How are the Animal Kingdom Lodge villas?

[jjohnson]

Bump!
Would also love to hear about people's experiences on the conceirge level. Is there any chance of getting conceirge at the 7 mnth stage? What is the sunrise safari like? And the offerings in the lounge?
Debsx

I can tell you that I checked this morning for a 1 or 2 brm concierge for end of April (8 months out) & they are all booked.

 

[shazen]

I booked a 1 BR Concierge for five nights (Mar. 30- Apr. 4) this past Sat.. Obviously this was a little more than 7 months out, but not by much. Perhaps you'll get lucky too!
---------
I just added an additional room for my parents for these dates, and it's now inside the 7 mo. window. I was looking for a studio and MS had both value and savanna-view studios available (no concierge left, unfortunately).

 

[tink52937]

Hi, I am fairly new here, but I came across this topic. We just got back from AKV last week. We had a 5th floor room, the first room off of the elevator. (I have to add, we were the closest room to the construction and we hardly heard any noise at all then entire stay) We loved it so much, we are adding on 150 points.
The rooms are so beautiful, the pictures don't do them justice. I didn't think I would like not having a closet, but the way the room is situated, it worked out great. I loved the flat screen TV.
Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[petbren]

I booked a 1 BR Concierge for five nights (Mar. 30- Apr. 4) this past Sat.. Obviously this was a little more than 7 months out, but not by much. Perhaps you'll get lucky too!

I managed to switch my 1BR Standard view at my home resort BWV to AKV studio Savannah view right at the 7 month window March 9-14.
I am confused however at what the Savannah view really means, and what area to request.
Previous posts say the new areas will open up in Jan 08.
Any thoughts on what trail to request for the best view of the critters?

 

[Debs Hill]

Bump! Would love to hear from people who have recently stayed and those with a positive experience of getting in at the 7 mnth mark!! ha! ha! Keep us up-dated on the proposed opening date of Kidani!

 

[HockeyKat]

I booked a std view studio for the last 5 days in January, about 2 weeks back. So that would be about the 5 month mark? i am waitlisted for savanna view.

I would be interested in any 1-bed people as I have thought of trying to switch.

 

[Debs Hill]

Bump!
Debsx

 

[HGLightlyj]

I stayed in an AKV standard studio on 9/5. Fifth floor, Zebra Trail, Room 5468. Overlooked pool. Just loved it. Location was great for the pool, Mara and Boma. No construction noise at all. I transferred from BWV with perishables about 11:00 a.m. and the CM said my room was assigned and not ready. When I said I had perishables, he got on the phone with someone and was able to find a room for me. I love AKV and will stay there again in January.

 

[Inkmahm]

I managed to switch my 1BR Standard view at my home resort BWV to AKV studio Savannah view right at the 7 month window March 9-14.
I am confused however at what the Savannah view really means, and what area to request.
Previous posts say the new areas will open up in Jan 08.
Any thoughts on what trail to request for the best view of the critters?

Personally, I prefer the view of Arusha Savanna. I also like sunset savanna for the view of the red river hogs.

 

[Inkmahm]

Bump! Would love to hear from people who have recently stayed and those with a positive experience of getting in at the 7 mnth mark!! ha! ha! Keep us up-dated on the proposed opening date of Kidani!

I was able to switch from using AKV points to VWL points at the 7 month mark for our March 15-20 trip in a two bedroom savanna view villa. That meant the villa was available to anyone to book at that point.

 

[justjudy]

We just returned Monday evening from a wonderful week-long stay in a 1BR, Arusha Savanna. We were in 5519 -- way down the hall -- but worth the walk! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post as I'm totally ignorant about how to do it! Suffice it to say we absolutely LOVED the unit. Gorgeous (in our opinion, anyway) renovation. Saw loads of animals -- kudu, giraffe, zebra, antelope, impala, bongo, etc. The only time we heard any construction was when we were out on the balcony, and that was faint. With the balcony doors closed -- nada. I was told by someone in the marketplace that three of the giraffe are pregnant, so there will be some "little ones" for those of you going next year. We are absolutely thrilled that we purchased here, and I've been kind of hinting around (unsuccessfully so far) about adding on enough points to expand to a 10-day stay. Hope this helps.

 

[Mr.Monk]

JustJudy,
Welcome back! Thanks for the update!

 

[justjudy]

Thanks, Mr. Monk. I'd say I'm glad to be back, but, really, who'd believe me? I'd much rather be at AKV!

 

[LindaBabe]

Just back from 8 nights in a studio, 5529, even further out than Judy. We did not hear any construction noise but could see the workers clearly on the roof of the other wing. I have some mobility issues and us a breathing machine to sleep. My husband also has some inconvenient health issues this trip.

I have 4 -5 previous stays at AKL hotel rooms and more than 30 other stays in Disney resorts including around 10 in DVCs.

Here is an excerpt from notes that will be in a letter to the DVC Management. We arrived at 12:30 but were not allowed to know the room number until after 4, although we were checking in, theoretically on the first day members could stay there. So we went to a park . . .

"And, at 8 pm after a long day, I have neither the wit nor the patience for problem solving. By the time we got settled in, I was more than a little annoyed.

Let me preface this by saying - we’ve stayed in AKL hotel rooms on the 5th floor before, for up to 4 days, and found them to be lovely, spacious and with plenty of storage space. The ecv usually fits conveniently just beyond the closet before the dresser and near a plug. Not in this room!

The rooms are still lovely, with tentlike canvas drapes, carved dark wood furniture, and African themed soft goods. On closer inspection, they resemble a furniture store. Virtually every inch of wall space has a piece of furniture against it. The ecv had to live in the hall. Thank heavens there was a plug!

As you enter the door, on the left, there is a closet about 2.5 – 3 feet wide and a bit more than a foot deep. It might once have been the doorway to the adjoining room, or it could have been the niche for the little tallboy that I think used to be there. This has a shelf with a hanging rod under, but the rod is only 2-3 inches from the front wall/door, so any hanger on it is pushed up on end (dumping it's contents) or sideways when the door is shut, which is always when not in use because it blocks the entrance hall.

This closet contains – iron and ironing board, vacuum cleaner (WHO vacuums on vacation???? Not ME, babe!), luggage rack, and an enormous plastic bag full of bedding on the shelf (about the size of a beanbag chair). Hmm. I guess we won’t be putting much in here.

Same side, where the closet used to be is now the kitchen. Nice counter top with about a square foot of work space. Tiny sink. Full size coffee maker and toaster. Narrow shelf above the counter holding a small microwave. Two cupboards, almost out of my reach (I’m 5’7”) containing 4 china cups, 4 paper plates, 4 paper bowls and 4 sets of plastic utensils. 1 can opener. Under the counter was storage, trash and the fridge.

Ah the fridge. Instead of being a full depth under counter fridge, it’s only about a foot deep. The ice cube tray was a joke – soft plastic with openings the size of snack size candy bars – you might get enough ice out of it for a drink. Fortunately, you can trek down the hall to an ice machine. In order to get a gallon of water into the fridge, I had to remove a shelf. The shelf it sat on was just deep enough for it. Fortunately, with the dining plan, we had little need to store food in it.

At the end of the kitchen, is a little wall. On the other side of the wall is the safe and AC controls (which I don’t think really control anything) with a padded bench under. Directly next to that, no space, is an enormous armoire with two doors. One door had a shelf and a hanging rod about 15 inches wide. The other side had . . . nothing. No shelf. No rod. Nothing. Hmm. Shall I store B. (my DH) in there?

Then there was a space not quite wide enough for a pair of adult shoes side by side. The dresser followed, another massive piece, containing a flat panel TV, a narrow shallow shelf (height clearance maybe 2 – 3 inches, depth about enough for a wallet or park map lying sideways. The dresser top (Yeah! a flat surface) 4 fairly narrow (maybe 12 - 13 inches wide) shallow drawers under, and two doors under that. BUT when we went to stack shorts behind the doors, we discovered it was full – of a crib. B eventually chucked that under the bathroom sinks so we’d have the space for our clothes.

Immediately after the dresser is a round table, good size, and two massive dining style chairs with arms. Then, the outside wall. That whole side of the room is nothing but furniture! Yet we felt storage space was lacking. (Later, we did discover another drawer under the bench.)

Starting at the door on the right side, first is the bathroom wall, and then the dressing area/sinks, with a narrow shelf above. Didn’t there used to be a shelf below, too? There is in at least one of the dvc’s. As it is, our counter was always cluttered with toiletries and chargers (convenient plug). The bathroom is one of those where you have to stand in the tub or behind the toilet to shut the bathroom door.

Anyway, beside the sinks then was the wall on that side, papered on the bathroom side and stuccoed on the bedroom side. I scraped my arms a few times before I learned to edge in sideways. About a 13 - 15 inch space, and then the massive bed – so high I had to lay down and then lift my legs on to the mattress – no climbing up for this old babe. BUT not high enough to slide suitcases under, because the height was all mattress and not much legs. Beyond the bed, about a foot space, then the nightstand, then another foot or so, then the loveseat size couch and another table, this one with a lamp. In front of the couch two sturdy square coffee tables. Over the nightstand, were the controls for all the rooms lights except the table lamp and the wall lamp over the table.

What’s missing? Well, a bedside table and light on ‘her’ side of the bed would have been nice. There’s no place for glasses or a book or my cpap machine, and no light for reading in bed. We tried to put one of the coffee tables in the space but the space was not wide enough. We tried to move the bed over to make space. It’s welded to the wall. We tried using the bathroom wastebasket upside down. The wicker bottom fell out when we picked it up. We ended up with the recycling bin upside down.

Oh, and there’s no plug on that side of the bed, either. Thank heavens I had the forethought to bring an extension cord!

Anyway, if the person on the wall side of the bed happens to be the last one down for the night, she has to turn out the lights on the other side of the bed and maneuver the distance around the bed in the dark. My shins are dark too, from barking them on the bed frame.

In my opinion, management was in such a rush to get the rooms on the market, they decorated them to LOOK good to potential buyers (they do) but did not even spend one minute THINKING about how they might work for the inhabitants. My letter to them will address that, as well as suggest some easy mitigations:

1. Let people in when the rooms are ready, not at some artificially induced hour of 4 pm. They’ll never be able to convince me that at 3:59, maids magically pop out of all the rooms, housekeeping complete. Especially, I would like to see them be more responsive to people who tell them in advance they are arriving early and / or have health issues / small children needing naps. (I, personally, being slow to rile, could have dealt with the issues much better had I not already been exhausted. As it is, I’m still sufficiently annoyed as to talk about it, as you see, at some length. )
2. Have a closet in the trash room for a few vacuums, ironing boards and cribs. If someone needed one, they could either go and get it, or a crib could be put in the relevant room when a family was checking in. I’ll bet some of that stuff goes years without being used.
3. Move the bed to the left by a foot, leaving room for a table and a lamp on the other side.
4. put shelves and /or a shelf and a rod in the other side of the armoire.
5. If they can’t move the bed, at least put a shelf on the wall at the head of the bed on the right, to hold a light and life’s necessities. It’s not like one can reach to put them on the floor from the height of the bed.
6. Install a full width shelf under the bathroom counter.
7. Install full depth refrigerators with real ice cube trays. And for heavens sake, paper plates are cheap – there’s no need to count them out so carefully! People will only use what they need, for the most part."

End of letter.

While we’re on the subject of the room, there’s one other point worth mentioning. . . I always wondered how two people in savanna view rooms could have such different experiences regarding how many animals they saw. You’ll read a report where the guests saw marvelous numbers at all hours and others where guests saw none. I now understand why – within a 5 minute time span I could look off our balcony and see no animals, walk two pods toward the center and see some, elevator down two floors and see tons!

From the rooms on the third floor, the entire Arusha savanna is visible under the canopy of trees. One can see animals clear to the back of the property. The rest of the building is barely visible. From the inner pods, that is those closest to the lobby on both sides, where there is a clearing around the trail to Arusha rock, one can see quite a few animals from all floors, and they frequent those cleared areas.

But from the upper floors in the end pods, all one sees are tree tops, the 5th floor and lights on the other arm of the resort, occasional feet and legs, if creatures venture close to the edge of the forest, and those animals that are directly in the treeless area close to the building (very few). If it had been important to me (as it might be to a child) to be able to watch the animals often, I’d have been very disappointed.

Finally, to bed – heavenly mattress, ungodly wrinkles (on the bed – the BED!). Instead of flat sheets that barely tuck in, and come untucked as soon as you lay down, WHY can’t they put fitted sheets on these beds????

 

[pilferk]

Finally, to bed – heavenly mattress, ungodly wrinkles (on the bed – the BED!). Instead of flat sheets that barely tuck in, and come untucked as soon as you lay down, WHY can’t they put fitted sheets on these beds????

LOVED reading your "review" of the rooms.

On the fitted sheet issue....it's one I've read before, many times. We've resolved, already , to pack a King Sized fitted sheet for our upcoming trip...I just can't abide by the "flat sheet" method.

 

[LisaS]

Let me preface this by saying - we’ve stayed in AKL hotel rooms on the 5th floor before, for up to 4 days, and found them to be lovely, spacious and with plenty of storage space. The ecv usually fits conveniently just beyond the closet before the dresser and near a plug. Not in this room!

Unfortunately, we lost that space due to the kitchenette. It was installed in place of the closet, so they had to put a wardrobe in the room in the space where the little refrigerator used to be.

This closet contains – iron and ironing board, vacuum cleaner (WHO vacuums on vacation???? Not ME, babe!), luggage rack, and an enormous plastic bag full of bedding on the shelf (about the size of a beanbag chair). Hmm. I guess we won’t be putting much in here.

I think this is intended to be a broom closet. Be glad you had one. Most of the lockoff studios won't have one so I imagine all that stuff will be jammed into the wardrobe!

Ah the fridge. Instead of being a full depth under counter fridge, it’s only about a foot deep.

How does the fridge compare to the ones in other DVC studios? Is it smaller?

Directly next to that, no space, is an enormous armoire with two doors. One door had a shelf and a hanging rod about 15 inches wide. The other side had . . . nothing. No shelf. No rod. Nothing. Hmm. Shall I store B. (my DH) in there?

As I said above, I think some of the lockoff studios do not have the broom closet so I'm guessing the vacuum cleaner, ironing board, etc. are stored in that empty side of the armoire. It's too bad that for those studios that do have the closet that they didn't add another hanging rod to the other side of the armoire.

The dresser top (Yeah! a flat surface) 4 fairly narrow (maybe 12 - 13 inches wide) shallow drawers under, and two doors under that. BUT when we went to stack shorts behind the doors, we discovered it was full – of a crib.

Yep. I remember when I saw the model rooms I thought there was a lot of storage space in that dresser until I opened those bottom doors and discovered the pack'n'play was under there.

Starting at the door on the right side, first is the bathroom wall, and then the dressing area/sinks, with a narrow shelf above. Didn’t there used to be a shelf below, too?

I've stayed at AKL a few times and don't remember there being a shelf under the bathroom vanity. It sure would be handy, though.

The bathroom is one of those where you have to stand in the tub or behind the toilet to shut the bathroom door.

Yes, I think they kept that exactly the same as the original pre-conversion AKL room. Kind of a tight squeeze!

What’s missing? Well, a bedside table and light on ‘her’ side of the bed would have been nice. There’s no place for glasses or a book or my cpap machine, and no light for reading in bed. We tried to put one of the coffee tables in the space but the space was not wide enough. We tried to move the bed over to make space. It’s welded to the wall. We tried using the bathroom wastebasket upside down. The wicker bottom fell out when we picked it up. We ended up with the recycling bin upside down.

This is my biggest gripe about DVC studios. I just don't understand why they don't provide something on the wall side of the bed for all the reasons you mentioned. What's worse is that the floor plans for AKV actually show a nightstand and lamp on that side so I was excited when I saw that they were fixing the one big problem I (and DH) have with DVC studios, only to find out when I saw the model rooms that they didn't follow through. So at that point I figured I would try to do exactly what you described, to move the bed over a bit and put one of the little coffee tables next to the bed. I'm sorry to hear that isn't an option.

Have a closet in the trash room for a few vacuums, ironing boards and cribs. If someone needed one, they could either go and get it, or a crib could be put in the relevant room when a family was checking in. I’ll bet some of that stuff goes years without being used.

I LOVE this idea!! We stayed in an HA studio at BWV once. There was no closet, just an armoire already filled up with the items you listed -- no place for clothes unless you unload the other stuff and spend your entire trip with a vacuum, ironing board and pack'n'play (plus bedding for it) piled in the corner.

Move the bed to the left by a foot, leaving room for a table and a lamp on the other side. .... If they can’t move the bed, at least put a shelf on the wall at the head of the bed on the right, to hold a light and life’s necessities. It’s not like one can reach to put them on the floor from the height of the bed.

Excellent suggestions!

Put shelves and /or a shelf and a rod in the other side of the armoire.

I agree -- there is never enough hanging space!

I hope DVC listens to your excellent suggestions. There is definitely room for improvement with the AKV studios.

 

[LindaBabe]

Love to hear more comments from anyone else who's stayed there!

 

[ADP]

Some time in 2009.

I've heard Kidani will open in 2 phases. Phase 1 will open in early 2009 and phase 2 will open in Summer/Fall of 2009.

 

[spiceycat]

lindababe - did you not want a handicapped room because of the no tub?

I think with the handicapped rooms you would have room for your chair.

sorry it was such disappointment to you.

you will get your wish - I am going this weekend and I am not the only one!!!

 

[LindaBabe]

lindababe - did you not want a handicapped room because of the no tub?

I think with the handicapped rooms you would have room for your chair.

sorry it was such disappointment to you.

you will get your wish - I am going this weekend and I am not the only one!!!

I don't like to use a handicapped room because there are others who need them far more than me, Spiceycat. I can at least get off the thing and walk a certain amount - whereas there are those who don't have that choice.

Wishing you a terrific stay!