Jambo! The newest AKL Information thread

[ForEver2016]

Anyone have updates on construction going on around AKL? I remember hearing it was just room refurbs. We arrive in a couple weeks and just wondering what to expect. Thanks!

 

[MagicManaged]

Thanks @gillep and @pepperandchips

So my plan is to rent DVC points for a 9-night AKL stay in a two-bedroom villa for January/February 2020. My window for booking will open soon so I’m hoping to address some of my questions/concerns:

1. There will be a total of 5 of us (me, my husband, our son who will have just turned two years old, and my mother and father who are in their 50s). My father may not be able to stay the entire 9 nights - probably only 4 or 5. Will this interfere with our rental of points? What about our tickets and dining plan?

2. Has anyone had any experience buying trip insurance for a DVC point rental? And a policy that not only covers the point rental but also the cost of tickets and dining plan? Would ideal like a plan that would allow us to get most of our money back in case of cancellation due to illness, weather, family reasons, etc.

3. My son will be two on this trip and will still be sleeping in a crib. Can I request a crib in our room with a DVC point rental? Or should I look into paying to rent one?

4. I think I read somewhere that most of the 2 bedroom villas at AKL are at Kidani. Is that true?

5. Anything you think I should know about AKL and/or DVC point rental? I’ve been to WDW twice (2014 and 2016) with my husband. This will be the first trip for my parents and my son. Looking to make it a memorable trip and I think AKL will help a lot with that!

 

[beercity]

Thanks @gillep and @pepperandchips

So my plan is to rent DVC points for a 9-night AKL stay in a two-bedroom villa for January/February 2020. My window for booking will open soon so I’m hoping to address some of my questions/concerns:

1. There will be a total of 5 of us (me, my husband, our son who will have just turned two years old, and my mother and father who are in their 50s). My father may not be able to stay the entire 9 nights - probably only 4 or 5. Will this interfere with our rental of points? What about our tickets and dining plan?

2. Has anyone had any experience buying trip insurance for a DVC point rental? And a policy that not only covers the point rental but also the cost of tickets and dining plan? Would ideal like a plan that would allow us to get most of our money back in case of cancellation due to illness, weather, family reasons, etc.

3. My son will be two on this trip and will still be sleeping in a crib. Can I request a crib in our room with a DVC point rental? Or should I look into paying to rent one?

4. I think I read somewhere that most of the 2 bedroom villas at AKL are at Kidani. Is that true?

5. Anything you think I should know about AKL and/or DVC point rental? I’ve been to WDW twice (2014 and 2016) with my husband. This will be the first trip for my parents and my son. Looking to make it a memorable trip and I think AKL will help a lot with that!

3. All DVC rooms should automatically have a pack'n'play.

4. All the "dedicated" 2br units are at Kidani. At both Jambo and Kidani there are "lock-off" units which consists of a studio attached to a 1br unit.
There are 113 Savannah 2BR units and 23 Standard view 2BR units at Kidani.
At Jambo, there are less than 80 total 2BR units, and they are all lock-off.
This website has great info on the room counts, room layouts, etc for AKV. Study up on the differences between room layouts for the dedicated and lock-off, one might work better than the other for you.

https://*******.com/dvc-information/resort-information/dvc-resorts/disneys-animal-kingdom-villas/

 

[iona]

Thanks @gillep and @pepperandchips

So my plan is to rent DVC points for a 9-night AKL stay in a two-bedroom villa for January/February 2020. My window for booking will open soon so I’m hoping to address some of my questions/concerns:

1. There will be a total of 5 of us (me, my husband, our son who will have just turned two years old, and my mother and father who are in their 50s). My father may not be able to stay the entire 9 nights - probably only 4 or 5. Will this interfere with our rental of points? What about our tickets and dining plan?

Unfortunately if you want to book the dining plan it has to be for the length of stay for everyone in the room (so 4 adults x 9 nights) regardless of whether your dad's there the whole time or not.

In better news, for DVC reservations tickets can be bought separately, and so your dad can have a ticket for just the number of days that he'll use it for.

 

[pepperandchips]

@MagicManaged that sounds like an amazing trip. It is not my place to talk you out of the accomodations you are planning on, but a two bedroom unit for five (four for part of it) people who are considering a dining plan seems like a lot of space, at least for that length of stay, considering your Dad might not be there the whole time. As previous posters have mentioned, if you are doing the dining plan, it has to be booked for everyone on the reservation for the whole duration. Maybe splitting between a 2 bedroom (for while your dad is there) and two studios when it's just you guys plus mom would work and you could just have the dining plan on part of the stay? At least part of your party might even be able to stay in the same studio for all nine nights if the 2 bedroom is a lockoff. It sounds like your dad's plans aren't firm, so it might be hard to make that work, just a suggestion if you had not thought of it.

1. There will be a total of 5 of us (me, my husband, our son who will have just turned two years old, and my mother and father who are in their 50s). My father may not be able to stay the entire 9 nights - probably only 4 or 5. Will this interfere with our rental of points? What about our tickets and dining plan?

For a trip as long as you are considering, have you considered what dining discounts might be available to you? Disney Visa, annual pass, etc. I know a lot of people like the dining plan but we are always better served by Tables in Wonderland. I know it's not for everyone. Also, not every rental broker will add the dining plan for you. That's definitely something to check on as you are looking at different options.

2. Has anyone had any experience buying trip insurance for a DVC point rental? And a policy that not only covers the point rental but also the cost of tickets and dining plan? Would ideal like a plan that would allow us to get most of our money back in case of cancellation due to illness, weather, family reasons, etc.

I have never purchased trip insurance for a DVC points rental but I am usually booking a studio for a long weekend. I have read good things about Travel Guard. If you search for DVC Points Rental Travel Insurance you will probably get a lot of threads (I did through google as well). Also generally the dining plan is something extra you arrange to add on so I would think that portion at least could be refundable. The owner can add it on much later so it may be possible to wait on adding dining as well depending on who you rent through. Unused tickets can always be saved and used later also as long as they are not expired.

5. Anything you think I should know about AKL and/or DVC point rental? I’ve been to WDW twice (2014 and 2016) with my husband. This will be the first trip for my parents and my son. Looking to make it a memorable trip and I think AKL will help a lot with that!

Renting DVC points can save a bundle but is not for the faint of heart! If you listen to the Dis Unplugged podcast Pete mentioned a particular DVC Resale company this week - that is the broker I usually use for point rentals but they will not add dining for you. I find them to be the most cost effective of the brokers I've looked into. I have also rented through an owner I found on the rent boards here on the Dis and one of the other major brokers who I think is not a sponsor here so I won't mention. I never had problems with any of those options.

Sorry I'm not more help on some of the specific questions but maybe others will come along who have more experience!

 

[MagicManaged]

Wow, thank you all for your insight and advice!

I had a feeling that if my dad doesn’t stay for the entire trip that it may make planning more complicated. I’m hoping I can convince him to stay for the entire time. If not, a split stay may work in our favor.

Thanks for the heads up that not all rental companies will add dining for you. The site we are planning to use does add the dining plan if requested. The dining plan is a must for my husband. He loves it. I did the math last time, and we ended up a little bit ahead at the end of our trip. It wasn’t a huge cost savings by any means, but it was something.

I’m going to study up on the room layout options and see what would work best. I think it would be the lock-off. And it looks like I’ll fall down the Google rabbit hole to search for DVC rental trip insurance policies!

Any other things about AKL that I should keep in mind? I’m hoping to have some time this weekend to search through various threads here too.

 

[kimmar067]

My husband and I are currently on ME heading to Jambo House for our annual week in a club level studio!!!!!!

....niiiiiiiiiiiiice!
[.....I'll be on that ME a week from Monday...]

 

[ShelbyK]

Does anyone know what time The Mara switches over to the "late night" menu?

 

[dansdad]

Does anyone know what time The Mara switches over to the "late night" menu?

I believe the full dinner menu is served until 11:30PM with the Late Night menu going from 11:30PM to 1:30AM.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

FYI for those that track these things, according to my DW who is at AKL right now, the tree and decorations were taken down overnight last night.

 

[sndral]

FYI for those that track these things, according to my DW who is at AKL right now, the tree and decorations were taken down overnight last night.

Thanks for the info.. 1/11 seems fairly late for the decorations & tree to come down.
We alternate our annual visits between early Dec.& early Jan. & between AKL & GF, but the last time I stayed at AKL in early Jan. - a couple of years ago - the tree was down more like 1/5 or 6, & a sad morning it was to wake up to a ‘normal’ lobby!

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Upgraded from POFQ to AKL with the Fun & Sun discount. It will be my second visit to AKL, but a first visit for my older teen DGS who has wanted to stay at AKL since he was little. He doesn't know we are staying there yet, but he knew it was in our top five resorts to choose from, so it wouldn't be a total shock. His only request was that we stay at a resort that he has never stayed at before and knew I was following the discounts. If he asks where we are staying, I will tell him (I'm terrible with surprises), but if he doesn't ask, I will wait until we leave and he sees the luggage tags. Haha. I doubt it will be a secret that long, but anyhow, I'm happy to be staying at AKL again. Zebra domes here we come!

 

[Grannysgirls]

Does anyone know if there is a place to purchase milk, etc at AKL?

 

[RachelTori]

Does anyone know if there is a place to purchase milk, etc at AKL?

Yes! Zawadi (the gift shop) at Jambo House sells milk, wine, beer, bread, frozen meals, ice cream, etc. as does Johari (the gift shop at Kidani)

 

[Grannysgirls]

I was trying to figure out if I need to send breakfast foods ahead of time, use a grocery service or if I could just purchase it there. Thank you-the website tells me about things like where a smoker can smoke-but I didn't see anything about shops on-site!

 

[maryj11]

How comfortable or uncomfortable are the sofa beds in a standard deluxe studio?

 

[RachelTori]

I was trying to figure out if I need to send breakfast foods ahead of time, use a grocery service or if I could just purchase it there. Thank you-the website tells me about things like where a smoker can smoke-but I didn't see anything about shops on-site!

I'm surprised there isn't more information available online. The DVC resorts all have small grocery areas and once Jambo House added DVC, they added groceries at Zawadi. I wonder if the AKV thread might not provide more information. Have you tried posting at: https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...-lovers-thread-come-and-chat.1815576/page-153

If not, give that thread a try! Those are the experts!

 

[danikoski]

Does anyone know if there is a place to purchase milk, etc at AKL?

Besides the gift shops in the resorts with DVC, as far as I know, all the QS restaurants have small containers of milk for sale if you don't need a jug.
And a tip, get a kids meal at a quick service and you can get a thing of milk, usually, as part of the meal. I have done that on past trips and then kept the milk to use in coffee in the room.

 

[sndral]

How comfortable or uncomfortable are the sofa beds in a standard deluxe studio?

I really love staying at AKL, but... if they are the same sleeper sofas as the ones in the 1 br.s, I have not found them to be very comfortable.

 

[maryj11]

I really love staying at AKL, but... if they are the same sleeper sofas as the ones in the 1 br.s, I have not found them to be very comfortable.

This may be a problem. Right now we have a standard studio room with 1 queen and a sofa bed . I have been thinking of getting a standard view room just to get the two queen beds. There may be a fight on who has to sleep on the sofa bed