AKL - Savannah view and Club Level

[Louise Potts]

Hello everyone

Staying at AKL has been a dream of mine for a long time and I am going to start pricing up for just hubbie and me to go next year, I would definitely like a Savannah view room but the option to upgrade to Club Level also pops up - is Club Level worth the extra money?

Thanks everyone!

Lou

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Hello everyone

Staying at AKL has been a dream of mine for a long time and I am going to start pricing up for just hubbie and me to go next year, I would definitely like a Savannah view room but the option to upgrade to Club Level also pops up - is Club Level worth the extra money?

Thanks everyone!

Lou

I of course can’t answer if CL is worth the extra money for you. But for us (family of four, kids 7 and 3) it is sometimes/oftentimes “worth it.” We had a week long stay at AKL CL in April, our first time at AKL. FWIW, here is my mini-review on the CL thread: AKL CL - April 2018

We’ve done a number of the CLs and I have to say I was very impressed with AKL CL overall. To be honest, I was surprised how much we enjoyed it there. Just a really great resort overall, in my humble opinion.

But obviously, “worth it” can mean different things for different people. We tend to spend a lot of time around the resort, so we’re often around for breakfast each morning and evening apps at least a few nights. If we were total commandos and always away from the resort, it wouldn’t have as much appeal.

Just one person’s perspective. Happy planning!

 

[dvcdream4fld]

We stayed at the AKL club level December last year. We (wife and I) stayed with our son who was 11 months old at the time. The Club Level lounge was nice for us, because we spent a great deal of time at the resort and enjoyed the convenience of club level food (snacks) and drinks (wine and beer). We tried using the club level concierge to make last minute reservations, but the concierge did not offer any benefit over making reservations using the Disney app. The only other benefit that we could find was that the club level was conveniently located close to the Jambo House entrance. In our opinion, club level is only worth it, if you use the club level lounge and spend a lot of time at the resort.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

For us, CL only has worth if we feel like we will eat and drink enough in the lounge to justify the extra cost. The other factor, now, is if you want to take advantage of the new extra FP+ CL perk (which costs extra on top of the CL cost). I always add up potential room category options and then go from there to judge value. We are a small family of 3 (and I frequently travel alone with DS10 as well), so it's rare that I feel we get value out of CL. The last time we stayed CL it was due to a deep discount at WL CL last August. I got the room for about the same cost as a Poly standard room, so I kind of felt like I did get some value for the extra money in that circumstance. If you are only doing it for the food and beverages, I would probably skip it as you could stock the mini-fridge in your savannah view room for much less than booking a CL room.

 

[AngiTN]

I think AKL is one that is worth it faster simply because all the CL rooms are Savannah View. The price difference between CL and Savannah View is typically quite small, especially when you consider the overall cost of the entire vacation.
Even if you only eat breakfast up in the lounge each day I'd feel like you'd recoop the cost difference. If you were able to be back for evening apps once or twice, desserts and also enjoy adult beverages then that just adds up even more.

 

[Ashley Marie]

My husband and I are staying CL at AKL in a few weeks. I'll try to come back and post our thoughts.

 

[epcotobsessed]

I totally agree with AngiTN - if memory serves, the few times we have booked AKL, the difference between CL Savannah View and non-CL Savannah View was like $10/night. If you want/are willing to pay for Savannah View, it would be foolish not to get CL. I do not enjoy CL at all resorts but I do like AKL's lounge in particular.

 

[Ashley Marie]

I totally agree with AngiTN - if memory serves, the few times we have booked AKL, the difference between CL Savannah View and non-CL Savannah View was like $10/night. If you want/are willing to pay for Savannah View, it would be foolish not to get CL. I do not enjoy CL at all resorts but I do like AKL's lounge in particular.

For our upcoming trip in a few weeks, the difference was more like $50/night, which still felt "worth it" to me considering the convenience factor: we are spending a lot of time at the resort and plan to eat mostly in the lounge.

 

[epcotobsessed]

Maybe it was more than $10, but it was certainly less than the $150-200/night that it often is to upgrade to CL at other resorts. You will definitely get your $50 worth, and then some.

 

[AngiTN]

For our upcoming trip in a few weeks, the difference was more like $50/night, which still felt "worth it" to me considering the convenience factor: we are spending a lot of time at the resort and plan to eat mostly in the lounge.

Maybe it was more than $10, but it was certainly less than the $150-200/night that it often is to upgrade to CL at other resorts. You will definitely get your $50 worth, and then some.

Yeah, somewhere between $10 and $50, depends on the season and the promo. And breakfast alone can easily run a family $50. And breakfast is typically a meal most can manage to make time to eat at the lounge. So that right there can recoup your CL cost. This is why I say at AKL, if you are already paying for Savannah view, it is almost foolish to not go ahead and get CL, when both are available. No, if you never, ever, eat breakfast, that may be different but most do at least eat what is offered up there. When you add in just a few other stops here or there, it just adds in more value. That's without any other services (which we never take advantage of ourselves) I did love their Sunrise Safari but that came with an added cost.
Heck, some could drink $50 worth of water. Not a night but over a few nights.

For us, we do breakfast in the lounge, head to the park, eat our main meal of the day, head back to swim or rest, clean up, hit the lounge right when evening service ends, eat a light dinner and head back out to close the parks. We rarely do desserts in the lounge. But CL stays mean we only pay for 1 meal and maybe 1 snack in the park.

 

[tarak]

Hello everyone

Staying at AKL has been a dream of mine for a long time and I am going to start pricing up for just hubbie and me to go next year, I would definitely like a Savannah view room but the option to upgrade to Club Level also pops up - is Club Level worth the extra money?

Thanks everyone!

Lou

What is the makeup of your party? Will you take any breaks during the day? That for us determines whether CL is worth it. We’re staying at BC right now and we’ve been at a park in the morning until about two, headed back to the resort to cool off and swim. We’ve hit the evening appetizer hour and then headed back to the park, so we’ve gotten plenty of use out of the lounge. If our touring plan was to hit the parks at rope drop and stay until close it wouldn’t be worth it.

I think AKL is one that is worth it faster simply because all the CL rooms are Savannah View. The price difference between CL and Savannah View is typically quite small, especially when you consider the overall cost of the entire vacation.
Even if you only eat breakfast up in the lounge each day I'd feel like you'd recoop the cost difference. If you were able to be back for evening apps once or twice, desserts and also enjoy adult beverages then that just adds up even more.

That was our experience at AKL. We always book a savannah view, and the price to bump up to club level wasn’t much more. When we stay at AKL, we spend a lot of time at the resort, too, because we love watching the animals.

 

[Louise Potts]

I of course can’t answer if CL is worth the extra money for you. But for us (family of four, kids 7 and 3) it is sometimes/oftentimes “worth it.” We had a week long stay at AKL CL in April, our first time at AKL. FWIW, here is my mini-review on the CL thread: AKL CL - April 2018

We’ve done a number of the CLs and I have to say I was very impressed with AKL CL overall. To be honest, I was surprised how much we enjoyed it there. Just a really great resort overall, in my humble opinion.

But obviously, “worth it” can mean different things for different people. We tend to spend a lot of time around the resort, so we’re often around for breakfast each morning and evening apps at least a few nights. If we were total commandos and always away from the resort, it wouldn’t have as much appeal.

Just one person’s perspective. Happy planning!

Thanks so much! Top tips!

 

[Louise Potts]

My husband and I are staying CL at AKL in a few weeks. I'll try to come back and post our thoughts.

fantastic! thanks! Enjoy your stay

 

[MomOTwins]

We stayed at CL twice and decided it was not for us. As someone else mentioned, the club concierge is not really empowered to do anything you can't do yourself, though I get some people don't like planning so what a concierge to do their ADRs and FPs. The only real benefit is the lounge, and to be honest we just did not care for the food offerings there. The breakfast is continental (lots of sugar and carbs, no protein), afternoon is candy and chips, and evening is dessert, so if you like sweets, maybe it is a good value. The main evening 5-7pm main appetizer service just never worked well for us timing wise because we always wanted a full dinner not just finger foods, and with DCL transporation time to get to dinner restaurants at our usual 6pm dinner time we were never at the resort at the right time to have a quick hors d'oeurve. Both times we paid about $175 per night for CL though--if I was able to find a $50 per night upgrade, I might consider it, but probably still wouldn't because I'd rather just pay more and have nice meals than pay for snacks.

 

[DSLRuser]

do a split stay...get Savannah for the 1st night, then move to a standard room for the rest of your visit.

We have stayed at AKL 3 times. the 1st time we had a Savannah room. it got to be a running joke of the family. "hey look, a zebra"...."did you see the zebra"....."I wonder what the zebra is doing"........ "I wonder if the zebra is there AGAIN"

It was cool to see said zebra the 1st two, maybe 3 times you looked outside......but then it just got to be another boring view which happened to have a zebra hanging out waiting for it's next feeding of grass from that particular feeder.

The next 2 visits, we had standard rooms and never missed the view at all. in fact, my last trip in spring 2017 had us overlooking the portico where guests would arrive from long drives or taxis from the airport. We got more entertainment watching guests stiff the bell man on tips, or watching dads lose the minds after long drives trying to unpack the acr.

 

[AngiTN]

LOL, not everyone enjoys watching animals of the 4 legged variety, that's for sure. Some are more entertained by 2 legged ones. If you can't watch a 4 legged one do nothing, for hours, and find it fascinating, then I'd say a paying for Savannah view at AKL is not the best option for sure. We can spend hours watching the animals do nothing but normal animal things. Many can't. Or find it pointless. Many of those also find AK a pretty boring park. Where it's our, well my, very favorite of all. We can spend an entire day on just the 2 trails and the Safari is my favorite ride in all of Disney, because it's never the same ride twice. That's why, when we stay at AKL, we always pay for Savannah view. Once you've paid for that, bumping to CL is where you have a small increase. If you compare Standard, or even Pool, to CL, it is a much bigger jump, more like the $175 PP mentioned.

 

[Louise Potts]

We stayed at CL twice and decided it was not for us. As someone else mentioned, the club concierge is not really empowered to do anything you can't do yourself, though I get some people don't like planning so what a concierge to do their ADRs and FPs. The only real benefit is the lounge, and to be honest we just did not care for the food offerings there. The breakfast is continental (lots of sugar and carbs, no protein), afternoon is candy and chips, and evening is dessert, so if you like sweets, maybe it is a good value. The main evening 5-7pm main appetizer service just never worked well for us timing wise because we always wanted a full dinner not just finger foods, and with DCL transporation time to get to dinner restaurants at our usual 6pm dinner time we were never at the resort at the right time to have a quick hors d'oeurve. Both times we paid about $175 per night for CL though--if I was able to find a $50 per night upgrade, I might consider it, but probably still wouldn't because I'd rather just pay more and have nice meals than pay for snacks.

Thats really interesting thank you for all that info, i dont think we would benefit from it after reading your info so i am going to just book the Savannah view, thanks so much for replying!

 

[Louise Potts]

do a split stay...get Savannah for the 1st night, then move to a standard room for the rest of your visit.

We have stayed at AKL 3 times. the 1st time we had a Savannah room. it got to be a running joke of the family. "hey look, a zebra"...."did you see the zebra"....."I wonder what the zebra is doing"........ "I wonder if the zebra is there AGAIN"

It was cool to see said zebra the 1st two, maybe 3 times you looked outside......but then it just got to be another boring view which happened to have a zebra hanging out waiting for it's next feeding of grass from that particular feeder.

The next 2 visits, we had standard rooms and never missed the view at all. in fact, my last trip in spring 2017 had us overlooking the portico where guests would arrive from long drives or taxis from the airport. We got more entertainment watching guests stiff the bell man on tips, or watching dads lose the minds after long drives trying to unpack the acr.

Haha fair point!! Human watching is pretty fascinating!

 

[DisneySince1967]

We've stayed at the AK Club level with a Savannah view room. We learned very quickly that the reality of a Savannah view room is different from promotional pictures. The Savannah is big and the resident animals don't necessarily want to hang out by the hotel. Long periods of time can go by where no animals are visible at all.

The club level lounge was a lovely bonus, but you have to think carefully if you are going to enjoy the resort as a resort, or primarily a place to crash. The value of club level will diminish, I think, in alignment with the amount of time spent away from AK. And, as others noted, most of what is offered is dominated by white carbohydrates.

If we were to return to AK, I'd save my money on the Savannah view and spend it instead on a special safari option provide exclusively to AK guests. We did the Wanyama Safari during our stay and that experience exposed us 1000% more to the animals, with the added bonus of a fantastic meal at Jiko.

do a split stay...get Savannah for the 1st night, then move to a standard room for the rest of your visit.

We have stayed at AKL 3 times. the 1st time we had a Savannah room. it got to be a running joke of the family. "hey look, a zebra"...."did you see the zebra"....."I wonder what the zebra is doing"........ "I wonder if the zebra is there AGAIN"

 

[Aladora]

If we were to return to AK, I'd save my money on the Savannah view and spend it instead on a special safari option provide exclusively to AK guests. We did the Wanyama Safari during our stay and that experience exposed us 1000% more to the animals, with the added bonus of a fantastic meal at Jiko.

It likely does not make any difference, but the Wanyama Safari is no longer exclusively for AKL guests and can be booked by anyone 10 years or older.