Magical Monday {Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge}

We laid our heads at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge on our December visit and found it just as immensely enjoyable as our two previous stays!

 

The grand lobby at Jambo House is even more spectacular at Christmas time with its towering tree and garlands.  There is a photopass photographer set up in front of the tree as well – it was our experience that they took tons of time getting a lot of fun photos!

Overlooking four savannas with loads of animals, it is nothing short of magnificent.

Unlike any of the other Disney resorts we’ve visited, Animal Kingdom Lodge is a complete immersion for the senses. The architecture wows you, the scents of African cuisine overwhelm you, the sound of bongo drums playing cannot be ignored. It’s just incredible!!

We roasted marshmallows at a couple of the nightly camp fires overlooking the savannas on arusha rock.

We’ve logged many hours at the pool, being sure to have time in our schedule to do everything we could at the resort.  It is lushly landscaped and a wonderful retreat from the parks.

There is a zero entry at one end a fun slide at the other.

Now that my littles are a little bigger, they also really enjoy the ping pong table on the pool deck!

Also on the pool deck is the flamingo pool.  Be sure to look up times for the feeding session as it is really neat.

Most recently we stayed in a standard view studio.   This type room has a king bed, sleeper sofa and kitchenette.

 

On each of these stays we loved checking off the wildlife as we saw them!

 

One thing that we love to do is to enjoy breakfast on the balcony.  All rooms come with a mini fridge so we bring juices, waters and easy breakfast foods like granola bars, pop tarts, yogurts and fruits with us.  This little one in particular is always the first one up and can be found out here before any of the rest of us have even thought about starting the day.

Even when you come back late at night, there is always something to be seen.  I caught this pic one evening.

On the visit where we had the free dining plan we ate at every single restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our very favorite (then and now) was Sanaa at Kidani Village. Every single thing about it was memorable… the window seat overlooking the savanna at sunset, the food, the bread service, the atmosphere and the company. We enjoyed a glass of wine in the lounge while we waited on our table. We did have reservations but asked to wait on a window seat.  I have also been over here without a reservation and simply dined on the bread service in the lounge.

Entrance to Kidani:

 

 

On yet another night we checked the littles into Simba’s Cubhouse (which they absolutely adored) and had date night at Jiko. It was lovely and romantic and super yummy. We started in the wine bar and then had dinner in the dining room. And we had the cheese plate for both an app AND then again for dessert. Hey, it was on both menus and we do adore cheese.  I do highly recommend the kids clubs at Disney as well!

These two were all smiles when we were reunited, having spent their evening playing video games, making crafts and eating dinner!

A few other favorite haunts around Animal Kingdom Lodge are the Victoria Falls Lounge and the giant fire in the lobby.  Honey loves that the lounge carries African beer.  You can also bring food up here from the Mara, if you want something heavier, but we love the cheese plate.

The Mara quick serve restaurant is my favorite of all resorts.  It is yummy and has a good mix of American and African foods. I particularly loved their salad, couscous, zebra domes and chicken pita.  Oh, and their breakfast platter is my fave on property.  You will find bags and plastic lids for all of the plates, which makes getting food to take out to the pool deck really easy.  We have done that every single time we ate here!

Since I mentioned our club level visit, I thought I’d go into more detail here.  We did this for Honey’s 40th birthday on an adults-only weekend visit.  The Kilimanjaro Club is located on the sixth floor of the magnificent Jambo House. It is accessible only by Magic Band to guests staying on the club level. The concierge contacted me in advance of our 180 day mark for dining to ask what restaurants and times I wanted and arranged all of them for me. Needless to say, I got them all.

At check-in we were greeted with jungle juice sangria at the concierge desk on the 6th floor.

Honey was treated grandly for his birthday, with chocolate treats and birthday buttons arriving the first evening.

Up in the lounge you will find various seating arrangements – tables + chairs, sofas, etc., a large TV with news, sports, movies playing, and a smaller area for kids with cartoons and coloring. I did note that there are high chairs available, which I thought was nice. The huge benefit of the Kilimanjaro Club are the food offerings:

• Continental breakfast – includes yogurt, pastries, fruit, oatmeal, cereal, coffee, juices and coke beverages
• Snacks – throughout the day you will find kettle chips, spiced nuts, trail mix, yogurt covered pretzels, cookies and the likes. Water, tea, jungle juice and soft drinks are self serve You can request wine and beer after 11AM.
• Evening appetizers – from 5-7 they provide a wonderful selection of hot and cold appetizers. You perhaps could make a light meal out of them but that is not the intent. Beer and wine are self serve, as are non alcoholic beverages.
• Evening desserts – from 8-10 you will find cordials and little dessert offerings.

Sadly I wasn’t super diligent about grabbing pics up here… AFTERNOON

EVENING

As you would expect, the service up here is top notch. I had them change fast passes (and get some that I never would have been able to) while we were on the way to the park. They also were able to cancel our Sanaa ressie at the last minute when we decided we just wanted to eat in the lounge with no charge. I personally witnessed TWO cast members do amazing things for two different children… the first found out a child was going to the Pirates & Pals and came back with an eye patch, bandana, sword and tattoo. The second found out a child loved Buzz Lightyear but didn’t have one. She arranged for one to be magically delivered to his room that night.

Here are my overall thoughts:

• The Kilimanjaro Club was a wonderful addition to our stay. I would love to do it again, should the right opportunity present itself.
• If you do the club, I would pay close attention to the times of the day that food is available and plan my day accordingly. ie. Make your dinner reservations for 8-9ish so you could enjoy appetizers and cocktails in the club before hand.
• It is fine to get a drink / coke / beer / snack and take it back to your room or with you to the park.
• We ate breakfast here every morning, so that was nice. Our usual Disney breakfast consists of some sort of a bar brought from home. That being said, I don’t crave a hot meal and yogurt and fruit is my normal breakfast at home.
• It was nice to use this as an extension of the room. So, when Honey was sleeping in, I threw on some clothes, put my hair in a pony tail and brought my book up here to eat, have coffee and read. This would be especially nice when there are four of us crammed in a room.

As far as the resort overall, we have stayed three times and have loved every second of every stay.  There is no other resort that can rival the theming here and we have always found the great variety of activities to be perfect.  If you choose to stay here, you really do need to make time in your visit to just enjoy being here.  It is like being a world away from the parks!  The only con of Animal Kingdom Lodge is that it is far from everything else.  You do have to take a bus or drive to everything on the rest of the resort property and it can easily be a 20-30 minute ride.  I think the fact that this is the ONLY resort we have stayed at 3 times speaks for itself – we LOVE it!

 

As an independent consultant with Glass Slipper Concierge, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, I offer concierge travel planning for Walt Disney World® Resort, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland® Resort, Adventures by Disney®, Aulani and other delightful destinations.
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