AKL review just so-so

[Ladyhawke10]

I sure do hope that he was a paying concierge guest, but it seems to me that it can be very easy to sneak up there and access the lounge. The staff at the concierge desks were always busy and never really greeted us to know that we were concierge guests.

I had this experience as well, which was a departure from other concierge stays completely. At the WL and BC concierge, they smile and verbally greet you as soon as you get off the elevator--each and every time!
At WL, a CM overheard my son complimenting the gummy worms, and he brought a cup full of them down to our room to surprise him! It was SO nice and unexpected!

At AKL, our room was on a diff floor (fifth) but when we got off the elevator to go to the lounge, no one ever looked up or said anything. It does seem like it would be fairly easy for someone to sneak in the lounge since the service seemed less personalized at AKL (maybe they service a much greater number of concierge guests than at the other resorts?).

 

[tazdeb]

We had a guarenteed prepaid reservation. We arrived late, around 9:30pm and was given nice treatment until we found that the room we were given was already occupied. We went down to the desk and since it was late ( and since they assured me that my bill would be credited) we did not mind not getting the concierge floor. I mean after a long trip we just wanted to sleep in the room. We were given a pool view. I did'nt raise a stink until we returned from the parks on the second day and they messed up again. Again I understand if computers mess up or a mistake is made and the hotel is overbooked, but it's not my problem it is theirs, and the way they handled it was not up to deluxe standards. Finally we were given 5th floor Arusha. Great room ,great view, and the lounge ammenities were good. Its just the front desk service and other little things that turned me off ,thats the reason for the so-so feeling.

 

[TaurusSES_Sport]

Guys, keep in mind that the CMs have to deal with a LOT of nasty nasty NASTY guests every single day. They can't help but be short with others as the day wears on.

That's really no excuse though, as with any job that you have to work with people/the public, you have to expect that.

 

[Humphrey Bear]

For the record, I'm not dimissing the problems or the OP as ridiculous, and maybe that wasn't the right choice of word. I'm just floored that someone would find that level of incompetence to any Disney hotel. I mean, where would any hotel tell a guest to hang an out of order sign on the machine? I could see them questioning how you lost your money, because they want to be sure people aren't tring to pull one over on them. And leaving Rooms Service trays out for days? I was just there and posted my experience of them picking them up within a couple hours. Same goes for the maid situation, to refuse service or simply give towels, I mean, c'mon. It's like going to a restaurant and if your chicken is undercooked, the waiter telling you, "Well, the kitchens right back there, go ahead and cook it as you see fit!" That's why I'm having a hard time getting my mind around these sort of problems. As everyone on these boards know, Disney is known worldwide as have an extremely high level of service and these type things defy logic and common sense, IMO. Nothing personal.

That's why our housekeeper skipping our room and refusing to give us towels just blew us away since you would not expect that treatment at a cheap motel, but our housekeeper and the front desk person we dealt with were the only two bad CM's that we came across at AKL in our four stays there and it in no way ruined our stay. In contrast, during the same stay we had a knock on our door not two minutes after we walked into our room for the first time. It was a maintenance man who was there to fix a broken hinge on the armoire that had been reported that morning by the guests who checked out. He was there within a couple of hours to fix it. He wanted to come back so as not to disturb us, but we were going out and asked him to go ahead an fix it. Now that is great service.

I hope my post didn't give anyone the impression that we hated AKL or wouldn't stay there again as are hoping to stay there on our next trip!

 

[Ladyhawke10]

We had a guarenteed prepaid reservation. We arrived late, around 9:30pm and was given nice treatment until we found that the room we were given was already occupied. QUOTE]

Were you checked in and then found the room occupied by knocking on it and other guests were already in there, or did they look up your reservation and see that it had been given away? I'm just curious because of the thread where at POP the same room was given to two people, and the first party came back after DD and found another family in their room.

 

[keith-atl]

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.

Yes I was there last year during a hurricane, while the staff for the most part was friendly except the people at the front desk just plain sucked except the day we checked in we had a great CM.

I kept getting rude answers when I asked about our transfer to the other resort I was like well if the weather is bad can we stay here an extra day, Id rather not move my family over in a hurricane and I kept getting the response you will have to pay full price for the room. Not that it mattered much but when I asked why I couldnt get the rate I checked in he looked at me like I had 3 heads on.

After that I simply asked for a supervisor who came over, explained to her what I might want to depending on the weather and she was like np we can give you your room at the rate you checked in, when I asked why the CM couldnt just say that, she said he assumed I checked in from a Value cause of the storm and was only paying value rate. But it says you have been here a week.

Now not for nothing, I can careless what other guests are playing but if there is a Hurricane I think it should be a no brianer to have guests stay at the hotels that are designed for hurricane weather and the fact that he didnt even look at my info cause it took the supervisor 5 seconds to look it up.

On a side a note while stuck inside for those couple of days I was down at the bar watching whatever sporting even they had on (my daughter was watching Monsters Inc for the 100000x time in the room) I met some other CMs who worked the grounds around AKL and were finally off duty and they were really cool, we had some beers and they were telling me I should complain you are the customer you will get a discount or pay what you paid to come back again and so one. Some interesting info.

Either way I agree that AKL needs some work on the Disney Magic, Im sure I will be back there and I just hope it was just a bad time and things will be better next time.

 

[mdibiaso]

We were there from feb 8th to 15th. The check in was a disaster. No rooms. No copy of reservation even though I have my print out. Not very friendly. Finely upgraded to concierge but not a savannah view which we had booked and kids were looking forward too. Only reason why they did not have our room was they were fully booked and had been working hard all day. Took ages to get luggage up to the room. Went back to lobby to find it. Again got complaints from staff that they had been working hard all day and there was a traffic jam that morning (this was after 11 PM). Frankly we were very disappointed at this point (and tired from 20 hours of travel). Others trying to check in (very long line, very little staff) were being shipped to other hotels.

In other words they overbooked and did not plan properly and did not have enough staff to handle the crisis. Even though they were making a lot of money.

After that night we did enjoy concierge a lot because we did not have to go to a restaurant every morning with 2 little kids. Saved us a lot of time and energy. We decided to live without the view. Staff at concierge were friendly.

Mousekeepers ok but no animals and turndown only 1 of 6 nights.

All in all I would say it is a nice place to stay. Buses worked well. But they made a huge mistake in overbooking and not handling it properly. And frankly when I am paying and the person on the other side is getting a salary I really do not care to hear how hard they have been working as an excuse for me not getting good service. My guess is there is a severe management problem at the front desk but other parts of the hotel are working well. But not at deluxe level if you think of what deluxe means in places like Paris, New York, Hawaii...

 

[sweet angel]

I'm amazed to hear that for what one pays for concierge that some of the rooms at that level don't have a view! I would've thought those would be the creme de la creme of rooms!

 

[Tiffany]

I'm amazed to hear that for what one pays for concierge that some of the rooms at that level don't have a view! I would've thought those would be the creme de la creme of rooms!

One of the known drawbacks of the AKL concierge is that the rooms that are on the actual concierge floor, 6th, do not have great views due to the way the resort is designed. The concierge rooms on the 5th floor that overlook the Arusha Savanna offer the best view IMHO but not as convient to the lounge. On the 6th floor you are closer to the lounge and staff but your view is not as good.

 

[sweet angel]

Good thing I'll never be able to afford to stay concierge. I'd be seriously PO'd spending that kind of money and not having the absolute best view. See, you learn something new every day.

 

[mom-2greatkids]

We were at AKL Jan 22-29 and had a MAGICAL stay. We thought the CMs were great!!!

I reserved a standard view room and requested bunkbeds. We were given an upgrade to a savannah room with bunkbeds. We were thrilled! (note: if I had been paying for a savannah room, I would not have been pleased with the room. I don't remember the room number but we were the very last room at the end of the resort. We had a fence to our left and could see the fence in front of us. We had a feeder by our window, and breakfast time was about the only time we saw animals. However, for an upgrade it was great!)

Our first evening there my DD lost a tooth. MY DSIS told DD if she lost a tooth at WDW Tinkerbelle came instead of the tooth fairy. I went down to the front desk and asked if they had any pixie dust I could scatter in the room. I was also planning on buying a Tinkerbelle pin for DD. The CM had a funny smile on his face, but said confetti wasn't allowed at AKL, but he had an idea. He told me to sit in the lobby and said he'd be back in a few minutes. He came back with a large roll of little paper streamers. After DD fell asleep DH and I covered her bed in them. She was thrilled when she woke up!

Incidentally the CM said that years ago a CM in a different resort was asked by a guest what could be done for the tooth fairy. The CM said they couldn't do anything. Needless to say, the customer service people at Disney were appalled, and apparently that story traveled far and wide. The CM told me that each of them will be asked about the tooth fairy once in their career. My request was this CM's first tooth fairy request, which explained the funny smile I received.

Also, a couple days later the kids and I had a great run-in with our mousekeeper. I wish I could remember her name, but she was great with the kids. She and DS3 were in the hallway imitating the animals and making animal noises. She was a hoot! From then on my kids had a lot of fun with her. We even tried to convince her to come swimming with us one day, but it was just too cold for her! (it was about 65 degrees outside).

DH and I both felt the CMs we encountered were wonderful!!!

 

[mdibiaso]

Few other points I remembered. Bad parts. It was my wifes birthday. Let them know at the front desk and when booking California Grill for her birthday dinner. Never even got a happy birthday from anyone. Also we had a room service tray outside our room (not ours, room next to us) from morning until at least 7 PM when we went to the room from the night. Got told untruths a few times when booking things on the phone. We could NOT pick up our annual pass voucher at the front desk of the lodge, had to go to a park, even though the person at Disney assured my I could at the lodge at check in. I even repeated the question to make sure there was no misunderstanding. And Disney dining told us the MAGIC fireworks would be at 9 PM on my wife's birthday. Turned out to be 10, so we had to drag out our meal to keep our table until 10. One kid was asleep the other very cranky (we probably would have made other plans if we knew it was that late). No help from California Grill staff with getting the PS move to 1 hour later. Just a comment, oh Disney Dining makes mistakes like that all the time, as if it was a different company. Ridiculous having to wait in the 3 different lines at the food bar in AKL to get 3 different items. And to top it off they forgot my fish and chips to go 3 times! Took over 30 minutes to get a quick take away! Remember having to go in different lines at a place in Magic Kingdom as well (some type of galactic cafe). Why, Why? Does some manager at Disney have a line fetish!

Good parts. The concierge staff was great at giving the kids animal shaped sippy cups in the morning for breakfast and making them feel very welcome. Busses worked very good. Person that helped my get the annual pass voucher and get it validated at Epcot was great and realized some questions just did not make sense (like my phone number since we live in Sweden) and just hopped over these to make it go faster). Some people at Disney were great and others were pretty bad. All in all it comes down to people. Just like the real world. But we actually felt the people at Universal were much more friendly on average. Maybe just because the crowds there were much smaller.

 

[Gillian]

I work in the medical field (lab) and have had to draw blood when needed. I hate to draw blood, patients hate to have their blood drawn. Usually they would come down to the lab after spending an hour waiting in the doc's office, grumpy. I was always professional, greeted them with a smile, made small talk and tried to make it as painless as possible (for both them and me!). This is what a professional does. I am really tired of people not doing their jobs correctly and people making excuses for them.

We arrive at AKL, totally in a good mood, just waiting to have fun and we are greeted with someone who will not even make eye contact with you let alone smile. I think that is just plain sad.

Good for you! Working with people is HARD! But if it's your job, you make the best of it and and try to stay pleasant.

I remember my first AKL check in. It was early in the morning (7:30? 8?) and I was so excited to be there. The CM at the front desk was less than thrilled with me. Grumpy is exactly the way I would describe her! I guess she needed coffee or something. She almost ruined my good mood, but that's hard for someone to do while I'm at Disney.

 

[nwdisgal]

Originally posted by Danvers:

Guys, keep in mind that the CMs have to deal with a LOT of nasty nasty NASTY guests every single day. They can't help but be short with others as the day wears on.

Exactly! Clearly, they need some sort of perks for those overworked CMs like on ice in the employee lounge to pick up their spirits

Seeing these posts about people visiting during busy times - (i.e around Valentine's day ) and the CMs not being equipped to handle the overflow me.

We were fortunate that our past visits there were during fairly slow periods and we never had a wait at the line. Everything was handled pretty well.

The only thing weird that happened to us was my DH and I went without the kids one time for our anniversary celebration, and requested a King room. When we arrived on our late night flight from the far, far West, they didn't have any King rooms, but they had a Queen with a bunk bed. They upgraded us to Savannah view from a standard, so I wasn't complaining. Still we didn't have the kids with us and there were the bunk beds. The time when we did have the kids with us, we had requested bunk beds but they weren't available. When we returned home the kids were pissed off at us for sneaking off to WDW without them, and they were ticked off at us for getting bunkbeds. We're finally on speaking terms again As far as special ammenities, I've never had towel animals at any resort let alone AKL, just the stuffed animals striking a whimsical pose. Dr. Phil, I leave a generous tip for Mousekeeping, why don't I ever get a towel animal?

 

[Ladyhawke10]

As far as special ammenities, I've never had towel animals at any resort let alone AKL, just the stuffed animals striking a whimsical pose. Dr. Phil, I leave a generous tip for Mousekeeping, why don't I ever get a towel animal?

Thank you! After many stays at nearly all of the deluxes and two of the moderates, we have only received towel animals on two occasions (WL and BC concierge). I've read posts about guests who just returned and were disappointed with not getting towel animals. I've always experienced them as a rarity. I want to tell them, don't worry, it's nothing personal!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Well, after reading these reviews and a few in the Unofficial Guide I'm wondering if I should change my resort choice for my Dec. land/sea package. The kids (15, 5 and 2) are really looking forward to that resort though. Any advice?? Advance letter to Disney, etc? Help, $5000 is the most I"ve ever spent on a family vacation and I want it to be the BEST!

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Oh, please don't worry, it will be divine. It's a wonderful hotel. A CM told me (much later after our trip) that it sounded like our reservation file had become corrupted, which was why it originally disappeared and then continued to cause havoc throughout our stay. The run of technical problems during our stay was not really caused by human error, and probably a wild never again type thing. We've had plenty of perfect stays at Disney resorts, and AKL is one of our favorites (it's actually my second favorite after GF). We have usually found the AKL CMs to be nicer than average, but I hear that they are rotated, which is why the reports are so uneven.

Relax. It is my genuine belief that you will be very happy with your choice. It's an incredibly unique place that everyone should try at least once.

 

[Tiffany]

Well, after reading these reviews and a few in the Unofficial Guide I'm wondering if I should change my resort choice for my Dec. land/sea package. The kids (15, 5 and 2) are really looking forward to that resort though. Any advice?? Advance letter to Disney, etc? Help, $5000 is the most I"ve ever spent on a family vacation and I want it to be the BEST!

Try to take a deep breath and relax. Are you booked in a concierge room? We have stayed at the AKL five times since it opened in April of 2001. We stayed concierge twice, water view room twice and regular savanna view room once.

Our most recent trip was just a few weeks ago, Jan 22nd through 28th of 2005. We were in a regular savanna view room and had a truely great stay. Infact all of our five stays have been outstandng.

If you have any specific questions pleas feel free to ask away.

 

[Abra Cat]

As far as special ammenities, I've never had towel animals at any resort let alone AKL, just the stuffed animals striking a whimsical pose. Dr. Phil, I leave a generous tip for Mousekeeping, why don't I ever get a towel animal?

Our family was at AKL in December, and we didn't get any towel animals at first. Following the advice of someone on these boards, I left a note nicely requesting a couple towel animals for my kids, and we came back to find several. After that, our mousekeeper arranged the towel animals in different ways every day, and added a couple more at the end of our stay. It certainly doesn't hurt to ask!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

I don't believe we are concierge given our rate but we have the savanah view and I requested a 3rd floor inner circle view. I did just go through more messages and find some positive reviews so I feel better. Sometimes it's just what you make of it.

We were there in Jan last month but did not stay onsite as we just went for 2 days post-cruise. The other 3 visits we stayed in PO French which we LOVE but because we have a suite on the cruise it was AKL or Beach Club as part of the package. I've never stayed at a "Deluxe" yet but the posts made it seem like Deluxe doesn't always mean better.

We are all so excited and are very easy going so I'm sure it will be great. Thanks so much for the info!!!!!

Katrina