Disney 2003: First Week

During this first week, the biggest highlight was the moment we walked into our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I walked out onto our savannah room balcony and there was the most beautiful giraffe standing there as if to say hello. It was almost as if the girl who checked us in called down and told them to send him on over. It was beautiful.

While we did visit the Disney parks this week, I'm not going to talk in detail about them in this journal because I'll be covering them in the journal for our third week: Disney 2003 Third Week. I'll just provide a FreeForm entry for this week talking about the general things we did.

Quick Tips:

If you are a Disney fan at all, I totally recommend staying at least two nights at the Animal Kindom Lodge with a savannah view room. The experience of waking up to these beautiful creatures and watching them throughout the day is not to be missed.

Best Way To Get Around:

While staying on site, I recommend using Disney transportation. It really is convienient, and since it always brings you right up to the gate, it takes about the same amount of time as driving and parking.

First off, for my third-floor savannah-view room, the rate was $260/night with tax, off season, using my AAA 15% discount. Ordinarily, the rate ranges from $275 - $410 a night depending on what time of year.

So, what were they like? The rooms were top-notch accommodations. Clean and wonderful decor, with beds hard as rocks. The African theme is throughout and I just loved the wallpaper. The real treat that made the room more than worth the money was the view - the view of beautiful creatures walking the savannah. It was beyond amazing to see them in the morning. Quiet, calm, living their lives in harmony with the world around them.

I think if I hadn't already been spoiled by timeshare living, I'd try and find the money to stay there every time we visit. Amazing as the animals were, though, I was happy to get to our very roomy timeshare with the kitchen, laundry, and slightly more comfortable beds.

The lodge itself is not to be missed, regardless. It is a beautiful creation and well worth visiting even if you don't stay there. In addition, there are paths you can walk to get a view of the animals that I had the privilege of seeing off my balcony each morning.

This resort is a definite *must* do, if only for a couple of nights (we stayed four).

Ah, Boma - yummy.

- Dinner -

We ate there for dinner when we arrived. We were lucky we didn't need priority seating, but we did show up just as they opened. It got crowded fast.

Well, Boma is a buffet with food from all around Africa. We made a decision to grab only things that weren't immediately recognizable. They do have standard American kiddie fare (mac & cheese and such), and of course any chef on Disney property will accommodate your tastes when they can.

The food was fabulous. All the main ingredients were pretty standard - chicken, beef, etc. - but the seasonings were amazing. I found that there was never just one flavor. You would take a bite and get an initial taste and then another richer flavor would blossom through as you were eating.

And the desserts were to die for. They make a pineapple cheesecake that I must find the recipe for. What was nice was the desserts were small so you could choose a couple. This was fortunate, because I would have made myself sick trying all the desserts if they had been regular-sized. If for nothing else, you must go there for dessert, but if you are brave, the dinner will amaze you.

- Breakfast -

Boma for breakfast was good too. Nothing too original - potatoes with Afritude! which they had the night before. Of course you can get an omelet, and while it may not be the adventure that dinner was, it was certainly top-notch yummy. The banana-stuffed French toast was *very* good.

We really enjoyed Jikos - it was exactly the level of fine dining that we like - upscale but not Victoria & Alberts!

Again, we were brave. We ordered:

Appetizers

Crispy Cinnamon Spiced Beef Roll - with vegetable banana dip - very good. I did not expect to like cinnamon and beef but it makes a tasty combo.

Dinner

Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon - with macaroni and cheese and red wine sauce - my husband got this one and he quite enjoyed it.

Chermoula Roasted Chicken - with mashed potatoes, preserved lemons, roasted garlic, kalamata olives, herbs and harissa - very good. The chicken was so very moist and flavorful. Once again, the spices that we had at Boma's were in use here and it was an amazingly good meal.

Dessert

Tanzanian Chocolate Candies -- dark-chocolate-filled beggar's purses with white chocolate and orange "Van der hume" dipping sauce - oooooh my oh my. I adore dark chocolate and I was in heaven. The only unfortunate part was the orange was not strong enough and was overpowered by the chocolate (which is doubly disappointing for me, as dark chocolate and orange is an absolute favorite for me).

While the meal was pricey, the food was worth it.

The atmosphere was very minimal. They insisted on no cellphones (YAY!). It was also nice and quiet - DH & I could actually carry on a conversation, which in some "nice" places these days, is often quite difficult. The lighting on back wall changed every so often to mimic the different African sunsets.

All in all, well worth the visit.

Hi all,

Well, as stated in the overview, we were quite impressed with Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL). Staying on the Savannah and watching the animals was just a treat and well worth paying for.

We arrived in the afternoon the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. After checking in and marveling at the giraffes we wandered down to Boma - which was just opening. Since we were so early we managed to get seated right away but it sure did fill up fast. The food was yummy so please be sure to read my review.

After dinner we decided to catch a bus over to the Magic Kingdom.

Oh - just a divergence here - one really nice thing about staying at AKL is that it's the only stop on its bus line. So at the end of a long day in the parks, you just hop on a bus and your next stop is the AKL - unlike other hotels where there are multiple stops along the way.

So we did some wandering through the MK. We went straight to Adventureland and hit the Dole stand (DH's favorite) and kind of drifted around, but it turned out we were exhausted and ended up heading back to the hotel.

Side note: Thanksgiving week is crowded. Very crowded. Now, I've been to Disney World many times and most of them in August so I understand what crowded is like. Turkey week is like August without the humidity.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to treat ourselves and setup breakfast in our room the next morning. Extremely expensive but very good (I even had a mimosa!). We had Mickey wake us up at 8, ate breakfast and my DH crashed back to sleep (AKL has WONDERFUL curtains - they really keep the light out well). So I took my laptop out on the balconey and watched my Buffy DVDs in the sunlight, pausing often to admire the four legged creatures wandering about. *Sigh*. What a way to spend a day.

DH did eventually wake so we headed on down to MGM Studios and rode the Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster, after saying hi and seeing the Muppet's 3D movie - again.

The next day was Turkey day and, since we weren't doing our usual and eating with the folks, we decided to be totally different. We went over to EPCOT and had lunch at the Rose & Crown in England, where, unsurprisngly, they had a Thanksgiving Day special. Since we had an anti-Turkey day theme going, we stuck with the regular menu. Good food, too.

We were lucky again to get in without a Priority Seating - only a 10 minute wait, but he had stopped in Canada at Le Cellier, and they were booked solid - not even giving a waiting estimate.

So we spent the rest of the day enjoying EPCOT and had dinner over in Japan at the Teppanyaki. It was very good. Rather crowded though. They were absolutely mobbed - PS's very important. We had planned to watch Illuminations from the balconey of the restaurant, but we were just too tired, so we decided to beat the crowds and head on back to the AKL.

Friday was another sleep-in day. I wandered around AKL taking pictures and exploring the lodge. DH really needed to sleep so we simply relaxed - it's so nice to do that. We decided to have a 'special' evening, so we got "dressed up" (not really but nicer than jeans shorts) and had dinner at Jiko's. Another yum! See my review. Then we went over to Pleasure Island and the Adventurer's Club.

We didn't stay out too late since check out was the next day, but we did have fun. All in all, I give AKL high marks, and it was nice to stay on site for a while. However, as wonderful as the lodge was, I was glad to head on over to the Orange Lake Resort for the next part of our journey...