AKL Adventure!!!!! About This Page:

[ElaineM43]

I'm posting this as we are getting ready to leave for the airport. I really hope I don't bore any of you to tears with the reports and wind up being sued because you fell asleep at the keyboard and have permanent imprints of the keys on your face!!! LOL

For those that have followed me over here to see my reports and those who are reading this and saying "Who is this person and why am I actually reading this?", I anticipate posting the previous day's adventures early each morning.

We will also be spending (GASP) one day at Sea World and I will sneak a small report in here on that one.

Who is going??

My husband, Dickie 50
Myself, Elaine 49

Dickie has been to WDW 3 other times and I have been twice. In a previous life, my children and myself spent a great deal of time at Disneyland so all of us are Disney people, good and "hooked".

We leave Richmond in about 5 hours from now and anticipate arriving at MCO about 2PM. Tiffany Town Cars will be meeting us at the airport and also providing transportation to Sea World.

I hope if you have any questions, you will let me know and I will promise to corral the nearest CM to get answers for you and to give you our unbiased opinions on our trip.

This will be my first time at the World as a disabled guest so some comments will be directed in that subject as a help for anybody having to use an ECV and oxygen there.

We will be at AKL until the 13th.

See you in the AM for the first report!!

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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..

[Disnygirl]

Have a great time!! And I NEVER get bored reading trip reports, it makes me feel like part of the magic, so WRITE WRITE and WRITE some more!!
Enjoy yourselves!!
Disnygirl

[HiddenMickey]

Elaine...can't wait for the first installment! I am so excited for you! -HiddenMickey

[Kassie]

Have a wonderful and safe trip!

I can't wait to hear about your trip and Sea World also.

I lived in Virginia for 47 years and my children and grandchildren are still there.
I leave next Friday to go 'home' for a week
and pass by Richmond on the way to Colonial Heights and Lake Gaston, where my parents retired. If you don't mind...could you bring me back a Mickey Bar everyone raves about? I don't think I can wait for my trip in 2002!!

Take care and have fun, fun, fun! Please give Mickey and all his friends hugs for us.
~jo anne

[ElaineM43]

OUR ARRIVAL


The flight here was actually pleasant and as I am a legendary coward, that's a lot for me to say. The Tiffany driver was waiting in the baggage claim area and introduced himself as "Daniel The Best Driver" was a sweetie. He is from Brazil and asked as soon as we got under way if we needed to stop at the grocery store. As I had boxes waiting here from net grocer, I thanked him for asking and declined his kind offer.

The guard at the entrance to AKL did check our name against a computer list and then stepped in the shack and checked it one more time in a computer.

The lodge is much larger then it looks from the entrance and the hallways to the rooms branch off from the main lobby. The artwork is beautiful but after the initial impression, it kinda went downhill from there.

Our travel agent messed these reservations up BIGTIME and all though I won't post the name out here in the public, the agency was Dreams Unlimited. This is NOT Disney fault and it just plain created a mess down here for us to take over an hour to straighten out. NEVER again will I use any agency as I have found out that we as individuals, with the help of others on this board, can do much better on our own.

We went through 3 different rooms before deciding to accept the third one. I know that management must have been tearing their hair out at that point but, I was pleasant to them and about to suggest that we transfer to another resort, when the third seemed to be a possible solution.

ROOM Description

We are on the Giraffe Trail in room 2020. It has a full view of the pool and, a little corner of one of the Savannahs. We saw some Bongos out there yesterday grazing (antelope type animals).

The room itself has 2 queen beds and a double vanity bathroom with a tub. One problem right off the top is that there is not much room for 2 adults in this room much less adding a couple of children to it. There are only 5 drawers, of which two are tiny to store your personal items and even though we pack light....there's just not enough drawer space. Add to that my scooter and the oxygen concentrator and at the end of our stay, we will have overflow in the hallway.

BOMA

Folks, I'm really not difficult to get along with, but this first day turned out to be really less then desirable at the end.

This restaurant has enormous potential if they could fix the service problems they have. The waitress explained the buffet to us and took our drink order and then we didn't see our drinks for 20 minutes. Dickie dropped his knife and she picked it up and never brought a replacement!! We waited 30 minutes more for our check (and I was about to fall asleep myself after this days adventure) and the whole thing was so bad for him that he has said to cancel further priority seating there for him.

The food was tasty with some strong spices but the temperature of the food leaves you wondering if it truly is safe to eat unless you see it being put out fresh. I'm a former restaurant manager and will go on record to say, there is a potential food safety problem here.

Well, I'm sorry this one is so down-beat but it doesn't spoil the fact that we are at Disney and this is vacation and there's more magic and fun waiting just around the corner for us.

Things will get better so stay tuned!!!


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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..




[This message has been edited by ElaineM43 (edited 05-05-2001).]

[ElaineM43]

The End of Day ONE

We had an absolutely delightful day at the Animal Kingdom Park.

As I am wide awake and my DD is coming to see us tomorrow, I thought I would write tonight at the end of the evening instead of tomorrow AM.

I'm happy to report that the bus system works exactly as it should and despite my hesitation in using this scooter, it has been a blessing and not hard to load on the bus correctly at all. We waited about 15 minutes for the bus to come along outside the lodge to go over and about 20 minutes for the bus to come back.

The Safari really surprised me with the amount of animals that were visable around noon today. We even saw a male lion lounging around. One of the elephants must have been in a playful mood because as the Safari bus went by he actually sprayed some water at us. The hippos were all in the water staying cool and the crocodiles were up on rocks with their mouths open cooling themselves. The 2 white rinos were even out and about as were the giraffes. All in all a wonderful ride!!!

We then took a walk through the forest and the huge male gorilla was up by the plexiglass holding court. He was watching us as much as we were watching him. It really seemed he was quite comfortable there and this could have been one of his favorite pastimes.

Lunch was at the Rainforest Cafe and it was very good and the service excellent. We came back to the lodge after that to sit out on the balcony and enjoy the weather and the view. As luck would have it, the bongos and 2 elands were out on the savannah and we watched them for a long time.

Dinner was at Jiko and everything was excellent there. We both had the beef tenderloin and it was so tender, you could have cut it with a fork. The service that our waiter Bill provided was top notch.

All in all a really wonderful and relaxing day.

Tomorrow is going to be fun in an entirely different way as DD hasn't been with me to Disney since she has been 7 years old. As she now belongs in the 30 something group....we will have a ball and probably both turn into 5 year olds before the day is out at Magic Kingdom.

I did talk to a CM at the front desk today and there are still 250 rooms left to open. Most of the service people for the hotel itself admit to being lost yet in the halls on more then one ocassion in the last week.

More about tomorrow will be coming Monday AM!!!

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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..