Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge

Disney opened Animal Kingdom Lodge on 16 April 2001, near its Animal Kingdom park, as a Deluxe resort styled on an African game lodge. Peter Dominick drew it as a horseshoe inspired, Disney says, by the African kraal, its wings curving round the Arusha Savanna, with the Sunset and Uzima savannas beyond. He gave it a thatch-roofed lobby with a mud fireplace and a stream running through it. Its walls hold what Disney calls one of the largest collections of African art in the United States. It shares pools, restaurants and grounds with Disney's villas, in the same building and at Kidani Village, a short walk away.

The hotel sells two queen beds or a king in three views: Resort View, which Disney describes as rooftops or the car park, Water View over the pool, and Savanna View. Each has a beverage cooler, a coffee and tea station and a patio or balcony, and the queen rooms sleep four plus a child under three. Club Level adds the Kilimanjaro Club's continental breakfast, snacks and evening drinks, and the suites rise to the Royal Asante Presidential Suite over the Arusha Savanna. The rooms were redone in 2018 and 2019 with wood-look floors, lit African-style headboards and, in most, a walk-in shower.

The reason to book is outside the balcony. Disney keeps more than 200 hoofed animals and birds on 43 acres of savanna, over 30 species, among them giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, kudu, gazelles, ostriches and flamingos, and every Savanna View room looks onto one of the three savannas round the hotel, each with its own mix of animals. The pool bar and the Hakuna Matata playground look over them too, but Disney sells them from the balcony only with the Savanna View rooms. After dark the Starlight Safari drives guests aged 8 and over across the savannas in an open-sided vehicle with night-vision devices, and Jiko, the lodge's Signature restaurant, cooks in twin wood-burning ovens and pours South African wines.

The trade is the commute and the price of the view. Disney's only free transport to the parks is the bus, and Magic Kingdom's car park is an 18-minute drive with the roads clear, before the monorail or ferry across. On an early-February Tuesday the Savanna View costs $740 a night before tax against $527 for the Resort View, and Disney's room and public-area works run into early 2027. There is no resort fee, overnight self-parking is free, and Early Theme Park Entry every day and Extended Evening Hours on select nights come with the stay. Book it for children who count animals before rides, or a couple who want a themed base with Jiko downstairs, and book the savanna.