Friday, April 8, 2011

Resort Review - Animal Kingdom Lodge

Hello everyone!  Welcome to another edition of my resort review!  Today I am going to talk about the Animal Kindgom Lodge and Villas. 

I have only stayed here once and it is a SUPER popular place to stay.  I really enjoyed my stay here and I think I will do it again at some point.  It has its pluses and minuses.  But all in all it is fantastic!  Lets start with a great video tour of the resort, as always, provided from by http://www.travelriggers.co.uk/.  (AllEarsNet didn't have a video of this fabulous resort yet!)


But they did have a video of the Kidani Village - the all new villa section!  Check it out!



AKL Jambo House Lobby - photo courtesy of AllEarsNet.com

The theming is obviously completley different than the Wilderness Lodge Resort that I reviewed previously, but you can see that the entrance and lobby are a similar design.  The Animal Kingdom Lodge's lobby is grand and inviting.  The African theming and music is exceptional.  Off the lobby you will and entrance to an outdoor viewing area of the savanna as well as many halls that you can walk down. (They take you to the guest rooms.)  Take a walking tour of the resort and you will see that there are several locations to look out on the savanna and see animals - giraffes, zebras, etc. - roaming freely.  This has to be one of the coolest things about this resort and a reason to stay here or at least pay it a visit while you are in Disney!

The main building of the Animal Kingdom Lodge is the Jambo House.  This is the original portion of the resort, built back in 2001.  A few years ago Disney decided to add villas to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  The first converted several of the regular guest rooms over in Jambo House.  While this was being done, construction was also taking place on a whole new section of the resort - the Kidani Village.  These are all strictly Villas - studios, one and two bedrooms.  It is about a 10 minute walk in between the two buildings - important to know since the Kidani building does NOT have a quick service restaurant. 



Jambo House Main Pool - photo courtesy AllEarsNet.com
The two main pools at the Animal Kingdom Lodge are incredible!!  The Jambo House Pool features a zero entry - great for the little ones to sit in play in an inch of water!  There is also a water slide featured with this pool.  Around you, you will also find viewing areas of the Savanna.  My daughter and I were swimming here one day and walked over to our chairs and looked out and there were two giraffes eatting from a tree!  It was so cool!!  


Kidani Village Pool - photo courtesy AllEarsNet.com

Over at the Kidani Village you will find a pool area that is out of this world!!  The kids will love it!  I know mine did!  The one minus, if there is one, about this pool area is it's location.  To get to it you have to walk out the lobby and down past the valet area.  It isn't that it is a long walk, it is just the walk itself and that it isn't convienent that I found to be a downer, but the pool area more than makes up for that!  This is one of the few pools on resort property that is off limits for pool hopping - which is ONLY allowed to DVC members! 
Water Play Area at Kidani Village Pool - Photo Courtesy of AllEarsNet.com
There are different room view options at the Animal Kingdom Lodge - standard view, pool view, and Savanna view.  If  you are going to spend the money and you have it to spend - do the savanna view!  We stayed in a standard view and looked at an oh so lovely parking lot.  One night we got to stay in a savanna view and WOW it was AWESOME!!  Like the Wilderness Lodge they have an option to have bunk beds in your room, which is nice with kids since it gives you more floor space., plus what kid doesn't LOVE bunk beds!!

If you have ever dreamed of visiting Africa, but aren't sure how to swing it, give the Animal Kingdom Lodge a try!  I don't think you will regret it!!  For more great information about this resort check out the following links - More Pictures!, Fact Sheet, Kidani Village Fact Sheet

Is this the resort for you?  Have you stayed here before?  Let us know below your thoughts on the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

3 comments:

  1. Hi
    I am here from the blog party.
    I love your blog and the videos
    My family wants to go to disney so bad and
    they want to stay in animal kingdom.
    Maybe some time in the near future with any luck
    karen
    http://iamtheprincessblog.blogspot.com/

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  2. I want to stay here but my husband is resisting because he thinks it will be a hassle to get the parks. Did you find traveling to other locations in The World to be bothersome?

    I was thinking we'd wait another year when my son might be able to ride more of the rides at Universal, as I understand that Animal Kingdom's location is convenient for getting on the road to Sea World and Universal. This way we still take advantage of our Disney Vacation Club membership but we get to see other parks in Orlando.

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  3. It wasn't a hassle per se, but it is a bit farther away. I would say it is a 20 minute bus ride to Magic Kingdom. I am not sure how easy it is to get to Sea World and such, but it was on the outer edge of the park with easy access to outside of the resort roads, so I would guess it would be easier. :-)

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