Better Hotel Choice with 2-1/2 year old

[DisMomof2Princesses]

Going end of May 2018 for 7 days. Our daughter will be 2-1/2 years old. She loves animals. We think we will have our own car which is making me question which resort to stay at. We are down to Yacht club boardwalk view room or Animal Kingdom Lodge Savannah view. If we choose AKL is there a much better view of the animals from a club level room vs regular room. Taking mid day breaks back to the hotel. Our daughter loves water but will not really be able to swim so not sure if Yacht Club is worth the extra money except for central location. Doing 1-1-2 days at MK and 1-1/2 days at Epcot. Planning to have pre-park opening breakfasts one different days at Chef Mickey's, Akershus, Tusker House, and Crystal Palace. Spending 1 day at the resort with pool time. Please answer the poll and give your thoughts.

Hi. I would go the Animal Kingdom way! More enjoyable with younger kids. Only reason not to is that Yacht Club is so accessible to Epcot and Animal Kingdom Lodge is further out from the 2 parks you're going to. Also, don't know if anyone else has already asked you, but you say you are only going to Magic Kingdom and Epcot, but you mention Tusker House breakfast. Do you know Tusker House is in Animal Kingdom? Just making sure.

 

[disnmooner2013]

I echo others that AKL was phenomenal when my daughter was just under 2 (flew for free), one of the perks was she could hang out, watch animals, etc while we got ready in the morning. We didn't think that CL was worth it for us, we just picked up some milk, cereal, drinks, etc to have in the room as we also rented a car and there was a fridge in-room. For the extra cost, we decided that we could buy a lot of snacks for in-room and we could also send one of us to Mara to grab something quickly after she went to bed and sit out on our balcony and watch the animals with a drink. Since one of us would have to be in the room with her, we couldn't just go relax in the lounge. I will add that I have never stayed CL before, so this was our thinking, I also think it is likely something that once you do it, you love it and don't want to go back without it, so we are putting that off for a while and enjoying regular Disney magic as long as we can and will likely upgrade to CL at some point in the future!

Thanks DizzyDis. We will have dinner res. every night and breakfast res. 4 of the 6 mornings. So that is wy starting to second guess club level along with 4th floor being both club and non-club level rooms and lounge two floors above. We could still get a 4th floor room with a good view of the animals without being club level.

 

[DizzyDis]

Yes, I forgot to mention we didn't stay CL, but had an amazing Savannah view. We were at the far end, so a long way from elevators (had stroller, so no big deal), but saw incredible animals every day, lots of giraffes and zebras, it was fabulous!

 

[disnmooner2013]

Yes, I forgot to mention we didn't stay CL, but had an amazing Savannah view. We were at the far end, so a long way from elevators (had stroller, so no big deal), but saw incredible animals every day, lots of giraffes and zebras, it was fabulous!

DizzyDis what room number were you in? Do you have any pics from your room?

 

[DizzyDis]

Sorry I don't remember, it has been a couple of years now, and I don't have a site to host pics online, but I think they have lots of good rooms, so am sure it will be fabulous!

 

[disnmooner2013]

We are now thinking about staying an extra night if stay in non-club level room at AKL

 

[bettybooplove]

Thanks DizzyDis. We will have dinner res. every night and breakfast res. 4 of the 6 mornings. So that is wy starting to second guess club level along with 4th floor being both club and non-club level rooms and lounge two floors above. We could still get a 4th floor room with a good view of the animals without being club level.

I've done club level and I think club is only worth it if you're really going to take advantage of the lounge.

You have breakfast and dinner reservations for most of your stay. It seems like the only time you would use the lounge is during afternoon snacks and maybe dessert.

I don't know if spending extra money per night for chips, dip and brownies is worth it and it seems you're questioning the value as well, especially when you can squeeze an extra night in with the money saved.

We have a club room booked at Yacht for the second week of July and the reason we booked it is because it's going to be very hot so I don't think we'll be in the parks all day. We'll definitely need breaks.

I've stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani a handful of times and I think it's a beautiful, unique resort but I wouldn't want to be there for an entire week. It feels removed from the other parks, car or no car, but I think that's why a lot of people love it.

Kidani has an adorable splash area but you have to walk or drive over (shuttle/car) from the main lodge to get to it. Last I checked the lodge doesn't have a splash area. Yacht Club has a sandy area for kids to build sandcastles and a little slide as well. The pool area for the little kids is obviously shallow.

If I had a toddler I would want to stay near Epcot or Magic Kingdom and let them get their animal fix by going to Animal Kingdom for half a day.

 

[disnmooner2013]

I've done club level and I think club is only worth it if you're really going to take advantage of the lounge.

You have breakfast and dinner reservations for most of your stay. It seems like the only time you would use the lounge is during afternoon snacks and maybe dessert.

I don't know if spending extra money per night for chips, dip and brownies is worth it and it seems you're questioning the value as well, especially when you can squeeze an extra night in with the money saved.

We have a club room booked at Yacht for the second week of July and the reason we booked it is because it's going to be very hot so I don't think we'll be in the parks all day. We'll definitely need breaks.

I've stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani a handful of times and I think it's a beautiful, unique resort but I wouldn't want to be there for an entire week. It feels removed from the other parks, car or no car, but I think that's why a lot of people love it.

Kidani has an adorable splash area but you have to walk or drive over (shuttle/car) from the main lodge to get to it. Last I checked the lodge doesn't have a splash area. Yacht Club has a sandy area for kids to build sandcastles and a little slide as well. The pool area for the little kids is obviously shallow.

If I had a toddler I would want to stay near Epcot or Magic Kingdom and let them get their animal fix by going to Animal Kingdom for half a day.

Thanks bettybooplove these are the reasons we have been debating between YC lagoon vie vs AKL savannah view.

 

[disnmooner2013]

If we stay non-club level at AKL w/ Savannah View we are thinking of making it 7 nights instead of 6 next year. Or we are thinking of making our stay split between cl and non-cl. Would we be able to stay in the same room since the 4th floor of AKL is cl and non-cl rooms?

 

[disnmooner2013]

We decided to go with AKL savannah view non-cl becuase we could add an extra night

 

[GTApex]

AKL/KV were amazing for the first couple of days, but then the novelty wore off and the less-than-optimal location (bus service) set in for us.

Maybe try a split stay with 3 days at AKL and then 4 days at YC? Best of both worlds.

 

[disnmooner2013]

Our daughter loves animals. We will do YC on our following visit. We will have a car so not as worried about transportation.