JAMBO! The UN-official AKL Thread ~ UPDATED(short film/pg 8 & slideshow/pg 12) Part 3

[poohmomof5]

I am so excited to stay at my first trip "Home" in September. We have a 2 bdrm villa with Savannah View. But now I am so excited to hear that the value and concierge rooms will be available beginning Dec. 1. So I might have to plan another trip to try to check them out!

Also, I am so excited to find this thread! We have stayed onsite at Poly, Contemporary, Carribbean, Beach Club, Boardwalk, and of course AKL. Well, this is our FAVORITE resort, agreed on by all 7 of us (DH, me, DS15, DD13, DS12, DD9, and really happy with anything, DD2.)

So I am happy to find others to share my excitement with! Yippee!!!

Can't wait, only 109 days to go!!!!

Poohmom

 

[jaycns]

Does anyone know where the remaining UNCONVERTED deluxe concierge rooms are located? We have one booked for early September for 8 days. We are a family of five so they cannot just stick us in a regular room and give us a partial refund...however, I don't want to be stuck in the middle of a construction zone either.

I have thus far kept my spirits up with the saying (over and over) of "Disney will do me right!!" Ane while I know this is still true, I am still a bit nervous and just feel better when I have info. I have gotten different answers from the concierge staff (one told me that we would be floor 6 as that is all that remained and another told me floor 4). SO...although I get it that they know best...it is also there job to squash my fears

So any recent deluxe concierge room guests...where in the lodge were you? How did construction play into your stay?

TIA!!

 

[pilferk]

Does anyone know where the remaining UNCONVERTED deluxe concierge rooms are located? We have one booked for early September for 8 days. We are a family of five so they cannot just stick us in a regular room and give us a partial refund...however, I don't want to be stuck in the middle of a construction zone either.

I have thus far kept my spirits up with the saying (over and over) of "Disney will do me right!!" Ane while I know this is still true, I am still a bit nervous and just feel better when I have info. I have gotten different answers from the concierge staff (one told me that we would be floor 6 as that is all that remained and another told me floor 4). SO...although I get it that they know best...it is also there job to squash my fears

So any recent deluxe concierge room guests...were in the lodge where you? How did construction play into your stay?

TIA!!

All deluxe rooms are on floors 5 and 6. The "standard" concierge rooms are on 4.

In looking at the new info, it looks like deluxe concierge will be on Kudo Trail in September...I think the "switch" which will bring the concierge and values on line early might mean the Kudo Trail rooms do not get converted until after Dec 1.

 

[kimmar067]

We returned home late last night from a 10 day WDW stay. We were at AKL CL 5/30-6/1. Here's where the construction stood then: All 6th floor rooms are closed, but construction hasn't started. The only 5th floor rooms open are Kudu. The 5th floor lobby rooms, Ostrich Trail, Giraffe Trail and Zebra Trail rooms are all closed. 5th floor on Zebra Trail is completely blocked off and that's where the construction was on the days we were there. The day we were at the pool, we could hear lots of noise; not sure how bad it was in the rooms because we were on the 5th floor Kudu Trail (room 5241).

From my conversations with AKL CM's, they admit that when this construction first got underway, there was lots of confusion and some very unhappy guests. They feel they have a much better handle on things now and from what I saw, I have to agree. They are not booking to capacity, leaving rooms available should guests have a problem with their room and need to be moved.

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to book AKL again - but I don't have any young children who need to nap (although my teenager wants to!! )

I believe as long as you are aware of the construction and the possibility that, during the day, you might hear noise - request a room "away from the construction" and you should be fine!

...thanks for the 'heads up'...glad you had a great time.....

....sooooo, where are the PIXS??!??!?!?

 

[stepdisney]

I'm about to change from WL to AKL, how do I become a member of Jambo? (What does it mean?) I've been asking questions here and there but finally convinced my DS (12) that the DOES want AKL and he looked at pictures of the pool today. My DH says to just switch because it doesn't really matter to him so....I'm switching tomorrow morning. The only thing is, I can't book anything except a standard, the cost has to be exactly the same since we added an additional night recently.

I'm excited . Please tell me I made the right decision. Someone show some pictures.

 

[RachelTori]

...thanks for the 'heads up'...glad you had a great time.....

....sooooo, where are the PIXS??!??!?!?

I was afraid you were going to ask for pictures!! I'll try to get some posted this week, but I'm really disappointed in them -- I'm sure it's the camera, NOT the photographer!!

 

[kimmar067]

...I'm sure it's the camera, NOT the photographer!!

.....sure, I believe THAT, just like I believe "...check's in the MAIL...."....

 

[kimmar067]

....a gorgeous pic taken by cudworth, of the AKL pool....

...thanks, cudworth!

 

[stepdisney]

....a gorgeous pic taken by cudworth, of the AKL pool....

...thanks, cudworth!

Do you have to know someone to become a member of the Jambo wild bunch?

 

[kpgclark]

Hi all! I'm joining in on this group. We are excited about our first stay at AKL-- actually the villas as we'll be in a studio. I have to tell you how we ended up here. I WON a trip to Florida in a local contest which included airfare and three nights at The Ginn Resort (which looks beautiful by the way). Anyhow we decided to extend our visit by several days (but we had to be careful of blackout days for the air). I asked a friend of mine who has lots of DVC points to see if anything was available over Thanksgiving- actually Nov. 17-20th. Nothing was available except OKW which we didn't want to stay at. Anyhow, my friend got up very early in California and started calling consistently the very day people could make reservations at AK Villas and after hours of trying got us a studio with a Savannah view! We are very excited about this trip! We've stayed many times at the Beach Club which we LOVE for location and WL which we also love for location and sheer beauty and although we've eaten at AKL we've never stayed there. So, we are very excited (but keeping the location a secret from the children). I'm enjoying the thread so keep posting! Oh, another reason we are excited about staying at AKV is that we are only going to go to two parks this time- MK and EPCOT. So staying at AKV will give us a kinda taste of the Animal Kingdom park.

 

[RachelTori]

Hi all! I'm joining in on this group. We are excited about our first stay at AKL-- actually the villas as we'll be in a studio. I have to tell you how we ended up here. I WON a trip to Florida in a local contest which included airfare and three nights at The Ginn Resort (which looks beautiful by the way). Anyhow we decided to extend our visit by several days (but we had to be careful of blackout days for the air). I asked a friend of mine who has lots of DVC points to see if anything was available over Thanksgiving- actually Nov. 17-20th. Nothing was available except OKW which we didn't want to stay at. Anyhow, my friend got up very early in California and started calling consistently the very day people could make reservations at AK Villas and after hours of trying got us a studio with a Savannah view! We are very excited about this trip! We've stayed many times at the Beach Club which we LOVE for location and WL which we also love for location and sheer beauty and although we've eaten at AKL we've never stayed there. So, we are very excited (but keeping the location a secret from the children). I'm enjoying the thread so keep posting! Oh, another reason we are excited about staying at AKV is that we are only going to go to two parks this time- MK and EPCOT. So staying at AKV will give us a kinda taste of the Animal Kingdom park.

WOW!! Congratulations on the contest win and congratulations on the AKV ressie -- kind of like you won TWICE! What a great friend you have for getting you those coveted ressies!! You and your kids are going to LOVE AKL/AKV!!

 

[RachelTori]

.....sure, I believe THAT, just like I believe "...check's in the MAIL...."....

YIKES!! The pressure's on!!!

Here are a couple pictures of when we first checked in:

Here's a view from our balcony (room 5241). Yes, the teen was talking on her cell phone!!

Tori's first visit to the 6th floor lounge. All those lobby rooms on the 5th & 6th floor were in various stages of being emptied. The doors were either propped open slightly or the door knobs were off and you could peek in through the rather large hole. There were also 2 uniformed security officers visible at all times (I didn't dare take a picture of them!):

I'll post some pictures from the Sunrise Safari shortly. Don't say I didn't warn you though - I'm disappointed the pictures aren't as good as I thought when I took them! Plus, many of my shots are of the animals' backsides!!

 

[RachelTori]

Some pictures from the 5/31 Sunrise Safari:

You had to see these guys to believe it! Our guide, Chris, told us how ostriches will peck at the glass on the truck relentlessly and that's exactly what they did! Everyone in our jeep was cracking up watching them!

We got to see these white rhinos really up close and personal as they were right alongside our road. The baby was so cute!!

 

[kpgclark]

Great pictures! I guess I'm confused though. Are all of those animals at the AKL or are you in Animal Kingdom???? If at AKL, I didn't realize there were rhynos there!

 

[RachelTori]

Several more from the Sunrise Safari:

 

[Funniebunny]

Thanks for the construction update. Your piccies are great

We've decided to stick with AKL for Nov, it's a once in a lifetime trip and my Fiance really wanted to stay there. We'll be in the parks most of the time anyway so hopefully the noise wont bother us.

 

[RachelTori]

Great pictures! I guess I'm confused though. Are all of those animals at the AKL or are you in Animal Kingdom???? If at AKL, I didn't realize there were rhynos there!

Those animals are in the park (on the Kilimanjaro Safari trail). I'll post some of the animals from the AKL shortly! (sorry for the confusion!)

 

[RachelTori]

Thanks for the construction update. Your piccies are great

We've decided to stick with AKL for Nov, it's a once in a lifetime trip and my Fiance really wanted to stay there. We'll be in the parks most of the time anyway so hopefully the noise wont bother us.

I know you'll be very happy with your decision! The construction becomes less and less of a factor each day. Since you're going in November, absolutely no worries!

 

[RachelTori]

These are animals at the Lodge! From Public Viewing areas:

 

[RachelTori]

One more group - these are from our balcony the morning we were leaving

Sorry I don't have better pics. I use a small, low mega pixel (3.2 ) camera which really doesn't cut it at AKL!