What's the difference between Kidani Village and Jambo House at AKV?

[DannyDisneyFreak]

This is a newbie question I guess but what is the difference between Kidani Village and Jambo House?

 

[erionm]

Jambo House is the original Animal Kingdom Lodge hotel. All of the DVC Rooms were converted from hotel rooms. The Values are converted Standard Hotel Rooms, the others are converted Deluxe Hotel Rooms. The DVC Rooms take up most of the 5th and all of the 6th floors. The 6th floor is the DVC portion of the Concierge Level rooms. All of the 2-bedrooms villas in Jambo House are lock-offs (1-bedroom & studio w/interior connecting door). Jambo House has both quick service and table service dining.

Kidani Village was built from the ground up as DVC Villas. The 1, 2 & 3 bedroom villas in Kidani Village have 1 more bathroom than those in Jambo House. Kidani Village only has table service dining which is open for lunch & dinner.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Jambo House is the original Animal Kingdom Lodge hotel. All of the DVC Rooms were converted from hotel rooms. The Values are converted Standard Hotel Rooms, the others are converted Deluxe Hotel Rooms. The DVC Rooms take up most of the 5th and all of the 6th floors. The 6th floor is the DVC portion of the Concierge Level rooms. All of the 2-bedrooms villas in Jambo House are lock-offs (1-bedroom & studio w/interior connecting door). Jambo House has both quick service and table service dining. Kidani Village was built from the ground up as DVC Villas. The 1, 2 & 3 bedroom villas in Kidani Village have 1 more bathroom than those in Jambo House. Kidani Village only has table service dining which is open for lunch & dinner.

Would you say the studios in Kidani are better? Are ones larger than the other?

 

[gdrj]

Would you say the studios in Kidani are better? Are ones larger than the other?

Kidani is larger. I would recommend reading the akv thread. Personally I like jambo better being in the main bls with the great lobby shops lounge and restaurants. Also it has the QS dining. Others will rave about Kidani and the pool that is closest to it for young kids.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Would you say the studios in Kidani are better? Are ones larger than the other?

The studios have a different layout in each building. Jambo has the setup with 2 sinks outside of the toilet/tub/shower room. Kidani has a larger bathroom with a single sink in with the tub/shower and inside of that is a separate toilet room. Overall between the two other than the difference in the bathrooms I don't feel a big size difference in the studios.

Jambo studio:

Kidani studio:

 

[bobbiwoz]

We prefer Jambo when we stay in studios at AKV, because we like having 2 sinks in the dressing area, and the convenience of being in the building with the Mara.

 

[Geomom]

We've now stayed in studios at both and we preferred Kidani. Jambo is busier. Kidani felt more laid back. Kidani has the community hall for crafts/games, etc. Both buildings have cultural activities. Kidani has the water play area, as well as a pool.

Jambo's store is much larger than Kidani's.

If you prefer a place with counter service--you'll likely prefer Jambo. We didn't need counter service. On our Kidani trip, we did order room service for dinner (rain sent us back to the hotel early one day) and breakfast one day. It comes from Sanaa, so it was Indian food--which made the room service menu a lot more interesting to us than just burgers/pizza.

 

[erionm]

Would you say the studios in Kidani are better? Are ones larger than the other?

There is only 1 sq foot difference in the size of the Studios (not including the Values which are smaller). The 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms in Kidani Village are larger than the ones in the same view categories in Jambo House.

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

OP-Sorry to jump on your question, but how hard is it to get to the pool from Jambo House to Kidani Village? Since staying DVC I assume that you can use both pools right?

 

[erionm]

OP-Sorry to jump on your question, but how hard is it to get to the pool from Jambo House to Kidani Village? Since staying DVC I assume that you can use both pools right?

It's one resort with two buildings. You can use all of the standard amenities in either building.

The walk between the main entrances is maybe 10 to 15 minutes. Bell Services also runs a van between both buildings. You can also hop on one of the Disney buses.

Theme Park buses run Kidani Village, Jambo House, Theme Park
Downtown Disney buses run Jambo House, Kidani Village, DTD.

 

[disBOBney]

Jambo House definitely has a better looking lobby, (however Kidani's is nice). And The main restaurant off the lobby has a wonderful breakfast buffet. I've only stayed in studios at both and Kidani's are larger. Also I like the savanna views better from Kidani as well as their fire pit and savanna walk. IMHO Jambo House is a nice place to visit and eat Sunday brunch, but I prefer to stay at Kidani.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Where are the best savanna views?

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Is there a difference between the dedicated studios and the lock-off studios or are the exactly the same?

 

[hakepb]

Where are the best savanna views?

Jambo has rooms on Sunset, Arusha and Uzima savannas
Kidani is mostly on Sunset with some rims on Pembe (Pembe does not have giraffe or zebra, but they do have the Okapi..beautiful creatures, but is prefer giraffe on a first stay.). All savannas have a different mix of animals...and more importantly care times (when all animals go back to the "barn") so it may depend on when you are in the room.

As mentioned, all DVC Jambo rooms are on the 5th floor. (Except 6th floor concierge) Cash guests pay a premium for Arusha savanna view rooms.
Kidani has DVC rooms on floors 2-5 so you may be closer to the animals, so some prefer that.

 

[LisaS]

Is there a difference between the dedicated studios and the lock-off studios or are the exactly the same?

Here is the floor plan for a Jambo Dedicated Studio that KAT4DISNEY posted above:

Dedicated studios have no connecting door. In Jambo House most of the dedicated studios (but not all of them) have a closet where the connecting door would be as shown in this floor plan. The closet may be in a different location in some of Jambo's dedicated studios and in others there is no closet. (The DVC villas in Jambo House were created by gutting existing hotel rooms and due to structural issues they had to contend with, not all villas are exactly the same.)

A lockoff studio has a connecting door to the 1BR next door. In Jambo's lockoff studios, that eliminates the option for a closet in most but not all cases. The connecting door will be either in the entryway or in the living area just past the kitchenette. If the door is in the living area, the bed and sofa bed positions are swapped -- the bed is next to the sliding door, the sofa bed is next to the bathroom wall to allow space around the connecting door.

My comments apply to Jambo House only. As far as I'm aware, Kidani does not have any dedicated studios and Kidani's lockoff studios all have closets and all have the connecting door in the same place.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

Here is the floor plan for a Jambo Dedicated Studio that KAT4DISNEY posted above: Dedicated studios have no connecting door. In Jambo House most of the dedicated studios (but not all of them) have a closet where the connecting door would be as shown in this floor plan. The closet may be in a different location in some of Jambo's dedicated studios and in others there is no closet. (The DVC villas in Jambo House were created by gutting existing hotel rooms and due to structural issues they had to contend with, not all villas are exactly the same.) A lockoff studio has a connecting door to the 1BR next door. In Jambo's lockoff studios, that eliminates the option for a closet in most but not all cases. The connecting door will be either in the entryway or in the living area just past the kitchenette. If the door is in the living area, the bed and sofa bed positions are swapped -- the bed is next to the sliding door, the sofa bed is next to the bathroom wall to allow space around the connecting door. My comments apply to Jambo House only. As far as I'm aware, Kidani does not have any dedicated studios and Kidani's lockoff studios all have closets and all have the connecting door in the same place.

Lisa so what would you say the ratio is for studios with closets and studios without at Jambo? Not that it's a huge deal, but would like the extra storage space that a closet had to offer. We are in a deluxe standard studio next month and am already having anxiety about where we are going to fit everything for a week and a half.

 

[LisaS]

Lisa so what would you say the ratio is for studios with closets and studios without at Jambo? Not that it's a huge deal, but would like the extra storage space that a closet had to offer. We are in a deluxe standard studio next month and am already having anxiety about where we are going to fit everything for a week and a half.

You will have an armoire in the room whether you have a closet or not. Unfortunately only half of the armoire is usable for hanging up clothes since the other side is used to store the vacuum cleaner, ironing board, etc. Even in those studios where there is a little closet and the vacuum and ironing board are stored there rather than in the armoire, they did not put a clothes bar or shelves or anything useful in the other side of the armoire, they just left it empty.

I don't know the ratio of studios with/without closets off the top of my head. I have copies of the floor plans for all of the villas in Jambo House and some trip reports re: closets/no closets (very helpful since the floor plans are not 100% accurate) so in theory I could come up with some numbers if I get a chunk of time to dig through the data.

Here is a (large, sorry!) photo of a Jambo House armoire:

 

[LisaS]

I found some data that I pulled together last fall about which Jambo House studios have a closet. I'm not sure how accurate this is. It's based on floor plans and those are not 100% accurate. Based on the floor plans, there are no Standard studios in Jambo House that have a closet.** As mentioned above, all Jambo House studios have an armoire but only a small number of studios also have a small closet.

** ETA: This information is based on those studios that were originally classified as Standard View. A few years ago they reclassified some Savanna View studios as Standard View so it is possible that there are some reclassified Standard View studios with closets.

Jambo House Studios that have a closet:
[U]Room[/U]  [U]L/D[/U]        [U]Category[/U]   [U]Trail[/U]    [U]View[/U]
5012  Lockoff	 Value      Giraffe  Pool
5018  Dedicated	 Value      Giraffe  Pool
5122  Dedicated	 Value      Ostrich  Sunset
5124  Dedicated	 Value      Ostrich  Sunset
5210  Dedicated	 Sav View   Kudu     Sunset
5321  Lockoff	 Sav View   Kudu     Arusha
5383  Dedicated	 Sav View   Kudu     Arusha
5429  Lockoff	 Sav View   Zebra    Arusha
5435  Dedicated	 Sav View   Zebra    Arusha
5437  Dedicated	 Sav View   Zebra    Arusha
5531  Dedicated	 Sav View   Zebra    Arusha
5553  Dedicated	 Sav View   Zebra    Uzima
6201  Lockoff	 Concierge  Lobby    Sunset
6206  Lockoff	 Concierge  Lobby    Sunset

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

I found some data that I pulled together last fall about which Jambo House studios have a closet. I'm not sure how accurate this is but it looks like there are no Standard studios with a closet in Jambo House. Jambo House Studios that have a closet: Room L/D Category Trail View 5012 Lockoff Value Giraffe Pool 5018 Dedicated Value Giraffe Pool 5122 Dedicated Value Ostrich Sunset 5124 Dedicated Value Ostrich Sunset 5210 Dedicated Sav View Kudu Sunset 5321 Lockoff Sav View Kudu Arusha 5383 Dedicated Sav View Kudu Arusha 5429 Lockoff Sav View Zebra Arusha 5435 Dedicated Sav View Zebra Arusha 5437 Dedicated Sav View Zebra Arusha 5531 Dedicated Sav View Zebra Arusha 5553 Dedicated Sav View Zebra Uzima 6201 Lockoff Concierge Lobby Sunset 6206 Lockoff Concierge Lobby Sunset

Lisa thank you so much for the info! Ahhhh one way or another, we'll work with the space we have!

 

[LisaS]

Lisa thank you so much for the info! Ahhhh one way or another, we'll work with the space we have!

I just checked my list of reclassified rooms to see if any rooms reclassified from Savanna View to Standard View have a closet and there are none.

My only stay in a Jambo House studio was in a room with no closet and only the half armoire for hanging space. Fortunately for me, DH wasn't that bothered hanging anything up so I had that space to myself. The dresser in the Jambo studios is very cute but the drawers are quite small. The only large drawer is the one in the storage bench. Storage space was tight for the two of us but we managed. It is my one gripe about AKV -- not enough storage space!