Just back from AKL - GREAT!!!

[twinmommyks]

We just returned from our first trip to WDW and we stayed at the AKL - deluxe room (5 people). We received a room on 5th floor, Sunset Savannah and were so pleased. The room was very spacious for our family, seeing the animals outside our room was great. Each morning we could see two giraffes eating along with a number of other animals. One bird keep sitting on our rail - the kids loved it. We saw animals at all times of the day.

The atmosphere was beautiful, so relaxing, check-in went perfect (less than 5 minutes total). We ate at Mara's and it was good for counter service. We never got a chance to eat at Boma's and regret that. The pool was big and shallow enough for our small children.

We were pretty far from the pool and Mara's, but I never minded the walking because our view from the room was beautiful. The room did have a mini-fridge (but it didn't have the little storage compartment), so I couldn't freeze the juice boxes - not a major deal.

The first day we returned to find two towel animals (rabbits) and some of our children's little toys were placed throughout the room. This was fun, but that was the only time Mousekeeping did something (we did tip each day though).

Transportation from AKL to the parks was great - rarely had to wait anymore then 10 minutes and not having to stop anywhere else was great.

If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them. But we were totally pleased and had a blast at WDW and highly recommend AKL!!!!!

Bren

 

[KAC2005]

Thanks for the review, we are going to AKL in 1 week!!!!

KAC

 

[LoopyLoo]

Thanks for the info we are there in 2 days and can't wait.

 

[mpbs]

I love AKL, we stayed there July 05, and had the same great experience. I also. would definately recommend the resort. We are staying at BWI. in Aug. to try a new resort but I would stay at AKL without hesitation.

 

[szymcl]

I am thinking of a grandmother/mother/daughter trip with a handicapped grandma. She can walk, but very slow. I wondered if the AKL would be nice for her, since she could watch animals from the hotel. She may not want to go to parks. What is the gift shop like? She likes to shop. Also, is there a food court, mug station? Thanks!

 

[tigerlilly]

Glad to hear you had a great time. I keep reading about the "walk" from some rooms. How far is the walk really?
In terms of bus transportation how long does it take to get to the Magic Kingdom once you are on the bus? Did you rent a car in addition to bus? We are going in December and will probably not have a car so I wondered if we would be ok.

 

[Cass]

This is my favorite hotel at Disney, your report has made me pine for it again

 

[Alicnwondrln]

sounds like you had a great trip
thanks for sharing

 

[Marseeya]

Glad to hear you had a great time. I keep reading about the "walk" from some rooms. How far is the walk really?
In terms of bus transportation how long does it take to get to the Magic Kingdom once you are on the bus? Did you rent a car in addition to bus? We are going in December and will probably not have a car so I wondered if we would be ok.

The walk can be extremely far. Here's a link to a site that has the resort map on it: http://allearsnet.com/acc/g_akl.htm Click on resort maps. Down on the bottom right is where you catch the bus. See the rooms way up on the top right? That's where I stayed.

It's one thing in the morning to get up and make the walk, but quite another when you come back from the parks. It feels like you're on a death march.

Even though the walk nearly killed me, I would still stay in that particular room if I had it to do over. If you're worried about the walk, you might want to pay for a pool/water view room because they're quite a bit closer.

As for the bus times, the wait can be 20 minutes, but once you're on the bus it's really not that bad. I think the longest trip was to MK and it might have been 10-15 minutes, tops. If you drive a car to MK, you'd also want to factor in having to catch the tram, and then the monorail or boat to get to the entrance. We thought the bus system was great, although when we went resort hopping in the evenings, we'd drive to them and park valet. That was just for our own convenience, though. It's easy enough to catch a bus to one of the parks, and then get on another bus to the resort of your choice. It's not difficult, but it can be time consuming.

 

[nixieh]

We are also looking at a Deluxe room as we are a family of 5, I have read that the best views are on floors 2 and 3, did you feel that you had a close enough view of the animals being on the 5th floor?? Do you by any chance have any photos of the view from your room?

Thanks so much

Nicola

 

[golfgal]

We are also looking at a Deluxe room as we are a family of 5, I have read that the best views are on floors 2 and 3, did you feel that you had a close enough view of the animals being on the 5th floor?? Do you by any chance have any photos of the view from your room?

Thanks so much

Nicola

We were there the first week in June. I didn't think we were too far away from the animals from our 5th floor deluxe room. I thought we had better views that way because of where we were located.

Here are pictures from our balcony:

The fence is where the two savannas come together so we were able to see all the animals they had at AKL from our room.

 

[twinmommyks]

I never minded the walk, but my young children at the end of the day did. I was always the one who made the walk to Mara's for drinks or to the lobby for something. But I love to walk. It was about a 5 minute walk from our room down to Mara's. That included waiting for the elevator on 3rd floor which is where the lobby is located. Our rooms were on the opposite side of the resort from where the pool/restaurants are located. However, on the last day, we discovered that we were taking the long way and found a shorter route.

As far as the view from 5th floor, we had giraffes right outside our room and could oversee alot of the savannah. The pictures that golfgal posted are actually a better view then the one we had - we couldn't see the zebra's from our room, but down the hall from one of the other view areas we could.

Yes, there is a gift shop. There isn't a food court, just Mara's (CS) and Boma's and Jiko's (TS), and there is an arcade and alot of different viewing places (both outside and inside the hotel).

There is an area in the lobby where they had Disney cartoons showing and lots of kiddos were "resting" there. The lobby is beautiful and we saw lots of people sitting there just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere.

I was VERY pleased with the transportation. At the resort, we maybe waited 5 minutes max each time. The trip to MK was about 15 min. total and it went very fast and being dropped off fairly close to the entrance was nice. We did NOT rent a car because with children we found that buses worked best (no car seats to worry about, didn't have to worry about the tram, finding our car, etc). We had an 8 am PS at AK Donald's Breakfast and the bus was at our resort promptly at 7:15 a.m.. We were standing in line by 7:30 a.m. and they didn't let us in th park until about 7:45 a.m. The longest wait for the bus was at DTD (about 15 min.) and that was because we just missed one a few minutres before we got there.

Hope I answered everyone's questions. If you have any more, I'll do my best to answer them. Just remember, I am just letting everyone know how the trip was for our family and that others may have a different opinion. I just hope that everyone has the great experience that we did!!!!!

Bren

 

[Jalva22]

We were on the 5th floor overlooking Sunset Savannah June 7-9. We were at the extreme end, very last room, down Ostrich Trail. The walk was long, but not so bad that I'd call it a problem. Ostrich Trail is nowhere near as long as the two main trails though. I also thought the 5th floor view of the animals was perfectly fine. I think our room was 5138. Honestly, I'd accept that room again in a heartbeat!

 

[nixieh]

We were there the first week in June. I didn't think we were too far away from the animals from our 5th floor deluxe room. I thought we had better views that way because of where we were located.

Thanks for the wonderful pictures and comments, you have put my mind at rest about the view from the 5th floor.

Nicola

 

[kimmar067]

...like you had an AWESOME time! BTW ~ for those of you wondering about the 5th floor, here is a link that you can browse:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=752192

(feel free to post on it to let me know what ya think about it !)