AKL, Beach Club, or Wilderness Lodge

[Abbey1]

I'm hoping for opinions on which of these three hotels will be the best fit for my family. My family of three will be visiting October 2018. My son will be 7 and this will be his first visit (we have visited once before and visit Disneyland frequently). I narrowed it down to these three because they all seem to have great pools, which is our biggest factor. Other things we are looking for - good dining options (mostly QS for breakfast and maybe one TS for lunch or dinner), convenient transportation to the parks, comfortable rooms, and awesome theming. Anyone have any input? Thanks!

 

[Hopefully]

I'm hoping for opinions on which of these three hotels will be the best fit for my family. My family of three will be visiting October 2018. My son will be 7 and this will be his first visit (we have visited once before and visit Disneyland frequently). I narrowed it down to these three because they all seem to have great pools, which is our biggest factor. Other things we are looking for - good dining options (mostly QS for breakfast and maybe one TS for lunch or dinner), convenient transportation to the parks, comfortable rooms, and awesome theming. Anyone have any input? Thanks!

You have conflicting requirements and none of them meet them all.
BC has, by far, the best pool on WDW property. It probably has the worst QSfor breakfast options.
AKL probably has the best theme including the Savanna's. It has great TS dining options but only OK QS IMHO.
WL is beautiful. The new pool, not yet open looks nice, but no slide. It has, by far the smallest rooms
Good Luck

 

[TJA]

Well those 3 you have listed would all be good! We've stayed at all 3 of them.

So your biggest factor is a pool:
(1) BC ....honestly it's going to be hard to beat the BC pool as it's a very big pool with different sections to it. Some people don't like it because it's hard to keep track of their kids, but for your family that doesn't sound like it would be a factor (assuming 2 adults and 1 child). Even though we have 2 kids, they are twins and we never once had an issue keeping track of them as they stuck together. They LOVED that pool. Now they are 14 yrs old and still favor it over other pools.
(2) AKL has a nice pool, but definitely can't compare to BC.
(3) WL - I'm not current on what is happening with the new pool there but I thought I read there will not be a slide? Doesn't seem possible so I could be wrong.

Your other factor of convenient transportation:
(1) BC has walking paths to both Epcot and HS. Epcot is just minutes away, while HS can be a 15 minute walk or you can just take a boat to HS. My family always loved walking through Epcot to get the monorail to MK. That obviously is not the quickest way, but it was a fun way for us. You'd need a hopper ticket to do that. The only park we took a bus to was AK, so staying at BC was a big plus for us.
(2) WL is very close to MK to you'd have a quick bus ride and also could take a boat.
(3) AKL is only going to give you buses and the only park close by is AK.

QS breakfast......well the BC gets a bad rap for not having great QS. While I agree other resorts have a larger QS area with more variety, we've always found exactly what we want/need at BC QS for breakfast (breakfast sandwiches and mickey waffles). Check out the resort menus so you can compare:

http://allears.net/dining/menu/

I think your family of 3 would be comfortable in any of the 3 resorts. BC is a bit more "deluxe" feeling to us, but we really enjoyed the cozy (smaller) AKL room. WL was our least favorite in terms of comfort, but we are a family of 4 (with 2 teens) so that factors in to how we feel.

Awesome theming? All 3 of them! BUT it's hard to beat staying at AKL, especially through a kid's eyes. We just stayed there a couple months ago (savanna room) and it was pretty exciting to go on our balcony and see animals. There are many different parts of the resort where you can view the animals too. For us, though, we highly prefer resorts where we have other transportation options besides a bus, so that puts BC above your other 2 options.

Good luck choosing!

 

[Shanti]

I'm hoping for opinions on which of these three hotels will be the best fit for my family. My family of three will be visiting October 2018. My son will be 7 and this will be his first visit (we have visited once before and visit Disneyland frequently). I narrowed it down to these three because they all seem to have great pools, which is our biggest factor. Other things we are looking for - good dining options (mostly QS for breakfast and maybe one TS for lunch or dinner), convenient transportation to the parks, comfortable rooms, and awesome theming. Anyone have any input? Thanks!

If you want a great pool, look no further than Stormalong Bay at Beach Club. There is a sandy bottom pool, huge pirate slide, lazy river with floaties, 3 hot tubs, quick service lunch & dinner at the pool, ice cream a few steps away, etc. Beach Club does have a small quick service breakfast location, but nothing elaborate.

Animal Kingdom Lodge has a great quick service location, the Mara. You will also have access to 2 really nice feature pools, one at Jambo & one at Kidani.

Wilderness Lodge is very much the distant 3rd runner up for your criteria, although it is a lovely resort.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

We love the BC for the pool but as others said the QS for breakfast is not great.
We love the WL - but not sure about the construction and if the pool will be open.
We love the theme of AKL and love TS food there but we don't do AK more than 1 day so taking the buses to the other parks is not fun for us. It is a lot of busing especially if you are staying long. We love that at the BC you can walk to EPCOT and a boat or walk to HS. At the WL - we love taking the boat to MK.

So I would take the BC for the pool first then the WL and last the AKL.

 

[MeisMinnie]

following.. I'm looking at the same resorts for Spring 2018 trip.

 

[Abbey1]

Well those 3 you have listed would all be good! We've stayed at all 3 of them.

So your biggest factor is a pool:
(1) BC ....honestly it's going to be hard to beat the BC pool as it's a very big pool with different sections to it. Some people don't like it because it's hard to keep track of their kids, but for your family that doesn't sound like it would be a factor (assuming 2 adults and 1 child). Even though we have 2 kids, they are twins and we never once had an issue keeping track of them as they stuck together. They LOVED that pool. Now they are 14 yrs old and still favor it over other pools.
(2) AKL has a nice pool, but definitely can't compare to BC.
(3) WL - I'm not current on what is happening with the new pool there but I thought I read there will not be a slide? Doesn't seem possible so I could be wrong.

Your other factor of convenient transportation:
(1) BC has walking paths to both Epcot and HS. Epcot is just minutes away, while HS can be a 15 minute walk or you can just take a boat to HS. My family always loved walking through Epcot to get the monorail to MK. That obviously is not the quickest way, but it was a fun way for us. You'd need a hopper ticket to do that. The only park we took a bus to was AK, so staying at BC was a big plus for us.
(2) WL is very close to MK to you'd have a quick bus ride and also could take a boat.
(3) AKL is only going to give you buses and the only park close by is AK.

QS breakfast......well the BC gets a bad rap for not having great QS. While I agree other resorts have a larger QS area with more variety, we've always found exactly what we want/need at BC QS for breakfast (breakfast sandwiches and mickey waffles). Check out the resort menus so you can compare:

http://allears.net/dining/menu/

I think your family of 3 would be comfortable in any of the 3 resorts. BC is a bit more "deluxe" feeling to us, but we really enjoyed the cozy (smaller) AKL room. WL was our least favorite in terms of comfort, but we are a family of 4 (with 2 teens) so that factors in to how we feel.

Awesome theming? All 3 of them! BUT it's hard to beat staying at AKL, especially through a kid's eyes. We just stayed there a couple months ago (savanna room) and it was pretty exciting to go on our balcony and see animals. There are many different parts of the resort where you can view the animals too. For us, though, we highly prefer resorts where we have other transportation options besides a bus, so that puts BC above your other 2 options.

Good luck choosing!

Wow, thanks for all that info! It's super helpful. I think you've sold me on the Beach Club!

 

[maramarrie]

BC/YC have a great pool, but we have yet to stay at BC because they are always booked when we want to travel. We stayed at YC and really enjoyed our stay because of the convenience to DHS and Epcot. I may be in the minority, but I disliked how spread out the pool was, especially the slide. I didn't feel like I could set up camp anywhere for very long. If kiddo wanted to do the slide alone, he had to walk a LONG way...If I followed to watch he would end up dumping out a LONG way from the base of the slide. It's like our party had to stay separated half the day at the pool just so we could keep an eye on the kiddos doing the slide. The sand bottom pool and lazy river were really cool, and the kids loved playing in the sand.

AKL is a personal favorite. We've stayed here several times. You can use both pools (Kidani has a better slide and a splash playground; Jambo's pool might be larger) and we have yet to enjoy resort activities anywhere else as much as we do here. The kids love the several bead-earning activities, watching animals, and playing the drums. Our favorite WDW meal is on site, Sanaa (get the Naan bread service!!!), and if you have a special occasion, Jiko is a fantastic splurge (dress code). The QS restaurant is located in Jambo (Kidani does not have QS) and has African flavors, american food, and grab-n-go. Boma is a buffet with both African/Indian and American flavors...some very "different," but because it's a buffet you can try new things without committing. Definitely try a Zebra Dome (either at Boma or at the grab-n-go) if you stay here. I have heard good things about the breakfast at Boma, but I was unfortunately sick the only time our party had breakfast there.

WL is one we've always wanted to stay at, but when it comes down to it, AKL is always available when WL is available, and AKL is cheaper. WL has amazing theming, and if I was spending most of my trip at MK it might be worth being there. The lobby feels a lot like AKL Jambo because of the scale, and you really get that "mountain lodge" feel. I get a similar feel from WL and the Grand Californian at DL. We've eaten at Whispering Canyon which was a lot of fun - make sure you ask for ketchup if you eat here! It was way too much food (not always a bad thing), but I think at this restaurant you are getting an "experience."