las3888
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 30, 2001
- Messages
- 2,457
Hi all,
In light of our upcoming trip, I have been scouring the boards in the past 2 months or so for any reports of AKV, partly because of its newness, and partly because of the construction disruption. Anyways, I thought I would share my thoughts for those who may have upcoming trips.
In all, I am really thrilled with AKV. We had stayed once before we were DVC members in just a regular savannah room and I was looking forward to coming back--it had been probably 4 years or so!
Anyways, getting the 'bad' out of the way. I thought the love bugs (?) were horrible. I am not sure if that's what they are called, but they were the bugs that attach themselves to each other. At any rate, on day 2, we came home mid-day from the parks to find about 100 bugs on our balcony. There were about 40 on a white-ish table on the patio and it was just a little creepy to look out and see all these black bugs on the white table. I really planned on using the deck during DS's naps to read and relax and watch the animals, so I was a little disappointed. DH and I used a towel and cleared up some bugs, but there was no way to really stop them from coming. I used the deck most days but I always was chasing these darn bugs away or feeling them on me. The last day I just kind of gave up.
As I toured the resort and went down most hallways, I noticed that regular rooms did not seem to have this problem. I did notice that DVC room balcony's are first off higher and then secondly, they stick out a few feet further than the other rooms below them. I have no idea if this is why the bugs seemed to love our balcony or floor, but it was just not really pleasant.
Okay. I digress, and many of you could probably care less, but really, that is about all I can say that is really negative.
Construction was very unobtrusive. No problem at all for us. We were overlooking the Arusha Savanna, but at the NE tip (I'm not sure if it's really NE, but looking at the hotel map, it is NE...just not the big main part of the savanna). It was very pleasant. We almost always saw zebras, giraffes and at rare times, kudus (I think). I think the most pleasant place to be in all (based on the views out of the windows that I could see in the hallways) was the Uzima savanna.
I walked on the Kudu trail and felt a sort of weird vibe. I believe the Sunset Savanna is not open (if it is, I did not see a single animal). The savanna above that (I don't know its name, it is opposite the Uzima Savanna) had nice animals and ostriches which we did not have in our savanna but there were humungous cranes and construction views just beyond. This is the savanna we originally stayed on 4 yrs ago and I found it totally different than our initial visit. I would have been disappointed with the view.
Our room was beautiful. Everything was so new and sparkling. We are fans of OKW and I realized that OKW is showing some wear and tear after all. The room was smallish, but I expected it. I did not feel it to be any smaller than BCV or BWV. I really kept thinking that they figured out some kinks and made many things better. I liked the entire layout very much. I even liked the shower/tub combo. I am not a tub person, so as I took my shower I enjoyed the huge space that came with the tub, unlike the other resorts which have a smallish shower space. There was a very very large open closet (or cubbie holes) in the bathroom that in the end may have been the place to put our clothes. We always cram everything into the dresser in the bedroom (BTW, we were in a 1br). In the end, we should have put a lot of things in the bathroom closet space. I just didn't even realize it existed as I unpacked.
There was nice closet space up front in the kitchen--though not huge. Enough to store some smaller empty luggage and such. We could also store a huge crib box from our crib rental in the laundry space.
I expected the halls to be super long. We have stayed at the way end of BWV before and I expected worse. I think this was much closer, but what do I know. We were just about as far away as you could be at AKV, minus 2 or 3 doors I would say. It wasn't a biggie for me and we had a toddler in tow who refused to sit in his stroller. DH thought it was a bit long though.
Check-in was okay...we got there at about 1:30 on a Wed and got our room around 3 pm I think.
Valet parking was super nice--everybody was so very friendly and helpful. They now have some kind of scanner for your parking tag (if you have a car) so they are really on top of who you are. We had no problems of being charged for valet like we have in the past.
We had no problem finding self parking spots as well.
We used the bus to get to MK and had zero wait (we just got lucky I guess) on our way to MK. We made it there in I think 16 minutes flat. The bus was a bit crowded...DH had to stand, but DS and I were able to sit. On the way back, we waited about 10 minutes. Overall trip time was just under 30 minutues. To us it was much better than driving ourselves.
Okay, one more negative, on the last morning (today, Sunday) we had a hard time getting bell services to pick up our crib from an outside rental agency. We called at least an 90 minutes prior to our leaving but after repeated calls, nobody was able to come and pick up our crib. There were tags all over the crib that said not to leave the crib in our room, even if the hotel says it is okay, but in the end we had no choice as we had a flight to catch. All I can say is that bell services was EXTREMELY busy that morning so please keep that in mind for all your plans.
I hope some of this info is helpful to you in some way. I apologize that this is so long. I just wanted to share all the things I have remembered as so many of your tips have been so helpful to me!
In light of our upcoming trip, I have been scouring the boards in the past 2 months or so for any reports of AKV, partly because of its newness, and partly because of the construction disruption. Anyways, I thought I would share my thoughts for those who may have upcoming trips.
In all, I am really thrilled with AKV. We had stayed once before we were DVC members in just a regular savannah room and I was looking forward to coming back--it had been probably 4 years or so!
Anyways, getting the 'bad' out of the way. I thought the love bugs (?) were horrible. I am not sure if that's what they are called, but they were the bugs that attach themselves to each other. At any rate, on day 2, we came home mid-day from the parks to find about 100 bugs on our balcony. There were about 40 on a white-ish table on the patio and it was just a little creepy to look out and see all these black bugs on the white table. I really planned on using the deck during DS's naps to read and relax and watch the animals, so I was a little disappointed. DH and I used a towel and cleared up some bugs, but there was no way to really stop them from coming. I used the deck most days but I always was chasing these darn bugs away or feeling them on me. The last day I just kind of gave up.
As I toured the resort and went down most hallways, I noticed that regular rooms did not seem to have this problem. I did notice that DVC room balcony's are first off higher and then secondly, they stick out a few feet further than the other rooms below them. I have no idea if this is why the bugs seemed to love our balcony or floor, but it was just not really pleasant.
Okay. I digress, and many of you could probably care less, but really, that is about all I can say that is really negative.
Construction was very unobtrusive. No problem at all for us. We were overlooking the Arusha Savanna, but at the NE tip (I'm not sure if it's really NE, but looking at the hotel map, it is NE...just not the big main part of the savanna). It was very pleasant. We almost always saw zebras, giraffes and at rare times, kudus (I think). I think the most pleasant place to be in all (based on the views out of the windows that I could see in the hallways) was the Uzima savanna.
I walked on the Kudu trail and felt a sort of weird vibe. I believe the Sunset Savanna is not open (if it is, I did not see a single animal). The savanna above that (I don't know its name, it is opposite the Uzima Savanna) had nice animals and ostriches which we did not have in our savanna but there were humungous cranes and construction views just beyond. This is the savanna we originally stayed on 4 yrs ago and I found it totally different than our initial visit. I would have been disappointed with the view.
Our room was beautiful. Everything was so new and sparkling. We are fans of OKW and I realized that OKW is showing some wear and tear after all. The room was smallish, but I expected it. I did not feel it to be any smaller than BCV or BWV. I really kept thinking that they figured out some kinks and made many things better. I liked the entire layout very much. I even liked the shower/tub combo. I am not a tub person, so as I took my shower I enjoyed the huge space that came with the tub, unlike the other resorts which have a smallish shower space. There was a very very large open closet (or cubbie holes) in the bathroom that in the end may have been the place to put our clothes. We always cram everything into the dresser in the bedroom (BTW, we were in a 1br). In the end, we should have put a lot of things in the bathroom closet space. I just didn't even realize it existed as I unpacked.
There was nice closet space up front in the kitchen--though not huge. Enough to store some smaller empty luggage and such. We could also store a huge crib box from our crib rental in the laundry space.
I expected the halls to be super long. We have stayed at the way end of BWV before and I expected worse. I think this was much closer, but what do I know. We were just about as far away as you could be at AKV, minus 2 or 3 doors I would say. It wasn't a biggie for me and we had a toddler in tow who refused to sit in his stroller. DH thought it was a bit long though.
Check-in was okay...we got there at about 1:30 on a Wed and got our room around 3 pm I think.
Valet parking was super nice--everybody was so very friendly and helpful. They now have some kind of scanner for your parking tag (if you have a car) so they are really on top of who you are. We had no problems of being charged for valet like we have in the past.
We had no problem finding self parking spots as well.
We used the bus to get to MK and had zero wait (we just got lucky I guess) on our way to MK. We made it there in I think 16 minutes flat. The bus was a bit crowded...DH had to stand, but DS and I were able to sit. On the way back, we waited about 10 minutes. Overall trip time was just under 30 minutues. To us it was much better than driving ourselves.
Okay, one more negative, on the last morning (today, Sunday) we had a hard time getting bell services to pick up our crib from an outside rental agency. We called at least an 90 minutes prior to our leaving but after repeated calls, nobody was able to come and pick up our crib. There were tags all over the crib that said not to leave the crib in our room, even if the hotel says it is okay, but in the end we had no choice as we had a flight to catch. All I can say is that bell services was EXTREMELY busy that morning so please keep that in mind for all your plans.
I hope some of this info is helpful to you in some way. I apologize that this is so long. I just wanted to share all the things I have remembered as so many of your tips have been so helpful to me!
)
, but if it does occur, it's handled very well. 
