Minnie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2005
- Messages
- 4,020
Cast of 3:
Me (planner and commando)
DS (age 11)
DM (mom of Me and grandma of DS)
We just returned from our trip to WDW. We stayed 2 nights at AKL before moving to WL for 5 nights. Bellow is a quick review of our stay at both resorts. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I will add more details as time permits.
AKL
ROOM - Booked standard view (great AP rate) received no upgrades. Room was ready when we arrived at 4:30pm on 5th floor opened to lobby and had low wall blocked view of a savannah. Great location as far as access to elevator, lobby, and pool. No towel animals but room was always very clean.
POOL Water was very warm and not refreshing and we tried this at different times of the day. Pool was very large so there was plenty of room, lounge chairs, ect. My DS enjoyed the slide and having room to play splash catch.
FOOD Only ate at Maras as the other restaurants did not interest us. Chicken fingers were good, DM had turkey sandwich which was just okay, WARNING pizza is awful here, zebra domes and yogurt/fruit mix were fabulous.
TRANSPORATATION Only used transportation to go to Epcot and AK. Both were okay though we waited for quite a while at AK for a bus back to AKL.
WL
ROOM Booked woods view (AP rate) received no upgrades. Room was not ready when we arrived but we just enjoyed the lobby area until it was. Location was 6th floor, over WCC, balcony faced Wishes straight on really enjoyed this! We also saw the monorail, CR, and SM through the trees. Room was noisy late in the evening with the yelling from WCC wafting up to the room also the balcony was noisy from the equipment at WCC. Loved the location and view though. Nice back way to elevator near RF, pool, and boats. Towel animals nearly every day here by a terific mousekeeper. We had a mouse, dog, peacock, angel, bow, and even a huge aligator.
POOL Water was very nice here at all times. Size is much smaller but never felt overwhelming. We always managed to find a chair in the shade though sometimes we had to wait a bit to do so. This pool made watching out for DS much easier.
FOOD Ate at both Roaring Forks and WCC. Chicken fingers and brownies were very good at RF. Had both dinner and breakfast at WCC see restaurant board for review on this.
TRANSPORTATION Worst wait as normal was a bus to and from DTD. They really need to do something about this as the wait time for us and others I talked to was 45-60 minutes. Otherwise the buses seemed fine just most of the time extremely busy and full. We also used the boats to both MK/CR and the monorail system at CR which worked great.
OVERALL
Though AKL was nice and Im glad we gave it a try it didnt blow me away as WL does. This was our 2nd trip to WL and we enjoyed it just as much as the 1st time and will likely return to this resort if at all possible. A feeling of calm always comes over me when I enter this particular resort. Wonderful, awesome trip to WDW once again, I cant wait to go back!!!!!
Me (planner and commando)
DS (age 11)
DM (mom of Me and grandma of DS)
We just returned from our trip to WDW. We stayed 2 nights at AKL before moving to WL for 5 nights. Bellow is a quick review of our stay at both resorts. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I will add more details as time permits.
AKL
ROOM - Booked standard view (great AP rate) received no upgrades. Room was ready when we arrived at 4:30pm on 5th floor opened to lobby and had low wall blocked view of a savannah. Great location as far as access to elevator, lobby, and pool. No towel animals but room was always very clean.
POOL Water was very warm and not refreshing and we tried this at different times of the day. Pool was very large so there was plenty of room, lounge chairs, ect. My DS enjoyed the slide and having room to play splash catch.
FOOD Only ate at Maras as the other restaurants did not interest us. Chicken fingers were good, DM had turkey sandwich which was just okay, WARNING pizza is awful here, zebra domes and yogurt/fruit mix were fabulous.
TRANSPORATATION Only used transportation to go to Epcot and AK. Both were okay though we waited for quite a while at AK for a bus back to AKL.
WL
ROOM Booked woods view (AP rate) received no upgrades. Room was not ready when we arrived but we just enjoyed the lobby area until it was. Location was 6th floor, over WCC, balcony faced Wishes straight on really enjoyed this! We also saw the monorail, CR, and SM through the trees. Room was noisy late in the evening with the yelling from WCC wafting up to the room also the balcony was noisy from the equipment at WCC. Loved the location and view though. Nice back way to elevator near RF, pool, and boats. Towel animals nearly every day here by a terific mousekeeper. We had a mouse, dog, peacock, angel, bow, and even a huge aligator.
POOL Water was very nice here at all times. Size is much smaller but never felt overwhelming. We always managed to find a chair in the shade though sometimes we had to wait a bit to do so. This pool made watching out for DS much easier.
FOOD Ate at both Roaring Forks and WCC. Chicken fingers and brownies were very good at RF. Had both dinner and breakfast at WCC see restaurant board for review on this.
TRANSPORTATION Worst wait as normal was a bus to and from DTD. They really need to do something about this as the wait time for us and others I talked to was 45-60 minutes. Otherwise the buses seemed fine just most of the time extremely busy and full. We also used the boats to both MK/CR and the monorail system at CR which worked great.
OVERALL
Though AKL was nice and Im glad we gave it a try it didnt blow me away as WL does. This was our 2nd trip to WL and we enjoyed it just as much as the 1st time and will likely return to this resort if at all possible. A feeling of calm always comes over me when I enter this particular resort. Wonderful, awesome trip to WDW once again, I cant wait to go back!!!!!
