Jambo! The newest AKL Information thread

[Babsy]

Does anyone have a picture of the newly renovated rooms at AKL? Do they still have two real queen beds? Plus a table with two chairs?

Thank you!

 

[bavarian princess]

Below are my random thoughts pieced together from tidbits gleaned here and there. None of it is certain or verifiable, just my own considerations as I try to decide what to do myself.........

I haven't been able to get much information on the construction - I don't think that anyone really knows the answer to this. From what I have been able to gather it seems that the construction was originally supposed to be done by fall 2019. Not surprisingly, it wasn't finished by then. It seems that the Ostrich and Giraffe trails are the last on the schedule and, according to the most recent info that I have, are not yet started. The Savanna rooms seem to be finished(?) on The Zebra and Kudu trails. Outside painting near the pool as well as interior of pool view rooms appears to be at least some of the work happening right now, I think. The pool at Jambo has had work completed, and appears to be in use.

It seems to me that there is still considerable work to be finished. (again JMHO) People are impacted to varying degrees, depending upon a mix of where their room is located and their tolerance for some disruption at their resort.
I am anticipating work to continue for months rather than weeks and expect something to still be ongoing for my own trip in early Feb. SO, I am trying to find an alternative place to stay as I do not enjoy staying anywhere with construction. ALSo, I have a pool view room booked, which may be the worst possible choice. Nothing else seems to be available for my dates - another hint that this is where the issues may primarily lie right now.

If anyone has better or more accurate information to share please correct me.

Bavarian Princess: Your April/May time frame may or may not be affected. It depends upon how quickly Disney gets the remaining work done, which is anyone's guess, AFAIK. If I were planning an April /May trip, I would probably still stay at AKL, but keep an eye on what is happening and request a room as far as possible from construction. I would stay Savannah or standard view rather than pool view, as these room categories have the best potential to find a room away from construction.

YMMV. That is just what I would do based on the little that I have read. I am not sure of any of this. But it is the best that I have and I hope that it helps.

Good luck deciding!

Thanks Babsy, for giving me your thoughts on the construction around AKL. I finally took the decision and changed my booking to AKL hoping that most of the construction will be over at the end of April. It is by far my favorite onsite hotel! I love the theming, the pool, the atmosphere, the FOOD...and I got a good offer that I just couldn't pass up. BTW if you google newly renovated rooms at AKL you will find a lot of pictures

A big thanks to everyone else who is sharing all the great information and updates on AKL

 

[mandis77]

what are the chances of Zebra trail being done in a few weeks? We booked standard and my faxed room request was "zebra trail, refurb room, near lobby".

 

[nittanyliongirl02]

Following.

We have a Value Studio booked for late May/early June for 4 nights that I was able to get using my Mom's pin code (it is me, DM, and DD).

Any info on these rooms would be appreciated. I have stayed at AKL but it was a loooooong time ago. We stayed Savanna room then.

Thanks!

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

Does anyone have a picture of the newly renovated rooms at AKL? Do they still have two real queen beds? Plus a table with two chairs?

Thank you!

 

[gillep]

I’ve booked a savannah view room at AKL in March for our 30th wedding anniversary. I’m so excited to stay here for the first time! I’d really appreciate suggestions to make the anniversary special.

I’ve heard rumors about a safari that can be booked. Any one know where I can find information about it?

I have done a few of the Safari experiences offered at AKL. My favorite was Sense of Africa (I have a trip report starting on page 201 of this thread with pictures) I also highly enjoyed the Wanyama Safari.

 

[MickeyMouse55]

I have just this week booked 1 night at Jambo in a deluxe villa studio, first time at Animal Kingdom Lodge and very excited as I’ve always wanted to stay here. How well do people do with requesting early check in? Any advice to obtaining a room with partial savannah view? The room is booked for standard.
TIA

 

[MrsHammer]

So relieved that this morning I was able to apply the 25% room discount to my June reservation. Saved almost $600! My DD13 is so looking forward to staying at AKL again. We were there in 2016 and she never wants to stay anywhere else.

 

[henry72]

We rented DVC points and stayed at AKV Jambo House a few years ago with a Savannah view room on Zebra trail. It was awesome, and while I loved the Savannah view room, I am not sure I can justify the cost this time since prices have gone up. We are looking at going over Thanksgiving week and there are no standard view rooms at Jambo, but I can get a standard view at Kidani Village or I would need to pay for the Savannah view at Jambo. My son really liked Jambo - we were so close to the pool and the Mara and is disappointed their isn't a QS place at Kidani. We are also looking forward to the Christmas decorations. Any thoughts on whether we would love Kidani Village as much as Jambo House?

 

[dgbg100106]

Thank you! We’ll be there 2/1-8 for the first time and I’ve been a little nervous about the construction. So excited, and can’t decide what room request to make!

February
1/31 - 2/14 KaboomBoxer - AKL
2/1 - 2/8 CODisFan - AKL
2/4 - 2/11 mullysisters - AKL
2/4 - 2/12 Mollygirl21 - AKV
2/13 - 2/15 Mom2Colin - AKL
2/14 - 2/20 MadMadamMim1 - Jambo
2/15 - 2/22 starousse - AKL Jambo
2/16 - 2/23 ursalita - AKL

 

[DizDaD7]

@dgbg100106 , Hey there, was wondering if you can add us to the list..Not an AK trip this visit but still coming down.
6/24-27 Vero & 6/27-7/2 OKW...as of now, that might change to BWV

 

[dgbg100106]

@dgbg100106 , Hey there, was wondering if you can add us to the list..Not an AK trip this visit but still coming down.
6/24-27 Vero & 6/27-7/2 OKW...as of now, that might change to BWV

Of course, thanks for being so nice about it.
June
6/5 - 6/13 DigitalOlli - AKV Jambo
6/6 - 6/12 malissa90 - AKL
6/14 - 6/21 amyadams1020 - AKL
6/24 - 6/27 DizDad7 - Vero
6/27 - 7/2 DizDaD7 - OKW
6/28 - 7/4 DisneyDiana - AKV

 

[VicarJT]

We stayed at AKL in a standard view room Dec 3-6. We asked for a refurbished room not on the ground floor. We were given a refurbished room on the 4th floor Kudu trail with a partial savanna view (view obstructed by people pen and jut-out of the building beside the room).

As far as we could tell at that point in time:

- renovations on Kudu trail were complete; we walked the halls and saw no evidence of work being done

- renovation work was actively being done inside on Zebra trail, in hallways closest to the lobby. There were halls blocked off and guests on zebra trail in large blocks of rooms were directed by signs to take the elevator up to floor 5, walk the hall to another elevator, then down to their floor and then walk to their room. There was signage and CMs providing directions. We only knew about this because we went exploring the building and so we stumbled upon the blockage and signage; otherwise, unless you were a directly affected guest, you wouldn't know.

- as far as we could tell no work was being done on ostrich or giraffe trails

- there was some renovation work being done outside of the Jambo building near the pool area, but it was minimal, and looked like it was painting. Other than one walk to Mara when I walked through paint fumes, we were not affected by this renovation work as it was largely unobtrusive unless you were looking for it or really paying attention to the people walking past and noticed "oh, that person is wearing a safety vest".

- at Kidani there was scaffolding and netting on the exterior of the back of the building at the lobby area, and there were barriers up between where the constructions crews were doing work on the exterior of the building and where the animals were. From one of the indoor/balcony vantage areas, we joked about seeing the animals, and then looking down into the contstruction pen "...and here is **** sapiens sapiens, a rare species...". As you can see, we had some fun with it. But it was absolutely not possible to ignore or not notice the construction works at the back exterior wall of Kidani. I don't know all of what they were doing, but some of it involved painting.

- that said, some of the animals didn't seem to care. One bird in particular and some of its friends were chowing down in the grass right the other side of one of the barriers, and then every so often the one bird would pop its head up over the barrier and watch the humans on the other side, then go back to chowing down. It was quite funny and we watched its antics for quite a while.

- at breakfast at Sanaa, we noticed they had the green human/animal barriers up the entire length of the windows that overlook the savanna, which quite effectively blocked the view onto the savannah. This is the only place where the contruction works really *interfered*, as you outright could not see out to the savanna through those windows due to the green barrier.

Even though the Kidiani works were unavoidable, we didn't find them interfering except for the Sanaa barrier.

Contrast this with our experience a couple previous trips to Wilderness Lodge, which both times we managed to end up there while it was under construction -- and we booked both times at the >490 day mark, so when we booked there was no notice of construction. Both those times where was construction noise and construction barriers that obstructed your natural pathways from point A to B so that you frequently had to reroute. You SAW the exterior construction from vantage points and it wasn't pretty [they did a good job with construction walls blocking interior construction from view, though]. LIkewise, we took a "resort hop" visit to Poly when it was under construction, and again, construction barriers in lots of places and behind them the *mess* of construction.

AKL is absolutely not like that. The interior hallways under construction we found blocked off entirely with a tasteful temporary wall. The exterior works even if there was scaffolding had netting and with the foilage and such in many ways kind of blended in [unlike say the scaffolding that the exterior of WL had had when it was under construction -- there was no blending in or obscuring of that]. I guess because I have something much worse to compare it to for me AKL really was not very bad at all and we had no issues with staying at a resort "under construction". Staying at Jambo and not on Zebra trail, it was pretty easy to avoid it almost entirely. That was not the case with our previous WL experiences.

Finally, the renovation of the Uzima pool itself at Jambo was done long ago. The work being done now in the vacinity of the pool appears to relate to maintenance/painting work on the exterior of the building, nothing to do with the pool itself.

SW

Thank you so much for this great report! We have rented DVC points for the first time for our March trip, and are now even more excited to stay at this beautiful resort.

 

[Starwind]

Awww, that really makes me want to do the safari! I’m having a hard tIme deciding...the $$ and DW is a picky eater. But, it would be so awesome! Dumb question - do you need to dress up since it’s the nicer restaurant? We weren’t planning on bringing dress clothes this trip .

You have to meet the dress code, but it isn't too hard to do that. I wore comfy black pants and a print long sleeve tshirt and was fine.

Read the "Know Before Your Go" at https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...ngdom-lodge/wanyama-resort-safari-and-dinner/

SW

 

[Starwind]

Does anyone have a picture of the newly renovated rooms at AKL? Do they still have two real queen beds? Plus a table with two chairs?

Thank you!

Googling will get you lots of videos and pictures.

Yes they still have the two queen beds and a table with two chairs.

For the rooms with bunk beds, they are apparently doing away with bunk beds when the renovation is done.

SW

 

[CODisFan]

You have to meet the dress code, but it isn't too hard to do that. I wore comfy black pants and a print long sleeve tshirt and was fine.

Read the "Know Before Your Go" at https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...ngdom-lodge/wanyama-resort-safari-and-dinner/

SW

Perfect, I’ll take a look. Thanks!

 

[CODisFan]

There is also the Starlight Safari, it is after dark and on the resort savannas. My husband and I loved this tour and it was more affordable than some of the others! (No meal, just a tour at night)

That would be fun too! Somehow, I either missed that or have been reading too much info and forgot

 

[Anemily]

I love this thread! We’ll be at AKV Kidani in early June. I’ve never stayed there before and am very excited! I’m a little disappointed that most dining is at Jambi but I think we’ll be okay

 

[quietly]

Staying at AKL feb 8th - 13th! Woo hoo!

 

[dgbg100106]

Staying at AKL feb 8th - 13th! Woo hoo!

February
1/31 - 2/14 KaboomBoxer - AKL
2/1 - 2/8 CODisFan - AKL
2/4 - 2/11 mullysisters - AKL
2/4 - 2/12 Mollygirl21 - AKV
2/8 - 2/13 quietly - AKL
2/13 - 2/15 Mom2Colin - AKL
2/14 - 2/20 MadMadamMim1 - Jambo
2/15 - 2/22 starousse - AKL Jambo
2/16 - 2/23 ursalita - AKL