Joannelet
05-25-2011, 01:03 PM
Me: Joanne 34
DH: 35
DS: 2
Our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge was ready by 3:30pm. I was so happy as this gave us plenty of time to freshen up and get ready to head over to the polynesian.
We had a one bedroom villa and it was a savannah view of course. The room was GORGEOUS. We stay in one bedrooms all the time as we are DVC members and this is the easiest for me with a little one. My son loved standing out on the balcony talking to the animals. We had giraffes,Elands (at night we could hear the clicking of their knee tendons which was really cool, Nyala, East African Crowned Cranes, Marabou stork, guineafowl, waterbuck and I'm sure some that I am forgetting that were on our savannah. Some savannah's have different animals depending on where you are in the hotel.
After getting ready we headed out by driving over to the Polynesian. There was already a small line at the hostess station so I got on line while my hubby sat with my sleeping toddler who was in his stroller. We were sat pretty quickly...from what I gathered people on line in front of me didn't have ressies. We were given a wonderful seat by the window with a view of the castle. I was in my glory. My son was still sleeping so they allowed us to bring the stroller in. He woke up during the meal and he was not himself. It was then I noticed he was coming down with something. He fussed the entire dinner...but was amused by the fire oven in the kitchen area and the hawaiian dances that were being done with the children. The food here was SOOOOOOOOOO good. My hubby and I LOVE it and rated this as our top restaurant of the week. My hubby is now a fan of bread pudding...and wished that he could just go there and order it to go every night. Wouldn't hesitate to go back here again.
Our problem of the entire trip began here. I want to write about it because I was unaware of this policy and I am sure somewhere it could help someone else along. We booked the dining plan a month or so before our trip. All of my ressies had been done by this point. I knew I was supposed to have a total of 18 table services between my hubby and I for the amount of nights we were staying there etc. When the waitress from Ohana's came back with our reciept she goes okay you have 6 table services left and you are all set. I looked at her and asked...do you mean 6 table services total? She said yes. I looked at my hubby and said OH BOY....something is obviously very wrong. Then it all hit me. When we booked the dining plan onto our stay we already had it planned that we were switching rooms that Saturday to the concierge level. My hubby thought it would be good to be at that level so that we can grab drinks etc. So yes we were switching. Problem was that I had my total of table service restaurants already booked and so I wasn't looking at it as 2 separate dining plans (nor did they tell me this when we booked the dining plan onto the reservation). I was looking it as one...with a total of 19 table services between my hubby and myself. So I was a little naseous because I was thinking that I had this whole trip planned so far in advance and within a few hours of being there everything was almost ruined.
My plan was to hang around and wait for the electric water pageant but I was too upset and my son wasn't feeling well so we decided to try to go back and talk to someone about it.
I hung back while my hubby approached the desk to explain what was going on with the dining plan. The first thing he was told was that they should have told us this and explained this to us when we booked the dining plan. My hubby explained to him that this wasn't the case or we would have arranged things differently. Evenutally a manager came out and told my hubby that if we have anything left over on Saturday when we check out that they will transfer it to the next plan.
So I thought we were good. We did well too by the way as we only had one snack credit left on Saturday when we checked out of our first room. So it wasn't too bad...but this was the day that I needed the new plan to check in as we were eating at Jiko that Saturday (which I will get to in another report etc). So we go up to check out of our first room and check into our 2nd room and they tell us that the new dining plan for us doesnt start until the next day. I still don't understand what they were doing as when you check into a room your dining plan begins that day...just like on our first arrival day....so when he told us this...my hubby was like...what kind of scam are you pulling? I mean it didn't make any sense why our new plan wouldn't kick in till the following day. Well eventually after some arguing it was given to us that day....so we had enough to eat at Jiko with. But I just wanted to write our experience down so that if you are switching rooms know that they are giving you 2 separate dining plans and to plan accordingly. Now I know...and will never switch rooms again as I don't want to deal with that anymore.
Anyways, after dealing with the first half of our dining plan problem we headed back to the room...I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed by this point and my son had a full fledged head cold by the time we got upstairs. So thankfully Mommy comes prepared and had all of his meds and nebulizer (he has the onset of asthma) and took care of him. Then we went out on the balcony to say goodnight to the animals and the giraffes were sleeping by our balcony. My son sang them twinkle, twinkle littler star and soon the giraffe's and my son were fast asleep. :cloud9:
DH: 35
DS: 2
Our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge was ready by 3:30pm. I was so happy as this gave us plenty of time to freshen up and get ready to head over to the polynesian.
We had a one bedroom villa and it was a savannah view of course. The room was GORGEOUS. We stay in one bedrooms all the time as we are DVC members and this is the easiest for me with a little one. My son loved standing out on the balcony talking to the animals. We had giraffes,Elands (at night we could hear the clicking of their knee tendons which was really cool, Nyala, East African Crowned Cranes, Marabou stork, guineafowl, waterbuck and I'm sure some that I am forgetting that were on our savannah. Some savannah's have different animals depending on where you are in the hotel.
After getting ready we headed out by driving over to the Polynesian. There was already a small line at the hostess station so I got on line while my hubby sat with my sleeping toddler who was in his stroller. We were sat pretty quickly...from what I gathered people on line in front of me didn't have ressies. We were given a wonderful seat by the window with a view of the castle. I was in my glory. My son was still sleeping so they allowed us to bring the stroller in. He woke up during the meal and he was not himself. It was then I noticed he was coming down with something. He fussed the entire dinner...but was amused by the fire oven in the kitchen area and the hawaiian dances that were being done with the children. The food here was SOOOOOOOOOO good. My hubby and I LOVE it and rated this as our top restaurant of the week. My hubby is now a fan of bread pudding...and wished that he could just go there and order it to go every night. Wouldn't hesitate to go back here again.
Our problem of the entire trip began here. I want to write about it because I was unaware of this policy and I am sure somewhere it could help someone else along. We booked the dining plan a month or so before our trip. All of my ressies had been done by this point. I knew I was supposed to have a total of 18 table services between my hubby and I for the amount of nights we were staying there etc. When the waitress from Ohana's came back with our reciept she goes okay you have 6 table services left and you are all set. I looked at her and asked...do you mean 6 table services total? She said yes. I looked at my hubby and said OH BOY....something is obviously very wrong. Then it all hit me. When we booked the dining plan onto our stay we already had it planned that we were switching rooms that Saturday to the concierge level. My hubby thought it would be good to be at that level so that we can grab drinks etc. So yes we were switching. Problem was that I had my total of table service restaurants already booked and so I wasn't looking at it as 2 separate dining plans (nor did they tell me this when we booked the dining plan onto the reservation). I was looking it as one...with a total of 19 table services between my hubby and myself. So I was a little naseous because I was thinking that I had this whole trip planned so far in advance and within a few hours of being there everything was almost ruined.
My plan was to hang around and wait for the electric water pageant but I was too upset and my son wasn't feeling well so we decided to try to go back and talk to someone about it.
I hung back while my hubby approached the desk to explain what was going on with the dining plan. The first thing he was told was that they should have told us this and explained this to us when we booked the dining plan. My hubby explained to him that this wasn't the case or we would have arranged things differently. Evenutally a manager came out and told my hubby that if we have anything left over on Saturday when we check out that they will transfer it to the next plan.
So I thought we were good. We did well too by the way as we only had one snack credit left on Saturday when we checked out of our first room. So it wasn't too bad...but this was the day that I needed the new plan to check in as we were eating at Jiko that Saturday (which I will get to in another report etc). So we go up to check out of our first room and check into our 2nd room and they tell us that the new dining plan for us doesnt start until the next day. I still don't understand what they were doing as when you check into a room your dining plan begins that day...just like on our first arrival day....so when he told us this...my hubby was like...what kind of scam are you pulling? I mean it didn't make any sense why our new plan wouldn't kick in till the following day. Well eventually after some arguing it was given to us that day....so we had enough to eat at Jiko with. But I just wanted to write our experience down so that if you are switching rooms know that they are giving you 2 separate dining plans and to plan accordingly. Now I know...and will never switch rooms again as I don't want to deal with that anymore.
Anyways, after dealing with the first half of our dining plan problem we headed back to the room...I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed by this point and my son had a full fledged head cold by the time we got upstairs. So thankfully Mommy comes prepared and had all of his meds and nebulizer (he has the onset of asthma) and took care of him. Then we went out on the balcony to say goodnight to the animals and the giraffes were sleeping by our balcony. My son sang them twinkle, twinkle littler star and soon the giraffe's and my son were fast asleep. :cloud9: