How far away is AKV from everything?

[asmdisney]

How far away is Animal Kingdom Villas from everything? I really want to stay there b/c I know my kids would love it! But I keep hearing it is so far away from everything....How long does it take to get to MK...DHS...DTD? Where do the buses pick us up? Our other option is the Boardwalk but I know the kids would have more fun at AKV.

[joonyer]

Here's an idea of the difference. These are driving routes.

From AKL parking lot to MK bus drop is 7.5 miles.
From BCV parking lot to MK bus drop is 5.3 miles.

So the bus (or car) ride from AKL is about 2 miles further. At driving speeds within MK, that equates to about 5 minutes, all other things being equal. To me, that's really not significant.

Of course, staying at the Contemporary, Poly or GF is Much closer to MK, and BCV is right next door to Epcot.

But the slightly longer bus ride from AKL to MK is not enough by itself to choose where to stay (IMO). All resorts within WDW are "relatively" close to the parks, compared to staying off-site.

[Lisa and Alan]

We stayed at Kidani for the first time this past November. I had the same hesitations regarding transportation time. We never had any issues. The buses were frequent and the extra 5 minutes to get to the other parks were not even noticed. I think you have made a great choice and you surely will not be disappointed. We loved AKL and will definitely stay there again. Service and decor was impeccable.

[brownie]

asmdisney, welcome to INTERCOT!

It's all relative to the other resorts when you hear it's far away. It's close to Animal Kingdom. It is a further to get to the other parks which can translate into additional bus transportation time. We've driven to and from Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas and it's never been issue. Extra bus time could be an issue but we've not used the buses to and from Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas.

[c&d]

We love AKL and yes it will take time to get to the parks. To me there's such a different feel to this resort than the others we've stayed at. It just seems more relaxed, we never seemed to be in that big of a rush to get anywhere. When I stayed there last April with my Aunt she never wanted to leave, she just loved sitting on the balcony watching the animals.

It took us about 40 minutes from the time we would leave our room until we were at the park. Part of that time was spent looking at the animals as we left the resort. We tended to get a little sidetracked on our way to the bus stop. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus and the ride was usually about 15 minutes to MK and Epcot.

I highly recommend staying there.

[Ms. Mode]

It takes you 15 to 20 minutes on the bus; the buses are usually close to empty and we never had a problem getting a seat. We just love AK and plan to stay there again sometime; we make sure to go back every trip to visit "our" animals.

[Iluvtink]

AKL is now my son's favorite resort.
The only time that I had an issue with the travel time was when we were running back to the resort mid-afternoon to squeeze in some pool time and then running back out to the parks again for the evening/dinner reservations. So I guess that what I'm saying is that it partly depends on how you do the parks/pool.
DH had more of an issue with the distance/travel time than DS and I did.

Give it a try. I'm sure that you will enjoy it.

[PlutoPlanet]

When we can, we do a split stay between AKL and BW.

[snowflakegirl]

We stayed there in 2010 and didn't find the distance to be a problem. With one exception, we never waited for a bus for more than 5-10 minutes and, with one exception, the bus rides themselves did not seem to be overly long. Slightly longer than from other hotels, I suppose, but not in a way that I would think of it as being a downside. The only exception to the bus rides not seeming overly long was our trip to Typhoon Lagoon, when we got on the bus at 12:00 and got off the bus at 1:10. But we loved staying at AKL enough that it was more than worth it.

[Goofster]

You have to remember that AKL does not share their busses with any other resort. We've stayed at other resorts and found that each resort had multiple stops within it (Springs, POR) or shared with other resorts (BW/BC/Swan), which added a lot of time to the bus route. So even if those resorts were closer, it felt like we spent more time on the bus going to the other resorts/stops then just being further away from the parks. We loved AKL and plan on staying there again next year.

[RedSoxFan]

I really do not find the bus ride to the parks very long. Like a previous poster said, you do not share a bus with another resort so you don't have to stop along the way. This I like. It's such a beautiful resort that an extra 5 minutes on the bus really is not a big deal.