This trip was special for many reasons. It was our first anniversary and our first time staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We has visited the lodge the year before after it opened and ate at Jiko. We really wanted to stay there so we booked our anniversary to be a split stay with the Polynesian. It was also special for us because my Mom and Aunt would be joining us later in the trip. My Aunt was battling cancer and wanted to get back to Disney World and as we suspected it was her last trip. It made our anniversary special to enjoy it with my Mother and Aunt.
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 Cast Members 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.
July 4th
We got up and had breakfast in the lounge and then off to MGM. Stitch stuff was almost all gone. We did the fast pass shuffle. We would get a fast pass and then as soon as the time was up we would get another one then go on the first ride. Once we were off it was about time to get another fast pass and go on another ride. We stood in line and got our MGM and Figment 4th of July pins and traded one of the MGM ones for an Animal Kingdom 4th pin. When we checked out we had a wonderful Bellmen who had been there since before it opened and he brought us a wicker basket full of bottled water for the road.
We headed over to the Polynesian about 2:00 and we got room 1505 again!!! We saw Marilyn and Donna checked us in. This is her first year. They said the Island Palm Press was the same as last year but after I read it closely it was slightly different.
The busses do run to the Contemporary and not the WL before the Polynesian and than on to the GF.
The old Minnie’s Menehune character breakfast is now Mickey and friends character breakfast at ‘Ohana.
The Pool cabana is now on the list of shopping (located over next to the Barefoot Bar) and offers lotion, beach towels and pool toys.
The small store at the GCH entrance near the marina and Tonga longhouse is now a storage area.
The sign at the News From Civilization finally matches the press name of News from Polynesia.
The daily activities have changed slightly and will be updated on my Kids Page soon.
Stitch is now the wake up call.
The Electric Water Pageant is now at 9:00 and the fireworks are at 10:00
I will list more changes towards the bottom.
We got in our room and a big arrangement of tropical flowers was in a big clear glass vase with the official 100 logo with the sorcerers hat. Also a cake for my birthday and a basket of champagne and two Mickey icon glasses. Also there was a talking Stitch in our room. You can actually talk to it and ask it questions and it will talk back. It has a new technology that uses a processor and is interactive. It was even on the tour at Epcot in the house of tomorrow.
We headed to Captain Cooks for a quick bite to eat and I was looking forward to the Hawaiian Chicken sandwich I get every year. Big mistake!!! What use to be a chicken brest with a Hawaiian glaze and grilled pineapple was not a cold shredded chicken on a bun with nothing else and sauce on the side if you remember to ask for it. It was not crowded but the workers were useless. The meals came with either fresh fruit or fries but no one even asked. Tara asked for the fruit and they looked at her like she was crazy and they had no idea what she was talking about. Then some one snapped at her and said pick out your fruit over there. Then I said it was to go and they put it on trays. I asked for a bag since it was raining and they said take the tray. So now my cold soggy chicken crapwitch was what I was having for dinner till food came out in the lounge. The lounge for the first time had no fruit out but they did have their great cookies. Another set of flowers were delivered and a place with congratulations written in chocolate with candies and a white chocolate Mickey and Minnie came with a bucket of ice and another bottle of champagne. Then a plate with chocolate dipped strawberries and a chocolate seashell full of M&Ms was delivered. We gave the strawberries to the Wagner kids next door. They are our neighbors every year and are there every year for 2 weeks. They had gone to the Lilo and Stitch premier in LA because he did some advertising for Disney. Then a wooden treasure chest with champagne came to the door. Yes our room was full. The kids activities were still going on which included a 2pm treasure hunt, 3pm pool games (water basket ball and polo and a watermelon race. At 4pm they had visor decorating near the pool. The basket ball hoop is a new addition and is there all the time. The pool was very crowded. The stuff we got at the AKL was delivered to our rooms around 6:00.
The beach was filling up and the security was out but not checking anyone that we could see. I met a few great people that are on the boards and we talked for a while and they all had ran into people who said they were from other resorts. I even had one tell me their resort told them they could come over and use any other resort amenities. I think they misunderstood and I must apologies if any of my postings caused many of the people to come over to the Polynesian that night who were not staying there because it was out of control. Every towel in the pool area as well as chairs and lounges were dragged to all ends of the beach area and most were never returned. We even had two sets of people back up across the lawn in front of us and stand on our patio (not the grass but the tile) and block our view with out even looking back. One mentioned being from POR. The fireworks were great. We headed over to the MK that night and the monorail was packed. When we got to the GF there was no room for anyone to get on since it was the last stop before the MK and the Contemporary and Polynesian filled it up. We got on a few things with no wait and then headed back to the room.
July 5
The Polynesian beach was a disaster but the staff had it all cleaned up by the time most were awake. The GF area looked almost as bad. There was trash and chairs everywhere.
The water pressure is back up in the Polynesian bathrooms from last years problems but the hair dryers are still useless. After all the people asking me about views and I know I know them pretty well, I decided to take a morning walk and stand on just about every patio and look at the view and I had my notebook.
As far as Hawaii longhouse is concerned (and I will add this to the web pages) Here is the view situation.
1501 is down next to the lounge and the view of the castle is partly blocked by palms on the beach.
1502 is also partly blocked by palms
1503 is partly blocked by beach palms
1504 is slightly blocked by beach palms
1505 is clear to the castle
1506 is blocked by palms on the grass in front of the longhouse.
1507 is clear with a good view
1508 is slightly blocked by palms on grass
1509 is slightly blocked by palms on the grass
1510 is a good view
1511 is a good view
1512 is a good view
1513 trees on the path block view of lagoon and castle
1514 trees block view of lagoon and castle
1515 trees partly block view on the left
1516 good view
1517 good view
1518 (last lagoon view room) slightly covered by foliage on the right but has a view of the lagoon and castle.
I noticed someone smoking in the non smoking room 2509 when I was taking notes. Thanks for considering the next guests to have that room!!!
The upper floors may have the same blocked views but the 3rd floor of many of the rooms would clear the tops of many of the trees.
That night in the lounge was mac and potato salad (all one salad), fruit (no more papayas), cheese and crackers and chicken wings with the same great beverages, kid food and water and soda available. I have noticed the cutbacks and the staff will admit that things are being cut to save money. Chef Dick was off that night.
Ivette was still there and happy as ever but Scott has since moved on. Robert is a good new addition to the lounge and it is nice to have the separate staff than the way the AKL does it.
We went to Epcot and had sushi at Japan. It was some of the best I have had. Test track broke down and we had to return later with our fast passes to get on. After we got on and rode it broke down again.
I went to the concierge desk to see if I could get last minute reservations for ‘Ohana and Kristen and Diana were on loan from the YC concierge while it was in rehab. They were both very nice and helped out quite a bit. Kristen got us in.
‘Ohana was good and the food was the same with an addition of pineapple bread and honey coriander chicken wings.
Steve is still doing turndown and housekeeping was good but nothing special (towel animals) during our stay. I think the creative people left or were let go. Another cake was left for my birthday.
We headed over to DTD to do some shopping that night.
July 6
Got up early and headed over to Typhoon Lagoon. Returned to the Polynesian to hang out at the pool till about 4:00 I went and visited with Chef Dick for a while and he said he would make Tara sushi the next night. Chef Dick also makes wonderful deserts for those who are diabetic. THey looked so good I wanted to eat them. That night was grilled chicken and desert was the best cookie dough cheese cake among other great treats. We got reservations for California Grill and as we went back to the room it was still not cleaned and made up!! We told Tara at the concierge about it and she took care of it. We were almost late getting ready waiting for the housekeeper to get out of the room. All the soap and shampoo was left on the bed in a pile.
We went to California grill and had:
Sushi sampler $9.75
Roasted corn soup with coconut milk and crab $8.50
Triple cheese flatbread $8.50
Sesame spiced yellow-fin Tuna, seared rare with tempura rice roll and onion slush $22.00
Pan seared grouper with wild mushroom risotto $26.00
Butterscotch crème brulee with toasted almond biscotti $7.25
Warm Valrhona chocolate-banana bread pudding with banana-rum ice cream $9.00
I found a new friend at the Polynesian who mostly stayed on our patio. We call him Stumpy. Please be kind to him when you see him. He is a duck with one leg and has a hard time getting around and the other ducks push him over or fight him for food.
July 7
We went to the MK and hit just about everything. I took a picture of an alagator in the water at Huck Fin Island. We had our first meal at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We had:
Prime Rib $16.00
Salmon Sandwich $13.00
I would go again and we walked right in with no reservations.
A huge storm started out of nowhere and as we sat at the dock for the resort boat launch we realized they moved it over past the WL boat launch. On our way back it was very rough and lightning hitting very close. It shook the boat. When the GF people were getting off the radio announced to get all boats off the water but the driver was not on board to hear it. We then headed over to the Polynesian and it was quite an experience. When we got off the driver got off and we took shelter at the dock covering till the lightning moved on. That night we headed over to Cirque Du Soleil. It was great as usual.
When we returned Tara (concierge) was working on making sand pails with stuff for the kids inside. They are given out to the kids at the concierge and is one of Marilyn’s creative ideas. She also does up certificated for the little girls that names them Princess of the day and puts their picture in a photo album. Marilyn tries to do as much as she can with Tara’s help to add some magic to the guests stay.
Back in the room was another champagne and candy dish with a single red rose. Tara had encountered a concierge staff member who was rude to her but I did not find out who it was. All my contact with the staff was wonderful. There were a couple other regulars to the resort who felt they owned the lounge and desk area and would not leave the staff alone as well as go behind the desk or even sit in their chairs. The staff told me they feel bad to tell them to go away but if I had known they did not approve of there actions I would have told them to leave myself. As many times as I have been there and as close as I have gotten to the staff I would never intrude on their work area or take up more of their time then necessary. There are a few times at night I sit with them and talk about changes to the resort or what is going on but only when they offer up the time to me.
July 8
I am 32 today. We went to Blizzard Beach early. Tara had come across a CM in the concierge lounge who I have heard many good things about named Luis and I was not very friendly to her and was reluctant to give her any attention. I still have not met him so I can not comment and Tara is not hard to get along with or demanding so I am not sure what caused this reaction. I guess everyone can have a bad day.
I visited the construction and Aotearoa and Fiji are both completely blocked off. I looked into the construction and took some pictures. The buildings are being gutted all the way to the floors being nothing but floor joists. They are even taking all the wood off the outer part of the building and stairways. They are redoing the grounds around the buildings and looks like they are adding new drainage.
I later met up with Melissa and we met up with the new concierge manager Jon. I finally met Rosmarie who works the Tonga concierge desk. She has been around almost as long as Melissa. They took me into the suites and we talked in the rooms for a little more than an hour. I did get pictures in all the suites and even tried to switch over to one but they were booked up later that week. The King Kamehameha was going to be checked into later that day by a lady who goes to all the Disney Suites. I did not write down the name though.
Tonga has a small lounge and desk upstairs and had out fruit (my papayas) and serves breakfast similar to what is in the Hawaii lounge. Tonga suite guests would need to use the Hawaii lounge for the evening offerings but can use the desk at the Tonga longhouse for assistance and reservations. I did get a copy of the original map of both floors of the Tonga longhouse so I am not going to try to describe each suite here. I will have new pages as soon as I can get all the info down. Basically the Tonga longhouse has 7 suites. The King Kamehameha (facing the marina) which has a 675 sqft living room and kitchen area and two upstairs bedrooms with each bedroom having a bathroom (not your standard size bathroom) and an extra bathroom upstairs and a half bath downstairs. You can also add on a 3rd and 4th room down stairs. One room being the same size as the upstairs king suite (452 sqft) and one the same size as the upstairs double queen (386 sqft).
The downstairs Princess suite is a 2 bedroom suite facing the marina with the Kings extra room as part of it (452 sqft) a living room area with wet bar (378 sqft) and a double queen bedroom with a large bathroom (382 sqft).
The upstairs Princess suite facing the marina is a one bedroom suitewhich is the same as the 2 bedroom Princess suite with the one room taken off.
On the back side upstairs and downstairs are the Ambassador suites. Both have two bedrooms, one being 452 sqft and the other 386 sqft. There are 3 bathrooms and a small kitchen area with a 675 sqft living room area. The upper Ambassador has a balcony the length of the Tonga longhouse, and the lower one had a back fenced yard area with an rear access gate.
Again I will have more details on the web page soon with pictures.
Back at the Hawaii lounge. Dick had the sushi he told Tara he would have. We were going to Kona for dinner but we stopped and had some. It was great. Back in the room was a gift from Marilyn. It was a sand pail full of sand with a shell necklace and a shovel with a rock hand painted by Marilyn that had a Hibiscus and said Happy Birthday Tikiman and the date.
We headed to Kona and met a great CM named Debi (soon to be on my Kona page). She was great entertainment and kept us laughing. She said the Deb Wills was sitting in my seat the day before. We had:
Grilled Beef Tenderloin (that you could cut with a spoon) $24.99
Crispy Ahi-Tuna $19.99
And I got a big plate with happy birthday and some KoKo Puffs on it.
I also ordered the Banana Crème Brulee $5.49
Good as always!!!
Another cake was delivered to the room. That makes 3 cakes so far!!!
We headed off to Epcot for our Illuminations cruise and had a wonderfull driver.
July 9
Lilo and Stitch were in the lobby for the character caravan. We headed over to the MK and ate at Liberty tree tavern. This is another place we try to hit every year. The food was great. We had:
Crab cakes $7.49
Turkey dinner $13.79
Salmon dish with pumpkin bread. $14.99
The Carousal of Progress was going on a limited time each day. Crowds were not bad. We hoped from one fast pass to another. Then we headed over to Epcot in the front of the monorail and I timed the walk from the Hawaii longhouse to the TTC and it was less than 5 minutes. We watched Tapestry of Dreams and then headed back to get some goodies from the lounge area. Tonight there was tropical mousse and white chocolate. The evening offerings were chicken lomein and some other appatisers (standard stuff the lounge has)
July 10
Went to ‘Ohana character breakfast for the first time. Plenty of food. Food was good but not the offerings it use to be. Lots of characters and bad service. The best part was not when she brought me coffee from the back and the mug looked like it had been dunked in a bucket of coffee but when she was leaning over and the coffee spilled all over our $700 digital camera (its ok) and she did not even blink an eye. We used our flex feature for this and when we did that she added in a 15% tip for herself. She would have gotten 5% from me. The rain started so we headed around the resorts on the monorail. Tara found a stitch doll and we got one for Marilyn and Melissa. They were all gone before we left the store.
Later we went on to MGM and then over to Epcot top eat at Coral Reef. We had:
Lobster soup $6.00
Mahi Mahi $23.00
Yellow-fin Tuna $23.00
We went back into MGM for the night.
July 11
The Wagners stopped by to say goodbye. We said we would not see them next year. We would be in one of the South Sea islands.
Philip in the concierge helped Tara with packing up and shipping some of the stuff home. I gathered up all the last bit of info on the Polynesian I needed and hung out at the pool for the rest of the day. We got a late check out.
Now for the rest of the new info.
The Polynesian concierge Hawaii building will go down in June 2003 and may not be back up till September 2003. Some of the changes I can not discuss because they could all change from now till then so anything you hear from a concierge member may not be the truth because they are not being told yet. Tahiti will be the temp concierge building and there are more rooms and they are larger with double sinks. The lounge will be over there but will not have a view of the lagoon from the lounge.
The Hawaii longhouse was expanded in July 1994 and had the first few rooms removed as well as the lounge area and elevators added to the building. Before that the concierge lounge was in the GCH. Now it is time to fix it up and well as the rooms. The floors will be cemented to eliminate the noise and reduce the moisture that the wood absorbs. The lounge will at minimum get a face lift and maybe a whole lot more. The air conditioning system and ventilation will be replaced. The second floor rooms will not get balconies because the entire building structure would have to be redone to support the balconies as well as the 3rd floor ones would have to be removed and replaced.
Tokelau news!!!
The mystery is over. There was always speculation as to weather or now Tokelau had double sinks like Rapa Nui and Tahiti. Well the rooms are larger like Tahiti but most rooms in Tokelau have one sink in the bathroom. Now the fun stuff!!!! There are a hand full of rooms in Tokelau that were test rooms and were designed and built with two sinks. Some even have the sink area outside the bathroom area!!! So if you ever run across these rooms then let me know the room numbers. Rooms 3914 and 2914 are still lagoon view rooms with the rest in Tokelau being garden. After standing in the patios and taking view pictures I can see why 1914 is not a lagoon view room. It does have a great view and looks at the lagoon and the GF but because of Sunset Point you can not see the castle from 1914 but you would see the fireworks and Electric Water Pageant. The rooms down to X911 still have a great lagoon view for the garden price. I will post the new pictures soon.
Another shocker for me was that Tahiti, Tokelau and Tuvalu are not the only longhouses with lagoon view rooms. Rooms 1219-1222, 2217-2224, 3217-3224 in Aotearoa are lagoon view rooms with lagoon view prices. So for all of us who thought Aotearoa would be a great lagoon view with a garden view price, we were wrong. I took a picture of the castle from Aotearoa and it would be a good view. The reason the whole side of Aotearoa is not lagoon view is because there is actually some foliage blocking the view of some of the rooms. They check every few years and re-categorize the rooms when the plants grow bigger.
Well that is enough for one night. When I remember more I will post it. Tomorrow I will work on adding the new stuff to the web pages and answering questions in here.
One last thing……the Contemporary rents Jet Ski watercraft!!!!!!
Aloha
Steve
