The 3 week Sept extravaganza – which turned into a 2 week trip in June and no cruise! Summary

DVC Comparison

We stayed at Boardwalk, Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Lodge (both Kidani and Jambo) during our stay. All studios, albeit Jambo was the value studio so slightly smaller (although not noticeably).

I still prefer our home resort (BLT) to the rest (which clearly means we picked the right resort). I know lots of people say the studio is too small but we really like it and the kitchen being a bit bigger feels so much more usable.

In the Kidani studio there isn’t room to use the toaster and coffee maker at the same time – I had to butter our toast on the table as there wasn’t room. Oddly the kitchen in the Jambo studio is larger and more functional. It means a smaller bathroom but I prefer that.

Kidani

Jambo

Bay Lake Tower

I expected to like Boardwalk more but the lack of food options on our arrival night meant it was my least favourite of the trip. I suspect if we had stayed here at a different point I might have liked it more. Maybe we’ll try it again on another trip.

Restaurants

Despite our illness we got quite a few restaurants in:

• The Plaza
• Yachtsman Steakhouse
• Steakhouse 71
• Space 220
• Skippers Canteen
• Sana’a

We had long waits at the first 3 which was disappointing, I think Disney might be overbooking at some venues.

Space 220, Sana’a and Skippers Canteen were all really good but Skipper’s Canteen just takes the “best meal of the trip award”. It was really good and I think we will go back.

Highlight of the trip

Wild Africa Trek was amazing, such a good experience despite the heat (not sure if I mentioned it before?!)

I would definitely consider doing it again on a future trip, although there are other tour options so I will look at what else we can do before a repeat.

The food on the tour was also brilliant and although I wouldn’t necessarily choose the options we had it was great to try different options. I’ll keep skipping the olives though!

Lowlight of the trip

Obviously getting covid and missing our cruise wasn’t ideal but I was prepared for this and had a plan just in case.

I had looked at hotel options (and had even considered booking a contingency hotel from home) and as soon as Rob tested positive we booked a hotel that we could cancel if we managed to cruise (which in hindsight wouldn’t have been possible because Royal Caribbean require no covid in 10 days before cruise).

We picked a hotel at Disney Springs which meant we could go and get food and as Uber eats and grub hub were big fails was a good move.

Future Plans

Rob doesn’t want to return to Disney anytime soon  I will bank our DVC points and hopefully convince him to take a short trip in a little while.

He said Disney was too busy and Genie + was a massive cash grab (which I agree with) but I would still go back!

Our next trip is an Alaska cruise from Seattle in September and then we may go and visit friends in December depending on work and holiday budget.

Rob then wants to do a trip to the Maldives – which I think will have to be at the end of 2023/early 2024 so maybe we’ll get back to Florida later in 2024?