Tikimans July trip to AKL and Poly

[Tikiman]

Part 1

July 1, 2002

We checked into Animal Kingdom Lodge around noon and we were taken from our car on a tour of the lodge by one of the nicest CM’s we have ever met, named Watts. He showed us around and what there was to do and eat then off to the room. Our envelope said room 5281 but when we got there the keys did not work. Watts had a housekeeper open the room. WOW!!!! We entered into a 450 sqft living room with a bedroom (king bed) and a huge bathroom. The bathroom was half the size of the bedroom and had a sunken tub and a walk in shower big enough to stand 6 people in it. Then down the hall was another door to another bedroom with bunk-beds and a queen. It had its own bathroom and the living room had its own half-bathroom. There were two balconies looking in two different directions. Watts then took us to the lounge. At the lounge we checked in and there was a mistake (I could have told you that) The room was for another family. We were then taken to room 5325. Great view of the Zebra Trail but just a standard room. Much smaller than the Polynesian room. For a standard room I would recommend the location for the view. We returned to the concierge lounge and asked about upgrading to a suite like we were first in. They were already over booked but they put us in a one bedroom suite (the first one was a 2 bedroom) which was the same as the first room but without the second bedroom. Since they were overbooked on the one bedroom suites they took some groups who reserved a one bedroom suite and bumped them up to a larger suite for free.
We got to the room and it was perfect. It was room 3285 on the Kudu Trail overlooking the Sunset Savanna. I did not get any pictures of the first two rooms with the limited time in them but I got plenty from the suite we were in. We went back up to the lounge and talked with Wendi, Robert and Susan. The lounge was very nice and had good offerings. Water and soda had to be requested and were not out. The espresso machine was a big hit. That night an anniversary gift (bag with an African music CD and men and woman’s cologne) were left along with a birthday cake with hats and noise makers, on the table in the room.

We went into Animal Kingdom for the safari and to walk around then headed back to the lodge. I was happy with the transportation there but coming back every time seemed to take for ever for a bus to come.

We headed off to MGM and took the boat over to the Flying Fish. Swan and Dolphin was having a Fed Ex convention. We had:
Main Lobster Salad with Lola Rosa, Braised Leeks, Avocado and Orange-Vanilla Vinaigrette. $15.00
Potato Wrapped Red Snapper $27.00
They served us a taste of the soup of the day and a scoop of guava sorbet for free since it was our anniversary

We finished with an Apricot Napoleon with crisp phyllo dough, vanilla crème brulee and warm caramel sauce $8.00

The Flying fish is one of the places we never miss and always has great service and food.

We headed back to MGM for the night.

July 2

We had breakfast in the concierge lounge. They had bagels and muffins as well as dry cereal and cinnamon oatmeal with some pastries and fruit. and then sat by the pool for a few hours. The pool was nice and big with 2 hot tubs and a kids pool as well as a slide. The slide is not very good compared to the Polynesian or Yacht Club but is good for the little kids. The deepest part of the pool went to almost 4 feet. Tara scheduled a 120 minute massage at the spa. She said it was worth every penny and it was nice to get a message on vacation as apposed to at home where she is usually running around after getting all relaxed. Now she could stay relaxed for a while. We had many visitors out side our window of our room. Mostly giraffe and Tomson’s Gazelle but we also saw Ankole Cattle, Bongo Impala, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Blue Crane, Crowned Crane and Ostrich.

After spending the day enjoying the lodge we ate at Jiko. We had:

I started with the Brentwood Corn Soup $7.25

Pan Roasted Monkfish $24.25
Oak Grilled Beef Tenderloin with “macaroni and cheese” The best mac and cheese you will ever have….infact they gave me another bowl full when I said how much I liked it. $28.50

July 3

Breakfast again in concierge. Some of the things Tara asked the concierge staff to check on were forgotten. The staff at the desk has to run the lounge area also so they seem a little to busy to get everything right. Everyone was very friendly but not very attentive. We had found out that they had a few groups that had gone from the Polynesian concierge to the AKL concierge and were disappointed and asked to be transferred back to the Polynesian. I had seen opposite reports posted on the boards. This just happens to be what I heard while I was there from a staff member. I did not see anything that was so bad as to make me switch back.

We headed over to the AK and ate at Flametree BBQ. We had to since we are moving to Flametree Circle where our new house is at. The food was very good but we stood at the counter while 6 other people were given their food who were after us. We finally said something and they had no apologies. They just said they must have missed our order. NO REALLY??? All day we did not wait longer than 15 minutes for any rides or shows. It was a little warm but not bad.

We headed back to the lodge and went to the concierge for the evening offerings. There was flatbread (veggie and chicken), cous cous, almond crusted salmon, burbon chicken, tamorand beef, tamorand ribs and south African wines. All was very good and as we found out later that night, it was from Boma.

We ate at Boma that night and there was so much good stuff I can not even begin to start. I do remember having some of the best tasting Prime Rib cut off the bone that had a smoky flavor I have never tasted before. Also a spicy coconut chicken soup and I took some mac and cheese from the kids area. The deserts were just as good. Banana bread pudding and a thing called a Zebra Dome (someone thought they called it Zebra dung) that was like a big truffle with liqueur soaked cake at the bottom.

We headed off to Winter Summerland and had a great time. Used our flex feature for two rounds of golf. Then it was time to finally see Lilo and Stitch. We got into a special Digital showing of the movie that night. It was perfect since we were heading off to the Polynesian the next day. This was also the first day in 3 weeks they did not get any rain.
Note that housekeeping was not very good at the AKL. There was some sort of powder in one of the bathrooms that was never cleaned and the dirty towels were not always cleaned up. There was also a hair scrunchy on the floor the whole time that was not ours. We did tip $5 every day and $3 for turndown. Concierge was still forgetting to do some of the things we asked them to do but Robert not only took up the slack but knew my name and that I had visited last year just to eat at Jiko and I had never met him before.