Favourite onsite hotel

[wmoon]

If you had a choice of any of the onsite hotels, where would you stay? We are thinking of going in the summer, there will be 4 of us me, dh, ds (age 5) and MIL.

Have only ever stayed at Dixie landings but that was my honeymoon 11 years ago.

Quite fancy taking advantage of the free dining offer.

Everytime I look I like somethings about some of the hotels and i am now totally confused.

We are regularsto DLP and my mother in law loves the disneyland hotel and is likingthe boardwalk inn..

DH liked the Polynesian but the planned refurb concerns me a bit...

I am probably not all that bothered, as long as its clean, nice, has a dining offer, reasonably sized room for the four of us and DS loves it. they are leaving the decision to me though so i want to get it right!

Any advice?......

 

[FloFlo71]

Best value with full free dining will be Saratoga Springs Resort or Old Key West. I loved SSR last year and my DD 10 loved it too. We stayed in a studio if you are looking at a one bed apartment then I believe Old Key West units are much bigger.

Both of these resorts have boat service to down town disney and regular disney bus transport.

If money were no object I would stay at the Grand Floridan.

The Boardwalk seems fab too, but will be expensive.

 

[jen_uk]

For me the Beach Club wins hands down every time! The pool is incredible, you can walk to the Boardwalk and Epcot and just generally it is lovely there

 

[darthtatty]

we've only every stayed at The Contemporary resort, I love the location and the easy access to MK and the monorail. We have a wheelchair user, so walking to MK and using the monorail are very important to us.
However im open to trying a different one, I do like the theme of the Poly but would like to stay at one of the Epcot resorts.
It would be nice to be able to walk to Epcot and DHS.

 

[queendisney]

POR (was Dixie Landings) is still our fav of them all. But we are just two people so you may find the rooms a bit small for a family. Our other fav resort is Wilderness Lodge.

We just like the quietness of POR, all the quiet pools and a decent food court. Its such a pretty resort and the boat service to DTD is a real bonus.

 

[2Tiggies]

POFQ has won us over. Third year in a row we are staying there.

Next on our list is the Poly (although also considering BLT) as a split stay with POFQ being our resort for the majority of the nights of our trip

Like Vanda, we also love the proximity to DTD and the option of the boats, the quietness of the resort and again, being two people in a room, moderates to not throw any space issues at us I must admit, I don't think I could do a moderate with a family of 4 though

 

[wmoon]

Thanks everyone

We loved Dixie landings but it was just the two of us. Suppose we could do two rooms but for that extra cost maybe a deluxe resort would be nice,

My mother in law has offered to meet the difference in cost if we pick a resort with bigger rooms, so it may be the only time we can afford to stay in a deluxe.

The beach club appealed to me as well, for some reason the contemporary not so much, don't know why.

Just want to end up with somewhere both my mother in law and 5year old are happy in, me and DH are easy pleased....

 

[izzie-wizzie]

We've only stayed at Saratoga Springs - and it was a lovely resort, being able to walk to Downtown Disney was so handy!!

However if money was no object, even just visiting in the Polynesian was lovely, so I imagine staying there would be magical!

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

For me the Beach Club wins hands down every time! The pool is incredible, you can walk to the Boardwalk and Epcot and just generally it is lovely there

The Beach Club or The Yacht Club for us too ! It's all about location, location, location. Dining is a major factor in the planning of our holidays and a lot of our "must do" restaurants are in Epcot so for us staying in either of those hotels is a "no brainer"

 

[paulh]

I can only comment on the ones we have stayed at
DVC resorts
Beach Club Vilas pro great pool and location to Epcot/Studios.cons we have never found the showers hot enough in room

Boardwalk Pro location to Epcot/Studios cons endless corridors,slide always seams bumpy on joints

Bay lake towers pros location to MK,cons small rooms

Wilderness lodge pros close to MK,cons even though its close to MK not on a monorail

Saratoga springs pros close to DTD and walking distance to of site restaurants.Pools great 2 with good slides plus quite pools and grandstand water features

Old Key west pros big rooms,cons we find it hard to walk around as pavement always stops

moderates
Coronado springs resort pros great food court nice pool cons as a convention centre can be packed with convention delegates

Caribbean beach pros food court,cons pool lets it down

Port Orleans stayed in French quarter pros nice resort to walk around boat to DTD,cons Dixie landings was a lot better food court(that was then when it was 2 resorts)

Values
All-stars Sports/music/movies pros all have great food courts more choice than food courts in mods and deluxe.in your face full on Disney. cons large resorts pools can get busy and sometimes groups booked in

Pop century pros Great food court, in your face full on Disney not as big as the all stars,cons sometimes groups booked in

Favourites
DVC SSR
Mod CSR
Value Pop

Paul

 

[queendisney]

My mother in law has offered to meet the difference in cost if we pick a resort with bigger rooms, so it may be the only time we can afford to stay in a deluxe.

The beach club appealed to me as well, for some reason the contemporary not so much, don't know why.

Just want to end up with somewhere both my mother in law and 5year old are happy in, me and DH are easy pleased....

Blimey thats good of her. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the delux's they are all great. I know what you mean about the Contemporary but the rooms look great. I've never been drawn to any of the Epcot resort hotels really, love to visit them but for some reason I just don't have the urge to stay in them. I think its because they always seem so busy when we have visited and the pools look so full all the time. But they are very beautiful. I must admit if we was a family then I would def go for a delux, OKW or SSS for the extra space. The WL rooms are not that big either but again there are only 2 of us so it was great. Wish all MIL's were like your!!!!!

 

[2Tiggies]

The beach club appealed to me as well, for some reason the contemporary not so much, don't know why.

The Contemporary doesn't look too enticing from the outside but the rooms do look lovely and proximity to MK is the main seller for this one I think. Aside from having the monorail right there, it is easily walkable so if you were at MK at park closing you could escape all the bus-rush madness and take a leisurely stroll back to the resort. If I couldn't do the Poly or BLT and there was a decent discount on the CR rooms I would stay there in a heartbeat.

 

[Disney Princesses LW]

we definatly want to stay on site next year not booked yet still pondering over which resort. There is 5 of us 2 adults and 3 children aged 17 15 and 7 would POL be too small??? to upgarde to a villa for 5 at OKW is very expensive

SSR would be the one I choose though if cheap enough

 

[torsie24]

I love both GF and AKL.

GF is the most perfect fairytale hotel. Like the Paris DLH but waaaaay nicer. We were lucky enough to stay in the main building though and we won't be able to afford that again for a few years so I'm not 100% sure how I'd feel about being in a different building.

AKL is so unique and special and waking up to the animals is amazing. My DH would stay there every trip no question. He loves that hotel more than any other place on earth.

I want to try some other resorts but also worry they won't be as good as AKL so future trips will probably be an AKL/other resort split.

Next time the split will probably be with either GF, WL or BW. We loved the location of the Boardwalk.

 

[mrtoffee]

The best onsite hotel for me has to be animal kingdom lodge, it's an awesome hotel with great staff

 

[ben1993]

Animal Kingdom Lodge is amongst the best resorts Disney have ever built for sure, totally unique and immersive.

 

[Scillycruisers]

Have stayed in POR and Saratoga Springs, both times with 2 adults 1 young child. Both excellent, food court better at POR and boat to DTD was excellent. Loved the balcony on our studio at SP and the fact we could walk to DTD. Would happily go back to both, but trying AoA next year - anyone stayed there yet?

 

[wmoon]

Great to hear everyone's opinion.

AKL is out for us as mother in law not a fan of animals, each to their own.... It does look good

Pool at beach club / yacht club looks amazing - think I liked the yacht club more but they are not offering standard rooms so looking really pricey compared to beach club , assuming there is not that much difference, bit of decor, type of balcony..

Mother in law likes the boardwalk but just saw a picture of the creepy, freaky clown in the swimming pool ....

Polynesian looks amazing but there seems to be so many rumours of a major refurb, it's put me off a bit.

 

[thestevied]

I've only stayed at AKL and the dolphin but can recommend both. Both have:
Excellent dining options
Excellent pool areas

These were both important for us. Dolphin was quieter and had hardly any kids which was also good for us.

 

[scojos]

we definatly want to stay on site next year not booked yet still pondering over which resort. There is 5 of us 2 adults and 3 children aged 17 15 and 7 would POL be too small??? to upgarde to a villa for 5 at OKW is very expensive

SSR would be the one I choose though if cheap enough

yes!! ssr (2 bed we too have 3 kids) is huge, i mean massive!! and u could get a lock off (ie a room that converts to a studio and 1 bed appt) so the older kids could go off to pool without disturbing you and hubby and baby!!

we loved ssr, and are trying okw next year, ssr has better food options but smaller rooms, we went to the less "disnified" resort so we couls have down time with our asd son.
pors was ok with 4 younger kids (they were 10 8 and 5 but otherwise opt for 2 rooms or dvc