Which of these would you chose?

[mouseketeermama]

Family of 4, Feb 10-14
2 boys ages 4 and 8
We will have our own car.

GF- Outer bldg-Garden View - 1404.00

AKL- Standard - 816.00

 

[chocovrdmicears]

AKL - but I would do a Pool View if it is available.
AKL is such a fabulous resort - tons of activites for the kids - poolside parties and games - activities that they can participate in to earn beads - beautiful pool - animal viewing areas around the resort - nightly movies by the pool. We just adore it there.
If I am being honest thought - GF holds no appeal to us in terms of theming - so I wouldn't spend an extra $600 to stay there.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

GF - the ease of transportation to MK and EPCOT is priceless!

 

[mouseketeermama]

AKL - but I would do a Pool View if it is available.
AKL is such a fabulous resort - tons of activites for the kids - poolside parties and games - activities that they can participate in to earn beads - beautiful pool - animal viewing areas around the resort - nightly movies by the pool. We just adore it there.
If I am being honest thought - GF holds no appeal to us in terms of theming - so I wouldn't spend an extra $600 to stay there.

The pool view isn't available and the Savannah view is $200 more than the GF.

 

[mouseketeermama]

GF - the ease of transportation to MK and EPCOT is priceless!

That is kinda what I am thinking. We stayed at the Poly last year and we adored it. I am afraid that we will hate not being on the monorail loop.

 

[katieandrob]

I would choose GF because of the ages of your boys. We did Poly when my boys where 3 and 5 and it was wonderful to hop on the monorail and go back to the room for a nap. This year because my boys are 8 and 10 we are going to try AKL.

 

[disneybliss2]

While being close to MK and Epcot would be nice, especially if it's a short vacation to maximize time, the theming of the GF doesn't appeal to me at all. It especially doesn't for the added money. The AKL is an experience in itself and wonderful for kids. I think you have to decide which resort theming appeals to you more and how important the closer location means to you.

 

[rutgers1]

I'd go with GF, if for no other reason than proximity to park reasons.

 

[mickeynut1]

Having stayed at both, they are both great places to stay. The GF is great as it's just 1 monorail stop from MK and is convenient via the monorail to shop/visit/dine at the Poly and CR. But with that said, AKL is beautiful with great theming. We don't choose our resort according to ease of transportion and although AKL is not as convenient to MK as the GF is, we've never had any trouble with the buses. Being on the monorail is great, but I think your boys would love the theme of AKL and enjoy seeing the animals. We've stayed in both a pool view and savanna view, but I think standard view would be fine as there are plenty of areas around the resort to view the animals and the resort is just amazing to walk around and take in the unique atmosphere. Good luck deciding, but I'm sure you'll have a great trip no matter which resort you choose.

 

[disnmooner2013]

The pool view isn't available and the Savannah view is $200 more than the GF.

I would only do AKL with a Savannah view. I would DEFINITELY STAY at GF if your budget allows. I would take one night ( perferably the night when you are at AK for the day) and have dinner at Sanaa (get window table to view animals while eating) then after dinner walk around the resort and vire the animals again from the resort.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

GF - bc of monorail!!!

AKL is wonderful also but my vote is GF...

 

[AlixaLock]

GF because we adore it! Love the theming, convenience etc ...

I would only consider AKL if you plan to spend some resort time. AKL is so amazing, but it is farther afield then GF and you will spend more time traveling, which is totally worth it if you really plan to use the awesome pools and really enjoy the resort. We are planning to do AKL in summer 2014 with a large group. I envision us spending a lot of time enjoying the resort in the heat of summer.

 

[LarryFmScotland]

If I could afford it I would take the GF. I love the AK. But it's only great if you have a Savanna room. The GF has a very up market feel. The AK seems more of a super moderate to me than a full luxury hotel. I love both. But it's the woman playing the violin in the Lobby that wows me at the GF.

Either way you will have a great hotel.

Have fun.

Cheers Larry.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I should start by saying that I haven't stayed at either. But even then, this is a no-brainer for me; I would pick AKL in a heartbeat.

The reasons being two-fold. One, I think the AKL is way more appealing for kids. There is no way my son would see the value in the GF because I just don't think he'd see the theming as having any child appeal. In fact, even I don't see the value in the GF. I know everyone is different, but I think everything about the AKL looks beautiful. From the warm woods, to the huge lobby,to those cool-looking rocking chairs on the animal observation decks, I think it looks like a wonderful place to relax after busy days in the parks. I will be spending 6 nights there next year and I'm almost as excited about the activities at the lodge (e.g African stories around the camp fire, drum cafe, night-goggle animal spotting etc) as I am about the theme parks.

Secondly, $600 difference is a lot of money. If you can afford either resort, then to get a true price comparison, you should add $600 worth of extra treats to the AKL stay and then compare. e.g. GF + Monorail vs. AKL + $600 worth of park souvenirs. A Dooney Bag for me and a few cool T-shirts for my son and husband, holds way more appeal to me than saving a little bit of extra time getting to the MK on a monorail. Besides, you have a car. So transport shouldn't be that much of a concern.

 

[bek]

I had an AKL stay in November and a GF stay in December. I'd pick AKL. It's less expensive. There are plenty of places to view the animals without having a Savannah view room. There is night viewing with night vision glasses and stories by the fire, both of which my young grandkids loved. My grandkids also loved the drumming. I just think the theming at AKL is much nicer than GF.

GF's theming is so low key that I found it rather boring. I think little girls would tend to like it better than little boys since it's all rather tea party-ish. Also you'll want to check GF's construction schedule. The main courtyard pool is being re-furbished plus there's DVC construction between GF and the Poly.

The other thing is having a car. I don't necessarily think that the GF self park is further than AKL's self-park but I think AKL's walk to the self-park is much nicer. I ended up adding the expense of valet parking ($15/day) at GF because I didn't like GF's self park. I also like the easy car entry to AKL. I did find a roundabout way on my last day at GF (go by Port Orleans) but I didn't like having to stop at the MK parking entry gates to get to the GF. I definitely liked having my car better at AKL than at GF.

I found AKL's buses to be very good. Unfortunately while I was at GF, the monorail was unavailable for many hours on all the days I was at GF. The boats are fun from GF but quickly backed up and we ended up on shared buses to get to the MK. Of course at GF we had to walk up to the monorail to find that it was down (no notification anywhere), then walked to the boat dock, then we walked to the buses When the monorail is down, the monorail resorts become very inconvenient.

 

[Kwaschitz]

GF strictly for the monorail. Its theming is a bit "stuffy" for my 7yo son. But the monorail access... definitively worth it. (That said, I've never been over to AKL so I can't speak to whether standard view there is worth it in comparison)

 

[ke3d98]

Since you have two boys I would go with the standard room at AKL. You'll save some money and will have enogh room for four people in a standard room:

 

[T. Baker]

We stayed at AKL and absolutely loved it. We booked a pool view but when we checked in the first thing the CM said was "you have been upgraded to an Arusha view room". We were not told any reason why or anything else.

We had a big problem with the toilet in our room and the staff at AKL were wonderful. Very gracious and bent over backwards to make sure we were happy. They moved us to a 2 bedroom/2 1/2 bath club level suite.

They checked in with us to be sure everything was going well. They were very nice about trying to fix the problem in the beginning (toilet had to be pulled out, etc. They lost use of that room for 2 days) and because of that we are sold in AKL. The service we received was exceptional.

We loved watching the animals from our room. The giraffes seem to travel in groups and we saw 3 or 4 together every morning. My husband said AKL was his favorite vacation to WDW ever.

 

[Robbi]

AKL for your boys. I would usually say only with a savanna view but there is an awesome observation deck off the lobby. The poo, is wonderful and you can see the animals right near the pool deck.
Don't forget that there's construction going on at the GF on the new DVC. That would take away from the resort experience for us.

 

[Cindie-rella]

AKL - but I would do a Pool View if it is available.
AKL is such a fabulous resort - tons of activites for the kids - poolside parties and games - activities that they can participate in to earn beads - beautiful pool - animal viewing areas around the resort - nightly movies by the pool. We just adore it there.
If I am being honest thought - GF holds no appeal to us in terms of theming - so I wouldn't spend an extra $600 to stay there.

I agree. But if you are willing to pay the extra at GF then I say do Savannah View at AKL.