The last big event of my weekend with friends at Walt Disney World was a new dining experience (for me) at Kidani Village in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, called “Sanaa.” It is a fusion restaurant that incorporates elements of both Indian and African cuisine and has the added bonus of being directly adjacent to the savannah, where animals like giraffes roam freely. If you eat at Sanaa early enough in the day you’re pretty likely to get a glimpse of these animals while you dine. Our reservation time changed a few times, both during the planning phase of our trip and in the days and hours leading up to the actual meal. We had very little trouble in making this happen because for some reason Sanaa just isn’t as widely popular as you’d think it would be. Maybe people are intimidated by the exotic menu or maybe they just don’t want to hitch it all the way over to Kidani Village for their meal. Whatever the reason is, their loss can be your gain, because this is easily in the top third of table service restaurants I’ve experienced at Walt Disney World. Check it out if you can!
Looks delish. When we stayed at AKL, the DVC expansion wasn’t built yet so Sanaa wasn’t there. We did eat at Boma and Jiko which were very good, but I have heard good things about Sanaa. I don’t recall having that nice of a view at either of the other restaurants, but it was so long ago who can remember. I’d have had to order a different dessert though. I am not a fan of tapioca. It’s a texture thing. My main question would be, was it worth taking the time out of your day to leave the park and… Read more »
You are right that park ticket expenses fade way down the longer your trip is. The same cannot be said for additional resort days, which ends up being a bigger expense than park tickets even on a short stay for a single person. That changes as you add people to your party, of course, which is one reason these friends trips are appealing. I will admit to more ‘end of vacation blues’ this time around than in the past. I crammed a lot into 2 full days and 2 half days and my video projects were a part of that.… Read more »
The thing about resort days is that while they don’t get less expensive, they are going to cost the same whether you split the trip into two or not. If you take two weekend trips, it will actually cost more because weekends are more expensive than week days. But you still run into that “consecutive days burn-out” factor where you are paying for days in which you might not feel all that excited about going to the parks anymore. The first day or two of a trip is usually when everyone is enjoying it the most. Day five or six,… Read more »
The Crystal Palace is beautiful on its outside, but a little less so on the inside. My experience with the dinner buffet was very unimpressive. It cost something like $50 a person at the time and the food was pretty unremarkable. The characters there are from Winnie the Pooh. I like those characters in their books and movies and would maybe enjoy seeing them at breakfast or lunch, but there was something about getting them in the evening that seemed less appropriate – especially when the meal was overpriced and underwhelming. Buffets generally don’t appeal to me, and why they… Read more »
The pricing is absurd, but it’s typical of a character buffet. Your list includes relatively few of them whereas my dining experience includes quite a few. It may not be fair to compare these meals against proper sit-down meals (non-buffets). The primary appeal of these experiences is the characters. Disney knows this which is why they can get away with jacking up the prices year after year. Comparing apples to apples, the food at Crystal Palace was significantly better than the dinner buffet at Chef Mickey’s. Better interior atmosphere as well. The question is, do you want to meet the… Read more »
Yeah, the character buffets just aren’t particularly appealing to me. I’ve warmed to characters in general over the years. It was fun to be able to meet them in passing at Disneyland and the short waits we experienced on this trip to meet Kylo Ren and Mexican Donald Duck were paid back hugely with the video we got with them. Seeing them in parades is nice too. But I never heard a single member of my party make any noise about getting in the long lines to meet Jack Skellington and Sally or the 7 Dwarfs at the Halloween party… Read more »
Walking away from your table at a character meal is a risky proposition! If you miss a character because you were getting food, they won’t be back until they have completed the cycle all over again which may take an hour. If you want to see every character (and you paid for it, so you definitely want to), you could end up waiting around even after everyone has finished their meal. For this reason, a “family style” meal or a meal with a plated entree is preferable. You will find these at Cinderella’s Royal Table, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and… Read more »
I can absolutely understand why many counter service locations are stressful for a family of four with two school-aged children. The only mildly annoying counter service experience we had this time around was when we went over to Backlot Express in Hollywood Studios to get a little something to tide us over until our 3:50pm reservation at 50s Prime Time Cafe. Most of us got the child-sized chicken and waffles which was actually pretty tasty and accomplished exactly what we wanted it to. Finding a table was a little difficult, however, and we had people jump into tables less than… Read more »
I certainly wouldn’t want Disney to police that sort of thing, but I tend to step aside if I can add a little magic to a kid’s day at the parks, even if it’s a kid I don’t know. I have done it in lines for m&g and I have also done it at parades. Like I said before, that’s just me. I don’t expect others to make the same decision, but especially when it comes to m&gs I can get annoyed. I don’t express it in any way, but I have to wonder what they are thinking. I certainly… Read more »
As someone who grew up reading comic books and playing D & D and had lots of friends who were really into Tolkein or Star Trek or some other thing I remember what it was like to be judged for liking something. I’m certainly guilty of being a snob over pop culture, but there’s something about Disney fans that reminds me of my days with comics fans or Trekkies. I’m not likely to judge unless they’re the ones being actively rude. Standing in line is not rude. I do think you have to be thoughtful in how much time you… Read more »
There’s not a single thing in this comment that I disagree with.
Well, I went ahead and booked my next visit to WDW. I’ll be staying at the Art of Animation for 5 nights in mid April. I know you guys stayed there a few years ago and you reported being happy with the food court there. I would probably only eat there for breakfast, but it’s good to know the place does good things. The parks will be very crowded at that time of year, but I’m thinking a longer stay combined with touring on my own will help to mitigate that a bit.
At some point you might want to consider an annual pass. I know the prices got hiked up something fierce this year. But with hotel discounts, the math might work out if you continue to go this frequently. We have been in April and it is indeed busy. There really isn’t a slow season any more as you know. The Spring Break season is busier than usual, but with proper planning it is easily manageable. We never waited in any long lines during our Spring Break visits. Where you felt it was parades, fireworks, shuttles and counter service meals. But… Read more »
I wasn’t anticipating doing this second trip so soon until after I was home from my first for a couple of weeks. If I had I definitely would have looked into an annual pass. The general wisdom is that if you have two trips that add up to 10 park days it is probably cheaper to go ahead and buy the pass. Only once before have I come close to that number within 12 months, and that gap was pretty big. Heck, it had been 2 years between WDW visits before this autumn. We’ll see how things shake out. I… Read more »
The conventional wisdom is 10 days over two trips and you’re probably better off with the pass. It’s been several years since I actually did the math for myself. Hotel discounts can cut some time off that if you stay in the deluxe or moderate accommodations, but I hear the discounts aren’t what they used to be. Five minutes sounds about right for the walk to the bus station. We didn’t make that walk, but I know they have a bus station at the back of the hotel for those guests. The longest walk was from the main building to… Read more »