How would your resort rankings change if location played NO factor?

[AngiTN]

I rarely pick a resort based on it's location. I always pick on the resort itself. It's not like getting to anywhere at Disney from any resort at Disney is impossibly difficult. The only exception I make to this rule is on NYE. I will only stay somewhere that is walkable to Epcot. I'm not dealing with transportation but that's just 1 night out of the entire year. The rest of the time, I stay where I like. So moving them would make no difference.

 

[Boopuff]

We never pick a resort due to location. In fact we prefer to be "away" from the action. Honestly, my fave so far has been the "hard to reach" treehouse villas. Talk about away-from-it-all! My DH is an outdoor guy he just loved it. We do like to be in the DS area, next trip is OKW!

 

[NickC]

We pick based on location and transportation. Sometimes if deciding between two resorts, we pick the one with less shared bus service. Most of the time, we stay at YC/BC or The Contemporary because we are able to walk to a park (or two). To us, it makes a huge difference to be able to walk back to our resort after fireworks, or to walk over to a WS in the evenings for a nice sit down meal. We've even considered some of the DS resorts, for convenient meals and evening activities, but since they weren't as 'walkable', we decided against it.
The Contemporary is great, but I probably wouldn't stay there multiple times if it wasn't so close to MK. Once the walkway from Grand Floridian is open, we will probably stay there. We haven't only because the other monorail resorts are more convenient. (Contemporary to MK and Poly is within walking distance to TTC).

 

[mi*vida*loca]

BC was my favorite before I ever stayed there and knew that you could walk to two parks and all of the conveniences. I would see it when we were in Epcot and I would always say "I want to stay there one day." Once I stayed there I loved it even more. Then I realized how much I loved the Epcot area vibe.

I honestly think you can put BC anywhere and I would love it. But I also think if you put any hotel into the Epcot area I would try it and really like it.

I always thought I would love the Poly but once I stayed there I was underwhelmed. The MK area is sooooo busy and the Poly pool was small and just boring for my preteen and teenager. If you moved it elsewhere I would probably like it more.

 

[MomOTwins]

Wilderness lodge is my favorite, but it was a long bus ride everywhere, and when we were there buses were shared with Contemporary. It it had a better location, would love to stay there more

 

[rusbytammy]

Yes. But I do prefer Boardwalk over Beach Club.

 

[kimj88]

AKV would certainly move up in the ranks in that case

 

[havoc315]

We always hear the cliche “location, location, location,” and that seems to play heavily with people’s rankings (as well as the price points) for most of the resorts.

However, imagine that we carved each of the Disney resorts out of their piece of land and judged them in an isolated bubble. Examples: Would the Contemporary be as magical if it were just on a lake outside the MK loop? Would Animal Kingdom Lodge rise in rankings without transportation options knocking some points off of it? Are there suddenly less differences between the moderate and deluxe categories?

Just curious if any people’s feelings about a resort change if they are JUST looking at what happens on the grounds of the resort vs. what is around it.

If it weren't for location, I'd probably just go offsite.

That said, there are some key selling points of a few resorts beyond location:
Wilderness Lodge -- prettiest overall resort
Polynesian -- Excellent theming, including Volcano pool
Yacht/Beach Club: Best pool complex -- though you can find offsite locations with pools just as good.
Animal Kingdom Lodge, savanna view, for the savanna view.

So on that list, really the Animal Kingdom Lodge is the only one that offers something unique you can't find offsite. Maybe the Polynesian as well, you won't quite find an offsite equivalent.

Deluxe resorts that would falter but for location:
Grand Floridian "opulence" is really still a step behind truly opulent hotels.
Contemporary -- pretty austere with mediocre pool and amenities once you remove the monorail and the views of Magic Kingdom
Boardwalk Inn -- nice to have lots of decent dining options but nothing that a good offsite hotel can't really match. (though the location may be the best of any resort)
Riviera -- The Epcot area version of the Grand Floridian. Other than location, no real advantage over offsite.

 

[kiford]

Location is such a large part of my decision for a hotel, I find it hard to disassociate it. But location is not a static measure with us. That is, just because GF is close to MK doesn't mean that it is necessarily a desirable location for a specific trip if we intend to spend more time in Epcot at, say F&W festival time. Likewise, although BC is one of my very favourites, it's a bit of a pain if we intend to have dinner at V&A and go to a hard ticket party at MK. If we intend to spend a lot of time at the resort, the pool becomes a much more important consideration. So we have a stable of favourites that we try to match to the general plans and goal of the visit and location simply can't be taken out of the equation especially since we don't/won't have a car. Our favourites are: BC, GF, WL, AKL, BWI, YC. We haven't tried Riviera yet but that is on the list for near future.

 

[Kaadk]

It's hard to differentiate them without taking location into the mix, because location tends to heavily affect price, which is one of the biggest differentiators for me. We'd love to stay at the WL, but it's a price point I can't justify when compared to other options. Similarly, I love POFQ. The charm and ambiance is better there (for us) than a lot of deluxes, but it's lack of transportation options (other than to DS) keeps it's price down from the deluxes.

 

[revdon64]

Best: AKL
: Poly
: YC/BC
: BWI
: POFQ
: POR
: WL/CC/BR
: GF
: OKW
: CBR
: CSR
: AOA
: POP
: ASMO
: ASMU
: All Star Sports
: CR

Pretty much this. Still, if it's on property then I'm good. I just like being in the bubble.

 

[hungryjack]

Thinking of a split stay for our upcoming October trip. Think we settled on Beach Club for our Epcot/HS days for the convenience of walking to the parks but trying to decide on the second resort. Torn between WL and AKL for a 2br. Which would you prefer? Is AKL worth it if we can't get a savanna view? How much worse is AKL transportation than WL? Thanks.

 

[Deploraboo]

AKL nd WL are “sister” resorts, but lobby at WL much smaller an food much worse overall. Boat ride to MK nice, but transport to other resorts is a wash. May want to try split stay If getting to MK is paramount.

AKL no 1 for me even if it were in Miami.

 

[clapton]

Don’t care where VGF were I would stay there!!

 

[L&Lfan]

I never understood why they never built the AKL alongside DAK with its own park entrance. Anybody have any idea? Since there are plenty of animals in the resort’s Savannah areas, I wouldn’t think it was because of the animals in the park. Maybe they just wanted all the room for park expansion. Who knows?

 

[hsmamato2]

This is a tough question! I'm really considering it,as location is TOTALLY a part of why I like a resort...... hmmmm. I LOVE OKW for the large pretty rooms with balconies to relax and the lovely grounds. I think it might be my favorite..... I usually think about location first....

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Location plays a major role for us. It’s almost the deciding factor. If we’re paying deluxe prices I want easy access to at least one park, preferably walking. Our favourites are Contemporary, Boardwalk, and Beach Club.

Resorts I think would be most appealing without location advantage or off Disney property:
AKL
WL
YC/BC (that pool!)
OKW - a peaceful resort with spacious rooms
Poly

Resorts I think lose appeal without park access advantage:
Contemporary
GF
Boardwalk
Riviera
CBR

And nearly all other resorts I haven’t listed I think lose major appeal if they are not on Disney property, even though they already don’t have easy park access (Saratoga, moderates, and values basically).

 

[mister morrow]

i haven't been to disney since the addition of the skyliner, but the contemporary & boardwalk would seem very lackluster if the location of those resorts weren't so close to the parks. i never understood why people prefer contemporary over other resorts besides the fact it's in the monorail loop and you can walk to MK. AKL is one of my family's favorite resorts, even though the bus service can be a mess, it has an amazing theme and the resort is beautiful.