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Author
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magicmommy
One Bedroom
Registered: February 2006
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 265
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Review Date: Thu January 17, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Great view
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Cons:
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Storage space
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Savannah view dedicated studio 5531. Zebra trail. Great view of the animals.
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dmiller109
Studio
Registered: October 2007
Location: Near Charleston South Carolina
Posts: 118
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Review Date: Fri January 18, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Great view of the animals
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Cons:
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none
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The room is idea for a couple or parents with small children not needing their own room.
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:Princess:
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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alwysonvac
Waiting to pass ROFR
Registered: June 2007
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 58
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Review Date: Sat January 19, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Disney Deluxe Hotel amenities with DVC accommodations
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Cons:
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Potentially very long walk to your savannah view room
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Loved AKV
First stay at AKV studio Savannah view last month (1 night the week before XMAS)
Since I was staying with family in Florida last month and DVC had one studio available at AK, I took my 3-year-old niece for an overnight trip to Disney World.
Pros
(1) Love the Room Décor (the only other DVC décor that I love is SSR where we own)
(2) Loved having the advantage of a Disney Deluxe Hotel amenities with DVC accommodations.
(3) Loved the resort activities for children – my three-year-old niece had a wonderful time at the resort. I was planning to take her to MGM on the first day and Magic Kingdom on the second but she wanted to hang out at the resort. We did the playground, watched movies and participated in the art & crafts in the lobby, browsed through Zawadi Marketplace shop and had dinner that night at Mara (which has a much better counter service setup than Artist's Palette at SSR) then took the bus to Magic Kingdom the next day.
Cons
(1) Very Long Walk to the room. We were given a room at the farthest end (perhaps because we were staying for one night). LOL, I remember reading complaints about the long walks at AKL but I always thought how bad could it be. YIKES, it’s a very long hallway especially with a three year old.
(2) Have to walk outside to get to Mara, the quick service restaurant. I knew the location of Boma and Jiko based on my previous visits to AKL for dinner but I had no idea where Mara’s was located. Thank goodness we still had our jackets with us because we had to go outside to get to Mara’s for dinner.
Overall:
We had a dedicated savannah view studio. It was very clean. The room size was fine for just the two of us. The bed and sofa were very comfortable. I would have preferred brighter lighting in the room (especially the sink area) but it was ok.
Our Savannah view was just ok (room 5584). At first I was disappointed when I saw fencing from the balcony but we eventually saw some animals behind the fence. Animal watching from the balcony wasn’t as big of a draw as I thought it would be. However villa views normally aren’t an important factor to me except when I’m taking a beach type vacation where I prefer an oceanfront or ocean view room.
Preferred the double sink in the AKV studio
AKV - http://allearsnet.com/blogs/lindamac/AKLVStudio24.jpg
The kitchenette area in the AKV studio appeared slightly larger than SSR
SSR - http://allearsnet.com/acc/ss122.jpg
AKV - http://allearsnet.com/blogs/lindamac/AKLVStudio21.jpg
The studio had the same feel as a standard DVC studio (excluding OKW)
AKV - http://allearsnet.com/blogs/lindamac/AKLVStudio04.jpg
Loved AKL more than I thought I would. The major advantage for me was Disney Deluxe Hotel amenities with DVC Accommodations (SSR is lacking in this area). Loved this advantage so much that I’m reconsidering adding on at AKV for Jambo.
I’ve always loved the AKL lodge and was ready to add on at AKV when it became available but was turned off when Jambo and Kidani were considered one combined home resort (which to me meant a lot more competition for Jambo reservations).
LOL, I’m currently waiting for CRV but AKV is very tempting at the moment especially for non-park days.
Little facts I didn’t know about AKL (from allearsnet.com):
(a) The Uzima Springs zero depth entry pool is the largest on Disney property, over 11,000 square feet.
(b) At nearly 6,000 square feet, Zawadi Marketplace is among the largest retail shops at Walt Disney World Resort.
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Stimpy
Grand Villa
Registered: December 2005
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 2730
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Review Date: Mon January 21, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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great room, friendly CM's
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Cons:
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too far from parks
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We stayed in a studio for 1 night in November. We loved the room! It seems larger than the other DVC studios we have stayed at (BCV & BWV). Everything was obviously new & clean. We were next to the elevators but couldn't hear a thing. The Cm's at AKL are all friendly and helpful.
The resort is big, and we got lost trying to get back to our room 1 night LOL We seemed to hit a bad day and weren't able to see too many animals while there. We also weren't thrilled with the Mara snack bar area.
But we loved it and are staying there for 10 nights in October!
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Kimberly :bouncingc
"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go Insane!" :crazy:
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DVC_for_me!
One Bedroom
Registered: March 2007
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 313
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Review Date: Mon February 11, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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great themeing, good counter service, big balcony
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Cons:
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NO storage space
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We stayed here Feb 7-10 for a quick mother-daughter bonding getaway. The room was decorated well and while overall it did seem a bit larger than other studios I have been in, it felt cramped. Closing the door to the bathroom was a little tricky because there was no room. An exception was the balcony, it was easily twice what I have had at SSR, VWl and BCV. Very nice for hanging out and watching the animals!
I thought the counter service here was a bit better than most of what we've seen. There was a good mix of basics and more exotic food. My DD is VERY picky and with the exception of Roaring Forks (VWL), she has refused the entire menu on all other resort CS's, so this was nice.
My one real issue is the lack of storage space. There are 4 dinky drawers for clothes. That's it. There is a HUGE armoire, but that has the vacumn, ironing board, and a section for hanging clothes, but no hangers. No place to store luggage, so ours was just sitting in a corner. I'm glad we didn;t have more people or a longer trip or we would have been literally been living out of suitcases set on the floor!
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MaryLynn  ancingba
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MickeyFamily
Waiting to pass ROFR
Registered: February 2008
Posts: 14
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Review Date: Mon February 25, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Updated, View
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Cons:
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Location
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We stayed here in 10/07 and had a great time. We loved how updated the room was - granite, flat-screen t.v. I like that they kept extra towels and linens in our room too. I think they were in a chest.
The view was fabulous, any time we looked out we saw different animals, I think we found all, or at least most, of the animals on the find-it sheet by the end of our stay.
The activity CMs were super with our kids, and we loved that there were activities unique to this resort, and that stuck with the theme of Animal Kingdom, rather than your typical "make a magnet, decorate a cup" typical hotel activity.
We were close to the laundry which had new HE machines. Anothere nice update.
The only thing this resort lacks is the convenience to walk to any park, but the atmosphere overshadows it. My 7 year old would move in to stay if we'd let her. Can't say enough good things about this resort/room.
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OL60
One Bedroom
Registered: January 2007
Location: Cullman, AL
Posts: 242
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Review Date: Mon February 25, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Savannah view, nice bed
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Cons:
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Bathroom was kind of plain in decor
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Loved the place.
My family of 4 had plenty of room in the studio. Nice comfortable bed and even the fold out was decent (Course I have never had a problem with fold outs)
Was interesting to walk around the lobby and read about all the items that were on display.
My youngest even got to take part in the music session they had one evening
Only downsides was that the bathroom in the room was not very decorated in the theme and the lighting was not the greatest. Also the pool was rather plain.
We area already booked for our next trip with the same accomodations
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Proud bearer of MOD-11
Owner of 285 points worth of
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OL60
One Bedroom
Registered: January 2007
Location: Cullman, AL
Posts: 242
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Review Date: Sat June 14, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 0
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Pros:
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Quiet, additional exercise
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Cons:
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Long way from anything
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This is a review of AKL room 5485 only. I really like AKL overall...but am now rating the room I had on ny recent trip.
Room 5485 is a studio with savannah view. The balcony overlooks the main savannah in the middle of the "C" so the grass is green and the number of animals you see if on up there.
It is a nice standard studio room.
However - the only thing further away from the lobby or the pool, etc from this room is a wall. Seriously - I am at the end of the hall of the "C". It is a 5 minute walk to the room from the lobby. You learn to plan ahead quickly and to ensure you have everything before leaving.
Also the elevator that is on this side of the "C" does not let you go to the first floor and out to the pool area. It is restricted to cast members only. So you have to walk all the way over to the elevator to get to the pool area/arcade/food court.
I really hope to never get this room again and would love a way to put this into some sort of booking profile on record with DVC.
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Proud bearer of MOD-11
Owner of 285 points worth of
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KingOMiami
One Bedroom
Registered: April 2008
Location: 237 Miles from the House of Mouse
Posts: 214
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Review Date: Fri September 5, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Room decor, overall ambience, CM's were extremely friendly and helpful
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Cons:
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Distance to the room, bus transportation left alot to be desired
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DW & I stayed here for Memorial Day weekend and we absolutely loved the place. The room view was fantastic, we were on the outside of the "C" overlooking the lil savanna and we could see the construction on Kidani village.
Like VWL, the distance to the room was crazy long. As other have mentioned, you learn to make sure you have everything before you leave the room.
Also, the bus times were terrible. At one point, we waited for 40 minutes for an Epcot bus to show up and we also waited 30 minutes to go to Magic Kingdom another day.
Other than that, we totally recommend the resort to anyone who wants to see things on the wild side
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC][B]DVC Members since Mar. '07[/B]
Our lil home - 50 point VWL contract
DVC Trips
07 - VWL
08 - AKV
09 - SSR
11 - OKW
12 - VB, VWL
13 - AKV
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KR4eeyore
Waiting to pass ROFR
Registered: March 2006
Posts: 64
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Review Date: Wed September 24, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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Unique experience with animal viewing, Restaurants
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Cons:
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Layout of studio not ideal, over-chlorinated pool
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I had great expectations of Animal Kingdom Villas, and had been salivating ever since it was announced. We stayed in this resort in 2005 and it was shortly after that we bought DVC always knowing we'd stay there again. We stayed in one of the converted hotel rooms Aug 24-29 2008, not the new Kidani village (not ready for occupancy at the time.) We were thrilled with the room location on the 5th floor. I was expecting the room to be pretty far from it all, but the location of our room was great. We loved watching the animals from our porch and were able to get some excellent pics. This was what I most looked forward to when planning the trip, and the relaxation aspect of being surrounded by a Savannah and viewing the animals was definitely met.
We were very happy with the restaurant choices. Mara was great with some nice healthy vegetarian choices. We also bought hummus for the room and enjoyed that with chips and veggies every night. We'd been to Boma several times before but decided to treat ourselves to Jiko this time - WOW that was a great choice. The service was absolutely impeccable, the food was perfect and the presentation amazing - definitely worth the money. We also had room service one night for dinner, it came in record time and the food was cooked perfectly.
My issue with this trip was the bed - it was so uncomfortable! I remember my last trip in the hotel section, the bed was so comfortable and I slept so soundly. I was almost tempted to sleep on the sofa bed this time, the mattress was so bad. I think the problem is that it is one of the converted hotel rooms, not Kidani village, and they put an older mattress in the room. Also, the layout of the room and the acoustics made it seem smaller than it was. When you get out of bed, there is very little space between that and the kitchenette, so you are basically on top of the fridge and coffe-pot. The bathroom was also very loud! So I really didn't sleep well at all on this trip.
Mousekeeping here was great, they were always friendly and we had plenty of towels. The Zawadi marketplace was a beautiful store with some unique African items, not on sale at other places in Disney. The pool was beautiful, but it was very over-chlorinated making it difficult to enjoy fully. The buses on this particular trip were much slower than expected, except to and from Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom - Blizzard Beach and Downtown Disney were slow and overcrowded both ways.
All in all it was a good trip and I look forward to staying at AKV once Kidani opens up. Do the airlines allow a mattress as a carry on these days?
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floridaperson
Waiting to pass ROFR
Registered: July 2007
Location: Florida
Posts: 15
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Review Date: Sun September 28, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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View, concierge service, room layout
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Cons:
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Hall noise, next door room noise, travel time, coffee
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This is by far, one of the most enjoyable anniversaries we have celebrated at Disney. We were in 5503 and saw so many different animals and birds. It was very peaceful on our balcony. However, we could hear the people talking in the room next to us (much like OKW) and in the hallway. The concierge (Wayne) was wonderful and got us reservations at Jiko for our 39th anniversary dinner. We tried his recommendations of the Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloin and Filet Mignon with macaroni and cheese (who would have thought!) Yum! Do try the pistachio creme brulee for dessert and the Excelsior Cabernet! Marty, our server, was absolutely wonderful. We went to Epcot our first day to enjoy the Wine and Food Festival (San Francisco, Hops & Barley and Louisiana were outstanding). However, we waited 45 minutes for a bus to return "home". The second day we went to Animal Kingdom and, of course, that was a quick trip both ways. Our bed was extremely comfortable and everything was neat and clean. The room layout was great with a queen bed and sofa. Kitchen space was adequate. Again, as usual, we did not have enough coffee for two mornings. I don't understand why they don't provide a pack for each morning...we certainly pay for it! In November for the last day of the food and wine festival at Epcot we'll stay at BWV; in December we will stay at our home resort for the first time...SSR. Reviews of these resorts will be most valuable to us!
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BandontheRun
Studio
Registered: April 2006
Posts: 158
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Review Date: Mon October 13, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Savannah Views, Playground, pool, restaurants, vicinity to AK
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Cons:
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Bus station is not convenient to room locations, rooms are small
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We stayed from October 1-5 in a dedicated Savannah View studio DVC accomodation.
This was my first time staying in a DVC resort other than Wilderness Lodge, which is still my favorite resort. That being said, I rate AK an 8/10 while WL is a 10/10.
The theming is great as expected and the flat screen TVs are a nice touch. It does seem like the rooms here are smaller than those at the Wilderness Lodge Villas. It can get cramped between the bathroom and the sink area and in lieu of a full size built-in closet, there is a unit which isn't quite as roomy.
The staff was very friendly and several times I was told of events like cookie painting, t-shirt painting etc. There are "rocks" in the lobby which have written on them "do not climb" - which is kind of silly given how many young children are there and the rocks really do lend themselves to climbing.
It is really great to see the animals and even without a Savannah view, you can see many animals just walking through the hallways as there are glass overlooks of the Savannah.
Although you need to walk outside to get to Mara, the coffee/soda station for refills is set up away from the cash registers which makes for an easy in and out if you're in a hurry or hanging around the pool. There is also a bar near the pool.
Most noticeable is that all of the rooms are far away from the bus station. Since you can't get anywhere from this hotel without using the bus, I would have preferred if it were a bit more centrally located without having to exit the lobby to get to the bus station. Comparatively, the Wilderness Lodge bus stop is located in between the Villas and the Hotel.
I also didn't like that the bus stops at Blizzard Beach before getting to Hollywood studios.. I always hated that about the WL bus stopping at Blizzard Beach before getting to Animal Kingdom.
Overall - this is a great hotel and if you want to spend some time around Animal Kingdom- there isn't a better offering.
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Last Trip: Wilderness Lodge Villas/Animal Kingdom Kidani Village: September 2012
Next Trip: Animal Kingdom Kidani Village: October 2013
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carolina_yankee
Administrator
Registered: February 2006
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 14701
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Review Date: Tue January 13, 2009
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Excellent theming, larger room, decent animal views
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Cons:
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At end of Zebra Trail, fewer animals
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This was our 3rd stay in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but the first in a villa unit. Studio 5553 is on the last spur off of the Zebra trail, so its pretty far out. In fact, counting paces, it's a 1/4 mile walk to the buses! There is ice and vending where each spur connect with the main trail, so we were generally closer to ice than in some other resorts.
It is a dedicated studio, next to another dedicated studio (5555). The closet, in addition to the wardrobe, felt more spacious than one long closet in the vanity area that you often find in studios. The room was in great shape, with a mix of bright colors on the bedspread and subdued tones in the sofa and carpet. The vanity area was larger than expected, due to 2 sinks (our SSR studio had one sink), and the curved shower rod makes a huge difference in the tub/shower!!
Another interesting difference from our SSR studio was that the coffee maker has an automatic pause when you pull the put out to pour a cup before brewing has finished, whereas SSR's maker continued to drip.
The flatscreen TV is nice, but the volume level was too high when you first turn the set on. We know we disturbed our neighbors every time we turned the TV on.
The animal views were disappointing at first. We're used to animals hanging out all night on Arusha Savanna or Uzima Savanna. However, they showed up around 8 am and hung out until well past sunset. We generally had giraffe, ankole cattle, and zebras so we didn't get the full diversity of the savanna. However, the view includes the route to the barns, so we were treated to a daily procession of animals as they were called in for their exams and such. While we generally had few clusters and less diversity of animals than in previous views, we were still entertained.
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DVC YODERS
Two Bedroom
Registered: September 2008
Location: ROUND LAKE IL
Posts: 588
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Review Date: Mon April 6, 2009
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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nice decor
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Cons:
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small space
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the room is very nice akv is awesome!
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
:reporter:DIANE :tinker:DD10 :Pirate:DS8
DVC MEMBER SINCE JULY 2008
JUNE 2008--CONTEMPORARY RESORT
MARCH 28-APRIL 4 2009--SSR STUDIO
JUNE 13-21 2009--AKV KIDANI VILLAGE 1BR VILLA
JULY 12-17 2009--GRAND CALIFORNIAN HOTEL
APRIL 12-17 2010--BAY LAKE TOWER 1BR LAKE VIEW
December 13-20 2010--Saratoga Springs Studio
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floridaperson
Waiting to pass ROFR
Registered: July 2007
Location: Florida
Posts: 15
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Review Date: Thu April 23, 2009
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Quiet and lots of animals
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Cons:
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Maintenance and privacy
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We were at the very end 5584. Yes, it was a long walk but we don't have children so it didn't bother us. However, the stairwell looks onto the balcony and into the room. Someone below us was smoking on their balcony. The coffee pot had not been dusted on top for quite awhile. Lights on the mirror over the table were both out and needed to be replaced. (Maintenance was there within 10 minutes of our call.) The internet cable had a broken end but was still useable. Lighting was very dim. The animals and dinner at Jiko made it all worthwhile however.
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