Hi, we just got back from a stay at Kidani in Sept.
So here's a brief summary of the Animal Kingdom Resort.
It is made of two different buildings that wrap around the safari area where the animals are kept. The animals are all on one side of the hotels, with the parking lots and roads wrapping around the other. A standard view gives you a view of the parking lot. A savana view gives you a view on the side on the hotels that face the animals. Water view looks out over the pools. There are no lakes or beaches at either. The room types are by floor, so really you could end up anywhere on the second or third floor, if I remember right, in the hotel on the parking lot side.
Now, for the two buildings, Kidani and Jambo. Both function as their own independent hotels. Both have their own lobby, checkin area, restaurants, shops, pools, etc. although the facilities at either are open to all animal kingdom guests no matter which you are staying at. You can catch a bus (at bus stop) or a shuttle (at lobby) to travel between the two. Kidani is a
DVC hotel and all the rooms are studios or villas, but you can rent rooms there directly through Disney also. Jambo is not DVC and has regular hotel rooms as well as villas. If you booked through DVC, you will be at Kidani.
Kidani is shaped like a large backwards 3 with the lobby in the middle part of the 3. The lobby is much smaller than Jambo and has a small gift shop which also offers a few groceries and household items. There are no quick service restaurants at Kidani. The pool bar is the only place to get quick service, and the menu is very limited there. You should plan on eating in your room, taking the bus to Jambo, or eating somewhere else. I'm not 100% sure where the mug refill is as we didn't use it, but I'm thinking it was at the pool bar as I don't remember any drink machines anywhere else in the building. The pool at Kidani is very nice and has zero depth entry. They also have a splash area which is easily accessible. I never made it to the hot tub so can't help you there sorry.
Now for the "close" part. The words close and Kidani just don't go together. Really no matter where you are you will be far from something else, and many of the rooms are just far from everything. I mean 20 minute walk from bus stop or lobby far. The hotel is set up a little different from others I have seen. Parking is located underneath the rooms in an open air garage. At the end of each section of the building, there is an elevator that runs from the garage up to the different floors. If you have a car it's not as big a deal. You can just request to be near an elevator, but if you are using Disney buses, it can be a long walk back to your room. I had to fight to get us a room near the bus stop, but this still put us a ways from the lobby, and a long walk from the pool. The bus stop and the pool are about equal distance from the lobby on opposite sides. If you end up on either end, its a long walk to anything. Close to the lobby is your best bet, but everybody asks for that, so there's no guarantee. We checked in about 10:30 in the morning and insisted we would wait for something "close" to open, but it was a fight. They kept trying to stick us off at the end, and I knew better than to accept any of those rooms. Then when they realized we were serious about waiting for a better location one "magically" appeared. They know no one wants those far off rooms and will try to throw it off on anyone they think doesn't know any better.
Besides everything being spread out, we really enjoyed the hotel. We were rained out and actually spent a couple of days just at the hotel which the kids loved. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
