Not impressed with The Riviera

[Disney1fan2002]

I took a tour of it last September, and right away I noticed how big it was, lots of walking. The rooms were impressive, sure, Faaannccy. What happened that made me decide I would probably never stay there? The bus stops!!! I took the skyliner there, but it started to thunderstorm, so the skyliner was closed by the end of my tour. I tried to wait it out, but it didn't seem it would be running any time soon. So I decided to take a bus. The 1st thing I noticed, is walking to the bus stop from the resort, you are walking down a sidewalk on a downward incline. Which means, getting off the buses and walking back to the resort, which was a very long walk to begin with, you will be walking UP an incline. You just spent hours in the parks, on your feet walking all day, normally, your are dog-tired when you get off the bus, and you gotta walk uphill?
That was the deal breaker for me. If everyone decides to use their points to stay at the fancy resort, it is so big, it should free up some of the hard-to-get resorts, like BCV.

 

[Sandisw]

Not every resort will work for everyone. The good thing is we have the ability to visit and walk around so that we get a feel even before we book,

I will do my part and book there and save those BCV rooms for those who love it there, RIV remains my to pe resort, along with VGF. Have my first stay there next week but have visited and fell in love!

 

[NoTime42]

Jambo and BWV (if going to the lobby) are also uphill walks. OKW can be a climb upstairs.
I do think they didn’t hit the mark on theming around the Riviera bus stop. It feels rather “new strip mall” when sitting there..

 

[Evita_W]

Just goes to show how different things appeal to everyone, we did a tour and fell in love so much we ended up adding on at Riviera.

 

[Nabas]

The incline at the Riviera is not much. There are a couple of resorts like this, most noticeably the Boardwalk, which also is a long walk, especially to the hotel rooms.

Perhaps the flattest bus stops are at the Value Resorts. This doesn't mean I'd pick an All Star over the Riviera.

Really though, at the end of the evening, the walk back to pretty much every hotel room feels long.

 

[havoc315]

Different things about different resorts will appeal to different tastes.

Though I’ve never quite heard those particular complaints about Riviera...
It’s not 1 of the bigger resorts, it’s actually 1 of the smaller as a tower of just 300 rooms. And certainly the distance and incline to the bus stop don’t seem noticeably worse than other resorts.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

Maybe I was just tired that day, but it seemed like a huge resort, and the incline to the bus stops was noticeable to me. You all are right, everyone is going to like or not like different resorts, and that's what makes DVC so great. We have so many themes to choose from. I'm glad many people like the Riviera, because like I said, it may free up availability at other resorts.

 

[WIll C]

The incline at the Riviera is not much. There are a couple of resorts like this, most noticeably the Boardwalk, which also is a long walk, especially to the hotel rooms.

Perhaps the flattest bus stops are at the Value Resorts. This doesn't mean I'd pick an All Star over the Riviera.

Really though, at the end of the evening, the walk back to pretty much every hotel room feel long.

After just staying at Riviera that was my exact thought. Our first stay was at Boardwalk and the bus stop location reminded me of Boardwalk almost immediately.

I have to say, it wasn't too bad walking back, even after hours out and miles walked. Sure, it's not right at the door but it wasn't bad. The corridor walk certainly doesn't seem as bad as Boardwalk.

 

[Princess Merida]

My turnoff visiting the Riviera was the very small lobby and the store and pastry shop are tiny. I feel like that was a big miss with such a beautiful resort. Of course resale restrictions keep me from ever purchasing anyway so it doesn’t really matter what I think. I would like to stay there sometime to try it out though. I had it booked for this August but BCV opened up so couldn’t pass that up.

 

[Cheburashka]

I don't get the comment about it being a huge resort. Riviera is actually one of WDW's most compact resorts. I was just at Kidani, and it look longer for me just to walk from my Kidani resort room to the lobby than it did for me to walk from the Skyliner all the way through the Riviera and out of the other side.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I don't get the comment about it being a huge resort. Riviera is actually one of WDW's most compact resorts. I was just at Kidani, and it look longer for me just to walk from my Kidani resort room to the lobby than it did for me to walk from the Skyliner all the way through the Riviera and out of the other side.

Like I said, I was probably very tired. It looks/seems like a huge resort to me. Then again, I usually stay at OKW, individual villas. I see one big building filled with rooms, and my brain relates that to huge.

 

[Brett Wyman]

I took a tour of it last September, and right away I noticed how big it was, lots of walking. The rooms were impressive, sure, Faaannccy. What happened that made me decide I would probably never stay there? The bus stops!!! I took the skyliner there, but it started to thunderstorm, so the skyliner was closed by the end of my tour. I tried to wait it out, but it didn't seem it would be running any time soon. So I decided to take a bus. The 1st thing I noticed, is walking to the bus stop from the resort, you are walking down a sidewalk on a downward incline. Which means, getting off the buses and walking back to the resort, which was a very long walk to begin with, you will be walking UP an incline. You just spent hours in the parks, on your feet walking all day, normally, your are dog-tired when you get off the bus, and you gotta walk uphill?
That was the deal breaker for me. If everyone decides to use their points to stay at the fancy resort, it is so big, it should free up some of the hard-to-get resorts, like BCV.

Thats an incredibly specific complaint.

 

[LPnerd]

The incline at the Riviera is not much. There are a couple of resorts like this, most noticeably the Boardwalk, which also is a long walk, especially to the hotel rooms.

Perhaps the flattest bus stops are at the Value Resorts. This doesn't mean I'd pick an All Star over the Riviera.

Really though, at the end of the evening, the walk back to pretty much every hotel room feels long.

Those long walks to the bigger hotels didn't matter so much 20 yrs ago, Now, however, they are a BIG deal! The good news you can always request a closer or ground floor room. We love Saratoga for the pools , however unless we get a preferred room, we pass. In fact it looks like there have been enough C/O that disney started to make the distinction themselves.

 

[kanerf]

Great, more Riviera stays for me!

 

[Nabas]

I don't get the comment about it being a huge resort. Riviera is actually one of WDW's most compact resorts. I was just at Kidani, and it look longer for me just to walk from my Kidani resort room to the lobby than it did for me to walk from the Skyliner all the way through the Riviera and out of the other side.

The hallways at Kidani, Jambo House, and the Boardwalk seem like they go on forever!

My wife thinks of this each time we stay at the Boardwalk!

 

[LPnerd]

Great, more Riviera stays for me!

And you are welcome to them! You stay there, I'll stay ??? and we can meet at the carousel at high noon for lunch! LOL>

 

[Leight19]

The hallways at Kidani, Jambo House, and the Boardwalk seem like they go on forever!

My wife thinks of this each time we stay at the Boardwalk!

View attachment 563790

Lol the first time I staid at boardwalk I sent pic of halls to some of my friends referencing this movie.

For riviera, my main complaint is the resale restrictions so I’ll never buy there and likely will not find myself staying there. I visited back in January and loved topolinos. The resort itself was attractive enough for me. The one issue I encountered was a relatively long wait for skyliner mid day going to Epcot. Issue seemed to be full vehicles coming from hub with not enough people getting off at riviera so had to wait many vehicles before one was open to load a party. I imagine this could be very problematic in morning but didn’t observe myself.

 

[tellingson]

They should make the sidewalk downhill both ways. Apparently, when my dad was growing up, he had to walk through 3 feet of snow, uphill both ways, to get to school. I'm sure that we can figure out the downhill both ways.

 

[LPnerd]

Lol the first time I staid at boardwalk I sent pic of halls to some of my friends referencing this movie.

For riviera, my main complaint is the resale restrictions so I’ll never buy there and likely will not find myself staying there. I visited back in January and loved topolinos. The resort itself was attractive enough for me. The one issue I encountered was a relatively long wait for skyliner mid day going to Epcot. Issue seemed to be full vehicles coming from hub with not enough people getting off at riviera so had to wait many vehicles before one was open to load a party. I imagine this could be very problematic in morning but didn’t observe myself.

that skyliner will be off line at least once a day in the summer, every time a storm rolls through. NO thank you.

 

[CP3uhoh]

I took a tour of it last September, and right away I noticed how big it was, lots of walking. The rooms were impressive, sure, Faaannccy. What happened that made me decide I would probably never stay there? The bus stops!!! I took the skyliner there, but it started to thunderstorm, so the skyliner was closed by the end of my tour. I tried to wait it out, but it didn't seem it would be running any time soon. So I decided to take a bus. The 1st thing I noticed, is walking to the bus stop from the resort, you are walking down a sidewalk on a downward incline. Which means, getting off the buses and walking back to the resort, which was a very long walk to begin with, you will be walking UP an incline. You just spent hours in the parks, on your feet walking all day, normally, your are dog-tired when you get off the bus, and you gotta walk uphill?
That was the deal breaker for me. If everyone decides to use their points to stay at the fancy resort, it is so big, it should free up some of the hard-to-get resorts, like BCV.

I agree that if walking 1/4 mile downhill is difficult for you, you may not like this resort. Skyliner is magic but I do wonder how long the wait is at park opening because people coming from Art of Animation/POP are going to EPCOT and vice versa with Beach Club and BW headed to Hollywood going the other way. Same problem switching at the HUB. I do find that certain people just won't use it because of an issue with heights and or ease on off for EV's and Wheelchairs etc... We were first in line to head Epcot direction last week and had to wait 2-3 minutes for an empty cabin. So our wait was not terrible by an means but if you're 20th in line in the morning, that could add up pretty fast. Impressed how efficient it was overall though, people mover that actually got you somewhere.