I don’t know all the acronyms so this will be easy to read. A little background on our group my husband and I are in our late 60’s. son and dil are in their early 40’s. She was 7 months pregnant at trip time. Kids are 13, 12, & 10.
This was our second trip with same family but first one was 6 years ago. A totally different trip with “littles” versus tweens. Both trips we stayed in a 2 bedroom 3 bath villa. 1st trip at Wilderness Lodge, this trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge. This was a very good choice with older kids and early park closings. They really enjoyed watching the animals from our 3rd floor balcony. Note: depending on your room you can be MILES from the Lobby, BUT we found that we could take the closest elevator from our room to the lower level parking garage and not be too far from the bus stop. Only went to the lobby for free refill drinks and to pick up UBER eats deliveries, because there was only Sanaa Restaurant open which is pricey and not food for tweens. This was a HUGE drawback, not having a restaurant on site.
The pool was disappointing considering all the hype I had read. It was a pretty standard pool. The good news was there was hardly anyone staying at the Lodge. The Lobby and pool were a virtual ghost town. I think they might have only been open to DVC members and guests. We are neither, we bought points from a friend.
MASKS - I will not sugar coat…they were MISERABLE. Hot, sweaty, and don’t even go there in the rain! UGH! We carried several extras with us, but bottom line, they were NOT FUN!
SAFETY AND CLEANLINESS - We felt completely safe and the parks are always clean but they were over the top clean. Hand Sanitizer dispensers at every ride entrance and exit. Rides are shut down periodically for cleaning, which is irritating if you’re stuck in the queue and can’t get out. Mask police are everywhere, nicely reminding everyone to pull up their masks. The Social Distancing markers are AWESOME! It would be nice if they were permanent. You could actually enjoy standing in line without someone pushing you along or breathing down your neck We were a large group and could stand together and visit and enjoy the time together. Lots of plexi glass in the queue’s which was nicely done. Kept from rubbing shoulders with others in line.
PARKS - AK was Awesome! We went on Sunday and Saturday to take advantage of early morning openings and that was a great idea! We literally walked on FoP both mornings, then went straight to Navi River with no line and then to EE and rode 3x before lines created. Kali River Rapids was a flop, it was continually down for cleaning. Kilmanjaro Safaris was very well done, an excellent use of plexi glass. Very few indoor shows are playing in any of the parks, so we enjoyed “It’s Tough to be a Bug” Might not be something we would normally have done, but preggo DIL enjoyed a cool sit down. DEFINITELY NOT for littles, there were crying youngsters everywhere.
This is getting a little long, so I’ll post more about other parks and excellent dining WITHOUT a DP later.
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Thank you! 
Thanks for posting a trip report! When did you travel?
We traveled September 26 - October 3
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Thanks for posting!
My teen daughter was practically jumping into my lap for that one. It’s a great, big, absolute no from then on.
Sounds like you had a great time while there! Looking forward to more of your trip!
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