Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge

Reviews

• KJ

  Kent Jimison

  1 day ago
  5.0
  I have stayed at every Disney resort over the years, and AKL is by far my favorite. The rooms are always well maintained, and nothing beats the views this resort offers. The restaurants are well above the Disney standard. Boma is amazing but the star of this resort is JIKO. Not only, in my opinion, the best on all of Disney property, but in the top three in Florida. The service level has dropped since Covid but has been improving some. I did notice fewer cast members at all stations, from the valet station to a rather bland check-in process, to less and less people to give the Disney Experience. Technology should never replace the smiling faces that added the special touch to staying on property. If Josh D'Amoro ever reads this, please get back to what made Disney special in the first place. People to people interaction that made you feel part of the magic.
• MR

  Mel Rodz

  May 6, 2026
  4.0
  Let’s start with price it’s pretty expensive 😊 while choose a room that would be looking at the animals. But we never did get to see any up close like they show in the commercials or in the website. Si that was disappointing. You can see them better at the zoo for far less money. The room was nice looking but the furniture is so big and bulky that it’s takes room away from the you to move around and not enough space for the kid to move around. We did like that we could take the bus to the parks. The kids club was closed when we wanted to use it. You do get to use the kids pool area from the hotel next to it, but that’s another downside that you have to leave the hotel go to another hotel just for the kids to enjoy section designated for them. At night they have a pool party for the kids downside to this it’s that at night it’s cold and the pool is warm so our child ended up getting sick going from warm to cold. But he did have fun attending. The food is like eating at the park and they do have a nice dinner area for reservation that you can eat there. It was full with no availability when we went. They have a scavenger hunt that we did one day and my son enjoyed that as well. I’ve included photos to help you decide. 😊
• CD

  Courtney D

  May 5, 2026
  5.0
  I loved staying at the lodge so much! The staff were all super friendly and nice. The kids loved the pool. It was very extensive with all that they wanted. Like a slide and options to play and even a Jacuzzi hot tub. We also really liked on the days that it rained, there was a really fun arcade and the prices were reasonable. I loved that this resort had so many different restaurant options from cheaper quick service, to also having Jiko, which was a very expensive restaurant, and also having a buffet for the larger groups who like to eat different things. I love staying at Disney because of the transportation service that they offer everywhere. I never had to wait for a bus. One was always there waiting on me which I loved! The rooms themselves were so nice. The toiletries that they offered were so high quality. The lotion, the shampoo, the conditioner, the mouthwash, all of it was so nice. Our view from the room was unforgettable. The ability to see the animals every morning. And every evening was so relaxing and fulfilling. I would definitely recommend anyone looking to come to Disney, to stay here, especially if you're gonna go to animal kingdom park and you can afford to stay for multiple nights. So many things I could also add, like how clean everything was, the movies at night and the s'mores in the evening. An excellent selection if you make it.
• DM

  Debra Michaels

  May 4, 2026
  3.0
  I found Animal Kingdom Lodge average at best which was disappointing to say the least given the cost. There was toothpaste in the sink upon arrival to the room. The hair dryer was broken at the plug and went unnoticed by housekeeping but again there was toothpaste in the sink from the get go. Some of the dresser drawers did not close, the bathroom wall hook was loose and leaning, the floor was dirty as evidenced by the grime on my new from the package white socks and the shower heads had grime and some mold. I requested housekeeping once during a 5 day stay and she/he didn’t stock the coffee bar. The worst part though was the 4” cockroach who owned the bathroom. After 2 phone calls and batting it for a couple days (the second time was upon waking , needing to use the restroom and it was on the toilet) maintenance man eventually killed it with my idea because he didn’t think he’d able to get it. Response times for hair dryer, coffee and exterminator were 30/45 plus minutes. I will be going back to Orlando/Disney next year as we enjoyed the parks but will not be staying in a disney owned property. Definitely not worth the cost.
• MS

  Mandy Shaw

  Apr 25, 2026
  2.0
  I would prefer to give feedback to Disney directly, as I’m not one to typically post negative reviews online, but Disney is now asking for Google reviews instead of direct feedback, it seems. We had an extremely disappointing stay at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. We live out of state but are lucky enough to visit Walt Disney World several times each year. We are annual passholders. We stayed club level at AKL for 7 nights for a RunDisney weekend. For some people, paying to stay club level does not make a financial difference. For me, it means working extra nights and weekends, but it is something I choose to do for my family. I recognize my privilege to be able to make that choice. This club level is not worth the money. Not at all. It has been oversold. In order to do this, they scatter the “club access” rooms around the resort. Rooms are far from the club. This was not disclosed to us upon booking nor during the few phone calls before the visit. Because it is oversold, cast members seem overwhelmed, the food offerings are often empty, and a table in the club is hard to come by at times. The majority of the cast members in the club don’t seem to want to be there. This has not been our experience at other clubs on property. We were reprimanded by a cast member for taking a food offering during the posted hours because “it wasn’t open yet”. I’m still not sure how we were to know that we were not allowed to take food during the available food hours. That being said, there were a few wonderful cast members who were friendly and helpful. I am well-aware that being disappointed in a club level stay at a deluxe Disney World resort is a quintessential “first world problem”. But had I known this before my stay, I definitely wouldn’t have chosen to stay there, and I won’t make that mistake again. If you are choosing to stay club level at WDW, choose any other resort. One positive from the stay was that we had excellent views of the savanna from our room. This was not the case when we stayed there several years ago. That was the one redeeming quality of our week-long stay.

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