a new community is emerging from the wonders of the wild
it's something that we have never done before something we'll never do again
you're totally immersed and you forget about the outside world
a land where each sunrise brings new adventures
you can't go anywhere else on the planet and find a resort like this
a village alive with the spirit of the savannah
carabooni welcome
this is the story of disney's animal kingdom villas
come with us now as we discover a new disney vacation club
experience just over the horizon we're creating disney's animal kingdom
villas because our guests and members are constantly
asking for a different resort experience they want us to constantly take it up a
notch and give them something that they can't get anywhere
else and we really think that we absolutely nailed it with disney's
animal kingdom villas when i heard that disney's animal
kingdom lodge was going to become part of disney vacation club it was really a
thrilling day i was excited to know that we're finally
going to become part of the vacation club family
you have to realize that this resort already already here is
quite fantastic and so when you start to think about that you look at the land
surrounding this resort and start to think about where can the new resort go
you know how can you complement the existing structure how is it going to
build in and really just continue to add on to the experience
probably with this resort alone we've put together over
20 different sites before we ended up with the
plan that we're actually going to construct the resort's first vacation
homes were open at jambo house the name of the existing building of
disney's animal kingdom lodge select guest rooms will be converted
into new disney vacation club vacation homes
to create disney's animal kingdom villas with studio one two
and three bedroom accommodations planned later disney vacation club is planning
to construct kidani village an exciting addition to
disney's animal kingdom lodge by bringing vacation homes to disney's
animal kingdom lodge the village will create a new disney
vacation club experience well all the growth in disney vacation
club to me is is just a sign of what a good idea it is
well you know bad ideas don't grow good ones do
and this is really a good one to build disney's animal kingdom villas
disney vacation club turned to the creative minds at walt disney
imagineering imagineering first and foremost is a
storyteller and what we do is we we take a story and bring it to life
through physical facilities through the functionality of a given
resort and through those designs through a themed environment
to provide an immersive experience for the guests to enjoy something that
they're not going to find at home imagineering was well prepared to create
the new resort to build jambo house at disney's animal
kingdom lodge they traveled around the world we sent a
large team of project members to africa included
imagineers and some of the consultants and other team members
when they were there they took a lot of photographs met with a lot of people
cultural representatives even chefs to understand
what happens in africa so that we could take a piece of that and bring it home
with us
as guests arrive the spirit of africa is brought to life throughout the lobby
of the existing jumbo house the building where disney
vacation club is scheduled to open the first phase of vacation homes in
fall 2007. it's amazing just to sit back and watch
the guests for the first time enter the space and
really see and appreciate what we've done we kind of coined a phrase
early on we called it the eyes up jaws down reaction because that's exactly
what we would see from every guest when they would walk in they would look
up and their jaws would drop down every time as you walk in it just
continues to grow and the excitement just kind of builds as
you walk through the lobby just seeing the large glass that looks out into the
open savannah and seeing the animals run out free in the savannah just
outside the lobby
the hotel and now the villas which are going to be added to it
i really are a unique experience i think because they really are out there
in the savannah with a lot of the animals
there they are in the morning when you get up and there they are in the evening
when you're sitting around relaxing after a day at
the park with both public spaces and vacation
homes overlooking the savannas the resort
gives disney vacation club members and guests
the chance to stay among truly magnificent creatures
one of my favorite stories of seeing guests
interact with the animals is we were out in the savannah driving around first
thing in the morning there was a cool mist in the air
and everything was nice and quiet and up on the top balcony i heard
at the top of his lungs a little boy scream
giraffe mom giraffe and then you start seeing the lights
flip on and everybody starts stepping out onto their balcony so seeing that
little boy going crazy up on the top floor
first thing in the morning was a great experience i know that that was the
first time that that child got to see a giraffe in person
and he was excited so that made me excited the surprise
of seeing these beautiful animals up close
helps create memories that families cherish for
years and years i think my youngest son at the time
was about three years old when he's about 10 now
we actually had him here and it was the first morning that we got up
and he looked outside the window and he saw the
animals on the savannah and just to see the smile
on his face you know that's that's special that's priceless for a parent
at the resort guests also have the chance to see
african species like the bongo antelope and the red river hog in an uncommon
setting the red river hogs is something that
we're very proud of not many zoos have red river hogs and for us to
be able to house them in multi-species exhibits and in large
acreage where they can interact with the other
animals and interact with each other is a really neat thing the animals
really are the resort experience that's the unique
thing about animal kingdom and in the hotel and all
the rest you're the guest the animals are at home
there and you're sort of in their house and
that is i believe is a unique experience
anywhere seeing a savannah in central florida
is unique in its own way and the animals help to create the effect it's very
difficult to create an african savannah out of a florida landscape
however what we try to do is give the guests what their expectations are
if anyone thinks of africa you think of those large trees with the flat bottoms
and the kind of mushroom or cloud top well fortunately our giraffes help us
with that as they eat the bottom of the trees for us to provide
that same look for us
to add to the vacation homes and recreation options
already existing at jambo house the new kadani village
will bring additional villa accommodations and amenities to explore
when construction is scheduled for completion in summer 2009
we've already just started construction on the conversion and that is
here in the existing resort of disney's animal kingdom lodge
we're going to be converting some of the existing rooms and kind of expanding
them and making them into our vacation club villas
and then we'll continue forward with building of kadani village which is the
really larger section of the new disney
vacation uh club villas kidani village disney vacation club's
new construction has special inspiration behind its
design the shape of the building is in the
shape of the horns of the cape buffalo native of africa you can see that in the
layout that the center portion is like the cap of
the the horns where it meets the head of the
the buffalo and then the horns as they radiate out
the word kadani means necklace in swahili
and imagineers are designing kadani village to carry out this idea
the inspiration for that came from when we went down to africa for our research
and noticed these beautiful necklaces that the traditional africans wore
with the large clunky beads with a small knot if you look at the floor plan
of the resort you'll see the same shape with the
accommodations forming the beads and then the bridges forming the knots
guests staying at the new kadani village will find
an entire range of amenities to explore while still being able to enjoy all the
jambo house has to offer we're gonna add a new themed restaurant
which is going to be very exciting more sports and recreation facilities
we're going to leverage a lot of the existing amenities
but we're going to add to it and that's something that you really have to do
because we're expanding this in a significant way
one of the most intriguing additions is uwanja camp
a new recreation area where guests of all ages
can play and refresh in our new water play area we're going to have our
traditional pool 5 000 square feet of pool space
heavily themed with plants and architecture but in a play area you're
going to have water pop fountains and interactive
water features that'll be great for kids from toddlers
all the way up to teenagers after a day of exploration
guests will retire to superb new vacation homes
each blending the comforts of home with the spirit
of the savannah in our guest rooms everything
from the furniture to the surface materials to the finishes
everything about it is going to be reminiscent of africa if not
truly authentic to africa the art on the walls the entire room experience will
definitely be a fantastic african experience
the whole sense of it is very very reminiscent of what you might find if
you go over there sort of all distilled into one place
when a guest walks in we're hoping that they can feel like they're walking
into an african savannah all of the design
all of the carvings all of the patterns are custom and it's authentic
from africa
what we did for the living room area as well as a kitchen
is treat that that area as the foundation of african design so it's all
earth tones and the color actually comes in in the
accents and the artwork we have telephone wire baskets
brightly colored telephone wire baskets over the bank head
we have unique contemporary artwork over the sofa
the new villas at both jambo house and at kidani village
would include familiar disney vacation club features
but they'll also have something new for members
all vacation homes will include flat panel tvs
and one bedrooms at kidani village will be designed with
larger families in mind you'll actually be able to sleep five
to accommodate five folks in a one bedroom unit which is something that
we've heard from from our members that is something they really were very
interested in at kadani village a brand new savannah is also being added
with plans calling for animals not currently seen at disney's animal
kingdom lodge our disney vacation club members are
going to have something some bragging rights when they go home to say hey i
was out on our own savannah looking at these unique animals
that have been placed there just for us and uh i think that's something that
you know is is well above most places
the animals do an awful lot to enhance the experience for the guests but they
do some other things as well they're a great opportunity to
to develop awareness and understanding about africa
about its wildlife as well as its people and culture
the resort experience is enhanced by cultural representatives from
africa who share stories of their homelands
well we go to africa once a year and we do a recruiting trip all throughout a
variety of countries we've been to south africa namibia botswana swaziland kenya
zambia and we bring cultural representatives
back here who are extremely passionate about sharing their culture with
americans and any other international guests that come
here to walt disney world
one of the most popular activities we have at the resort is our african
storytelling which usually happens right at the fire
pit at sundown and the cultural representative will
come out and talk a little bit about the importance of african folk tales and
storytelling in their culture and then they'll tell at least one or
sometimes a few different african fables and try and get the kids
involved and get them to figure out the moral of the story to enhance the resort
experience walt disney imagineers also placed
african antiques and artwork throughout the resort the art collection
at the animal kingdom lodge and one being developed for the villas
is one of the best kept secrets i think here at this resort
what a lot of people don't realize as they walk by is that we have
one of the most extensive authentic african art collections in all of north
america the imagineers worked with other team members and actually went to africa
to acquire the artwork that you see today including the beaded elements the
sculptural elements and the fabric the highlight of
the collection is the jolie mask which is a one-of-a-kind mask
that is danced every century there's only one of its kind
located outside of africa and we're proud owners of it one of the
interesting aspects of our art collection
are the bronze medallions that line the center of the lobby floor
very well known artist in africa was commissioned to put these pieces
together for us and if you look really close on one of
the medallions there's a little hidden lizard which is the symbol or the emblem
of the artist who does that work and anytime he does piece of work you'll
find his little gecko hidden somewhere in there to
remain authentic to africa imagineers also carefully chose the
names of the resort and its amenities for the naming of
disney's animal kingdom villas we went and used african names for
example kadani village translates to necklace additionally maji
which is the pool bar represents water samawati springs which
is the pool itself is azure and sauna which will be the name for the
restaurant is artwork
disney vacation club members and guests can experience
disney's animal kingdom villas scheduled to begin opening in fall of 2007
staying in vacation homes at jambo house with kadani village scheduled to open in
phases starting in early 2009 from the moment members and guests
arrived this year they'll be able to enjoy
all the disney's animal kingdom lodge has to offer
so just the views that you get from the existing savannah
the restaurants that we currently have here the sports and recreation
facilities the transportation you name it all of
that is open to you well having spent a little time with
some vacation club members on the on the cruise ship not so very long ago
uh i promise you they're all gonna have a ball i know how they enjoyed the
cruise ship so i think this is going to be an amazing
addition to the the array of possibilities they have
as the decades pass and guests return again and again each visit will be a
wild new experience the new vacation club will be almost
feel like a live resort with the landscaping that'll be around the
building it'll continue to evolve continue to grow
like the building is alive so it'll be a little bit different each time a guest
will arrive even the animal encounters will change
from year to year the way the hotel is designed we have
multiple exhibit spaces so the animals that you
see out one window of the balcony that you're
staying in are going to be completely different
than the animals on the other side
i think i could describe the resort the experience for our guests and members
and really in one word and it's wow when a guest walks in if they're not
smiling we didn't do our job with its authentic details and
appreciation for the natural world disney's animal kingdom villas seeks to
carry on a tradition that began with walt disney himself i'm
being asked a lot what walt would have thought of this that and the other and i
always for a long time i used to say i have no idea what walt would have
thought and it's an unfair question in this case i
almost am willing to volunteer the idea that he would love this place
this is very much in the philosophy of of what he
enjoyed what he did what he saw as part of the mission i think
our members are just going to go nuts they're going to come here and they're
going to fall in love with this place they're going to look at the
african-themed architecture our attention to detail they're going to
look at the spaciousness of the rooms the first class
accommodations the service they're going to get up in
the morning and they're going to get out and they're going to look at these
animals on the savannah and they're going to feel like they're in a very
very special place it really truly evokes a feeling of a
home and it's a place where people come and
our our catchphrase if you will is welcome home
and we really say that but you know what more importantly we really mean that
take your place among earth's most beautiful creatures
immerse yourself in the wonders of the wild
join us this year at disney's animal kingdom villas
life's greatest expedition starts now.