Hi. I've stayed at the Royal Plaza twice. I found it to be a very nice hotel. The room was a good size and clean. Queen size beds and they were very comfy. I liked the swimming pool area - nothing fancy - but big enough to actually swim and it was never crowded. (at least when we were there)
My family walked back and forth to DTD many times with absolutely no problem. Now, we are from NYC and walk frequently. I like to take a nice stroll and we enjoyed the walk. I want to say it was about fifteen to twenty minutes each way. If you are perhaps not in good shape and are used to driving absolutely everywhere, it may seem like a long walk to you.
Now the buses. We had only one time leaving Animal Kingdom where we had a long wait. (out of the two times we stayed there) Otherwise the wait times were reasonable. Here's the thing - the buses run every thirty minutes. However, that didn't mean they ran on the hour and half our. We found they arrived at the Royal Plaza at 15 minutes and 45 minutes after the hour. This made a big difference. If you are expecting the bus on the hour so you arrive a little early to make sure you don't miss it, but the bus gets to the hotel at a quarter after - you will feel like you had a long wait. We would arrive at 10 minutes or 40 minutes after and hop on within minutes. The hotel did not tell us those times, we just figured it out after a day or so.
Each park had it's own bus.
What I did like about the Royal Plaza was that it was like third on the Downtown Disney stops. We were always able to get a seat. Those that boarded at the Grosvernor (last pickup at that time) often had to stand.
Now, maybe because we are used to dealing with public transportation we were okay with the bus system.
Here are a couple other bus tips. I'm not saying you will 100% be able to do this, but we never had a problem. We would walk to DTD and take the Disney buses. We took the bus to the Boardwalk to spend an evening and had a great time! We would catch a bus for other Disney Resorts for dinner.
Don't get me wrong. I also love Disney Resorts. I happen to like the Deluxe resorts but that isn't always in the pocketbook. I find the Royal Plaza to be a great deal when we want a trip to Disney but are looking to keep costs down. To get a room that size with queen beds at a Disney Resort you have to stay at a Deluxe resort - not always in the budget. We are more comfortable in the larger room and beds. However, if that is not an issue for you, a value resort may be the way to go since you will have more frequent buses plus the EMH.
If you do stay at the Royal Plaza keep in mind that you do get free delivery to the hotel if you make purchases in the parks. We did not want to carry souvenirs all day long so we had them delivered to the hotel. Same with any ride photos that we purchased to be sure they didn't get ruined. One cashier tried to tell me once that they didn't do the free delivery to the Royal Plaza but I had her take out the form and I showed her the hotel was listed right on it.
You asked about the hotel service. Like everywhere I have been - there were some great, friendly, helpful workers and then some less so. If it was not acceptable, we would not have returned the second time.
Not sure if you saw the Disney Resort ad for book four nights, get three nights free. It is available during June so that might change things for you.
Have a great trip no matter where you choose to stay!!!!!!!!!!!!
