Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village: A Review

Ever since they built the Animal Kingdom Lodge, it had been a dream of mine to stay there and wake up with Animals outside my window! Our last visit to Disneyworld, we ate at Boma, and my desire to stay at this hotel deepened!

I never thought we could afford to stay there, especially with 4 kids! When we got the opportunity to stay in a Savannah view, 2 bedroom Villa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village, I JUMPED at the chance – I was sooooo excited!!!

We spent our morning at Blizzard Beach, and when they closed all the water areas at Blizzard Beach due to lightning, we headed over to check into our Villa at Kidani Village. Check in was a breeze. I however, did not get ANY of my room requests. I requested the Sunset Savannah, and we got Pembe. I requested a low floor, and we got the 5th (top) floor. The exact opposite that I requested. Oh well! I was a bit upset at first, but as the week wore on, I was very happy with our room. I loved the Pembe Savannah, and the Okapi! Plus our 5th floor room, we could see the entire Savannah 🙂 (and the pool area!)

We got to our villa – and all I can say is, it was AMAZING! Seriously HUGE and GORGEOUS! My husband commented that it was bigger than most of the apartments he lived in at college. It was VERY large! You enter the villa and there was a full bathroom immediately to your left, and the washer and dryer in a closet immediately to your right. That front bathroom became our “swimming” bathroom – where we hung all our swimming suits to dry!

The kitchen was gorgeous! We quickly found that it did not have much storage or counter space however 🙁 Full size refrigerator, range, and dishwasher, plus fully stocked kitchen for your cooking/baking needs. There was a good size table, with a bench that would fit 3-4 of our kids and 2 chairs. The living room was quite large, with a pull out couch and a pull our chair as well. Along with a entertainment center with a DVD player and Flat screen TV. There was then a sliding door to our balcony.

To the left of the living room, was the master bedroom. It was good size with a chair, desk, King Size bed, large dresser with flat screen tv. There was also a sliding door to the balcony, overlooking at Savannah. Off of the bedroom was a HUGE bathroom! It was massive. I have a VERY large master bathroom in my home, and this was almost as big! There was a lovely jetted tub, a huge walk in shower, a separate closet, and separate toilet area.

On the other side of the living room, was the other bedroom. We could not hear our kids, when they were in this bedroom – it felt like it was a country away! The room had 2 queen beds, a desk, chair, and a dresser with flat screen tv. There was also another sliding door to the balcony. Outside the room was yet another bathroom (3 FULL bathrooms total), and 2 large closets.

All the furnishings had an animal theme. I took some pictures, that you can see below!

The lobby for Kidani Village is MUCH smaller than Jumbo House. My kids loved the tv that showed cartoons though! They had lots of cool artifact and light fixtures. I wish I had thought to take pictures of them all – they were amazing!

Bell services somehow lost 2 of our bags between Port Orleans and Kidani Village. Fortunately, they were able to find our bags within a few hours.

The gift shop in the lobby was also small, but had the Rapid Refill Mug station. My kids wished they had a Hot Chocolate machine though!

There is no Quick Service restaurant, which is fine, since we ate in our room often.

The gift shop had many food items for you to make in your room. We brought alot of food with us, had it delivered from Costco, and went to the grocery store before we turned in our rental car. However, we used the gift shop to purchase milk ($2.99 for half gallon) and eggs ($1.99 per dozen – not much more than the grocery store). We also bought chips, and lunch meat down there. They had many essential items, which were not cheap, but not outrageous either. I think they were like an expensive grocery store prices, and I am used to buying everything on sale, but overall, between what we brought, and their gift shop offerings, we were able to eat a majority of our meals in our Villa, saving us a TON of money! They had bread, bagels, cheeses, bacon, potatoes, pizza, lots of convenience meals, pancake mix, condiments, etc.

The buses were the biggest disappointment when it came to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. (which is true for most Disneyworld hotels, with the exception of our experience with the mostly good Boardwalk Villas transportation). The good thing about Kidani Village was we were picked up FIRST and let off FIRST, so we got seats on every bus. Jumbo house we noticed getting very long lines in the morning! We waited for a bus to Magic Kingdom for 40 minutes one morning – which is a horrible wait, considering we saw 3-4 buses for every other park and we had gotten up EARLY to get to the park before opening, which did NOT happen thanks to the long wait. The wait for buses to the other parks were not as bad, just getting to the Magic Kingdom was terrible. We didn’t have problems later in the day, when we would head back to the parks after our naps. We often got a bus right away. I also liked the TV screens that estimated when the next bus would be there. I wish ALL the hotels and stops had that!!

The pool was GREAT! The waterslide was fun and my littlest kid (18 months) LOVED the little waterslide was well! The 2 little ones also loved the water play area. It was great for little kids to just run around and play in! We were at the pool almost every day that we were there! The pool parties were fun as well. My older kids also enjoyed the Fusball and Air Hockey tables next to the pool! We spent may great hours at the pool and it was never crowded. There is a Rapid Refill mug station located at the bar pool as well! We did go to the pool at Jambo house as well. The slide is not NEARLY as long as the one a Kidani Village. The pool itself is larger, but the one at Kidani was overall much better! Kidani had 2 waterslides and the kids splash play area… Jambo House only had the one, shorter slide, but the pool was bigger. We thought the Kidani Pool was MUCH better, and after one visit, just stuck to the pool at Kidani for the rest of our stay! There was a shuttle that ran between Kidani and Jumbo house, or you could walk. But the shuttle was always there and available, so the 2 times we went between the resorts, we just took the shuttle.

We didn’t get to do too many of the resort activities but there were plenty, and we would get a message each morning telling us of the activities at the hotel. We did go to the Campfire a few times, where they gave the kids sticks and marshmallows to roast over the fire. We took chocolate and Graham Crackers and made S’mores with them 🙂 After the campfire, they showed Disney movies each night on a big blow up screen.

We loved walking to our room to the lobby, gift shop, or buses and just look out the windows as we went. We would see all sorts of different animals, even though we could see them from our balcony, it was still fun to see them everywhere we went in the hotel. Also, the Elevators in the hotel were VERY fast! We were amazed at how quickly we could go up and down 5 stories!

Overall, other than the 40 minute bus incident, we LOVED our stay at Kidani Village. I would stay there again in a heartbeat, as both the rooms and hotel were AMAZING! Savannah view was INCREDIBLE! It was also our first stay in a Deluxe resort, and I am not sure we could ever go back after this stay!

Below I have videos of our room, the slides as both Kidani and Jumbo House – Unfortunately, I took video the wrong way with my phone on the Kidani Waterslide, so I am including the video my husband took, which was at night :P. I also have included many pictures of the room!