(Pre-Post) Concierge Service = 2 Spoiled Adults

The Arusha Savannah

I guess, to start, I should mention that we are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Resort with Concierge Service to boot. This resort should come at no surprise considering my husband and I both love exploring different cultures, enjoying nature and practicing living green in order to preserve our environment. 

To paint a picture: as we sit on our deck, in the warm, humid sun, rain begins to pour down. It’s raining, but the scene is amazing. Everywhere we look, we are blessed with the opportunity to observe the wildlife that exists on the safari located outside the resort. From giraffes to hogs to pelicans, we observe these beautiful creatures being conserved in the environment they know best - the African safari. It is breathtaking and peaceful. It reminds me of why I am a vegan; why I need to do my part to take care and be the voice for these amazing, intelligent creatures. And trust me, you never get sick of seeing the same scenery; because it never is the same. You always discover something new and interesting.

Concierge Service

Complimentary South African Wine and Beer

As I mentioned, we went ahead and paid the extra, only $50-a-day extra, for Concierge Service and can I tell you it is so totally worth it! Not only is wine and beer complimentary throughout the day, but they have six, yes I said, 6, scheduled food and drink offerings each day:

• MACHEO (Sunrise Offerings): Enjoy tea, coffee and juice for the early risers. 

• MIAMKO (Adventurous Awakenings): Start your adventure with an assortment of fresh fruits, juices, pastries and cereals.

•  VITAFUNIO (Safari Snacks): Take a mid-day break and enjoy a selection of African snacks and beverages. 

• CHAI (Afternoon Tea): Sit back and relax with imported teas, assorted freshly baked scones, cookies and biscuits! A daily MUST in Africa!

• KISIKUSIKU (Twilight Offerings): After an exciting safari, take pleasure in an array of wines, hors d’oevres, and savor African specialty appetizer from our resort restaurants, Jiko and Boma

• REHEMA (Evening Indulgences): Revisit your days activities or plan for tomorrow while treating yourself to a sampling of fine desserts and a variety of premium cordials.

Since I’ll be enjoying these perks throughout my stay, I plan on holding out and writing a full throttle post on all the offerings we discovered. So heads up…it’s worth the wait…

So here is what a vegan can expect to find as a member of the concierge level.

Concierge Level Personal Area with Food, TV, and Internet.

At MACHEO: An assortment of teas with honey or sugar as a sweetener, coffee, and Jungle Juice which is the best tropical fruit blend you have ever tasted! And guess what!? Need organic soy milk!? They have it!!

At MIAMKO: Oatmeal or Quinoa Cereal which can be topped with always available fresh fruit, brown sugar or a blend of brown sugar and crunchy quinoa! They also had peanut butter and jelly available as wel

At VITAFUNIO:  Jungle Juice, Cinnamon Kettle Chips and Spiced Mix Nuts! Which were DELISH! Sweet, Salty and spicy! Nom nom!

At CHAI:Similar to MACHEO with cookies and biscuits. Unfortunately, nothing vegan here. Oh they did have some coffee syrups though...

At KISIKUSIKU: The Hors d'oeuvre were the best! The variety of gourmet bites always changed making this one of our very favorite times to go to the concierge level! I know we're such foodies! Assorted flatbreads and pita with a Trio of Hummus, pickled veggies and olives, crispy corn flour coated tofu with boma mustard, tabouleh, and chilled mango ginger soup to name a few! I'm sure I would have found more if we went everyday!The tofu was our absolute FAVORITE dish!

 At REHEMA: Desserts and Premium Cordials...need we say more :) No vegan desserts but hey who needs dessert when you have Cordials!

Overall, conierge service was the absolute best!!! It was so worth every penny. The people were accomodating and always so helpful. As a vegan, I definitely didn;t feel left out. They had EVERYTHING...well except for lemons...they had to go get some from a restaurant...but heck is that's ALL I'm complaining about then you know this is a must do hands down!

Just to compare, here are the perks of the concierge level at the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Studios.

  

Breakfast: They had some teas, coffee, fruit and plain oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. Thankfully I had some Justin's with me cause that went straight on top of my oatmeal!

During the day they had snacks available like bagged chips, pretzels and bottled water (no, no and NO!) and a Happy Hour time which was the only time you could get beer or wine (although we had an awesome employee who hooked us up ;)) and snacks. I found pita and hummus as well as pickled veggies.

So yes that was it! It was a bit disappointing, but the employees were so awesome and personable that we kind of didn't care. It did suck that alcohol wasn't available all day and the food options overall were minimal. It was overall, okay. Would we do it again!? Probably not.

So there ya go! So what do you think!? Which one would you choose?