When discussing desserts, DD20 says…
“I really just want more naan…” “Would you like an order of naan to go to split with Grandma?”
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To wrap up the night, while DD20 and I chatted with DM during her dinner, DH took the boys to the Kidani pool. Both AKL pools are currently open 10am-11pm.
The opinion so far is that Kidani has the better slide but the pool is more “kid depth.”
DH did manage to lose his magicband somewhere at the pool. He thinks he forgot to slide the Fitbit keeper over the end (those are new this trip). He deactivated it and has MagicMobile installed, so we’ll see how that goes.
Apparently MDE took DM to visit CSR, All Stars, and another she couldn’t remember, so about 1 hour 40 min from touchdown to arrival at AKL. (Her flight landed at 7:50pm. She was the first on that MDE and waited awhile for others to load. She enjoyed the infomercials, but it’s adorable to hear her try to explain how things work based on what she saw)
Great arrival day!
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Enjoy your day!
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My DS lost his MB every time he went swimming 
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Food looks amazingly delicious already!
It’s been a tough year. Hope you can relax and thoroughly enjoy yourself!
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I loved the bread service so much! I couldn’t decide which sauce / naan combo I liked the best since they were all so good!
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The garlic sauce was definitely my favorite, but I loved all the naan!
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Loving the report so far! Looks like a great start to a much needed return to the magic. Have fun. Our countdown is at 9 days! Looks like we will be at MK on your last MK day. Have fun, can’t wait to see more.
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I think the mango sauce was my favorite, but I also liked the spicy ones and the bbq one. The only one I didn’t try was the yogurt (?) one cause I typically don’t like those kinds of sauces as much.
The cheese naan was good but it was the only one I felt like I didn’t want more of at the end. The spicy one and the garlic were probably my faves.
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My favorite is the tamarind chutney. Closely followed by the coriander chutney. But I enjoy all of them.
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DH’s favorite was the green one…whatever that one was! (I need a picture map…)
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That’s the coriander chutney
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Oh yes, I loved that one too! 
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Is it worth paying for the savanna view at AKL-Jambo?
TL;DR Probably only if you plan to be in the room quite a bit in the afternoons/evenings prior to dark.
DM is a naturally early riser, so I figured she’d have a nice time sitting on the balcony watching animals before everyone else got up around 8am. She enjoyed it, but there wasn’t nearly as much to see as yesterday.
There were pelicans, crowned cranes, some other birds, and an occasional hoofed animal, but that’s about it. Very different than the frequency and range we saw yesterday afternoon.
There was a bit more to see when we got back from breakfast, when we were mostly busy packing for checkout, but that seems to be when they start getting more active.
This seems to align to some other reports I’ve seen. If we were coming for a one night stay and had arrived after dark last night, what we saw this morning wouldn’t have been worth the price. In that situation, I’d get a standard view room and just use the common observation areas and be sure to eat breakfast at Sanaa, where there were a lot more animals active (so Kidani rooms could be a different evaluation).
Conversely, our prior one-week stays at AKL-Jambo in 2005 and 2010, the price for the savanna view was completely worth it (we stayed in similarly located rooms). Both times we had infants that I was still nursing and were in the room for a midday break most days. That was a great time for animal viewing from the room. We spent hours holding sleeping or nursing babies on the balcony and watching animals.
If you’re going RD to park close, there would be zero point. Or if you’re thinking you’ll let the family sleep in and watch animals in the early hours.
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We awoke to a message that DH’s magic band was found, and we successfully retrieved that from the front desk. He now is committed to using his bitbelt properly. (Interestingly, DS11.1s magic band lost in MK on Day 1 of our trip last year never was recovered, despite filing a lost item report, which surprised me a bit. It was one of the freebie ones, at least.)
DM, DS11.2, and I waited for the shuttle to Kidani while the rest walked over. Even though we waited several minutes, we still beat the walkers.
Sanaa breakfast is CS. No digital waitlist is in use/needed. I was a little concerned that it would be hard to get a table, especially one with a view, with it being a holiday weekend, but there were plenty of free tables the whole time we were there. We pretty much had our pick at 9am, but the best view ones went quickly after that. There are grab-n-go pastries and bottled drinks before the registers. Then you order everything else at the register and they bring it to the table.
French toast.
Boere Breakfast. This order was missing the two “two bite” drop biscuits, but they were quickly brought.
Eggs Benedict. There was also a side of arugula not pictured that was quite yummy but largely ignored by everyone but me!
There were also a bunch of small containers with a variety of sauces that we think we got sorted to the correct dishes. 
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The crowned cranes were definitely the headliner entertainment for breakfast…
But other animals were putting in an appearance as well, so a morning view of this part of the savanna might be worth it if that’s your primary viewing time? Or it might just be a luck thing so perhaps just don’t count on a single block of time?
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Nothing to see here
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In the 3rd pic that bird looks so incensed that you dare point at it 
Oops… can you delete that question please? She wants to swap out the picture so it’s not linked to her real life… @OBNurseNH
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I’d heard late checkouts were hard to come by, but figured it was worth a shot.
The process (as explained to me, anyway) is that you need to call housekeeping via the room phone the morning of checkout. They check with the scheduler and call you back. I called in at 7am, but missed the return call at 10:15am. (Which isn’t that helpful with an 11am checkout anyway!)
I called back in and held for a few minutes to find out the request was declined.
We made to sure to condense into one room before 11am, then took our timing packing up and changing hack into swimsuits.
We do love all the theming details.
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