Transportation to/from AKL

[RichV03]

Hi all,
We are thinking of buying a second contract and are considering AKL. We love the food there but haven't stayed. Having two little ones now we think they would love waking up to animals a few nights of a trip. Im curious what people think of the transportation to and from parks from there. I understand they only have the bus but I was wondering if the buses stop at other places as well before going to a park/returning to resort.

 

[sethschroeder]

AKV is somewhat easy to book even at 7 months. I see you said "few of the nights" waking up to the animals so is there another resort you prefer as well?

I personally view the transportation being the huge black eye to AKV and the only bad thing about the resort (some don't like that its a little darker). Some people will say its not an issue but for us we had a handful of waits of 45-60+ mins waiting for a bus. Including a MK rope drop where the bus was removed from the board like 3-4 times and we ended up waiting like 45 mins past when the board originally said the bus should be there (this was prior to rope drop as well).

If I were to stay at AKV again with my kids I would 100% expect to either uber/lyft or rent a car. The bus to AK is great but everything else was a pain (its why I put a premium on staying in a resort with more direct access; walk/skyliner).

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

Our 2nd DVC contract was at AKL too! We have 6 kids and they all love nature more than most!! Some kids “like animals” but get bored- others are indifferent- and ours would live at the zoo

Anyway, the bus option (to me) is really not that bad. It is dedicated to the Animal Kingdom Lodge- but that includes both Jambo House & Kidani Village (so, 1 resort with 2 stops). I feel like it’s a long hike to MK & DS, but EP & HS aren’t bad, and AK is obviously very close. We’ve never had to wait excessively for a bus, but several people on here have mentioned it.

 

[SwissFamilyRoyall]

We have a contract at AKL and really like it a lot as you get multiple pools and amenities. You can get a schedule from the front desk to approximate when you should be at the stops for the parks or DS. However, we drive a lot of the times we are there so we usually end up driving to the parks on those trips since it’s free parking with DVC. the are a ton of things to do around this resort so it is great for a non park day as well.

 

[Leahc117]

The AKL bus picks up at Kidani and Jambo- there are only 2 stops. We stayed at Kidani in March and expected to do a lot of Uber rides. We must have gotten lucky because even got to MK early for early morning magic. I will say the board with bus times was very unreliable. I liked Kidani because it was the first pick up (easy to get a seat) and the first to drop off. At the end of the night we managed to get in the first bus after fireworks at MK- so even that wasn’t too bad. I have never stayed at one of the resorts in walking distance to the parks though- I have a feeling that’ll be a game changer!

 

[sethschroeder]

You can get a schedule from the front desk to approximate when you should be at the stops for the parks or DS.

Its right in the MDE app on your phone. It will show all the busses coming to your resort and approximate wait time until they pull up.

 

[Ruttangel]

Buses are honestly good, never had a problem and stayed there 4 times.

 

[CastAStone]

Buses are honestly good, never had a problem and stayed there 4 times.

We were there last fall and my only bus problem was that the times on the boards were LIES. If the posted time was more than 3 minutes away, it was always was at least 5 minutes later than posted.

 

[RichV03]

AKV is somewhat easy to book even at 7 months. I see you said "few of the nights" waking up to the animals so is there another resort you prefer as well?

I personally view the transportation being the huge black eye to AKV and the only bad thing about the resort (some don't like that its a little darker). Some people will say its not an issue but for us we had a handful of waits of 45-60+ mins waiting for a bus. Including a MK rope drop where the bus was removed from the board like 3-4 times and we ended up waiting like 45 mins past when the board originally said the bus should be there (this was prior to rope drop as well).

If I were to stay at AKV again with my kids I would 100% expect to either uber/lyft or rent a car. The bus to AK is great but everything else was a pain (its why I put a premium on staying in a resort with more direct access; walk/skyliner).

Our other contract is BLT, I thought if we spent first half of trip at one place and second at the other it could work out nice. Do Epcot and MK while at BLT and AK and HS while staying at AKL. Would likely be looking at one bedrooms for both resorts.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

Listen to Seth. He nailed it. I would use the term remote. We spent a boatload on Lyfts when we stayed and did feel that the rooms are too dark and the hallways too long. When we moved to BLT on a split stay it felt like a relief. BUT the animals are so cool, the restaurants are fantastic and the hotel is beautiful. I would happily stay there again but not to own and it is one we went in thinking we would want to purchase.

 

[CastAStone]

Our other contract is BLT, I thought if we spent first half of trip at one place and second at the other it could work out nice. Do Epcot and MK while at BLT and AK and HS while staying at AKL. Would likely be looking at one bedrooms for both resorts.

Makes sense to me. AKV is closer than CR/BLT to AK and DHS, and has to be at least a wash to Epcot; yes there’s the monorail but you have to take the resort one and then wait for the Epcot one, and if you’re going in the evening and there’s a crowd leaving MK, forget about ever getting on from CR. We had a horrible experience last fall.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

people have issues with transport at every resort. Buses, boat waits at VWL and CCV, lightning storm shutdowns for the gondola, and the monorail is wildly unreliable.

You will have a bad bus wait at every resort sometimes.

AKV is only far away from MK. It is closer to the other three than any MK area resort is.

 

[BWoody]

Check out this thread for average travel time between resorts and parks - https://www.disboards.com/threads/list-of-travel-times-from-resorts-to-parks.3707781/

Despite its reputation, AKV is actually more conveniently located than all the MK area resorts if you look at average travel time between every park. Of course, if you only want to go to MK then BLT is the most convenient, but if you go to say each park once, AKV is a great location. Also, at the end of the day, you are only talking about a few minutes difference between different places. If your bus ride is 3 minutes longer from one place over another, is it really a big deal? Not like it is a 20 minutes difference.

 

[sethschroeder]

You will have a bad bus wait at every resort sometimes.

Which is why I pointed out that I will pay a premium to be at a resort where you can walk to parks. Even boats are typically not going to be that delayed in comparison to busses.

lightning storm shutdowns for the gondola

This is the risk with RIV but lucky thing is that the bus ride to Epcot/HS is fairly short so they possibly can turn around busses quicker (like AKV -> AK) and there is also Caribbean Beach busses if you really didn't want to wait but are good with walking.

Check out this thread for average travel time between resorts and parks - https://www.disboards.com/threads/list-of-travel-times-from-resorts-to-parks.3707781/

Except that is:

The travel times listed are from BUS STOP to BUS STOP

The point many of us have to bring up is that the AKV issue is the wait for the bus not the time on the bus. People try to dismiss it as every resort which we peons will never know. I can only point to my experience and having a good amount of busses during a week be 45min-1hr or more means I will always warn people (especially if they haven't stayed there).

Only other thing I will say is that even my parents who basically didn't know anything about onsite resorts commented when I said we would stay at AKV last fall that they heard AKL has the worst busses and should we stay somewhere else. They loved the resort but I let them know multiple times next time we would be staying at BWV (well now RIV likely) to eliminate a good portion of busses for the week. They had visited WDW a handful of times but always had stayed offsite.

 

[sethschroeder]

Our other contract is BLT, I thought if we spent first half of trip at one place and second at the other it could work out nice. Do Epcot and MK while at BLT and AK and HS while staying at AKL. Would likely be looking at one bedrooms for both resorts.

I think that is a great plan. AKV is an amazing resort and the bus to AK is basically as good as walking IMO for how quick you can get to the park.

I would also say AKV is great because it does have Value and Club level rooms which are not found elsewhere in DVC. So you might get lucky by getting either of those rooms either for a longer trip on Value or a special occasion with Club Level.

 

[Deb & Bill]

AKV/AKL is only about 13 min from Epcot, not as long from DHS and way shorter to AK. It's only MK and DS that take longer. The one time we had to wait a long time to get a bus to the MK was the time there was a serious accident on World Drive and an overhead sign was knocked down blocking the road. The buses couldn't back up to Bear Island Rd to get to AK, otherwise it would have been quicker.

 

[BWoody]

Which is why I pointed out that I will pay a premium to be at a resort where you can walk to parks. Even boats are typically not going to be that delayed in comparison to busses.



This is the risk with RIV but lucky thing is that the bus ride to Epcot/HS is fairly short so they possibly can turn around busses quicker (like AKV -> AK) and there is also Caribbean Beach busses if you really didn't want to wait but are good with walking.



Except that is:


The point many of us have to bring up is that the AKV issue is the wait for the bus not the time on the bus. People try to dismiss it as every resort which we peons will never know. I can only point to my experience and having a good amount of busses during a week be 45min-1hr or more means I will always warn people (especially if they haven't stayed there).

Only other thing I will say is that even my parents who basically didn't know anything about onsite resorts commented when I said we would stay at AKV last fall that they heard AKL has the worst busses and should we stay somewhere else. They loved the resort but I let them know multiple times next time we would be staying at BWV (well now RIV likely) to eliminate a good portion of busses for the week. They had visited WDW a handful of times but always had stayed offsite.

Maybe you are just unlucky with buses or I am lucky? I've never had to wait that long for a bus. Ultimately, if getting to a park as quickly as possible is really important then relying on any form of Disney transportation is not recommended. Buses have delays, monorails breakdown, there could be large groups in front of you preventing you from getting on the first transport to arrive. Best option is driving or getting an UBER. But even then, 1 accident and that won't help either so being able to walk is the best option. Issue with walking is you can't walk to every park from any single resort though. Also, not everyone wants to walk back after a long day in a park (or so I'm told. I'm the type of guy who parks super far away from things just because it is easier than fighting for a spot).