This is kind of long... so continue if you wish...but I wanted to share Day 1 - travel day Spent the day packing and reading posts re: Disney. We drove to Buffalo to catch our flight via Jet Blue to Orlando. ; Stayed at the Fairfield Inn (Marriott) on points I had. ; They were going to charge us $50 to park at the hotel and use the free shuttle, so we decided to use the online coupon from Buffalo airport site and parked at the airport in Long Term A for 45 instead. ; I believe it actually worked out better as it made for a quicker exit from the airport when returning home Day 2 - Flight out was on time, very good service with a smile from Jet Blue - this is our first time using this airline, direct flights to Orlando for 145 each, all taxes in. ; We arrived and caught the 'magical' express to Saratoga Springs for our first night. We were also purchaing the food plan for our 5 night stay, but had to purchase itwith each reservation - 3 in total. We also purchased a 4 day park pass, no park hopper as we just planned on hitting our favourties in each park, and just transferred it from room to room when moving. ; Saratoga room in Congress Park had a nice view of Downtown Disney. After a quick visit to our room we headed to downtown Disney and had lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express, excellent food and a good value on the DDP. We shopped for a bit, but the long day was catching up so we headed back to the room for a quick rest before dinner at Turf Club. ; The luggage arrived about 3 hours after we did. ; We headed to Turf Club for our 7 pm reservation. ; It was good, but not as good as remembered from our last visit. ; The food didn't strike any of us as being outstanding. Day 3 - Check out day at Saratoga. We had booked Bell Services to pick up our luggage at 8:30 am, but we were ahead of schedule so called and they were there about 8:15. ; We sent our bags off to AKL Jambo House and then headed to the magic kingdom. ; At the bus stop we waited 15 minutes and did not see a MK bus, so we took the second Epcot bus that arrived and walked to the monorail at Epcot to go to MK. ; We hit all the highlights at MK, Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, we decided not to wait ; 50 min for Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan's flight, Tiki Birds, Philharmagic, Jungle Cruise, Pirates and managed 3 rides on Space Mountain, 2x on right side and once on left side. ; We found the right was a more thrilling ride, but is there any actual difference? ; We interrupted our MK visit to return to AKL Jambo House mid-day because we needed to check in to get our new room keys and our food plan, although the room was not ready. After finishing our afternoon at MK we went to O'Hana's for dinner. ; We had not experienced this before, and the food was very good, generous. continuous servings. Good but we ate too much! A fun time for families, and we also had a very nice view of the castle. When we returned to Jambo our room was ready - 8 pm at night - but found our 'value studio' for 3 had a savannah view! ; It was awesome and we loved watching the eland, ostriches and storks - This room was on the 'ostrich trail' Day 4 - We don't have to move this day!! We're spending today at Hollywood studios. ; We didn't get to see all of the shows and rides, but again we did most of what we wanted to see. ; Having the benefit of a savannah view room we returned about 3 pm to relax and as HS had magic evening hours we went back as we had reservations at Prime Time at 7:30 pm. ; This was the one and only time we had an issue with transporttion. ; We left the park at 3 pm and it was well over 30 min. before we had a bus for AKL - we saw at least 3 or 4 busses for most other resorts. ; We had lunch at ABC Commissary which was okay, and Prime Time was also okay we had a good waiter who made it fun and even had some interaction going on with nearby tables but I think we were finding that the dining plan was too much food. ; We all had our desserts packaged to go. ; ; So we returned to our room to add 3 more desserts to 2 already sitting in the fridge and most of someone's supper also. ; Day 5 - Moving day again! ; I'll try to avoid this in the future, but I can't complain as Bell services moved our luggage each time without a problem. My in-laws were joining us today so we were moving from the studio at Jambo to a 1 bedroom at AKL Kidani that would sleep 5. ; We decided all of the food in our studio room could stay there as we would probably have difficulty getting through the volume of another days meals! We left the bags with Bell services and walked to Kidani to check in. ; At 8 am in the morning they had our room ready. ; This was not the wonderful view but the room was very nice, parking lot view. ; We met the in-laws, completed check in had a quick visit to the room and headed out to Animal Kingdom for the day. We managed to see all the shows/rides on our list and rode Everest twice. After a long day of walking for my father in law we left about 3 so he could rest before heading to Boma for a 6:30 reservation. Supper was very good and we visited the viewing areas at this resort before heading to Kidani. ; I didn't find the walk too long, but we are on the wing of Kidani closest to Jambo. Day 6 - Another day and we're hoping to cover a lot of Epcot in one day. ; My in-laws have never been to Disney despite wintering for about 12 years in Florida mainly in the Tampa area. ; We wouldn't have time to see everything but we did manage a couple rides on Soarin and also rode Test Track and all of the countries. ; Epcot to me is really a 2 day visit. ; We had lunch at Seasons in the Land which is always a good value for lunch on the DDP and we also enjoyed our first visit to Coral Reef for dinner. ; The walking was difficult for my father in law, so as much as we wanted to see Illuminations he was ready to get back to the room. ; Day 7 - We usually wake early whether on vacation or not, but this morning we heard an alarm, quite a loud beep, continually going off about 7:30. ; After about 15 min. I called the front desk to ensure it wasn't some type of alarm that we should be vacating the room! ; They front desk suspected it was the alarm clock and said someone would resolve the issue. After about 10 min it stopped, only for about 10 min. and then started again. ; It was quite loud and you could hear it in the hallway and probably in several rooms in the area. ; We again waited about 10 min. and then called the front desk. ; Again someone said it would be resolved. ; After about another 30 min. ; my husband called the front desk and offered to go in and turn it off if someone would let him in the room!! ; They said no, someone would look after it right away. ; Anyways, we finally were finished packing and decided to check out so we didn't have to listen to the constant beeping of the alarm - this was about 2 1/2 hrs after the original call to the front desk! ; My husband took some video of the room before leaving and all you can hear is the constant beep in the back ground! ; So we mentioned it to the front desk while doing the airline check in but I'm wondering if that alarm is still going off! ; Generally it was an enjoyable trip, meals were good, line-ups were short, weather was good, one bad bus experience, and the alarm on the last day, but otherwise another enjoyable Disney vacation. ; We need to learn how to stop and smell the roses and stop the park commando routine, although we were showing my father in law how wonderful Disney is, I'm not sure we sold him on it? - too much walking for him. ; I like the walking,despite all of the food and desserts I had on vacation I came home 2 lbs lighter! ; I never accomplish that on cruise vacations! Loved AKL Jambo and Kidani as I had never stayed at either resort. ; Boardwalk is our home and I'm hoping to stay there on my next trip. Maybe in the fall? Thanks for reading! Debbie
Whewww ... I'm tired! ; Good trip report. We also booked the Marriott Fairfield on points for our trip out of Buffalo. I called the points line to make sure they added the code for free parking onto our reservation. They don't give you the option online. Hope it works ... it's in our e-mail confirmation anyways.
Good luck. They told me because we used our points we had to pay for the parking. If you have an email verifying that should be good. This was the first time we tried the airport parking and it did take less time having the vehicle right there to leave on arrival. ; We usually stay wherever we get the best price, so I'll now have to price some hotels that do not have parking. ; We had to leave at 6 am for our flight and breakfast didn't start until 6:30 or 7 but they do allow guests to have items they have in the fridge (some kind of breakfast sandwich) and muffins and coffee.
Great trip report!!!! ; thanks for sharing with us. ; ; Any pics? I also understand the pool at Jambo house is closed due to renovatons. ; Did this affect you in any way? We love AKL!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing! ; Loved reading it! Too bad about some issues but glad it did not ruin your stay! BTW, Marriott was on the news this weekend about a shooting, so be careful.
Yes, Jambo House pool is closed, but guests can bus or walk over to Kidani to use that pool. ; We never had time to swim at Jambo, but did use the pool at Kidani while staying there. ; We really enjoyed the Kidani pool, very nice but I can't compare to Jambo because we haven't used that pool area yet. ; Pic's yes, over 600, I need to burn some slide shows and will try to select a few nice shots to upload. Thanks
Glad to hear you liked AKL. My home resort is Saratoga but we are going to try to get in to a different resort in Dec. I had AKL third on my list so it is nice to hear you were happy with it. thanks for the trip report.
