Animal Kingdom Refurbishment 2025

[sndral]

I don't know if they vary by resort but a few years ago I measured the Murphy Bed at Boardwalk and the mattress was 73".

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I’m pretty sure they vary by resort & that BWVs got the longer under TV beds.
We’d likely never use them & we don’t use the storage that’d be lost, but we do use the table in the studio & the table/banquette & especially the upholstered comfy chair in the 1 br. living room that would have to be downsized or removed to fit the longer unit under the TV needed to house a pull down bed irrespective of length of mattress.

 

[Leight19]

The single sleeper chair folds out to a mattress that is around 75” (6’3”) long, the under TV pull down short single bed has a mattress around 65” (5’5”) long. Thus, most adult men, many adult women, and many teenagers who can currently sleep on the sleeper chair are too tall to fit on the under TV pull down bed.
A second issue at Jambo is that the studio & the living room in the 1 br.s are about a foot narrower than many other resort’s villas - so I suspect that the space between the Murphy sofa & the under TV bed when both are in use would be very tight.
Finally, the actual wall space available is limited.
In the studios, maybe the chest could be removed to fit a longer unit under the TV, or I guess they could take away the table & chairs - which I’d miss. Not sure we need 5 person studios at AKV, though, anyone who owns there bought knowing the 4 person max & for others - there are other resorts that allow 5 in a studio .
In the 1 br.s you’d need to make the table/banquette smaller and/or not have an upholstered chair (currently the sleeper chair) which would leave you w/ only the sofa for cushy seating in the living room.

This is a good breakdown of the topic to see whether the 5th sleeper is possible. For me I mainly would want to have 5th because I have 3 kids 3,5, and 7 so we are family of 5 that don’t really need the extra space yet (kids will want to sleep in same room as us anyway lol). However, I think it would be good for resort as whole to rebalance demand of standard vs value rooms.

Currently when I book I aim to get the 2br value or possibly even 2 studios value. Both of these are much better value then 1br standard for sleeping 5 and generally bring my parents or wife’s parents with us with the extra capacity. If standard and savanah view slept 5 I would in a heart beat pick those over the 2br value or trying to get to value studios. Now maybe the number of people in my scenario is minuscule but at least I would book the value rooms less and reduce some of demand and I can’t imagine I’d be only one.

 

[MamaKate]

The single sleeper chair folds out to a mattress that is around 75” (6’3”) long, the under TV pull down short single bed has a mattress around 65” (5’5”) long. Thus, most adult men, many adult women, and many teenagers who can currently sleep on the sleeper chair are too tall to fit on the under TV pull down bed.
A second issue at Jambo is that the studio & the living room in the 1 br.s are about a foot narrower than many other resort’s villas - so I suspect that the space between the Murphy sofa & the under TV bed when both are in use would be very tight.
Finally, the actual wall space available is limited.
In the studios, maybe the chest could be removed to fit a longer unit under the TV, or I guess they could take away the table & chairs - which I’d miss.

I agree that the sleeper chair is better for taller folks, but it does cause a space issue when both the sofa bed and sleeper chair are open at the same time. We can barely get out to the balcony when both are open, and you have to turn the sleeper chair to even open it. So, if they do change to the under-TV bed and there is an issue with it being tight when both are open, that is not a new problem.

 

[AZMermaid]

Sure, they took away some of the cooler decorations they had in the rooms like the glass cabinet in the kitchen and a few of the unique nature-themed light fixtures, but they also improved a ton - the lighting throughout the rooms, the ugly tile in the bathrooms, the ugly backsplash in the kitchen, the closed off shower, the complete lack of sink space in the bathrooms, etc. Overall, I still think it was a pretty significant improvement even if it's not the theming you were hoping for.

But VGC did not get new lighting, tile, tubs, showerheads or backsplashes at all in their hard good refurb. So it’s not a given.

 

[hockeydad21]

But VGC did not get new lighting, tile, tubs, showerheads or backsplashes at all in their hard good refurb. So it’s not a given.

My guess is the cost of California construction/labor really limited their ability to do anything meaningful with whatever funds they did set aside for the refurbishment. Would love to see the numbers on VGC refurbishment vs the average WDW DVC refurbishment.

 

[AZMermaid]

My guess is the cost of California construction/labor really limited their ability to do anything meaningful with whatever funds they did set aside for the refurbishment. Would love to see the numbers on VGC refurbishment vs the average WDW DVC refurbishment.

As a VGC owner, I would too. I did email to ask about the grimy, green, showerhead. Those are what? $30? No reply. Think of how those things are gonna look in 2040 for the next hard good refurb. And the jetted tubs at 30 years old? Eek.