Resort Thread Jambo! Disney's ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

[RachelTori]

Most of the rooms at AKL and Kidani don't have the big pump bottles in the showers yet. Looked like the new refurbed rooms at AKL Jambo do. But there aren't a lot of those done yet.

At this point in time, if your room does have the wall-attached bottles and you want the individual bottles, you can request them. That's now; who knows once the conversion is completed! :/

 

[danikoski]

At this point in time, if your room does have the wall-attached bottles and you want the individual bottles, you can request them. That's now; who knows once the conversion is completed! :/

I really enjoy the small bottles, but I do understand them switching to the bigger bottles. I have seen them in some other higher end hotels (The Kimpton in Minneapolis comes to mind). I also love the grapefruit bergamot and was sad to see them switch to the sea marine one.

 

[DigitalOlli]

I spoke to a CM today in the CHAT on the WDW Website. He says there is now room refurb at the AKL right now. i think it is a joke, or is it all complete?

 

[SaintsManiac]

I spoke to a CM today in the CHAT on the WDW Website. He says there is now room refurb at the AKL right now. i think it is a joke, or is it all complete?

It's been discussed in this thread. It is not a joke and it is currently happening.

 

[MarkinNM]

I spoke to a CM today in the CHAT on the WDW Website. He says there is now room refurb at the AKL right now. i think it is a joke, or is it all complete?

From a popular online blog......
"Animal Kingdom Lodge – Room refurbishments are occurring throughout 2019, expected to be complete at some point in the fall. The above photo demonstrates how the work is being done, with staging bases in areas of the savanna. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge twice in early 2019, both times with savanna views. Based upon our experience of this work having zero impact on our stay, we previously did not list it separately here.

However, a reader recently stayed in a “savanna view room for spring break (mid-March 2019) and our savanna view consisted of port-a-potties, cranes/lifts, and trucks. Workers were on the balconies all day long. The animals would not come near the noise and activity. The hotel staff told us there was nowhere they could move us that wouldn’t overlook the refurbishment work.”

If anyone else has recent experience with Animal Kingdom Lodge, we’d love to hear about it in the comments. If this is consistent throughout the savannas, we would not recommend a savanna-view for bookings through Fall 2019."

 

[Shellyb84]

From a popular online blog......
"Animal Kingdom Lodge – Room refurbishments are occurring throughout 2019, expected to be complete at some point in the fall. The above photo demonstrates how the work is being done, with staging bases in areas of the savanna. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge twice in early 2019, both times with savanna views. Based upon our experience of this work having zero impact on our stay, we previously did not list it separately here.

However, a reader recently stayed in a “savanna view room for spring break (mid-March 2019) and our savanna view consisted of port-a-potties, cranes/lifts, and trucks. Workers were on the balconies all day long. The animals would not come near the noise and activity. The hotel staff told us there was nowhere they could move us that wouldn’t overlook the refurbishment work.”

If anyone else has recent experience with Animal Kingdom Lodge, we’d love to hear about it in the comments. If this is consistent throughout the savannas, we would not recommend a savanna-view for bookings through Fall 2019."

I'm starting to get worried now. We have a savanna view studio at Jambo booked for June 22-28. That's a lot of points to waste to look at construction and no animals. I'm wondering if I should switch...

 

[MarkinNM]

I'm starting to get worried now. We have a savanna view studio at Jambo booked for June 22-28. That's a lot of points to waste to look at construction and no animals. I'm wondering if I should switch...

Hmmm, I would call and see and explain your situation, you are right that is an expensive way to spend on a construction site......

 

[SaintsManiac]

I'm starting to get worried now. We have a savanna view studio at Jambo booked for June 22-28. That's a lot of points to waste to look at construction and no animals. I'm wondering if I should switch...

I'm in the AKL Facebook group and there are a lot more positive reviews than negative.

I had the same fears and this is our first time ever renting points. I am pretty much stuck, so I hope it's ok.

 

[Shellyb84]

I'm in the AKL Facebook group and there are a lot more positive reviews than negative.

I had the same fears and this is our first time ever renting points. I am pretty much stuck, so I hope it's ok.

I'm in the same group and I just read a really bad one...I just don't know what to do now We LOVE AKL but our favorite part is sitting on the balcony watching the animals...they do have a great pool but so do a lot of resorts. Ugh! SSR is all that's available at this point for our nights. We like that resort also but not as much.

 

[Shelleyfs]

I wish they would tell people. It is like last year with the pool and then everyone is scrambling.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I'm in the same group and I just read a really bad one...I just don't know what to do now We LOVE AKL but our favorite part is sitting on the balcony watching the animals...they do have a great pool but so do a lot of resorts. Ugh! SSR is all that's available at this point for our nights. We like that resort also but not as much.

Yeah I saw that one. The more upset people get the more detailed they can be...

I emailed our DVC agent and there just isn't anything we want available for those dates. We are going to stop worrying about it.

 

[karen4546]

Standard and Savannah rooms not club level still have the Cuisinart like single serve flat disc coffee right? no keurigs?

 

[pepperandchips]

Standard and Savannah rooms not club level still have the Cuisinart like single serve flat disc coffee right? no keurigs?

It appears refurbed rooms are getting Keurigs from watching the video that was discussed recently of the new refurbished rooms.

 

[dansdad]

I spoke to a CM today in the CHAT on the WDW Website. He says there is now room refurb at the AKL right now. i think it is a joke, or is it all complete?

Phone CMs are usually the last to know about any type of resort refurbishment. Like a friend of mine called about the progress of Pop's room refurbishment when it was about 80% complete and 3 different phone CMs each told him there was absolutely no room refurb happening at Pop, nor anything on the "schedule" coming up.

 

[Carlymouse]

I'm starting to get worried now. We have a savanna view studio at Jambo booked for June 22-28. That's a lot of points to waste to look at construction and no animals. I'm wondering if I should switch...

We just got back from there and while I noticed a few construction vehicles in one select area, it was something that was not noticeable or didn't stand out with our regular view. We had to switch rooms in the middle of our stay, so we experienced a few views on on the 5th floor Jambo house. I think the vehicles might have been near one end of Arusha. We had Zebra Trail rooms, with fantastic animal viewing, and Uzima Savannah, which was a little more low key with less frequent giraffe sightings, but still with many animals. At the time we were there at the end of March, there was nothing worth complaining about with our views- It was really cool to experience the savannah views.

 

[kimmar067]

At this point in time, if your room does have the wall-attached bottles and you want the individual bottles, you can request them. That's now; who knows once the conversion is completed! :/

...personally, I do not like the wall-attached bottles - they were very inconvenient when I tried to use them....I do get how they are cost-effective though.

 

[kimmar067]

From a popular online blog......
"Animal Kingdom Lodge – Room refurbishments are occurring throughout 2019, expected to be complete at some point in the fall. The above photo demonstrates how the work is being done, with staging bases in areas of the savanna. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge twice in early 2019, both times with savanna views. Based upon our experience of this work having zero impact on our stay, we previously did not list it separately here.

However, a reader recently stayed in a “savanna view room for spring break (mid-March 2019) and our savanna view consisted of port-a-potties, cranes/lifts, and trucks. Workers were on the balconies all day long. The animals would not come near the noise and activity. The hotel staff told us there was nowhere they could move us that wouldn’t overlook the refurbishment work.”

If anyone else has recent experience with Animal Kingdom Lodge, we’d love to hear about it in the comments. If this is consistent throughout the savannas, we would not recommend a savanna-view for bookings through Fall 2019."

Hmmm, I would call and see and explain your situation, you are right that is an expensive way to spend on a construction site......

....WDW tries to make guest discomfort during construction as minimal as possible. Most of the time, the area in question are cordoned off and not in use. They also try to compensate by offering little perks. For instance, when my DS and his GF stayed at CSR, a whole slew of rooms were unoccupied. My DS was also given complimentary pins to 'commemorate' the goings-on....

 

[nicolebridget22]

OK, should I take this vacation or not? I'm not sure how many more signs I can ignore. First, and most devastating of all, SWGE is opening a week before my trip. So, great, I've already reconciled myself to spending a LOT more time AWAY from the parks. But lucky for me I've chosen a gorgeous hotel, AKL, where I can spend lots of time away from it all, relaxing and looking at the animals from my balcony. OR CAN I? What's this about a lengthy refurb, and cranes, and construction, and porta potties, and a ruined savanna view? Seriously?! Jeeze...I feel like Disney REALLY doesn't want to see me this year.

I guess I'm looking for opinions. Would you still go? My balcony at AKL was going to be my escape from everything that SWGE is going to ruin on this trip. And it sounds like my savanna view is ruined now too.

 

[Carlymouse]

OK, should I take this vacation or not? I'm not sure how many more signs I can ignore. First, and most devastating of all, SWGE is opening a week before my trip. So, great, I've already reconciled myself to spending a LOT more time AWAY from the parks. But lucky for me I've chosen a gorgeous hotel, AKL, where I can spend lots of time away from it all, relaxing and looking at the animals from my balcony. OR CAN I? What's this about a lengthy refurb, and cranes, and construction, and porta potties, and a ruined savanna view? Seriously?! Jeeze...I feel like Disney REALLY doesn't want to see me this year.

I guess I'm looking for opinions. Would you still go? My balcony at AKL was going to be my escape from everything that SWGE is going to ruin on this trip. And it sounds like my savanna view is ruined now too.

I just returned from a Savannah view trip at the end of March. We had 2 reservations and 3 rooms between us. Zebra trail and Uzumi, and visited some other public Savannah views. None were affected. I might have noticed some construction vehicles parked in a far corner once, but honestly, I can't remember if I saw that myself or if it was someone else's photo, it's such a hazy memory. We didn't hear or see any refurbs during our stay. So, if you're looking for reasons to change your dates, I wouldn't base it on the resort.

 

[MarkinNM]

I just returned from a Savannah view trip at the end of March. We had 2 reservations and 3 rooms between us. Zebra trail and Uzumi, and visited some other public Savannah views. None were affected. I might have noticed some construction vehicles parked in a far corner once, but honestly, I can't remember if I saw that myself or if it was someone else's photo, it's such a hazy memory. We didn't hear or see any refurbs during our stay. So, if you're looking for reasons to change your dates, I wouldn't base it on the resort.

So good the hear!!!

This Aug will be our first stay at Jambo and so looking forward to it, so what building do you recommend for a good savanna view?