Changing to Animal Kingdom Lodge - what's it like

[hellin family]

Hi all

As it's likely we'll need to move our holiday to next year, I'm considering changing our 5 night Disney stay - currently have POFQ booked. I'd love to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge but could only afford a standard room - what's it like. Is it worth it - can you view the savannah from any public spaces if you don't have a savannah room?

thanks all

[BevS97]

Yes you can view from lots of viewing areas. Also although it’s not guaranteed lots of standard rooms have partial views of the animals.

We have stayed there a couple of times and it is a lovely resort.

[hellin family]

Originally Posted by BevS97

Yes you can view from lots of viewing areas. Also although it’s not guaranteed lots of standard rooms have partial views of the animals.

We have stayed there a couple of times and it is a lovely resort.

See more...

Thanks Bev - good to know and very helpful ...just waiting on news of cancelled flights so I can get excited about replanning the trip!

[Rescuer]

We really liked it. We’ve stayed there twice, first time 15 nights second 12 nights.

We found the transport to be pretty good, we used the buses all the time and had maybe one or 2 instances where I wasn’t amused with our wait.

It’s really nice that you can use the facilities at kidani as well, they have a great splash pad for kids and I really liked their pool, I also really like Sanaa. When we were there they did a Qs option breakfast their too.

The resort is stunning and has a lovely atmosphere. There’s very little that I’d put on a negative list.

Mara is good and I really liked that they had some of the soups from Boma.

We stayed in a standard room and requested the Kudu trail and had a nice partial view over the savannah. Pretty much the same view on both trips.

We’ve stayed in a fair few Disney hotels and I think AKL is good value ( as much as any Disney hotel is). We really enjoyed POFQ as well though.

[alkel2730]

It’s lovely, it’s such a unique hotel with so much to see and do. It’s really beautiful and smells awesome too We’ve stayed at Jambo & Kidani six times now and only had a savannah room twice. If recommend for sure.

[YorkshireT]

It’s a nice place but I’m not overly keen on location.

This is mainly because we like to walk a lot and run on a morning at WDW. There is literally nowhere to walk or run to, so we felt very cut off. We went in the gym on a morning and all the running machines were taken with some desperate souls sprinting up and down the car park.

If it had a pathway put in to Animal Kingdom or running tracks like most other resorts, then that would elevate it substantially for us.

One further thing to consider- bus transport may or may not be stymied as a result of Covid, even next year if no vaccine, meaning if it is, it could mean a lot of Ubering or driving from AKL, better in my view to be looking at maybe a crescent lake resort or somewhere with something to walk to like Saratoga if you won’t have a car.

[hellin family]

Thanks all - will have a look at location as we probably won't get a car until the villa part of the holiday now that Disney charges for overnight parking. I have always fancied a stay here and seeing as it looks like we will have to defer to next year (when I have one of those 'special' birthdays) it would be a nice treat.

[Willeve]

Originally Posted by hellin family

Thanks all - will have a look at location as we probably won't get a car until the villa part of the holiday now that Disney charges for overnight parking. I have always fancied a stay here and seeing as it looks like we will have to defer to next year (when I have one of those 'special' birthdays) it would be a nice treat.

See more...

We’ve stayed around several onsite resorts, I found the transport from here to be the best overall. No shared buses, no long drives around the resort, plentiful busses. Don’t be put of by location, it’s just as quick to get to most destinations as it is on a monorail resort(MK excepted).

[THE WIZARD]

Fabulous hotel can not recommend enough. Bus system was fantastic, your even entertain while waiting for a bus!
We only booked a standard room & were given a beautiful refurbished Pool view room. Pool 2 mins walk from room. It will now forevever be our Home WDW hotel.
Our room view

You can see the animals from most areas, even do a Savannah safari

[The waltons]

We stayed there on our last trip to Disney. It’s amazing we had savannah room included but most rooms have a view. It was so relaxing made such a difference from mania in Disney to look at graceful animals outside. There are lots of animal viewing points. The Mara was brilliant pool was beautiful . My ds was 9 and still raves about it. The balcony was brilliant to have at Disney he would wake up in the morning early and sit out there looking at the animals with his toys. He keeps asking to stay again. I’d go again in a heartbeat.
They had great bus system and games for kids at bus stop that my two still joke about such as match the faeces to the species !