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.

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

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.

Why does September have to be so far away?

 

[Zipadeelady]

Why does September have to be so far away?

I agree!! Ugh....I shouldn't want to wish my summer away just so my vacation would get here.

 

[xdan0920]

Thoughts on food coming up....

 

[xdan0920]

Food.

Now, in fairness, we did basically no sit downs outside of two character breakfasts and T-Rex....So, this is mainly a QS review. Now, that said, blech...

Good -
1. Citrus Swirl - Still the best snack on earth. Sucks they moved it out of the Sunshine Tree Terrace.
2. Free Ice Water
3. Columbia Harbour House - Had the Lobster Roll, Clam Chowdah, and some fries, all very good, if stupidly expensive.

Bad -
1. Cost - I mean, this has gotten totally out of hand. $5 for an Uncrustable. $15 for a drink. $16 for a Lobstah roll on what amounts to hot dog bun. I could honestly go on and on here. The prices are in-bleeping-sane.

2. Crystal Palace - Not sure what the typical cycle time is for characters, but we sat for an hour, and only met 2 of the 4. Look, I am not paying $35pp for that crap food, if we can't get all the characters in, in an hour, what are we paying for?

3. T-Rex Cafe - Ok, maybe we ordered the wrong things, or maybe they had a bad night, but all three of our meals were essentially inedible. I got the Chicken Sandwich, which turned out to be more of a pita thing. Megan got a Caesar Salad and Soup, and Landon got what was advertised as Mac and Cheese. All three dishes were little more then warm garbage. I wouldn't eat here again if it was free. And it was decidedly not free. Total after tax and tip was approx $135. I have never left a restaurant more unsatisfied in my life.

4. Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe - Impossible to talk about this dump without mentioning the lack of AC. It was oppressively hot in here. They were running optimized staffing, so only two bays were open, so that was fun too. The food was typical QS crap. The table vultures were also incredibly aggravating. 1 of 10, IMO.

5. The proliferation of "flatbreads." What is this abomination? It's not pizza, I can tell you that. These things are AWFUL. Serve me that round personal pie. At least that resembles pizza. Pizzafari, now serves flatbreads, that is not PIZZA!!!!

6. The costs. Wanted to bookend this list by refocusing on cost. Disney has taken the pricing too far. Don't talk to me about ball games, you aren't at a ball game for a week. The prices are comical. $40+ for a buffet, where the best food option is a GD Mickey Waffle? OUTRAGEOUS.

 

[snek]

The proliferation of "flatbreads." What is this abomination? It's not pizza, I can tell you that. These things are AWFUL. Serve me that round personal pie. At least that resembles pizza. Pizzafari, now serves flatbreads, that is not PIZZA!!!!

Yes!! I actually stopped a cm to ask if there was any place to get pizza in MK still open. Of course this was later at night but she could only suggest trying pinnochios which serves flatbreads. That's not pizza! Is there anywhere in a park to get quick service normal slice of pizza??

Also the only good thing about cosmic rays is the garlic ranch haha. That's really good.

 

[MinnieM123]

I stumbled upon Columbia Harbour House by "accident" two years ago and it has become my favorite quick service location at MK. The pot pie is divine.

I also really like Columbia Harbour House. My favorite there is the Lighthouse Sandwich -- hummus on toasted multigrain bread with tomato/broccoli slaw. They also serve some tasty chips with it. It's one of the few vegetarian meals that I like in MK. (Usually I'll have chicken, etc., in other QS locations during my vacation, so it's also nice to have some variety.)

Sounds like I need to try the pot pie from what you said above--maybe I'll make two trips to C. H. House during my next vacation!

 

[xdan0920]

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?

It does have a slide. It's small though. Kidani has a better slide, and a mini-slide for little ones. It's a better setup, if a smaller pool.

They both have kids activities throughout the day. Trivia, Dance Parties, that kind of thing.

 

[MegRuss626]

This is where Disney's bus service went off the rails. A Springs bus was 40 minutes in coming. Yes I timed it. I wear a watch so it's not rocket science. We didn't get to DS until 6:15. That's pretty unacceptable at that time of day.

Anyway. Got to T-Rex at 6:25. Checked in, then waited 40 minutes for our table. Here's my brief review.....

The food is basically warmed over garbage. I had the chicken sandwich. Megan had a Ceasar salad no protein $16, and a soup. The atmosphere is neat, but $135 with Tax and Tip for 2 adults and a 3 year old is wild, even if the atmosphere was neat.

Headed straight back to the bus stop since it was now quite late after all the waiting. So we get there at 8:45. The one group ahead of us had been waiting 5 minutes already. The bus showed up at 9:30. That's not a joke. I watched 4 All Star Music busses come in that time. Our bus was of course going to be packed to capacity. Then a scooter came. Now here comes a complaint. The scooter showed up as the bus showed up. That group of course got right on, took up 7 seats, and people who were waiting, then had to wait for the next bus. That's very unacceptable.

Anyway. 30 minutes after that we were back to the resort.

Consider yourself lucky on the bus front. We stayed at Kidani this past September and 85% of our bus experiences were like this one. We waited at Animal Kingdom (right next door!!) for a bus back to the hotel for 45 minutes. And at closing time where you would think buses would be more available. Watched 4 Wilderness Lodge (clear over by MK) go by in that time. So I totally feel your pain!

 

[njDizFan]

Food.

Now, in fairness, we did basically no sit downs outside of two character breakfasts and T-Rex....So, this is mainly a QS review. Now, that said, blech...

Good -
1. Citrus Swirl - Still the best snack on earth. Sucks they moved it out of the Sunshine Tree Terrace.
2. Free Ice Water
3. Columbia Harbour House - Had the Lobster Roll, Clam Chowdah, and some fries, all very good, if stupidly expensive.

Bad -
1. Cost - I mean, this has gotten totally out of hand. $5 for an Uncrustable. $15 for a drink. $16 for a Lobstah roll on what amounts to hot dog bun. I could honestly go on and on here. The prices are in-bleeping-sane.

2. Crystal Palace - Not sure what the typical cycle time is for characters, but we sat for an hour, and only met 2 of the 4. Look, I am not paying $35pp for that crap food, if we can't get all the characters in, in an hour, what are we paying for?

3. T-Rex Cafe - Ok, maybe we ordered the wrong things, or maybe they had a bad night, but all three of our meals were essentially inedible. I got the Chicken Sandwich, which turned out to be more of a pita thing. Megan got a Caesar Salad and Soup, and Landon got what was advertised as Mac and Cheese. All three dishes were little more then warm garbage. I wouldn't eat here again if it was free. And it was decidedly not free. Total after tax and tip was approx $135. I have never left a restaurant more unsatisfied in my life.

4. Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe - Impossible to talk about this dump without mentioning the lack of AC. It was oppressively hot in here. They were running optimized staffing, so only two bays were open, so that was fun too. The food was typical QS crap. The table vultures were also incredibly aggravating. 1 of 10, IMO.

5. The proliferation of "flatbreads." What is this abomination? It's not pizza, I can tell you that. These things are AWFUL. Serve me that round personal pie. At least that resembles pizza. Pizzafari, now serves flatbreads, that is not PIZZA!!!!

6. The costs. Wanted to bookend this list by refocusing on cost. Disney has taken the pricing too far. Don't talk to me about ball games, you aren't at a ball game for a week. The prices are comical. $40+ for a buffet, where the best food option is a GD Mickey Waffle? OUTRAGEOUS.

Ya well T-Rex, as you said the food is not very good ( I know we had a conversation about this in your pre-trip, I'm sorry if I swayed your opinion to visit). I would put it on par with the Rainforest Café maybe a step lower than a TGIF or Applebee's. If you can stomach paying $20 for a mediocre salad so you can dine in the a faux ice cave with plastic dinosaurs for the sake of the youngster then it has value. Really you are paying 30%-50% more in value just for the theming.

I did not have any issues at the CP last summer, we actually saw all the characters a multiple of times but that place does get crazy, and the premium on prices ahhhh. Also the Tusker house breakfast I think has good interaction with the furries and the food has at least a few options that I found different and quite palatable.

+1 on Columbia Harbor house especially that Lighthouse Sandwich.

Flatbreads??!! WTH, I think it's just easier to produce a frozen premade crust without the necessity to allow the crust to rise. Although Digiorno's can do it, so that is a mystery. Certainly it can't be sold as a healthier alternative.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I'll just say briefly that part of the scooter problem comes with users who either don't use them at home or not in specific situations (like boarding public transit), so there's a learning curve that the rest of us have to wait through that can be annoying when multipled several times over a week.

 

[Bandini]

Overall, I think the food at WDW is pretty mediocre to lousy at most places. But I always look at the Unofficial Guide's guest survey before I make my plans and try to pick places that received a better than average rating,

It's the same for DL. IMO, it's easier to find decent food at DLR because the resort is competing with restaurants that are steps away from the resort.

 

[bee]

Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts. We noticed the lack of AC on our May-June 2016 trip. I am certainly an environmentalist (vegetarian who doesn't have a car and recycles and all that good stuff) but turning down the AC in Florida is not the way to do that. YUCK!

We don't eat much at MK since we rarely spend more than a few hours at a time in the park and prefer to wait and go to one of the monorail resorts or another park. We did like our meal at Pecos Bill's last year and would certainly go back. We'll have to make our way to CHH at some point in the future. Our last Cosmic Ray's experience was not as bad as yours but it was bad enough to not really want to bother with CR again.

 

[Cookie Galore]

The prize was dopey. The joy was in the hunt.

Curious- what was the prize?

 

[21stamps]

Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts. We noticed the lack of AC on our May-June 2016 trip. I am certainly an environmentalist (vegetarian who doesn't have a car and recycles and all that good stuff) but turning down the AC in Florida is not the way to do that. YUCK!

We don't eat much at MK since we rarely spend more than a few hours at a time in the park and prefer to wait and go to one of the monorail resorts or another park. We did like our meal at Pecos Bill's last year and would certainly go back. We'll have to make our way to CHH at some point in the future. Our last Cosmic Ray's experience was not as bad as yours but it was bad enough to not really want to bother with CR again.

Every time I read a post from you.. I completely become more of an admirer. Lol.

 

[drizgirl]

Curious- what was the prize?

I'm guessing a plush Dopey?

 

[xdan0920]

Curious- what was the prize?

A 2 inch tall plastic Easter egg. Painted like a character. I'll take a picture and post it. brb

 

[Cookie Galore]

OP- thanks for a good read and for taking the time during your trip to post your observations. I enjoyed it!

Just a thought from my own experiences- While I know that bus transportation is touted as a perk of staying onsite at WDW and while I totally agree that it could be much better, I've come to just accept that it is what it is. A few trips back we decided to start using taxis whenever we didn't have the patience to wait. That expense is something we now just include as part of the trip budget. It makes everything so much easier and makes us so much happier that it's completely worth it. I know that a lot of people will say it shouldn't be necessary, but it makes things so much better and I've personally just accepted it.

 

[Kman101]

I noticed Cosmic Rays as well was extremely hot in there and the Frozen ride, go figure, stood out as two of the hottest. I would have rather been outside.

 

[Cookie Galore]

I noticed Cosmic Rays as well was extremely hot in there and the Frozen ride, go figure, stood out as two of the hottest. I would have rather been outside.

I've noticed over the past 2 years (8 week long trips to WDW in this timeframe) that a lot of things are warmer- attractions, shops, etc. What I don't understand is why some things are so cold- resort hallways, buses, some restaurants. I freeze walking to and from my room and the last time we ate at Skipper's Canteen I was so frozen that I couldn't eat. I don't like either extreme but when I've been outside on a 95 degree day and I'm a bit sweaty, I find the blasting AC more uncomfortable than anything.

 

[ford91exploder]

I'm wondering what the heck is going on with the lack of air conditioning. If it was just in one spot, that's no big deal, but you've made a number of references to a noticeable lack of AC in various places. I have a tough time with the heat when I go to WDW, and I'll step inside a building to cool down a bit and start to feel better. If there aren't any cool spots anymore, this will be a real issue to me, and I'm sure, to others as well.

Its really simple not running A/C in FL saves real money realistically probably in the low millions. So some exec gets a bonus for saving big bucks, Meanwhile guests swelter and mold and dampness accelerate deterioration of the physical plant which in a few years will cost REAL money to repair far more than that faceless manager ever 'saved'.