Thank you for your honest, thoughtful review. There are some things that others love that I don't, so I totally understand.
I LOVE AKL and wish I could have my house in the same exact style, but there are other resorts that didn't amaze me. When we stayed at the Yacht Club many years ago, they gave us a room that seemed like it was miles away from the lobby, so that colored our opinion of the resort and we've never had any desire to go back, as much as I love the beautiful lobby. We're going to stay two nights at the Beach Club after AKL this trip and I hope we like it better than YC.
Incidentally, I MUCH, MUCH prefer Jambo to Kidani. I would say that AKL is my favorite resort, BUT that's only if staying at Jambo. If there were no room at Jambo, I'd probably pick another resort. Although our car was super convenient to us at Kidani and I liked the lobby, I felt really, really far away from the action.
We're staying one night at AofA this trip to start our trip off (three resorts this trip) and I'm totally excited. I had told DS10 that he could pick where we were staying for the last two nights hoping that he would pick AofA, but he initially said GF, which is way more than I can afford, so I talked him "down" to BC
So, since he couldn't be subconsciously swayed to AofA, I added that first night on there. Your post makes me excited to try a value for the first time!