Has any NON owner gotten AKL concierge?

[bobbiwoz]

Wow! I know I'm going to try to get concierge for sometime in '09 before all of the other, Kidani building owners, get on the phone for concierge at 11 months too!

Bobbi

 

[Perdita&Pongo]

I had posted on another thread but will say here too that just the other day I was offered an AKV CL Studio for one night in Aug. I do not own at AKV. (I own at BWV)

So they do pop up from time to time for non-owners calling MS not on the waitlist!

 

[juliebrooks35]

Just an update with my 9 day concierge booking, so far I've got the 21/3, 23/3, 24/3, 25/3 with a wait list for 22/3 so everything seems to be going well. Just got another 3 nights to try for so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This booking is for friends of ours & I'll be making my own booking for June 09 and trying to get the first few nights in a 1 bedroom concierge before switching to Kidani. With the increased competition for those limited rooms though, I think I will be lucky to secure even a night. My DH is 40 when we go so it would be a nice treat for him if we could get his birthday night.

I really hope that someone in Disney recognises how popular these rooms are and decides to put some into Kidani after all. Wishful thinking.

 

[tomandrobin]

I really hope that someone in Disney recognises how popular these rooms are and decides to put some into Kidani after all. Wishful thinking.

Will never happen. There is no room for another lounge and support areas for this, also this would require extra staff that is not in the budget. The Club level now is 50+ rooms in Jambo House.

The only hope for other Club level DVC rooms is KT (which is not happening) and Hawaii.

 

[ZekeKelso]

Will never happen. There is no room for another lounge and support areas for this, also this would require extra staff that is not in the budget. The Club level now is 50+ rooms in Jambo House.

One of the big draws for concierge is giving people access to the Safaris. You can't really expand that.

 

[Terrif]

What about the new grand californian villas in DL, could they have concierge?We just got back from staying in a concierge room for 5 week nights at 210 points at the grand californian in dl and the service was wonderful. They met us curb side and took the kids to the concierge lounge while we had our own private check in. Then we got balloons, minnie and mickey and a signed autograph with anniversary pins (we checked in the day of our anniversary). The best part was the parks weren't mobbed! We have 2 br booked for concierge at our home AKL (first time staying there) for Dec 27-31. I would never spend so much on a hotel room but it is easier to splurge with "points"! With 6 of us airfare is too expensive to take too many flights to WDW/DL anyhow so might as well use the points on concierge!

 

[bobbiwoz]

What about the new grand californian villas in DL, could they have concierge?We just got back from staying in a concierge room for 5 week nights at 210 points at the grand californian in dl and the service was wonderful. They met us curb side and took the kids to the concierge lounge while we had our own private check in. Then we got balloons, minnie and mickey and a signed autograph with anniversary pins (we checked in the day of our anniversary). The best part was the parks weren't mobbed! We have 2 br booked for concierge at our home AKL (first time staying there) for Dec 27-31. I would never spend so much on a hotel room but it is easier to splurge with "points"! With 6 of us airfare is too expensive to take too many flights to WDW/DL anyhow so might as well use the points on concierge!

That's a great ressie to have! Good for you!!
Bobbi

 

[TDC Nala]

I did ask at the 7 month window for Labor Day weekend. Could have had a 1-bedroom for 2 nights.

I took a value studio for 3 nights.

 

[Alexander]

I booked July 8th to the 15th around the 7 month mark, asked what studios were available, and was told all were. We didn't care to have a concierge room so we went with savannah. I was surprised and thrilled they had savannah available and frankly shocked they had concierge.

 

[DebbieB]

I'm staying with friends in AKL Conceirge 6/26 to 7/1, 1 bedroom. My friend who owns at BCV made the reservation day by day at 7 months.

 

[kgc07]

It seems like the summer months may be a little bit easier to get than the more popular DVC times (holidays, ect.) That's good to hear.

 

[Inkmahm]

I just called at the last minute to book a studio at AKV in June as a wedding gift. Both June 11 and 12 were open for one bedroom in concierge! I only wanted a studio so I ended up booking a savanna view studio for the 12th. But if anyone is looking, call quick for the one bedrooms that are open for the 11th and 12th!

 

[Inkmahm]

Just an update with my 9 day concierge booking, so far I've got the 21/3, 23/3, 24/3, 25/3 with a wait list for 22/3 so everything seems to be going well. Just got another 3 nights to try for so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This booking is for friends of ours & I'll be making my own booking for June 09 and trying to get the first few nights in a 1 bedroom concierge before switching to Kidani. With the increased competition for those limited rooms though, I think I will be lucky to secure even a night. My DH is 40 when we go so it would be a nice treat for him if we could get his birthday night.

I really hope that someone in Disney recognises how popular these rooms are and decides to put some into Kidani after all. Wishful thinking.

Long story short, I called today to add March 17 to our March 18-24 trip. I had VLW booked first and then two nights at AKV. I tried switching the order and the MS rep told me that the week before was not a popular week and was wide open for concierge! I couldn't believe it. So, I booked March 17, 18, 19 in studio concierge and moved VWL to March 20-24. Yay!

That also means that I dropped the 3/22 night that I did have in concierge so hopefully your waitlist will come through.

 

[kimberh]

We just returned from our first stay at AKV Concierge, It was Wonderful!!!! We did both Safari's. I am glad to see there is still this availability. I was wondering if I would ever get another stay.

 

[NejTheLion]

We just returned from a brief 2-night AKL concierge villa stay post cruise.

We booked around 7 months. Got one night right away and waitlisted for the other. Got that one a few months before the trip.

Now, the concierge amenities are nice, but the next time we'll probably book maybe 1-2 nights concierge and spend the rest in a regular savannah view DVC room. The only strong reason we have to stay concierge is to have access to the safaris. We did the sunrise safari in the park, and it was awesome! We'll do the sunset safari next trip.

But we ran into quite a few problems with the concierge service that we didn't expect, having stayed concierge at other disney properties before this.

Check in was great! We got off the ship, arrived at WDW around 10-10:30, and our room was ready! Not what we were expecting. The bellman didn't even worry about checking us in. He rushed us straight to our room and gave us our welcome folder with all the materials, guides, and such.

We went out to talk to the concierge staff later. There was a family in front of us, so we waited at one of the tables right in front of the concierge desk. However, a bellman brought up another group checking in, and pushed them right up to the desk, so they were waited on next. A little bit annoying, but we got over it. And the concierge did apologize.

The savannah view from a concierge room is not worth it. You're at the narrow end of the long skinny sunset savannah, so you have a very small field of view. We've stayed at AKL before on the main arusha savannah, and I remember seeing animals every time we looked out our window, from early morning to late in the evening. This time, we saw 3 ankole cattle once, 3-4 ostriches twice (they were being fed right outside our room), and 1 giraffe once. All of these were about 5-10 minutes, at which point the animals wandered back into the other parts of the savannah that were shadier and out of sight.

Then there was the time we came back to our room and found a large tub of cleaning supplies. The housekeeping staff must have been interrupted. We called, but the housekeeping button directed us to wakeup calls. So, we called the concierge desk (they made sure to give us both phone numbers), but we were never able to get through (and we called several times during our stay). We were transferred to the front desk eventually. Let's just say it took a long time for someone to keep pick up the cleaning stuff.

And I guess one night we were dressing for dinner during turn down service. Seems they come around once, and if the "do not disturb" sign is on the door, they don't come back to check. We usually wouldn't care, but they had come in and put the sofa bed back that morning, and we needed it prepared for sleeping that night.

And they didn't have us down for the Magical Express return trip to the airport. Seems there are often computer glitches when you don't book round trip. It was straightened out, but it was the night before we left and we were hoping to be asleep at that point.

So, not an awful experience (far from it), but enough little problems happened in such a brief span of time that we were a little puzzled. Not what we expect from Disney.

Next time, we'll stay 1-2 nights concierge to have access to the special safaris, but then get a regular DVC savannah view room in another part of the lodge for animal viewing.