AKL Transportation

[applegirlrn]

We are looking at staying at AKL in mid January 2019. We had friends stay there and they said that transportation is awful to get to other locations and back to the park or other resorts. I was wondering if anyone else has had these issues.

 

[Happy2BGoofy]

We're DVC members and often stay at AKL. Transportation for the resort is really good IMHO. Transportation is a little bit out of the way for the other parks aside from AK. However, if you give yourself enough time not just for this resort but any resort you shouldn't have an issue.

 

[Cyberc1978]

I depends what you are comparing with. If it’s monorail then any bus would be kind a awful. If it’s walking any bus is nice.

The bus ride from akv to most places except AK is a long ride. A long bus ride doesn’t mean it’s awful just that you need to plan for a longer ride. I admit I have only done the bus ride from AKV a few times and I just relaxed and my daughter mostly fell a sleep after 2min driving.

 

[drusba]

I have found the buses at AKV to be better than others to the parks, experiencing fewer delays. That is probably the result of having only two resort stops (Kidani and Jambo) and no sharing with another resort. Trips are longer mileage-wise to MK, Sudios and Epcot (fast trip to AK) but actual trip time did not seem worse than the bus service at BLT and Boardwalk.

As to getting to other resorts, I have generally found that always takes significant time via bus no matter which resort you are staying at unless the other resort you want to go to is one of the usual stops your bus makes going to and from the parks. In other words, your friend's mention of difficuty getting to othe resorts simply points out a universal problem at WDW.

You should note that you can actually have far more time getting to a park than other resorts, particularly if staying at Kidani. That is because the walk from room to bus stop can be very long for many rooms because of the length of the building, e.g., the walk from end room at Kidani's north wing to the bus stop on the south wing is about the same distance as the walk from the base of Epcot to Germany. Your friends may have been adding that time to their evaluation.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

We are looking at staying at AKL in mid January 2019. We had friends stay there and they said that transportation is awful to get to other locations and back to the park or other resorts. I was wondering if anyone else has had these issues.

Nope. Your friends must not have stayed at a deluxe resort before. AKL has the best bus transportation of all the Deluxe reosrts. It does not have monorail or boat, and is not walking distance to a park. Pop has the best bus transportation of all the resorts. AKL is second best overall of all resorts, and definately best of the Deluxe resorts. Are they comparing apples to apples? Or comparing it to completely different--like the boats, monorail, walking to a park, or driving themselves.
Did they dislike other aspects of their stay at AKL? It is a beautiful resort, very relaxing and special.
You could book Boardwalk, and walk to 2 parks. You can't beat that.

 

[AcuraTL]

We are doing a split stay between BLT and AKV, wonder what’s the best way to go from BLT to AKV with luggage?

 

[LilyJC]

We are doing a split stay between BLT and AKV, wonder what’s the best way to go from BLT to AKV with luggage?

You can either have bell services pick it up or drop if off on check out day, and they will label everything and send it over to AKV. Just make sure to let them know if anything needs to be refrigerated.

 

[CarolynFH]

We are doing a split stay between BLT and AKV, wonder what’s the best way to go from BLT to AKV with luggage?

You can move everything yourself via Uber/Lyft or taxi. Or Bell Services will transfer luggage for you, including keeping cold or frozen foods at proper temperature, for the cost of tips. Drop it off in the morning, head off to the parks, and your luggage will arrive at the new resort in the late afternoon.

 

[LilyJC]

We are looking at staying at AKL in mid January 2019. We had friends stay there and they said that transportation is awful to get to other locations and back to the park or other resorts. I was wondering if anyone else has had these issues.

We just stayed there this past January at found transportation to be outstanding. The longest we waited was on our checkout day for a bus to DHS, and it was only 15 minutes.

 

[Best Aunt]

I try to get to the parks fairly early but not Rope Drop early. I have found that it was impossible to get a seat on a bus leaving Jambo House between about 8:00 and 8:30 am (and I cannot stand on a bus, for a variety of reasons). YMMV, but I like to have a back-up plan in mind. I used to grab a cab, but now I would Uber/Lyft if it looked like I would not be able to get a seat on a bus leaving the hotel when I wanted.

I have always gotten a seat on a bus on the way back to the hotel, but sometimes I have had to wait a long time at the park before the bus arrived. This is not limited to AKV, however. I have always been willing to wait for a bus back to the hotel.

 

[TheGecko]

Stayed at Kidani last summer and found the busses were fine. Leaving the resort, always plenty of room to sit and the busses ran regularly. Only had a couple of packed busses coming back late at night to the resorts from the parks. If you are not leaving at park closing the busses always had space.

The busses there are much much better than CBR or any of the moderates or values.

 

[bwang123]

We've stayed 3 times and never had an issue.

 

[DenLo]

We have stayed at both Jambo House and Kidani Village multiple times and rarely waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. Our last trip in 2016, we had to wait longer for a bus than usual, but it was still within the 20 minutes that we are told to expect it was also during December which lately has been very busy at the parks. In December 2017 we stayed at BLT and often had to wait 20 minutes for a bus. But that was unusual because of the road construction on World Drive. The only resorts that are easy to get to from another resort are the Monorail resorts and the Epcot resorts. So that means only 5 DVC resorts are easy to get to from another resort. All of the others resorts means transferring between two types of transportation.

 

[Best Aunt]

My understanding is that sometimes (usually?) the buses to the theme parks stop at Kidani first, then Jambo. When this happens, many people can get on at Kidani, making it hard to get a seat if you board the bus at Jambo. Sometimes there will be a separate bus loading at Jambo first, but I have never had this happen. So I think it makes a difference whether you are at Jambo or Kidani.

 

[drusba]

My understanding is that sometimes (usually?) the buses to the theme parks stop at Kidani first, then Jambo. When this happens, many people can get on at Kidani, making it hard to get a seat if you board the bus at Jambo. Sometimes there will be a separate bus loading at Jambo first, but I have never had this happen. So I think it makes a difference whether you are at Jambo or Kidani.

Before Oct 2017, the typical route was that all park buses stopped at Kidani and then Jambo, and the Disney Springs bus went to Jambo then Kidani. Once in a while a park bus would stop at Jambo first but there was no announcement that it would do so or when such would occur.

In October, and apparently only for a short period, the routes changed with Kidani and Jambo both having their own bus to MK. That was apparently an experiment that was put down and now what happens is that you officially have the MK bus doing the Kidani to Jambo route but they often (far more so than pre-Oct 2017) have separate buses to MK during the rush hours in the mornings and sometimes at other times of the day.

 

[gillep]

When we were there in January for the week surrounding the marathon, so a very busy time, we almost always had dedicated buses to and from MK, except for the very middle of the day when demand was lower. We have stayed at Jambo every year for a week in January and I cannot remember a time where we were unable to get on the first bus that came to Jambo and going to any of the parks, but we hardly ever get a seat, which is fine for us.

 

[applegirlrn]

Nope. Your friends must not have stayed at a deluxe resort before. AKL has the best bus transportation of all the Deluxe reosrts. It does not have monorail or boat, and is not walking distance to a park. Pop has the best bus transportation of all the resorts. AKL is second best overall of all resorts, and definately best of the Deluxe resorts. Are they comparing apples to apples? Or comparing it to completely different--like the boats, monorail, walking to a park, or driving themselves.
Did they dislike other aspects of their stay at AKL? It is a beautiful resort, very relaxing and special.
You could book Boardwalk, and walk to 2 parks. You can't beat that.

They have stayed at VWL and POR and I think that is what they were comparing it too. I am hoping that we get a DVC room at AKL for our next trip but we shall see.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

It's not "awful," but if you just miss a bus it might take awhile for another one to come. If you dislike the buses or can't tolerate waiting, then it may not be the right resort. The other thing to remember is that you need to allow plenty of time to get anywhere - I would say at least 45 minutes for a park and an hour to 90 minutes to go between resorts - on Disney transportation. There is always Uber/Lyft or Minnie vans if you want to pay for those, if you need to get somewhere faster.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Last time we stayed a KV, the bus to Epcot took about 13-15 minutes to get to the bus stop at Epcot.

 

[Mosescan]

Don't you get free parking at MK if you are a DVC owner? Wouldn't it just be easier to drive to the park? I'm a newbie who is just waiting for his first contract to get through ROFR and haven't been to the parks in 20 years so pardon my ignorance. I'm ok with driving myself but not sure if that would be slower in the long run as I'm sure the bus drops you off a lot closer.