AKL or a Polynesian/Beach Club Split

[Jacq7414]

Going on the trip is our family of 3 - myself, my husband, and our 5 year old daughter. We currently have a 2 night Poly/7 night BC split stay booked. At the Polynesian we are staying in a Marina/Pool room & have a standard at BC.

Neither of the resorts we currently have booked are available for the new discount. I found AKL standard for 2500 cheaper for the 9 nights. A savannah view is like $200 cheaper.

Is it worth it to switch? I was excited about the location and pool at BC and my daughter was excited about the new Moana rooms at the Poly. Our trip is already fully paid for, but $2500 seems like a lot.

Is the location of AKL really far away? We have PH and did plan to do a lot of midday breaks. My husband says I was excited about the resorts so just stay with them. But I want some other opinions. We have stayed at WL two times and loved it there. But did utilize the boat to MK at night pretty much all the time.

 

[Marionnette]

Going on the trip is our family of 3 - myself, my husband, and our 5 year old daughter. We currently have a 2 night Poly/7 night BC split stay booked. At the Polynesian we are staying in a Marina/Pool room & have a standard at BC.

Neither of the resorts we currently have booked are available for the new discount. I found AKL standard for 2500 cheaper for the 9 nights. A savannah view is like $200 cheaper.

Is it worth it to switch? I was excited about the location and pool at BC and my daughter was excited about the new Moana rooms at the Poly. Our trip is already fully paid for, but $2500 seems like a lot.

Is the location of AKL really far away? We have PH and did plan to do a lot of midday breaks. My husband says I was excited about the resorts so just stay with them. But I want some other opinions. We have stayed at WL two times and loved it there. But did utilize the boat to MK at night pretty much all the time.

AKL is remote in the sense that you need to take a bus everywhere. With BC and Poly, you have other transportation options (Skyliner, boats, monorail, walking).

Yes, $2500 is a lot of money that could be used elsewhere. But only you can determine whether the convenience of being able to quickly return to your room midday is worth the additional cost.

 

[Jacq7414]

AKL is remote in the sense that you need to take a bus everywhere. With BC and Poly, you have other transportation options (Skyliner, boats, monorail, walking).

Yes, $2500 is a lot of money that could be used elsewhere. But only you can determine whether the convenience of being able to quickly return to your room midday is worth the additional cost.

I haven’t moved it yet so that’s probably something. If it was WL that was a $2500 difference, I’d probably just move it. But I dunno about relying on the buses. We’ve rescheduled this trip 3 times already because of covid.
I’m probably just going to keep it what it is and keep on checking if a monorail or Epcot resort ends up popping up on there. Thanks

 

[Nabas]

Heck yes, $2500 is a lot. That will go a long way to your next vacation!

What you have to keep in mind about location is that unless you are walking, you're at the mercy of Disney's transportation system. Buses don't show up, the Skyliner gets closed because of weather, and the Monorail is delayed due to a technical issue. (All of these have happened to us more than once.) Depending on which theme park you're going to and how well you time Disney's transportation, the travel time from any onsite location can be short or long. Again, walking is your only sure bet.

We have stayed at AKL, Poly, and BC many times. All 3 are wonderful resorts. As a stand-alone experience (i.e. ignoring the distance from the parks), AKL (Jambo House) is (IMO) WDW's best hotel. Great theming, great lobby, great dining options (Boma is Disney's best buffet), very good pool, very good store, very good bar. Plus, AKL has the African ambassadors (for example, the wood carver was back when we stayed in December) and giraffes!



The best things about Beach Club are its location (easy walk to Epcot and the Skyliner) plus Stormalong Bay. Many rave about Stormalong Bay but we find its layout overly complex and it's always tough to get a seat there when the weather is nice. This photo was taken at about 10 AM when it was about 70 degrees and clouds were rolling in. (It rained about an hour after this photo was taken.)



The Poly is very nice with a wonderful pool. It's also on the Monorail, which is Disney's most reliable form of mass transportation. (Again though, we've experienced Monorail breakdowns that have delayed us by over an hour. Now that there's a path from the Grand Floridian to the Magic Kingdom, you can walk it. But it's a long walk!)



With all that written, we like split stays and there's something about combining a Beach Club and Poly stay that sounds really cool! After all, 9 days in the same room is a long time.

Really, I think it comes down to money. How much does $2500 mean to you?

 

[Wood Nymph]

Is there a discount at Yacht Club for your trip dates? We have had to switch from the Beach Club to the Yacht Club in order to get a discount. It would be perfect to switch to the YC if they had the discount because a Poly/YC or BC split is a much nicer vacation, imo, than nine days at one resort.

 

[kc51570]

$2500 is a big difference.. Can you do a split stay with Poly/AKL and still save? The location of Beach Club is great and I love the pool/lazy river there, but it’s not the best pool for a 5 year old. It’s very split up, lots of getting in and out of the pool walking across little footbridges to get to another section and the slide is separate. You can use both pools at AKL and both are very nice. Plus you have the animals. I did not love the poly pool-too crowded and shallow for us, but our kid was older the time we stayed there. If there weren’t that huge price difference, I would go with your original plans more so due to location and not resorts. AKL is the best resort of the 3 in my opinion but the location is further away.

 

[Jacq7414]

Is there a discount at Yacht Club for your trip dates? We have had to switch from the Beach Club to the Yacht Club in order to get a discount. It would be perfect to switch to the YC if they had the discount because a Poly/YC or BC split is a much nicer vacation, imo, than nine days at one resort.

It’s not, or I would switch. We are going Easter week so it’s all booked up. BW actually is available, but I have 10 day tickets on the Polynesian stay that I called up to get. I’d have to price it out with the discount to see if it’s worth it to get the 2 day tickets/8 day tickets separately. We saved quite a bit doing the 10 day park tickets. So that’s why I was looking for a 9 night stay. None of the resorts, except AKL are available for the 9 nights for cheaper than what we have now.

Really, I think it comes down to money. How much does $2500 mean to you?

Ugh I know! My grandma gave us a very generous Christmas gift so we used that to pay off the trip. So it’s money we didn’t expect. But 2500 is still 2500 . I just don’t want to be secluded and we planned on walking to Epcot most nights from BC.
So maybe that’s my answer right there

 

[Disneylover99]

I love split stays, but 2 nights at the Poly doesn’t seem long enough to me. I’d need at least 3 nights there.

Also, not a fan of SAB at BC for young kids. It was too chaotic. Not relaxing at all. We ended up at the quiet pool most days.

I think I’d go with AKL.

 

[Jacq7414]

D​

I love split stays, but 2 nights at the Poly doesn’t seem long enough to me. I’d need at least 3 nights there.

We were doing the 2 days before a Disney cruise, which I have since cancelled. It wasn’t available for anything longer or I would have made it - which is how we ended up with the 2/7 split

 

[Wood Nymph]

BW actually is available, but I have 10 day tickets on the Polynesian stay that I called up to get. I’d have to price it out with the discount to see if it’s worth it to get the 2 day tickets/8 day tickets separately. We saved quite a bit doing the 10 day park tickets.

I know that ten day tickets are cheaper than 2 day/8 day tickets. What I don't understand is why you would have to change your ten day tickets.

 

[Jacq7414]

I know that ten day tickets are cheaper than 2 day/8 day tickets. What I don't understand is why you would have to change your ten day tickets.

For the discount. You need to get at least 5 day tickets

ETA: and my 10 day tickets are attached to my first stay. Oops maybe I misread and you don’t

 

[kc51570]

I know that ten day tickets are cheaper than 2 day/8 day tickets. What I don't understand is why you would have to change your ten day tickets.

Agreed, you should be able to keep the 10 day tickets regardless of where you stay.

 

[Jacq7414]

Agreed, you should be able to keep the 10 day tickets regardless of where you stay.

I totally misread the discount lol. I thought you had to get 5 day tickets. Well now I’m upset I like BW slip by lol. Hopefully it’s available again

 

[Marthasor]

I love AKL, but there is no way I could spend 9 nights there. In fact, I don't think I would want to spend 9 nights in any WDW resort - I would want to split it up and enjoy the locations and atmospheres that each, uniquely, provides. AKL's rooms are also much smaller than Poly's and BC's. I really like an EP/MK resort split or, if you could split AKL with an EP or MK resort, that would be nice too. I would keep checking on the discount to see if you can configure something and not give up the EP and/or MK resort stay.

 

[Malyficent]

I am just starting YC/BC with my kids this year (11 and 9) and I would not have felt comfortable with it when they were younger. I've stayed there on a few adult only trips but it is very broken up like @kc51570 said. We did AKL on our last big family trip in Dec 2019 and loved it. Other than the DLH it's my favorite resort on property. I'd keep Poly and move to AKL if that is possible.

 

[Jacq7414]

Thanks for the concern about SAB at Beach Club. I wasn’t too concerned about it because my daughter is a good listener/rule follower and it’s 2 adults to 1 kid, but that is something to think about. I have to look at the layout.

But I think I’ve decided I don’t really want to be a bus ride away from all of the parks. I’m going to keep on checking to see if another epcot or MK resort pops up before our trip and switch there. If not we are just going to keep it the way it is.

 

[Marthasor]

Thanks for the concern about SAB at Beach Club. I wasn’t too concerned about it because my daughter is a good listener/rule follower and it’s 2 adults to 1 kid, but that is something to think about. I have to look at the layout.

But I think I’ve decided I don’t really want to be a bus ride away from all of the parks. I’m going to keep on checking to see if another epcot or MK resort pops up before our trip and switch there. If not we are just going to keep it the way it is.

With 2 adults, you shouldn't have any issues keeping track of your 5-year old at SAB. There is a huge children's pool in the main pool area and a smaller pool with a small slide behind the large slide. I did BC solo with DS when he was that age and I just, of course, stayed with him the entire time and only went to the pools that were conducive to the younger kids.