Tis the Season to be Freezin': A December 2010 Trip Report

Hello, again! :wave: I’m back with yet another holiday trip report, and I just realized this was my and Brett’s sixth consecutive trip to Disney World for the Christmas season! We really are so lucky. It was just us for the first two, but since 2007 we’ve been enjoying annual December trips with Brett’s family. Hopefully the tradition will continue in years to come.

With every new trip report, I struggle to come up with a creative way to introduce ourselves. I mean, really, there are only so many ways to say it. Especially when I feel like I already know so many of you, and you us. So let’s be brief... the cast of characters include myself, Holly, and my fiancé, Brett. Yep, we’re all engaged and in love (for all the ooey gooey details, check out the engagement trip report). As with all my previous December reports, along with us are some familiar faces: Brett’s parents, Kathy and Danny, and his brother, Derek.

For this trip we had the pleasure of staying at AKL’s Kidani Village in a two bedroom dedicated DVC unit with a savannah view for five nights, Sunday, 12/12 – Friday 12/17. Bring on the giraffes and zebras!

Many of you know that we got engaged just this past August and we’re planning our Disney wedding for March 2011. Yes, yes, I know, I still owe you all a pre-trip/planning report. As you can probably guess, we’ve been planning (and I’ve been stressing over) our March trip for the last couple months and nary a thought has been given to the December trip. Once we returned from our August trip and started saving every penny for March, we took a look at our ADRs for December and slashed and burned some reservations. RIP: Bluezoo, Bistro de Paris, Boma, and the Brown Derby. Look at that alliteration! And we nixed the usual character breakfast we do once a trip (I think it was 1900 Park Fare). Since then, we hadn’t thought much about it. Seriously, the week before we left Brett said something to me along the lines of “Our dining is going to be a fun surprise; I’ve entirely forgotten what we booked.”

In a money saving effort, Brett and I also tried to slash our plans for Universal/Islands of Adventure, but his parents were having none of it. They purchased everyone's Universal/IOA park tickets as a family Christmas present. Best future in-laws ever! Ever, ever. So I'll be reporting on the Wizarding World and other such things in this report as well.

Time to get started...

 

[HollyBelle]

Day 1 – Sunday, December 12: Check-in/AK

On Saturday, December 11, Brett and I packed up and took off for his parents’ house (approximately 2 hours closer to WDW) sometime in the late afternoon. There was a slight change of plans... Derek had something come up last minute and wouldn’t be able to join us at the resort until late Monday evening, so we decided to ride down with Kathy and Danny. No reason to have three cars there. As per usual we took off around 3 am, lost about an hour for breakfast (booo Cracker Barrel) and pulled up to the AKL guard shack around 10:30 am.

Sorcerer Mickey led us home!

The day was beautiful. Sunny and warm with a perfectly cool breeze swaying the leaves on the trees.

The registration/check-in area was CRAZY. As with all our past December/DVC check-ins I think Sunday is a very big day for arrivals. For me, the difference this time was that the lobby area didn’t seem to absorb the chaos, which made the arrival process feel much more hectic than it has at other resorts. The set up of the Kidani lobby just feels so cramped and then when you compare it to the grandness of the lodge next door, well, it doesn’t even hold a candle. Plus, it didn’t help that a large portion of the openness was hindered by the Christmas tree. But, boy was she a pretty tree:

 

[HollyBelle]

Eventually Kathy got everything squared away with our reservations and we found ourselves siphoning off luggage left and right to the bell hops. I took a chance on leaving one of my own bags in the car for the afternoon so I could get to some things, but I miscalculated and ended up with the wrong one. It resulted in me wearing my comfy car traveling clothes for the better part of the day, or as Brett likes to refer to it, my ninja attire. It’s just too bad I’m not as stealth (or as fit) as a ninja! :lol:

First up we decided to pay our respects to the Animal Kingdom. It only seemed fitting. We parked in Dinosaur and took off for the Oasis. Seeing as how it was lunchtime we decided to hit up a good ol’ standby, the Rainforest Café.

See... ninja:

 

[HollyBelle]

For lunch, we shared the Brave New World (BBQ chicken flatbread), which is a favorite of Brett’s. I like it too, but prefer the Flying Dragon. I apologize for the blurriness:

We were hoping that while chowing down on some Rainforest goodness, we’d get the text that our room was ready and be able to get back to the resort lickity split. It didn’t happen that way, though. Instead, the rain came down. Down, down, down. And with it, the breeze turned downright chilly. My number one concern at this point? My suede boots. I’m so vain. :lol: So the first order of business for me after lunch was to find a cheapo pair of flops in the Café store. I’ve gotta tell ya, at that moment I was super thankful for the souvenir shop/restaurant combo. The souvenir shop gods bestowed a pair of purple metallic flippers on me for the super fabulous discounted price of $5.89. Score! I’ll take cold feet over ruining my favorite pair of boots any day. After that I was ready to go.

Brett and I made a quick dash to the car, where the four of us had luckily left some jackets, and I was super stoked to find that the bag I had unintentionally left in the car was the one containing our ponchos. Yay! We met back up with Kathy and Danny at the Rainforest, donned our gear and took off for the entrance turnstiles.

It’s a good look for us, don’t ya think?!

Our plan was to get out of the rain by heading for either the Festival of the Lion King or Finding Nemo: The Musical. Ours and everyone else’s, I’m sure. We hung a right towards Dinoland and just couldn’t help but take up the CMs offer to meet Pooh and friends with no wait. Sure, who cares if we look like idiots... photo op! Don’t mind Danny, he was too cool to wear his poncho for the pictures.

 

[HollyBelle]

We made our way into the Theater in the Wild for the 2 pm show much earlier than we ever have in the past just to get out of the rain, which resulted in great seats. We were front and center of the middle section, behind the main aisle cutting across the theater. The show was great, as always. I can never get over how talented the actors are. Seriously, multi-tasking is an understatement.

My love for Dory knows no bounds. She’s easily one of my favorite Pixar characters, and that’s really saying something considering all the great characters they have created over time.

So can anyone tell me what the small device is that is coming out of the top of the actors’ headpieces? It looks like another mike, but that doesn’t make much sense.

Shock! There’s no Dory in this picture:

Sword fight, I mean, fish:

 

[HollyBelle]

We exited the show to find that the rain had subsided, but left the cold snap for us to enjoy in its absence. After gathering up fastpasses for Expedition Everest, we made our way back down the hill to ride Dinosaur. For me, this ride gets better and better with each trip, and that’s not to say the ride is all that great in and of itself. It’s more a testament to my love of the pre-show and all the silly but memorable scenarios Brett and I have created surrounding the ride. There was once a time when Brett “broke-up” with me on Dinosaur, and he still swears that he considered proposing to me there. Ahh-hah-hah. He knows I would’ve killed him for that one. :ROFLOL:

After yet another campy ride on Dinosaur we made our way back across the bridge to cash in our fastpasses for Expedition Everest. I really do love that ride. The backwards portion is just perfect enough to flip my stomach upside down without truly making me queasy, and being that it’s followed by such a fabulous drop, makes it all the better.

By this point, it was approximately 4:00 pm, so Kathy decided to call the front desk to see if we’d somehow missed our text (this actually happened to Brett and me this past August). Unfortunately, the room still wasn’t ready so we burned some time in the Island Mercantile. We were starting to get cold and a bit cranky so finally we just decided to go back to Kidani and wait for our room assignment there.

 

[Pluto Princess]

Yay, I love HollyBelle trip reports! Can't wait for more!

We made quick trip up for MVMCP and Universal/IOA the weekend after you guys got there, so we had been watching the weather pretty closley the whole week before... if I remember correctly, the title of your TR does not lie, it was going to be down right freezing! Hope you all stayed warm! :wave:

 

[HollyBelle]

As soon as we were in the car and headed through the guard shack at AKL, we got the text with our room number and all was well. We were on the main floor (level 2), in a gorgeous savannah view room. I can’t say enough great things about the room design and accommodations. The attention to detail was outstanding and really put this room over the top. One thing I can say for certain... the room décor at Kidani blew me away. It was definitely my favorite DVC room we’ve stayed in, in design, décor, and functionality. Plus, there’s that view. And it’s tough to beat that view.

Mufasa!

The master suite:

Second bedroom:

 

[HollyBelle]

Now, how about that view I mentioned earlier?!

Check out the HUGE balcony spanning across the villa:

And the semi-subtle sign reminding you that your every move out on that balcony is being recorded:

Leopard print Mickey carpet, anyone?!

In my opinion, the designers didn’t miss a beat when it came to immersing guests in the resort’s theme. I felt like every detail was tucked away perfectly and they found a way to enhance the views of the savannah through the room décor. Plus, the third bathroom on the two bedroom dedicated units at Kidani has a shower. Making it three full baths instead of the 2 ½ that the other DVC resorts offer. Simply put, it’s a newer room. Rooms at BCV, SSR, OKW, and the WLV are great, too, just not as impressive overall.

Even though the units are amazing, I think where Kidani falls short is in the common areas and public space. The lobby is cramped and tiny; plus Johari is a joke for retail and they don’t have their own quick-service restaurant. I can’t fathom who decided to leave one out. Was it because there’s already one at Jambo House?? Do they realize how far apart Jambo is from Kidani? There’s absolutely nothing convenient about going from one to the other. And really, for all intents and purposes, I see these as two separate resorts. Whereas, I don’t see it as such a big deal that the Wilderness Lodge Villas and Beach Club Villas have to share with their respective main resorts. It’s a short walk, and sometimes feels like you’re not even leaving one building and entering another.

Here’s the thing... I LOVE Jambo House, it’s one of my favorites, and knowing that the main lodge still has DVC specific rooms, if it were my vacation points, I’d totally choose Jambo over Kidani for future stays at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

To end my semi-long review of Kidani on a positive note... the parking garage is genius. At most deluxe resorts, parking is a pain in the rear because you always end up having to park way out in a lot, walk all the way into the lobby and then all the way back/up to your room. Oftentimes it can be a long way. With the whole first level at Kidani being a “garage” it allows for you to literally park under your room. Perfect! They found a way to bring the benefits of a moderate (where you can park right outside your unit/room) to a deluxe resort. Plus, it’s a great way to utilize the first floor space, especially seeing as how you can’t put rooms on the ground floor because of the animals. It’s a win-win. And I can only image how great it is in the summer months because it keeps the car much cooler. In our case this December it actually helped keep the car warm! And as a bonus, it’s not the eye sore that most parking garages are.

 

[BlizzardPoke]

Yippie, a HollyBelle trip report! I'm anxiously awaiting more!

 

[HollyBelle]

The first thing Danny did upon arriving in the room was, of course, call bell services. They said it would be approximately 30 minutes or so, but they’d have our luggage to us as soon as possible. Well the clock started ticking, and this really wouldn’t be that big of a deal, except we had dinner reservations for 5:35 pm at Sanaa that evening. Back when we were planning things out, the thought process behind having such an early dinner reservation was that we would go see the Osborne lights after dinner; therefore, an early dinner would give us more time to enjoy the lights.

Problem was by 5:20 pm they still weren’t there with the luggage and someone needed to be present to “accept” it. So next thing I know, Kathy, Brett and I are walking down to Sanaa without Danny. Apparently, he said he’d wait for the bags and we could just eat without him. Kathy seemed stressed and I’m thinking there has to be a better solution than this. So when we get down there I explained the situation to one of the hostesses and asked if we could change our reservation to 6:00 or 6:30 pm, figuring the luggage would surely be there by then. While she couldn’t physically add a new reservation to the system, she told us just to come back when our whole party was present. So back up to the room we went. We waited, and waited, until eventually our stuff arrived around 6:30 pm. I’m not sure what the holdup was. My guess is that all the room texts went out around the same time late that afternoon, and EVERYONE requested their stuff right away. Oh well. We quickly changed and made our way back down to Sanaa. Good thing those dinner reservations were right there in the resort!

We ate at Sanaa during our July 2009 trip and I reviewed the restaurant in that report. I don’t know if anyone will recall this, but I ordered some kind of rice and veggie mixture wrapped in bread dough... it wasn’t very good. I didn’t complain once about the meal, but the server could tell I didn’t like it. He ended up comp-ing the meal so we didn’t have to pay for it, which was going way above and beyond in my opinion.

This time, the first thing both Brett and I noticed when we looked at the menu was that the aforementioned vegetarian dish was no longer an option... guess I wasn’t the only one that disliked it. I’m happy to say I chose much better this time. I ordered the tandoori chicken with five grain pilaf. It was super delicious. The chicken was incredibly tender due to all the time spent slow roasting in a tandoor oven.

Brett had the combination beef short ribs and red curry chicken with basmati rice. He was very happy with his selection. It was more appealing than it looks in this picture (the blurriness doesn't help):

I don’t remember what each of Brett’s parents had, but overall everyone was very satisfied with the quality of the meal and we had another good server. The ambiance in Sanaa is wonderful. It’s very cool to be on ground level with the animals outside, a much different perspective than looking down on them from the balconies. Overall, I would definitely suggest Sanaa for dinner. It’s too bad they don’t serve breakfast, too.

At some point during dinner, Brett and I pretty much came to the conclusion that we were staying put for the night without even really having a discussion about it. We just didn’t feel like hastily rushing over to the Studios to simply walk to the back of the park and ooh and ahh for ten minutes before rushing back out of there. Instead, we decided to head back to the room, unpack and get settled in. After that we popped open some Blue Moons we had the foresight to bring with us and tuned in to watch the Eagles defeat the Cowboys. It was a great way to end the day! Plus, with the room we had it was nice to spend some time enjoying it.

Up next... the Studios!!

 

[Brett]

After that we popped open some Blue Moons we had the foresight to bring with us and tuned in to watch the Eagles defeat the Cowboys.

Awwwww yeah!

 

[DisneyRed95]

Hi Holly!

I'm joining in! Congrats on your engagement!!! My husband and I had a Disney Honeymoon a year ago and it was fabulous! Good luck with the rest of your planning.

As you can see, I'm very new to the boards, but am an old Disney pro. I love your pictures of Kidani. The room sounds amazing!

Oh and I love your purple flip flops!

Can't wait to read more!


- Krista :wave:

 

[Septemberman]

Welcome Back Holly and Brett...............

I love when I see that you have started a new trip report. I hope that you and your family had an AWESOME holiday and can't wait to read more.

Thanks for taking the time out of your super busy schedule to keep us entertained with your reports.

Michael

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Loving the TR! I totally understand everything with the boots (cute boots btw). When we left WL to head to MK on Dec 12th- DH asked if I'd be wearing my boots since it would be cold after the front came through... the answer was a big fat NO! Suede and rain just dont mix! Can't wait to read more!:wave:

 

[harveyt0206]

Hi Holly! :wave: I'm here following along with your most excellent trip report. Can't wait to read more. Also, I'm sure you've mentioned it before, but when in March is your wedding?? I will be at Disney the first week of March with my mom.

Also, I love that you were more willing to freeze your poor little piggies off rather than get your favorite boots wet. That's a beautiful thing. :ROFLOL:

Lookikng forward to the rest.
~Tracy

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

Your pix are absolutely wonderful! I'm enjoying the TR.

 

[LisaG23]

We were at WDW at the same time......we were at the Poly from dec10-16. I dont know about yall...but we nearly froze during that week long cold snap...lol. we were celebrating our daughter's 4th bday/first trip....all she saw was the indoor rides at MK with the exception of a few places we had ADRs at at the other parks......she loved it anyway......her favs were haunted mansion and pirates.....which she rode dressed as a princess (she went to the BBB) with her sweatsuit under her dress....lol

 

[mickey2008.1]

Glad to see someone else down there with us in the cold weather making the best of it. So far so good! great pics. It stink so many of us had crappy weather. But its what you make of it!:wave: Keep reporting.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

Awwwww yeah!

What is this? Everyone knows football season ends in November?:shrug: