AKL or WL?

[LeesyUD]

Animal Kingdom or Wilderness Lodge...which do you recommend?

 

[Dana49]

We've stayed at both resorts. I would recommend the Wilderness Lodge if you have small children and plan on spending a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom. Otherwise, we enjoyed the pool and the animals at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Either way, you won't go wrong.

 

[lomillerin]

We recently stayed at both. Both are wonderful and I would go back to either, but we would chose AKL over WL.

We did not care for Roaring Forks-there were very limited choices. We enjoyed Mara much more. They had a cheese plate that was great. They did have a few unusual items also which we enjoyed but most of the items were fairly "normal" and were delicious.

The animals are really nice. My DD-6 loved looking at the giraffes. We had a savannah view and it was absolutely wonderful to sit out on the balcony and watch the animals.
We had a courtyard/pool view at WL which was also nice, but nothing special.

The pool at AKL is bigger and has a zero entry. WL slide is a little bigger which my kids liked better, but other than that it was fairly small.

The lobbies of both are beautiful.

Boma is so much better than Whispering Canyon Cafe. I do not eat alot of unusual food, but Boma was absolutely delicious. Whispering Canyon was okay, the atmosphere was fun for the kids, but BBQ and lots of meat-which is just okay to me. Boma had a wide variety and it was great.

We also ate at Jiko and Artist Point. Artist Point was good. We had filets at both restaurants. The steak was tender and good at both places, but Jiko was one of the best meals we have ever had. Wow! I also like the decor at Jiko better.

Both were very clean. We received towel animals at both.
AKL was not quite as worn but WL did not show much wear.

Getting to MK was quicker from WL if you took the bus, the boat was tooooo slow. But, to get anywhere else, you had to go to other hotels before or after. It was not bad, just a little inconvenient. AKL is farther away, but the buses are dedicated, so once you get on, you go straight to the park or back to your resort.
It probably took the same amount of time to get to a park from either, but I much preferred to get on and not stop at other resorts before I got to the park. Also, AK was only minutes away, I think it was faster to get to AK from AKL than MK from WL.

The staff at both were great.

I liked the fridge better at AKL because it was inside a wood cabinet. WL did not have one in the room and brought one immediately, but they put under the bathroom sink and plugged it in where I had my curling iron. No big deal, just sort of in my way. Again, I loved WL but just listing all my pros and cons.

Last, the activities at AKL were better than an WL.

AKL and WL had painting or crafts each day, but AKL was right by the pool area. WL was on the other side of the lobby inside the kids club. My DD-6 had to get dry before she could go, but at AKL she could just pull on her coverup and go. They set it up outside. Many kids did the AKL activities but I only saw one or two visit WL's because it was more inconvenient.

Well, I guess I went on and on here. These are my pros and cons. Both are great. I would stay at either one again in a split second. We just felt AKL was a little more special and wowed us a bit more.

 

[JenLynn]

I have only stayed at AKL and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was amazing to sit on the balcony and watch gazelles, giraffes, bongos and other exotic creatures roam around the savannah. The pool was delightful and the kids activities were amazing. Many comment that a "con" for AKL is that it is "out of the way." This was not an issue for us. We had stayed at a variety of other resorts that took as long or longer to get to simply due to sharing bus service between more than 1 resort or having more than 1 bus stop. We thoroughly enjoyed AKL and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[mpbs]

AKL, I loved it. It's newer then WL, the food is great (wonderful variety), great pool,
and bus service. I would recommend a savannah room the view and animals are unbelievable. Have a great time.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

i would choose WL
i like it better than AKL