more than i shouldve. Anyway, packed up by 1:00am and got my 5 hours of sleep!
We flew out of Upstate NY so no big deal getting through the airport. Nice little 2 and a half hour flight and boom, we are in Florida! LYFT ride to AKL and let the games begin.
Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village
This is one of the few resorts i have not visited to stay, eat, or shop yet. My first impressions of this place reminded me of when i was young and that feeling that you are somewhere magical. Everything about this place is impressive. Beautiful lobby with views of the savannah, the art and artifacts, all of it was incredible.
We wanted to get started so we set off the find our room. We were down in the pumbaa rooms and the walk was a quite long which if we were lugging the kids and all their junk around would be my only complaint for this property.
We had a deluxe studio with savannah view and i'll say the room was basic but very nice and we had a pretty good view despite being around the backside of the savannah. We could also see the tip of Mount Everest from our balcony.
So we get dressed to go check out the pool, take our long walk and make our way there. What was a beautiful sunny morning however quickly turned to some thunderstorms and as luck would have it the whistle blew right as we found the pool. Weary from travel anyway we sat at the bar for a bit to have a drink.
Kidani Lobby
Balcony View
Animal Kingdom Lodge - Sanaa
After our drink we remembered we hadnt eaten yet and looked at what the property had to offer for restaurants. We decided on Sanaa for late lunch which turned into an early dinner after about a 45 minute wait with no reservation.
This place is going on the annual must-do list. I give 5 stars to service, atmosphere, and food. We had a decent view of the savannah right from our table but I could tell its not out of the realm of possibility to get unlucky with your view here. They sell you on the bread service pretty hard but I had to try the lamb kefta for an app (Theres a longer story behind that choice). Wife and i both had the potjie, her the Butter chicken with lentil daal, and me the Pork Vindaloo with rajma masala and we shared it all amongst ourselves. Absolutely delicious all of it. I love spicy dishes but bring some tums with you if you have a weak stomach!
Our waitress brought my wife a little sorbet-type dessert for her birthday that wasnt on the menu which was also outstanding.
Sanna
Pork Vindaloo, Rajma Masala, Rice. Poblano Margarita.
Disney Springs
Weather had cleared up so we jumped on a bus after dinner to head to Disney Springs. Checked out some shops, stopped at dockside margaritas for the "Flavors of Florida" special they had which was an Orange cream Daquiri. We knocked those back while enjoying some pretty decent live music. After some more shopping we stopped at Amorette's Patisserie. Wife loves creme brule so she had that and i had a pretty good espresso.
Dockside Margaritas
Day 2
Pretty nice to have your morning coffee on a balcony and hang out with some zebras.
My Grandmother always loved the character breakfasts so my trips as a child always included either Chef Mickey or Cape May. Our last few trips with the family we whiffed on reservations and were unable to go. I was able to secure Cape May for us this time around. The boardwalk area is one of my favorite places so we grabbed a lyft to boardwalk and did some walking around before our reservation.
Beach Club Resort - Cape May
Cape May is always a home run. If you've never done a character breakfast buffet they are noisy and crowded but I love it. Breakfast food is breakfast food so im not going to judge Disney on their bacon and scrambled eggs, the poached egg on the hash brown was pretty good though. There had to be 6 other birthdays in the restaurant and by the time our waitress was ready to embarrass my wife we were kind of over it. We got our pictures with Donald, Daisy, Minnie, and Goofy and headed back to AKL.
Boardwalk views
Beach Club
Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House
We were so into Kidani Village we had forgotten there was a whole other part of the resort we hadnt seen! On the way home from breakfast we had the lyft driver drop us off at Jambo house. We thought Kidani was beautiful and then we walked into this place and wow... just wow. Gigantic gorgeous lobby with incredible art and stories everywhere it was like being in a museum. The savannah overlook here was much larger and more impressive then Kidani also.
After some more exploring we found the Jambo house pool, posted up at the bar to grab a drink before jumping in and just like day 1... RAIN!! It absolutely poured and we though we would never get in the pool but it only lasted as long as my drink did so we were able to find a chair afterwards and float around a bit. While much larger and still very beautiful, I think i prefer the pool at Kindani.
Jambo House Lobby
Jambo House Savannah Overlook
Jambo House Savannah Overlook
Disney Springs - STK Steakhouse
After a nice afternoon in the pool, it was back to Disney Springs for our second reservation of the day. This was my wifes birthday dinner and she wanted to do something nice we would never be able to do with the kids.
Another tremendous meal, i was impressed with the service, atmosphere and food. I read good things about some of their drinks but we just had beer and wine. Then started off with some oysters (wife had never had them) and wedge salad. Followed it up with some ribeyes, brussel sprouts, and parm truffle fries (get these if you ever go). Waiter also suprised wife with another dessert treat (no singing at STK though lol).
Some might raise an eyebrow at the prices here, I'm not going to comment on prices anywhere else in this report. Value is subjective and you make the choice to spend or not.
After dinner we called it an early night and headed back to the room. Needed to rest up for our one park day at Epcot in the morning!
TBC....
Last year my Grandfather (due to age) and Aunt (due to lack of organizational skills
) added me to the contract to manage and pay fees going forward. Usually our trips include Aunt, Brother, Niece, Myself, Wife, and our five kids. We had always done grand villas but now that the kids are older we stayed off-site last year which resulted in having quite a few points to splurge.So for my wifes birthday this year, we decided to take a trip to Disney! To the one resort i had never seen.... and... with... no... kids!!!
Day 1
So, day 1 actually started at about 12:15am which is when i got home from a beach volleyball tournament (maybe a little saucy). Not having to worry about kids I maybe procrastinated on my packing a little more than i shouldve. Anyway, packed up by 1:00am and got my 5 hours of sleep!
We flew out of Upstate NY so no big deal getting through the airport. Nice little 2 and a half hour flight and boom, we are in Florida! LYFT ride to AKL and let the games begin.
Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village
This is one of the few resorts i have not visited to stay, eat, or shop yet. My first impressions of this place reminded me of when i was young and that feeling that you are somewhere magical. Everything about this place is impressive. Beautiful lobby with views of the savannah, the art and artifacts, all of it was incredible.
We wanted to get started so we set off the find our room. We were down in the pumbaa rooms and the walk was a quite long which if we were lugging the kids and all their junk around would be my only complaint for this property.
We had a deluxe studio with savannah view and i'll say the room was basic but very nice and we had a pretty good view despite being around the backside of the savannah. We could also see the tip of Mount Everest from our balcony.
So we get dressed to go check out the pool, take our long walk and make our way there. What was a beautiful sunny morning however quickly turned to some thunderstorms and as luck would have it the whistle blew right as we found the pool. Weary from travel anyway we sat at the bar for a bit to have a drink.
Kidani Lobby
Balcony View
Animal Kingdom Lodge - Sanaa
After our drink we remembered we hadnt eaten yet and looked at what the property had to offer for restaurants. We decided on Sanaa for late lunch which turned into an early dinner after about a 45 minute wait with no reservation.
This place is going on the annual must-do list. I give 5 stars to service, atmosphere, and food. We had a decent view of the savannah right from our table but I could tell its not out of the realm of possibility to get unlucky with your view here. They sell you on the bread service pretty hard but I had to try the lamb kefta for an app (Theres a longer story behind that choice). Wife and i both had the potjie, her the Butter chicken with lentil daal, and me the Pork Vindaloo with rajma masala and we shared it all amongst ourselves. Absolutely delicious all of it. I love spicy dishes but bring some tums with you if you have a weak stomach!
Our waitress brought my wife a little sorbet-type dessert for her birthday that wasnt on the menu which was also outstanding.
Sanna
Pork Vindaloo, Rajma Masala, Rice. Poblano Margarita.
Disney Springs
Weather had cleared up so we jumped on a bus after dinner to head to Disney Springs. Checked out some shops, stopped at dockside margaritas for the "Flavors of Florida" special they had which was an Orange cream Daquiri. We knocked those back while enjoying some pretty decent live music. After some more shopping we stopped at Amorette's Patisserie. Wife loves creme brule so she had that and i had a pretty good espresso.
Dockside Margaritas
Day 2
Pretty nice to have your morning coffee on a balcony and hang out with some zebras.
My Grandmother always loved the character breakfasts so my trips as a child always included either Chef Mickey or Cape May. Our last few trips with the family we whiffed on reservations and were unable to go. I was able to secure Cape May for us this time around. The boardwalk area is one of my favorite places so we grabbed a lyft to boardwalk and did some walking around before our reservation.
Beach Club Resort - Cape May
Cape May is always a home run. If you've never done a character breakfast buffet they are noisy and crowded but I love it. Breakfast food is breakfast food so im not going to judge Disney on their bacon and scrambled eggs, the poached egg on the hash brown was pretty good though. There had to be 6 other birthdays in the restaurant and by the time our waitress was ready to embarrass my wife we were kind of over it
. We got our pictures with Donald, Daisy, Minnie, and Goofy and headed back to AKL.Boardwalk views
Beach Club
Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House
We were so into Kidani Village we had forgotten there was a whole other part of the resort we hadnt seen! On the way home from breakfast we had the lyft driver drop us off at Jambo house. We thought Kidani was beautiful and then we walked into this place and wow... just wow. Gigantic gorgeous lobby with incredible art and stories everywhere it was like being in a museum. The savannah overlook here was much larger and more impressive then Kidani also.
After some more exploring we found the Jambo house pool, posted up at the bar to grab a drink before jumping in and just like day 1... RAIN!! It absolutely poured and we though we would never get in the pool but it only lasted as long as my drink did so we were able to find a chair afterwards and float around a bit. While much larger and still very beautiful, I think i prefer the pool at Kindani.
Jambo House Lobby
Jambo House Savannah Overlook
Jambo House Savannah Overlook
Disney Springs - STK Steakhouse
After a nice afternoon in the pool, it was back to Disney Springs for our second reservation of the day. This was my wifes birthday dinner and she wanted to do something nice we would never be able to do with the kids.
Another tremendous meal, i was impressed with the service, atmosphere and food. I read good things about some of their drinks but we just had beer and wine. Then started off with some oysters (wife had never had them) and wedge salad. Followed it up with some ribeyes, brussel sprouts, and parm truffle fries (get these if you ever go). Waiter also suprised wife with another dessert treat (no singing at STK though lol).
Some might raise an eyebrow at the prices here, I'm not going to comment on prices anywhere else in this report. Value is subjective and you make the choice to spend or not.
After dinner we called it an early night and headed back to the room. Needed to rest up for our one park day at Epcot in the morning!
TBC....
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