Rethinking AKL Jambo

[sesame_123]

We had our June trip cancelled and rebooked for January in a 3 bedroom at Jambo. We have only ever stayed at Kidani and wanted to try something new. Now I am rethinking it. The main reasons we wanted Jambo was for restaurants and amenities. Am I correct in that just about all of that is closed? How does the transportation work? Will it be open by January? Should I switch to Kidani now? What is available at Kidani? for meals? for amenities? So many questions.....ugh

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Am I correct in that just about all of that is closed?

The only open amenity is the pool. All dining at Jambo is closed. The dining at Kidani is all on a limited menu.

Do not expect Jambo to open by January. It is one of the resorts Disney has no planned reopen date for. It is the largest of the closed Deluxe resorts, so they would have to expect significant increase in booking and allowed park users to consider opening it; opening WL or BWI would be much cheaper due to staffing needs and they're much smaller resorts.

 

[Sandisw]

I would move the trip because I agree that nothing is going to be open there by January.

Disney runs the hotel and until they decide to open it, stores and restaurants will remain closed,

Right now, they have even delayed the opening of BCV, BWI aNd Poly well which were given an open date. AKL and WL never were.

The occupancy is just not there for Disney to open all hotels. With them owning about 65% of RIV still, they have plenty of rooms at the deluxe level to offer people since RIV is all DVC and has to br open.

IMO, DVC had to open Jambo rooms because it just wasn’t feasible to move people to Kidani long term which was the initial justification for them not opening June 22nd with the rest.

 

[EM Lawrence]

Are there any pros to staying in a Jambo studio right now? I like the bathroom setup at Jambo better than Kidani for the studios. I’ve got one night booked in February, and I figured we could handle the lack of dining options for one night pretty easily. Am I missing anything significant? It would be easy to move to Kidani.

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

I stayed one night at Jambo and it was a ghost town. One bellhop and one person at the front desk. It was kind of weird, and this was my only Jambo experience. I was in a value studio that wound up having a savannah view, so that was awesome, but for everything else we needed to take the shuttle/walk to Kidani, and I personally dislike that walk. The bellhop told us that they usually have something like 200 check-ins a day at Jambo, when I was there, they were around 30. Just weird to be in such an empty resort. Granted, this was July 20, but I still think Jambo is going to be quite limited for the foreseeable future.

 

[lovin'fl]

So do we think club level will open anytime soon? Like by Nov 28th when I have it booked?
Honestly they should have most of the Jambo DVC be club level, like more rooms than normal...to eat up some of these extra points everyone has and they can open a club access if more people would be booked for it. They can do individual serving or have a staff serve. MAybe limited hours or something. They can make it COVID safe.

 

[lovin'fl]

And, by the way, Yelp says Boma is scheduled to re-open on Nov 1. As is Victoria Falls. No date on Jiko though.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

And, by the way, Yelp says Boma is scheduled to re-open on Nov 1. As is Victoria Falls. No date on Jiko though.

Yelp is pulling dates out their bum. Those dates are not on disney's site and Boma is not bookable 60 days out.

So do we think club level will open anytime soon? Like by Nov 28th when I have it booked?

No. I don't see them opening the lounge for 5 DVC units. It will take reopening the hotel, which won't happen this year.

 

[lovin'fl]

Yelp is pulling dates out their bum. Those dates are not on disney's site and Boma is not bookable 60 days out.

I don't think so. They just updated hours recently on Yelp too. They have ESPN as Nov 1 too. But yet, Jiko and Flying Fish and Ohana have no date and hours haven't been updated. I think it may have some truth to it. Hoping anyway.

But I do think you're right about Club level not opening. Gotta find something else to book...

 

[Sandisw]

So do we think club level will open anytime soon? Like by Nov 28th when I have it booked?
Honestly they should have most of the Jambo DVC be club level, like more rooms than normal...to eat up some of these extra points everyone has and they can open a club access if more people would be booked for it. They can do individual serving or have a staff serve. MAybe limited hours or something. They can make it COVID safe.

Disney, not DVC, runs the actual CL offerings and they have suspended them for all,

So, until Disney opens back up for that level of service, I don’t think you will see it,

Also, they can’t simply change the classification of DVC rooms to CL as it would be adding points to the overall total at the resort, which would not be allowed,..even if just temporary.

 

[lovin'fl]

So I switched from Club level to VGF. Never stayed at VGF so we will try it out. And hopefully get an ADR at Narcoossee's. Will be bummed if club level does begin by Nov 28th and we missed out. Doesn't seem like it will but FL just went to phase 3 and I wonder if Disney will move up to it's next phase of opening. With a bunch of dining on Yelp stating Nov 1 re-opening (Flying Fish now says it too, just FYI), it seems they are preparing for busy holiday season.

 

[RexDVC64]

I can't imagine staying there without the Mara open.....Kidani/Sanaa must be a zoo in the am and once the parks close.