Hotel Reviews

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House 2-Bedroom Villa Review

Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House is a Walt Disney World deluxe resort inspired by Asian and African culture, as well as its theme park namesake. Jambo House, as opposed to Kidani Village, is the section of Animal Kingdom Lodge with the main lobby and a few more amentires. This review will take a detailed look at the hotel’s 2-bedroom villa specifically, including our thoughts and photos of the room.

Since I’ve already reviewed Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House as a whole, I’m not going to dive deep into the hotel today. Check out our full review of the hotel here. In short, we love Animal Kingdom Lodge and recommend it. The location isn’t great, unless you’re focusing on Animal Kingdom, but the hotel is unique, beautiful and has great amenities.

Downstairs AKL

We ended up in a 2-bedroom villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House during our June trip with my family. There were 7 adults and 1 kid in our party and we ended up using DVC points to get our room. The room was a 2-bedroom lock-off meaning that this is a studio room joined with a 1-bedroom villa. This worked out well for us since it gave the room 2 entrances.

The room’s square footage is roughly 1,075 feet which is just below average compared to the other Walt Disney World resorts. Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village ups the square footage to 1,150 feet while Old Key West easily has the largest at 1,395 feet. If you need lots of space then this may be something to keep in mind. That said, most of these resorts hold the same amount of people and Jambo House uses its space well.

One of Animal Kingdom’s top selling points is the view of animals right outside of the balcony. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for every single room and we ended up with a view of the pool. This wasn’t much of a downgrade since there are viewing spots throughout the entire resort. Still, if the view is important to you then check out some room views ahead of time and make a request online during early check-in.

Moving on to the room, here’s a look at the studio portion.

AKL full Room

The couch is a pull-out and comfortable enough while the bed is one of the more comfortable we’ve encountered at WDW. Even from that photo above, you can start to see the level of decor in the room. There’s no lack of character here and that went on throughout the entire room. The lamps, artwork, pillows and bed runner all add detail and color.

AKL TV table

The same goes with the closet, dresser and table. I love the textured features throughout the room, it’s above and beyond what most Disney World (or any other) hotels offer.

AKL Bathroom 2-bedroom

That attention to detail extends to the bathroom with the textured mirror and stripe of color in the shower. This portion of the room had the sinks outside of the bathroom which I always prefer. There’s a small kitchenette near the entrance to the room but a much bigger one next door.

AKL 2-bedroom living room

Moving next door is the living room and kitchen. The kitchen included a fridge, stove and oven, dishwasher and other standard appliances. There are some small animal etchings to give it some character, otherwise it’s a pretty basic area.

On the other hand, I loved the decor in the living room. As you see in the photo above, the table and bench are a focal point. Extending the architecture style we see in the lobby into the room with pieces like the bench is a nice thematic choice. I really like the hanging lamps and painted plates by the table as well. The couch is another pull-out and the chair turns into a twin size bed. The room felt spacious and was a great place to sit and relax at the end of the night.

AKL 2-bedroom hallway

There’s plenty of closet space throughout the room and you can see this cool peacock painting on the left. While many of Disney World’s rooms have moved to a more generic design, this room feels like it’s designed by Joe Rohde himself.

An interesting change to this room is that the master bedroom doesn’t have a bathroom directly connected to it. I assume that is because of the lock-off design. In the photo above, the bathroom is on the right and the master bedroom on the left.

AKL master bathroom 2-bedroom

Here’s a look at the bathroom, which is quite spacious. The toilet is in that door you see in the photo above. I’m not going to include a photo of that toilet because no one wants that. The shower/bath and sink were in the same room.

AKL bathtub 2-bedroom

Once again, some nice detail in the shower. I appreciate the subtle nods to Disney without hitting us over the head with them.

AKL Master bedroom 2-bedroom

The master bedroom is similar to the studio portion of the room, just smaller. Much of the furniture is the same. Simba and Nala on the headboard is great. There is less artwork in the room but it’s still a nice space.

While I wouldn’t book a hotel simply based on how much character the room has, Animal Kingdom Lodge definitely earns points for it. The 2-bedroom villa was our favorite room that we’ve stayed in at Disney World.

AKL lobby night

As far as prices go, Animal Kingdom Lodge’s 2-bedroom villa is one of the cheaper options for large parties at Disney World. That only goes for on-site hotels as they’re all expensive. Depending on the time of year, the room can be found for between $600-$700 a night. Saratoga Springs and Old Key West can be found for less but Animal Kingdom Lodge comes after that. Instead of booking through Disney, I’d recommend looking into renting DVC points from a number of sites for the cheapest price possible.

Considering the room and excellent experience at Animal Kingdom Lodge, I’d recommend staying there with a large group. Of course, there are cheaper places to stay and splitting the group up into rooms may end up being more cost effective. But if you want to stay all together and on-site then the 2-bedroom villa at Jambo House is a fantastic choice.

Giraffe AKL

Overall Rating – 9.5/10

Have you stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge? Let us know your thoughts or questions below in the comments! Planning a trip to Walt Disney World? Check out our planning guide for help! If you enjoy what you’re reading here on Wandering in Disney, please subscribe to the blog and like our social media pages. You can do both of those things on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!

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