Live-ish blog. My thoughts and observations April 7-13

Staying at AKL Jambo House...

I am gonna try and just hit some bullet points here. We will start off with post 1, night one...

We arrived at MCO at 9:12pm. Headed straight to Magic Express, boarded a waiting motor coach. We then proceeded to wait for approximately 45 minutes to leave. They packed the bus to bursting, and people were standing in the back(against policy, but I guess efficiency beats safety) we were the 3rd stop and didn't arrive at our resort till a little after 11.

We were then woken up at 2am by a call from bell services asking if they could deliver our luggage. This was after I spoke to them at 11, and specifically asked them not to call or knock that night. I was infuriated. Also, despite talking to the front desk and bell services, I was basically given a "we're sorry" shoulder shrug. Which, believe it or not, doesn't help with my 3 year olds lack of sleep.

Anyhoo, that's day 1. Good start.

 

[Kman101]

I don't check into the trip report threads often but I noticed the AC problem as well a few weeks ago when I was there. Awful. I really enjoyed my time in Epcot too. I don't know what was different about F&G but I really enjoyed it.

I'd say this is a pretty fair trip report. The parks are really becoming overcrowded, yes it's Spring Break but man it can get downright miserable fighting the crowds. I don't know what they can do but it's like they just pour in and don't stop coming.

 

[xdan0920]

Day 5 continued....

Landon wanted to go back to Animal Kingdom, fine with me, it's the best park in Florida right now.

I'm gonna use some survey feedback here and stop mentioning the Bus/Ecv situation. I'm saying, it was 90% of our busses. That's an issue, what the solution is, I have no idea. Moving on....

We spent about 90 minutes in DinoLand, between the Boneyard, Triceratops Spin, getting a snack, checking out dinos, and it was great.

We didn't stay for RoL, we didn't have a FP and the queue for Standby had started up by like 6:30. Guess I'll catch it on the YouTubes.

We headed back for an early bedtime. Wednesday would be our last day and we wanted to make it count.

 

[xdan0920]

Thursday morning. 3 days before Easter...

MK had EMH from 7-8 then hours from 8-12, then more EMH from 12-2. So you can go ahead and guess at the crowd levels here. But it was our last day and I'll be damned if I wasn't spending it at Magic Kingdom.

So we woke up early, hopped on ye olde bus, and were on our way at 7:15. That was the last thing that went smoothly.

FP+ and the MDE app both crashed. And stayed crashed for 4 hours. I won't rehash all the details here since I started a thread about it yesterday. But it was a mess.

I was able to, with some forum help, figure out when my FP were, and we were able to ride our 3 FP attractions early in the morning. By the time we left the park at 11:30am to go swimming....These were the waits...

So we headed back to Jambo got changed quick, and then took the shuttle to Kidani's pool. Now I have regrets.

Kidani's pool beats the snot out of Jambo for kids. I only wish we had gone over there every day of our trip. The mini water slide in the center of the pool is brilliant. Landon must have ridden it 800x. Also the splash zone with water guns is a very great area. Lots of shady benches were mom and dad can enjoy an adult beverage while the kids run around having a blast, where you can see them. Perfect.

One minor complaint about Kidani pool is the lack of food options. It was ok for Landon since we just got him a PBJ, but we had to wait till we got back to Jambo for us to eat.

Before we ate though, Megan went to talk to the concierge desk about the FP boondoggle, and the issue we had night one with the luggage. The end result was a very apologetic manager, who couldn't believe Bell Services called us at 2am. We wound up with quite a few additional FP to use that night, on any ride. So we grabbed a quick nap and headed back to MK for our last night.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Question about Kidani and their food. Are you able to order lunch to go at Sanaa's lounge then take it to the pool? I know you may not know the answer but it was a random thought.

 

[xdan0920]

Question about Kidani and their food. Are you able to order lunch to go at Sanaa's lounge then take it to the pool? I know you may not know the answer but it was a random thought.

Didn't think of that. Probably?

Kidani pool had a delivery service with a limited menu, called "Private Dining" but the Bartender told us it was about 75 minute turn around on those orders.

 

[21stamps]

Thursday morning. 3 days before Easter...

MK had EMH from 7-8 then hours from 8-12, then more EMH from 12-2. So you can go ahead and guess at the crowd levels here. But it was our last day and I'll be damned if I wasn't spending it at Magic Kingdom.

So we woke up early, hopped on ye olde bus, and were on our way at 7:15. That was the last thing that went smoothly.

FP+ and the MDE app both crashed. And stayed crashed for 4 hours. I won't rehash all the details here since I started a thread about it yesterday. But it was a mess.

I was able to, with some forum help, figure out when my FP were, and we were able to ride our 3 FP attractions early in the morning. By the time we left the park at 11:30am to go swimming....These were the waits...
View attachment 199510

So we headed back to Jambo got changed quick, and then took the shuttle to Kidani's pool. Now I have regrets.

Kidani's pool beats the snot out of Jambo for kids. I only wish we had gone over there every day of our trip. The mini water slide in the center of the pool is brilliant. Landon must have ridden it 800x. Also the splash zone with water guns is a very great area. Lots of shady benches were mom and dad can enjoy an adult beverage while the kids run around having a blast, where you can see them. Perfect.

One minor complaint about Kidani pool is the lack of food options. It was ok for Landon since we just got him a PBJ, but we had to wait till we got back to Jambo for us to eat.

Before we ate though, Megan went to talk to the concierge desk about the FP boondoggle, and the issue we had night one with the luggage. The end result was a very apologetic manager, who couldn't believe Bell Services called us at 2am. We wound up with quite a few additional FP to use that night, on any ride. So we grabbed a quick nap and headed back to MK for our last night.

Have you been at Thanksgiving time? I canceled our April trip, which would have been overlapping with yours, due to time constraints and crowd predictions.. no EMM offered..and flight costs... So not just crowds..

But, The wait times are very similar to what we had just after Thanksgiving,, and the park hours are so many hours longer. I wonder if we should just do this week next year.
Dou have a comparison between the two?

 

[Zipadeelady]

Didn't think of that. Probably?

Kidani pool had a delivery service with a limited menu, called "Private Dining" but the Bartender told us it was about 75 minute turn around on those orders.

Yikes... 75 minutes is a little ridiculous. When were there in September I'll try the Sanaa lounge and see.

 

[Bandini]

The AC thing would be a deal breaker for me. I am pretty tired of the hospitality industry in general claiming that the cut backs are part of their "Green Campaign" Not really. Hotter hotel rooms and guests reusing their towels, saves a tremendous amount of money. But being at the parks without being able to escape the heat, is just too much IMO.
thanks for the report. I'm glad you're having a great time. I love F & G the floral displays are amazing.

 

[xdan0920]

Yikes... 75 minutes is a little ridiculous. When were there in September I'll try the Sanaa lounge and see.

75 minutes was the minimum. She said 75-90 minutes. With that type of turn around it would be faster to take the shuttle back and forth to Jambo 10 times lol.

 

[fractal]

The AC thing would be a deal breaker for me. I am pretty tired of the hospitality industry in general claiming that the cut backs are part of their "Green Campaign" Not really. Hotter hotel rooms and guests reusing their towels, saves a tremendous amount of money. But being at the parks without being able to escape the heat, is just too much IMO.
thanks for the report. I'm glad you're having a great time. I love F & G the floral displays are amazing.

I agree. If you are going to run a theme park/resort in the middle of sub-tropical swamp land, find another way to be "green" than turning down the a/c.

 

[21stamps]

I agree. If you are going to run a theme park/resort in the middle of sub-tropical swamp land, find another way to be "green" than turning down the a/c.

I'm selfishly happy about it. Sorry

My biggest complaint with Florida is the raging AC. I'm always freezing inside anywhere. Keeping it at more rational temperatures is much better imo. My kid disagrees though.lol

 

[xdan0920]

Alright, so we were heading back to the MK around 6. The park was an absolute mad house. Probably the busiest I have ever seen it, and I have spent countless days in WDW. This was nearly too much. And without the half dozen or so "Wildcard FastPasses" we would have simply got back on the bus and went back to the hotel. It was so busy, that even moving around was a serious challenge.

Anyway, we were able to ride 7DMT for the second time that day, Barnstormer for the 7th time that trip, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Magic Carpets, Pirates, Dumbo, the Carosel and the Teacups between 6-10. So, what could have been a nightmare of an evening turned out to be pretty darn good. I wouldn't go quite so far as to call it great, because even though we rode almost 10 attractions, the park was such a mad house that any sense of ambiance went right out the window. It was just a mass of people to push through to get from attraction to attraction.

So to recap, the parks were a f-ing zoo, but thanks to the over zealous bell hop, we were able to make the most of the day. Landon passed out on the bus on the way home, and our last day in WDW turned out to be a tremendous success, especially considering the circumstances.

 

[xdan0920]

Now, I have some general thoughts....

 

[xdan0920]

Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House...

Pros -
1. BEAUTIFUL resort. I mean it. Just a stunning place. The lobby is so incredible that words can not possibly do it justice.
2. Great food options.
3. Animals sleeping outside your balcony = cool.
4. We stayed in room 5214, which is a standard view, but we had a partial savanna view and saw Zebras, Cranes, Giraffes, Ostriches, Okapis, and some other horned beast. Very cool. I'll add a night picture in a minute.
5. The shuttle to Kidani runs all day every day, and makes bouncing between resorts easy. I wish we took more advantage of this.
6. Two minute ride to Animal Kingdom.
7. The pool at Kidani with a kid.

Cons -
1. It's far from the parks man. Those MK and DHS bus rides are a chore. Disney Springs may as well be in New Jersey.
2. Dumb Bellhops.
3. The pool at Jambo with a kid.

I am not sure I'd stay there again, given other options. Wilderness Lodge would rate above it for a similar feel and a better location. Any of the Monorail resorts beat it for location. And if I was sans kid, I would do Saratoga because the new Disney Springs is absolutely fantastic and I would want to spend most of my nights there.

So, overall, lets give it a 7.5 of 10.

 

[xdan0920]

View from balcony. This dude slept here three nights.

 

[xdan0920]

View from the lobby bridge.

 

[MinnieM123]

AKL is gorgeous, but I know that it is really far away from the parks. (I stayed there years ago.) That's why I prefer the EPCOT area, as there are two parks via a boat ride, and then there's the Boardwalk to stroll around, either during the day or in the evening, if you're not quite ready to return to your hotel for the night. Other parks are accessible by bus, and I usually find the bus service adequate. As for buses to Disney Springs, it doesn't matter what hotel you're coming from--they all take a long time to get there, with the traffic.

It sounds like you had a good trip overall, and made the best of any issues that you experienced. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on your trip. I found them interesting and informative. Have a safe and pleasant journey home with your family.

 

[Zipadeelady]

AKL sounds like heaven for our next trip, which is laying around the pool and only hitting one park....AK. DS sounds like it will be a long ride but I'll survive.

Thanks for posting and stirring up the "pixie dust" over here in trip reports.

 

[21stamps]

AKL sounds like heaven for our next trip, which is laying around the pool on only hitting one park....AK. DS sounds like it will be a long ride but I'll survive.

Thanks for posting and stirring up the "pixie dust" over here in trip reports.

I can't wait to read your report! I've never been on property at AKL.

@xdan0920
Does the pool at Jambo House not have a slide?
Did you take part in any of the resort activities? If so, which ones stood out.
It seems like they have the most offered out of all the resorts. I think Jambo and Kidani each offer activities?

 

[Zipadeelady]

I can't wait to read your report! I've never been on property at AKL.

@xdan0920
Does the pool at Jambo House not have a slide?
Did you take part in any of the resort activities? If so, which ones stood out.
It seems like they have the most offered out of all the resorts. I think Jambo and Kidani each offer activities?

Thanks. It seems like it will take forever to get here. Still 153 day away, I think I started my pre trip report a little to early.