Jambo! The newest AKL Information thread

[TaraPA]

Can someone post (or point me to a previous post) of the November Activities at Jambo? Thanks!

 

[Dug720]

Evaluated my plans and changed to AoA. I love AKL, but for the amount of time I’ll be in my room, the price differential was really the deciding factor.

 

[be0URguest]

Sooo I apologize if this has been asked before but can someone tell me where exactly the "standard rooms" are at AKL? Are they soley in the locations towards the front of the resort next to dining with parking lot views? Booked our BB offer for next December and want to know what exactly to request room wise. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Splashboat]

Can someone post (or point me to a previous post) of the November Activities at Jambo? Thanks!

http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/wdw/pdf/AKLCalendar.pdf

 

[ErinsMommy]

sorry wrong post

 

[sndral]

Here is my very belated belated review of our Polynesian stay from September 15-25.

We stayed a total of 9 nights at the Polynesian, first night room only in a Garden View Club Level due to late flight) then started our package next morning in a Theme Park View Club Level. Got our room ready text around 3:00 p.m., followed up by a phone call about an hour later that they saw our fax request (via TouringPlans) and to disregard the room number, that they were able to grant our request and we would get a new text shortly (which we did). Was a great start!

Flights were good, made great time going/coming home with no delays or problems. Nice change of pace considering every flight we’ve taken prior to this point was right before a major snowstorm or hurricane.

Room: My concerns about being in a “temperature controlled” room with no ceiling fan were not a problem and I was thrilled as I know September the heat is pretty oppressive and to come to a room that I couldn’t cool down in didn’t sound like fun, but no issue at all (although one night we got back to the room and for some reason they had the heat on), we had turn down service with a chocolate Giardelli on each pillow every night, room was always cleaned and re-stocked, and the view was incredible! Prior to this, we’ve only stayed in the Contemporary Theme Park View so I expected some unhappiness from DH - but for the most part he was pretty good about it (although I would catch him looking out the window at the Contemporary often...lol) plus he commented a few times that being close height wise to the walking path was something to get used to, but it didn’t affect our trip. I personally loved looking out and seeing the tiki torches lit and listening to the Hawaiian music, very tropical feel to the resort and very much different than the Contemporary.

Staff: Club Level staff were great and always helpful and accommodating. A couple of days into our stay I unfortunately had an issue with foot swelling and blisters and by the middle of our stay it had gotten pretty bad, so EMS came to the room as well as the front desk manager with recommendations on how to possibly bring the swelling down and treat the blister, and also gave me options on off-site medical facilities. I was practically begging EMS to pop the blister but they said they couldn’t and didn’t recommend that I do so myself (infection risk, etc.) so I just left well enough alone and tried to get through the rest of our stay best I could. Well the front desk manager took it upon himself to go to the gift shop and brought back every foot cream, antibiotic cream and bandages they had (and also brought back a large stuffed Stitch for my daughter) and his kindness was very sweet and very very much appreciated. He even followed up with a phone call a couple of days later to see how things were going.

Facilities: We rented the ‘cabana’ for 3 of our pool days and it was PERFECT for our wants/needs. Daughter and DH swam, I got to rest my foot on a comfortable couch while drinking pina colodas and other snacks from the lounge area all while staying in the shade. Transportation was never a problem, nor did we have terribly long waits for buses or monorails. The boat was a nice change of pace from the monorail and was a closer walk, so we took that a couple of times to/from Magic Kingdom.

Food: We did a lot of firsts this trip. Beaches & Cream: I had the grilled cheese which was fabulous and we finished it off with a kitchen sink. Very fun experience and we would definitely go back again! Hoop-De-Do-Revue: it was a cute and funny show; cornbread was great, fried chicken was a bit on the greasy side; and it was “once and done” for us; Dinner @ ‘Ohana: I love seafood and the shrimp being cooked and served with the shell still on was a turn-off for me, the dessert was just ok, DH and DD weren’t all that thrilled with the steak or chicken, so overall that too was a “once and done”. Captain Cooks : enjoyed the food there every time, great selections! Boathouse: loved the seafood and our waitress was fabulous! Can’t wait to go back! Trader Sams: DH went off multiple evenings to drink and came back with my tiki mugs and his nautilus. (They didn’t have a great tiki mug selection, but next time there will hopefully be a better selection so he can get me some more...lol)

Parks: Due to my foot issues we didn’t spend as much time in the park as we would’ve liked, so we would go, bang out some fastpasses, dine and leave. We had a FP+ for FOP and after DD loved it so much we decided to wait on standby for a 2nd go and yes its as awesome as everyone says it is, and is a must do for any trip! Lines weren’t bad for most of the week. We did our first Halloween party on 9/19 (was a Tuesday) and pretty much all the rides were very low to walk-on wait times, we saw the Boo-to-You Parade as well as the Fireworks (missed Hocus Pocus) and Trick/Treating in Magic Kingdom was definitely a unique experience and was lots of fun. The party on 9/24 (was a CM discount party) and was PACKED and sold out. DH and DD did trick/treating while I stood in line for J&S and I don’t think they had as much of a good time that last night as DH kept saying the trick/treat lines were very long, the ride lines were even longer, and then daughter got sick right after the first firework show, so we took that as a sign that enough was enough and since it was our last night at 10;30 p.m. we put a wrap on the trip, got back to the resort and just enjoyed the pool and scenery for our final night. While we had a great time at the Halloween party, going back for Halloween won’t be on top of our list of things to repeat and we’ll likely stick to the Christmas party.

We’re heading back to Disney in 46 days to try and get some things done that we missed out on this trip (we really want to see the Star Wars stage and firework show, so hopefully that’ll still be going on when we get there).

Overall the Poly was my favorite resort out of all that we stayed at and I totally see us staying there again although likely not CL.

This is the AKL FAQ thread - did you mean to post this in the Poly thread?

 

[Pennstate6411]

Saturday can't come soon enough! Can't wait to introduce AKL to my DD - Room request from TP done- looking forward to a great week coming up!

http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/wdw/pdf/AKLCalendar.pdf

This link takes you to October- is the November calendar out ?

 

[MIndy S]

Saturday can't come soon enough! Can't wait to introduce AKL to my DD - Room request from TP done- looking forward to a great week coming up!




This link takes you to October- is the November calendar out ?

Very strange... took me to November's activities.

 

[ErinsMommy]

This is the AKL FAQ thread - did you mean to post this in the Poly thread?

Omg I’m so sorry yes I did lol

 

[Pennstate6411]

Very strange... took me to November's activities.

Definitely says October for me

 

[MIndy S]

Try this... I downloaded it and uploaded it back from my phone.

 

[karen1987]

We were there at the same time! Also CL, one thing that REALLY frustrated me and I haven't seen it mentioned is the total lack of electrical outlets. After a day at the park, and needing to recharge several devices, I found this really frustrating.
Also, the lack of storage -- really there is more storage on the cruise ship! I hate living out of luggage, but that is what we had to do.
Loved looking out the window and seeing all the animals -- all the time it seemed.
The offerings in the Club were nice, but I got tired of the breakfast.

Too true about the plug points actually! We had to pull out the bedside table slightly to access the two behind there and I had to crawl under the room table to get to a different outlet!

We managed fine with the storage, but we're just two adults with not many clothes, so I can imagine for a family it might be a struggle. In our room we had two draws in the TV unit and then hung up clothes in the wardrobe, where we also stored our suitcases. Did you have a different storage set up in your room?

We loved looking out at the animals too and saw quite a lot during our stay.

You're right the breakfast offerings in the lounge didn't really change each day, except maybe switching between the bowl of raspberries or blueberries and alternating between mini muffins and banana bread! Still good though and it kept us going until mid-morning at least

 

[Splashboat]

Saturday can't come soon enough! Can't wait to introduce AKL to my DD - Room request from TP done- looking forward to a great week coming up!




This link takes you to October- is the November calendar out ?

I don't know why you see October. It shows November to me.

 

[Pennstate6411]

Try this... I downloaded it and uploaded it back from my phone.

Thank you this worked!

 

[Pennstate6411]

I don't know why you see October. It shows November to me.

Not sure - I appreciate everyone's assistance just one of those weird things I guess

 

[Disney & ME]

Sooo I apologize if this has been asked before but can someone tell me where exactly the "standard rooms" are at AKL? Are they soley in the locations towards the front of the resort next to dining with parking lot views? Booked our BB offer for next December and want to know what exactly to request room wise. Thanks in advance!!!

I am looking for the same information as we too have a standard room booked. Touring plans shows a lot of standard rooms but not sure if it is correct since many have partial savanna views. If they are I would be very happy with the view.

 

[bjcaed]

Today is my last day to edit my touring plans room request fax. How successful have you been with using this? Also, have a standard room and need to know best room to request! Right now I️ have 1483 and all the rooms in that row requested. Any better ideas???

 

[Nwhite_2015]

For CL, what have been some of the dishes served during "dinner" time? Trying to see if it is enough to make a light meal out of or if I need to make dinner reservations.

 

[be0URguest]

I am looking for the same information as we too have a standard room booked. Touring plans shows a lot of standard rooms but not sure if it is correct since many have partial savanna views. If they are I would be very happy with the view.

Yes, agreed. Or if I'm close to the food/transportation I'm also happy with that as well. Anyone have any "standard" experiences to share with us?

 

[gillep]

That's one of the villas along the lobby between Kudu & Ostrich trails I think. They're on Sunset savanna, I've always wondered how much you'd see from them set back as they are - sounds like a great standard view assignment
I suspect being on the 5th floor would reduce any noise from the lobby as it's so far below.

To the bolded, this has not been my experience. Every year we stay in a DVC CL room, so 6th floor overlooking the lobby, and it can be incredibly loud between the drumming and the tv with the kids cartoons. For me, it is by far the biggest negative of the DVC CL rooms. It is especially bad when they are taking down the tree in the middle of the night in January and you hear the constant beeping of the cherry picker type vehicle when it backs up! I have had to go down to the front desk in the middle of the night and request that they turn down the tv because it is incredibly loud when there are no people in the lobby covering the noise. We usually end up stuffing towels under the door most nights.