Animal Kingdom Lodge and Poly Questions

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Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 19, 2005
My family is planning on returning home August of 2019. Of course we have started planning as the wait is killing us all. We have 3 children 19, 15 and 9. We are having a hard time deciding between Animal Kingdom Lodge standard view and the Poly. We have stayed at the Poly before and loved it but have never been to AKL. We like the thought of trying something new and AKL looks beautiful but are hesitant with the distance to the parks. I am wondering how frequent the buses run and is the ride to the parks that much longer than the other resorts? Are the rooms much smaller than the Poly? I'm sure the savannah is amazing but is the standard room still worth trying the resort? Which resort do your prefer? Thanks in advance for your help!
 
I haven't stayed at the Poly before but plan to on our next trip. We had a AKL standard room and didn't find the room to be very small. The distance from the parks didn't bother us at all. Buses come every 20 minutes or so and we were always able to get on regardless of the time of day (there were days we left before opening and also left late morning or afternoon).

My only regret was not having a savanna room. It was a price issue. If you can afford the Poly, I'd get a savanna room at AKL, which is still less expensive. The only reason I don't want to stay there again is to experience something new.
 
My family is planning on returning home August of 2019. Of course we have started planning as the wait is killing us all. We have 3 children 19, 15 and 9. We are having a hard time deciding between Animal Kingdom Lodge standard view and the Poly. We have stayed at the Poly before and loved it but have never been to AKL. We like the thought of trying something new and AKL looks beautiful but are hesitant with the distance to the parks. I am wondering how frequent the buses run and is the ride to the parks that much longer than the other resorts? Are the rooms much smaller than the Poly? I'm sure the savannah is amazing but is the standard room still worth trying the resort? Which resort do your prefer? Thanks in advance for your help!

We've stayed at both and love both for different reasons. The Poly is our favorite resort overall, but we also love AKL. We've stayed savanna and pool view and while the savanna view was nice, I loved our pool view just as much. With that said, I wouldn't hesitate to book standard as there are several animal viewing areas around the resort. AKL is sort of isolated, but in our experiences, it never took more than maybe 5 extra minutes to get around compared to other resorts. The buses only service AKL and Kidani, so there is no sharing with any other resort(s). As far as the rooms, they are quite a bit smaller than the Poly and there are no daybeds (you would need 2 rooms as they only accommodate 4 people, so there would be plenty of room to spread out between the two). With all of that said, I don't think you can go wrong with AKL as it is a beautiful resort. Good luck!
 


In your situation you will likely want to go with Poly. Then you could all be in one room (if you so choose).

With one of your children being 19, you could book 2 rooms at AKL but obviously that’s a lot more money.
 
You could also book a one bedroom villa at either Jambo House or Kidani Village. Those will sleep five people with one king bed, one queen sleeper sofa and a twin sized sleeper chair. The sleeper chair is not found in the value one bedroom villas because they are too small for the chair.
 
The "distance to parks" factor of AKL is overstated. In practice, Poly takes longer to every park save MK than transport from AKL.

But the unit size and capacity issues really are a factor for you unless you want to book a 1BR at AKV, or two units at AKL.
 


The "distance to parks" factor of AKL is overstated. In practice, Poly takes longer to every park save MK than transport from AKL.

But the unit size and capacity issues really are a factor for you unless you want to book a 1BR at AKV, or two units at AKL.

This. AKL is not any further to the parks than any of the values or moderates. Everything is far from MK except the MK resorts. The buses are the buses are the buses. In theory they run every 20 minutes from everywhere. We had a standard 1 bedroom and still have a view of the Savannah. It was of what they call the people pens (where people evacuate to if there is an issue) but we still have animals all day.
 
Thanks everyone! I failed to mention that we will have a second room for my daughter and her friend. I am leaning towards AKL to try something new but don't know if i want to give up the monorail to Magic Kingdom which is our favorite park. It's nice to have some other opinions.
 
We thought AKL was a great resort. But you do have to take a bus everywhere (for us, it got old after a while). Just like any other resort, the buses can be hit or miss. How long is your trip? You might want to consider doing a split stay. Start out at AKL and then move to Poly to finish the trip. Then you get the best of both worlds! :) Then you can try to plan your park days so you are doing the parks that are closer to AKL on the days you are there and then do MK for the days you are at Poly.

Happy planning!
 
We love AKL but bought at Bay Lake because of the distance issue. You will take the bus everywhere and be tortured by the waits. Half the time at AKL I end up doing Ubers for dinner because I cannot deal with the bus system (impatient New Yorker in me!) If you don't like the bus system, stay at Poly.
 
I’ve stayed at both and like both. I would recommend AKL simply for the reason you stated at the beginning, try something new. The pools at both Jambo & Kidani are really nice. Love the animals! There is a community room which is nice. Dining is also really great. If you are at the Kidani pool the bar actually has some quick service food which is nice. If you will spend time at the resort, then yes to AKL. If you like the idea of getting to Avatar without much travel time then it’s good too! Also, if you get some rain a lodge always keeps you drier than walking from building to building at the Poly. But, if everyone is going to spend most of their time at MK then travel time alone gives Poly the edge.
 
If you won’t have your own transportation, if you won’t use the Minnie Vans and if you’re relying on Disney buses, stick with the Polynesian.

If you have your own vehicle or you’ll use the Minnie Van then AKL won’t be an issue.

It isn’t just the distance, but also the buses which are standing room only at times because Kidani guests are picked up first when going to the parks.

It’s a beautiful resort with great cast members but I won’t ever stay there again without my own car or the Minnie Van service.
 
My family is planning on returning home August of 2019. Of course we have started planning as the wait is killing us all. We have 3 children 19, 15 and 9. We are having a hard time deciding between Animal Kingdom Lodge standard view and the Poly. We have stayed at the Poly before and loved it but have never been to AKL. We like the thought of trying something new and AKL looks beautiful but are hesitant with the distance to the parks. I am wondering how frequent the buses run and is the ride to the parks that much longer than the other resorts? Are the rooms much smaller than the Poly? I'm sure the savannah is amazing but is the standard room still worth trying the resort? Which resort do your prefer? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi,
I have stayed at both and as my kids have gotten older, AKL became the resort of choice. When we wanted to go to MK 3 days on our trip and the kids were little , poly was our choice. It is only close to MK though so transportation everywhere else is longer, just as AKL on the day you do AK is fantastic and longer elsewhere. I call the transportation issue a tie.
 
The "distance to parks" factor of AKL is overstated. In practice, Poly takes longer to every park save MK than transport from AKL.
Exactly. I often wonder if folks have looked at a map of WDW when they mention how far away AKL is from everything. If you look at a map of WDW overall, MK is the remote property.

In our experience, the only advantage transportation wise Poly has over AKL is going to MK. Everywhere else is a wash. I'd give AKL a chance, it's an amazing resort.
Yep. We've stayed at AKL multiple times and it's buses are just like the buses at every other resort on property. Better than many as they don't share. I get annoyed at the MK resorts that share so much. And when the monorail is down, wow are the alternate transportation methods you have to take always a pain.

We love AKL but bought at Bay Lake because of the distance issue. You will take the bus everywhere and be tortured by the waits. Half the time at AKL I end up doing Ubers for dinner because I cannot deal with the bus system (impatient New Yorker in me!) If you don't like the bus system, stay at Poly.
Now, to be fare here, no resort is good for getting to dinner, if you are going to another resort at least. Uber is always the answer (it's the only way we go resort to resort). Because no resort offers buses to another resort. And if you are going to dinner at a park, well, AKL doesn't have any different bus service than any other resort does.
 

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