AKV Kidani, we will be parking our car at Kadani

[despina]

do you park under the building and take a specific elevator to parking? Or any elevator will bring you down to parking. Also, can the rooms be far from an elevator..if so should I request a room closet to an elevator because I know my little ones will not like walking so far the couple of times we are using the car... thank you!!

I see I wrote "CLOSET to an elevator"

 

[dianeschlicht]

The elevators go down to the parking garages, so you would just take the one nearest your room. I don't know of any closet elevators at Kidani.

Yes, your room can be far from the elevator, but if you are close to the elevator you might be far from something else you want to get to (like the lobby), so I don't worry about that part. We found the distance to the elevator the lesser of the two distances at Kidani. It was always easy to get to the parking garage, but both lobby's were a hike.

 

[Twende]

I can help a bit with this. We just returned from our first trip to Kidani. We were on the second floor of Rafiki area in a 1 bedroom. The second floor is the lobby level. We were about 12 doors down from an elevator and that elevator took us right to the parking area under the suites.

It is a really well thought out system for parking. We found it very convenient.

We also took the same elevator to the parking level and walked through the gate to the pool area.

The resort is huge and the hallways did appear to be endless.

I would think you could request to be close to an elevator.

I checked out the floor plan before we left and figured out where different sized suites and locations were so we were pretty certain we would be over looking the pool area.

I was told that the standard view 1 bedrooms over looked the pool. The only problem with that description is that you can not see the pool. The area is very vegetated and you see the greenery and an occasional person but not really the pool itself.

This thread has a lot of useful information: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2621288&highlight=kidani+map

We did enjoy our stay at Kidani. DH liked it so much he wants to buy points there too!

 

[despina]

Twende, thanks for the info..Im gonna try to get closet to the lobby I think and there is an elevator near that and its a central location of the kidani. Im overthinking things now...yikes

 

[DebbieB]

In addition to the elevators near the lobby, there are 2 other elevators in each wing, spread apart.

 

[drusba]

You have elevators near the lobby and then two sets of elevators spread out along each of the two wings, all of which go down to the parking area below the building. Your room will be fairly close to an elevator. More of an issue is how close you can actually park to an elevator. Sometimes, depending on seasons but more on time of day, you can get real close such as parking mid-afternoon when most cars are gone, but then may be somewhat of a good walk away when parking in the late evening or night.

 

[RDP]

Parking is great at kidani, we were closer to an elevator than the lobby and used this for most of our entry's and exits, we got a parking space quite close to the elevator and it was very convenient.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Twende, thanks for the info..Im gonna try to get closet to the lobby I think and there is an elevator near that and its a central location of the kidani. Im overthinking things now...yikes

LOL! Still wondering why you want a "closet" at the lobby. Sorry, I like to tease about typos that strike me funny.

 

[DenLo]

When you check in at Kidani the CM will tell you which elevator is closest to your villa. Our trip in June we were half way between two elevators. We always used the elevator we parked closest too. However that was still 1 1/2 beads away from our villa. Many parents used strollers in the hallways at Kidani. It much less than the amount of walking at the parks but you will have a bit of walking to do while staying at Kidani. And the rooms in the second bead from the lobby are all handicapped rooms which would not be good for children because the stoves have the knobs up front. So it means there are very few rooms that are close to lobby.

 

[coup2516]

We stayed at Kidani last August. The parking garage is awesome. It keeps your car nice and cool when not in use. That is a huge benefit in Florida in August. We were a good walk from the elevator but didn't mind it that much. That being said we don't have children to deal with. As someone else said the hallways at Kidani are eternal. The good thing is that DVD put windows in the hallway facing the savanna. I know I stopped a few times when I was going down the hallway because I saw something that was interesting outside.

Overall we loved Kidani. It is a very nice building. The room was amazing. The food was good. And of course if you have a savanna view the view is one of the best in the DVC collection. Also, Kidani is much more secluded than most resorts. This is a blessing if you have a car because you get the benefits of quiet and seclusion without the annoyance of the Disney bus system.

 

[henderkm]

We stayed in a 1BR at Kidani in June. We did not think we would love the resort as much as we did. We also loved the underground parking because we didn't have to worry about our car getting so hot.

During our stay we moved from a standard to a savanna view. Our standard was very close to the lobby on the second floor and looked out on the parking lot. Our savanna room was close to the Rafiki elevator on the third floor. That said, we still did a lot of walking to the bus stop and the lobby. Our DD's didn't mind it too much since there are large windows overlooking the savanna between the beads so we could stop and look at the animals.

 

[Disneypapa]

During our visit to Kidani, we found the parking under the hotel to be convienent. Depending on where your room is located, you can have a long walk to an elevator.

We were in the portion of the building closest to Jambo House and walked over a couple of times (love BOMA). However, this made the walk to the Kidani pool a little longer. Personally I would suggest getting something near the lobby (close to pool and bus stop).