Just back from AKV 1BR Standard View

[blueroses]

My husband and I spent 4 nights at AKV for the WDW Marathon last week. It was our first stay at AK and our first in a DVC 1BR. The room was 5454 and it overlooked the pool. It was right by the elevators that are halfway down the halls off the lobby.

Arrival and check-in: our flight arrived at 7:15AM from Seattle and we had a 9AM ADR at Boma for breakfast. After waiting what seemed like forever for our luggage to show up at baggage claim, we got our rental car and were on our way. When we got to the lobby, there were maybe 5 parties in front of us in line to check in and 3 CMs working behind the desk. This was at 8:45. The line was SLOW. Finally we were checked in at 9:00. I was happy that our room was ready since I've heard the stories of people not getting into their rooms until way after 4 before. We booked it up to our room, threw down our luggage and were at the desk at Boma by 9:10, where we were seated immediately.

The room: I was happy with the room and particularly happy with the amount of space. I don't think we can ever go back to studios after this. The storage space was adequate, but we packed light for this trip. The hall we were on and our room had an odd smell, kind of like petfood. I have no idea what it is, but it was there the whole trip. It wasn't unpleasant, just noticeable.

Other things about the room: This is going to sound like I didn't like AKV, but I promise I did. The sheets on the bed felt course to me. They were definitely not as soft was the ones at the Poly, which we spent 2 nights at after we checked out of AKV. The kitchen area needs more light. Not that I was cooking, but I had to turn on the light in the stove hood just to see well enough to make my coffee. And just having the internet in the bedroom was a pain in the butt - particularly since my husband and I each bring our laptops. What we ended up doing was plugging one in in the bedroom and using it as a wireless basestation for the other.

The view: we looked out over the pool. It was nice enough. You could see animals on the savannah off the hallways anyway so I didn't feel like we were missing out. There wasn't too much noise from the pool and I only heard very minimal construction noise. In fact, I wouldn't have guessed it was from construction if I hadn't already known about it.

Everything was very clean. We loved having a full size refrigerator for snacks. Having a washer and dryer in your room is mind-blowing if you've never had one before! The room set up was great with the hallway separating the bedroom and the bathroom. We had breakfast at Boma twice and picked up food from the Mara twice. We had eaten at Jiko on previous trips, but with me running the Goofy I just wasn't in the mood for a signature meal. The Mara was fine, but I liked the selection at Capt. Cook's at the Poly better. The Mara had better extras - hummus and pita chips, zebra domes - but Capt. Cook's had better entrees - great sandwiches.

We split our transportation between busses (to the parks) and our rental car (to Downtown Disney and off property to pick up groceries and supplies. There was more than once that it seemed the valet was in no hurry to get our car to us, but most of the time they were great. We had no issues with the busses and never waited more than 5-10 minutes for one.

I can't wait for the Kidani rooms to start opening up. I can definitely see us adding more points to our AKV contract. I'm definitely booking AKV for next year's WDW Marathon trip.

Questions? Please ask.

 

[disneynutz]

The sheets on the bed felt course to me. They were definitely not as soft was the ones at the Poly, which we spent 2 nights at after we checked out of AKV. The kitchen area needs more light. Not that I was cooking, but I had to turn on the light in the stove hood just to see well enough to make my coffee. And just having the internet in the bedroom was a pain in the butt - particularly since my husband and I each bring our laptops. What we ended up doing was plugging one in in the bedroom and using it as a wireless basestation for the other.

I recently had a disscussion with the DVC Satisfaction people and they are collecting data on ways to improve the DVC resorts and the DVC program. I discussed the poor lighting in the kitchens in several of the resorts and the CM was very supprised. I was told that the more we bring a problem to their attention, the faster the problem might go away. The reason that I say might, it that there are forces at work that we as DVC Members are not aware of. The observations and sugestions are reviewed by Management and discussed in staff meetings. Items like dirty rooms are tracked and refered to the persons responsibile. They are held accountable.

Bottom line is that we all need to take the time to forward our complaints and concerns to the DVC Member Satisfaction Group. If we don't, we only have ourselves to blame when things aren't right.

 

[snowbunny]

our flight arrived at 7:15AM from Seattle and we had a 9AM ADR at Boma for breakfast.

Wow, that's tight, especially with a cross-country flight - you were lucky to have made it to that ADR.

 

[blueroses]

Wow, that's tight, especially with a cross-country flight - you were lucky to have made it to that ADR.

Believe it or not, I have actually taken that same flight and checked into my hotel and been at Main Street USA by 9AM.