TR: Grandma & Grandpa's First Trip to Disney (Day 1; Arrival, Animal Kingdom)

Did you mind being so far from everything in Parterre Place? We stayed
here once and I specfically requested NOT to be put here again! It was
kind of far to walk from the parking lot, the main building, a pool,
and the bus stops. We didn't spend a lot of time in our room either
but it would have been nice not to have to walk so far to everything
especially after a long day in the parks.

"kuntry mile" <kuntrymile@kuntrynet.com> wrote in message
news:1166099365.914231.158430@f1g2000cwa. ...
<snip>
> We walked right on to the Safari, with only a brief wait for our
> overgrown jeep to come to a stop at the loading platform. It was kind
> of chilly out, and the animals seemed to like that. Some of the
> highlights were: the baby giraffe, 2 baby elephants, the alligators
> that looked like statues since they weren't moving at all, 2 cheetahs,
> and my favorite, 4 Anokole (sp?) Cattle laying down with their back
> ends together, their heads each facing a different direction like they
> were on the look-out for some big bad predator. The only area that was
> noticeably empty was the rock where the mandrills hang out. Does
> anyone know if the path has changed within the past year? My dh and I
> both thought that the route that we took by the lions was different
> than we remembered (this would be just the first of my
> "mis-rememberings" of the trip). My step-dad enjoyed the ride, but it
> was pretty rough and it bothered his back a little.

Don't remember exactly when it changed, but the route by the lions used to
continue straight past the Cheetah area and go clockwise around the lioin
berm. Due to a sinkhole, the route was changed to go up over the hill to the
right of hte lions instead.

Isn't the baby giraffe just adorable!?

Talitha

I think it depends on which side of Parterre place the room is on. We
stayed in room 9727 twice and that room is on the end of the building
right across from the bridge that goes to the main building. It was not
even a 5 minute walk for us.

Jennifer

Peppermint Patty wrote:
> Did you mind being so far from everything in Parterre Place? We stayed
> here once and I specfically requested NOT to be put here again! It was
> kind of far to walk from the parking lot, the main building, a pool,
> and the bus stops. We didn't spend a lot of time in our room either
> but it would have been nice not to have to walk so far to everything
> especially after a long day in the parks.

Jennifer wrote:
> I think it depends on which side of Parterre place the room is on. We
> stayed in room 9727 twice and that room is on the end of the building
> right across from the bridge that goes to the main building. It was not
> even a 5 minute walk for us.


9782 (where we stayed) was at the far end of the building, away from
the bridge (but it had a nice water-view of the river!) Really, the
walk never seemed too bad, but thank goodness all of my kids are
ambulatory! I can't imagine trying to carry a toddler that far after
they fell asleep on the bus at the end of a long day of park-hopping!
If we would have been spending much time at the big pool, I'm sure that
the walk would have been pretty unenjoyable. We did find that it was a
little closer to cut across the parking lot to get to and from the bus
stop instead of following the sidewalk up around the main building.

Now, I'm not sure about the other mansion buildings, but I can say that
Parterre Place was very quiet! We never heard any traffic noises, or
even other guests outside our room. It's amazing how many people you
can squeeze into a relatively small area and yet not even realize that
anyone else is there.

~Lei

Jennifer wrote:
> I think it depends on which side of Parterre place the room is on. We
> stayed in room 9727 twice and that room is on the end of the building
> right across from the bridge that goes to the main building. It was not
> even a 5 minute walk for us.


I think you are right, Jennifer. We were on the side facing a little
courtyard. If we turned right, we were facing the river. I really
liked the room itself and loved the resort but just didn't like where
we were. We never did find a pool close to us! That being said, we
are staying there again in April but have requested that we not be put
in the Parterre Place building.

Peppermint Patty wrote:
> I think you are right, Jennifer. We were on the side facing a little
> courtyard. If we turned right, we were facing the river. I really
> liked the room itself and loved the resort but just didn't like where
> we were. We never did find a pool close to us!

The closest pool we found was located directly across from the bridge,
between Oak Manor (Bldg #90) & Parterre Place.

~Lei

> The closest pool we found was located directly across from the
bridge,
> between Oak Manor (Bldg #90) & Parterre Place.
>
> ~Lei

Hopefully that will be a non issue this next trip and we will be
somewhere next to a pool. I requested that anyway as we will have a
7-year-old with us and I think we will need lots of downtime this trip!