Best resort for proximity to main areas

[Jsaccm]

Just completed a week at the GF villas after a 10 year stretch of no Disney. Great experience overall. We liked the convenience of the Monorail line to two parks and kids loved the pools. The one negative I would say is the distance from the Villas building to the dining and pool areas. It is basically the furthest building from everything. With small children it would be nice to be closer. Now that we are planning our next stay (and looking into buying a contract as we borrowed family points for the stay) what other resorts should we consider.

 

[Brian Noble]

CCV, RIV, and AKV-J all would fit the bill. Maybe PIT would too? You can make an argument for BWV, BCV, and BRV.

 

[fla4fun]

Just completed a week at the GF villas after a 10 year stretch of no Disney. Great experience overall. We liked the convenience of the Monorail line to two parks and kids loved the pools. The one negative I would say is the distance from the Villas building to the dining and pool areas. It is basically the furthest building everything. With small children it would be nice to be closer. Now that we are planning our next stay (and looking into buying a contract as we borrowed family points for the stay) what other resorts should we consider.

Most of the resorts where the DVC was added to an existing resort will have this issue because the free standing building is naturally farther from the hotel amenities, with some being farther than others. The exception would be if they converted actual hotel rooms into villas, like CC or the original Poly villas. Probably the best DVC resort for easy access to the amenities would be Riviera, since it is completely self contained.

It does seem to me that the monorail DVC resorts that have separate buildings do have longer walks to their hotel partner than the Epcot DVC resorts do. BCV always seems closer to me than BLT, for example.

Each one is going to have its pros and cons. You will need to do some research to see which ones will work best for your family, not only now when the kids are young but as they grow up as well.

 

[sndral]

Just completed a week at the GF villas after a 10 year stretch of no Disney. Great experience overall. We liked the convenience of the Monorail line to two parks and kids loved the pools. The one negative I would say is the distance from the Villas building to the dining and pool areas. It is basically the furthest building everything. With small children it would be nice to be closer. Now that we are planning our next stay (and looking into buying a contract as we borrowed family points for the stay) what other resorts should we consider.

In my mind the GF villas building is the closest building to the beach pool & splash area & the DVC BPK building is the closest to the courtyard pool . The spacious GF grounds are its greatest appeal IMO, but the result is the amenities are spread out. Of course, someone staying at what I think of as the long hall resorts like Kidani or BWV if they are assigned a villa in the far reaches of the hotel may have very long hikes to get to the amenities but their hike will be inside a building.
IME, a lot of Disney resorts involve a lot of walking, some are so big that they have internal bus service.
There are different ‘types’ of DVC resorts & each have pluses & minuses.
You have the original design w/ several buildings scattered over a large piece of land - OKW & later SSR. You likely don’t want one of those.
The one building w/ really long halls - BWV & AKV Kidani. Not sure these fit your criteria either.
The tuck it into wherever it fits on the grounds of an existing resort - BC, BRV, VGF villas building, Poly Tower. Maybe one of these work depending on where they were tucked in?
There’s the convert existing hotel rooms to DVC & maybe add point hungry bungalows or cabins - Poly, CCV, AKV Jambo, VGF BPK. The original Poly is all longhouses, CCV & Jambo are both pretty big buildings.
Finally there’s the towers - BLT, Riviera. BLT’s pool is unimpressive & for food/monorail you need to walk over to the contemporary. I’ve not stayed there, but Riviera sounds like it’s the most compact w/ amenities in situ, so it might work if you like the Skyliner. Personally, given the resale restrictions & relatively low prices Riviera commands on the resale market, I’d stay there to make sure it was ‘the one’ before I bought though.

 

[LilyJC]

I would vote 100% for BLT. Easiest walk to MK and very easy monorail ride to Epcot (not as fun on the way back honestly though). Once the refurbishment is completed and the sky bridge and elevators are back to normal, it’s ridiculously easy to take the sky bridge over to the Contemporary for food/monorail.

 

[sethschroeder]

We have been taking our kids since 6 months old and Epcot area is by far the best in our opinion.

Why Epcot Area?

• We do the morning in the park of our choice (MK, HS, AK) then head somewhere for lunch, afternoon at the resort/pool, then evening going out to dinner in the Epcot area (sometimes HS) which is an easy walk/ride without having to worry about busses. We found MK very lacking for variety of quality food options.
• Being close to Epcot makes it easier to stroll around World Showcase which can be fun with your kids exploring and grabbing snacks throughout your stay
• Epcot/HS has a wide number of younger kid areas actually not only for rides but for shows as well so you can easily see the Frozen show before or after Dinner / sit and watch the trains in Germany after going to Beirgarten / Walk through the China shop with stuffies+treats after going to eat at Akershus

Which hotel?

• RIV - most condensed of ANY DVC resort where the food and pools are right there just an elevator ride down
• BCV - normal pool is close, resort QS is close, but main pool (SAB) is a tad of a walk
• BWV - pools close but food can be a little bit of a walk

Downside of RIV can be the skyliner in summer as it can go down because of weather.

If you are dead set on MK then BLT is your choice but I don't consider needing to transfer monorail lines to really be easy to get to Epcot so you need to be a MK lover to want that resort.

 

[Jsaccm]

Thank you for all the replies. It’s very helpful to hear all the different perspectives.

 

[Brian Noble]

(I should probably note that I was only answering from the "proximity to main areas" part of your question, not the "I liked the monorail" part.)

 

[VGCgroupie]

I can say AKV would not fit this bill. It was SO MUCH WALKING to and from pool and food. Jambo is closer to dining but the Kidani pool is way better. We found BWV to be a great distance to everything with the room we got.

 

[Jsaccm]

(I should probably note that I was only answering from the "proximity to main areas" part of your question, not the "I liked the monorail" part.)

No worries, the Monorail was convenient with strollers but not a dealbreaker. Appreciate the help.

 

[sethschroeder]

No worries, the Monorail was convenient with strollers but not a dealbreaker. Appreciate the help.

Skyliner you have to fold double wides not single wide

Boats for Epcot you don't have to fold.

Best suggestion is getting a big caribeaner with foam flat part to hang on stroller and it's easy then to unhook the bag and hold when you need to fold.

We also bring a couple empty sinchsacks just to throw things in if needed.

 

[Girlstar30]

Well you know what I'm gunna say (see profile pic ) but yeah there's really not one hotel that totally fits the bill, the pool at blt is underwhelming, vgf has its things you mentioned that you didn't like, I haven't stayed at poly yet so can't comment but the island tower is a little hike, the og bungalows are probably better for proximity and awesome pool