AKL...anything negative? [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

tjmw2727

03-31-2002, 03:02 PM

We stayed 5 nights last June and just loved it. Everything was great, the the fast food restaurant was perfect for a quick something and dinner/lunch with the kids. The full serve restaurants were great and our girls (4&6) loved the kids club. They liked it so much we did it again a 2nd night - dh and I had two wonderful evenings together and the girls were very happy too.

We loved the zero entry pool, and the playground. CM's were everywhere, and from everywhere, sharing their culture and info on the animals. All the trails and guides were great. Storytelling each evening was a special treat as was the shopping!

I have heard people complain about the bus service but we had no problems. Ok the only negative was we did much less park time because we loved the resort so much!!

TJ

gepetto

03-31-2002, 03:52 PM

I didn't like Mara (the food court there) very much. No big deal though.

While we were there the pool was closed several times because of kids having "accidents".

No problems with the busses and we were there 9 nights.

I'd stay there again, though. We added a night at the beginning of our Polynesian vacation so we could stay at AKL in May. :)

Janet2k

03-31-2002, 04:19 PM

Bennet, you owe me a pair of underwear as I pee'd mine laughing at your post! :)

I have one negative thing to say -- I am debating adding a Grand Plan stay to my next WDW vacation and if I do, I will NOT be spending those nights at the AKL, I will be spending them elsewhere. Why? Because when I am staying at the AKL, I do NOT want to leave that resort. Ever. A Grand Plan stay would be an utter and complete waste of money for one of my AKL stays. Sorry, Disney, but personally I think you should only offer the Grand Plan at the OTHER deluxe resorts, not the AKL (hee hee).

Dizpro, if you choose to stay at the AKL, I hope you have a magical stay. It is my favorite resort.

This is all my humble opinion and others' opinions will vary, as it should be.

daannzzz

03-31-2002, 04:33 PM

The only negative thing I have to say ( and this is tru of Disney"s Grand Californian hotel too) is that for a deluxe hotel the rooms are to small ( and we had a deluxe room). On my vacation I like lots of room in the hotel, particularly when it gets more ex*****ve. I would rather have more room than toiletries and bathrobs and such.
But I loved our room at the AKL. The decore was great and we got one of the balconies under the thattched roof that allowed all for of us adults to sit comfortably andd watch the animals.

cindyfan

03-31-2002, 05:39 PM

We also LOVED the AKL. My DD wants to go back this June.
BUT...... I am trying to be objective here.
We also felt for a deluxe, the room could have/should have been a bit larger. But it was fine for us.
The only thing I really felt was lacking is the fact there is only one pool. It is a FANTASTIC pool, but it became very crowded in the afternoon. And we were there in May and it really wasn't that hot. I can't imagine how crowded it would be in June when the resort is full!!!!:confused: We also had a couple times they had to clear the pool because of kids accidents!:eek: And we were only there 3 days.

As for the buses.....no problem leaving AKL to go to the parks, but really slow getting back from MGM and Epcot. Waited almost 40 minutes at MGM !!:eek:

I don't think going in Nov that you would have any issues with the pool or buses!!
ENJOY!!!! :D

Tiffany

03-31-2002, 06:20 PM

Nothing but good things here.

We stayed at the AKL for 15 days during 2001.

No pool closings due to potty problems.

We thought the fast food at Mara was pretty good. There was fried shrimp and a good pasta primavera(sp?). The pizza and chicken sandwhich was also very good. We are not adventures eaters though.

Well, we just love this place. We are booked at the Dolphin right now for Aug 2002 because that was the best rate I could get at a deluxe but if the DC discounts that are suppossed to come out tomorrow are better then the rate I have at the Dolphin then I am hoping to switch to the AKL.

I agree though that once we are at the AKL it is tough to get out to the parks.

Well hope you have a great trip no matter where you end up staying.

cottontail

03-31-2002, 07:08 PM

Just a question, don't the little ones under 4 have to wear swim diapers, I have heard of these at quiet a few hotels, i think the holiday inn family suites is one of them. I am not sure if this would stop an accident though'

Deb.

Ricola

03-31-2002, 07:28 PM

Originally posted by cottontail
Just a question, don't the little ones under 4 have to wear swim diapers, I have heard of these at quiet a few hotels, i think the holiday inn family suites is one of them. I am not sure if this would stop an accident though'

Deb.

Yes, the kids are SUPPOSED to wear swimmies, but the lifeguards are too busy being lifeguards to be the swimmie police. On top of that, some potty-training aged kids will promptly try to remove their soiled swimmie right there in front of God and country, thus allowing the offending substance to escape.

Would anyone really rather have them NOT close the pool under these conditions? If anything, I think Disney does a better job in this area than most hotels. I was told at POR last Jan that they completely drain, clean and refill the Hot tubs on a NIGHTLY basis, and the Kiddy pool nearly as often, and the main pool roughly weekly, unless more often is necessary.

I really doubt this happens any more often at AKL than at any other resort. I guess the one disadvantage is that with only one pool, if it closes, you're left high and dry.

The think I hated about AKL was that the Concierge lounge wasn't open at 3AM when I grew thirsty while watching the zebras outside my window. And eating at Jiko was really a drag too ;) :D

Casey's mom

03-31-2002, 08:05 PM

OK -- I've only stayed at the AKL one night. We stayed there on 3/22 before our cruise on the Magic. The kids LOVED the animals and adored the pool. My DH did not like the decor, but that is a matter of personal taste -- I think it was very well done, down to the last detail. I personally found the hallways (and the rooms to a certain extent) to be too dark. I sometimes felt like I was walking down a dark corridor lit by candles. I also think that the rooms were small. They fit 2 queen beds that were very close together, an armoire just an arms length across from the beds and a small table and 2 chairs wedged in a corner. We stayed at the Poly last night after our cruise ended and the rooms were dramatically larger. That being said -- the AKL had a very nice feel to it -- everyone was very friendly, the pool was great and the animals out our balcony was almost surreal it was so cool. That more than made up for any negatives in my book and we would stay there again - maybe not for a long trip as it is so far from most parks, but for a few nights -- definitely. We intentionally did not plan on visiting any parks the day we arrived - -we just stayed at the AKL and enjoyed the pool and the animals. Have a great trip! :D

Dizpro

03-31-2002, 09:42 PM

We are major Wilderness Lodge fanatics(our last 4 trips were there)......but I want our special Anniversary trip to be unique-and AKL it will be..........now I will continue to research and search out all the other details,like what is the best area, best room#'s, and so on ...:)

Mamatipo

03-31-2002, 09:50 PM

I just LOVED AKL, and will return there on my next trip -- whenever that is!

I agree with the posters above that for a "deluxe" the rooms are small -- but the savannah view was worth the tradeoff for a smaller room.

As for swimmie diapers -- they do not hold in bowel movements. They just don't get overfilled with water when submerged. I had an incident with my son (not at Disney - at a swim class) where he had a BM in the pool. He was 18 months old at the time. Well, I didn't notice he made a BM. I thought he was screaming because he didn't want to go in the pool. We weren't in the pool for more than 3 minutes before the BM came floating out of the back of the swimmie diaper. I was MORTIFIED! It was really horrible. Needless to say, they closed the pool for cleanup, etc. My lesson -- babies should wear plastic swim pants with elastic around the waist and the legs over their swimmie diapers when in public pools.

Anyway, go to AKL, you will love it!

SalandJeff

03-31-2002, 09:51 PM

We also stayed at AKL for a couple of nights last trip. I agree with the earlier post that the rooms and hallways seemed very dark. The rooms seemed very closed in, dark and crowded to me (and there were only 2 of us). The decor is beautiful, but all very dark wood and oversized pieces. Even the lobby seemed dark to me. We really enjoyed seeing the animals though and the restaurant that is the buffet (Boma I think) was very good.

dbcahill

03-31-2002, 10:07 PM

I'm really reaching here, but we were down at one end of one of the trails and it was a fair hike to the lobby.

That having been said, we're headed back in three weeks!

ducklite

04-01-2002, 07:15 AM

I LOVED this resort. The only negatives I can come up with are that the toilet/tub area is a bit tight, and the lighting in the sink/vanity area really needs to be improved.

Anne

DisOrBust

04-01-2002, 07:20 AM

We LOVED AKL!! My only negative is regarding the standard view rooms which I have posted several times about. There are some standard view roooms on the first floor on the way to the bus stop that are impossible, IMHO. They have asolid wall 3/4 of the way covering the window and people will walk w/i 3 ft of your room going to the bus. I could not believe that disney would use these as guest rooms and even asked at the front desk but they are guest rooms.

my3boys

04-01-2002, 07:34 AM

We sadly returned from AKL this Saturday (3/30) and loved the lodge. It has no detail overlooked - truly amazing. I have many positive things to say about the resort, but you asked for the negatives. Here are the two my husband and I discussed:

1) People on their balconies and the overlooks can be loud.

2) The bus ride to MK is long if you are standing, balancing a stroller, or holding a sleeping child. However, I will say we never had more than a 5 minute wait for a bus for the entire week we were there.

If you like WL, you will most likely enjoy the AKL. Bomas is a MUST!

cottontail

04-01-2002, 07:40 AM

Mom3boys:

Bomas for breakfast or dinner?

Deb.

dmslush

04-01-2002, 12:00 PM

I have to agree with dbcahill, the only thing I didn't like was how far it was to our room. I injured my leg during the trip, and we were at the very end of the Zebra Trail, now that was a hike to make on a bum leg. But, our view was beautiful, the room was perfect (we moved over from the allstars, so you couldn't have convinced us the room was small LOL) and I can't wait to go back!!!!

donnamerry

04-01-2002, 01:01 PM

No negatives here either! (except for the earlier post mentioning having to leave)! It is just awesome there. Must say you do feel as if you are in Africa! which is what they want you to feel and do a marvelous job of it! I can't wait to go back in June for a couple nights then moving over to either WL or Poly! ;)

DisneyMim

04-01-2002, 06:16 PM

Another thumbs up for the AKL. We stayed there last visit and we liked it so much we are going back in 2 weeks. The room size is comparable with the WL. My kids LOVE the bunkbeds. I wish all the resorts offered them. The resort truly transports you to another place, as all Disney resorts do.

DeeP

04-01-2002, 06:19 PM

I liked our stay at AKL but I have to admit I was not as wowed by this resort as I thought I was going to be. I thought the resort was very unique and we greatly enjoyed the restaurants and seeing the animals. We are DVC members with our home resort at BWV, so after staying at BWV, when we came to AKL we found the rooms to be small but beautifully decorated and the main negative for us was the far away from everything location of AKL. We are used to being at BWV that has 2 parks within walking distance and great nightime entertainment and loads of wonderful restaurant choices right outside our door, so for us AKL was very different, but we still enjoyed our stay. We have returned to AKL since our stay last July but now we go to enjoy the restaurants, animals, great gift shop, story tellers, etc and stay at BWV.

Captain Crook

04-01-2002, 09:23 PM

Certainly no hotel will be the perfect fit for everyone, but those looking for the AKL style will not be disappointed at anything significant.

Like Janet & others, I find it hard to leave the lodge when I'm there and it certainly takes no arm twisting to get me to go back for a rest!:D A must do is talk to the African CM's...Just chat. These are great people with lots of interesting things to say. Disney gets high marks for bringing them to us.

As to the standard view rooms supposedly along the bus stop walk, I have to wonder. On my last visit I peered at these rooms and then walked through the Resort to find them...I believe these rooms are part of the Spa and not guest rooms. Has anyone stayed in one of these rooms if they do exist?
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

the Legend

04-02-2002, 06:12 AM

I have a negative comment ...

After reading all the positive comments, I am regreting choosing WL over AKL for my holiday in September thereby forcing me to return next year and stay at the AKL. :D

Life is tough. But it must be done.

DisOrBust

04-02-2002, 06:25 AM

Captin C.. mom my and I actually went to the front desk and asked because we thought maybe they were rooms for the keepers. No we were told those are standard view guest rooms. We couldn't believe it.

ducklite

04-02-2002, 06:59 AM

Oh, I thought of one more negative, and this one is a biggie to some people. There is NO jogging path or running trail or anyplace to run there. If you are a runner, your choices are to pay to use the health club or run in the parking lot.

This was a total bummer to my DH in December when he was in training for the WDW Marathon. Running 18 miles around a parking lot made for a very grumpy man.

Anne

Captain Crook

04-02-2002, 08:28 AM

DisOrBust, I understand what you're saying & I hear what the front desk told you, but what I'm saying is that I could find no way to get to where I thought the offensive rooms would be located. It seems to be the spa in that particular area...That's why, despite being told by the front desk, I'd like to hear from someone who has actually seen these rooms from the inside. Anybody?

BTW, I mean no offense DisOrBust, you've brought up a great point...I'd just like an insiders opinion (get it? Insider, as in having been in the room, bahahahaha...:rolleyes: ).
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

DisOrBust

04-02-2002, 08:44 AM

No offense taken!:)

I would like to also hear from someone who has actually been in one of these rooms. I just can't believe a Deluxe would even offer such a room to a guest.

DeeP

04-02-2002, 05:33 PM

I don't know how you get to those rooms with the horrible location but when we were there in July there were definitely people staying in at least 2 of those rooms because the curtains were open and they are soooooo close to the walkway we were able to look inside the rooms. One room had kids sitting on the end of the beds watching tv and the other room had a beach towel and bathing suits drying on the balcony railing and you could see in the room and the beds were unmade, the rooms were definitely occupied. We commented on the horrible location and said we hoped the people were not paying a lot to stay there!