The All-New "unofficial" AKL/AKV's Jambo & Kidani FAQ thread.....

[missjudit]

judi

 

[missjudit]

Judi--Our granddaughter just turned 4 and wants to join us in Disney. I would love to take her, but this is our anniversary. Hopefully we will run into you I would love to see how your granddaughter is enjoying Disney.

Well, you can take her another time. Hope to see you all.

Judi

 

[C&B Young]

Hi there, we leave for AKL (Jambo House, Pool view although a Savanna upgrade wouldn't break our hearts!) in 4 days. Our first deluxe stay and our first holidays at WDW! I was wondering if anyone who'd stayed at Jambo House recently knew if the TV has a connection break out box with HDMI, VGA and composite inputs? Also does the the bed side alarm clock has an ipod dock? I know some Kidani rooms do, but can't find anything about Jambo House. Also, in a non-A/V related question does the Mara have Cherry Coke as a fountain drink? Thanks in advance!

 

[Applemomma]

Hi there, we leave for AKL (Jambo House, Pool view although a Savanna upgrade wouldn't break our hearts!) in 4 days. Our first deluxe stay and our first holidays at WDW! I was wondering if anyone who'd stayed at Jambo House recently knew if the TV has a connection break out box with HDMI, VGA and composite inputs? Also does the the bed side alarm clock has an ipod dock? I know some Kidani rooms do, but can't find anything about Jambo House. Also, in a non-A/V related question does the Mara have Cherry Coke as a fountain drink? Thanks in advance!

You never know about the upgrade! We got upgraded earlier this month from a standard parking lot view to a standard savanna view so anything is possible.

The only one of your questions I can answer is the ipod dock...yes it does... but my daughters wouldn't fit with her case on it. Have fun!

 

[miprender]

This is our first trip renting a DVC studio - how often are toiletries, etc. replenished? I know you only get mousekeeping on the 4th day, but what about new shampoo, soap, towels, etc?

Since you are renting points you are treated like a DVC member and will probably get them replenished on the 4th day. That was how it was for us in April.

 

[C&B Young]

You never know about the upgrade! We got upgraded earlier this month from a standard parking lot view to a standard savanna view so anything is possible.

The only one of your questions I can answer is the ipod dock...yes it does... but my daughters wouldn't fit with her case on it. Have fun!

Thanks! Even without a savanna view we'll still be happy using the viewing areas. Staying deluxe was pushing the finances as it is, we could never justify paying for it but a little pixie dust never hurts!

 

[mommy2mrb]

just booked our Wishes Dessert Party on 3/29 for my DD 11th bday that was the last thing I had to book....now the waiting......

 

[mommy2mrb]

hi, anyone out there ? where'd everyone go

 

[MushyMushy]

It's been a while since I've peeked in on this thread. We leave next Thursday for our AKL stay. We booked savanna view. Anyway I was wondering about room requests. We don't want to have to trudge the ten mile hike to and from the lobby every day. Do you think we should just word the request to be closer to the lobby? Or would you leave it to chance?

 

[mommy2mrb]

It's been a while since I've peeked in on this thread. We leave next Thursday for our AKL stay. We booked savanna view. Anyway I was wondering about room requests. We don't want to have to trudge the ten mile hike to and from the lobby every day. Do you think we should just word the request to be closer to the lobby? Or would you leave it to chance?

I don't think it would hurt to ask!

enjoy your trip, we are getting excited for our trip, but still have so long to wait......

 

[JenniJ]

And what a wonderful resort! We did not want to leave. I even cried a little. Especially since we came home to 20 degree weather and snow....

As soon as we go through our pics I will try to get them posted. Here's a teaser mini trip report.
We had a wonderful view! We got upgraded from standard to savana! Our room number was 2503. It was a great view of the savana and close to lobby and the restaurants off the zebra trail. It was such a HUGE change from our 1st night's stay at POP. DH is glad I convinced him to go deluxe. I don't think he will EVER want to stay any lower than a mod. He really thought POP would be fine, but seeing the difference 1st hand changed his mind.
We have never stayed at such a nice resort! DH and I are thinking of trying to go for our 1st aniversary trip, just the 2 of us this time. Just for a few days, no parks, just relaxing at the resort. We didn't get to expereince all the resort amenities this trip with all the go-go of visiting the parks and trying to make all the ADRs. Plus, we had the kiddies with us. This was a combo celebration trip: 1st trip for DS/2, DH's b-day and our familymoon. We got married in April and couldn't think of leaving the kids at home for a 1st trip after the merging of 2 families. We wanted bond as a family especially since there is such a a gap in ages between DS/2 and DD/17. And it worked! They had some great brother/sister bonding!

We booked FD and it was WAY too much food. We were NEVER hungry. Just the opposite, we all agreed that we all felt stuffed all the time. We even left with one day CS meals and 1 person TS meal (DH got SO tired with a headache that he didn't go to the Whispering Canyon). There wasn't really any need for us to "save" the deserts, like a fruit cup, for a breakfast. We did try that and we ended up leaving a frig full of food! Though, some saving did help with DS/2, since he wasn't on the plan.

Well off to unpack some more.

 

[mommy2mrb]

sounds like you had a wonderful trip, what an awesome thing to do for a "familymoon" looking forward to hearing more!

 

[centurythree]

AKV CL is the only category of DVC points stays that gets daily housekeeping (meaning replacement/replenishment of toiletries).

So no full housekeeping service, the only thing they do is replace toiletries?

 

[bellastella227]

We're staying at AKV Jambo in January and can't wait!!! It is our first time on Disney property.

 

[elleinad16]

This thread is awesome, thanks~!!

Can't wait, only 11 more months until I get to check into AKL for my wedding trip!!!

 

[dgbg100106]

We're staying at AKV Jambo in January and can't wait!!! It is our first time on Disney property.

you will have a wonderful time! Congrats

 

[JenniJ]

This thread is awesome, thanks~!!

Can't wait, only 11 more months until I get to check into AKL for my wedding trip!!!

What a wonderfully romantic place to celebrate your wedding!

 

[mommy2mrb]

This thread is awesome, thanks~!!

Can't wait, only 11 more months until I get to check into AKL for my wedding trip!!!

wow, a disney wedding and on 11/11/11 that's too cool!
my DD decided on our trip in 05 (when she was 4 1/2) she wanted to be married in WDW!

 

[Golf4food]

We spent from 11/28 to 12/3 in an AKL DVC Studio (two of them, actually...). Some observations from our trip:

The first room they stuck us in was 5354, which is on the last leg, facing the back of the property, with about 10 feet of "Savannah" before a maintenance/vet building and then pine trees. NOT a Savannah view at all, even if an occassional animal wanders back there for feeding time. Ugly, horrible location. If they try to stick any of you back there refuse up front and make them move you right away if you want a real Savannah view. We were not happy. We complained and they were willing to move us, but had nothing until two days later. So we waited and moved to room 5321 facing the middle Savannah on 12/1 with a much better view - a real Savannah view. I don't have my photos uploaded yet but I'll post later - you'll understand why we wanted to be moved. I wasn't paying Savannah prices/points to look at a storage shed and pine trees, thank you very much.

Aside from that we had problems with our room keys not opening the door of our new room - they had a computer system update overnight and something screwed up - it took them over 24 hours to fix the problem with our keys, which had to be recut twice, with two sets of temporary keys in between, visits from engineering services to check the actual door lock (it was fine). All in all we had to visit the front desk every day at least once because of some problem or another. We've stayed in every moderate, all but one value, and never had as many problems as we did staying in this deluxe!

The staff were all very friendly and helpful, no complaints there. But the overall experience was quite frustrating, having to take time out of our trip to stand in line for the desk, be escorted to our room to get in after a long day because our keys didn't work (after walking allll the way down the hallway and back down again, then back to the room, etc.)

They were kind enough to give us a $100 credit due to all the problems, which we gladly used for a few souveniers (including an AKL logo blanket/throw to keep us warm now that an Ice Age has fallen upon us, haha).

Besides all of the problems the resort itself is, of course, beautiful. I certainly hope any computer system issues are fixed and those problems are out of the way.

Having the DVC room was nice, having the couch to relax on, the DVD player to watch (we brought some from home - were hoping to check out/rent the Lion King from the gift shop but they don't have the Lion King in their library - crazy!). We would consider renting DVC points again, but will probalby try other resorts first before returning to AKL (we like to mix it up).

Happy to answer any specific questions and will posts photos as I process and upload them.

 

[sherabby]

This thread is awesome, thanks~!!

Can't wait, only 11 more months until I get to check into AKL for my wedding trip!!!

Danielle,
I work in Dormont and live in Canonsburg! Hello! We are staying at AKV Jambo house the second week of August.