Comparison of the Disney hotel's outside pools

jillrobinson

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
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Despite staying at HNY, SL and NPB in the past we have never been anywhere near the swimming pools.

Although we have Cheyenne booked for July I will be upgrading preferably with a nice offer, but which would you choose, I always think NPB is the most summery of the hotels, but open to suggestions :goodvibes

As the next trip is in the summer and I'm planning for hot and balmy weather and long summer days :rolleyes2 I think we may very well have a few hours to spare and I'm not averse to a spot of sunbathing, so which of the hotels has the nicest outdoor area and is the outdoor pool deep enough for swimming or are they aimed more for little ones? Do they have shops or bar areas nearby ?(for icecreams, cold drinks etc.)

Photos would be nice if anyone has any as there are hardly any online :confused3

PS Do any of the offsite hotels have outdoor pools ?
 
No, none of the nearby offsite hotels have outdoor pools.

We loved the outdoor pool at the Newport Bay - we were there during that 40* heatwave last summer and spent every afternoon of our stay there. I'm not usually a person to laze round a pool but it was the only thing to do in that heat and it was absolute bliss! The pool was plenty big enough for adults to swim in, it never seemed crowded even with quite a few people in there and there were always enough loungers to go round.

We picked the Newport Bay because we've always loved the look of the hotel but also really liked the look of the pool from what few pictures we've seen. I agree that there's not many out there and I didn't take any myself as I didn't take my camera down, in fact if I remember correctly you can only get to the outdoor pool by going through the indoor part which is probably why there's so few photos out there.

I remember hildasmuriel posting a photo of the outdoor pool at the Hotel New York in one of her trip reports and it looked very nice. I think the Sequoia pool looks lovely too but the outdoor part looks much smaller. If you look on google earth you can see how big the outdoor pools are - it was seeing the size of the Newport Bay one on there that decided us on it although we were fully prepared for it to rain cats and dogs every day and not to be able to use it! IMO the real let-down of all the pools is the Disneyland Hotel - a very small pool and although they open the doors so you can lie out on a lounger it's still an indoor pool. :(

ETA: Nowhere to buy drinks etc close by, we were given large bottles of water in our room and I used to fill a small bottle and take it down but it's not the same as having a nice freshly poured drink. I think DLP would have made a killing if they had set up an ice cream and drinks cart round the pool in that heat, it was definitely a missed opportunity for them!
 
The outside pools are as deep as the inside pools,l especially with the HNY & SL as they are the same pool just partitioned off.

The outside pool at the HNY is larger the the SL so it has the edge for me. Cant speak for NPB as I have yet to stay there.
 

We stayed in the seqouia during the fab weather last may , the outside part is small enough but it was fine. It around 5ft deep so kids would need arm bands ect. The only thing its very shaded with the trees so not great for topping up the tan but there was still a few people sun bathing. Would pick it again tho as the kids loved the slide and so did i lol!
 




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