Biggest factors in choosing a resort?

[CaptainAmerica]

This............minus the buses. Love monorail, walking and boats but hate the buses. If buses are the primary mode of transportation, its a deal breaker.

I'm completely the opposite. I hate hate hate the monorail unless I'm staying at the Polynesian, close to the TTC side so I can walk there. My main goal is to avoid transfers. A 15 minute bus ride from Animal Kingdom Lodge is so much more pleasant than a monorail to the TTC, unloading, getting back in line, and taking a second monorail to Epcot. Same with the Skyliner. Skyliner direct from Caribbean Beach? Awesome. Skyliner from Pop or DAAR with a transfer at Caribbean Beach? No thank you.

 

[MillauFr]

We prefer something that is cheap, has free parking, free breakfast, clean, well maintained, close enough to the parks that we can walk to the front gate and not have to use any transportation that eats up valuable park time. Only one place fits that criteria, the Candy Cane Inn on Harbor next to Disneyland. Haven't found any offsite properties at Disneyworld where you can walk to the front gate in 10 minutes.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

you are!
what do you want to do on your vacation?
do you want to do rope drop at the MK every day…. the a monorail resort might be best
do you enjoy relaxing….. OKW or SSR
are you on a budget…. Pop century….

what are you looking to do

personally, if I’m staying on points I stay were I can book at 11 months since I don’t really need to spend all day in the parks….

if I’m staying using Marriott points swan or dolphin…. We’ll because it’s free and allows me accesses to all the great place to eat in Epcot, the boardwalk etc…

as much as I dislike Uber and Lyft…. I’m not opposed to using them when needed… so to me transport is not an issue…

love bay lake But not a huge MK fan so when I stay there I spend a lot of time on the bus..

love SSR and just relaxing at the springs….

just depends on what you want

 

[DisneyGuy]

Location is extremely important, being able to walk to and from a park is a big priority. Next priority would be theming and amenities.

 

[Paranurse]

I'm completely the opposite. I hate hate hate the monorail unless I'm staying at the Polynesian, close to the TTC side so I can walk there. My main goal is to avoid transfers. A 15 minute bus ride from Animal Kingdom Lodge is so much more pleasant than a monorail to the TTC, unloading, getting back in line, and taking a second monorail to Epcot. Same with the Skyliner. Skyliner direct from Caribbean Beach? Awesome. Skyliner from Pop or DAAR with a transfer at Caribbean Beach? No thank you.

That's the great thing about Disboards..........lots of opinions and experiences to read about. Totally respect your choices.
Never been on the Skyliner tho. Gonna have to check that out next trip!

 

[k5xs]

We always stay on property. Taking that as a given, we have two types of trips:

- “Economy mode”: Driven entirely by price. ~4 times a year.

- “Splurge mode”: A deluxe or moderate driven by location and theming. Favorites: Riviera, POFQ, Coronado Springs, Contemporary.

 

[k5xs]

Never been on the Skyliner tho. Gonna have to check that out next trip!

We LOVE the SkyLiner!

 

[MEC004]

I’m having an issue choosing. We have Poly booked for 10/27-11/4 and are debating whether to change it to BWI due to location with multiple ways to get places. We have one resort day planned on 11/1 and are not sit by the pool people (we live in Texas). Last trip we stayed at CBR and it was too spread out.

Sorry not much help. Lol! We booked Poly because of the views 6 months ago and am now realizing views aren’t everything.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Never been on the Skyliner tho.

It's so good. Definitely worth a ride even if you're not staying at one of those resorts.

 

[maryj11]

Price, location, theming, transportation and dining.
First we have to make sure the price is in our budget. Then the location needs to be near MK or Epcot. We love a resort with good theming, like Polynesian, WL, CBR or Grand Floridian. We really like the theming at AKL, but the location and transportation is not our favorite.
Transportation is important to us. We would rather take the monorail, skyliner or boat instead of a bus any day. I really dislike taking the buses.
Next we like good dining options. Especially having table service restaurants near is a plus.

 

[pixiegoose]

In the past, price has been the driving factor for us (so our stays have been value or moderate with a good discount or really good price renting DVC points from a friend). We’re finally at a point in our lives where price doesn’t *have* to be the driving factor (though obviously we’d love a good discount!) so we’re staying at Yacht Club for its proximity to Epcot with walkability/boat/Skyliner to DHS. And really keeping our fingers crossed a discount is released!

 

[saraheliz]

Depends. If it's our entire family of 5 going (as it will be for our next trip), space and bathrooms is the most important. There are very few options for a family of 5 that have two sleeping areas and two bathrooms. We would not function very well with one, at all, but I have two modest older girls.

After that my priority would be location but my kids would be theming. My husband's would be additional space (he'd rather a 2 bedroom at SSR over a 1 bedroom at AKV).

I'd love to be able to stay at an Epcot resort for location but it just isn't in the cards with 5 people unless we get two rooms and pray they can be together.

All of that, of course, is under the umbrella of price limits.

 

[brockash]

I'm curious because I know everyone has such different priorities and preferences when it comes to choosing a Disney resort. What factors weigh really heavily in your resort-choosing decisions?

I know for my family, it's mostly about location, ease of transportation to the parks, and maintaining the idea of the "bubble." I want to see as few roads/cars/parking lots as possible and I want to be able to use non-bus forms of transportation as much as possible.

For us it's price, transportation/location and personal preference/theming/decor.

We've stayed at the following (most multiple times):

ASMo
ASsp
Pop
POR
POFQ
CBR
Shades of Green
CR
BLT
Poly
YC
AKL

Personal experience is a big one - for example we would def sway away from staying at a skyliner resort during rainier months as we've had experiences with how much of a PITA it can be. We also will probably not be back to AKL because in our experience the buses could never get us to the park ahead of the crowd. - In my opinion they don't start early enough to make up for the fact that they're further away than most resorts to most parks.

Being able to walk to a park though really has value for us. We also generally like the monorail and don't mind the buses about resorts. - Again not a fan of a resort with multiple bus stops.

Size of resort also comes into play...we don't like the huge sprawling resorts.

 

[VandVsmama]

Price
Transportation
Location

 

[3gr8boys]

Space and price- we really like to have two bathrooms and two sleeping areas even though we could survive without. We just had a great stay in an ASMu Family Suite. A suite at a value hotel also means that other people (in this case, grown son and girlfriend) can have an affordable non-suite room nearby. We are on-site people, period.

 

[snikki]

Price, space, room privacy, location (onsite), food options and theming. It all depends on the type of trip I am taking.

If we are going as a family then space in the room is very high on our list. If I'm going with only DD then privacy for changing is a priority. If I'm going with only DH then we go for location and food/drink options.

Next trip is just me and the 16 year old girl child. CSR and the barn doors won us out, along with the IG worthy pool and all of their food/drink options onsite. I contemplated renting BCV but was a bit apprehensive due to Covid but I am thoroughly excited to stay at CSR. So much so that I haven't changed our resort not even once and we booked back in July.

DH and I are planning on a trip in a few years during F&W so we will go with BWV or BCV and hope to rent points. If not price will trump location since the regular room rates are too much for us to accept.

 

[HerRoyalHighness]

Value per dollar spent. Not so much a dollar figure but what we get for the $. We're at the Swan/Swan Reserve this next trip. When we were supposed to go in 2020, it was, probably, going to be AKL again but we were looking at Caribbean Beach because of the skyliner (not a fan of value/moderates though) and at one point had club-level at Gran Destino Tower booked. But, currently, there is not a single thing that we get by staying in an actual Disney-owned, on-property hotel...aside from being able to use magic bands to open our room door and charging on them at the parks. Since we now have to pay for magical express/parking and magic bands, and there is no dining plan at the moment...PLUS we get the early entry and the deluxe extra nighttime hours by staying at the Swan/Dolphin/Swan Reserve. There is actually no benefit, to us, because we could care less about theming.

 

[ktink]

This has changed over the years for us. Initially it was theme but now it's more about being centrally located. We really prefer the Epcot area resorts.

 

[robinb]

I'm curious because I know everyone has such different priorities and preferences when it comes to choosing a Disney resort. What factors weigh really heavily in your resort-choosing decisions?

I know for my family, it's mostly about location, ease of transportation to the parks, and maintaining the idea of the "bubble." I want to see as few roads/cars/parking lots as possible and I want to be able to use non-bus forms of transportation as much as possible.

My priorities are different depending on if I am staying at a DVC resort on points, or paying cash.

For a DVC resort, my number one priority is booking at my home resort. I own at BWV and AKV and I stay at both of them for different reasons. I love the location of BWV and I love the value of a standard view villa and the view from a boardwalk view villa. I pick BWV for Food and Wine or any other time I think I might spend a lot of time at Epcot. I love AKV for the animals and the feeling that I am somewhere far, far away. I pick AKV when I want to pamper myself with a club level villa or when I want to save points with a value view villa. Both need to be booked at the 11+ month window. I usually don't stay at AKV if I can't get one of those two "views". If I am booking outside my 11-month window, I select on point price and location. I'm willing to a few extra points to be near a park and to try a new resort. My most often booked non-home resort is BLT.

For a cash reservation, the number one priority is price. I would not be able to stomach paying current pricing for moderate or deluxe resorts. I don't mind staying at value resorts for a few days, so I just pick whichever one is least expensive. They are all the same to me. I will pay a little bit more for Pop over the All Stars, but I don't think it's worth a lot more even with the skyliner. I would rather spend the extra money elsewhere.

 

[Moliphino]

We barely spend any time at the resort, so it comes down to price and ease of access to parks. Pop usually wins - it's a little more expensive than the All-Stars, but more centrally located and now has the Skyliner.