Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for 1 week, the first week of the UK school holidays. The hotel: On arrival we asked for a bunk bed room if possible which they accommodated easily. The room was dated but functional but unfortunately was right next to the queues for the WDW resort buses being the fact we were so jet lagged we managed the first night and the following morning after a couple of calls and conversations were moved to a partial Savannah room. They were great we headed to the park and when we came back they had moved our bags to the new room so all waiting. The new room had recently been renovated and whilst no bunk beds but two queen beds was much nicer in terms of decor and was incredibly modern in feel especially the bathroom. The outlook was great seeing all types of animals. I would therefore strongly recommend asking for a Savannah or partial Savvannah room as this is definitely the USP of this hotel. I would say the hotel was more of a 4* than 5*- to be fair you are at the parks most of the time so it is very much personal preference. We stayed at the Disney Yacht club 5years ago and all agreed AK was fine but preferred Yacht Club. Buses:I had read buses to WDW parks were unreliable but we had no problems at all. The longest we waited was for the water parks but I think these do run on a 30min schedule. Food wise - We tried the Mara and Bomo at AK for food both fine nothing exceptional. We were on the Disney Deluxe Dining plan so think these would both especially Bomo have been quite expensive without. At Mara you can get snacks for breakfast which worked well when we didn’t want a huge buffet - bagels, yoghurts and cereal are all classed as snacks on the dining plan. The dining plan worked well for us at the costs of breakfasts in places like the Crystal Room in Magic Kingdom for x4 adults as our children (13&11) here are both classed as adults we would have been paying $250+tips for breakfast which seemed incredibly expensive. Top tip for food was Teppan Edo in Epcot and Flying Fish at the Boardwalk phenomenal food. We had lots of snacks left and any meals left over at the end can be exchanged for x3 snacks, we cashed these all in in the shop for sweets to take home. All in all WDW is amazing and AK was absolutely fine. For the amount we paid it seemed quite a lot but seeing the cost of park tickets, meals and snacks I think without the all in package we could have come away with a huge bill. Our favourite park this time was AK due to the amazing Avatar ride so being so close (5mins) was fab especially as the weather was so stormy we could head back easily and quickly if it all got too much.

We all know Disney is beautiful, but I haven’t been there in three years and I was very pleased with the security. Metal detectors at the entrance and paper straws and no plastic covers on the drinks. I am so happy Disney is trying to collaborate to eliminate plastic. Bottles should be next.