DH, myself, and our DD4 just returned from an 8 night stay at the lodge. I just wanted to give an outline of our experience.
All I can say is this resort is FABULOUS! I don't know what I'll have to do if I have to stay anywhere else in the future because it was such a great experience. I originally had wanted to stay at the Poly but it was booked. Later in the week when we had dinner at 'Ohana I was like ho-hum regarding the Poly and so was my husband. The AKL has captured our hearts.
Because of the construction I was apprehensive about staying. That includes nightmares, panic attackes, the works! As a result, I opted to make only two requests to go with my savanna room booking; non-smoking and Arusha Savanna. My thought was that no matter advice I got on requests for what to ask for, with the construction only the people who work there (and assign the rooms) are really going to be able to know what is going on where regarding noise, dust, etc.
I'm not going to spend alot of time talking about the lobby - yes, it is magnificent, so are the grounds, and the exotic scent is welcoming. We have countless videos and pictures to remember every moment.
When we checked in I was assigned room 5118 which is on the Sunset Savanna (
this was my face when I heard that). Its on the Ostrich Trail, 5th floor. I kept my mouth shut and said to myself that if I was miserable I'd come back down and ask to be moved. We took a walk to the stairwell rather than the elevator since it was only two floors (the lobby is on the 3rd floor). I don't recommend this for anyone else and we didn't use the stairs again because the stairwells are strange. They usually only go 2-3 flights. i.e., so if I wanted to go from the 5th floor to 1st I'd go down a couple flights, walk out in the hallway, go into another stairwell and then go down. A chore so we took the elevator going forward.
Anyways, the room was not far down and on our way there we saw some giraffe eating out of the window in one of the public viewing areas. That was a very good sign and my frown was turning upside down.
We got to the room and thought it was lovely. But I raced to the curtains to draw them back and look at the balcony. THE VIEW WAS MAGNIFICENT. Our room was in a little inlet that included a small treed area and a watering hole that opened on to the larger savanna (I have pictures but I'll have to add them later). We saw animals every day. There were always giraffe(usually 2 at a time), ostrich, various birds, and rabbits. Other visitors included Ankole Cattle and Nyala. Needless to say we kept the room.
The room size was fine. Comporable in size to the Hyatt rooms I stay in for business but with much nicer linens and furniture. I appreciated the wall between the bathroom and the sleeping area. DH often took a shower while I got ready and DD4 would sleep until we were ready. The wall allowed for that.
Everyone at the hotel was kind and accomodating. I didn't meet a single CM that could even be described as cold, let alone rude, nasty or otherwise. They were all gracious, accomodating, and kind. And I talked to everyone - front desk, bell staff, housekeeping, lifeguards, servers, cashiers, savanna guides, you name 'em, I talked to 'em. People actually seemed to be thrilled to have me as their guest.
We ate at Boma and thought the food was very good. We will do that again. The variety of exotic fare is unmatched. There were some things that were available at Mara that were on the Boma menu, i.e., Zebra Domes.
We ate at Mara and thought it was fine for a food court. Breakfast was great and their burgers were fine (I only had one burger the entire trip and it was there). I did try their chicken pita wrap and hated it. But I think that's just me, I wouldn't not order it because I said it was yucky. The place was always clean and the staff nice.
The pool was alot of fun. We visited several times and thought it was great. They have a huge area for life vests that is located between the towel stations. I mention this because it wasn't obvious to me. They had two sizes, under 50 lbs. and over 50 lbs. and plenty of them. I don't think you'll have any problem finding one if needed. Contrary to reports I've read you CAN NOT check these out for length of stay. Just pick them up and drop them off in the pool area.
The kiddie pool is kind of lame being it's only about 6 inches deep. But it's set a bit apart from the main pool which is nice in the event you have a little wanderer. It has a few umbrella tables and many lounge chairs. We spent about an hour here and didn't go back because the zero entry area was a better place for our DD4 to play.
The main pool is enormous and no matter how many people use it there never seemed to be a cramped feeling. We liked to get a couple lounge chairs near the zero entry area and either sit on the wall or the shallows and play.
We also thoroughly enjoyed the slide. Although it's not the biggest or longest slide at Disney, it is quite fun. Our daughter spent 90 minutes running up and sliding down the slide. We did it with her for about 45 minutes of that time before just playing "catch her at the bottom" and re-depositing her on the path to the top. She loved it and we did too. There was a family from Spain whooping it up with us. And although we didn't speak the same language we all spoke the language of fun and played together.
The playground was great and DD loved playing there. Its fine if your little ones need to burn off some steam. There are benches around the outside and it's fairly well shaded.
We took part in only one activity the lodge had to offer although we wanted to do more. But since we are real afternoon break people we were usually sleeping. DD did the animal-tracking activity which was a riot. The savanna guides "tag" a Donald Duck plushie like a real animal and then hide it. They give the children equipment (just like is really used in the wild) to track the animal down. They use a wand that is attached to a machine that emits beeps as you get closer. The kids loved it. DD got a bead for participating and was thrilled.
The hotel staff are accomodating in every way. We forgot to bring our white noise machine (we have to have it to have a good nights rest) and after one restless night I called for help. I spoke to maintenance who came to the room and gave us a fan to run while we slept. We slept like babes after that.
We also called housekeeping and requested two bed rails for the bed and they brought them promptly. The beds are rather high. Our DD is 42" and she had trouble climbing up without help. I'd say they are at least 37" to top of mattress.
In regards to the construction I have one statement, What Construction? Yes, I know it was happening but I didn't notice. Not during afternoon break or otherwise. I could see them doing the grading way, way, way far away (with my binoculars on the outside of the Sunset Savanna) where they will be putting in the new DVC. But it was far enough away that we didn't even hear it. If I didn't know there was construction going on I wouldn't have noticed. Regardless, the staff had placed a note letting people know. I personally thought the giant crane that was out front of the Contemporary the entire stay was more noticeable.
Last the busses. This was the best bus service I've ever experienced at Disney. Every trip (and I timed them with a watch and wrote the times down) was 15-17 minutes with the exception of one. That would be the trip back from DTD to AKL. That bus stopped 2 more times at DTD before going to TL and then back to AKL. In total that trip took 22 minutes. We only had to stand one evening and that was our last night. And the reason that happened was because we were waiting for our bus and a bus that was half full for AK theme park stopped for us.
So that's my review. It was wonderful and I haven't given the resort justice. I look forward to staying there again. I look forward to buying DVC in the spring of 2009 and will be proud to call AKV my home resort.
Let me know if you have any questions.
