Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge

Deluxe is the tier, and this is regularly voted the most atmospheric hotel Disney owns. Jambo House is the main building, a horseshoe of thatched roofs, carved timber and mud-plaster walls curving around open savanna. You are at the far south western corner of Walt Disney World, close to Disney's Animal Kingdom park and a long way from everything else.

Animals are the entire proposition. Savannas surround the building on several sides, holding more than 30 species including giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, ankole cattle, ostrich, eland and various antelope, and viewing areas on the ground floor and along the guest wings let you watch them at any hour. Cultural representatives from across Africa work the property and will happily talk you through what you are looking at, which turns half an hour of animal spotting into something your children remember.

Walking into the Jambo House lobby is the moment most people decide the journey was worth it. Six storeys of open atrium, a huge thatched ceiling, African artefacts throughout, and a wall of glass opening onto Arusha Savanna beyond. It is the strongest arrival of any Disney resort and it works just as well on the twelfth day as the first.

Kidani Village is the Disney Vacation Club half of the operation, a separate building a short shuttle ride away with its own savanna, its own pool and its own restaurant. Kidani is covered on its own page along with the villa accommodation at Jambo House. Guests at either building can use the facilities of both, though the shuttle between them is a real journey rather than a stroll.

Deluxe perks apply. Every Walt Disney World resort guest gets Early Theme Park Entry, 30 minutes inside a park before published opening, on every day of their stay. Extended Evening Hours are the deluxe-only benefit, running on selected nights at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Animal Kingdom Lodge guests qualify, though it is worth knowing that both of those parks are among the longer bus rides from here.

Savanna View is the category the resort exists for, and it costs accordingly. Your balcony looks straight onto one of the savannas, animals wander past at unpredictable hours, and the first morning when someone opens the curtains and finds a giraffe twelve feet away justifies the whole booking. Guests who cut the cost by choosing a cheaper view almost always wish they had not.

Standard View faces the car park or the entrance drive and is the entry price into the resort. Pool View looks over Uzima Springs and the surrounding landscaping, which is pleasant enough, though it puts you a corridor away from the thing you came for rather than in front of it. Both are perfectly good rooms. Neither delivers the experience the marketing sold you.

Not all savanna views are equal, and this is the detail agents rarely mention. Different wings face different savannas, some rooms sit closer to the feeding points where animals gather, and higher floors give a wider view while lower floors put you nearer eye level. Ask at check-in whether anything is available on the wing you want. Cast members here are used to the question and will help where they can.

Club Level occupies the upper floor with a private lounge serving food and drink across several sittings through the day, and it has a reputation as one of the better concierge products at Walt Disney World because the food genuinely reflects the resort's African and Indian influences rather than being generic hotel fare. Suites are available in several sizes and go early.

Bed layouts vary by category and Disney publishes them on the booking page for the exact dates you are pricing, so check them there rather than assuming. Whether a room includes a day bed or bunk beds changes the maximum occupancy, and that decides whether a family of five books one room or two. Every room has a fridge, coffee maker, safe and hairdryer, and Jambo House also holds Disney Vacation Club villas with kitchens and in-villa laundry, sold separately.

Claim a lounger on the savanna side before eleven if you want to swim and watch animals in the same afternoon, because those go first. Uzima Springs Pool is the main water at Jambo House, around 11,000 square feet facing Uzima Savanna with canopy trees and palms around the edge, a gently sloping zero-depth entry for toddlers and a 67 foot waterslide. Height restrictions are posted at the base.

Samawati Springs Pool serves Kidani Village and is open to Jambo House guests who make the shuttle trip. A 4,700 square foot pool with zero-depth entry and a 128 foot waterslide, longer than the one at Jambo, plus a water play area for smaller children. Families with slide obsessed children often spend a whole afternoon there and eat at Sanaa afterwards.

Savanna viewing is the activity that makes this resort different, and it runs around the clock. Viewing areas sit off the lobby and along the guest wings, cast members hand out night vision goggles after dark so you can pick out animals in the gloom, and there is usually someone from the animal programmes team on hand to answer questions. Go out at six in the morning before the buses start and you will have the place to yourself.

Simba's Cubhouse is the supervised children's activity centre, which gives parents an evening at Jiko without the four year old. Campfire and storytelling sessions run on selected evenings, films are shown outdoors, and there is an arcade, a jogging trail and a playground. Culinary tours and animal programmes appear on the daily schedule in the app and most cost nothing.

Starlight Safari is the paid experience worth knowing about, an open-sided vehicle tour of the savanna after dark with a night vision device handed to each guest, departing from Kidani Village. Age restrictions apply and you are responsible for getting yourself to Kidani, so allow time for the shuttle. It books up well ahead in school holidays.

Disney's Animal Kingdom is the immediate neighbour and the natural pairing. Staying here and doing the park in the same trip creates a proper theme for a few days, and the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride makes far more sense to children who have already spent a week watching the same species from a balcony. Early Theme Park Entry at Animal Kingdom is unusually valuable because the safari is best first thing.

Blizzard Beach water park sits a short bus ride away and is the closer of the two Disney water parks. Coronado Springs and the All-Star resorts are the nearest hotels, though none of them are walkable and there is little reason to visit unless you are meeting friends.

Flamingo Crossings on the western edge of Disney property is around 15 minutes by car and has grown into a useful cluster of quick restaurants, shops and a supermarket. It is the most practical stop for anyone with a hire car who needs breakfast supplies, suncream or a pharmacy without driving across to Kissimmee.

Disney Springs is around 20 to 25 minutes by bus, free to enter, and holds the widest choice of shopping and restaurants on property. It is the obvious arrival evening while everyone is still adjusting from UK time, and a good rest day option when nobody can face another park queue.

Further afield, Highway 192 through Kissimmee is roughly 10 miles south east and holds the supermarkets, pharmacies and cheaper chain restaurants British families use to control costs. Universal Orlando is about 15 miles north east. Clearwater Beach on the Gulf coast is around 85 miles west, which is a comfortable morning's drive on Interstate 4 if you have a car and a free day.

Animal-mad children make the strongest case for this resort. A child who would happily spend an hour watching zebra will get more from a savanna view balcony than from any ride queue, and the resort turns downtime into part of the holiday rather than dead time between parks. Families who plan rest days rather than back-to-back park days benefit most.

Couples and adults do very well here too. Jiko is one of the best restaurants at Walt Disney World, Victoria Falls Lounge is a proper bar, the atrium is calm, and the resort has none of the promenade noise or pool chaos of the Epcot area hotels. Honeymoon and anniversary bookings from the UK land here regularly.

Second and third time visitors tend to appreciate it more than first-timers. If Magic Kingdom is the centre of your trip and you have a four year old who wants to see the castle every day, the bus journey from here will wear thin by the second week. Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary or Polynesian Village suit that plan far better.

Anyone unwilling to hire a car should think carefully. Buses are frequent and free, but they are the only option, and this is one of the more remote resorts on the property with no walking or boat route to anywhere. If you like the idea of strolling to another hotel for dinner, look at the Crescent Lake resorts instead.

Longer stays and larger parties should price the villas. Animal Kingdom Villas at Jambo House and at Kidani Village are Disney Vacation Club accommodation with studios that have a kitchenette and one, two and three bedroom villas that have a full kitchen and a washer and dryer inside. Both are covered on their own pages, and for two weeks with five or six people the sums often favour them.