AKL Adventure!!!!! About This Page:

[ElaineM43]

What a joy today was!!! I have never laughed so much with DD in a long time.

We had to have a taxi take us over and it had to be a van to get the scooter in. The valet service along with bell services were not helpful and absolutely refused to help us load the scooter into the van. I am now really disgusted with this resort and we will not be back to this one period!!

Sea World is charming and we had the BEST time over there. We went to Shamu's show first and even the pre-show was hilarious. When they warn you that you WILL get wet if you sit down in front.....take them serious as you will not only get wet...you will be soaked before the show is over.

Then Jack Hanna was there in person today and he also has a really great show with lots of baby animals.

Lunch was next and we decided on the Chicken and Biscuit and it was either very good or we were very hungry. The chickn was hot and crispy and very tasty.

We pet the Clysdales and then went on to the Sting Ray pool to hand feed them small fish. They have the softest mouths I've ever felt. Don't be afraid to feed them as they have no teeth to "get" you with. They use a sucking motion to get the little fish in their mouth and even the large rays are gentle creatures in the pool. What a treat for the children to feed an actual sting ray.

Don't miss the Clyde and Seymore show with 2 sea lions, a walrus, and a sea otter. We were laughing so hard during this show at the antics that I thought we were going to fall out of our seats.

We've made ourselves a promise that we will return in a few months to do Discovery Cove. This should be worth a trip in itself.

I called Tiffany and confirmed our pick up tomorrow at 2 and then called the front desk and asked if there was any chance of a late check out and was told that this resort does NOT do late check outs and we need to be out the room by 11AM.

I'm really disappointed in this stay at
Disney and need to sit down and re-evaluate where the majority of our money will go next time. We've about decided to stay off property if this is what service Disney is giving at this point where when we lay out almost $3000 for accomodations, we will be appreciated and catered to. This being a deluxe resort and we have stayed at 2 other deluxe resorts before, left a bad taste all the way around.

Mousekeeping happens to agree with us by the way and it's not just our one mousekeeper but quite a few we have talked with. It's just not turning out the way people have expected and I think that Disney needs to take a good look at the way the average guest is treated in every way over here.

Please believe me that I AM one of Disney's biggest fans and will return sometime in the future. Will we stay on property?? Maybe but, right now unless I get an assurance that the others have not changed the way this new resort has, it's doubtful.

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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..

[Belle*]

Elaine, I have loved your trip report and am SO sorry for your disappointment in AKL. It can be very frustrating when you spend $$$ on a hotel and are not treated well.

I won't try to defend Disney (well, maybe a little ) but AKL is brand new. Also, Disney is experiencing the "belt-tightening" of recent months and that has caused reports of surly CM's.

We have stayed at the WL and had wonderful customer service. While we did not have to deal with the "scooter situation", I would like to think that it would be handled better in the future. I hope you intend to write a letter to Disney regarding your issues. Definitely put a bug in someone's ear!!! I hope your next trip will be nothing but spectacular. Thanks for your report!!

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We can touch tomorrow today.


[This message has been edited by Belle* (edited 05-12-2001).]

[Beast_fanatic]

Just wanted to chime in and tell you that I'm enjoying your reports. We leave for WDW next Friday and I'm getting more and more excited just reading your reports.

Hope your day at Sea World is fun!

Rhonda

[ElaineM43]

First off.....we are home safe and sound. I walked in the door last night, grabbed my jammies and went straight to bed.

I will write them a very civil letter as to the problems we encountered while there at AKL. I hope though that it just isn't tossed away and that somebody will take heed and try to look into the matter. I truly don't want anything from them except an apology for the scooter incidient and a promise to look into the situation.

We decided to walk down to the edge of the savannah to look at the Flamingos before we left yesterday. Mind you it was 86 and very humid out. I'm also sorry to tell you the flamingo pool stank AWFUL and nobody could stay around it for very long. So, we moved to a "climb on the rock and view it area". Same odor. I don't know if the wind was just right or the lack of rain in Florida is causing the problem but, beware. This is early in the year and all though we did not get this odor in the room, when you approach the savannah, it's all too obvious to the nose.

Brian was our driver from Tiffany this time and was very personable and kept the coversation flowing as long as we wanted to talk. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare.

I'll be checking back and forth here to see if I can answer anything for anybody. I agree though with Belle...the CM's are feeling the pinch and it shows all too clearly.

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Elaine
When you wish upon a star..

[Suzie]

Giggle, I am old enough to have gone to some of those movies they show trailer from at the Sci-Fi! Actually, I wasn't allowed to go to most of them, my older cousins were allowed to, but my parents thought they were too "horrifying" for small children. Compared to what my kids see now.....

[Wild4Diz]

Elaine -

Thanks for sharing your experiences. My family traveled to WDW in October and my parents both used ECV's. We stayed at the Poly and we couldn't have had nicer CM's. I certainly hope that the CM's in WDW will be treated right or Disney is going to make some very loyal subjects feel a bit put out. I totally agree that the money we spend on these vacations ought to warrant the best of service.

I hope you return and have a better experience.

Please let us know if you do go to Discovery Cover. My family and I are planning on going in December 2002 and I would love to hear some opinions.

Thanks again for the report and let us know if Disney responds to your letter.

[ElaineM43]

I've been waiting to post this but I think at this point the inevitable has happened. Disney got my letters, read them, and promptly threw them away.

The only thing that I can tell them is I have since planned a family reunion and we will NOT be going to Disney for it.

They have lost long time customers with this attitude. Sorry I didn't have anything good to report on this situation. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Amystice]

Elaine, I'm really sorry that you and DH had such a bad time at AKL. I know that all of us wish and hope that our vacations will be the best possible, but sometimes things go wrong - horribly!

My question is: where did you send your letter to? If it was sent to AKL it may have been "lost" due to personnel problems (based on your report), but if it was sent somewhere else it may still be going through channels. It may still be that a response or apology is on its way. Heck, it takes 4-5 days for an email response to make it back!

Don't give up on Disney completely. It provides so much happiness to all of us. It's really sad when rotten people or experiences affect us, but at least you saw DD and the rest of your trip sounded great.

Keep your chin up. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]