Kidani Requests?

[enigmaMN]

Hi All,

We're heading to Kidani 9/23 - 9/30 . We're staying in a 1 BR - unfortunately not Savannah view (We used the extra points for a quick getaway in May...). Are there any requests that we should ask for? I'm feeling a little odd having a ressie with no requests.

I'm just hoping we love Kidani as much as we love SSR.

Thanks!

 

[eporter66]

We also are going to AKV - Kidani Village in October. We also went with the lesser points and did not book a savannah view.

The only thing I have read is that it can feel like a long walk to get to your room depending on where it is located. I have not heard much else about the room locations.

 

[TSMIII]

Well if you're staying in a STD view, you may want to request a pool view, or a garden view, if getting a parking lot view is something you'd like to avoid.

If being closer to Jambo is important, I think all of the STD views south of the lobby may all be parking lot views.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

We recently stayed in a 1 bdrm std view at AKV. We had room 7223. It was the 2nd floor. Our room overlooked the bus stop. there was a parking lot outside our villa but just a few cars were parked there. It was not a parking lot for travellers== maybe CM. It had a gate to get into the lot. We used the Timon elevator to get to our room. It was a nice location. The noises from the buses were not bad at all. Sometimes at night you could hear the beeping from the buses when they unloaded w/ the handicap ramp. The noise did not bother us at all. We were a short walk from the lobby, community hall and the pool. We also went with the std view to save on points too and don't regret it. There are soo many places to view the animals. We loved the fire pit at night.

I had a dis friend that also stayed the same time as us but in 7316, Savannah view. She was disappointed in the animals bc only the ostrichs were around her villa. I did notice that the giraffes tended to stay in the section to the left of the lobby. If you walked into the lobby that faced the fire pit it would be to the left. They tended to hang out there in the evening and at nght. During the day they did roam the savaanah.

If you want to go to AKL take the timon elevator to the garage level and you can walk out to the side walk to AKL. It was a short walk -- on sidewalks to AKL. You can do the same for the pool. But I am not sure what the name for the elevator was -- maybe Zazu - to parking level and walk out right to the pool area.

We did enjoy the villa-- the master bath was HUGE!! The 2nd bath was soo nice. We are use to OKW 2bdrms and I found AKV to be almost comparable in size (except the balacony) for the master/living room/kitchen area.

Be careful if you are staying on points/cash/points. Our ressie was linked w/ the DDP. On the 2nd cash day we were denied DDP at CS. AKV states that linked ressies are not actually connected and that is why it dropped us from the DDP. It did take a lot of time to get it all sorted out. I had a piece of paper from checkin that stated DDP for the entire time but somehow the computer dropped it from the ressie-- also dropped the cc I had on the KTTW cards too. The lady at AKV insisted that we demaginized the stripe on the KTTW cards -- it happened to DH and I at the same time at 2 seperate CS. She then said we were using the wrong KTTW cards. I told her they were the only set we had. We never had this problem at OKW. They had to redo our entire ressie and issue new cards. I also had to go over to make sure we were credited properly for DDP credits that we used and had remaining.

Long story short-- if you have linked ressies verify that all info is on all ressies.

We didn't request a particular location and were very satisfied w/ our room location

I would be happy to answer any other ?'s you might have on AKV

 

[enigmaMN]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I'm not sure why - but I'm really nervous about staying at Kidani. SSR is truly our home and I canceled a ressie booked there to stay at Kidani and I just hope it's on par with our experiences at SSR. We love the cast at SSR and have developed some great relationships with a few of them. I'm sure Kidani will be great too...

 

[springandmac]

We never had this problem at OKW.

Which do you like better OKW or AKV? I have a OKW reservation and thinking of waitlisting AKV.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

springandmac-- I actually love OKW more-- it is a more laid back feeling. At AKV I felt rushed--not sure if it was DH who was in more of a rushing mode this time around or it was a rush to get back to AKV to do the pool/water area. I love AKV for the newness. Our last villa at OKW was in serious need of rehab. AKV is beautiful-- love all the little places they put the african art. Also loved checking out the animals too. I am glad we did not go for savaanah view since it was more points. We were able to get an extra night out of the trip by going std view- I am all for an extra day. The parking isn't really bad since we were able to park right near the elevator that took up us to our room. Underground parking also kept our car very cool in August.

I love OKW bc it is soo much more of a relaxing feeling.

enigmaMN-- I too was very nervous about staying at AKV. We stayed only at OKW for the last 4 yrs. I heard so many negative things about AKV that I got nervous. Even about having a 1 bdrm when we always had a 2 bdrm. I found that the 1bdrm was a very good size. Plenty of room for the 6 of us. We had 1 under 3. We had breaksfast in the villa every morning so lack of CS really didn't affect us much. We did have Mara's once which was okay. I changed the ADR we had for Saana to Boma's. Glad I did- it had more of an offering.

I would say if you haven't stayed before to try it. Everyone has different taste. I was trying to plan 2010 before we even left for 2009 and DH kept saying don't plan on AKV bc you don't even know if you like it.

I don't think we will return in 2010. I have OKW in mind. We need a 2bdrm from here on out and the price of the 1bdrm was higher than a 2bdrm at OKW. There was not cash discount on a std view either. Since we have to renew our APs next trip I think we will hang out at OKW since the cash rate is much better - plus it is usually discounted. AKV 2brm is high so definitely not next year.

AKV is a few points cheaper than OKW but the cash rate for weekends might be the deal breaker.

Have a magical trip


I hope this helps

 

[enigmaMN]

mykidslovesdisney - thanks for the great information. I'm sure we'll enjoy it.. it's just that it seems odd for us not to going to SSR. Oh well.. it's disney afterall can't really complain!

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

enigmaMN-- Glad I could help. I felt the same way about not staying OKW. We did have a magical time. The kids loved staying there --esp the water play area and pool. They are bummed that we are not going back for 2010. I told them we would probably go for 2011.

send tons of for you upcoming trip!

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

mykidslovesdisney - thanks for the great information. I'm sure we'll enjoy it.. it's just that it seems odd for us not to going to SSR. Oh well.. it's disney afterall can't really complain!

We feel the same way too...SSR is our home and we have stayed there exclusively since joining DVC. We are staying at Kidani Standard 1 Bedroom this time, and although I always wanted a Savannah view, the points were too high...I hope we love it as much as SSR.

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

mykidslovesdisney - thanks for the great information. I'm sure we'll enjoy it.. it's just that it seems odd for us not to going to SSR. Oh well.. it's disney afterall can't really complain!

We feel the same way too...SSR is our home and we have stayed there exclusively since joining DVC. We are staying at Kidani Standard 1 Bedroom this time, and although I always wanted a Savannah view, the points were too high...I hope we love it as much as SSR.

 

[brandylouwho]

We stayed in a standard view 2 bedroom at Kidani this past August. I can't find the room number, but it was near the Timon elevators, so relatively close to the lobby & very convenient to get to the bus stop. We'd take the Timon elevator down to the parking area and cross a narrow drive/park lot.

It was not a bad walk to the pool, but I think my perfect standard location would be a true pool view...just to the left of the lobby.

I did not notice bus noise unless we had the balcony doors open. But we did have 4 little kids along (who were noisey themselves, thus drowning out other noise).

FWIW I really enjoyed Kidani, but we are AKV owners and AKL has always been our style. We did a split stay with SSR (our friends had developer points to use) and while I enjoyed SSR too, I think the Kidani rooms felt larger (mainly due to the room layout) and having the additional bathroom was nice too. The pool area is very well themed (and really cool after dark). Overall Kidani felt warm, inviting and intimate to me.

The view was nothing to write home about, but we really did not spend much time on the balcony, so the view did not matter to us. (With 4 little kids I'd have a heart attack trying to keep them from falling off the balcony, they are monkeys).

The kids found plenty of opportunities to see the animals...large windows in the hallway near our room, from the balcony of the community hall and from the outdoor viewing area.


Here are a few shots from our balcony.

that covered area is the bus stop, slightly to the right of our balcony. Lobby is on far right of picture, where the road curves. You can see a glimpse of blue in the pool are on the left of the pic.

pool is off in the distance, to the right of the balcony (used zoom lens)

direct shot out from the balcony

 

[Silver Queen]

Our home resort is also SSR and we're very happy there, but our goals is to try all of the DVC resorts. We stayed at Kidani for 6 nights last month and LOVED it! We had a standard view (studio) because we were unable to get a savannah view but we were very happy there. As a previous poster mentioned, there are many other places and opportunities to see the animals. Our balcony overlooked the parking lot (similar to the photo above) and we were fine with it. We really didn't go to Jambo House much but the walk wasn't bad. Bottom line is that we will go back to Kidani in a heartbeat. The CMs were wonderful and there is a very warm, friendly feeling in the resort ( in our opinion nicer than the bustle at Jambo House). The pool area at Kidani was really enjoyable Hope you have a great stay!