Animal Kingdom Lodge vs. Jambo House vs. Kidani Village

[SothrnChic]

My husband and I are taking a little trip in Sept without the kid to enjoy Food and Wine. We know that we want a Savannah view room at AKL but I am confused as to the difference between the rooms at the Lodge, Jambo House, and Kidani Village. Are there any pros or cons to any of these?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Lynne M]

Yeah, it's confusing. There are two buildings at the Animal Kingdom resort: Jambo House and Kidani Village. Jambo House is an alternate name for the main, original Animal Kingdom Lodge building, and it has a mix of regular resort rooms and Disney Vacation Club villas. Kidani Village is a newer building that consists entirely of Disney Vacation Club villas.

Kidani has studios, one, two and three bedroom villas. There's a pool complex, including a pool bar, and a table service restaurant called Sanaa.

Jambo has regular resort rooms, bunk bed rooms, and club level rooms, as well as some suites. There are also some studios, one and two bedroom villas. Most of AKL/AKV's restaurants and the gift shop are located here. There is a pool complex.

AKL/AKV guests can use either pool, and there are shuttles between the two buildings, or you can walk between them. Both buildings are surrounded by savannas.

If you book a regular hotel room, you will be in Jambo House. If you book a DVC villa, you'll have to choose which building you want to stay in at the time of booking.

 

[SothrnChic]

Yeah, it's confusing. There are two buildings at the Animal Kingdom resort: Jambo House and Kidani Village. Jambo House is an alternate name for the main, original Animal Kingdom Lodge building, and it has a mix of regular resort rooms and Disney Vacation Club villas. Kidani Village is a newer building that consists entirely of Disney Vacation Club villas.

Kidani has studios, one, two and three bedroom villas. There's a pool complex, including a pool bar, and a table service restaurant called Sanaa.

Jambo has regular resort rooms, bunk bed rooms, and club level rooms, as well as some suites. There are also some studios, one and two bedroom villas. Most of AKL/AKV's restaurants and the gift shop are located here. There is a pool complex.

AKL/AKV guests can use either pool, and there are shuttles between the two buildings, or you can walk between them. Both buildings are surrounded by savannas.

If you book a regular hotel room, you will be in Jambo House. If you book a DVC villa, you'll have to choose which building you want to stay in at the time of booking.

Thanks... that does help. Just curious as to if one is better than the other. Are the rooms that much different between the DVC rooms or regular hotel rooms?? I know that there is a slight price difference (like $20) between the studio rooms and the regular rooms. Just curious as to what others would chose.

I am not planning to reserve a room until the discounts for fall come out (hopefully at the end of this month), so I am trying to plan ahead to know which one I want to aim for.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

IMHO, once the discounts come out, I would pick whichever is cheapest. With 2 adults, my preference would be AKV Jambo, because I like the bed/sofa setup and prefer the big coffee pot (instead of the pods). I also prefer Jambo because I love the liveliness of the lobby and quicker access to most of the restaurants.

 

[Dreamin192]

DVC studios will have a toaster and microwave and are slightly bigger, only like 20 square feet though I think. Regular rooms don't have the kitchenette. Regular rooms will have either two queens or a queen and bunk bed, studios have a queen and sofa bed.

Personally I would go villa since you won't be needing the extra bed, that way you'll have more floor space. I would also go Jambo for easier access to quick service since Kidani doesn't have one.

 

[svecchitto]

We stayed a kidani and loved the pool area, but it was more of a plus for our daughter vs the Jambo house pool area. Kidani doesn't have any quick service and since it is a far walk between the two, we had to drive over (you could bus) to get to the quick service restaurant. The whole resort is quite a walk but it didn't bother us too much but we are walkers (like don't take the tram when parking type of people haha.) The Savannah view was awesome but we ended up with a top floor room and the trees block some of your view so ask for a lower floor. We love dvc villas vs the regular rooms for the kitchenette and the housekeeping isn't such a big deal to us.

 

[Shanti]

DVC villas at Jambo are in the midst of a refurb that some like & others don't...there's a whole thread about it. I like villa studios in general because they have much bigger bathrooms than regular WDW resort rooms.

 

[akfan513]

I would say Jambo House. The pool there is large and always seems calmer to me than Kidani. Plus two great restaurants right there!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

DVC villas at Jambo are in the midst of a refurb that some like & others don't...there's a whole thread about it. I like villa studios in general because they have much bigger bathrooms than regular WDW resort rooms.

Kidani is getting the refurb as well.

 

[dsnycrzy]

How would you see the animals in a standard view room?

 

[Apopper74]

How would you see the animals in a standard view room?

There are plenty of public viewing areas. We stayed in a standard once and on the opposite side of the hallway from our door was a floor to ceiling window that giraffes loved to hang outside of.

 

[Shanti]

How would you see the animals in a standard view room?

I'm in an AKL standard room right now and have seen zebra, giraffe, an ostrich & more outside of our room. We're on the Kudu trail. Some standard rooms at AKL like mine have animal views, though they're right over the not-gorgeous paddock area instead of the grand savanna area. We love our animal view.

 

[sndral]

Be aware that if you opt for a studio villa at Jambo house you will be on the 5th floor (or 6th if CL.) Regular rooms are on floors 4 and lower.

 

[steg]

Kidani, to me is quieter than Jambo house, the pool IMO is harder to get to at Kidani Village than Jambo house.

Bus stop order was a huge reason we picked kidani in the past but now in the mornings they're running a bus to each house as opposed to stopping at kidani first and then going to Jambo.