Animal Kingdom Lodge Vs Wilderness Lodge?

[slappy magoo]

I've stayed at the WL once and am going back Sept '15, I adore it!

I've never stayed at AKL and never plan to here why:

It's too far from most parks
It's expensive
Personally the food is too exotic for me!
Unless you pay for an animal view, I don't see the point, the place looks so similar to WL you might as well just stay there! You generally get ducks in the pool so stay in a courtyard view and get an 'animal' view!

1: Just to touch on these two points - the rack rate for a standard room at AKL is often comparable to, if not exactly the same as, a standard room at WL. Yes you don't get a savannah view at that price, but the one time we stayed there, we would often spend the 5 minutes it would take to walk to one of the many viewing areas to sip a drink and enjoy the view of the animals before either heading out fr the day or back to the rooms. The extra 5-10 minutes we'd spend on a few of the days doing this often felt like a fair-ish trade-off for the amount of money we saved on the room, especially because it was a late August trip where the parks were rarely crowded and would often be able to experience every attraction we wanted in any given par, sometimes twice, by lunch time. More time to gaze.

2: I guess it depends on what you're eating and where. Mara has some exotic Quick serve options, but they also have burgers and poultry and salads and normal QS fare. Likewise, Boma's menu has plenty of familiar options, perhaps using some different spices, but their roast chicken or sirloin is still chicken and sirloin, you could easily avoid the pap or the various curried foods and stick to more familiar fare and still bust your gut with the options. And of course at both places traditional breakfast foods are ample (I think it's a law that every food court must offer "The Bounty Platter").

I'm not saying knowing this will make you change your mind, only that you have some misperceptions.

As far as the distance, there you have a point, it is farther to all of the other parks except of course AK. However, I will say that the bus line at AKL was the best I ever experienced in any WDW resort, Other people's mileage varies but since AKL is the only deluxe resort to not share transportation, buses tended to be frequent and uncrowded.

 

[plaz10]

I've been to both this year...I choose Animal Kingdom Lodge.

It's very close. Both lobbies are GORGEOUS. Completely jaw dropping.

Points to Wilderness Lodge for having a boat for transportation in addition to busses BUT the bus transportation was much better at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Both rooms/resorts as a whole have excellent theming.

BUT I have to give the edge to AKL for it's restaurants. Boma, Jiko and Sanaa all in the same area? Can't be beat in my eyes!

 

[KingdomofDreams]

We've stayed at AKL at least 5 times and absolutely love it. Never had anything but a wonderful experience there. Rooms have always been found clean, kept clean, and all CM's we've found to be courteous, cheerful and helpful. I think a bad experience potentially can occur anywhere, but in all our stays we've never encountered anything negative at all.

We split a stay a couple of years ago because I really wanted to try WL just to experience a different resort. It is a really lovely property. The theming is great with an impressive lobby and the grounds/landscaping are beautiful. We found the bus service to the parks to be a little more delayed than we've experienced with AKL. It's been almost 4 years ago, so maybe their routes have changed since then, but I remember stops at Ft Wilderness and one of the water parks when we were coming and going and more than once we had quite a long wait for a bus both at the resort and at the parks.

Even though we had no problems or complaints at all with WL, when we made the switch and arrived at AKL, we all walked into the lobby and just "felt" a difference. For us, AKL just has that special something.

 

[dave&di]

1: Just to touch on these two points - the rack rate for a standard room at AKL is often comparable to, if not exactly the same as, a standard room at WL. Yes you don't get a savannah view at that price, but the one time we stayed there, we would often spend the 5 minutes it would take to walk to one of the many viewing areas to sip a drink and enjoy the view of the animals before either heading out fr the day or back to the rooms. The extra 5-10 minutes we'd spend on a few of the days doing this often felt like a fair-ish trade-off for the amount of money we saved on the room, especially because it was a late August trip where the parks were rarely crowded and would often be able to experience every attraction we wanted in any given par, sometimes twice, by lunch time. More time to gaze.

2: I guess it depends on what you're eating and where. Mara has some exotic Quick serve options, but they also have burgers and poultry and salads and normal QS fare. Likewise, Boma's menu has plenty of familiar options, perhaps using some different spices, but their roast chicken or sirloin is still chicken and sirloin, you could easily avoid the pap or the various curried foods and stick to more familiar fare and still bust your gut with the options. And of course at both places traditional breakfast foods are ample (I think it's a law that every food court must offer "The Bounty Platter").

I'm not saying knowing this will make you change your mind, only that you have some misperceptions.

As far as the distance, there you have a point, it is farther to all of the other parks except of course AK. However, I will say that the bus line at AKL was the best I ever experienced in any WDW resort, Other people's mileage varies but since AKL is the only deluxe resort to not share transportation, buses tended to be frequent and uncrowded.

Regarding the room rate, personally for me to stay at the AKL I would have to have the savannah(?) view, this to me is expensive. Without this view I would rather stay at the WL.

I think I've had the bounty Platter every where I've stayed! I dare say I do have misconceptions as I've never been there but that's human nature isn't it. I have other Duluxes I'd rather try before I would try the AKL.

 

[slappy magoo]

Regarding the room rate, personally for me to stay at the AKL I would have to have the savannah(?) view, this to me is expensive. Without this view I would rather stay at the WL.

Fair enough, I'm just saying that technically you can stay at AKL as inexpensively as you can stay at WL. Whether or not that's "worth it" is in the eye of the consumer.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

With my ap discount, the difference in rooms between the two is only around a total of $20 so price really isn't the factor in the decision

 

[slappy magoo]

With my ap discount, the difference in rooms between the two is only around a total of $20 so price really isn't the factor in the decision

I agree with others in that, if you were at AKL that recently, go for WL. They both have advantages.

 

[Prof Ecks]

Despite the savannahs we felt more confined in the AKL. The lobby is amazing but darker than the WL's and you really can only look at the savannahs not go out to them. The bar, Sanaa, and Jikos are great with a drink and dinner at bar/Jikos a must do. The snack bar and pool somehow seem more cramped and confined. You have to go downstairs and then outside and it feels enclosed.

The WL feels more open. The back part, the pool, roaring forks all flow out toward the lake and with the boats and walking/biking trails you feel as though you are directly connected to a larger landscape. The MK and monorail hotels feel close and so you can add all those restaurants to you trip in a way you can't with the AKL. You can drink around the loop with ease and catch the boat back, and the MK feels like an extension of the hotel with the boats. HDDR is just a boat ride away as well.

We liked AKL and eat there every visit, but we enjoy staying at the WL. Do the villas if you can.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

Ugh, I just read on another thread the WL is doing some refurbishment on the lobby/water for the next 6 weeks

 

[durangojim]

Ugh, I just read on another thread the WL is doing some refurbishment on the lobby/water for the next 6 weeks

Could you link to that thread?

 

[JasonDeyoung]

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/wilderness-lodge-water-feature-refurb.884905/

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We've stayed at both and AKL wins by a near landslide for me.

Part of the problem is much of this boils down to personal preferences and experiences. I liked the room décor at AKL much better, I preferred having a view of animals from my balcony vs. woods, and I like the restaurants over at AKL far better than WL. I also liked the oasis feeling of the pool at AKL. We also found the walk to Kidani very easy and if you don't want to walk, they also had a shuttle. The AKL CMs were top notch to boot- seriously some of the best service we've ever had at WDW.

Beyond that, we've stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, so WL had a lot to live up to. I mean, I knew it was going to be Disney hotel inspired by the real thing, but I worried our experiences at the real thing would mean WL would come up as inferior lodging in my eyes. Don't get me wrong- WL is cool looking, but it just fell short for me partly because of this reason. I guess maybe I'd feel the same way about AKL if we'd stayed someplace in Africa with a savannah setting.

Now, here's where WL really got low marks for me. The transportation was horrible for the bulk of our stay. The boats were running early because of the cold and we waited 28, 32, 37, 47 min for buses on various mornings...and long waits in the afternoons too. We shared the bus with other resorts, but the only time it was really cramped was on the Epcot route when we shared with Ft. Wilderness. AKL may be farther, but we never waited more than 7 minutes for a bus at AKL and never felt crowded.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

We've stayed at both and AKL wins by a near landslide for me.

Part of the problem is much of this boils down to personal preferences and experiences. I liked the room décor at AKL much better, I preferred having a view of animals from my balcony vs. woods, and I like the restaurants over at AKL far better than WL. I also liked the oasis feeling of the pool at AKL. We also found the walk to Kidani very easy and if you don't want to walk, they also had a shuttle. The AKL CMs were top notch to boot- seriously some of the best service we've ever had at WDW.

Beyond that, we've stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, so WL had a lot to live up to. I mean, I knew it was going to be Disney hotel inspired by the real thing, but I worried our experiences at the real thing would mean WL would come up as inferior lodging in my eyes. Don't get me wrong- WL is cool looking, but it just fell short for me partly because of this reason. I guess maybe I'd feel the same way about AKL if we'd stayed someplace in Africa with a savannah setting.

Now, here's where WL really got low marks for me. The transportation was horrible for the bulk of our stay. The boats were running early because of the cold and we waited 28, 32, 37, 47 min for buses on various mornings...and long waits in the afternoons too. We shared the bus with other resorts, but the only time it was really cramped was on the Epcot route when we shared with Ft. Wilderness. AKL may be farther, but we never waited more than 7 minutes for a bus at AKL and never felt crowded.

Yeah, I never had one issue with waiting or the busses the week I stayed, like I said in the original part it just felt like the rides were long. It's just seculeded which isn't a bad thing at all. The pool imo was awesome one of the things I liked most about AKL