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Disney History DL vs DLP Gone But Not Forgotten In the Parks Reviews

Anaheim vs. Paris: Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats

Early plans for the Fantasyland in the Anaheim park included a roller coaster called Rock Candy Mountain, upon which guests were transported on Casey Jr. style trains. There would be a canal surrounding this, which guests could circumnavigate on miniature boats.

It is claimed that this concept was abandoned when Imagineers thought that visitors may be put off by the sickly looking design for the mountain. However, other sources imply that it was for financial reasons that this wasn’t built.

What did appear on opening day was Canal Boats of The World, known to some Cast Members as The Mud Bank Ride. It broke down often, with employees frequently having to pull the boats along by hand. As part of the spiel, Cast Members had to promise that the ride would be improved over time, with replicas of major world cities being added over time.

Although these cities were never added, one feels perhaps this could have been a precursor to It’s a Small World.

On July 31st 1955, Casey Jr. Circus Train opened nearby, giving riders the chance to see the same pieces of mud from a different angle. As Dumbo the Flying Elephant has not opened yet, Casey Jr. was officially the first Dumbo based attraction to open at the park.

Several portions of the passenger cars had once been part of the chariots on the same Dentzel Carousel that had been transformed into King Arthur Carrousel for Opening Day.

On September 16th 1955, Canal Boats of The World was closed for good, to be replaced with Storybook Land Canal Boats, which opened on June 16th 1956.

Very little about either Casey Jr. Circus Train or Storybook Land Canal Boats has been changed since then, although various scenes on the latter have been altered or replaced. For example, the Sultan’s Palace from Aladdin was added in 1994 in the position of Toad Hall. Toad Hall was re-added to the attraction, at a different location, the following year.

1994 was also the year that the equivalents of these two rides were added to Disneyland Paris. To date, neither of these attractions have appeared in any other Disney parks worldwide.

Casey Jr. Le Petit Train du Cirque is very similar in design to its California counterpart. However, truer to Walt’s original intention, this version is billed as a roller coaster, although (due to it never being reliant on gravity) officially it is a power coaster, Disney’s only one to date.

Although both versions have a top speed of approximately 14mph, the Paris one feels faster due to being a shorter ride (two and a half minutes, as opposed to California’s three and a half) and has several rises and falls whereas Anaheim features only one “lift”.

In most ways, the ride experience is identical. Both feature trains of seven cars, a rearrangement of the Frank Churchill/Ned Washington song from the movie and cages which can make the rider feel claustrophobic.

The Paris version does however have a “going backwards” option, a synchronised on-board audio system (the first coaster in the world to feature this) and it goes closer to the Canal attraction. The two attractions are more closely intertwined, and in some instances –such as the Beast’s Castle- shows propping not visible on the boat ride.

Le Pays de Contes de Fées (which translates as The Land of Fairy Tales) is, conceptually at least, very similar to Storybook Land Canal Boats. Both feature miniature models of scenes from Disney movies –although the films in question are not always the same- and travel in a dyed waterway with music playing throughout to set the atmosphere.

Both versions feature boarding by the side of a faux-lighthouse. The Californian one used to be a ticket office, whereas the one in France is used mainly as storage for cleaning utensils.

The France version does not have an on-board guide. Likewise, it does not have dialogue emerging from any of the models nor is it powered by motors.

All the boats in the Anaheim ride are named after Disney characters. This is the case in France too, although the latter uses their French names. There are 20 such boats in France and 13 in the States; although both versions rarely have all in circulation at any one time.

All of the boats in France are named after female characters, whereas in California, there is one named after a male: Flower, the skunk from Bambi.

The Paris equivalent features a Rapunzel scene –maybe the Imagineers were presupposing Tangled- and a tiger-mouth entrance to the “Cave of Wonders” scene but no Monstro.

 

Portions of this article first appeared in my musings for DLDHistory.com in March 2011.

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Disney History DL vs DLP Reviews

Anaheim vs. Paris: Fantasyland’s Rotating Rides

This week, I shall be comparing the “rotating” rides which appear in the Fantasylands in California and Paris.

 

DUMBO

The obvious place to start this article is with Dumbo The Flying Elephant. This ride exists, with the same name, in all five Magic Kingdoms but the California version was the only one not to be an opening day attraction.  Although it was supposed to have been, the opening was delayed due to the 700pound weight of the fibreglass pachyderms being too heavy for the initial mechanics to lift.

The attraction is practically identical in both Paris and California, down to the water features, the topiaries, the lengthy queues, the overhead storks, the chipmunks in the spokes and the statue of Timothy Q. Mouse on top of the central hot air balloon.

In France, Timothy has always held a feather. In California, although he had a whip when the ride first opened (and does again now), there was a period of time when he too had a feather.

Both versions feature a steam organ which originally played live music, but now plays pre-recorded tunes on a loop. The loop in Paris lasts 28 minutes, whereas the one in California lasts approximately two hours.

When the ride opened in California, it had ten carriages. After the 1983 Fantasyland refurb, when the location of the attraction was moved to the site of the former Skull Rock and the design was improved dramatically, there were still ten carriages. However, after “bruises and scrapes” were caused when an elephant separated from its support arm in 1989 (and after a similar incident the following year, in which an arm collapsed completely) the ride was temporarily closed. It was replaced in November 1990 by a version with sixteen carriages which had been originally built for Euro Disneyland (as it was then to be known). By the time the French park was opened, a sixteen carriage replica was built and installed therein.

Obviously, the Paris version doesn’t have the history of the West Coast one. This history includes, but is not limited to: Harry S. Truman’s 1957 refusal to ride due to the elephant being a Republican symbol, The Carpenter’s 1975 hit “Please Mr. Postman” being partially filmed thereon, the occasional carriage being sold for impressive sums, the original hinged flapping ears which never worked, the gold carriage to celebrate the park’s fiftieth birthday and the original intention to paint the elephants pink before Walt allegedly interjected about how this would make a mockery of the no-alcohol policy.

However, regardless of all the history behind the California attraction, I prefer the one in Paris, for a more ethical reason. Cast Members in Disneyland in Anaheim hand out feathers to those waiting in line. They then symbolically take these away before the Guests board. This is supposedly to demonstrate that (like in the film) you don’t need a feather to fly. However, the real reason for these props is to work out who will be riding which time. In Paris, occasionally anonymous bits of plastic are used for this purpose, but generally the Cast Members just count in their head. In this instance, I prefer the methodology of the latter. Although it gives people a greater chance of getting away with the Bubba Swap –which I won’t explain in case it encourages greater use- it means younger Guests are less likely to be disappointed when they discover their gift was only temporary.

 

TEA CUPS

This attraction is officially known as Mad Tea Party (MTP) in California, and Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups (MHTC) in Paris. Both were opening day attractions, which have been in Fantasyland from day one, although the location of MTP altered in 1983 so as to fit King Arthur Carrousel directly behind Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Whereas MTP has to close down in inclement conditions both for health and safety reasons (e.g. a greater chance of excited children slipping) and because the motors under the platforms are not able to function properly when wet, MHTC is covered and thus can theoretically operate in any weather.

Both rides feature eighteen cups. MHTC seats four riders in each, compared to MTP which allows five. Both feature a pre-recorded spiel, which Cast Members can override, and are surrounded by themed topiaries.

Both versions are accompanied by an instrumental version of The Unbirthday Song, as composed by Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman. Both have Chinese Lanterns hanging overhead (which make the attractions especially pretty when lit at night), and both officially refer to the giant spinning platform as “the tea tray”. Extending this metaphor, each disc is referred to as a “plate”, and each cup is on its own “saucer”.

The operator’s booth for MTP is shaped like a house with a thatched roof (such as the one Alice bursts through in the film, after consuming the “eat me” cookie), whereas for MHTC it is shaped like a sugar bowl.

 

CARROUSEL

In California, this is called King Arthur Carrousel, whereas the Paris equivalent is called Le Carrousel de Lancelot.

The two attractions feature titles based on the legend of The Sword in the Stone, although the 1963 Disney film of that name does not feature the character of Lancelot. In fact, the California version was open to the public long before the completion of the film on which it is themed.

Both carrousels run at speeds of 4.4mph with flexible durations, although the horses always end their rotation at the same location (and height) as they started.  Both feature a soundtrack consisting of looped Disney music lasting two hours, and both have leaping horses as opposed to the more traditional funfair style without bent knees.

Differences include: the shape of the queue-line; the Paris ride having been built by Disney whereas the Anaheim one had been built by Dentzel in 1875; the nine hand-painted panels in California telling the story of Sleeping Beauty whilst those in France tell that of The Lady of the Lake; the number of horses operational at any one time (currently 68 in Anaheim; 86 in Paris); and the colors. In 1975, all the horses on King Arthur Carrousel were painted white, whereas Le Carrousel de Lancelot features horses of many different colors.

 

Portions of this article first appeared in my musings for DLDHistory.com in February 2011 (Dumbo), April 2011 (Teacups) and June 2011 (Carrousels).

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DL vs DLP In the Parks Reviews

Anaheim vs. Paris: A new short series of writings in MouseScrappers, a request for writers and a comparison of Toads

Due to the dwindling number of contributors to this site, and so its faithful followers have new articles to read on as near to a daily basis as possible, I have offered to submit a handful of additional pieces on top of the exclusive comparisons between Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris that I write for MouseScrappers every January, April, July and October.

These additional articles (the first of which shall be available here November 12th) are to be comparisons between the Fantasylands in Anaheim and in Paris. A new article will then come out every Monday until the end of the year.  These will be cut-down re-edits of articles which I wrote in 2010/2011 for DLDhistory.com, but with new material included.

[Some of the below info about Toad first appeared in one such DLDhistory article]

Whilst I am writing, editing and submitting these, the MouseScrappers organisers are out looking for new columnists to start in the new year, or sooner if possible. If anyone wishes to volunteer, do please get in touch with the MouseScrappers Team. Articles can be regular or occasional; new material or recycled; funny or serious.  Anything Disney related is of interest.

[I write comparisons between DLP and DL, and between DLP and WDW, but there is little need to go full circle by comparing WDW to DL because there is only one difference between the two that matters: DL has the real Mickey Mouse].

For the sake of brevity my articles comparing DL with DLP shall not be comparing the theatres or shops, although my by-now-probably-slightly-out-of-date musings on the latter subject can be found here: http://dldhistory.com/2k11article.asp?Page=5&Filter=Current&Ident=2371

I shall also not be looking at the stations (although the one in Anaheim is officially considered as part of Mickey’s Toontown), The Sword in The Stone Ceremony, parades, fireworks, meet and greets, restaurants, the characters or anything no longer in operation. Some of these things may get mentioned in passing though.

I also won’t be going to the level of the uber-nerd, by comparing costumes, trashcans, paint colors and the like.

However, I shall be looking at the following attractions over the coming weeks…

 

Nov 12th – The Castle

Nov 19th – Snow White’s Scary Adventures

Nov 26th – Pinocchio’s Daring Journey

Dec 3rd – Peter Pan’s Flight

Dec 10th  – Fantasyland’s Rotating Rides (Dumbo, Tea cups and Carrousel)

Dec 17th – Alice in Wonderland

Dec 24th – Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats

Dec 31st – it’s a small world

 

Do please let me know if there is anything major I have missed…

Paris has no equivalent of the Matterhorn.

France also has no direct equivalent to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, although it does have Toad Hall Restaurant. The exteriors to both are remarkably similar, although the Ride has the Latin phrase “Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda” over the entrance (“Speeding with Toad is Always Absurd”), whereas the Restaurant in Paris goes for “No Consumus Froglegus” (“No Eating of Frogs Legs”).

Both the Ride and the Restaurant feature a Library scene, complete with comically titled books and a suit of armor. In Paris, though, the latter is more humorously designed, looking more like one Toad himself might wear.

The soundtrack in the Restaurant varies more and is less annoying, featuring lyric-less versions of songs related to England.  Some of these are Disney related (think Winnie The Pooh or Mary Poppins) and others are from the world of Music Hall.

The Ride and the Restaurant also both feature chandeliered ceilings, faux stained glass windows (one of which being broken in my last visit to Paris) and famous paintings adapted to feature Toad’s face.  In Paris, these images change in front of your very eyes, kind of like the portraits between the stretch rooms and the load area in California’s Haunted Mansion (or Phantom Manor in Paris, for that matter).

Toad Hall Restaurant also features non-moving portraits which feature other Toad characters, such as Ratty and MacBadger.  Such things do not exist in Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, seeing as Toad is too vain to have images of anyone but himself, although it is understandable that these exist here, especially as the characters appear in the ride in other manifestations.

Going off-topic slightly.  Although the food in the Restaurant is very basic short-order fare, the theming is beautiful and the layout is interesting, with two separate dining areas which aren’t physically connected in any way. There is also an impressively wide array of seasoning, rare for any Disney eatery, and it tends to be quite quiet there, so –whilst I am not a big fan of reviewing restaurants- I would recommend giving it a look if you are ever in the park.

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Reviews

Resort Review – Swan and Dolphin

Today I bring you a review of the Swan and Dolphin Resort. I was able to stay there this past June, while my husband had a local conference to go to.  We have never stayed here before, since we usually prefer to stay in a Disney owned hotel to get the magical Disney touch during our trips.  Needless to say we had high expectations to be met for a hotel so close to WDW.

Upon arrival at the Swan we were impressed by the lovely landscaping they had. We were met at the front door by the valet who told us we could go see if our room was ready and they would keep an eye on the car for us.. My first impression of the lobby was great. It was modern and airy, with the classic Florida colors of peach and green. We had no wait at the front desk, but were told that our room was not ready yet. They took our cell number and said they would text us when it was ready. In the meantime we could store our baggage with bell services and park our car.

We went back to the valet desk and asked to store our luggage and our bag of cold items we had stopped and picked up at a local Publix. They said they had a fridge for our cold items, which was a great bonus.  They also unloaded all of our luggage from our car and asked if we wanted to self-park or valet parking. Since we were on a company trip for my husband we decided to utilize the valet parking, it costs about $20 a day to get this service. We definitely loved being able to have our car parked at the front door everyday, but I am not sure we would have gotten it if we had had to pay for it ourselves. Even the self-parking cost $15 a day, so if you are looking to save money then having a car at the Swan and Dolphin is not the way to go.  On a side note there is National and Alamo car rental desk at the Dolphin so you can rent a car for the day if you need to get around somewhere and then just return it later. This can be a real plus if you just want to rent a car at the airport to get to the Swan and Dolphin, since you can’t use Disney’s Magical express to get there.  You can also make stops on the way there, like we did, to pick up a few groceries.

Once we finished up with the valet services, we headed over to the boat ramp between the Swan and Dolphin to go to Hollywood Studios, while we waited for our room to be ready.  The boats come every 10-15 minutes, and the ride to Epcot is longer that the ride to the Studios, since the boat has to make stops at the Boardwalk and, the Yacht and Beach Club before it gets to Epcot. The Studios are the next stop after the Swan and Dolphin, so it is a nice short ride. You can also walk from the resort to either park. Its great to have this flexibility, and to be so close to two different parks.

We had to wait about 2-3 hours at the studios, enjoying Star Wars Weekends, before we got notice that our room was ready. We took the boat back to the resort and informed valet services of our room number and went up to the room. The room was bright, clean and very roomy.  We had a king bed , a couch and a combo Desk/Media  cabinet. The only thing we were wanting for was a small table and 2 chairs so we could sit together to eat our breakfast in the mornings.  Inside the media console was a few drawers and a mini-fridge. The bathroom was about what we expected in a resort. Sink outside and a door to close off the second sink, tub and toilet. It was all clean and tidy. Across form the sink there was a nice closet space with plenty of hanging space, a shelf, a safe, luggage valets,  hair dryer, extra pillows and an ironing board and iron. In all I was very impressed with this space. The sink had a make-up mirror and a small coffee dispenser with real Starbucks coffee. My husband thought it was pretty good coffee. One thing to note about the coffee is that you really need to hit up the housekeepers for more coffee packets since they don’t seem to really replace them unless asked, and when they did replace them they usually only put decaf in the room. They were friendly and accommodated us very easily though.  After our quick look through of the room, valet services came up with our luggage and cold items. Our cold items that were supposedly stored in a fridge were not very cold however. I put them in the fridge in the hopes that they were still ok. Mostly we just had yogurt and fruit for breakfast, and cream for coffee and tea in the mornings. We will come back to that later.

After unpacking a few things and taking a bit of a break form the heat we headed back to the Studios to see more of the Star Wars festivities and to get to our dinner reservation. While we were at dinner a huge storm rolled in with a lot of wind, thunder and lighting. After a while and reports that the storm was not going to let up anytime soon, we decided to book it over to the boats to try and get back to our room. We had ponchos, but they were not much protection with the wind and driving rain. When we got to the boat dock we had to wait a bit for a boat to come in and when it did they told us that they were not going to run again until the lightning had stopped for a while.  After waiting for a bit for the rain to ever so slightly lighten up we finally made a dash for the bus area in hopes we would be able to find a bus stop for our resort. We did find one quickly but so many people were lined up there and the bus covers are so small at the studios that we just got rained on and drenched. We ended up waiting for 30 min for a bus that we could take back to the resort. I wasn’t too happy about this since it was pouring and there was still thunder and lightning going on. When we finally got back to the resort we were so ready for a hot shower and dry clothes.

After cleaning up we went to the fridge to get a water and yogurt and found that it wasn’t working. Everything inside was warm. We called house keeping and asked for a new one. They came up right away and replaced it. The replacement was also broken and after an hour we realized it wasn’t keeping things cold either as well as being extremely loud. At this point is was close to midnight and we were really tired, but we gave one more call to housekeeping and they said they didn’t have any more available, could we possibly wait until morning to get one.  We said we could and went to bed.

In the morning I left early for the Animal Kingdom. There is a really nice bus stop area out in front of the Swan resort with plenty of seating. Busses came about every 5-10 minutes and at the swan we never stopped anywhere else before we went over to the parks.You can also get a great view of the Tower of Terror from here!

My husband put in a call to the front desk before he left. They were very apologetic for our inconvenience, and said they would take care of it right away. He left for his conference, and when I got back to the room mid-day it had been replaced with a shiny new one. We also got an apology card from the manager, a box of handmade chocolates from the hotel Dessert Chef and a $50 credit on our bill so that we could go to the hotel store to replace our lost food. I was very impressed with their service and their sincere apology that we had an issue.  The hotel store had most of everything we needed replaced. Even though the hotel is not Disney owned, the hotel store had Disney employees and a great array of Disney souvenirs. They were even great pin traders.

On our 3rd morning, I took some time to go do laundry since we had some clothes that were still damp form the rain, and see some of the rest of the resort. The laundry is over on the Dolphin side of the resort and was a bit of a walk from the swan. It costs $2 for the washer and $2 for the dryers. I brought my own soap and dryer sheets, but there was a vending machine in the laundry room that was stocked with all of your laundry needs.  The machines also only take tokens and not real money. There is a change machine in there though that will convert your money. It takes up to $20 bills, but I suggest going in with nothing bigger than a $5 if you don’t want to be left with a stack of tokens. The laundry was done fairly fast and the room was kept really clean.

I went back over to the Swan to get a cup of tea at the Java Bar and sit and relax in one of the little outdoor seating areas. Some of the seating areas are designated smoking areas, so if you don’t smoke just be careful of the ones you sit in.  They all have little fountains and lots of plantings, so it’s a great place to relax for a bit. The Java Bar is great. They have a nice variety of Starbucks coffee and tea as well as pastries, sandwiches and yogurt parfaits. We went here just about every day to get coffee and tea and even sampled a couple of the pastries one morning. They were delicious!

We only ate at one of the restaurants in the hotels during our stay here, but there are 10 different places to choose from. We ate at the Mediterranean Market over at the Dolphin on our last morning at the resort before leaving for the airport. It is a nice Breakfast buffet. The buffet costs $17.95 per person. You get juice and coffee and tea brought to your table. They have so many choices and many extremely healthy options too like the wheat grass smoothies. We opted for the omelets, and mickey waffles. They are both made to order. For the omelets you go over to a fixings bars and put in a bowl everything you want to have in your omelet and then bring it over to the chef who adds the eggs, egg whites, or egg substitute and cooks it right in front of you. It was really good and a great end to our trip.

Overall our stay at the Swan and Dolphin was great. Despite our mini-fridge problem, which they took care of well above and beyond what they had to, we would definitely stay there again. While it is lacking in the Disney magic, they do have some magical touches of their own, like free grapefruit juice in the lobby for parts of the day, and their exemplary service. My husband enjoyed the ability to get real Starbucks coffee on site, and we both loved the boat transportation to two parks. Just don’t count on it if you have lighting!  Our AAA rate was $175 a night and it is definitely worth looking at if you want to stay in the Epcot resort area without paying the higher rates that are found at the surrounding Disney owned hotels.

 

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Reviews

Hotel Review – Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge

My family stayed in Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge this summer from July 7-14th.  This is our second time staying at Kidani Village, one of the Disney Vacation Club properties.  We’ve stayed at many other hotels in Walt Disney World over the years (10 different ones) and Kidani is one of our favorites.

Pulling up to the resort, the theme is evident right away, with the thatched roof and the drums welcoming you “home”.    The lobby is impressive but not as big or as bustling as Jambo House at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We love to look out onto the Savannah, through the two story windows, as we enter the building for a first peek at what animals are out and about.

The Lobby facing toward the enterance.
Lobby facing toward the Savannah.
Zebras on the Savannah.
Looking at the lobby from the fire pit on the savannah.
Fire Pit, at night you can borrow night vision goggles to view the animals here.

Once we’ve checked in, it’s off to our room.  The way Kidani is laid out it can be a long walk to your room from the lobby.  Both times we’ve stayed we ended up with rooms fairly close to the lobby but I can see that the distance to your room could be a problem for some people.  We’ve stayed both in a Savannah view and a Standard view.  Of course the Savannah view was amazing.  What fun to step outside and see the animals of an African Safari right outside your living room.  But I was surprised that our Standard View was very green.   Of course to see animals we just had to go down the hall to look out the windows or down to the lobby where the lounge is as well as the entrance to the Savannah.  We stayed in a one bedroom which has plenty of room for our family of 5, including 2 adults and an 18 yr old son, 16 yr old daughter and a 14 yr old daughter.  You can imagine with 3 teens, we loved that our room had 2 full bathrooms and a full kitchen!  I don’t even want to think how long it would take for us all to get ready if we didn’t have that second bathroom.

Sitting on the balcony watching the animals.
Feeding Time!

The bus stop is located just to the right of the main entrance.  There is a covered walkway to get there, and benches and covers while waiting for the bus.  Since our last visit they added TV’s that show Disney infomercials.  The buses arrived in 20 min. or less.  After picking up at Kidani the bus heads over to Jambo House before heading to the parks, which means we always had a seat (until we gave it up for people who needed it more).  The only bus that goes to Jambo House first is the one to Downtown Disney.  Keep this in mind if you want to take buses between Kidani Village and Jambo Hosue.  Even though it’s only a 5-10 min. walk, you can hop on a bus if you want to.

Walkway to the bus stops and view from our Standard View room.

On a hot day it’s nice to cool off in the pool and Kidani has a great one, Samawati Springs.  It can get a bit crowded at midday and when they show movies on the outdoor screen.  In the afternoon, cast members host various games for the kids and they can win small prizes.  There is a zero entry area, hot tubs, a little slide, a really cool big slide and Camp Uwanja kids water play area.  We think the slide is the best one other than the big one at the Beach Club.   And the play area is so much fun with  kid-size water slides, water cannons, water jets, wading pools, and  snakes that shoot water!   Maji Pool Bar serves alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and a very limited selection of food.  There is also a cup refill station to the right of the bar.   Just above the slide is the fitness center.  I haven’t used this but my son has.  While we relax at the pool he is up there working out.  He thought it was great.

Cannon in water play area.
Waterfall in water play area.

Our one complaint at Kidani Village is the lack of a quick service restaurant.  The only restaurant is Sanaa, an Indian- and African-inspired table service restaurant with a view of the savanna.  Sometimes we are in a rush and would love to be able to quickly buy and eat a meal and this really isn’t possible.  In the mornings, we solve this by eating breakfast in the room of food we bought at the gift shop in the lobby.  There is a section with food, only slightly higher than a grocery store, and a drink refill station.  At Jambo House there is a quick service restaurant, Mara.  We have walked over for lunch once and breakfast once.  It’s just a little inconvenient and at lunch time very crowded.   We did eat at Boma, at Jambo House and my kids didn’t like it, the food was too differently spiced for them.   I must point out, they are not the most adventurous eaters, and while I thought the food was good, but not good enough to pay adult prices for my teens not to eat.  Jiko is a signature restaurant also at Jambo House which we have not eaten.

Overall, we love staying at Kidani Village and if you’re looking for a little more room, an extra bath, a kitchen and animals outside your window I think you will too!