POFQ, AKL, WL !?? Help me pick!

[annabug]

Hi Everyone!

I am in the early stages of planning a surprise 8 th grade graduation trip for my daughter for July 2019!!!

It will be my family of 4...me. DH, DD 14, DS 10

W will stay for 10 days

Our last trip was August 2015! So a lot has changed!

We have stayed at the following resorts on previous trips:

POFQ
BC
POLY
OKW
SS
CB

So this time Im considering and old favorite (POFQ) and 2 new resorts.

Any advice or pros and cons to AKL and WL

Room categories, and locations for the 2 new resorts is also very helpful!!

Thank you in advance!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Both AKL and WL have gorgeous architecture and the rooms are the same size. There are a lot of fun activities at AKL and you can watch the animals from several viewing areas. And they have a nice pool. But it is a bus ride to everything.

We love WL. The lodge is compact and everything is close together. The main pool has a slide and the new villas pool has a zero depth entry. Geyser Point bar and grill is on the shores of Bay Lake and gives you a beautiful view of the lake. You feel like you are far away from Disney while sitting out there. They also have a counter service location at Geyser Point. They pipe in the music from the MK fireworks there and you can see the high fireworks from the shore.

The big advantage to WL over your other options is the boat to MK. It is a very nice 12 minute boat ride and it is easy to come and go from that park. They also have a bus to MK which is a five minute ride. You can ask for a bunk bed room which will give your kids their own beds and a little more floor space in your room. Many of the standard view and nature view rooms will have a partial view of the fireworks. You can rent bikes and ride over to Fort Wilderness along the paved trail. There is also a resort boat that travels between the WL, the Contemporary and Ft wilderness.

 

[pinkxray]

Tough choice. I’d rule out POFQ just because you have been there before.

Akl is one of my favorite resorts. I’ve had pool view and savannah view. While savannah is amazing there are plenty of viewing areas around the resort if you don’t have it. The food is also great at AKL.

Despite AKL probably being my favorite resort if I was staying 10 days with my family I would pick WL. It is just closer to the action and has a bit more to do for us. The option to take the boat over to FW or CR opens recreation and dining options. I don’t know much about views here. I usually just go for cheapest since we don’t really spend much time sitting on the balcony.

Any of the three are great choices.

 

[mickeymom22]

Split stay! Stay at WL when you are wanting to be close to MK and choose one of the other resorts for the other part of your stay. We do split stays all the time...because I am drawn to try another resort, but don't want to leave my favorites!

Sounds like a great birthday trip!

 

[annabug]

Thank you so much!!
I am really leaning toward WL!

I went on the website, and the bunk bed rooms are not available for my dates ?

Thats confusing since its a year out

For WL------How is the counter service restaurant?

What is the best building to request?

 

[morganms22]

I would choose WL because of the variety of transportation and the proximity not only to Magic Kingdom, but to the monorail resorts. They are just a boat ride away for additional dining and firework watching. I know I’m probably in the minority on the baords, but we did not care for AKL. We love animals, but they are not around all the time and once we saw a few the Magic was sort of gone. It’s far from everything and the resort itself felt really cold to me. Boma does have a great breakfast and dinner. I would suggest just planning a meal there and then walking around to the viewing points on the property. That’s plenty enough and something special for your family to do together.

 

[nyy]

We love WL! There is no building to request because it is all one main lodge!
We stayed for 10 days with 2 kids similar aged as yours.
The choice of 2 pools is fantastic. We have stayed at POFQ, POR, and ASMov previously. The difference in just one main building was unreal. No walking back in the heat!
Geyser Point and Roaring Fork give a family many choices. The kids loved renting boats, the arcade, and the gift shop. DH and I loved Territory Lounge.
Transportation was the best we ever had. Busses are faster than the boat to MK. MK is 5 minutes away.
We saw the tops of fireworks from our balcony.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Thank you so much!!
I am really leaning toward WL!

I went on the website, and the bunk bed rooms are not available for my dates ?

Thats confusing since its a year out

For WL------How is the counter service restaurant?

What is the best building to request?

AKL is beautiful, but we LOVE WL (also gorgeous!). It's so serene and the boat to MK, CR and Ft. W is great. We love QS at WL because it has two great options depending on what you are in the mood for.

There really isn't a building to request at WL - all of the rooms are in the same building. If you can swing it, consider doing CL there - it's spectacular. If you book standard CL and request an even-numbered room, you'll have a view of the MK fireworks.

 

[raddisneyfan]

I love all 3 resorts--actually i find it hard to really dislike any of the resorts I've stayed in. In your case with a 10 and 14 year old, I would go for AKL and all of the animals there. AKL has great food options too and a great zero-entry pool. I found getting to parks very easy and found the AKL bus service very good----and a very quick ride to AK. I think the AKL though will be going through a refurb next year--I'm going in January, but returbs haven't really bothered me in the past. If that might be an issue for you and your family though, you may want to check before you book. I find room categories and views very tricky especially at AKL and WL. You can have views of really dense foliage and building roofs. Never really bothered me and I've been lucky to get some good upgrades in the past with better views. If you can afford it, you should book a Savannah View at AKL--a lot more expensive though....you can always book Standard and hope for a free upgrade to Savannah when you get there. Upgrades usually depend on how full the resort is---not sure how packed the AKL is in July. Good luck planning and, as far as I'm concerned, you really can't make a bad selection.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

All awesome. AKL is great but we only stay there with Savana view since it so far from most parks and such. We also love WL. The boats to MK make our day.

 

[soccermom54]

Of the resort choices you listed and the age of your children, I would choose Wilderness Lodge. The resort itself is wonderful, the boat service to MK, Contemporary and Fort Wilderness is great and the bus service has always been very good to the other parks when we have stayed there. We are not fans of the standard view but now I understand you can book a room on that side of the building that is not over the service area. We have stayed courtyard view a couple of times and were very pleased.

 

[Sue M]

Hard choice! Since you haven’t tried WL or AKL I’d pick one of those. Both resorts have bunk bed options.
At AKL they have 3 great restaurants, Mara (CS) and Boma 1TS, Jiko 2TS. Plus Saana at Kidani.
We’ve had pool and savanna views at AKL and both very nice. I think the AKL pool is my fav. Lots of activities at AKL, my fav is the evening Cultural Safari. Always well done and interesting.

WL is also wonderful. Beautiful resort located close to MK. One of the best things is location, location, location. While AKL is a bit removed, at WL your in the middle of it. While still in a quiet relaxed place. You can see MK fireworks, & Electric water parade from WL. And for dining ADRs you have access to all the MK resorts via the boats. Depending on where you want to go there’s a resort boat that loops around WL, FW & CR if you want to go to CR for dinner or monorail. Or take the MK boat and then hop on the Poly/GF boat for those resorts.
At WL, only the north side is for regular reservations. The south side is taken over by DVC.
WL has 2 CS, Roaring Forks and the new Geyser Point. I thought Roaring Forks had good options, but we haven’t stayed at WL in awhile. I’m looking forward to trying out the new Geyser Point and Artist Point. The re done Villas pool looks very nice.

 

[CynBeth]

I would choose WL because of the variety of transportation and the proximity not only to Magic Kingdom, but to the monorail resorts. They are just a boat ride away for additional dining and firework watching. I know I’m probably in the minority on the baords, but we did not care for AKL. We love animals, but they are not around all the time and once we saw a few the Magic was sort of gone. It’s far from everything and the resort itself felt really cold to me. Boma does have a great breakfast and dinner. I would suggest just planning a meal there and then walking around to the viewing points on the property. That’s plenty enough and something special for your family to do together.

We did not care for AKL either. We do have either a breakfast or dinner at Boma every trip on our AK day so get to visit. We absolutely loved WL!

 

[Belle'sFan]

I have stayed at all 3, most recently WL in May 2018, for the 3rd time. Love them all, it really depends on your group. The reason I prefer WL is we love the boat ride to MK, love boating or bicycling to the campground to eat at Trail's End, and love the western theming. It's a relaxing resort and the new Geyser Point area is super. We always get park hoppers and found we could visit a park all the day, come back to WL for dinner and rest, and then take the boat to MK for shopping or fireworks. On the day we planned visit WS at Epcot, we knew it didn't open until later, so headed to MK for a couple hours in the morning, then monorail over to Epcot. In my opinion it's always good be close to at least one park so you can have that option to pop over with little travel time.

 

[Arden01]

I've stayed at AKL and POFQ. We loved both. We had a savanna room at AKL and that was truly a special and memorable experience. Nothing like waking up to giraffes outside of your room. I loved the restaurants as well. That being said, I would choose WL next time. My daughters (13) really only want to go to the parks, especially MK. WL seems like the perfect resort for both relaxation and proximity to parks.

 

[Happiest.Haunt_999]

WL

 

[85glht]

We love both AKL and WL. AKL is far from all the parks but is just as beautiful as WL. Even if you choose AKL with a standard view room, don’t fret as you can go out the backside of the lobby and walk down to the fence and see the animals from there.
WL has the option to take a boat to MK. A nice perk. Tough choice... I don’t think you can go wrong with either choice

 

[Wood Nymph]

Thank you so much!!
I am really leaning toward WL!

I went on the website, and the bunk bed rooms are not available for my dates ?

Thats confusing since its a year out

For WL------How is the counter service restaurant?

What is the best building to request?

Only the courtyard view rooms have a bookable bunk bed caption. There are bunk bed rooms in the standard view and nature view categories but they are available by request only. It is very odd that they don't have a bunk bed room available since they are usually the last ones to get sold out.

Roaring Forks isn't too bad. They have good options for breakfast and rather limited for lunch and dinner. Geyser Point has a quick service restaurant that serves lunch and dinner, giving you two options for those meals.

 

[annabug]

Thank you everyone!!!! So I decided on WL! but....... when I call to book, they said that the bunk bed rooms are all being redone, and therefore I am unable to book them!!
and I looked online, and those rooms are unavailable for my dates!!!!

This is a game changer for me!! Now I don't know what to do!!!!!

 

[nyy]

I would keep trying. Are your dates flexible? You could play around with them a day or two. I find the website inconsistent and glitchy. Are you only interested in bunk bed rooms? You could call back and have a different CM check availability, as well.
WL books up much quicker than it used to because they changed so many rooms to villas. I still think that you can find a room a year out, though. Don’t give up - WL is worth it!