This was our first trip to AKL--we have previously stayed at WL, POFQ and CSR. First the good: the common areas of the resort are beautiful, the lobby is filled with excellent African art and artifacts, and the staff is the best we have encountered at any Disney resort. The CMs who run the kids activities and staff the animal overlooks are especially good. My daughter greatly enjoyed the "bead activities"--which are five specific activities, each with a nature and conservation theme--offered every day at set times. Upon completion, the child earns a bead that represents the activity. Once all five activities are complete, the child is given a totem bead--which represents an animal or other part of nature that the child agrees to help protect or learn more about (DD chose an opposum 
). My DD was so interested in these activities that we actually cut into park time to make sure that she got to all of them.
The restaurants at AKL were very good (Mara) to excellent (Boma and Jiko). We ate at Jiko twice without ressies, by sitting at the "cooking place"--which is essentially a stone bar by the woodfired stoves. You can watch the preparation of many dishes--and we chatted with the cooks when they were not busy. Because of the holidays, there was a wine tasting and Jiko appetizer sampling in the lobby each night around 5 PM--DS actually tried the ostrich, and liked it....There were also performances in the lobby by a bell choir, and a singing choir on different nights.
So--the not so good things--AKL really is far away from everything except AK. We took the buses, which ran on a reasonable schedule and which did not stop at other resorts, but it was still a whole heck of a lot longer to get anywhere. I would seriously consider renting a car if you are staying at this resort. Second--the mousekeeping was not good. Now, I am not the kind of person to look for dustbunnies in the corners, demand towel animals, or use a blacklight on the bedcomforter, but there was visible dust on the furniture when we arrived. Also, the room was made up very late (and I had to ask at the bell desk on day to send someone, because it was still not made up at 3:15 PM). Maybe it is staff cutbacks, or maybe the resort was unusually busy, but that was the one aspect of the stay that was a bit of a disappointment.
). My DD was so interested in these activities that we actually cut into park time to make sure that she got to all of them. The restaurants at AKL were very good (Mara) to excellent (Boma and Jiko). We ate at Jiko twice without ressies, by sitting at the "cooking place"--which is essentially a stone bar by the woodfired stoves. You can watch the preparation of many dishes--and we chatted with the cooks when they were not busy. Because of the holidays, there was a wine tasting and Jiko appetizer sampling in the lobby each night around 5 PM--DS actually tried the ostrich, and liked it....There were also performances in the lobby by a bell choir, and a singing choir on different nights.
So--the not so good things--AKL really is far away from everything except AK. We took the buses, which ran on a reasonable schedule and which did not stop at other resorts, but it was still a whole heck of a lot longer to get anywhere. I would seriously consider renting a car if you are staying at this resort. Second--the mousekeeping was not good. Now, I am not the kind of person to look for dustbunnies in the corners, demand towel animals, or use a blacklight on the bedcomforter, but there was visible dust on the furniture when we arrived. Also, the room was made up very late (and I had to ask at the bell desk on day to send someone, because it was still not made up at 3:15 PM). Maybe it is staff cutbacks, or maybe the resort was unusually busy, but that was the one aspect of the stay that was a bit of a disappointment.
