Been quoted £220 more for a standard room (savannah view is over £1000 more so not an option sadly)
we had the same dilemna
we're booked at OKW next october and DW and I talked a lot about the other Deluxes, not only AKL
Our conclusion was that AKL's main appeal was with the savannahs.
We brushed away the "AKL is remote, it's takes forever to go anywhere" issue, as it's not really an issue at all.
I may be a bit spoiled, but I'd rather pay extra for a view at a moderate, than paying the same amount for a parking/roof/AC-unit view at a deluxe
(actually, we even considered downgrading to POR preferred for £400 more than OKW due to the upgrade form QSDP to
DDP at POR ... that's how important location and convinience is to us, but we decided to give OKW a try)
Of course, I could still go see the animals on the savannah, enjoy the lobby, but I could also do that on a visit, staying at another hotel.
so my bottomline (for my own booking) was that it was not worth paying more to get a random view, when basically all OKW units have a quite decent view.
We've liked AKL when we have visited and like the dining options there.
That was also one point we spent lots of time talking about
we might not have a car, and The Mara at AKL offers much more than Goods to Go, and there is an indoor seating area (ok it doesn't rain much in october, but ... it doesn't hurt to have a fallback plan)
Having Sanaa onsite is very appealling, Boma not that much, but even if I don't mean offense to Olivia's we much prefer AKL's restaurants.
but, I already consider POR to be our "food court" if you will.
OKW is so close that it's a short ride.
boat to DTD also opens perspectives.
So we deemed the restaurant issue to be a non issue.
(once again remember that it's from my family's standpoint, I'm not stating definitive answers here, ymmv)
I know rooms are smaller but we've been ok in a smaller value room.
same here. We're quite happy with rooms at POP, and we did well with a room at POR with the trundle bed deployed (it served as a suitcase stand for the whole 21 days)
once again that was not an issue for us.
Anyone stayed in a standard room at AKL?
I stayed (alone) a few years ago at AKL for 2 nights, standard room.
What made the big difference was that a parking view just does not do for me at such an hotel.
How is the pool - it looks lovely but worried we may be a long walk to it - like convenience of popping to turtle pond pool at OKW.
the best point about OKW is the number of pools. 2 main pools at HH and TP, and the other quiet pools.
you can never be too far away from a pool no matter which building you're at.
at AKL you can get something like 400 or 500 yards from the room to the pool.
It may not sound like too much, but it's basically indoors.
I much prefer hotels like POP, POR, or OKW with small buildings, where you can walk, outside, from the pool back to the room. It kind of feel akward to walk down a looooong hallway when all I can think of is take a shower and change.
Other than that, the pool is nice. But I preferred POR's feature pool.
It's nice, but not enough to swing me from OKW to AKL
what would swing me, would be to get a savannah view for a couple of hundred quids more than my current booking.
But I also know that I got 35% off OKW and that's never going to happen.
If I can't get to view animals from my balcony, I'm sticking with OKW
hope this helps, but I think you've already followed most of the thinking process in my post.