My husband and I stayed there on our honeymoon...we were still on a total high from our wedding, we walked in the doors to the lobby, and were just FLOORED.
The service there is amazing - they bent over backwards to help us when we had some problems because we were thought we were buying all of our souveniers on our trip with one of our wedding-gift checks, and it turned out we couldn't cash the check in the state of florida (long story - but regardless...they were HUGELY helpful). And many of them are from Africa, so it was not unheard of for random African drum sessions or songs to break out - just for the fun of it.
We walked into our room, walked onto the balcony, and there were giraffes RIGHT in front of us. Didn't even need a zoom lens. There were CONSTANTLY animals (even at night - if you have a camera with a night vision feature, you can enjoy them a lot while relaxing after a long day - or even if you don't, they have night-vision goggles at one of the main "meeting" points at the hotel)
The counter service restaurant (Mara) had great "regular" food for breakfast (never had lunch or dinner there, but I assume it was good as well); Boma is a PHENOMENAL African buffet for dinner (which we go out of our way to go to every time we go to Disney now, because after a while you get tired of all of the food tasting the same, and at Boma, it's COMPLETELY different); and if you want something upscale, you can go to Jiko's and have some of the best dining on Disney property (if you enjoy wine, definitely get a wine flight or at least a glass of African wine)
The pool is GIGANTIC so you never feel overcrowded. There are kids at the hotel, but it never felt noisy or overcrowded. You can walk through the halls of the hotel and see different things about African culture, or there's CONSTANTLY events going on that teach you about Africa and the animals on the savannahs (I particularly enjoyed the story-telling at night by the fire pit). There are viewing opportunities EVERYWHERE so while I think the savannah-view rooms are worth every penny, even if you don't get them, you can still relax and see the animals.
The gift shop is one of the biggest hotel giftshops on property, and it has all kinds of Disney merchandise, but also a lot of African items as well - so you can get some really unique purchases without having to carry anything back from the parks (not that you would anyways if you take advantage of hotel shipping, but whatever - I spent WAY too much time in the gift shop)
The walk to the bus was not far (though the halls can be long, so if you're concerned about walking, definitely request a room that's closer to the lobby) and as others have mentioned, the AKL is the only hotel on the bus route, so I found transportation was VERY fast.
I loved the AKL - the only reason we're not staying there this time around is because we want to be able to walk to the food and wine festival. My only con about the hotel was that it was a little dark in the rooms, so you may want to bring some sort of extra lighting. (Also that was in 2003 - it's possible the lighting has changed since then)
have fun!
When we travel we like to stay in places that you just simply can't find anywhere else and WDW has some of the best of those I think. And we like to stay in places that remind us NOTHING of home. Nothing reflective on Minnesota in the AKL.
LOVE IT!
And mind you, we have to scrimp and save to stay at a place like this but it's so DEFINITELY worth it to us!!!! HUGE thumbs up from us!
We were also there in Sept of 07.
I don't know about the OP but you talked me into it! Im calling right now to switch my bounceback ressie, wish me luck with availability
