That is so exciting!!!
Even if you don't have much of an animal view from your room, I can definitely see an advantage to having the ability to check out the animals while you are at the resort, like if some are back in the room napping or getting ready. The rooms look amazing and spacious. The resort is gorgeous!
That's the big thing... I feel like we'll appreciate having a bigger room. I'm just glad to have a new resort to explore while we're back at the room. I'm not much of a napper and one of my favorite parts of the trip is getting some time to myself to wander around while everyone else goes to lay down.
We love Boma, for breakfast and for dinner. It will be nice to have the possibility of fitting in a meal there. We were able to make a last minute reservation there in October.
Ok, I really want to try it out. My family is not early risers. We plan to do rope drop, but we avoid morning EMH just so they can sleep a little longer. I'm strongly considering getting my butt out of bed early and trying to do a walk up breakfast by myself there just to check the place out. Do you think this will work? I don't really want to do an ADR for it, especially if I have 1 or 2 others that decide they want to join me.
I'm glad. It was one of those, "I hope this is not a comment that crosses the line" but I thought you might appreciate it!
I always appreciate some humor.
Well freakin' frackin' howdy doody!! That is really awesome news and quite the jump! I think you're gonna LOVE IT!! Super excited for you guys.
I am too!
However, my mom had showed my kids pictures of the dragon or whatever it is at the pool at POFQ... now we're not staying where the dragon pool is.
But there are giraffes and zebras and an even bigger pool and a playground.
But it doesn't have a dragon.
Kids...
I'm sure they'll love it once we're there.
Oooh big change!! We LOVED AKL on our last trip! We had a savannah view, but we often viewed the animals from the many look-outs, so I wouldn't worry too much about a savannah view (though if you get a bit of the savannah from a standard room, what's the harm!?
) If you manage to fit in any meals there I'm sure you'll be happy with them. We love love love Boma, especially for breakfast, but dinner is also excellent (and a little more adventurous, while breakfast has a lot of typical American breakfast fare.) I'm excited for you and your new developments!
Yeah, I'm not super worried about the view. I do want to request a room out in the savanna areas though. I'd rather look out the window and see vegetation than a parking lot. Or as some of the standard views in the lobby area are, views of a roof.
How exciting! One of my favorite resorts (at least, from our visit before our Boma dinner).
I've never even visited so I'm pretty excited about checking it all out.
Well that's a pretty awesome change.
It really is!
Ryder is so cute! I'm happy to hear he is progressing and doing great. I wonder if he'll be a lifelong basket ball fan?
Thanks! I'm sure he will be. We live in Indiana after all. Actually, my friend's wife threw his 30th birthday party just last month in the gym where they filmed Hoosiers. I got to play some pickup ball while our oldest worked on his shot. So yeah, it's impossible to not be a basketball fan around here.
How fabulous that you got to upgrade to Animal Kingdom Lodge! The kids are going to love it. I've never stayed there but we did visit when we ate at BOMA.
I'm really looking forward to it. I've never even visited it, but I'm huge fan of Wilderness Lodge and I'm sure I'll love this one as well.
How exciting for you guys! The hotel is absolutely breath taking when you first walk in. Not in a Grand Floridian type of way, but more in a cultural experience kinda way. I'm sure your littles, as well as the adults will really get a kick out of having your very own on-site giraffes, zebras, etc.. We ate at Boma for the first time for dinner on our last trip and we were all really pleasantly surprised. We have some picky eaters in our group so I was worried they wouldn't be able to find something they would be willing to try. But alas, everyone left with full bellies...Or should I say the "Boma Coma!" They also had a wide variety of choices for picky kids (chicken nuggets, mac & cheese) as well which was really great.
Well, I'm glad it isn't a GF type of breathtaking, because I find it almost suffocating. I see a lot of comparisons between AKL and WL and since WL is my favorite resort... well I guess we'll see if AKL can knock it off its perch.
We're going to have a hard time doing any ADRs there, but I'm strongly considering getting up early and trying for a solo walk up breakfast at Boma just so I can at least say I've done it and check the place out.
I was trying REALLY hard to get everyone on board with staying at AKL this time around, but then an opportunity to stay at the Poly pretty much fell into our laps we figured with a toddler we should take the chance to stay on the monorail. AKL is still on my wish list though! Now that we're diving into the world of DVC point rental, if all goes well we may be able to check a few more deluxe resorts off our list (HOPEFULLY AKL with a Savanna view is in our near future!)
Yeah, you really can't go wrong staying in a monorail resort. We'd have loved to have done that, but this was within our budget for the trip and those... not so much. MK will be where we spend the bulk of our time. Our biggest hesitation about AKL was the fact that it is about as far as you can get from MK.
Those pics of your little guy are so adorable! I can't believe how big he is getting. He is definitely the spitting image of big brother!
When you see a picture of his brother at the same age, you really can't tell them apart.
That is a huge and exciting development! I'm not sure that you can request a partially obstructed room, I think that is the luck of the draw. There are plenty of great places that a public spaces where you can view the Animals.
Actually, I'm a touringplans subscriber. They have a form that you fill out with room requests and they fax it to the resort 5 days before check in. I've never used it before, but supposedly it has a pretty good track record of working out. I'm going to give it a shot. Most importantly, if I can just request to not get a room that looks at the parking lot or a lobby area rooftop, that would be a win in my book.
As far as restaurants go, I really love Sanaa, but then again I love Indian food. All the restaurants there can test your food boundaries (if you want) and by the same token, all of them have some pretty standard American dishes too. The QS (The Mara) has all the normal burgers, chicken nuggets, etc, but they also have at least one African style dish featured each day, plus a few other things you could try that are a little different. Don't forget the Zebra Domes! You can by a four pack at the Mara!
I'll definitely get some zebra domes. I'm not sure if I'll like them, because for some reason the snacks that I always see raved about on the Dis tend to fall a little short for me, but I'll certainly have to try them.
WHAT?!?!?! That's awesome! I'm so glad the upgrade was such a great deal! That's awesome!
I'm pumped about trying a new resort!
We've done Sanaa and Boma, loved both. We actually did Boma for b-fast on Mother;s Day in 2016. It was so yummy and has all the Disney faves with some more interesting things mixed in. I hear the QS there is excellent as well.
I don't know that we'll be able to swing an ADR for all of us, but I'm really thinking about just getting up early one morning and trying to do a walk up breakfast at Boma by myself. Nobody else in my family gets up early, so whey not?
That's so exciting! AKL is definitely my dream resort. You must have zebra domes from The Mara!!
I'll certainly give them a try. I don't have super high expectations because it seems like snacks that I see raved about here usually don't measure up. So maybe since I'm not expecting to be blown away, these will do the trick?
Hey Andy. It's great to see the latest photos of Ryder. He sure seems to like basketball!
He definitely does.
What an amazing deal on AKL! I probably paid more to stay in a Royal Room at POR last trip. I imagine the kids will love seeing the animals at AKL.
Actually... I think we looked at that option and...
Yay for staying at AKL! We love it there, but have only stayed once. Would love to go back sometime. Part of the appeal, beyond the animal viewing, is the dining. I like all the options there a lot. Mara has good quick service. Boma is delicious. Jiko is nice for a fancier meal. And Sanaa is one of our favorites. Hope you all have a wonderful time there and maybe get some room-view pixie dust.
I really don't see where we can change an ADR to experience the restaurants, which is kind of bothering me somewhat. Nobody in my family is an early riser though, so I think I might get up early one morning and try to do a solo walk up at Boma just to get to check the place out and try it.
Then again, that means I won't be in the room to make noise and wake everybody up so we can get to rope drop on time... so we'll see.
That is so exciting!! AKL is so incredible and I can't imagine how awesome to stay there! I am sure you are excited about all your ADR's...but...I think I would want to try to take advantage of AKL's awesome restaurants while staying there...maybe squeeze in a breakfast or something? As you said though...that the planning is never really over....you can always tinker with things some more...but that is the fun part, right? I'm so glad your little guy is doing so well.
I just don't see where we can do much with the ADRs for the group as a whole. We don't have any that we want to give up and it doesn't really fit to add any. Right now, I'm thinking about trying to get up early and try to do a walk up solo breakfast at Boma some morning since I'm the early riser in the group.
Awesome resort change!
I'm so happy to hear the summer discount deal worked in your favor.
7 nights at AKL? I'm very jealous. Your kids are going to love the resort. Even if you don't land any savannah view in your room, all the windows in the hallways, lobby, everywhere has great views.
And whether you're extra excited about it or not, at least now you'll be close to the new Avatorland stuff.
I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to submit a request to at least hopefully not get a view of the parking lot or the rooftops in the lobby area. If we can get zebra or kudu we should have a view of vegetation and at least a chance at a partial savanna view.
Hey, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
Hey, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
Hey, the apple, etc, etc.
I'm kind of starting to crave an apple
Better yet, apple pie.
Could this child be your kid any more?
Not really.
All kidding aside, that's really cute.
All kidding aside? Are you ok?
Truer words were never spoken.
We all seem to have this common problem.
I know. I couldn't believe it. I actually priced out WL, AKL and POR. Due to the classifications available, POR with a discount was going to be about the same as POFQ with a discount, WL was going to be an approximate crap ton more and AKL was right there like "Hey, look at me! You can't say no!"
Awesome! The AKL is really a magical resort. If you can manage to see animals off the balcony, it's worth every penny to stay there.
Even if we can't see animals, I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to request a room in Kudu trail or Zebra trail. The way I see it that gives us at least a chance of a savanna view room and at worst we'll likely have a view of vegetation. It beats a bus stop or rooftop up at the lobby area.
That's definitely true. I wish I knew what the room numbers were. Hope someone can help you out there.
I subscribe to touringplans so I've spent some quality time with their room selection tool over the past couple of weeks. I'm going to use their form to submit a request via fax, so I guess I can report back on how well that works out.
You should be! It's fantastic!
I guess I'll get to see if I agree with your assessment/comparison between AKL and WL.
I was surprised how much we liked Boma. I mostly stuck with the Americanized less adventurous food, but it was really good.
I don't see how we can swing an ADR for the group, but I'm strongly considering getting up early and trying to have a solo walk up breakfast at Boma just so I can check it out.
Always fun. Our first DD never crawled much. She rolled everywhere.
