Animal Kingdom

[jpaxton1118]

I have noticed that there are not a lot of post about the animal kingdom lodge. Does no one like staying there? We are going during Christmas and I was just curious

 

[KatMark]

I have noticed that there are not a lot of post about the animal kingdom lodge. Does no one like staying there? We are going during Christmas and I was just curious

If we could afford it, we'd be there in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, with two boys in college, AKL is out of our league right now.

However, not everyone who goes to Disney posts on the DIS and it could just be that a lot of people who stay at AKL don't post here. I wouldn't worry about it. We've visited the resort several times and absolutely fell in love with it; and my best male friend spent a week there last May for a conference (won't get into the long, detailed reasons why he didn't stay at CSR with everyone else). He HATES Disney (can't understand why he and I are best friends), but he loved the AKL (except for the long walk from his room to the food and pool). He said the view was spectacular and he enjoyed sitting on his patio watching the animals in the morning.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We stayed there for 5 nights in Oct and while we enjoyed our CL stay and the sunrise safari, great restaurants too but the resort is way too loud for us and the distance of the resort puts us off a bit.

 

[misscrossbee]

We stayed there last October and loved it. It will probably be impossible to get my other half to stay anywhere else now. It was amazing sitting on the balcony and watching the animals - there was almost always something to see no matter what time of the day.

Our room was at the far end of the building, but I didn't find the walk to the lobby or pool to be far at all.

I think it would be difficult to find something to hate about AKL - it's excellently themed, beautiful, incredibly comfortable and welcoming and such an interesting place to stay. The restaurants are great there as well, including room service, and the CMs were all very friendly and helpful. Can't wait to go back next year.

 

[chalee94]

I have noticed that there are not a lot of post about the animal kingdom lodge. Does no one like staying there? We are going during Christmas and I was just curious

i was at the AKV (5th floor of the AKL) last christmas and it was amazing. i love the ginormous tree and general ambience of the resort.

so do these people...

 

[madalex]

I have noticed that there are not a lot of post about the animal kingdom lodge.

These things go in waves. Some days or weeks, many of the posts will be about one resort, and then another day or week it will be another resort that gets all the posts. AKL gets as many questions/comments as any other resort.

I've stayed at AKL 4 times (mst recently two weeks ago) and I love it. It has my favorite theming of all the resorts and has great amenities in the pools, restaurants, etc. The savannahs and watching the animals is great. For now, it has dedicated bus service (which means it does not share buses with any other resort) that is very efficient.

I do, however, have two things I don't like about AKL:

(1) It's a very self-contained resort, so there aren't many places to go if one just wants to wander (compare to the Epcot resorts, where you can wander all around five resorts and walk to two parks; especially in the mornings, I like having this freedom to roam around).

(2) I eat TS every night, usually at signature restaurants. As great as Jiko is, that requires travel to other resorts. Since Disney has no resort-to-resort transportation, this means having to make elaborate plans to travel or having to get in the car every night to drive to dinner. After awhile, that gets a little tiresome (again, compare to the Epcot resorts, where several signature restaurants are able to be walked to).

I will stay at AKL again in the future, but (as I have done in the past) I will liekly only do so if it is part of a split stay.

 

[ScrapperBelle]

I loved AKL. My only issue with it is it's isolation. I live in a very rural area and I like to be more "in the middle of things" on vacation. Of course, if you're in the middle of everything, then you don't get to look out your window and see a giraffe!

We already have our plans made for this year, but next year we plan on doing a split stay with 3 nights at AKL and the remainder of the trip either at the POLY or YC.

We usually stay at least 10 nights and I just don't think I could do all 10 at AKL. That is the only negative I have about the resort.

I loved the decor, the lobby, the food, the pool area. I thought the rooms were beautiful and it was thrilling to get up in the middle of the night, look off your balcony and see zebra!

You will have a wonderful time. Don't worry just because there aren't many posts about this hotel on here. I have found that our faves seldom have huge "fan followings". Just because you hear alot about a certain hotel doesn't mean it's the best. We have often found that the very hotel posters "rave" about on here are the ones we just don't care for.

 

[jpaxton1118]

Thanks, my main concern is the distance from the other parks. We will have a 9,6, and 1 year old with us. I don't want to be sitting on the bus for an hour to get to the parks.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My friends absolutely love AKL. That's the only resort they will stay at now.

They said the bus rides to the parks was not long at all. And after their Feb. trip they just got back from, they bought DVC at the AKV.

It looks like a beautiful resort to me online but I haven't had a chance to actually stop in to see it.

 

[mef78]

We love it so much we built a website about it!

Feel free to PM me with any questions!

Enjoy!

 

[califred]

It's our favorite so far. We could just go there for vacation and not even go to the parks and we'd be happy, my kids included.

We do however drive down and use our car and not disney transportation so I can't comment on that part of it. And AK Is our favorite park also so that helps.

 

[tinka-belle]

The most distant park from the AKL is Magic Kingdom. Without traffic I clocked it at about 13 minutes, add a few minutes if a heavy traffic day or at park closings. It's really not that bad taking the AKL busses to any of the parks.

I agree that it's hard to have dinner there if you are staying at another resort. It takes some transportation planning if you don't have a car.

 

[madalex]

Thanks, my main concern is the distance from the other parks. We will have a 9,6, and 1 year old with us. I don't want to be sitting on the bus for an hour to get to the parks.

The AKL bus service is very good. When we were there for 9 days a couple weeks ago, we only had two or three waits for a bus (either going to or from the parks) of longer than 10 minutes (with many of less than 5 minutes).

Drive time to the parks is as follows:

MK 15 - 17 minutes
DHS 9 - 11 minutes
Epcot 11 - 13 minutes
AK 3 - 5 minutes

Except for AK, these are relatively longer drive times, but this is balanced by the fact that AKL does not share buses with anyone else, so there are no stops along the way (except for the bus returning from DHS, which stops at Blizzard Beach).

I would not decide against AKL simply because of concerns about the bus service.

 

[dairyqueenmom]

Thanks, my main concern is the distance from the other parks. We will have a 9,6, and 1 year old with us. I don't want to be sitting on the bus for an hour to get to the parks.

I don't think the bus time is any better or worse then most resorts and I have stayed at many. AK doesn't share buses with any other resorts. When Kidnai opens then there will be two stops. Some resorts have 3-5 stops.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Thanks, my main concern is the distance from the other parks. We will have a 9,6, and 1 year old with us. I don't want to be sitting on the bus for an hour to get to the parks.

That was my main concern when we booked out Sept 08 trip. The bus system totally exceeded our expectations. People say the resort is 'out of the way' like it's in Tampa or something. It's 5 minutes from AK.
We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus....MK was 16-20 minutes away. We spent less time on the buses while staying at AKL than we did when we stayed at CSR. I would stay at AKL again in a heartbeat.

 

[JennSaint]

I have noticed that there are not a lot of post about the animal kingdom lodge. Does no one like staying there? We are going during Christmas and I was just curious

We've stayed there twice in the past and loved it! We use to get a good rate in February when we would check-in during value season and the rate stayed the same even if our dates ran into peak. Ever since Disney changed their policy we haven't stayed there since the rates for peak season are so high.

 

[CoolPool]

The bus system totally exceeded our expectations. People say the resort is 'out of the way' like it's in Tampa or something.

Love the quote. You summed it up beautifully.
OP: we are returning to the AKL for a 2nd visit this summer. Its Disney theming at its best. Two thumbs up.

 

[bethclayton]

ita with the positive comments about the buses. for us, a month ago, the buses were better than any other resort we have stayed at- both in short wait times (only more than 10 mins one time in 8 days), and in shorter-than-i-expected drive times. MK is the furthest and it took exactly 17 mins. other resorts' buses will take just as long or longer, particularly if they have multiple stops, or share buses! also, for the first time on any trip we've taken, the buses were not crowded at all. of all our trips, there was only one time that anyone on the entire bus had to stand, and that time, it was only one person. at other resorts, i have seen the entire aisle full of people standing, and more waiting in line for the next bus. AKL's buses were never crowded.

the resort as a whole far exceeded our expectations. we had been there last year for dinner and i was not really in love with it. omg, staying there totally changed that, the place is absolutely amazing. i cannot say enough about it. we did not have a savanna view room but there were so many overlooks, we saw tons of animals. we had pool view ad it was an amazing location, close to everything. it was the quietest hotel we've stayed at (albeit our first time in a deluxe). i am a very light sleeper and nothing ever woke me up.

i cannot wait to stay there again, it was amazing.

 

[mmmears]

Actually, there are lots of us posting, planning, and talking about AKL.

Check out this thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1633854. It's the AKL FAQ thread, and there is tons of info and photos of AKL there.

 

[DWFan4Life]

We are also planning for that in our next trip to celebrate my DS birthday, it's our first time to stay, hopefully we will have a great time.