We just got back from a long trip, 9/29 - 10/7, and our first stay at AKL. I wanted to share our experience! We rented DVC points for a savanna-view studio in Jambo House. We absolutely loved it. It's such a great resort for kids (my daughter turned five on our trip), I don't know why Disney doesn't market it that way more often. She loved doing the activities that are available throughout the resort, especially the animal enrichment one where she got to put worms into toys for the savanna birds to "hunt". The animal specialist that supervised the activity then took the toys out to the savanna so the kids could see the birds using what they made. It was really neat, and the folks running the activities had endless patience for small kids who can't read but want to pretend they can, had a million questions, and generally didn't really want to follow the directions.
Even though I stay pretty current with Disney Parks info, my brain can't seem to maintain resort info, so I'm not up on what all the trails are called or what would be an indication that our room was renovated or not. I think we were in the Giraffe trail? Room 5310. I can tell you that it was very far from the lobby, which always stinks after a long park day or when you want to go get something to eat, but we're used to it by now at Disney. I always request "Close to Lobby" at every resort we stay in and never get it! I think POFQ is calling our name for our next visit!
We did have the new big bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in our room. But we also had the small body lotion bottles next to the sinks! (And bar soap, of course) I know that was something I was concerned about as it had been reported that some people weren't getting them anymore.
We also had trash service almost every day. There was a card in our room noting that this was a new service they were providing to DVC rooms since they are doing daily room checks now.
I know there's a lot of back and forth on the bus service from AKL, especially to MK. I went into it opened minded, knowing that you can experience weird blips and delays for the buses from anywhere. But honestly, we did see kind of crappy service to MK. We would sit there at the MK stop and watch three buses go by for Epcot, four for Hollywood, two for Animal Kingdom, and none for MK. While the crowd built and built. This happened several times, not a one-off. We would absolutely stay at AKL again, the bus service is no reason to not stay there, but would definitely plan lots of extra time to get to MK. On the other hand, bus service to the other three resorts seemed really consistent and fast.
We also got a bit tired of Mara after awhile. We loved the food there, it was fantastic (especially the falafel platter!), but we wished for another quick service option. We solved it by ordering food from the parks on our way out on a few nights and bringing it back to the room to heat up and eat later. The DVC room was really nice in that regard — having the microwave, toaster, and sink was so helpful! We ate at Jiko and Sanaa while we were there and the food at both was excellent. It was our first time at Jiko and if I had to choose between the two (Sanaa being a favorite of ours) I would choose Jiko! The food and service were both so amazing.
Lastly, every single CM we encountered at AKL was wonderful. So kind and knowledgable. We really really loved our stay here. We are trying to stay at all of the resorts eventually, but AKL is going to be really hard to top! Since this got so long I'll share some room and resort photos in the next post.
