Hi all!
We joined DVC in late November and initially were supposed to stay in Boardwalk 1BR from the 9th-13th with friends of ours that got us back into Disney back in 2019. Unfortunately they couldn't go, so I canceled the 1BR and we thought we might not go also but decided we should.
Problem is, we were already into January and no longer had our original booking. So I opened a couple waitlists and started stalking each morning. Eventually piecing together our first night at Boardwalk Studio Garden/Lake view. Then we were to be in AKL Kidani Studio Savanah View, then Saratoga Springs Standard Studio, then Saratoga Springs 1BR Preferred. There were other options that came up, at one point I had a 1BR at OKW instead of the Saratoga, but we thought the Saratoga would be better since we were spending our last day resort hopping and checking out Disney Springs.
This was also our first time staying since Genie+/Paid LL launched. I was not a fan of the Fastpass system when we stayed in late 2019, so I was interested to see how Genie+ was. I have to say for this stay, Genie+/Paid LL were clear winners. We were able to ride all the rides we wanted with less headache. Our longest wait time in line was 8 minutes for a ride, we had longer waits to get coffee at Epcot. Even that 8 minute wait almost wouldn't count because it was for MM Runaway Railway and it had been down and the line was a little longer because there were more people there that couldn't ride earlier when it was down. Either way, 8 minutes is more than acceptable compared to the 120 minutes shown for standby.
We got to ride Rise of Resistance, Runaway Railway, Flight of Passage, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Smuggler's Run (we once again got terrible pilots on the ride with us, the guy did nothing as we just slammed into the ground over and over, we have bad luck on this front...), and a bunch of other rides.
Feb 9th Evening, got in around 8PM after flight - Beach Club Studio Garden/Lake View
First hiccup we had was with Tiffany Town Car. I went with them based on some reading on this site and had a private car ordered. I had called the Monday before our trip to tell them that we would have a checked bag, as when I originally reserved I marked no checked bag. Since we went with an Owner's Locker, we brought down a lot more stuff than we initially expected. They said no problem and I thought that was that. But our driver arrived and said she didn't expect there to be two of us (that was always on the reservation), and that we weren't marked down as having a checked bag. They didn't tell us we couldn't ride, but the driver kept bringing this stuff up and all I could say was was that I had called, and days before the trip, so I don't know why she wasn't aware of all of this. I called TTC the next day to make sure they had all the info, and they said they knew about the luggage change, so I don't know what the problem was here.
This was a great resort for our first park day (on the 10th) since we were expecting to spend most of our day at Hollywood Studios. The Boardwalk itself is a lot of fun, cast members were great. We walked all over and did a lap around to Beachclub and their pool is definitely nice, it was pretty cool our first night and the heated sand bottom pool had a mist hanging over it that night and the next morning. For the resort itself, it gets a 4/5, but the room was rough. It was my least favorite room at DVC we have seen (I hear Boulder Ridge is rough but I haven't seen them yet). Power outlets weren't in convenient spots, there wasn't any kind of outlet on my side of the bed, I had to break out an extension cord. They have a light overhead of the bed and if you sat on the bed or moved at all, the light was flickering so it clearly has some short, but I couldn't see if it was just the plug or something since I couldn't get behind it. So I just turned it off.
The room was hard to love. I expected Boardwalk to be a hit for our first night, but aside from proximity to Epcot/HS, it really let me down on the room front. Maybe 2/5 for the room.
Feb 10th - Hollywood Studios and First Use of Genie+ - Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas, Kidani Village - Savannah View Studio
I got up at 6:50 and prepared to make my G+/LL reservations. I messed this up as I was on the "My Day" section, which I thought was correct because it kept saying "Get ready to make your selections at 7:00!", so I kept refreshing there. Then 7:00 came, and it still said it, then 7:01... 7:02... then I switched to Tip Board and there was everything I needed to make reservations. That was frustrating for sure. I tried to prepare for this morning but missed a step, but that was the point of this trip, to learn the new stuff before our big November trip with the kids. By the time I got to the right screen Rise of Resistance was showing no LL availability. That sucked, but I got another G+ reservation in for Smuggler's Run, which wasn't until 11AM if I recall correctly.
So we didn't rush, which was nice. When we went in 2019 we were rope dropping with our friends because we only had a couple fast passes we could reserve per day, so we had to get whatever else we could. We still ended up going to HS a bit early (around 9AM) and despite being able to walk, we decided to try the boats so we could say we had. The boat ride was relaxing and quick. Getting there as early as we did proved to be a mistake, but it was our own fault. We should have gone closer to our Smuggler's Run visit. We wandered HS before Smuggler's and finished that ride, and I was able to lock down a Rise of Resistance that opened up at 7:40PM. So many, many hours away. But by now it was also two hours since park open so I was able to also make another G+ LL reservation and did that which was for about 12:15pm. We also did lunch at PizzeRizzo (which was meh, which we figured it would be).
We did a few other G+ reservations as the 120 minute rule allowed and had a pretty good time, although tiring. Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway was down for about an hour and a half, including into our LL window, but the system automatically extended our LL window through the end of the day, which was nice. We still got over there right around when it opened and despite a longer line, only had about an 8 minute wait (as noted above). A lot of walking and snacking and buying later, we finally got on Rise of Resistance and it was outstanding, as was only waiting in line about 3 minutes. I wish we didn't have to pay extra for this stuff, but at least it delivers.
AKL Resort:
This place is great! I have been a bit down on AKL around here because I think its distance from parks is a negative, and it still certainly is. But the resort makes up for it in some big ways. I wish I had known that most of the restaurants are on the other AKL side, but not the end of the world. The Savannah views are great, the resort is themed well, and while the rooms aren't at refreshed Saratoga or Riviera levels, they were way more on the level for what I expect from DVC. Only complaint I had for AKL was how long the walk to our room was. We were waaayyy down the hall and that felt like an eternity after our very long Hollywood Studios day. Piece of cake though compared to Saratoga, I would soon learn.
Animal Kingdom Lodge is just fantastic. I was correct in my thoughts around it being so remote being a negative, but I would put up with the lyft ride or even using the bus to have our kids stay here with a Savannah view some time.
Feb 11th - Animal Kingdom (park) and Epcot... Round 2 of Genie +/LL - Saratoga Springs Resort - Standard View Studio
I was up at 6:50am again, ready this time. It went sooooo much better. The only thing we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom as far as rides go was the Safari and Flight of Passage, I had both locked down with a 9:05 Safari and 10:35 Flight. It was rock solid and I was thrilled. I was able to change parks and also lock down Remy's. Since we weren't in a rush, we went to breakfast and then headed to Animal Kingdom around 8:15AM using the bus. It was, of course, a quick ride from AKL as we had planned and we got to the Safari with plenty of time. Safari was fantastic, got our best views of the animals ever. Big hit with the wife. We walked around a bit and then went to Flight of Passage. It was already at 120 minute or so wait, but we were on in under 5 minutes. Simply great. Only issue was my wife was feeling a bit off, and was worried about this type of ride when she was already not feeling her best. So she didn't do the ride. I really enjoyed it though and expected the extra cost for this paid LL would just be lost, but more on that later.
We walked around AK a bit more, but didn't have much we wanted to do and wanted to go check out Riviera and maybe have lunch there, and didn't want to overdo it after our Hollywood Studios day previously. So we hopped on a bus to Riviera.
RIV was outstanding. Great bus drop off spot, covered walkway, definitely shows they learned from some of the improvements that could be made in earlier resort arrangements. We ate at Primo Piatto and for a quick service it was very good. It was our best quick service food experience for the entire trip. We were surprised, but not upset by it for sure.
We were only there for about an hour before we were able to head to Epcot for the 2PM park hopper. We walked right on the skyliner and went over. Epcot was crazy busy, somehow felt more so than HS and Animal Kingdom combined. It was definitely getting hot out and we tried to take it easy. We visited the DVC Lounge and it's a nice perk to have, not crowded and a good place to unwind a bit. We ate at Tepen Edo, which was... fine. We have Hibachi style restaurants by us at home that I would rather have than go back there. We just wanted to give it a try as we haven't had it before, but unless they make some menu changes won't be in a hurry to return. Don't get me wrong, it was good, it just could have easily been far better.
We did Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, again basically walked right on, and it was a very fun ride. I think Rise was my favorite of all the rides we did, but they all had charm and were worth the price of admission. We basically just checked out shops and all the art for the art festival.
We headed out to our Saratoga Standard View Studio stay. The room itself was fantastic, easily a 4.5/5 for what I want from a Studio. The view wasn't anything to draw you in, but it was a standard view room, I can't hold that against them. The renovation at SSR was well done in my view. Not a lot else to say on this front, we went to bed shortly after getting in our room because we were exhausted.
Feb 12th - Resort Hopping and Disney Springs - Saratoga Springs Resort - Preferred View One Bedroom!
We took our time getting out of the room, and this began my love/hate relationship with SSR. The room was great, the resort layout and size is pretty awful. I went to Artist Palette to get us some quick breakfast. Their breakfast selection and even pricing I felt wasn't bad for Disney. The walk there though... man. It was a long walk to the main building to get the food, and on the walk back I thought I could make a shorter trip by just cutting straight through to the building. But between ponds and bushes and other obstacles, it was a no-go, I had to back track a bit and go the long way around. When I got back and looked at the resort as a whole, it was crazy how huge it is, and the buildings are so spread out.
After breakfast we did some resort hopping. We checked out Polynesian first and used a Lyft to get there, which went pretty well, aside from the driver having trouble finding us in the sprawling maze that is SSR. Poly, at least the resort, seems outstanding. We definitely want to take the kids here some time. We got on the monorail and went to Bay Lake/Contemporary. I see the proximity to MK as being a positive, and also like that it's on the monorail, but I expected to like the resort a bit more. It didn't do much for me compared to Poly. Again, didn't see the rooms, only spent about an hour at each of these. But BLT didn't impress me. I felt like I was just in a big convention center/hotel.
We got another Lyft from contemporary to Disney Springs, and just toured around there. We really wanted to try gideon's bakehouse, and got into the 300 minute virtual queue at about 3PM. Not a huge deal since we were staying at SSR and our room being preferred was in the Congress section which was only about a 5-7 minute walk to the bakehouse at worst. We had dinner at 5pm, and right at the end of dinner we got a notice that it was our turn to come to Gideons! About two hours earlier than estimated, and I was not sad about it. We paid for dinner and headed over and got a shirt and of course some cookies. Then went to our 1BR SSR room. Another SSR annoyance is I couldn't find which building was ours because I didn't see any designations or numbers on the side of the buildings you come to from Disney Springs. They were visible from the other side of the buildings, but why wouldn't they make them obvious from the Disney Springs walkway side? Just another head scratching thing I dislike about SSR.
This room was also outstanding, 1 bedroom is definitely nice even compared to the already nice SSR studio. We got back here around 7PM and decided to just relax for the rest of the night, which was easy to do in the very nice room.
Feb 13th - Heading Home
Again dealt with the awful SSR layout to get out of there. I decided to take our checked bag and owners locker to the lobby ourselves, and the walk felt like it went on forever. Didn't help that it was raining a bit, but generally that doesn't bother me too much.
We did another breakfast at artist's, although a lighter one. All the staff was fantastic. Tiffany Town Car did thankfully pick us up at the right place and time.
Final Thoughts/Takeaways:
I am glad we joined DVC and checked out all these resorts. It was overall a very fun trip and we can't wait to come back in November and actually stay in our 2 Bedroom at Riviera!
Best Resort we stayed at was probably Boardwalk, with Animal Kingdom way closer behind than I would expect for a place with no real park attachment, but man did it have charm.
Worst Resort was, by a significant margin, Saratoga. My wife and I both agreed it would be out of pure desperation that we would stay there again, great rooms or not. I think if we had our own car there or something, this would be way less of an issue. But after walking almost 30k steps per day at the parks or Disney Springs, dealing with the obnoxiously long walks/layout restrictions of Saratoga was just not doing it for me.
Genie+/Paid Lightning Lanes worked very well for us. I don't have to agree with Disney making these paid options to still admit they at least work. I hate waiting in lines, and the value proposition of not having to do so combined with how easy it generally is to get into the ride you want as long as you check back just made it a surprise winner. I expected a bunch of issues at 7am getting stuff to load or any number of other problems, but everything went smoothly (once I knew how to use it).
Best Room we stayed at was by a significant margin the 1 Bedroom at Saratoga. My feelings about the resort layout aside, the room was great. It isn't entirely fair to the others that we didn't stay at 1 Bed there, so it is kind of a default win. But if the Studio at Boardwalk was any sign, even if we had only stayed at a Studio at Saratoga and had a 1 Bed at Boardwalk, I am betting the Saratoga room still would have won.
I am going to keep an eye on Disney's plans for Boardwalk though. I still have an extreme fondness for it and think after a renovation and maybe when the 2042 reissue likely happens, I will have to get some points there. It probably has the most overall charm of the resorts we checked out, and the proximity to HS and Epcot are hard to top.
I don't think I will use Tiffany Town Car again. I couldn't reach them by phone Saturday or Sunday when I wanted to confirm again about our pick up time. Their communication was so poor throughout the trip, and it's sad that we were almost hoping they wouldn't show up Sunday so we could just take a Lyft, which had proven far more reliable for a much lower price.
Anyway, please try not to take anything I said to heart if I knocked your favorite resort or whatever. This was just our experience and view, YMMV, etc.
We joined DVC in late November and initially were supposed to stay in Boardwalk 1BR from the 9th-13th with friends of ours that got us back into Disney back in 2019. Unfortunately they couldn't go, so I canceled the 1BR and we thought we might not go also but decided we should.
Problem is, we were already into January and no longer had our original booking. So I opened a couple waitlists and started stalking each morning. Eventually piecing together our first night at Boardwalk Studio Garden/Lake view. Then we were to be in AKL Kidani Studio Savanah View, then Saratoga Springs Standard Studio, then Saratoga Springs 1BR Preferred. There were other options that came up, at one point I had a 1BR at OKW instead of the Saratoga, but we thought the Saratoga would be better since we were spending our last day resort hopping and checking out Disney Springs.
This was also our first time staying since Genie+/Paid LL launched. I was not a fan of the Fastpass system when we stayed in late 2019, so I was interested to see how Genie+ was. I have to say for this stay, Genie+/Paid LL were clear winners. We were able to ride all the rides we wanted with less headache. Our longest wait time in line was 8 minutes for a ride, we had longer waits to get coffee at Epcot. Even that 8 minute wait almost wouldn't count because it was for MM Runaway Railway and it had been down and the line was a little longer because there were more people there that couldn't ride earlier when it was down. Either way, 8 minutes is more than acceptable compared to the 120 minutes shown for standby.
We got to ride Rise of Resistance, Runaway Railway, Flight of Passage, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Smuggler's Run (we once again got terrible pilots on the ride with us, the guy did nothing as we just slammed into the ground over and over, we have bad luck on this front...), and a bunch of other rides.
Feb 9th Evening, got in around 8PM after flight - Beach Club Studio Garden/Lake View
First hiccup we had was with Tiffany Town Car. I went with them based on some reading on this site and had a private car ordered. I had called the Monday before our trip to tell them that we would have a checked bag, as when I originally reserved I marked no checked bag. Since we went with an Owner's Locker, we brought down a lot more stuff than we initially expected. They said no problem and I thought that was that. But our driver arrived and said she didn't expect there to be two of us (that was always on the reservation), and that we weren't marked down as having a checked bag. They didn't tell us we couldn't ride, but the driver kept bringing this stuff up and all I could say was was that I had called, and days before the trip, so I don't know why she wasn't aware of all of this. I called TTC the next day to make sure they had all the info, and they said they knew about the luggage change, so I don't know what the problem was here.
This was a great resort for our first park day (on the 10th) since we were expecting to spend most of our day at Hollywood Studios. The Boardwalk itself is a lot of fun, cast members were great. We walked all over and did a lap around to Beachclub and their pool is definitely nice, it was pretty cool our first night and the heated sand bottom pool had a mist hanging over it that night and the next morning. For the resort itself, it gets a 4/5, but the room was rough. It was my least favorite room at DVC we have seen (I hear Boulder Ridge is rough but I haven't seen them yet). Power outlets weren't in convenient spots, there wasn't any kind of outlet on my side of the bed, I had to break out an extension cord. They have a light overhead of the bed and if you sat on the bed or moved at all, the light was flickering so it clearly has some short, but I couldn't see if it was just the plug or something since I couldn't get behind it. So I just turned it off.
The room was hard to love. I expected Boardwalk to be a hit for our first night, but aside from proximity to Epcot/HS, it really let me down on the room front. Maybe 2/5 for the room.
Feb 10th - Hollywood Studios and First Use of Genie+ - Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas, Kidani Village - Savannah View Studio
I got up at 6:50 and prepared to make my G+/LL reservations. I messed this up as I was on the "My Day" section, which I thought was correct because it kept saying "Get ready to make your selections at 7:00!", so I kept refreshing there. Then 7:00 came, and it still said it, then 7:01... 7:02... then I switched to Tip Board and there was everything I needed to make reservations. That was frustrating for sure. I tried to prepare for this morning but missed a step, but that was the point of this trip, to learn the new stuff before our big November trip with the kids. By the time I got to the right screen Rise of Resistance was showing no LL availability. That sucked, but I got another G+ reservation in for Smuggler's Run, which wasn't until 11AM if I recall correctly.
So we didn't rush, which was nice. When we went in 2019 we were rope dropping with our friends because we only had a couple fast passes we could reserve per day, so we had to get whatever else we could. We still ended up going to HS a bit early (around 9AM) and despite being able to walk, we decided to try the boats so we could say we had. The boat ride was relaxing and quick. Getting there as early as we did proved to be a mistake, but it was our own fault. We should have gone closer to our Smuggler's Run visit. We wandered HS before Smuggler's and finished that ride, and I was able to lock down a Rise of Resistance that opened up at 7:40PM. So many, many hours away. But by now it was also two hours since park open so I was able to also make another G+ LL reservation and did that which was for about 12:15pm. We also did lunch at PizzeRizzo (which was meh, which we figured it would be).
We did a few other G+ reservations as the 120 minute rule allowed and had a pretty good time, although tiring. Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway was down for about an hour and a half, including into our LL window, but the system automatically extended our LL window through the end of the day, which was nice. We still got over there right around when it opened and despite a longer line, only had about an 8 minute wait (as noted above). A lot of walking and snacking and buying later, we finally got on Rise of Resistance and it was outstanding, as was only waiting in line about 3 minutes. I wish we didn't have to pay extra for this stuff, but at least it delivers.
AKL Resort:
This place is great! I have been a bit down on AKL around here because I think its distance from parks is a negative, and it still certainly is. But the resort makes up for it in some big ways. I wish I had known that most of the restaurants are on the other AKL side, but not the end of the world. The Savannah views are great, the resort is themed well, and while the rooms aren't at refreshed Saratoga or Riviera levels, they were way more on the level for what I expect from DVC. Only complaint I had for AKL was how long the walk to our room was. We were waaayyy down the hall and that felt like an eternity after our very long Hollywood Studios day. Piece of cake though compared to Saratoga, I would soon learn.
Animal Kingdom Lodge is just fantastic. I was correct in my thoughts around it being so remote being a negative, but I would put up with the lyft ride or even using the bus to have our kids stay here with a Savannah view some time.
Feb 11th - Animal Kingdom (park) and Epcot... Round 2 of Genie +/LL - Saratoga Springs Resort - Standard View Studio
I was up at 6:50am again, ready this time. It went sooooo much better. The only thing we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom as far as rides go was the Safari and Flight of Passage, I had both locked down with a 9:05 Safari and 10:35 Flight. It was rock solid and I was thrilled. I was able to change parks and also lock down Remy's. Since we weren't in a rush, we went to breakfast and then headed to Animal Kingdom around 8:15AM using the bus. It was, of course, a quick ride from AKL as we had planned and we got to the Safari with plenty of time. Safari was fantastic, got our best views of the animals ever. Big hit with the wife. We walked around a bit and then went to Flight of Passage. It was already at 120 minute or so wait, but we were on in under 5 minutes. Simply great. Only issue was my wife was feeling a bit off, and was worried about this type of ride when she was already not feeling her best. So she didn't do the ride. I really enjoyed it though and expected the extra cost for this paid LL would just be lost, but more on that later.
We walked around AK a bit more, but didn't have much we wanted to do and wanted to go check out Riviera and maybe have lunch there, and didn't want to overdo it after our Hollywood Studios day previously. So we hopped on a bus to Riviera.
RIV was outstanding. Great bus drop off spot, covered walkway, definitely shows they learned from some of the improvements that could be made in earlier resort arrangements. We ate at Primo Piatto and for a quick service it was very good. It was our best quick service food experience for the entire trip. We were surprised, but not upset by it for sure.
We were only there for about an hour before we were able to head to Epcot for the 2PM park hopper. We walked right on the skyliner and went over. Epcot was crazy busy, somehow felt more so than HS and Animal Kingdom combined. It was definitely getting hot out and we tried to take it easy. We visited the DVC Lounge and it's a nice perk to have, not crowded and a good place to unwind a bit. We ate at Tepen Edo, which was... fine. We have Hibachi style restaurants by us at home that I would rather have than go back there. We just wanted to give it a try as we haven't had it before, but unless they make some menu changes won't be in a hurry to return. Don't get me wrong, it was good, it just could have easily been far better.
We did Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, again basically walked right on, and it was a very fun ride. I think Rise was my favorite of all the rides we did, but they all had charm and were worth the price of admission. We basically just checked out shops and all the art for the art festival.
We headed out to our Saratoga Standard View Studio stay. The room itself was fantastic, easily a 4.5/5 for what I want from a Studio. The view wasn't anything to draw you in, but it was a standard view room, I can't hold that against them. The renovation at SSR was well done in my view. Not a lot else to say on this front, we went to bed shortly after getting in our room because we were exhausted.
Feb 12th - Resort Hopping and Disney Springs - Saratoga Springs Resort - Preferred View One Bedroom!
We took our time getting out of the room, and this began my love/hate relationship with SSR. The room was great, the resort layout and size is pretty awful. I went to Artist Palette to get us some quick breakfast. Their breakfast selection and even pricing I felt wasn't bad for Disney. The walk there though... man. It was a long walk to the main building to get the food, and on the walk back I thought I could make a shorter trip by just cutting straight through to the building. But between ponds and bushes and other obstacles, it was a no-go, I had to back track a bit and go the long way around. When I got back and looked at the resort as a whole, it was crazy how huge it is, and the buildings are so spread out.
After breakfast we did some resort hopping. We checked out Polynesian first and used a Lyft to get there, which went pretty well, aside from the driver having trouble finding us in the sprawling maze that is SSR. Poly, at least the resort, seems outstanding. We definitely want to take the kids here some time. We got on the monorail and went to Bay Lake/Contemporary. I see the proximity to MK as being a positive, and also like that it's on the monorail, but I expected to like the resort a bit more. It didn't do much for me compared to Poly. Again, didn't see the rooms, only spent about an hour at each of these. But BLT didn't impress me. I felt like I was just in a big convention center/hotel.
We got another Lyft from contemporary to Disney Springs, and just toured around there. We really wanted to try gideon's bakehouse, and got into the 300 minute virtual queue at about 3PM. Not a huge deal since we were staying at SSR and our room being preferred was in the Congress section which was only about a 5-7 minute walk to the bakehouse at worst. We had dinner at 5pm, and right at the end of dinner we got a notice that it was our turn to come to Gideons! About two hours earlier than estimated, and I was not sad about it. We paid for dinner and headed over and got a shirt and of course some cookies. Then went to our 1BR SSR room. Another SSR annoyance is I couldn't find which building was ours because I didn't see any designations or numbers on the side of the buildings you come to from Disney Springs. They were visible from the other side of the buildings, but why wouldn't they make them obvious from the Disney Springs walkway side? Just another head scratching thing I dislike about SSR.
This room was also outstanding, 1 bedroom is definitely nice even compared to the already nice SSR studio. We got back here around 7PM and decided to just relax for the rest of the night, which was easy to do in the very nice room.
Feb 13th - Heading Home
Again dealt with the awful SSR layout to get out of there. I decided to take our checked bag and owners locker to the lobby ourselves, and the walk felt like it went on forever. Didn't help that it was raining a bit, but generally that doesn't bother me too much.
We did another breakfast at artist's, although a lighter one. All the staff was fantastic. Tiffany Town Car did thankfully pick us up at the right place and time.
Final Thoughts/Takeaways:
I am glad we joined DVC and checked out all these resorts. It was overall a very fun trip and we can't wait to come back in November and actually stay in our 2 Bedroom at Riviera!
Best Resort we stayed at was probably Boardwalk, with Animal Kingdom way closer behind than I would expect for a place with no real park attachment, but man did it have charm.
Worst Resort was, by a significant margin, Saratoga. My wife and I both agreed it would be out of pure desperation that we would stay there again, great rooms or not. I think if we had our own car there or something, this would be way less of an issue. But after walking almost 30k steps per day at the parks or Disney Springs, dealing with the obnoxiously long walks/layout restrictions of Saratoga was just not doing it for me.
Genie+/Paid Lightning Lanes worked very well for us. I don't have to agree with Disney making these paid options to still admit they at least work. I hate waiting in lines, and the value proposition of not having to do so combined with how easy it generally is to get into the ride you want as long as you check back just made it a surprise winner. I expected a bunch of issues at 7am getting stuff to load or any number of other problems, but everything went smoothly (once I knew how to use it).
Best Room we stayed at was by a significant margin the 1 Bedroom at Saratoga. My feelings about the resort layout aside, the room was great. It isn't entirely fair to the others that we didn't stay at 1 Bed there, so it is kind of a default win. But if the Studio at Boardwalk was any sign, even if we had only stayed at a Studio at Saratoga and had a 1 Bed at Boardwalk, I am betting the Saratoga room still would have won.
I am going to keep an eye on Disney's plans for Boardwalk though. I still have an extreme fondness for it and think after a renovation and maybe when the 2042 reissue likely happens, I will have to get some points there. It probably has the most overall charm of the resorts we checked out, and the proximity to HS and Epcot are hard to top.
I don't think I will use Tiffany Town Car again. I couldn't reach them by phone Saturday or Sunday when I wanted to confirm again about our pick up time. Their communication was so poor throughout the trip, and it's sad that we were almost hoping they wouldn't show up Sunday so we could just take a Lyft, which had proven far more reliable for a much lower price.
Anyway, please try not to take anything I said to heart if I knocked your favorite resort or whatever. This was just our experience and view, YMMV, etc.
