AKL~Should I Upgrade??

[Jen66]

We are going to WDW July 16-20 and staying at AKL. "We" consist of DH, DD(12), DS(10), and myself. We are not park commandos, but besides an afternoon swim or nap between park hopping, I do not see us spending tons of time in our room. Because of this, I booked a standard room, but am now fretting that I should upgrade. It would be about $75 a night to upgrade to a savanna view. Is it worth it? We have never stayed at AKL before, but fell in love with it when we ate at Boma last trip. Any advice appreciated.

[richardsa98]

YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!
enough said;)

[wdwjenn]

The savanna view rooms are spectacular!! My husband and I had a savanna view room a few years ago and were amazed at how many animals we saw each day :simba: !

That being said we are returning to AKL in October and have decided to get a pool view room in order to save some :spend: . We are hoping for a free upgrade to savanna view but just love the entire resort and know we will be :joy: in the room we reserved.

If you don't spend a lot of time in the resort I say save the $75 a night and view the animals from the many public viewing areas around the resort.

Have a great trip :wave:

[RedSoxFan]

When we went to AKL, we had pool view rooms. It was a great view. We had a huge viewing window across the hall so we were able to see the animals. We would also walk around the grounds in the morning with our coffee to view the animals.

[BigRedDad]

Doing it once in your life time is worth it. My wife and I were upgraded on our Honeymoon. Because of 9/11, our flight times, dates, and everything else changed. We wound up losing the Contemporary room because of a one day delay. We talked with a manager at the reservation number. She was able to get us a room at AKL. She gave us free upgrade to the Savannah.

I will pay for it when my DD is old enough to appreciate it more.

[mouseketeer mom]

No. Its not worth $75.00 more per nite IMO. We stayed concierge deluxe room in January, savannah view and had much better luck viewing the animals from the big windows all around the resort then from our room. The room is dark, and I couldn't see hanging out there to see the animals and on top of that we didn't have a whole lot of luck with animals from our window. Lots of birds, not alot of anything else. The resort is brighter and more pleasant than the rooms, we thought. There are just so many places to see the animals around the resort you couldn't miss them if you tried. PLUS..we thought the pool area was beautiful, and if we ever stayed there again, thats what we would ask for,. it was bright and lovely.

[BigRedDad]

That is interesting that you were not able to see the animals come up to your windows. When I was there, they staggered the feeding so each group traveled close to each of the rooms. I remember watching the giraffes start at the one end and slowly make their way to the other. Stopping at each little feeding thing. This was the same with all the other animals as well. Maybe it is different now.

[mouseketeer mom]

That is interesting that you were not able to see the animals come up to your windows. When I was there, they staggered the feeding so each group traveled close to each of the rooms. I remember watching the giraffes start at the one end and slowly make their way to the other. Stopping at each little feeding thing. This was the same with all the other animals as well. Maybe it is different now.

Yeah. We were surprised after hearing so much about the savannah view. Once we hit it lucky at giraffe feeding time, other than that, not too much of anything but birds. We saw much more just walking in and out of the resort.

[King Triton]

You're almost in the same situation I am. (DD and DS are 11 and 9). What might be more fun than upgrading the room would be to get a room with bunk beds and a queen. I've never been too big on upgrading rooms for views since we tend to be out and about most of the time anyway, but the kids had a blast with the bunks.

[goofygirl67]

I have stayed 2 times on savanah and loved it both times. The second time I had gotten a free upgrade. They put me in an area most people have complained about because of the long walk, but I saw many many animals. I was located between 2 savanahs so I saw animals from both. At one point there were 8 giraffes with one being a baby. The ankole cattle were resting there as well as some tommies. It was also on the second floor and I could lie on the bed and look out the window and view them.:cloud9:

[Mousefever]

We were in the same situation in January. At first we booked a standard room, but we ended up upgrading to a Savannah view. (We were lucky enough to receive a discount of $440, [yay, Magical Journeys] that brought our price to about $235/night.) I'm glad we chose Savannah, but unless we were in the room around 4:30 pm, we didn't see much animal activity. The animals didn't get all that close, and sometimes we could barely see them at all. We had requested a view of Arusha Rock, but ended up with a room on the Ostritch Trail. The nice thing was that we were very close the lobby. I think that when we book for next January, we will go with the standard view. For your first time, it might be worth going with Savannah view, though.



:dory:

[thejens]

I wouldn't spend the extra. We had the Savannah room last time and it was nice, but we spent very little time in the room. We tended to linger in the lodge, wander by the pool viewing areas and hang out by the large viewing windows in the hall. We laughed at ourselves. We loved being out in the lodge and really didn't need the Savannah view. If you were the type to spend a lot of time in the room, hang out on the balcony etc. I'd say go for it, but otherwise it is not necessary.

[Spaceship Tigger]

Yeah. We were surprised after hearing so much about the savannah view. Once we hit it lucky at giraffe feeding time, other than that, not too much of anything but birds. We saw much more just walking in and out of the resort.


Same with us - we saw giraffes hanging around nearby for the first couple of days, then they disappeared around the building and we never saw them again for the rest of the trip. This was over on the Sunset Savannah side and we were also over a closed-off dirt service area. Of course, we were upgraded for free from a standard view, so maybe they reserve the worst views for the upgrades.

[MNNHFLTX]

If you can swing it financially, I would recommend upgrading to a savanna view. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge, third floor room with an Arusha savanna view and took time each morning to watch the animals eat their feed and stroll around the savanna. Sometimes the giraffes and Ankole cattle came in quite close. It was very cool. :cool: