AKL, Jambo House, Kidani

[FenwayGirl]

I am looking to book a future vacation at the AKL. What is the difference between AKL, Jambo House and Kidani. I have been to Boma and I think that is in AKL...pros and cons of staying at each please?

[SBETigg]

Jambo House and Kidani Village together make up the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Views at both are about equal as far as animal sightings. Both have great pools. Some people prefer one, some the other. There is a van to transport you between the two or it's about an 8 minute walk from one to the other.

Jambo is more the main building. As such, it has the better shopping, much larger bar area, two restaurants (Boma and Jiko), the club level, and the quick service (which is a pretty decent quick service with some African-Indian inspired offerings).

Kidani is the (Mostly? All?) DVC addition that has the restaurant Sanaa and a small but efficient gift shop area. The advantage to Kidani is the buses always depart from here first, and stop here first, before going over to Jambo House, which means you are more likely to get seats on the buses or at least get dropped off earlier and buses here can be crowded, especially to/from the MK.

[FenwayGirl]

THanks...when you book, they offer all 3 options. I was so confused. So they are all just a big compound?

[SBETigg]

THanks...when you book, they offer all 3 options. I was so confused. So they are all just a big compound?

Yes. It's all Animal Kingdom Lodge. You might get a better idea if you look at a resort map as to the layout between Jambo House and Kidani. Google it, because I think the map they offer here only shows Jambo House (though I could be mistaken).

[VWL Mom]

THanks...when you book, they offer all 3 options. I was so confused. So they are all just a big compound?

There are only 2 buildings as Sherri said. I think the confusion is in the listing. AKL is the listing for regular rooms. They are located on floors 1-4 in Jambo house. AKL-Jambo are the villas located on floors 5 and 6 at Jambo. AKL-Kidani is all villas. What size room are you interested in?

[FenwayGirl]

Thanks for the explanaiton. This is one of my bucket list hotels. Going May 2018 with my oldest who will be celebrating her 40th!! Think this might be a good time to make this work
'

[lawgirl]

I love AKL- we have stayed multiple times in Jambo standard rooms, DVC studio, and then a 1 bedroom at Kidani. It is all basically attached. Kidani is the smaller part, while Jambo has that amazing huge lobby. When we stayed Sanaa wasn't offering breakfast, so it was a bit of a hike to walk from Kidani to Jambo to get to the Mara, but I loved where our room at Kidani was located, and its so peaceful there. If you can, get a 1-2 bedroom unit...they are amazing. Can't wait to go back myself. I'm planning my 40th birthday party there!!!

[buzznwoodysmom]

Having stayed at both, or all three if you count that we have stayed in an AKL room at Jambo, a studio at Jambo, and a one bedroom at Kidani, we much preferred being at Jambo.

Even tho the two properties are both listed as AKL, we find that they feel like two separate resorts. We prefer the offerings at Jambo. They have a true counter service, two table service restaurants, and a much, much better gift shop. We found Kidani lacking in those departments. We also prefer the pool at Jambo, but I could see how those with younger kids might like Kidani's pool area more.

We had a savannah view in our regular room at Jambo and the one bedroom at Kidani. We had a better view at Jambo.

[Simba's Mom]

Kidani is the (Mostly? All?) DVC addition that has the restaurant Sanaa and a small but efficient gift shop area. The advantage to Kidani is the buses always depart from here first, and stop here first, before going over to Jambo House, which means you are more likely to get seats on the buses or at least get dropped off earlier and buses here can be crowded, especially to/from the MK.

I was told that Kidani and Jambo don't share buses any more, that each place has its own bus to the parks. Can anyone verify or deny that? Last time I was there they shared buses. Jambs lobby really has that "Wow" appearance.

[JoDisney]

I prefer Jambo House. With that being said, Kidani can be a long, long walk to the lobby. I stayed there last year. It's beautiful. However, I could not wait to leave and go to Jambo House. When we transferred to Jambo, the CM at registration told us that our room at Kidani was over a mile walk to lobby. He said if you look at the map of both Jambo and Kidani you will see Kidani is longer. He continued to say when they were building Kidani they did a survey to see what people wanted. Of course the people said "savannah views." Thus a long building. This was a mistake. The walk is a pain to get to the lobby. Which can be several times a day. I never was so thankful for Jambo. I like to walk, but this started to annoy me to go to lobby for my refillable mug, gift shop, kid snack, etc. Annoying.

[j2k]

Great question! We're staying in May for the first time.

[Hammer]

I have stayed in DVC rooms in both Jambo and Kidani (1 and 2 bedrooms). I prefer the room layout at Kidani, but like Jambo for the amenities. Regarding savanna views, we saw tons of animals at Kidani (we had sunset happy hour on our balcony ) and less animals when we stayed at Jambo.

One thing we really liked is the parking available under the building at Kidani. As we always have a car, it made it very convenient to use it.

[NewDVCowner]

I was told that Kidani and Jambo don't share buses any more, that each place has its own bus to the parks. Can anyone verify or deny that? Last time I was there they shared buses. Jambs lobby really has that "Wow" appearance.

I stayed at AKL Jambo in early November and they were not sharing buses when we were leaving for the parks in the morning. It's possible that they share them later in the day when not quite as many people are leaving for the parks at once and it could have just been luck on our part, however for the week we were there there were specific buses for Jambo and Kidani.

[jonahbear2006]

It doesnt matter which you choose bc theres a van that will drive you back and forth to and from kidani and jambo. We love all the food at both resorts but I do prefer kidani's pool and bathroom by the pool to jambos.. You cant lose though. The best resort overall...when you consider pools, food, rooms, comfort.