Hello! We are strongly considering renting points to book a stay at Kidani Village for our family trip next year. Everything about the resort and room seem wonderful and a great match for our group.
The one thing that I do see mentioned fairly often about AKL/AKV is the perception that it is isolated by distance from the theme parks (except AK of course) and how this is less than optimal and results in much time during your stay being "wasted" on transportation instead of in the parks. I also have found comments suggesting that these concerns are overblown and it really is not that bad.
We plan to stay for 6 nights, and our plan is to take advantage of rope drop each day and return to the room each day around lunchtime for pool or nap or just relax. Then returning to the parks late afternoon. So, for our plan, I do want to learn more about the realities of transportation between our room and the parks.
From the reading I've done here on DIS boards (great resource!), I think I have a pretty good idea of what it will be like to rely on the bus transportation. However, I would appreciate any opinions or experiences any of you would like to share about staying at AK and using the buses to get to the parks.
One other specific question I have is to ask for any experiences you may have had staying at AK and using the Minnie-Van service. I know that this service is not currently running, and there is no certainty that it will return at all. However, I think there are good indicators that it will return, and my trip is far enough out that I'd like to assume the Minnie Vans will be available. It seems like the Minnie Vans would make transportation to the parks from Kidani even easier, faster, and more reliable. Wondering if anyone has experiencing using these from AKL/AKV before they were shut down? We will not have a rental car, and would probably not use Uber/Lyft (at least in the morning) because of the need to get right to the gates for the (new version of) Extra Magic Hour.
Thanks!
Cannot help on the minivan question.
Going to a park via bus actually has two different distance issues when staying at Kidani. The first one is walking from room to bus station. The Kidani building is about 2/3 mile long (one of the longest single hotel-type buildings in the world, and I mean on earth not just WDW). See this map of Kidani:
Kindani_Village_Map.jpg. The front entrance faces west. You will see the bus station on the south wing. The walk from end rooms on the north wing to the bus station is about 6 to 7 minutes at average adult pace, closer to 10 or more with little ones in tow. If you are getting Savanna view, you should have the owner make a request through Member Services that allows you to be closer to lobby and bus station. Two possible requests are close to the Timon elevator (on the south wing which provides very quick access to the door on second floor that leads directly to the bus station), or close to the Rafiki elevator (on the north wing, which provides quickest access to the pool and you are not real far from the bus station). Another option, of course, is having a rental car to use for transportation to parks, and at Kidani every room is fairly close to an elevator that leads directly to the under-building parking lot and thus you can park close to your room.
As to bus transportation, what I have found over many trips is that it is usually better than bus transportation at a number of other resorts because: (a) for no known reason it tends to have fewer delays than other resorts where you wait very long for a bus beyond the usual time it was supposed to come, both at the resort when leaving and at the park when coming back; and (b) it has only two bus stops, Kidani and Jambo and thus avoids multiple stops within the resort and extra stops at other resorts; and (c) particularly during rush times like in the morning, it usually has a direct bus from Kidani to MK and a different one directly from Jambo to MK. Park buses otherwise run Kidani to Jambo to park, when going, and park to Kidani to Jambo returning. As to Disney Springs, they run Jambo to Kidani to DS, and DS to Jambo to Kidani returning.
As to time to get to a park once on a bus, the trip to AK is obviously quick, about 10 minutes from Kidani (shorter from Jambo). The time going to other parks or Disney Springs can be more than some other DVC Resorts but it is a misconception to necessarily believe it is a lot more, For example, in actual miles the trip from Grand Floridian to the entrance of Studios and the the trip from AKL to Studios are the same at just over 5 miles. Typically the trip from Kidani to a park other than AK is in the 25 minute range, shorter from Jambo, and quicker from AK to MK when bus is direct to MK from Kidani.
. I’m only 5’ tall and I literally have to jump and pull myself up in the new beds. We leave in 3 days.Im hoping I don’t have to pack the step stool. Last year they provided one for me but a few months ago at the Yacht Club they said they were no longer allowed to since people got hurt. I had to drag a chair over to get in the bed.
Yes, nice for bag storage but I still think the main purpose is sleeping and one shouldn't be risking limbs getting in and out of bed! Anyway, still the same as they were so you should be safe there for now.
