Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge is an African-themed deluxe resort at the Walt Disney World Resort

Walt Disney World Resort

Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...

. It opened on April 16, 2001. The resort is owned and operated by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...

.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge is located in the Animal Kingdom Resort Area, adjacent to Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom is an animal theme park located at the Walt Disney World Resort. The fourth park built at the resort, it opened on April 22, 1998, and it is the largest single Disney theme park in the world, covering more than . It is also the first Disney theme park to be themed entirely...

. It gives guests the opportunity to view grazing wildlife outside their rooms and public areas in the resort within proximity of the animals, conveying the feeling of being in an African savanna.

History

This hotel was designed by architect Peter Dominick, who also designed Disney's Wilderness Lodge

Disney's Wilderness Lodge

Disney's Wilderness Lodge is a resort hotel located at the Walt Disney World Resort. It opened on May 28, 1994. The resort is owned and operated by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts....

 and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is a AAA Four Diamond Hotel located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Added as part of a major expansion of the Disneyland Resort in 2001, it is the resort's flagship hotel and is the first and only hotel there to have been originally built and...

.

On October 11, 2006, Disney announced to local media that Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge would become home to the newest Disney Vacation Club

Disney Vacation Club

Disney Vacation Club is a vacation timeshare division owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying real estate interest in a DVC resort. Disney Vacation Club's President is Claire Bilby....

 property, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas. On February 18, 2008, Disney announced the first phase of this expansion was complete, and included 109 rooms. The first phase of Kidani Village opened on May 1, 2009. At that time, the main lodge building was renamed Jambo House. The second phase was expected to open autumn 2009.

A separate building named Kidani Village was built to the west of the lodge and houses more than 300 villas. The Sunset Savanna was extended to the new structure and more species of animals were introduced. When lodging in a villa, guests can now stay on the club level. A concierge lounge serves a number of floors. A new pool exclusive to villa residents was built. It is more spacious than the villa pool sizes, and features water slides and an aquatic playground.

Rooms

• Most rooms are available with either a king-size bed (available with daybed), two queen-size beds, or one queen-size bed and bunk beds (available with daybed).

• Disabled accessible rooms are available.

• Amenities including room service, irons, ironing boards, hairdryers, and make-up mirrors are available for each room. In-room coffee makers and refrigerators are also available.

• All Walt Disney World resorts are entirely non-smoking, made effective June 1, 2007.

Dining

• Jiko: The Cooking Place — Features African-style cooking
  Cuisine of Africa
  African cuisine is a generalized term collectively referring to the cuisines of Africa. The continent of Africa is the second largest landmass on Earth, and is home to hundreds of different cultural and ethnic groups...
  
   with influences from the Mediterranean coast
  Cuisine of the Mediterranean
  Mediterranean cuisine is the food from the cultures adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.Whether this is a useful category is disputed:The idea of the ‘standard Mediterranean’ .....
  
  , India
  Indian cuisine
  Indian cuisine consists of thousands of regional cuisines which date back thousands of years. The dishes of India are characterised by the extensive use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruit. Indian cuisine is also known for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society...
  
   and Europe
  European cuisine
  European cuisine, or alternatively Western cuisine, is a generalised term collectively referring to the cuisines of Europe and other Western countries...
  
  . Jiko also features South African vintage wines
  South African wine
  South African wine has a history dating back to 1659, and at one time Constantia was considered one of the greatest wines in the world. Access to international markets has unleashed a burst of new energy and new investment. Production is concentrated around Cape Town, with major vineyard and...
  
  . The restaurant was designed by designer Jeffrey Beers and emulates an African lodge with a color palette in earth tone
  Earth tone
  Earth tone is a color scheme that draws from a color palette of browns, tans, greys, greens, oranges, whites, and some reds. The colors in an earth tone scheme are muted and flat in an emulation of the natural colors found in soil, moss, trees and rocks. Many earth tones originate from clay earth...
  
  s. The dining room surrounds an open kitchen which includes twin wood-burning stoves. The private Cape Town Wine Room seats up to forty guests and showcases a collection of wine-based sculptures. Jiko means "a cooking place" in Swahili
  Swahili language
  Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
  
  , thus the restaurant's subtitle "The Cooking Place".

• Boma: Flavors of Africa — Features African-style cooking in a buffet setting. The selection features items from fifty different African countries. The restaurant was designed to resemble an open African marketplace. Food is prepared in view of diners in open cooking areas which allows for interaction between chefs, cooks, and patrons. Boma is a word in Swahili and several other African languages, meaning an enclosure
  Boma (enclosure)
  A boma is a livestock enclosure, a stockade or kind of fort, or a district government office. The term is used in many parts of eastern, central and southern Africa and is incorporated into many African languages as well as colonial varieties of English, French and German.As a livestock enclosure,...
  
  , such as a fort or a livestock pen.

• The Mara — Counter service restaurant serving American food.

• Sanaa — Located in Kidani Village, this restaurant specializes in African Cuisine with Indian flavors and overlooks the savannah. Sanaa means "works of art" in Swahili.

External links

• Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge official site