I have hesitated to write this review as I just don’t want to admit that the AKL part of our trip is over, sigh.
While we stayed at Kidani, I am adding the report to this thread (rather than DVC thread) because we stayed using cash and I think my review would be most useful to other cash stayers who are not regular visitors.
We stayed at AKL for 3 nights mid-December over the weekend. In short we loved it, I can not put into words how fabulous it is to see giraffes from your balcony!
I booked a 1bdr villa with savanna view at Kidani, I booked it for the two bathrooms which proved very useful. Prior to arriving we kept trying to change it to a booking at Jambo house but nothing was available. We are so glad that we were unable to change it.
We wanted to change it because of the reported distance to jambo house that seemed to have everything we might need. But once we were there we discovered we didn’t need any of that stuff. We did walk over one time for breakfast at Boma, and the place was a madhouse, it was so crowded and noisy, we could hardly move around the reception area or get to any of the facilities. In contrast Kidani, was so restful. Yes there were people there but you never felt like you were in a crowded park. The walk distance was nothing, a pleasant 5-7 minute walk.
I did pay extra for the savanna view, so worth it. I requested south trail, as I thought that would give best chance of seeing giraffes. We got our request, level 4, and we lucked out with a room not too far from elevators but far enough to be quiet. The animals were brilliant, not just giraffes, we saw so many different animals all day.
Walking into the room, we were impressed. Some reports say it is dark, we thought homely and African. The balcony was huge, and the giraffes all 4 of them visited regularly as there are three feeding spots in the south trail. My favorite thing was getting up at 5am, sitting on balcony (with blanket) and watching sunrise and waiting for the animals to come down. Though I didn’t just sit there in the morning, late afternoon and evening were great as well.
You will read lots of complaints about the sofa bed and chair bed, my DS had sofa bed and loved it, it was fine. My DH took the chair bed, he was unwell, and still says it was the best sleep he has had all trip (noting we are travelling with a mattress topper and he used it). But the chair enabled him to sleep a bit raised up allowing him to breathe. Obviously the big bed was fantastic, and having the room to myself meant I didn’t wake the others at 5am moving to balcony with my morning coffee.
The kitchen was great. Real oven allowed us to cook meals - mainly pasta with butter for DS who will probably list that as his favorite meal forever

the full size fridge was great, the kitchen was fully stocked with every tool we needed, especially appreciated toaster.
The two bathrooms were great, one was huge. The non-bath shower was lovely, but the spa bath, omg fantastic. The laundry was very useful as well.
We ate at Sanaa one night, that was nice. There is a small shop at Kidani, that has everything we needed - jambo has a much bigger shop with all the souvenirs, we visited after the Boma breakfast.
The Kidani pool was my favorite pool, warm, has two hot tubs.
We also did the sunset savanna tour, highly recommend - I wrote a review of that elsewhere.
There are many reports saying AKL is too far away, we didn’t notice any difference to time spent on buses, seriously the time was negligible. We did notice that we never waited for an AKL bus anywhere, they were very frequent. We never stood on buses. In fact so many times, we had a bus to ourselves. The buses did do both Kidani and jambo for drop off (not pick up), but Kidani was first
In summary, if you want a relaxing stay, choose Kidani. Paying for a savanna view is worth it. Ignore reports that say too dark, corridors too long, distance too far, sofa bed uncomfortable - none of these things matter or impact on the great time you will have