Simply ENTHRALLED with Kidani Village1

[Dreamfinder2]

We just got back from six nights at Kidani Village. We've stayed at every DVC property except Vero Beach, and I'm telling you - the DVC Powers That Be got this one right (except one minor quibble, which I'll get to in a minute.)

First, the resort is huge. But unlike, say, OKW or SSR, it's all under one roof. One huge, enormous, gigantic plus ... the underground parking "garage." It rained and rained and rained while we were there. In over thirty years of visits to WDW, and having lived in the area for three years, I've never seen anything like it, and that covered parking was priceless.

There are plenty of pictures elsewhere. So, my impressions of the 2 BR dedicated villa ...

I loved having three full bathrooms. It was DW and I, DD, and DD's boyfriend. Both of them college age. DD had the bedroom, DDBF had the foldout sofa, which was quite comfortable. The living/dining space seemed much more spacious than any other property except, of course, for OKW. The layout is great. The master bath isn't the two room affair you see in other properties ... there is one sink and vanity, the whirlpool tub, and the glass enclosed shower. Oh, and a little WC and closet. It worked great for us.

Both bedrooms and the living room all opened out onto one long balcony. Ours was a corner room on the 2nd floor (7704, if you're interested) with a great savanna view, and also a view of the "fire pit" and overlook outside the lobby. It was great - saw five giraffe in a little heard, wilderbeast, zebra, ostriches, those big horned ankole cattle, and several other varmits. It was terrific.

The lobby isn't anywhere nearly as big as the lobby at Jambo house, but it was cozy enough. And the desk staff was among the best I've ever seen at any Disney resort. When we had a problem with billing (five meals showed up on our folio that weren't ours), I felt the concierge staff bent over backwards to make that right. One gentleman said, after some discussion with the other staff, "Mr. Martin, we will solve your problem for you." And he meant it. I got the impression that they take fanatical pride in their new digs.

If you visit, take some time to track down all the museum quality African artifacts scattered all over the facility, especially in the elevator lobbies. There are several cultural experts who love sharing about their countries and their personal stories. It made the stay all that much more cozy. There is also a "library" space with a fireplace which makes for a nice retreat.

Since the property is brand new, they hadn't experienced any rain to speak of. Well, central Florida had record breaking rainfall amounts, as I mentioned, and some leaks showed up around a couple of windows and one place in the ceiling right above the DVC stand. It was fun watching the hordes of maintenance personnel swarm around doing patch work and repair.

We didn't eat at Sanaa, but it is a gorgeous dining room.

The pool area is actually zoned as a water park. That's kind of an extravagant description. The pool is big enough, with a huge slide, and the other play areas with water guns, fountains, etc., is a blast for kiddos. The exercise room is glassed in and overlooks the pool area. Nice.

Here's my quibble. Unless you want room service or want to have food delivered to the pool, there isn't an on-site breakfast option. You can walk easily enough to Jambo House and get to-go items at the Mara, which I did a couple of mornings. It's a 10-minute walk from lobby to lobby. But if the weather is bad, it's not pleasant. You can take any park bus one way, and take a Downtown Disney bus coming back from Jambo to Kidani, but good luck on that return trip early in the morning!

I'd highly recommend that they use the library space for a continental breakfast spot, with maybe one or two hot items.

We just fell in love with Kidani. I asked a lot of questions of the CM's there, and if you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer them for ya.

One more thing - the rooms without a savanna view have a great view of the parking lot, if you like parking lots. Personally, I think that defeats the purpose of staying there in the first place.

 

[AnnaS]

Very nice review. Thank you for sharing. We can't wait for our August stay. Based on the pictures, videos and trip reports, I am sure we will be very happy campers too. We also have a dedicated 2BDR Savanna view reserved. I did not know what to request so the only request I made was to be near the pool.

Sorry about all the rain

 

[disney1474]

Sounds like you enjoyed it as much as my family did We were there the first week it opened and very proud it's our home resort. We think they should offer more items for lunch at the pool bar and also be able to use the DP there. We'll see what happens!!

 

[Brave teacher]

Thanks for the nice review. We will be there on Saturday and cannot wait to experience it.

 

[bama106]

Thanks for the review. Glad you enjoyed the resort, we are excited that we chose AKV as our home resort. We will be staying there for the first time in October in a dedicated 2br. and can't wait.

 

[d-r]

here's my quibble. Unless you want room service or want to have food delivered to the pool, there isn't an on-site breakfast option.

shchtruuudddalll???? Von toastchten????

 

[Dreamfinder2]

shchtruuudddalll???? Von toastchten????

OK, in full disclosure mode here ... you can indeed visit the little shop in the lobby (Johari Treasures?), and you can get breakfast fixin's, if you're so inclined.

I will say that the Mara provides a good CS breakfast. They have a "bounty platter", which includes bacon, sausage, potatoes, eggs, a biscuit, and a Mickey waffle. You can just about skip lunch. It's on the DDP, so I got this for each person in our party, schlepped it back to the villa, and they could eat what they wanted from it.

What just cracked me up is that we bought some Toaster Strudel at Publix on our way in. My family scarfs those bad boys down.

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Very nice review. Thank you for sharing. We can't wait for our August stay. Based on the pictures, videos and trip reports, I am sure we will be very happy campers too. We also have a dedicated 2BDR Savanna view reserved. I did not know what to request so the only request I made was to be near the pool.

Sorry about all the rain

Yeah, it rained. Lots.

Regarding the pool ... as you face the lobby and the porte cochere from the front, the left wing is where the pool is, sort of across a parking lot. One hint ... there are elevators close to the lobbies, but also elevators about midway down each wing. Take the elevator to the parking level, and you can walk right across to the pool level. You won't have to cross a traffic lane. The pool area is designed like a split level house - I know that doesn't make much sense, but you'll see what I mean when you get there. The pool itself and the water play area are at the bottom, as is the pool bar. and up one "tier" is the fitness room and a hot tub or two. It's an interesting layout. The sports courts, BBQ grills, and a pavillion are across the street, too.

 

[athenna]

Great review
I just got back from Kidani Fri night and I loved it, and am missing it already!
I agree about them needing their own CS restaurant...I dont mind the walk to Mara, but it would be nice for them to have their own.

 

[WDWBOB1]

Can you describe the 'dedicated' aspect of the 2 BR unit specifically the 'studio' portion. Am I correct in assuming there are 2 queen size beds in that room and no kitchenette? Thank you.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Thank you for the great review.

I may have to put on the fire protection gear for saying this...but, it is very refreshing to hear that your college aged daughter's boyfriend slept on the couch ALONE.

Secondly, I'm laughing very hard about hearing that the ceiling leaked right above the DVC sales station. "Come buy into a leaking mess."

The Southeast has seen a lot of rain. There is more to come.

From all reports, DVC did a wonderful job developing this resort. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[peemagg]

We too stayed there this past week and had a 2 bedroom savanna view. We did really like it. The only complaint that we had with the room itself was that the lighting seemed to be a bit too dark. They need to place a few bigger watage bulbs in the living room and the bathrooms. Other than that we loved the room itself.

I agree that they need a CS somewhere closer than Mara. I also would like to see a better giftshop with more selections of food and items.

The layout for the 2nd bedroom in the dedicated room is this: you walk in to the left is the washer and dryer in the closet. Right around the corner from that is the door to the 2nd bedroom. Right in front of you is the bathroom with sink, tub, and toilet. To your left is a big closet. To your right is another smaller closet where you walk into the bedroom itself. In the bedroom is 2 queen size beds, a bench, an armoir, a nightstand and a desk. You also have your own door out onto the balcony. We really liked the layout.

 

[ADP]

The only breakfast option at Kidani Village is buying breakfast food in the gift shop (which is limited) and cooking/preparing it in your villa.

 

[LisaS]

I'd highly recommend that they use the library space for a continental breakfast spot, with maybe one or two hot items.

I wouldn't like to see them convert the library space into a restaurant. It's such a relaxing, quiet space. Turning it into a restaurant, even if just at breakfast would be a shame and probably make a mess of the furniture.

They are still working on the north wing so I would rather see them put a CS on the ground level of the north wing with windows overlooking the savanna as they have done with Sanaa. It would mean losing some parking spaces from the under-building garage but it seems the most logical place to put another restaurant. Guests in the north wing will have the longest walk to The Mara and to the Kidani bus stop if they prefer to take a bus to Jambo House so having the CS in the north wing would be very convenient. The loss of north wing parking would be a problem however since they won't have any outside parking once you get past the pool area.

 

[Donald is #1]

Great review!

 

[justjudy]

I really enjoyed reading your report. We went over to visit Kidani on our recent trip and are so glad we bought there. A beautiful resort!! Can't wait to stay there next May!

 

[Disneypirate85]

Great review!
We will be there for Christmas this year we also agreed that if your going might as well have the SV.....Shawn

 

[Steamboat Girlie]

shchtruuudddalll???? Von toastchten????

OH MY WORD!!! My sister and I used to always say that!! ROTFL

 

[ead79]

I have a quick question--were the washer/dryer high efficiency versions, or standard versions? I want to be sure I bring the right kind of detergent.

 

[firstmickey]

Just back today and I loved it there too. The resort is so relaxing.

I agree about the CM's. We had our last night at the Poly and my son was sick so the Kidani CM (thank you Tom) called over to have them get my room ready right away. Also, make sure you visit Trudy at the firepit in the mornings around 7:30am. She was wonderful. I enjoyed having my morning coffee with her every day!

We had a studio savanna view and we used our balcony alot. One night in the rain, the zebras were running around playing. It was so cool.

I only had two quibbles.......the store didn't open till 7:30 am (that's a long time to be without coffee in my world) and the studio had one towel bar...not enough room to hang towels up to dry when there is no maid service.


There was one HE washer in the laundry room but it was out of service...the other ones were regular washers.


I thought the resort was very quiet and relaxing....especially compared to the Poly our last night. I missed the animals that night!

We were only able to use the pool one day due to the rain but we really enjoyed it and the water area. My kids are older, 15 and 12, but they were over there shooting each other with the water cannons...lol. We all loved the pool slide...it was really good. It has a big rush of water at the top to make you slide down faster.