Staying at Animal Kingdom in May

[rayandjill]

My wife and I, along with our two daughters (9&7) are going to WDW in May. We've booked the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Any hints, tips or pointers about AKL. We've never been there before. I was on this board two years ago when we were going and stayed at the Carribean Beach. The advice was GREAT!!!! Hopefully, someone here can help me out again.

Thank you in advance.

Ray

 

[crazycalf]

Also, explore the lodge. There are many things to do such as the culinary tour or the night vision scopes.

I think they give you a time sheet with all of the things when you check in

 

[DocOrange]

One thing to note about AKL, just as a heads up, is that it is the least accessible resort on property, with no boat or monorail access. You will be facing a good half hour bus trip to get to any park. But it is indeed probably the neatest hotel at WDW.

 

[AkiraRaptor]

One thing to note about AKL, just as a heads up, is that it is the least accessible resort on property, with no boat or monorail access. You will be facing a good half hour bus trip to get to any park. But it is indeed probably the neatest hotel at WDW.

This is completly untrue. While Bus service is the only Disney provided transportation, it is hardly half hour trips. Look in my sig below for the list of bus times to the 4 parks.

MK is the furthest, but if you stayed at a MK resort, you'd have a longer trip to get the DAK.

AKL has it's own routes. The only busses that multi-stop is the one to the waterparks/downtown disney. The 4 park busses are exclusive to the resort and do not share with anyone else.

If you do another search on bus times, you'll find Tyler's numbers he posted a year or so ago. They also show that some of the other resorts in the area (Value and Moderate) have similar or even longer times to some of the parks.

I've never had a bussing issue yet, and this will be our fith stay at AKL. So over the years I've stayed there for over 30 days worth. No issues.

I'd even add that when leaving MK at closings, we'd often get the first bus and didn't have to wait for a second. We'd be out of the MK area while hundreds of people were standing in line for the monorail to get to a resort you could see from MK. I can bet you that on busy nights, we were back in our resort before they were.

This is not to say you could not have an issue using Disney Transportation. I've had bus issues, monorail problems, and boats that took forever. I just havn't had any specific issues or elays because of the location of AKL.

So, don't worry about the location, you'll get to the parks on time, and in no time at all.

 

[DocOrange]

This is completly untrue. While Bus service is the only Disney provided transportation, it is hardly half hour trips.

Not "completely" untrue--maybe just needs to be qualified. I did a dry run while checking out hotels for an upcoming Magical Gatherings, and starting from my wait standing outside the lobby for the next available bus to MK until I was deposited at the TTC was 35 minutes. Admittedly a small sample size, and I might very well have hit it at a time of day when bus service was cut back. At any rate, played a factor in ultimately picking BB.

rayandjill was (were?) looking for pointers. Just saying that if they were back at AKL and were trying to cut it close for, say, EMH, PS, or SpectroMagic, they might want to allow a bit more transportation time.

 

[AkiraRaptor]

Not "completely" untrue--maybe just needs to be qualified. I did a dry run while checking out hotels for an upcoming Magical Gatherings, and starting from my wait standing outside the lobby for the next available bus to MK until I was deposited at the TTC was 35 minutes. Admittedly a small sample size, and I might very well have hit it at a time of day when bus service was cut back. At any rate, played a factor in ultimately picking BB.

rayandjill was (were?) looking for pointers. Just saying that if they were back at AKL and were trying to cut it close for, say, EMH, PS, or SpectroMagic, they might want to allow a bit more transportation time.

Not tring to pick a fight with you, but you've got two items that I don't understand. First, you can't get the bus at the lobby of AKL. There is a bus stop that you have to walk to which is actually closer to the front gates of the resort. Second, there is no way to get to TTC from AKL on a direct bus unless you got on a bus that the driver was diverting the ride for some reason.

The busses to the parks go from the AKL bus stop directly to the resort bus stops at each of the four parks.

Also, bus wait times are usally 20 min or less (this is true for all of Disney), so if you just missed the bus, you could have to wait a bit. If it was a full 20 min plus the 13 for MK...looks like that's where you may have gotten you number.

But one bus ride is hardly a good half hour to any park when you only went to one, and the furthest of them to boot.

Again, not picking a fight or anything, just trying to clear this up. Every single thread for AKL always has one post about the bus times. I just want people to know that they are not an issue and mine comes from many many bus ride experiance to and from AKL.

I decided to add the total bus time list to this post so people can decide for themselves. These came from Tyler last year, so they could be a bit off now. I haven't seen Tyler update them in any post.

-----------------------------------------------------

AKL -> DAK - 5 mins
AKL -> Epcot - 9 mins
AKL -> Studios - 8 mins
AKL -> MK - 13 mins

Port Orleans/OKW -> MK - 11 mins
Port Orleans/OKW -> Epcot - 6 mins
Port Orleans/OKW -> Studios - 9 mins
Port Orleans/OKW -> DAK - 13 mins

Coronado Springs -> MK - 10 mins
Coronado Springs -> Epcot via BB - 10 mins
Coronado Springs -> Studios - 6 mins
Coronado Springs -> DAK - 7 mins

Caribbean Beach -> MK - 11 mins
Caribbean Beach -> Epcot - 7 mins
Caribbean Beach -> Studios - 5 mins
Caribbean Beach -> DAK - 7 mins

Epcot Resorts -> MK - 11 mins
Epcot Resorts -> DAK - 11 mins
(Depending on route... add 2 mins per resort...)

MK Area -> Studios - 11 mins
MK Area -> DAK - 13 mins
WL/FW -> Epcot - 6 mins

Routes can vary. Add for the following:
CR/Po - Add 4 for CR
CR/Po/GF - Add 7 for CR, 4 for Poly
WL/GF - Add 5 for WL
WL/Outpost - Add 5 for WL
WL/Settlement - Add 3 for WL
FW alone - Add none

 

[rayandjill]

WOW! I didn't mean to start a fight?

I DO want to thank everyone for sharing their opinions on this. I'm sure the transportation will be Ok for us.

We're from New Jersey, so we're used to things being "screwed" up.

I guess I better start making some PS's for dinners while we're there. I was thinking "Ohana", Cape May Cafe, Crystal Palace (Pooh) and Mama Melrose's.

Thoughts from the group on any of these?

 

[Master Yoda]

I DO want to thank everyone for sharing their opinions on this. I'm sure the transportation will be Ok for us.

We're from New Jersey, so we're used to things being "screwed" up.

I guess I better start making some PS's for dinners while we're there. I was thinking "Ohana", Cape May Cafe, Crystal Palace (Pooh) and Mama Melrose's.

Thoughts from the group on any of these?

Don’t worry about starting a fight it happens every time someone mentions the transportation system. Some think it is the best in the world others think is horrible. I for one love it because it is one less thing I need to worry about on my vacation. Not to mention if you are flying in it eliminates the expense of renting a car.

 

[DocOrange]

Again, not picking a fight or anything, just trying to clear this up. Every single thread for AKL always has one post about the bus times. I just want people to know that they are not an issue and mine comes from many many bus ride experiance to and from AKL.

Not picking a fight either. My viewpoint is colored by the prospect of collecting and herding several families from the lobby of a given hotel and depositing all of them into a given park with the least possible effort and time. I bow to your experience as a former guest vs. my one-shot scouting expedition. Forgive a newbie for blundering into a sore spot, and for confusion over terminology.

 

[Stellajack]

Animal Kingdom Lodge

I have stayed at the AKL only twice, once in the month of Dec and the other visit was in late June (busy time at WDW). My DH and I never encountered a bus transportation problem on either stay. Since the AKL buses solely serve that lodge, we were never cramped on the bus, whether heading to or returning from the parks. The buses were on schedule each time we stayed here, and on two occasions a CM was at the bus stop recording the time interval between arriving buses.

This is an incredible lodge, totally unlike any other in WDW. Savanna view rooms are my favorite, and the guides at the resort are great.(Don't forget to ask if there are any snakes at WDW and what would be done if one is spotted!)

Boma's is a great place to eat, pool area very nice. Mara, the food court, is
kind of small, but service is a little more personal than in the value or moderates. Treat yourself ! Stay here! :wave:

 

[AkiraRaptor]

Not picking a fight either. My viewpoint is colored by the prospect of collecting and herding several families from the lobby of a given hotel and depositing all of them into a given park with the least possible effort and time. I bow to your experience as a former guest vs. my one-shot scouting expedition. Forgive a newbie for blundering into a sore spot, and for confusion over terminology.

That's what these boards are for, the exchange of info and opinions. No need to ask for forgiveness. And I figured the terminoligy was off, but I knew what you ment. With a big family in tow and if you had just missed a bus and had to wait, you're time was spot on.

I just like to make sure people get as much info about AKL as they can. Most long timers here know I'm a little nuts over AKL. I deffinattly go a little overboard about the place. :hammer: The bus time thing has been beat to death over and over in other threads, so I like to jump on it with Tyler's numbers and my experiance to let people who have a concern that they really don't need to worry about it.

And to touch a point by Yoda. We drive to WDW, so I have a car available and we still use it to drive to other resorts. It's just easier that the bus system, and in that respect, that's the only downfall of AKL and all the other resorts that are not near other resorts or the monorail system.

For instance rayandjill, you talked about doing some dinners. Two of them are inside parks, no issue, but the other two are at resorts, so you have to get to them.

If you planned your day around the dinner, you'll probebly be at MK the night you do Ohana, so you just take a quick monorail ride to Poly. But say you were at the water park that day and returned to AKL. Now you either take a ride to MK then the monorail, or drive directly over to Poly. That one's a bit strait forward. But if you needed to get to Fort Wilderness or the Wilderness lodge for dinner, it takes a bit more. Two different busses, or a bus and a boat.

This is why we like having the car available. We can just drive over.

I like the bus system, and it works very well for most times, but because there is no "central" spot for busses except for DD (which I don't recommend using 'cos you will wait forever for a bus there) to get around from resort to resort, you're stuck using the parks as switching places form AKL.

Back on topic... :lol:

rayandjill, I've done Ohana and Mama Melrose's. I liked Ohana, the wife didn't care for it. For me, good food, fun atmosphere. But we were oppisite on Mama Melrose. I don't care for the place, my wife loves it. I've tried it twice now, they just don't have a selection I like. But my wife loves the place.

Have fun!