Port Orleans vs Animal Kingdom Lodge - Help?

[Nancyg56]

I have stayed at both with a youngster and given a choice would choose ALK. The pool is a zero entry and perfect for kids. It is spacious, plenty of shade and lots of chairs and loungers. It is pretty darn awesome, and for one who likes the King Triton pool over SAB, well....just saying AKL with children is a pretty sweet spot.

 

[Shanti]

Hi everyone,

Right now my family is planning to visit Disney in August and stay at Port Orleans - French Quarter. The main attraction to staying there, for us, was the pools. My daughter will have just turned 5 and loves to be in the pool and on the water slides... especially in that August heat! Port Orleans looked like it had pools and slides that would be great for her between the two locations. We also liked the convenient access to Disney Springs and, of course, saving a little money over the deluxe resorts was a draw.

Now, however, we are looking at an upgrade to Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House as a feasible option... especially since my daughter has developed a Lion King and Lin Guard addiction. =) We stayed at Animal Kingdom a few years back but did not really look at the pools since the weather was much cooler. Off the bat, we see the animal viewing as a big plus at AKL and it seems to have better dining options on site, also. But we have a few questions about the two resorts before making a change.

Are the pools and slides at Animal Kingdom Lodge as good or better for children my daughter's age than those at Port Orleans? She is 44" tall is that helps as far as rules go. Is there one that is a clearly better choice for pools and slides?

How long is the walk from Jambo House and Kidani Village as opposed to the walk from French Quarter to Riverside?

Obviously, we are riding the bus to parks from both resorts. Is there a significant difference between bus rides, though?

Thanks, as always, for your help in making this choice!

I recommend AKL. We've stayed at almost every deluxe resort, and AKL is one of our favorites. You get to use two feature pools, and yes, they're both very good. The Jambo feature pool is huge, with a slide and a large, well-shaded hot tub. The Kidani feature pool has a great spiral water slide, a hot tub, and a toddler water play area that includes a mini-waterfall. The walk between Jambo & Kidani is easy, but they also offer a free shuttle van to use for that if you like. The Mara is my favorite counter service resort restaurant, for its theming and relaxed vibe.

A big bonus to staying at Jambo in rainy August is that all of the resort rooms, lobby, etc. are in the same building, so you won't have to walk through the rain to get to other places at the resort. Even the bus stop is covered & attached to the building. The bus service we received was good.

Never had an issue with pool/hot tub crowding or any features being closed when we stayed at Jambo. That can happen at any resort, though.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We've done both with our kids and the pools at AKL are much nicer not just for the kids but for adults too. When we stayed at AKL we only did the Jambo House pool and we loved it. My girls must have ridden the slide 100x in less than an hour and could have done it all day if we let them. I was able to watch them walk up the slide and come down without having to leave my lounger. Also, what I like is that it's a big pool but it has separate sections so it feels more intimate than POFQ or POR. It's very tranquil but at the same time, appealing to little ones. The walk up pool bar is just a quick walk around the pool and there are restrooms right nearby as well. One of my favorite places at AKL.

 

[DisBuckMan]

A big bonus to staying at Jambo in rainy August is that all of the resort rooms, lobby, etc. are in the same building, so you won't have to walk through the rain to get to other places at the resort. Even the bus stop is covered & attached to the building.

Absolutely agree with this. The only thing that keeps Poly from being my family's favorite resort is the detached buildings. When it's raining, you get wet anytime you attempt to go anywhere...just like at moderates and values. This benefit of many of the deluxe resorts (minus Poly, OKW, and SSR) cannot be emphasized enough.

I get that everyone is different, but there is really no comparison from the moderates to the deluxes. The gap between those two is much larger than the gap between the values and the moderates.

 

[TOBS2010]

We haven't stayed at AKL, but we have stayed at POR and loved it. There is a slide at the main pool that my son loved last time. POFQ also is great. Pretty sure I recall them having a zero entry pool and there is a nice serpent slide at FQ as well. POR's main pool was a good balance for what my five year old and my DH and I liked. POR is more relaxing decor wise at the pool where FQ was louder and more colorful in our opinion. POR also had two quiet pools as well which could be a nice change of pace. We also liked having a food court (which had a wide variety of kid options) and a sit down option (Boatrights). We loved having the boats to go to Disney Springs---it was a nice change from the boats. We are staying at POR this next time we go as well because it was a great place for all of us.