Animal Kingdom Lodge

When Doug, Meg, and I were at Art of Animation in April, we started talking about all the Disney resorts that we had stayed in over the years. Once we started talking, we realized that there were only five resorts on Disney property that we had never stayed.  Doug and I decided that we would try to finish those five out at some point in the next couple years.  Then, we could officially decide which one was our favorite. Shortly after our stay at AoA, I talked to Cameron and asked if he had any interest in trying out Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had heard mixed reviews about the deluxe resort, but thought it would be fun to try, especially if we could get a room that faced one of the animal savannahs. We picked today for our stay and decided to also go to the Animal Kingdom theme park before we checked into the resort.

Animal Kingdom was a lot of fun this afternoon. We tried a new restaurant for lunch called Naan, that had several small plates to share.  Afterward, we road several rides, including Kilimanjaro Safari and Dinosaur. We watched the Feathered Friends show and Tough to Be a Bug. Cameron and I also rode on Triceratops spin.  We had heard that the children's ride was supposed to be torn down soon to make way for an Encanto land and wanted one last turn on it.  The one thing that was most important to Cameron today was to ride Kali River Rapids.  We hadn’t been on the water soaking ride in years and knew this would be the perfect time.  We could ride it at the end of our day, then, head straight to the hotel and change out of a wet clothes.  I even brought a bag with extra shoes in it and towels, so we didn’t have to be completely soaked while walking out of the park.  For a couple of minutes, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to ride as they announced that a storm was moving closer to Disney World.  Thankfully, we were the second to last cart to make it onto the ride today.  Doug and I got completely drenched, but it was well worth it.  We all enjoyed it very much.

We checked into our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge at 5:30. We were impressed right away. The room was very nice, but that wasn’t what caught our attention. We were on the fourth floor with a balcony overlooking all the Kidani savannah. We instantly saw giraffe, ostrich, zebras, and so many more African animals all from our balcony. It was amazing.

After spending an hour enjoying the view, we decided to check out the rest of the hotel.  It was very nice. We took the shuttle over to the main house and were very impressed with the lobby.  We walked out onto the viewing areas where there were animals roaming everywhere.  There were even guides to let you know what animals you were seeing and a little bit more about each species. We had dinner reservations at a highly recommended restaurant called Sanaa which served African dishes with Indian spices. Our table was seated near a window where we could watch antelope eating their own dinner.  The food that we ordered was some of the best that we had ever had and the bread plate was fantastic. 

We headed back to our room after dinner, and even though it was dark, we could still see animals from our balcony.  The giraffes never stopped moving and there were zebras resting right below our balcony.  My favorite part was when a jeep drove through the savannah to check on the animals.  As its lights flashed, we could see all of the animals that were hiding in the trees below.  We didn’t even know they were there. All of us were absolutely amazed. We ended the night with some Mickey Mouse shorts, happy with our choice of resorts and thankful for such a wonderful day.