Animal Kingdom Lodge is a deluxe resort at Walt Disney World, Florida. We try to stay at different resorts each time to experience them and later blog about them since we book a lot of Disney travel. I have to admit I have never been a big fan of Animal Kingdom and Animal KIngdom lodge has not been high on my list of resorts I was interested in visiting.
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| bathroom |
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| Bunk Beds in pool view room |
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| Queen bed |
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| View from Pool View room |
Some of my feelings were upheld on this trip and others changed. First, Disney has three levels of resorts: value, moderate and deluxe. However, price wise there is really a clear distinction within the deluxe set of resorts. There are deluxe resorts then there are deluxe resorts on the monorail (Polynesian, Grand Floridian and Contemporary). Those on the monorail are a clear and evident step above the rest in convenience, quality and price. If you can budget to stay in a monorail resort you will not be disappointed. BUT for the first 15 years of our adventures in parenthood that was simply ridiculous. The deluxe resorts not on the monorail offer all of the deluxe amenities including nice table service restaurants, superior pools with hot tubs with slides, food courts with tastier food options and quality bedding. These resorts include Beach/Yacht Club, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Boardwalk. Wilderness has a boat to Magic Kingdom and is only a five-minute bus ride away. Beach, Yacht and Boardwalk are a walkway to EPCOT (perfect for the food/wine festival in the fall) and a quick boat ride to Hollywood Studios (or a 8/10 mile walk). Animal Kingdom fails big time in this arena. You are a 20-minute bus ride from Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. This really loses some value in convenience when it prices very similarly to Wilderness Lodge.
Why stay at the Animal Kingdom then? SAVANNA VIEW!!!! This expensive room view offers you a direct view of the savanna with live animals. If you are an animal lover and spend a lot of time at the resort this could be a good choice. The pool is very nice and never busy. We have teens and we are out at the parks morning until night. We were there on a short 5-night visit so we did not spend much time at the resort. There were some neat moments when we went and sat out on rockers on the savanna public balconies, watched employees from Africa showing children how to carve wood into animals and showing animal footprints and skulls from their countries. The design of the lobby is beautiful and similar to what you see throughout Animal Kingdom park.
Final thoughts: reasons to choose this resort…
- You are a laid back family planning to spend a lot of time at the resort
- You are staying an extended period of time so you will have more downtime
- Young children in your party are enamoured with animals
- Honeymooners
- No interest in returning midday to the resort
- You are willing to spend the money to upgrade to a savanna view room to take full advantage of the resort
Reasons to choose other resorts
- You have young kids needing midday naps or teens that like to go back and forth (more experienced families that tend to divide and conquer and let the kids do their own thing)
- You don’t like long bus rides
- Don’t care about animals or are not willing to pay for Savanna View
