Benefits of staying at a deluxe resort?

[deedeew80]

We will be staying at SSR this upcoming trip and besides the EEH, are there any other added benefits for staying at a Deluxe Resort? Thank you!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Nope

 

[DizneyFamof4]

I was just in a thread talking about how the deluxe amenities have dwindled down. Epcot and MK for Location, Balconies (not at all) indoor hallways and bigger rooms. For our family, none of these mean much to us for our stays. Look how fast the Premier Pass lasted at just the Deluxes, maybe 3 weeks and now it's available to all WDW resorts.

Correction added.

 

[zanzibar138]

We're staying deluxe for the non-bus transportation options and the balconies. This is a splurge trip for our honeymoon though, and we have view rooms booked for some of our accommodation, so I can see us spending some time on the balcony with an adult beverage taking in the views. And the non-bus transportation doesn't apply to SSR (except for Disney Springs). If there wasn't a question about downtime for the Skyliner at the time of our trip, I would have definitely considered CBR as an option instead of a deluxe.

 

[Boopuff]

I've stayed at all the levels of resort. I find the deluxe to be quieter, i love the room size and use the balcony all the time. We do like EMH. The value are perfectly fine if it's just a place to lay your head. But for the ability to cook, relax and enjoy the resort, I'll pick deluxe

 

[jennab]

Many of the deluxe resorts are closer to the park, some within walking distance. They also have table service restaurants that are usually open for breakfast and lunch too (a lot of the mod TS don’t have breakfast and lunch). Most have balconies (not all rooms though) larger room size, and interior hallways to rooms.

 

[lanejudy]

now it's available to even the good neighbor hotels

This is not true. LLPP is now available to all WDW resorts, Swan/Dolphin/Reserve and Shades of Green. Those resorts are not the designated "good neighbor hotels." Contrary to popular opinion, the WDW Good Neighbor Hotels do not have any particular perks offered by WDW.


@deedeew80 I think it depends what you consider a "benefit" and to what are you comparing? Deluxe vs moderate or value? Deluxe vs off-site? Extended Evening Hours is the only park "perk" exclusive to Deluxe resort guests not available to other onsite WDW resort guests. Deluxe resorts at WDW have indoor hallways, generally larger rooms and/or more options for room types, more dining options, pool slides and hot tubs, usually more recreational offerings, additional transportation options to the parks, proximity to the parks, etc, when compared to moderate or value resorts and some offsite hotels. Whether any of those things is considered a benefit for you is subjective.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

This is not true. LLPP is now available to all WDW resorts, Swan/Dolphin/Reserve and Shades of Green. Those resorts are not the designated "good neighbor hotels." Contrary to popular opinion, the WDW Good Neighbor Hotels do not have any particular perks offered by WDW.


@deedeew80 I think it depends what you consider a "benefit" and to what are you comparing? Deluxe vs moderate or value? Deluxe vs off-site? Extended Evening Hours is the only park "perk" exclusive to Deluxe resort guests not available to other onsite WDW resort guests. Deluxe resorts at WDW have indoor hallways, generally larger rooms and/or more options for room types, more dining options, pool slides and hot tubs, usually more recreational offerings, additional transportation options to the parks, proximity to the parks, etc, when compared to moderate or value resorts and some offsite hotels. Whether any of those things is considered a benefit for you is subjective.

I retract the offsite hotels, thank you for correcting me. I do not totally agree with some of your list of deluxe perks, especially over Mods, but that's ok.

 

[IzzyBella]

Deluxe hotels have fitness centers. This may have changed because I haven’t looked in a while, but the only moderate hotel with a fitness center used to be Coronado Springs.

 

[Stormypetrel]

I stayed at POR last month and was surprised to learn that the moderate and value resorts STILL do not have daily housekeeping, unlike the deluxe resorts which brought it back a couple years ago. As has most of the hotel industry as a whole.

 

[kylenne]

Many of the deluxe resorts are closer to the park, some within walking distance. They also have table service restaurants that are usually open for breakfast and lunch too (a lot of the mod TS don’t have breakfast and lunch). Most have balconies (not all rooms though) larger room size, and interior hallways to rooms.

Views are a big plus too. I’ve never really cared about theme park view rooms before but we had one at the GF in September thanks to a great discount and the ability to just watch HEA from our balcony was a much bigger deal than I assumed. We skipped the dessert party we usually do once per trip and just got our own treats from the bakery case at Gaspy's and watched it from there. But we actually watched fireworks several more times.

Personally I really enjoy having onsite amenities like TS dining all day because it's so much more convenient to not have to figure out how I'm getting somewhere or pay for a rideshare. It's just so nice to leave your room and go downstairs and be at your ADR in like 5 minutes.

 

[Neener16]

I stayed at POR last month and was surprised to learn that the moderate and value resorts STILL do not have daily housekeeping, unlike the deluxe resorts which brought it back a couple years ago. As has most of the hotel industry as a whole.

When we stayed at French Quarter in August it was every other day. We were fine with that because we had an infant and housekeeping always seems to come in the middle of nap time. But yes, it is annoying to spend that much money and not have daily housekeeping, if even just to empty the garbage.

 

[Dave006]

I stayed at POR last month and was surprised to learn that the moderate and value resorts STILL do not have daily housekeeping, unlike the deluxe resorts which brought it back a couple years ago. As has most of the hotel industry as a whole.

Your experience at POR is an exception to the official Disney policy: Rooms at Disney Moderate and Disney Value Resorts will receive housekeeping service every other day.

Dave

 

[Stormypetrel]

Right, so not daily .
We stayed Saturday-Monday so did not receive housekeeping at all. With 3 kids this is kind of a dealbreaker for me. I may be misremembering but my recollection is Disney was kind of a leader in the industry in bringing daily housekeeping back for its deluxe resorts in early 2023. At that point most hotels in the U.S. were still on demand or every few days. Now that trend has reversed and daily housekeeping is pretty much standard again at most major hotel chains, so I assumed Disney would have kept pace with the rest of the industry and brought it back for its moderate and values too. I assumed wrong lol.
This was my first stay at a moderate after 3 deluxe stays + a cruise and it’s wild to me considering the housekeeping we’ve had at deluxe hotels is so above and beyond — I mean things like winding up charging cords, carefully moving my kids books without losing the page, and even turndown service at the Grand Californian. So to go from that to NO housekeeping on our 2 night trip was a bit of a surprise lol.

OP, we also prefer deluxe because we are the type to spend a lot of time at the resort and build in rest days and breaks in our trips, so having table service restaurants, bars, and good pools or other activities is important to us. Also location is clutch since we like to be able to head back to the resort easily.

POR was really lovely otherwise and having a food court was convenient and way superior to the quick service you can get at deluxe resorts!

 

[DizneyFamof4]

All Mods have TS restaurants also, (POFQ can walk to Boatwrights) plus Mods and Values have much better FC for the people that do not want to spend more $$ on TS. CSR has a couple TS restaurants, CBR has one and your a quick walk to RR and their TS restaurant as well. Even POP and AOA, you are only a quick hop on the skyliner to CBR and RR, no car needed, which we have done a few times and it's very easy to get there and back.
Everyone has their own value on what is important to them and it's great that WDW has the many options to choose from. We started mainly with Deluxe trips, then went to Mods/Values and lately POP has been our go to resort. We always have R&R days during our trips and enjoy them no matter what level of resort we are staying at. Our next trip, we will be back at POR for New Years and we are hoping we can do dinner at Boatwrights This will be a very difficult trip for planning, because the main reason we are going is to visit our oldest DD who is doing DCP and she only knows her schedule a few days before the new week, so very hard to plan park days etc. but we will still have a fantastic time

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving.

 

[elvispursley]

We end ups booking deluxe usually for the proximity to the parks, daily housekeeping, and having a pool with shade!!! Because we use an ECV, eliminated as many buses as we can is so worth it for us!

 

[Genie+]

When our kids were younger the main focus of our WDW trips was the parks. Morning to night we ran the parks every day. We went back to the room to sleep and wash up, and maybe hit the pool for an hour or two each trip.

At this stage we want more than just the parks and I think that’s where deluxe resorts really start to shine. Most of them are convenient to at least one or two park, have alot to do within the resort, and often easy access to other nearby resorts and activities. I think MK and EP resorts make for an awesome homebase. We can keep popping back in our room, and find exciting stuff to do closeby. Deluxe resorts deliver a full vacation experience with less effort.

Deluxe might not be worth it for commando style touring. The value is in the efficiency to do all the non-park stuff while still popping into the parks for blocks of hours here and there.

 

[Miffy]

In general, the Deluxe resorts have better soundproofing in the rooms than the Mods and Values do. This isn't true of every resort, but of most of them. Also, with a Deluxe, you usually get a balcony (I realize there are exceptions, but SSR isn't one of them), an amenity that is nonexistent in Mods and Values.

These things aren't perks, but they are definitely nice to have.

 

[eandt]

We will be staying at SSR this upcoming trip and besides the EEH, are there any other added benefits for staying at a Deluxe Resort? Thank you!

We are DVC members so a ‘captive audience’ of the deluxes but after staying moderate for 25+ years we find that there is really no comparison between Deluxe and mod/value.