Where is a good place to request a room at AKL?

[mrmcgiv]

I am not at all familair with the resort. We have booked a standard room and have not put in a request for an area. I am hoping for some upgrade as I have reservation assistance due to a problem last visit at CSR.

Also, I may request Kidani village so if anyone can give me an opinion on where to request a room in both Jambo house and Kidani I would appreciate it. My kids are 6 and 9 and we will not dine at the resort much at all. We will have a car as well so bus stops are not as important. The pool is KEY and animal viewing if we get upgraded :)

[BigRedDad]

I can tell you from my experience, views mean very little at AKL. We had a DVC room for 3 nights overlooking dirt and mud. If we were not on our balcony the 3-5 minutes an animal came around, we would never see one. The last night there, we had to move to a standard room. It overlooked the pool and was 100x better than the Savannah view.

I am not sure what else I can tell you other than that. Unless you like walking a lot, I would recommend something close to the main lobby area.

[Ms. Mode]

We had a Savanah view when we stayed and the animals were always out there! We would come back in the afternoons around 2pm and watch the crews feed them. I will say that every room has a view pretty much...and walking up the hallways there are plenty of opportunities to see different animals. It's a great place to stay. :mickey:

[Stickey]

A savannah view room(Jambo House) IS definitely worth the cost. It is a truly unique experience to watch the animals from your balcony.

The animal selection can vary by savannah.
For location, I recommend the Arusha savannah, Zebra or Kudu Trail.

[LynBug]

We have stayed there twice and had a pool view both times. The pool view is very nice! Both rooms we had had lots of pretty trees and flowers outside the balcony. Next time we go to AKL we plan to get a savannah view

[Pirate Granny]

Don't count on an upgrade...I had reservation assistance a couple of times due to some huge problems...enough that we received two park passes...but zero upgrades...I have paid for a pool view at Akl...unless you paid for a dvc room I wouldn't expect a kidani room...but I suppose you can ask...if you put in a request...they most likely ask you to pay for your requested upgrade.

[mrmcgiv]

Hope that is not the case for us. They did not give us and park passes, however they did give me a $100 or $150 giftcard, but they did not intend to do that, I asked. Seriously. why give Reservation assistance to make sure your stay is perfect if they plan to do nothing? I am spending well over $2k to stay there, I should not need reservation assistamce to make sure it is perfect!


Don't count on an upgrade...I had reservation assistance a couple of times due to some huge problems...enough that we received two park passes...but zero upgrades...I have paid for a pool view at Akl...unless you paid for a dvc room I wouldn't expect a kidani room...but I suppose you can ask...if you put in a request...they most likely ask you to pay for your requested upgrade.

[TammiMcMan]

Seriously. why give Reservation assistance to make sure your stay is perfect if they plan to do nothing?I don't know what the problems were with your previous visit, but reservation assistance will most likely just notate them on your file so they take extra care it doesn't happen again. A regular reservation CM wouldn't have access to that, so hence the reason for reservation assistance.

A standard room is Jambo. Kidani doesn't have standard rooms, only DVC units. You can still take the bus over there though to use the pool if you want. At one time, standard room upgrades were very common at AKL as they had the lowest inventory and they'd try to upgrade folks to keep these lower priced rooms open. Since DVC went in though, upgrades are far less common. There a couple of standard rooms that don't face the parking lot, instead they have very obstructed savannah or pool view. You could ask for a non-parking lot view and keep your fingers crossed, but I think that's the best you can do right now. Keep your fingers crossed for an upgrade, but as mentioned, they don't really happen that often so it's best not to expect it for any reason.

[mrmcgiv]

We had dining and accomodation issues last yr. When I talked to the RA lady she said ifyou want a bunk bed room mention it and maybe you will get one etc I dislike bunk beds - but a savannah view would be nice. I did not realize there were no standard rooms at Kidani - that blows that hope - oh well. I will hope for the best then but expect nothing :blush:


I don't know what the problems were with your previous visit, but reservation assistance will most likely just notate them on your file so they take extra care it doesn't happen again. A regular reservation CM wouldn't have access to that, so hence the reason for reservation assistance.

A standard room is Jambo. Kidani doesn't have standard rooms, only DVC units. You can still take the bus over there though to use the pool if you want. At one time, standard room upgrades were very common at AKL as they had the lowest inventory and they'd try to upgrade folks to keep these lower priced rooms open. Since DVC went in though, upgrades are far less common. There a couple of standard rooms that don't face the parking lot, instead they have very obstructed savannah or pool view. You could ask for a non-parking lot view and keep your fingers crossed, but I think that's the best you can do right now. Keep your fingers crossed for an upgrade, but as mentioned, they don't really happen that often so it's best not to expect it for any reason.

[TammiMcMan]

When I talked to the RA lady she said ifyou want a bunk bed room mention it and maybe you will get one etc I dislike bunk beds - but a savannah view would be nice.I believe there may be a couple of bunk bed rooms with standard view. Those would be by request, so I don't think she was hinting around at an upgrade. They are a bookable category with pool and savannah view. I can understand that might have caused some confusion.


I did not realize there were no standard rooms at Kidani - that blows that hope - oh well. I will hope for the best then but expect nothing :blush:That's really the best attitude. It seems like magic happens at Disney when we're least expecting it :magic: .

[TinkerbellsMom]

AKL is our WDW home away from home. We found that you have the best chance for an upgrade (and we've receved one every trip - even if it was to the best room in the category we paid for) when you don't request a room in advance. I also recommend that once they assign you a room that you actually go to check it out before you ask to move - that is except if you know for sure you have a parking lot view.

[TammiMcMan]

We found that you have the best chance for an upgrade (and we've receved one every trip - even if it was to the best room in the category we paid for) when you don't request a room in advance.Getting what you feel is the best room in a particular category you booked is not the definition of an upgrade. A complimentary upgrade is receiving a higher priced room, without having to pay for it. I just wanted to clarify that so there wasn't any confusion ;) .

[mrmcgiv]

I talked to this lady at great length, she was very nice. She pretty much directly said too let RA know what I wanted and hope for an upgrade. I am not 100% sure what I want exactly - but i will try to tactfully mention it and see what happens. We did have some serious issues last year and if it was in their power to upgrade us or do something for us it would make me feel better about the bad issues on our last trip. Will see what happens!


I believe there may be a couple of bunk bed rooms with standard view. Those would be by request, so I don't think she was hinting around at an upgrade. They are a bookable category with pool and savannah view. I can understand that might have caused some confusion.

That's really the best attitude. It seems like magic happens at Disney when we're least expecting it :magic: .

[TinkerbellsMom]

Getting what you feel is the best room in a particular category you booked is not the definition of an upgrade. A complimentary upgrade is receiving a higher priced room, without having to pay for it. I just wanted to clarify that so there wasn't any confusion ;) .

I completely understand what you are saying about what I called upgrades within a category, but at AKL it can make a difference as the room views within a single category can vary greatly.

For instance, there are more std rooms with parking lot and roof views, but some with partial savannah and pool views. One time we got a partial savannnah view that was better than the true savannah view we had the year before as we saw more animals since we had shade trees by our room.

Also, now a days, many of the pool view rooms are obstructed with trees and bushes. It's a bonus when the CM told you they gave you the best pool view available as you don't have an obstructive view and can see the animals walking on the savannah by the night viewing location from your balcony.

In both examples I gave, we may not have gotten those rooms if we asked for a room close to the lobby, BOMA, or buses. AKL is a large resort and in my opinion, the more open your are to a room, the better chance you have for getting a "better" room, even if it's within your category.

[TammiMcMan]

I completely understand what you are saying about what I called upgrades within a category, but at AKL it can make a difference as the room views within a single category can vary greatly. Also, now a days, many of the pool view rooms are obstructed with trees and bushes.Unfortunately, this is true of all Disney resort views. As long as any part of the specified "view" is seen, they place it in the higher category. It seems to cause the biggest complaints with "theme park view" rooms, as people aren't always happy when they see only parts of Cinderella's castle through tree branches.

If you're savvy about the room request, you can usually get in the area you want. For example, knowing that some standard views offer a partial pool or obstructed savannah view, you can ask for a non-parking lot view. Many guests even go so far as requesting a specific room number, as they know it offered the perfect view for them.

mrmcgiv, maybe mentioning that you know about a few of these obstructed savannah view rooms would help guide the conversation into an area where it was tactful and not awkward. We've had so many Disney trips, some wonderful, some not so much. One was particularly bad and I had promises from a resort asst. manager to assist us when we arrived. The guy never took our call when we got there and avoided being "around" when I went to the front desk to find him. Not good and initially I was so upset that we were having another vacation ruined, but one look at how happy and unaffected my kids were, I just let it all go. It ended up being amazing and lots of magic happened when we least expected it. I think there might be a moral in that story somewhere ;) .