What's your opinion? Requesting a KING bed at AKL standard room?

[lawgirl]

We booked through a travel agent this time, we are only staying 3 days at AKL, we have the standard view booked.

Now online, on the standard room description, it states "2 queen beds or 1 king bed". I asked my TA to add a request for a king bed, but they wrote back and said that was not an option for the room I had booked.

I'm a little confused, seeing as how the WDW website has King bed listed for the standard room.

Can someone please help me out? Also, I guess I can just ask nicely when we go to check-in.

[BugeyedMuggy]

Maybe call AKL with your ressie # and put in your own request 407-938-3000. We had a king bed but also had a pool view so I cannot comment on it being available on the standard view. It can't hurt to find out for yourself. The king beds are much better.

[Gator]

I'd say that standard view probably doesn't have any King options at all, much less available. The king beds are probably in the rooms with the great views.

[lawgirl]

I'd say that standard view probably doesn't have any King options at all, much less available. The king beds are probably in the rooms with the great views.

You are probably right. Disney needs to take that off the room description! I'm going to email my TA and check and see what my options are.

[Lindsey310]

We have never had a king bed at AKL and we have stayed in a savannah view room. It actually looked more like a full than a queen! :mickey:

[lawgirl]

Update. I talked to my TA and he said that since I booked with the special offer, the King bed is not an option. Maybe there are actually King beds on standard rooms at full price?

I don't really know what the actual answer is. We can only hope for the best at check-in. I have had a King bed in a Savannah room before...but lately we have been doing DVC rental at Kidani Villas, which has an amazing King bed suite. I would have done that this time, but waited too late to book.

Im sure regardless of what happens, we will have a great room, and just work with what we have.

[limegreenmonorail]

I used to work front desk at AKL (back in 2003, so I suppose room configurations could have changed since then). This was a common question at the front desk, and from what I recall, there are basically no standard king size rooms at AKL - all the standard rooms are 2 queens or a queen and bunk bed (there may be a few standard kings, but so few that percentage-wise, I wouldn't count on encountering one). The king beds are pretty much exclusively in handicap-accessible rooms and suites, so if you want a king bed in a standard room, you'd have to book an accessible room. I believe this was because this resort in particular was expected to be a big draw for families with kids, and they thought the request for king beds would be insignificant in comparison to requests for the bunk beds (which was partly accurate - people seemed to be CRAZY for those bunk beds). Hope this helps!

[lawgirl]

I used to work front desk at AKL (back in 2003, so I suppose room configurations could have changed since then). This was a common question at the front desk, and from what I recall, there are basically no standard king size rooms at AKL - all the standard rooms are 2 queens or a queen and bunk bed (there may be a few standard kings, but so few that percentage-wise, I wouldn't count on encountering one). The king beds are pretty much exclusively in handicap-accessible rooms and suites, so if you want a king bed in a standard room, you'd have to book an accessible room. I believe this was because this resort in particular was expected to be a big draw for families with kids, and they thought the request for king beds would be insignificant in comparison to requests for the bunk beds (which was partly accurate - people seemed to be CRAZY for those bunk beds). Hope this helps!

Interesting! Good to know! Thanks for the info.

So, did you ever "upgrade" people from standard rooms to other options, like pool view or savannah, or did they usually discourage it?

[limegreenmonorail]

Yes, we would actually upgrade people A LOT. But remember, this was only a year or two after AKL opened - the standard rooms were selling like crazy because they were the cheapest, but I guess nobody wanted to shell out the money for the savanna view, because those were hardly being booked at all. So, AKL ended up allowing themselves to be WAY, WAY oversold on the standard rooms, since that was the only way they could get the rooms filled. Then, at check-in, practically everybody checking in would have a standard room type booked, but since we didn't have near that many standard rooms, lots of people would get free upgrades to the savanna view.

Whether or not we granted an upgrade was generally up to the front desk agent, who had a lot of flexibility to upgrade when they wanted to (generally, I'd upgrade families who were first-time guests to Disney and super excited, or were celebrating something, or had kids with them who were dying to see the animals...basically, if you were genuinely happy to be there and nice to me, you got an upgrade.:mickey:). Also, the shorter your stay, the more likely you were to get an upgrade - obviously, we lose money on every free upgrade, but we lose less money on upgrades for short stays.

Of course, if you actually PAID for a savanna view, we would assign you the BEST view (like right in the middle of Arusha), and free upgrades might get a view where you'd mostly see birds (and a few other animals), but it's still a savannah view. Trust me, if people pay for a savanna view and can't see giraffes from their room, they complain. On the other hand, if it's a free upgrade, you can't really complain about the view...

However, this was ten years ago. Nowadays, I understand the savanna view rooms are selling much better than they did then, so I would imagine free upgrades occur much less often than they used to. Still, it can never hurt to be super nice to to the front desk agent when you're checking in and see what happens. :D

[LVT]

I think the Americans with disability act now affects hotels. If a patron requests a handicap room due to need and the hotel reserve its, it has to be there for them. This is unlike the rest of the room requests that have disclaimers that they will try, but no promises.

[Disnini]

We stayed in a standard view room in May and had a king bed with bunk beds. We did not ask for bunk beds. It was not very crowded that week so perhaps they gave us an upgrade. However, it was definitely a standard view.

[WhiteRose1]

We stayed at AKL for our honeymoon in 2003, and when we checked in the hotel was completely sold out and we could not even get a king bed. We had a savanna room with 2 beds.

Good luck!