Disney Planning update: Animal Kingdom Lodge Pool Reimagining

I got a dreaded email from my travel agent this time last week. It stated:

In an effort to continually enhance the Guest experience here at the Walt Disney World Resort, we often refresh our offerings and atmosphere. In preparation for your upcoming visit, we wanted to make you aware that the Resort will be reimagining the Uzima Springs Pool and the Uzima Springs Pool Bar during your stay.

While we work our magic, it is possible that you may see or hear our work in progress, but noise will not be heard from your Guest room between dusk and 9:00am. Please rest assured that we are making every effort to ensure that there is minimal impact to your stay and as a result we are delighted to invite you to make a splash at the nearby Samawati Springs Pool and Maji Pool Bar in the Kidani Village area of the Resort.

The team at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge & Villas are making access to the Samawati Springs pool more convenient than ever. Whilst Kidani Village is only a short walk a few minutes away from Jambo House, the Resort are also providing complimentary short shuttle transportation between the two locations to ensure that you can make full use of features like the 128-foot waterslide and water playground Uwanja Camp for our younger guests.

We’re going for 2 weeks and we were factoring in pool days into our plans. one of the reasons i booked Animal Kingdom lodge over Coronado Springs Resort was how beautiful the resort was with the big pool. The thoughts of only one pool, half the size of the main pool, to serve the whole resort just doesn’t appeal to me. We also booked a pool view room which now appears to be a construction view room. I’ve been following other peoples reactions to this on theDibb and the initial response from Disney wasn’t great. I contacted TravelPlanners.co.uk who we booked our trip with to see what our options were.

We were offered a room in Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge or a move to Boardwalk Inn but having to pay extra. After a bit of thought, and having previously stayed at the Beach Club,  we decided on Boardwalk Inn as i loved the location and we wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise. Since accepting the move with the additional cost i have read on theDibb that other people were offered the resort change for free. I’ll be following up with TravelPlanners and I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!