We’ll pop into Kidani Village here real quick like. Things may seem quiet on the western front, but the May Crowd Calendar has been updated and we’ll be able to take a look at Animal Kingdom Jambo House, Splitsville, Animal Kingdom at night, Portobello, and House of Blues here in the coming days. I’m expecting Disney to release the September 2013 operating schedule on Friday and we should see a lengthy update to the month of June at that same time.
Kidani Village is the Disney-Vacation-Club-only arm of Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Unlike most Vacation Club properties, which are located right next to their host resorts, Kidani is a good ten to fifteen minute walk from Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House. Jambo also houses DVC rooms that are usually more expensive.
Instead of walking, you can hop on any theme park bus and the next stop will be Jambo House. The Downtown Disney bus stops at Jambo House first and then travels to Kidani. It’s a lot easier to take the bus from Kadani to Jambo than it is to travel in reverse. You can request a van transfer from Jambo to Kidani, but that can take even longer if there are people ahead of you.
I mention the ease in visiting Kidani first because my assumption is that most people bypass it completely on their way to Jambo House for a meal or to look around.
The Pembe savanna at Kidani is smaller than Jambo, but most of the same animals are around. The Sunset savanna from Jambo was expanded to stretch all the way over to Kidani when Kidani opened in 2009.
The views at Kidani may be even better.
That’s particularly true after 4pm, when the animals are lured closer to Sanaa for dinner service.
Like Kona Cafe, I think Sanaa is another restaurant on just about everyone’s “under-appreciated restaurants” list. Sanna doesn’t get as much airplay though, so I guess we’ll call it under-appreciated. Menus:
Also like Kona, the prices are incredibly reasonable, especially considering we’re on Disney property. The restaurant is also about as vegetarian-friendly as it gets.
At 5pm, the staff appears out front to open the restaurant.
A blurry shot with the hours. Daily at 4pm, Sanaa conducts a free tour of the restaurant, which culminates in free bread.
Another free tour begins upstairs in the lobby just outside the resort’s store, Johari Treasures.
Johari, located on the lobby level, offers just the basics:
Larger: https://www.easywdw.com/reports7/johari.jpg.
It does have a refillable mug station. As we know, Joffrey’s is replacing Nescafe. But my assumption is that Joffrey’s is a more expensive coffee than Nescafe. I wonder how they’ll work the refillable mug “situation” with Nescafe’s exit. It may be the rationale for a $17.99 Refillable Mug.
There aren’t a lot of prettier, more relaxing spots on property than the second floor of Kidani in the afternoon.
Like Jambo House, most guest rooms overlook the savanna.
Those are all guest buildings in the distance.
Of course, you can also rock the asphalt view.
Similar to Jambo, there’s an area to the rear where anyone can get closer to the savanna. That’s a fire pit with rocking chairs in the middle. The campfire begins nightly at 5:15pm this time of year.
At Kidani, you’re on eye level with the animals.
A look back at one of the lobby level perches.
And the area below.
Marty and Melman on loan from Universal.
As far as I know, okapi are the only animal unique to the Pembe savanna.
There’s probably a unique antelope too. There’s always a unique antelope.
A look back. Sanaa is located on the lower level. The check-in area is basically right through those doors. To access the restaurant from the main entrance, simply walk to the back of the lobby and head down the stairs. If you’re staying at Kidani, at least one meal at Sanaa is a no-brainer. And you may want two. Luckily, you probably won’t need a reservation, especially for lunch. I’ll discuss Animal Kingdom touring a bit more in the theme park post, but I like the idea of visiting the Park from 9am – 1pm, taking a few hours off to tour the resorts and grab lunch, and then a return to the theme park for the last couple of hours when crowds die down again.
There are a ton of activities throughout the day, most of them available to anyone.
The library is mentioned as the location for a couple of the activities. You’ll find it on the lobby level with more chairs outside overlooking the savanna below.
Because Kidani is detached from Jambo House, it offers its own check-in, valet, baggage, and concierge services.
In addition to the unique savanna, Kidani also features its own collection of art. This one is a little cross-eyed for my taste, but I’m no expert.
Like Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, Bay Lake Tower, and the BoardWalk, Kidani has a “Community Hall.”
Here, you’ll find books, board games, coloring, video games, movies, pool, foosball, and other activities.
Individual Playstation 3s set up.
They have binders full of the Xbox Kinect and Wii games that are available. Other activities include painting ceramics, making photo frames, decorating bird houses, and others. There are nominal costs for the art supplies should you wish to partake – generally $2 – $10. When I visited around 5pm, there wasn’t anyone there. My estimation is that the Community Halls aren’t well advertised. In this instance, the Hall is located across from the arcade through what looks like any other door.
Someone may have to correct me, but it’s my understanding that you can drop your 12+ year old(s) off here for as long as you want, unsupervised. I’m not sure of the extent to which they’ll be supervised by cast members. For example, I’m not sure if you can stipulate that the kids are not to leave the Hall. Please post a comment if you have experience.
Speaking of the Arcade, it’s what you might expect. As you look at the Savanna from the lobby, you’ll find both the arcade and Community Hall down the hall on the right.
This is the first time I can remember seeing an Indiana Jones pinball machine. Very adventurous.
Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Marios Bros is rare as far as I know.
Haters gonna hate.
Let ’em.
So that’s our peek at the Kidani available to anyone. You’ll also find a pool complex, pool bar, and fitness center available to those staying at the resort. For more information, visit http://www.aklresort.com/.
I believe the Community Hall is only for guest use, not general public.
Kids are not supposed to leave the Hall, even if you come and get them…We don’t need to do anything apart from stopping them from entering the Hall.
We stayed in a Grand Villa in November 2012 (the pic ‘looking back’ actually shows the balconies for the room on the right next to the elevator tower). It was a fantastic stay and an incredible view. We had no idea there was an either an arcade or a community hall. The people in the gift shop and behind the welcome desk at Kidani are some of the nicest people I’ve ever run into anywhere on Disney property or otherwise. Our stay was not without some issues but everyone was incredibly helpful. I can’t say enough about the staff there.
This is random, but scrolling through those amazing pictures, I have to ask…what do they charge for a beer, if you buy them in store versus at the bar? Thanks!
We’ve stayed at Kidani twice. On our trip 2 weeks ago I even did laundry a couple times in the laundry room located right past the arcade. I didn’t even know the community hall was there. Granted, we didn’t do a ton of research on the subject. But you’d think they’d at least have the door marked. I must’ve walked right by it at least 8-10 times during our stay.
Thanks for the Walk Around report. We have never stayed at Kidani village, but have stayed at AKL and found the resort to be great, but the bus service to be lacking. AKL is further from any of the parks other than the Animal Kingdom than the other resorts.
John
The perspective on that first photo of the lobby is really strange. I had to stare at it for a while to figure out wat was going on. Thanks for blowing my mind.
Thanks for this! We are staying here in June and are very excited. Especially liked hearing about all of the activities and the Community Hall since we are planning at least one day away from the parks and just exploring the resort.
Thanks, again, Josh – you rock!! 🙂
It’s all very beautiful. AKL was where we were going to stay for our very first visit back in 2010, but then when Hubby backed out of going we changed to WL so we’d be a little closer to the parks. AKL just seems so far away from everything. Maybe we’ll get there at least for a walk around some day (although you do that very well for us, lol). Laughed at the Marty and Melman appearance.
There is also some type of bar-b-que area including tennis just across the parking lot entranceway. I did not get a chance to see it in Christmas. Did you get a chance to snap any photo’s of that area Josh?
I don’t see the Naan service on the Sanaa menu. Is that considered a different course or something?
This is our home resort and we love it. 142 days and we will be back!!!
We visited Kidani Village several times during our stay at AKL Jambo House last year. My daughter and I were intent on collecting beads from activities offered between the 2 sites. Plus Kidani has the spa and a more elaborate pool complex. AKL runs a continuous shuttle van between the 2 buildings, so it is never more than a 10 minute wait.
Sanaa was highly recommended by the cast member who greeted us upon our arrival, so foodie son made a point of dining there. Now we have an excuse to return so that he can take the tour. I recommend early evening reservations, before it gets too dark to enjoy the view.
Thanks, I knew almost nothing about Kidani until now, it looks great! You mention a plan of morning at AK, then bus to resorts for lunch and exploring, then back to AK when crowds are low. It looks like Sanaa is the only table service at the AK resorts serving lunch. Since the bus first stops at Kidani, it seems you could even do AK -> Kidani for Sanaa lunch and explore -> Jambo to explore -> finish day at AK. Lots of taking the bus but so much to see!
My son will be so disappointed that his secret is out. He always has the whole arcade to himself every time we stay here. We love Kidani. Peaceful, great views, and covered parking.
I think Sanaa can stay on the under-appreciated list – when we were there in May the lunch service was somewhere between forgettable and bad. If you’re staying at Kidani I guess it’s convenient, but with Boma at Jambo for dinner and Yak & Yeti in AK for lunch I’m not sure I’d carve out any vacation time for Sanaa.
Then again the plural of anecdote is not data so go if you want to!
We had lunch at Sanaa 2 weeks ago and it was spectacular.
Unfortunately our trip back to the park by an apparent inability to read signs. both my wife and read the sign and were sure the bus we were waiting for would take us over to Animal Kingdom (we spend the morning at MK). Unfortunately, we instead ended on the Downtown Disney bus. So instead of a ~5 minute trip it took us 1.5 hours to get back to the park. Argh.
We also went to Sanaa and it was BY FAR the best food we ate on our recent trip. Service was spectacular and the wife and I thought it was all EXCELLENT. I had the Durban chicken and short bef ribs and adored both. The naan was fresh and great and we were thrilled. It was also theleast expensive TS meal we ate on property, out of the five we had.
The two bedrooms villas have 3 bathrooms. This is a very nice feature compared to the other DVC rooms with only 2.
Comes in handy when you have multiple family member getting ready for dinner or the morning.
Is there a summary list of the free tours at the hotels somewhere? I recall there was the tour about the trains at one of the other hotels too…
We spent 7 days at my DVC at Kidani last November of 2012 & it was beyond amazing. The 1 bedroom unit was spacious & met all of our needs. Bus service was fantastic. We never waited more than 10 minutes. The best part was sitting out on the deck to watch the wildlife. I own a DVC at Baylake, but this is hands down my favorite hotel at Disney.
We just split our January stay between Kidani and VWL. Absolutely Kidani. (Wouldn’t go back to VWL again, but that’s for another day.) Loved the modern, large 1br, 2ba layout. Never heard a sound from neighbors. Had spectacular views of the animals, including the dinner feeding truck getting stuck in the sand and the resulting congregation of four giraffes eating from the back of the truck right in front of us for over half an hour. Transportation was quick and easy. The only negative of Kidani is that it doesn’t have QS breakfast. So you have to go to the Mara. It was fine for us, but we had perfect weather. Not sure I’d want to make the 10 minute (at most) walk to Jambo in a thunderstorm. Other than that, I can’t think of a single negative about Kidani. I’d note that the two wings are LONG and that you can have a pretty good walk from the lobby. Also, from your rooms the best views are from the second floor – i.e., lobby level.
Great Walkabout Josh.!FYI, there’s been an Indy pinball machine in the store across from Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost, in Disneyland since the Indy Ride opened in 1995. We used to play it a lot back then. Just the other day I noticed it’s still there, tucked in the corner. I played it for old time’s sake. Of course the price has gone up some since 1995! 🙂