Just Back from our First stay at Kidani Village.

[Ron from Michigan]

We returned late Sat. from our first stay at our home resort Kidani Village. Wow what a beautiful place. After several stays at AKL Jambo house it was nice to stay at our home resort. We had a great room 7456 on the Giraffe savannah. But boy was it a long, long walk form the lobby. We saw 5 giraffe's right outside our room a lot of times. The pool and kids play area are very nice. The only negative that I have is why they could not put some kind of counter service area in the resort. It would of been nice to come back in the afternoon or evening and had some place to grab a quick sandwich. We did walk over to Mara at Jambo house a few times. We also ate at Sanaa for lunch and it was fantastic. I cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. We will be eating here many times in the future. We stayed at BWV for the first three nights of our trip. We had one of the refurbished rooms and it was beautiful. It was so nice to be able to walk into Epcot in only 5 minutes. Overall we had another great trip to our favorite vacation spot.

 

[Reddog1134]

I'm looking forward to my first stay in October. I think you hit the 2 biggest "complaints" about Kidani (according to Disboards members).

1. No CS restaurant
2. Long walk to the room

 

[TLinden16]

We stayed at Kidani a couple of nights, and weren't two far from the elevators, but some of those rooms are pretty far away!

 

[Lexxiefern]

Glad you liked Kidani We have only stayed at Jambo so far, but look forward to when we can try out Kidani. Love the pool!

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Does anyone at Kidani ever order from the "bar" menu? Although limited, very few people talk about it.

 

[WolfpackFan]

You know I was just sitting here thinking about the CS situation at Kidani. There is something that they could do that would help alleviate the situation without making any major changes to the resort. Just put in a take out window to the side of Sanaa that you could purchase items from and take back to your room. Kind of like Tide Me Over at HHI. They have the Sanaa kitchen there, surely it wouldn't disrupt it all that much to prepare some simple take out items - maybe burgers and fries, chicken nuggets, some flat breads, etc. Also offer the items on the regular Sanaa menu. They could also offer some breakfast items. You wouldn't need any sitting area just a take out window. I wonder if any of the powers to be have thought about this any. I'm still waiting for my evaluation postcard to arrive from our recent stay at Kidani. I may offer that suggestion when I do the survery.

 

[Iggipolka]

The lack of CS at Kidani has been the major reason why we are staying at Jambo house for our upcoming trip. I think that Disney really made a huge mistake by not having CS at Kidani.

I do like the idea of a take out window to the side of Sanaa. That wouldn't be difficult to do and would offer a nice option to dealing with the long walk to The Mara or waiting endlessly for a bus over to Jambo.

The only drawback to the take out window, is that given the extreme lack of CS options at Kidani, I could see where the line at Sanaa take out, would get really long at prime times.

 

[lionqueen]

Did you make any special requests for a room? We will be staying in July in a savannah studio and would LOVE to see giraffes!!! Should we make any special requests or just leave it to fate??

 

[ttester9612]

I agree about the long walk to the rooms. I stayed there in October and my room was actually closer to Jumbo House instead of the Kidani Main Lobby. I would stay there again, I'll just have to make a request to be closer to the lobby.

 

[DebbieB]

Did you make any special requests for a room? We will be staying in July in a savannah studio and would LOVE to see giraffes!!! Should we make any special requests or just leave it to fate??

Be sure to request Sunset Savannah. The Pembe savannah (on the pool side) does not have giraffes. I would also put in a request for close to lobby, the giraffes were there most of the day.

I personally would not stay at Kidani without a car. It's nice to be able to get around quick plus if your room is far out, there are elevators from the first floor parking area straight to the guest floors.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We did not request any certain room. The rooms are really beautiful. It did seem that the savannah was closer to our rooms at Kidanni. It was amazing to see 5 Giraffe's just a few feet away from our balcony. It really was closer to walk to Jambo House from our room than to the lobby. You can go to the parking garage and take the elevater up to your room. It makes it so much closer when coming back from Jambo house. We did not get any food off of the bar menu at the pool but I did get a draft beer that tasted so good..........

 

[Phantasmic]

We just came back from our 1st stay at Kidani Village. It is a beautiful place, we had giraffes outside our window every day and many animals throughout the day and night.
I don't know if I would go there again though without a car. The walk from the bus stop to our room 7874(almost at the end of the 'horn') was 12 minutes and i believe it was 1/2 mile. When we first got there I thought there must be a shorter way to the lobby/bus stop, but after checking with the front desk on day 2, I found out that was the only route. Didn't even ask about changing rooms - everything was unpacked.
I also would love to see them add a counter service.

 

[ACDSNY]

The walk from the bus stop to our room 7874(almost at the end of the 'horn') was 12 minutes and i believe it was 1/2 mile.

I also would love to see them add a counter service.

Wow you were further then our stay last Nov. We were in 7841 and enjoyed our view of thefeeding and watering hole for the animals. Another vote for a counter service option at Kidani. We tried Mara, but didn't enjoy the food.

 

[CruznLexi]

We have stayed at Kidani and really do not have a problem that there is no ciunter service. It would be nice. For breakfast we had a snack and then we went to the the park or water park until 2pm came to the Mara had lunch and walked back. For diner we had it later like 8pm.
Lexi

 

[movie77]

We loved our first trip "home" to Kidani in November. The resort is beautiful, the CMs consistently the most helpful I've encountered at WDW, and full of activities and nice touches. The big draw back is of course the quick service meal. Why don't the expand the offerings at the pool to include hamburgers etc?

 

[ont/ohana]

our family went to Kidani in Sept-Oct. I think the set-up is beautiful, the animals, everything! although, we got a really great view so we could see all the animals! i would definatly stay there again!
-DD12

 

[nvrenoughdisney]

We requested (and got) a room close to the lobby. It was not a long walk at all!