AKL review just so-so

[tazdeb]

Just returned from a 6 night stay at AKL. While the resort and rooms were great, I found the service and attitude of the employees left alot to be desired. First we were a family of 4 who paid for a conceirge floor room and when we arrived was told they were full and none of those rooms were availiable till the next day. Fine. The next day we packed up, paid the belman to hold our bags (10$) , checked in with the desk who told us our new room would not be ready till later. We then went to the parks. When we got back the desk gave us our old room back!!!!!! We showd them our paid reservation and the clerk copped an attitude. We then asked to speak to the manager who said all the concierge rooms were sold out but would be availiable the next day and we should just stay in our old room again. I explained that now it would cost me another 10$ bucks for the bellman, packing unpacking, etc.....they could care less. The next day we did get our room and the bill was adjusted for the non concierge floor but thats not the point. Also, the hotel staff was not as cheery as in the old days. For example, we put money in the pop machine and nothing came out ,when we went to the front desk we were treated like we did something wrong. Then after giving us the refund the person gave us an out of order sign and told us to walk back and put it on the machine! We were on our way to the parks. Room service trays were left in the hallways for more than 1 day, public rooms a little worn , just a sense that the quality has dropped etc..... All in all not what I would expect from a deluxe resort on disney property.

 

[TaurusSES_Sport]

I hear ya! We were there in Jan and it was the same way. The CMs at the Front Desk were just plain rude/short with us. We stayed concierge and they didnt even greet us, or ask us if they could help us/check-in. We had to wait will the two CMs finished talking and stood there and felt uncomfortable. The lady that checked us in was a real witch, didn't even smile once. We were coming from the Yacht Club, and everyone there was 10x nicer. Sorry to say it, but we wont be back.

 

[epcotfan]

We had a bad experience at AKL at well. Too bad because we had really wanted to love the hotel. If I had paid for concierge and they told me they didn't have the room category I had paid for I would demand to be move to another resort that did have the availability. Sorry you had poor service.

 

[ptrbryant]

Never stayed at AKL, but it seems that more and more reviews cite the poor attitude of the CMs there. I wonder if management is aware of the ongoing issue?

Karla B.

 

[sweet angel]

We were there in November and experienced nothing like what has been described here. We had a savannah view room (not concierge) and had a great experience.

 

[sherry8253]

Wow, sorry for your bad experience. We had a regular savannah view room last month and while I was not happy with the Sunset savannah view, our service was outstanding. The CM's were friendly and provided excellent service - everyone - valet, front desk, mousekeeping, waiters/waitresses in Boma's were great!!

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

Never ran into bad staff there. I hope there staff isnt getting bad. Is so, a letter maybe in order to Disney Management.

matt

 

[cdntourguide]

I just got back from AKL, being there Feb 11 to Feb 16, and I must concur that this stay was not the best I have ever had at a Disney property.
The staff in this facilty is certainly not geared to being helpful in any way. Most of the staff stood around in little groups talking to each other, and seemed offended when asked a question. No smiles, no good mornings and worse, no pin trading. (Last day I saw two people with lanyards, but both were in a hurry and did not appreciate being stopped for a pin trade).
Unfortunately this stay at AKL is going to be my last: the service, attitude, cleaning abilities all seem to be at a higher standard at POP Century than at AKL.
regarding house keeping, first morning (second day) the room was not made up until 5pm. Only on two days did I get soap and shampoo, but on those days I did not get towels nor floor mat for bathroom.

 

[Muushka]

We stayed there a couple of years ago, also concierge. I was less than thrilled with the people at the desk, or the concierge staff for that matter.
Not real friendly. But that was our experience.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

When we were there in Nov we had very good service. We couldn't complain about anything. BUT when we went to the YC we had outstanding service . We really did see a big difference. We are staying at AKL lodge again in April and I hope we have good service again.
I have been a little worried since I have been seeing more poor reviews lately. We'll keep our fingers crossed!

 

[Ladyhawke10]

During our concierge stay we had a bizarre run of technical problems. Our entire reservation was lost originally when we booked it, then reinstated when I called with a request and they couldn't find it (phew! we'd bought plane tickets and would have shown up at the hotel w/ no room!). Even though they DID have our concierge room available upon arrival, which offered a GORGEOUS view of the savannah, technical problems continued throughout the whole stay. There was no record our of sunrise savannah ressie; we were, however, charged for two savannah trips on our final bill (which one was taken off, but it meant a trip to the desk after check-out...), we were checked-out early and returned from an afternoon at the pool to find our room locked. They let us back in but it required going back up and getting new keys (no fun in wet bathing suits!). Then we were taken off housekeeping and turn down service for the day b/c we'd been taken off the schedule b/c the computer showed us as checked out. It was my birthday trip and no mention of the birthday! We ADORE AKL normally but probably would only return in a savannah category since that's what we normally stay w/o problems. Also did not find concierge staff as friendly as other concierge hotel staffs, and I was really in a good mood b/c of my birthday. I would be hesitant about staying concierge there again.

 

[ColoradoBelle1]

After all the raves posted on other threads...I felt bad saying that I was at AKL Dec 10-13 and that I had found front desk CMs RUDE and unresponsive.
Other than housekeeping not cleaning our room until 5 pm each day, the rest of the staff seemed good BUT NOT THE FRONT DESK What is up with that?

Perhaps someone should make a copy of this thread and send it to Disney Management. I for one, will never stay at AKL again...I've stayed at every Disney resort except Pops and CBR, BWV , WLV....and AKL is the ONLY one where I experienced rude/lazy/indifferent behavior from the front desk staff.

Colorado Belle

 

[Humphrey Bear]

We had some issues with housekeeping on our last AKL stay. We stayed five nights and were missed by housekeeping two of them. On another day we came back to our room at 3:30 and saw our housekeeper just finishing up the room next us. Our room wasn't done yet, so we asked her if we could come back later so she could do our room. She told us that she only had one hour till her shift was over and was not going to do any more rooms.

We asked her if we could at least get a clean set of towels. She told us to call for them. I spoke to the front desk about it and they laughed and said that they were having some housekeeping "issues" and hopefully that would change soon.

I loved the resort, but not the attitude of some of the staff.

 

[mariamouse]

oh no!

I guess I will have to judge for myself in a few days... hopefully the CM's attitudes will change for the better!

mariamouse

 

[DutchsMommy]

We just got back from WDW ( ) and stayed AKL concierge Feb 7-10. We had very good service all around, no problems, mousekeeping always done (incl. evening turndown) in a timely manner. No towel animals, but we didn't get any at Poly concierge (Feb 10-13) either. We enjoyed the concierge level and the staff were friendly, with one member in particular being great, offering little toys and stuff to DS. We also found that the offerings at Akl concierge were better (for us personally) than the Poly and that the concierge lounge was quieter than the Poly. We loved both places and don't have anything bad to say. We also LOVED the Sunrise Safari and would highly recommend it to anyone.

We also went to Boma for dinner and found the waitress to be very nice as well, although we thought that Boma was expensive for what was offered at dinner and would probably not bother again.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

oh no!

I guess I will have to judge for myself in a few days... hopefully the CM's attitudes will change for the better!

mariamouse

We stayed there last week, 2/4-2/11 and had an awsome experience. The CMs were great and very professional.
As a matter of fact, I have never run into sour, irritated CMs at any resort in Disney, so I can't agree with the previous posters. I just don't get it, or maybe I'm just lucky, I don't know.
As far as enjoying AKL, I have no doubts that you will. There is one thing you can count on on these boards, plenty of people who love to pile on any complaint about the deluxe resorts and plenty of people who will stand up against all reason and fight for the moderates or values. I don't understand it, but that's the way it is.
Enjoy yourself!!!

 

[sweet angel]

Our housekeeping was almost always done by the time we got back from breakfast (including new towels every day even though we hung ours up with the intention of reusing them) and we had an amazing towel "animal" (see below). Our housekeeper was Gigi and she got a huge tip from us, as well as an email to AKL about her. I would stay at AKL again in a heartbeat! The only staff that I would say was anything less than great was the inside bar staff.

Our towel "animal" -- Uncle Sam

Note the newspaper, sandals, and dog that he's petting!

 

[KirstenJB]

This post has made me cautious about our trip to AKL next week...I hope we get some nice CM's!!!

Kirsten

 

[Ladyhawke10]

We just got back from WDW ( ) and stayed AKL concierge Feb 7-10. We had very good service all around, no problems, mousekeeping always done (incl. evening turndown) in a timely manner. QUOTE]

This is great to hear! We've had plenty of wonderful stays in regular AKL (non-concierge) savannah and pool views. In fact, the CMs around the animal viewing were incredibly nice, as was the staff in the store and around the pool area. I have always found it an exceptionally pleasant resort except for our one concierge trip. I'd like to try the concierge again just to have a different memory of it, since I'm guessing all the technical stuff was a one time thing...however, it just so hard to part with the money for it again when we've had so many other perfect concierge stays that we'd love to do over again.
Most of our Disney stays have been w/o any (bad) issues at all, I should add. And you never know what happened to the concierge CMs before our trip...a negative new boss? personal crisis? just had it w/ too many demanding guests?? I would like to give them another shot, but my next concierge stay will have to be at GF!!!

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

You know, after rereading some of the negative posts, I'm having a hard time believing alot of what is being said.

Like the room service trays not being picked up until the next day. We were there many of the same days as the OP and ordered room service breakfast almost every day we were there. It was delivered every morning at 8:30 am, we would finish and put it out in the hall about 45 minutes later, take a shower and get ready, and by 10:30 am, the tray was gone when we left for the pool or parks. How could we have experienced such a different quality of service?

Or a housekeeper who would A) refuse to clean your room because she only has an hour left on her shift and B) refuse to simply give you towels while she's standing right next to her cart, which is typically full of them. Huh?

Or any CM telling a guest to go back and hang an "Out of Order" sign on a broken resort vending machine? Wha?

Now I can understand Ladyhawke's problems due to a computer glitch (as many of us who depend on computers know that one small glitch can create huge problems), but some of the others sound absolutely bizarre and unbelievable.

For anyone who is heading to the AKL, have no fear, we stay there quite often and have never, ever experienced anything like that at Disney or, for that matter, at any other hotel, worldwide.