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(For the first page of this review of Kidani Village, see this.)

 THE THEMING AND ART OF KIDANI VILLAGE

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas are described on Walt Disney World’s Disney Vacation Club website as a place where you can

“immerse yourself in the wonders of the wild, surrounded by colorful creatures … Delight in African-inspired details while you relax in accommodations that capture the adventurous atmosphere of the wild. Feel at home in this village alive with the spirit of the savanna.”

The two Disney Vacation Club areas here–Kidani Village and Jambo House Villas–share resources with Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

The original Animal Kingdom Lodge opened in April, 2001, as the most unique resort hotel at Walt Disney World, and one of the more unique in the world.

This distinction came partly from its stunning lobby, partly from its glorious African art and theming, but mostly from the fact that more than half of the rooms overlook “savannas” filled with wild animals.

Sipping your morning coffee on your balcony with a giraffe 50 feet away needs to be experienced to be believed…

The original Animal Kingdom Lodge also included two table service restaurants, a quick-service dining area, a pool and an exercise area.

In 2008, Disney completed converting some of the Animal Kingdom Lodge’s rooms into Disney Vacation Club rooms, and in 2009 it opened Kidani Village, a separate Disney Vacation Club building with its own lobby and check in area.

Kidani Village also has its own pool, workout area, and adds a third sit-down restaurant to the complex, Sanaa.

When Disney World opened Kidani Village, it renamed the original Animal Kingdom Lodge as Jambo House, to limit–or perhaps simply re-nominalize–confusion between it, its check-in area, and its DVC rooms, and those at Kidani Village.

Among the DVC resorts, Kidani Village’s strengths for first time visitors are its views of animals–especially if you reserve a savanna-view room–its spacious and very livable One and Two Bedroom Villa floor plans, and the fact the One Bedroom Villas can sleep 5 and Two-Bedroom Villas can sleep 9.

Kidani Village’s restaurant, Sanaa–with an Indian-influenced African menu–is also delightful for adults, but has limited options for kids.

But also a delight is the art of Kidan, in both its private and public spaces.

The rooms combine carved adventurous-looking furniture and fixtures with great textures in the floors and curtains, plus fun art.

More art on the doors.

Outside the rooms there’s not as much scope as at Jambo House for public art, but I still find the light fixtures charming–the ones at the top of the page, these…

…these.

There’s also original art here and there–not as much as in Jambo, but still fun.

Kidani’s principal negatives are its distance from Walt Disney World theme parks other than the Animal Kingdom, its distance from quick-service meal options at Jambo House, and the lack of drama of its lobby compared to that of Jambo House.

Returning visitors will likely find Kidani Village to be a favorite. Its spaciousness is a delight, it is quieter and more serene than Jambo House, and then there’s those animals!!

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, see this.)

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

There are five pools at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa.

• Two pools–at the Treehouses and Congress Park–have little to recommend them other than convenience to nearby accommodations.
• Two pools–the High Rock Spring main pool and the Paddock pool–are worth the walk from nearly anywhere in the sprawling resort
• The last pool–the Grandstand pool–is in between. It offers more than the first two but less than last two.  For most guests near enough to consider it, it’s not that much more of a walk to the better High Rock Spring pool.

THE TREEHOUSE POOL

The Treehouse Villas are in a separate and distant part of Saratoga Springs, literally “off the map.” The pool here is very near their closest connection to the rest of Saratoga Springs. See the red circle on the far left of the map.

The pool is tiny–but appropriately sized, as there are only 60 Treehouse Villas. It includes a hot tub, but makes sense only for those looking for the quietest of quiet pools, as the better Grandstand pool is just a few minutes away, and the even better High Rock Spring pool just a few minutes more beyond that.

THE CONGRESS PARK POOL

Like the Treehouse pool there’s not much on offer at the Congress Park pool other than a hot tub. Its virtue is simply that it’s convenient to these otherwise distant rooms. It’s the red circle at the bottom right.

THE GRANDSTAND POOL

The Grandstand Pool is in the middle of Saratoga Springs pool offerings. On the map, it’s the circle just a bit left of center.

To the pool and hot tub it adds a kids play area…

…refillable mug station…

…and an often-closed bar, which offer some cold sandwiches when it is open (click the image to enlarge it).

The main High Rock Spring pool is just a bit away, and has many more amenities.

THE HIGH ROCK SPRING POOL

The High Rock Spring pool is in the center of the resort between the Carriage House and the Springs area.

The main pool at Saratoga Springs, it include two hot tubs, a couple of water slides–including a teeny one for little kids–and a fairly weak bar supplemented by the ability to call for food.

A couple of views that include the teeny slide.

The larger slide comes out of this spring-fed waterfall…

…curving inside of it.

There’s also a kids water play area…

…and a zero-entry to the pool.

The bar here has a refillable mug station, but no real food.

You can, however, order food to be delivered poolside (click the image to enlarge the menu).

THE PADDOCK POOL

The Paddock pool is in the circle at the upper right of the map.

It’s the best second-best pool at Disney World, and on some dimensions–e.g. the quality of its food service and bar–is better than the High Rock Spring pool.

Frankly, there’s no reason for anyone to walk past it to the main High Rock Spring pool…

Here’s the bar, the Paddock Grill…

…and its menu. Click it to enlarge it.

There’s two big water slides here, pool games, this kids play area…

…and a hot tub. All in the Paddock pool has everything you’d typically find at a Disney World main pool, and better food service!

So that’s what you have a Saratoga Springs–two fine pools, one OK pool, and two pools that offer little but are near to some of the more distant rooms.
 

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, see this.)

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

Saratoga Springs is one of thee “stand-alone” Disney Vacation Club resorts (Disney’s Riviera Resort and Old Key West are the others), meaning that it’s not paired with a deluxe resort and its associated services and amenities.

Rather it offers its own such, and, with the exception of dining–and how far you have to walk to get to some of them from some of its rooms–amenities at Saratoga Springs are comparable to what you’ll find at the Disney World deluxe resorts.

Most amenities are in the center of the resort, in the Carriage House/Springs area.

In the Carriage House you check in and find concierge help with tickets, dining and such.

As at the other Disney resorts, there’s a cute area to park fidgety kids while you complete such business. (The photo is from a December visit.  You won’t find the Christmas decorations most of the rest of the year!)

Further in this building is this comfortable room…

…and beyond it the combined gift shop and quick service dining service area. (More on dining at Saratoga Springs is here.)

The gift shop has lots of food.

Lots.  There’s more than 800 full kitchens at Saratoga Springs, and another 400+ kitchenettes.  So it makes sense that the food offering in the shops would be extensive…and the other dining here a little slim.

Downstairs you’ll find the pro shop for the Lake Buena Vista golf course.

More shopping is available in the Pro Shop.

Some of the fairways wind through Saratoga Springs.

In this area is also the boat to Disney Springs.

Other Disney World areas are served by bus, and there’s bus stops all over the place–five in the main resort, and two more at the Treehouses. (The Treehouse stops don’t take you to the parks–they just take you to the rest of Saratoga Springs.)

Also in this area, but closer to the main pool, is the famous Senses spa.

Most of the dining options at Saratoga Springs are also nearby.

DINING AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

This review continues here!

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The Disney community continues to show love to The Easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit.

Carl Trent, of Dad’s Guide to Walt Disney World, has a great, detailed review here, and Kathy Kelly of the Special Mouse podcast just posted a discussion with me about The easy Guide, about crafting it with Josh, and other fascinating topics, mostly about me,  here.

Reviews on Amazon continue to be strong–I believe that we are the best-reviewed Walt Disney World Guidebook in history.  We have 57 reviews as of today, and 55 give us five stars. Click the link for the most recent, from Kristen!

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, see this.)

THE BATH AND MASTER BEDROOM OF ONE AND TWO BEDROOM VILLAS AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT

Note: most spaces at Saratoga Springs have completed a refurb. The material below is about not-yet-refurbed spaces. For floor plans and some thoughts on refurbed One and Two Bedroom Villas at Saratoga Springs, see this.

One and Two Bedroom Villas have the same master bedroom, bath, and living/dining/kitchen spaces. Two bedroom villas add either a connecting studio–shown in the plan–or a dedicated second bedroom that is similar to a studio but has two queens, no sofa, no minikitchen, and an extra closet.

The bath in the master/king bedroom area comes at the end of a short hall from the entryway.

On the way is the washer-dryer.

The bath is divided into two parts.  One part, accessible from both the rest of the space and the master bedroom, has a toilet, sink and shower…

…with the toilet in a separate space.

The second part of the bath is accessible both from this space and directly from the master bedroom.

It includes a whirlpool tub, sink…

…and closet.

The master bedroom can be entered through the bath or directly from the hall.

On one side there’s a king bed and desk.

Here’s the bed side from another corner…

…and a closer view of lovely carving on the headboard.

A bedside table on the bath side of the bed adds storage capacity.

On the other side of the bed is the desk.

The other side of the room has an easy chair, TV/dresser combo, and storage bench.

This side from the back.

Here’s a closer view of the storage bench, open…

…and of storage in the dresser/TV thingy.

Decoration in  the master bedroom is light, but I do like this image of steamboats on the Hudson.

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT AND SPA

This review continues here!

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Josh and I did an interview with Matthew Peddie, News Manager for WMFE, Orlando’s National Public Radio affiliate, at the end of June which (after the couple of weeks it took to edit out my clumsier expressions) was broadcast this morning.

The main topic of course was The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, but we also talked more broadly about Disney, Universal, and Anna and Elsa!  Check it out.

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