The front of the Animal Kingdom Lodge
We shot down the Beach Line Expressway as usual, although we didn't take our usual side trip down I-Drive this time. We went all the way to I4 and took that south to get to the resort a bit quicker, so we could have as full a day at a park without staying too late given our early morning. I originally thought of stopping at the new Publix that's a stones-throw away (but you have to drive a lot further to get to it), but given how early we were now arriving and the high probability our room would not be ready I didn't think it would be a great idea.The front of the Animal Kingdom Lodge
When we got down to the Animal Kingdom Resort area, I made what it appears to be a common mistake now - I went straight when I should have turned right towards Jambo House, but it is very unclear by the signage whether you should turn or not. Going straight leads to Kidani Village, which was not open yet. I doubled back and made the turn, while I watched several other cars fail to make the turn as well.
I dropped everyone off with the luggage and parked the car, finding a fairly close spot (which would not happen again...) and walked up to the lodge. The lodge itself is surrounded by foliage - you actually don't get a good look at it from up front. Even the walkway up is jungle-like. The front is nice, but not terribly impressive - but you are not seeing much of the resort from the front.
Inside, the lobby is HUGE, similar in some ways to the Wilderness Lodge. It is somewhat dark, owing to the dark wood finishings, but with an enormous picture window at the other end that looks out towards the Arusha Savanna overlook area. Off the lobby area is the marketplace and an open stairway down to Victoria Falls lounge, which itself has an open stairway down to Boma on the first floor. The lobby also has an indoor 360 degree fireplace, and is decorated with African items, several in display cases.A view of the lobby
We went to check in, and of course our room was not ready. The CM did issue our Key To The World Cards and was able to tell us approximately where our room would be, but not the room number, and gave us a number to call to find out the room number when it was ready. In the meantime Bell Services would hold our bags. But the room was not an Arusha view - it was a Sunset view. I knew requests are not guaranteed, but I asked that since I had to wait for the room anyways, and I had concerns over the Sunset view, couldn't I wait for the Arusha view instead? The CM left, and after a while came back and said that it would be possible, but made it sound like I was somehow incoveniencing someone else who hadn't checked in yet by doing so. Uhh...if room requests aren't guaranteed, and all else is equal, why am I inconveniencing someone else? I am already inconvenienced by having to wait. The room still wasn't ready, but she re-entered the information, issued us NEW KTTW cards (no idea why), and then pointed out the room would be ... in the exact same area as before. I know the AKL is described as a necklace, but I think of it more like a cup or chalice, with the lobby at the center base, and the Arusha Savanna within the bowl of the cup, Sunset to the left side and Uzima to the right. The "building" she kept pointing out was an offshoot of the left side of the cup, sticking out into the Sunset Savanna. I'm not familiar with the corridor and room layouts, so I questioned her - were there rooms there that overlooked the Arusha Savanna, and she said yes. OK, fine, they know more than me. At least I thought so.
So we went off to the Magic Kingdom in the meantime. (see Day 1 for that part of the report)
We finally got our room assignment - 5271. So when we arrived back at the AKL and headed to our room, when we look a left, heading AWAY from the Arusha side, I knew something was wrong. Not only were we not overlooking the Arusha Savanna, but we were in fact just about as far away as we could be from it. Now, I probably wouldn't have cared that much - it's still a savanna view - except this particular room may in fact have the absolute worst view of a savanna of any room classified as such. It faced back towards the lobby and Ostrich Trail buildings, basically at a small cove of the savanna. There is a large fenced area close by (where there was never any activity, so I have no idea what it was for) further reducing the area that animals might be, and to our immediate right was an outdoor stairwell that stuck out further than our balcony, which while open pretty much completely obscured any possible view towards the rest of the savanna. Plus there were lots of trees and being on the fifth floor they formed an effective canopy over most of the remaining area. Angle-wise, because of that staircase, any of the other rooms closer to the lobby would have been able to see more savanna.This was pretty close to our entire view
Immediately to the right of the end of the Ostrich Trail building was the beginning of Kidani Village, which had quite a few very large HVAC units (at least I assume that's what they were), with a fair amount of noise coming from them. Although the noise could not be heard when the doors were closed, it was quite noticeable from the balcony.
I went back to the lobby, because this appeared to be the room we were first assigned, and not the room that we were supposed to be in. The CM went back to check what happened. She was gone for quite a while, and when she came back she was very apologetic but there was nothing else available. We could switch to an Arusha room on Wednesday - half way through our stay we'd have to pack up, give our bags back to bell services because again the room would not be ready, get them back, all on a day for which we already had plans. What was upsetting me more at this point was that the CM who checked us in either made a large mistake, or was plainly dishonest with me, even when I questioned the "updated" room placement. The CM I was talking to could only offer apologies. We left it as is at that point.
DW found her way down to Mara to grab some dinner for her and the kids. In the process she picked up refillable mugs for everyone - the first time we've used them. They are a great deal if you are convenient to the refilling station and can get your money's worth, but not so much if you are far from the refills. They don't actually hold a lot. Mara was a bit hard to find. You take the elevators down to the first floor, and go past where Boma and Jiko are (they are across from each other), and outside past the pool to where Mara is. It is a nice counter service location - a couple different stations with some permanent options and some daily specials. DW got a grilled chicken ceasar salad that was incredibly good (the chicken was amazing). When I went down later I got a bacon double cheeseburger, which was better than the one I had at Pecos Bill's earlier in the day. DD#1 kept talking about the Zebra Domes for dessert, and I've read about how good they are but didn't know what they were - we later discovered they contained alcohol, so she was pretty disappointed but found solace in other things :)This was more like we were expecting
I finally went to Publix after our day at Animal Kingdom the next day to get some supplies. I discovered there was a SuperTarget across the street from it as well. The Publix was nice - bigger than the Winn-Dixie we had been to before, and no need for a discount card. After geting back, I decided to call DVC Member Services about the room, as I remained disappointed in the view - there are no zebras on the Sunset savanna, which is one of the things the kids REALLY wanted to be able to see, and we NEVER saw a single giraffe from our room the whole stay. Our animals were limited to a solitary Eland who never moved while we were looking (we only knew he moved because he was laying in a different spot near the pond), and he even disappeared on the 4th day, and an ostrich who mainly kept behind the trees. For a brief time there was a second ostrich. From the staircase we could see a LOT more...why does a staircase have a better view than a paid-for room? In fact, I could easily see more animals from the windows in the hallways which had narrow angles of view than I ever saw from out room.
I did learn something from calling MS - they actually released the animals back to Sunset about a month early, so they should have been fully acclimatized to the changes. But I pointed out what little we had seen at that point and my concerns with the CM (who the MS CM agreed did things improperly) and she would pass it on to the Satisfaction team.
We explored the resort a bit afterwards. There are some nice savanna overlook areas - especially the Arusha overlook which extends from the lobby building out towards the center of the savanna. You could very easily see giraffes, zebras and Ankole cattle with their huge horns. In fact, one of the Ankole appeared to have a problem, with his head turned to one side as if one of the horns was far heavier than the other.
There are a lot of staircases, and not all lead to where you want to go. It seems to be a generally good idea not to go below the third floor unless you are going to Boma/Jiko/Mara/Pool, and then in general head to the lobby first, or go to the main elevators off the lobby (which come out right next to Boma/Jiko). We also could get drinks to go at Victoria Falls or sit in, so a couple nights DW and I took turns. The Tables In Wonderland card is good for a discount there as well.
When we got back the phone rang. It was Alfredo, one of the AKL managers, saying he was contacted by a DVC manager to check on what the issue was. I explained it all again to him, starting with the original request, the "change" in room and the CM not even double checking when I questioned it, etc. He reiterated that the animals had been reintroduced early and often saw the giraffes from his office window, but I also pointed out that he has a better view that we had to begin with, and it was partly that and partly the fact that the CM was either dishonest or made a mistake and compounded that by not double checking when questioned. He said that there was often confusion with some of the room numbers and even said that when he heard what room we were in couldn't understand why I was saying we weren't in an Arusha view room. Even still, he agreed that the CM should have double checked when I questioned it.
In addition, I remembered that while I was waiting for the CM to check us in, another person next to me was checking in and asked whether he could upgrade to a Savanna View room (regular resort, not DVC). The CM said that they didn't have anything at that level exactly, but that they had rooms that looked out over the Sunset Savanna but due to the construction of Kidani Village they could offer him one of those rooms at the standard price, so he wouldn't have to pay for it. Now why would they offer something like this if there wasn't really an issue any longer?
He offered to move us to an Arusha room the next day, but again we already had plans and we were now fairly unpacked and didn't want to have to deal with packing, bell services, etc. again, although he said that they would help take care of all that (of course, I'd have to tip bell services again). I declined, I just wanted to put a bug in DVC's ear that they are charging SV points for a room that in my opinion did not deserve to be called that, and that I wasn't looking for anything in return. He insisted on doing something, and offered to credit on our room charge $200 so that we could enjoy a meal at Boma (which ironically we were headed to afterwards) or something, and after a bit further discussion I accepted.
As an addendum, although I considered the matter settled, on returning I sent email to DVC Member Satisfaction so they at least had a further record of the problem and resolution. A few days later I got a call back from Member Satisfaction, and we discussed it a bit. They certainly wanted to know our opinion of the room, and said that if they got further complaints they would certainly think about reclassifying the rooms. I'm not sure how that would work since they are already declared in the inventory, but she said that if they needed to it was possible. She thanked me for all the information I gave and said that they would make sure we would not have any such issues with our requests going forward, implying that they would watch our future reservations closely and make sure they are taken care of. Too bad we are out of points for a while...
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