Hi there! I just wanted to pop in here and say I am a very recent admirer of AKL! Staying at AKL never crossed my mind due to what I thought was its remote location and having to take a bus everywhere. That is until..... We were booked in a Club Level room at Poly 2/1-2/7, for a 2nd honeymoon as we were married at Disney back in November, (stayed RPC at GF) and wanted to get back down as the week was pretty hectic and we didn't get to do as much as we would have liked. This was our second time staying at Poly, which we adored the first time while staying in a standard room. We checked in and got to our room, only to find stains on the carpet, wallpaper peeling off the wall, and a super creaky bed. We got to the lounge to find they had extremely limited offerings throughout the day. After getting bottles of sparkling water at RPC, imagine my surprise when I asked for one at Poly and the man brought out a small cup of flat carbonated water. No one was too friendly and the items were seriously lacking. We are very friendly people, and my husband said good afternoon/morning to a multiple cast members while walking around and apparently he got grunts back and no smiles. Adding all of this up and being miserable, along with the amount of money it costs to stay there, I asked to go to the front desk and see if there was anything that could be done about changing resorts. Seriously, construction was the least of the issues. One of the front desk managers was very friendly and understanding, and found the only deluxe resort that had Club Level accommodations available was AKL. My husband and I had to discuss amongst ourselves for about 15 minutes, weighing pros and cons, and having hesitations due to aforementioned reasons. Needless to say, we decided to give it a try, I mean, what was the worst that could happen???? We really couldn't be any more let down than were already were. Imagine my surprise when we pulled up and saw how beautiful the resort was, and how open and great the club lounge was! They were in the process of finishing up some work on the floors in the main lobby, I guess they are restoring them to the original finish as they got many complaints about how dark it is inside. The interior reminds me a lot of the Mohegan Sun casino we have in CT. We had to hang out for a couple of hours until our room was ready, which was very enjoyable and we got to chat with Misty. What lovely rooms!! They are small compared to Poly & GF, but it was nicely decorated, comfortable, and CLEAN. We were overlooking the Arusha savannah. Where else can you say you have giraffes and zebras outside your balcony?! We were thrilled with the offerings in the lounge (everything was super yummy!), and the friendliness of the staff (especially Misty, Rachel, and Wayne!) The ONLY "downside" is the lounge gets very busy, and often times there are no seats or tables available.
So, lesson learned...never write something off until you try it! AKL is now tied with GF RPC for my favorite! We loved it so much, we are going back in September for a split stay with BWI.
Here are some pictures (I'm sure none of them are new to anyone!)
~April
