kes601
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2018
We got back from Kidani a couple of days ago. This was a split stay between a studio (5 nights) and 1 bedroom (10 nights), both Savanna views. Just like our week long stay at Christmas, we feel like Kidani is home even though we bought at SSR……
The Good….
Both rooms we got were in amazing locations. Ironically enough they were literally in the same location just a floor apart from each other. We were on floors 4 and 5 pretty much as close to the lobby as you could get on the side where the pool is. We had good views of animals and discovered what shocked us about 3 or 4 days into the 1 BR portion….we could actually see the Happily Ever After fireworks from our living room and balcony, it was very much unexpected.
The food. We ate at Sanaa 6 times (between reservations and to go orders) and never ordered the same thing twice or got tired of it. We also ate at Jiko once, Victoria Falls once, and Boma for breakfast once. We were shocked we never ate at Mara in the 15 days we were there. We found ourselves going to Disney Springs or resort hopping after going to the parks in the morning.
The bus service. We find the bus service really good at Kidani. The only thing I wish they would change is the fact that Jambo and Kidani share at the end of the night. It makes no sense at park closing — way too many people going back to justify sharing. The 4 mornings we went to Hollywood Studios we were on the 6:41a bus (like clockwork each time) and would get to HS as they were walking people from beyond the skyliner to wait for security to open. That put us first at the tap-styes. We walked onto Rise twice (would have been 3x except it was closed once and they didn’t tell us).
The parks were typically not busy in the mornings during our stay (Jun 17-Jul 2). We were able to do everything we wanted in the mornings….most of the time we did purchase G+. The last park day, July 1, we did 11 rides at HS before leaving at 11:00. This included ROTR, Smugglers, Saucers, Slinky, Mania x 2, Mickey and Minnie’s x 2, Tower of Terror x 2, and Rock n Roller Coaster. Our longest wait was actually at Saucers. The rides we did in early entry (ROTR, Smugglers, Mania, and Mickey and Minnie’s) were literally walk ons,
Epcot After Hours was freaking amazing. We did it on June 29. We entered at 7 after taking the rest of the day off and rode everything except for Test Track (just don’t care for it) including Guardians 2x, ate some snacks, took some great pics, and just enjoyed the atmosphere. I know Epcot doesn’t seem like it would be the best park for After Hours, but for the $99 DVC price it is 100% worth the price.
Starlight Savanna Tour — if you have the opportunity to do this, do it. Super fun and unique. Lots of close ups of the animals.
The Bad….
The first room we were in obviously had not been cleaned thoroughly. There was a sports bra and pair of socks next to the dresser that was not ours. We informed the front desk and the CM tried to push it off on us to contact Housekeeping instead of just reporting it for us instead. Eventually she did report it for us. The bad was turned into good as the manager of housekeeping who was there had the room re-cleaned and gave us some compensation (which we tried to decline but he insisted).
Extended Evenings are a joke, particularly at Epcot. The way they allow people to use VQs at Guardian’s until the end of regular park close is stupid and defeats the purpose of the queue. When our boarding group was called there were supposedly only 9 groups allowed to enter but the line was out of the door almost to the tap styes. The wait times at the other rides didn’t make it worth staying either. The MK ones were fine the first Wednesday we were there but we are so efficient w/G+ they weren’t necessary…..and that lead me into the next “bad”….
The experience in the evenings in general just wasn’t fun. Even G+ LL lines were long. I think this is a combination of over selling G+ (or overallocating G+ slots) and people gaming the DAS system. I 100% understand some people need DAS, but it is being abused — people talking about actually doing that while in line. Don’t get me wrong, we had good luck w/G+ and when we bought it it was worth it, but something needs to be done to stop the DAS abuse….
That said, really, we had some not so pleasant experiences in line and on rides:
First example — we were at Smugglers during early entry. We were in the holding room. The people in front of us had gone to the middle and we were off to the left. When they released us we started walking through the door. About a second later the man (probably in his 50s) was full out sprinting and hip checked my wife into the wall. While I checked on her and yelled at him he came over and tried to shake my hand and act like he did nothing wrong. At the same time his wife did the same thing to me. At any rate we told the CM who divides you up into groups of 6 what happened and he basically said “I don’t know who you are referring to” even though they were the ones in front of us in line. He just didn’t care. We probably should have pushed it a little more as they had no business being in the park, but we didn’t.
Second example — we got stuck in the graveyard of HM for 20 or 25 minutes and the music blared the whole time. One of the managers came running around with a flashlight trying to find something, obviously found it and darted away. When we finally got off of the ride we weren’t apologized to or even acknowledged that something had happened. Meanwhile people in the queue were being evacuated and everybody told to get away from the buidling. Those in the queue were being given lightning lanes. But those of us who actually experienced being stuck got nothing. We voiced our frustration to guest services about the entire experience and lack of communication. She said she’d pass along the feedback, but hadn’t taken any notes (so we knew that wasn’t happening). On the upside we were so frustrated we just left. It saved us from a downpour and let us try Victoria Falls Lounge — great burger, and you gotta try the slap chips.
We also found that at HS the evening Cast Members just didn’t really seem engaged and socialized a lot amongst themselves instead of doing what they were supposed to be doing. The age difference between the a.m. CMs and p.m. CMs was apparent.
—————-
That really just about does it for the negatives. Overall it’s as an awesome trip and we are already looking forward to doing Kidani again next summer for our long stay. Meanwhile we have a couple of shorter stays coming up in Oct. and Nov. at BWV and CCV.
The Good….
Both rooms we got were in amazing locations. Ironically enough they were literally in the same location just a floor apart from each other. We were on floors 4 and 5 pretty much as close to the lobby as you could get on the side where the pool is. We had good views of animals and discovered what shocked us about 3 or 4 days into the 1 BR portion….we could actually see the Happily Ever After fireworks from our living room and balcony, it was very much unexpected.
The food. We ate at Sanaa 6 times (between reservations and to go orders) and never ordered the same thing twice or got tired of it. We also ate at Jiko once, Victoria Falls once, and Boma for breakfast once. We were shocked we never ate at Mara in the 15 days we were there. We found ourselves going to Disney Springs or resort hopping after going to the parks in the morning.
The bus service. We find the bus service really good at Kidani. The only thing I wish they would change is the fact that Jambo and Kidani share at the end of the night. It makes no sense at park closing — way too many people going back to justify sharing. The 4 mornings we went to Hollywood Studios we were on the 6:41a bus (like clockwork each time) and would get to HS as they were walking people from beyond the skyliner to wait for security to open. That put us first at the tap-styes. We walked onto Rise twice (would have been 3x except it was closed once and they didn’t tell us).
The parks were typically not busy in the mornings during our stay (Jun 17-Jul 2). We were able to do everything we wanted in the mornings….most of the time we did purchase G+. The last park day, July 1, we did 11 rides at HS before leaving at 11:00. This included ROTR, Smugglers, Saucers, Slinky, Mania x 2, Mickey and Minnie’s x 2, Tower of Terror x 2, and Rock n Roller Coaster. Our longest wait was actually at Saucers. The rides we did in early entry (ROTR, Smugglers, Mania, and Mickey and Minnie’s) were literally walk ons,
Epcot After Hours was freaking amazing. We did it on June 29. We entered at 7 after taking the rest of the day off and rode everything except for Test Track (just don’t care for it) including Guardians 2x, ate some snacks, took some great pics, and just enjoyed the atmosphere. I know Epcot doesn’t seem like it would be the best park for After Hours, but for the $99 DVC price it is 100% worth the price.
Starlight Savanna Tour — if you have the opportunity to do this, do it. Super fun and unique. Lots of close ups of the animals.
The Bad….
The first room we were in obviously had not been cleaned thoroughly. There was a sports bra and pair of socks next to the dresser that was not ours. We informed the front desk and the CM tried to push it off on us to contact Housekeeping instead of just reporting it for us instead. Eventually she did report it for us. The bad was turned into good as the manager of housekeeping who was there had the room re-cleaned and gave us some compensation (which we tried to decline but he insisted).
Extended Evenings are a joke, particularly at Epcot. The way they allow people to use VQs at Guardian’s until the end of regular park close is stupid and defeats the purpose of the queue. When our boarding group was called there were supposedly only 9 groups allowed to enter but the line was out of the door almost to the tap styes. The wait times at the other rides didn’t make it worth staying either. The MK ones were fine the first Wednesday we were there but we are so efficient w/G+ they weren’t necessary…..and that lead me into the next “bad”….
The experience in the evenings in general just wasn’t fun. Even G+ LL lines were long. I think this is a combination of over selling G+ (or overallocating G+ slots) and people gaming the DAS system. I 100% understand some people need DAS, but it is being abused — people talking about actually doing that while in line. Don’t get me wrong, we had good luck w/G+ and when we bought it it was worth it, but something needs to be done to stop the DAS abuse….
That said, really, we had some not so pleasant experiences in line and on rides:
First example — we were at Smugglers during early entry. We were in the holding room. The people in front of us had gone to the middle and we were off to the left. When they released us we started walking through the door. About a second later the man (probably in his 50s) was full out sprinting and hip checked my wife into the wall. While I checked on her and yelled at him he came over and tried to shake my hand and act like he did nothing wrong. At the same time his wife did the same thing to me. At any rate we told the CM who divides you up into groups of 6 what happened and he basically said “I don’t know who you are referring to” even though they were the ones in front of us in line. He just didn’t care. We probably should have pushed it a little more as they had no business being in the park, but we didn’t.
Second example — we got stuck in the graveyard of HM for 20 or 25 minutes and the music blared the whole time. One of the managers came running around with a flashlight trying to find something, obviously found it and darted away. When we finally got off of the ride we weren’t apologized to or even acknowledged that something had happened. Meanwhile people in the queue were being evacuated and everybody told to get away from the buidling. Those in the queue were being given lightning lanes. But those of us who actually experienced being stuck got nothing. We voiced our frustration to guest services about the entire experience and lack of communication. She said she’d pass along the feedback, but hadn’t taken any notes (so we knew that wasn’t happening). On the upside we were so frustrated we just left. It saved us from a downpour and let us try Victoria Falls Lounge — great burger, and you gotta try the slap chips.
We also found that at HS the evening Cast Members just didn’t really seem engaged and socialized a lot amongst themselves instead of doing what they were supposed to be doing. The age difference between the a.m. CMs and p.m. CMs was apparent.
—————-
That really just about does it for the negatives. Overall it’s as an awesome trip and we are already looking forward to doing Kidani again next summer for our long stay. Meanwhile we have a couple of shorter stays coming up in Oct. and Nov. at BWV and CCV.
