Animal Kingdom Lodge Construction?

[Sir Ron]

I remember hearing about the DVC construction going on at the AKL. Is it still going on? For anyone who has been there recently, has it affected your stay?


Thanks!

Ron

 

[fla4fun]

I don't think too many people have been staying there lately, as they have been moving most of the guests out for the month of August due to the construction disruptions. How soon will you be staying there?

 

[Sir Ron]

A friend of mine is going in the middle of September.

 

[zumbergc]

We called for the middle of november.
At that time, CRO said that the construction inside the main building would be done.

However, at that time they will be building the new kidani village.
Which looks to be shaped differently than the orginal building across from the sunset savannah, along the kudu trail.

 

[racinjunkie]

Just returned from AKL last night. We did not hear or see any signs of construction. Very frustrating since we were relocated to POR had a disasterour experience and asked to be moved only to wind up in the original room type we requested at AKL.

There are black curtains obscuring the 4th and 5th floors from the lobby, but unless you look up you don't even notice them.

 

[disneydance]

We stayed there the very last week of June and construction was right outside are balcony and we never even noticed it. The construction is supposed to go in phases and is supposed to be complete by I believe April of 2009 we are most like going back in January of 2009 right before construction is complete so we are excited to see what they have done then. It did not affect our stay at all and I highly reccomend booking it

 

[SleepingBet]

Just returned from AKL last night. We did not hear or see any signs of construction. Very frustrating since we were relocated to POR had a disasterour experience and asked to be moved only to wind up in the original room type we requested at AKL.

There are black curtains obscuring the 4th and 5th floors from the lobby, but unless you look up you don't even notice them.

I'd love to hear more about your trip. Are you saying you did end up at AKL? I remember reading that you had gotten moved against your will, but I thought you had been moved to one of the deluxes. We leave for AKL this Fri. 8/17. Any comments from you would be great.

 

[Sir Ron]

Thanks all!

 

[JoiseyMom]

I'd love to hear more about your trip. Are you saying you did end up at AKL? I remember reading that you had gotten moved against your will, but I thought you had been moved to one of the deluxes. We leave for AKL this Fri. 8/17. Any comments from you would be great.

Yes, I check in 2 weeks from today, please more details??

 

[racinjunkie]

I wanted to get my thoughts together and do a trip report but I can c&p what I posted to a friend:

I'm not even sure where to start.

Cards: POR (Port Orleans Riverside) was/is having problems with their KTTW (key to the world) cards although they didn't admit that the people at AKL did. So our first set of cards would get some of us into the parks and some of us not, and neither of the adult cards worked for dining. Thinking it was a glitch we used the same cards the next day and different people could get into the parks than the day before but still didn't work for dining. Then we got new cards, dh tried to use them for a dining plan snack and still not so much. Then we got our 4th set of cards and ds and I had to make a run to a park and couldn't get in, so we moved onto our 5th set of cards. That should have been the end of the cards debacle but it continued, more later.

Resort: I wouldn't recommend POR unless you could be guaranteed the Alligator Bayou (AB) section. We were in the Mansions section and... I just don't have anything good to say, our room wasn't Disney at all. It was BARELY themed AT ALL inside the room, not at all like the AB rooms. The buildings are just plain old hotel room buildings. The walk to everything was just too far for us, the bus stop was too far and the walk was through a parking lot, and the stop was across from cast golf cart access way so you sat/stood there waiting while watching golf carts of cm's go driving by... really diminished the magic. The walk to the ice/vending was too far and too many twists and turns to get to it. The walk to the pool, and main building were too far. The AC unit in our room made thumping and squeaking noises and despite several complaints it never got fixed. One of the sinks in the kids' room drained so slowly that they couldn't use it.

Character meals: Every one but Liberty Tree Tavern was the same dissappointment, we had finished eating before more than 1 character had been to our table, so we were forced to sit sometimes up to 45 minutes waiting for all characters to get to our table. To make matters worse, the food at Breakastosaurus and O'hana was rather disappointing, we won't go back to those two places. Now LTT was GREAT! (and I was sure to grab a manager and let her know) Food was great, and the characters not only came during the meal, but were visibly enjoying their jobs, not rushing from table to table like at all the other meals.

ADR's: I realize they aren't reservations, but we arrived 15 to 20 minutes before each ADR and again with the exception of LTT we weren't seated until 15 to 30 minutes after our ADR time. That was a minimum of a 30 minute wait at each meal...

By Wednesday dh had HAD IT! He was grumpy all day and had decided that Thursday, our resort pool day, he was going to get some satisfaction to all our issues. He arrived at the pool to meet the kids and I around 1pm on Thursday and informed us we were MOVING to our original AKL savannah view bunk bed room. POR loaded up our luggage, and drove us in one of their vehicles, and credited us $150.

AKL was awesome, there were tons of animals around (can't wait to show off my pics) at one point there were 11 animals visible from our balcony!! Didn't hear or see ANY construction except black curtains visible if you looked up toward the 4th and 5th floors from the lobby. The pool is beautiful and just great for us, their food court was great, the entire resort is just beautiful, imo of course. The only snag at AKL was the KTTW cards, we had to use our POR cards for park entry and our AKL cards for dining or room charging, which meant we had to carry and keep track of 8 cards.

Sadly, we only had two nights at AKL and feel quite robbed, and disillusioned with Disney (

However, everything in the parks was great, rides were great, cm's were great, Expedition Everest is awesome, and we were able to make great use of fp's to ride the two thrill rides at MGM with ds, and dd LOVED the High School Musical Pep Rally!

 

[marlower]

Wow Amy, I'm so sorry to hear that you had such a difficult time at POR but I'm glad to hear that you were able to at least stay at AKL for part of your trip. We leave in 2 days and I just wondered if construction at AKL has gotten better, part of me wants to call CRO to see if I can switch back there but now I have my mind all set on WL. I just can't believe you ended up in the room you originally had booked, Disney really dropped the ball on this one!!

 

[SleepingBet]

Thanks for the quick reply with your update. I can't wait to read a full TR. Sorry you had so much trouble at POR. I've never been to that resort, but I've heard good things about it -- or, is that POFQ?

I'm glad you got to go to AKL for a few days, anyway. And I'm doubly glad to hear that the resort seems to be in good shape. We arrive on 8/17 for a 7-night stay. I'm so, so, so excited.

 

[cannp123165]

I am so you enjoyed your time at The Animal Kingdom Lodge after you were moved from Port Orleans Riverside, Amy!!!! It is a shame about your Key To The Worlds though.