Trips Report - TWO weekend trips in a month :-o

[BlueGreen5]

My family has had to spend the past month in central Florida for unfortunate reasons, so we’ve made the best of it by making two separate 3-day weekend trips to WDW. For our first trip, we stayed at VGF, which we haven’t done since before the pandemic. The second, we stayed at RIV for the first time. We stayed in a “standard” one bedroom at both. We are considering buying in at one of them, so a (tiny) purpose of this trip was to look critically at each resort. I thought I would provide our observations for comment/debate and perhaps someone’s utility.

Starting at VGF, with what we thought to be its notable positives:

• Stunning property. Definitely a “wow” factor here.
• The lobby of the DVC building is beautiful and well-appointed. The fountain is such a nice touch.
• The location of the DVC building with respect to the monorail and Beach pool is ideal (more on location of the building, below, though).
• We loved the layout of Beach pool area. Everything you might need during the day (food, drinks, bathrooms, etc.) is inside the pool gates and close. If you have younger ones in your party, the splash area and beach are close enough to the pool deck/seating that you could easily bounce between the three without anyone feeling like you’ve “left” the area or fear that your stuff might get moved.
• The rooms are big and generally well laid out.
• The balconies are so big they should have their own zip codes.
• The boat ride from MK during non-peak hours was short, relaxing, and just what we needed for our mid-day break.
• The boat ride to Poly was equally enjoyable.
• The monorail to MK wasn’t overly crowded, but the CMs told us that MK park attendance was at a near-historic low on the day we went, so YMMV on this one.
• The proximity to MK, Poly, and Contemporary is key.
• I don’t know that we’ll ever go into MK for fireworks again. We’ve seen HEA about a dozen times inside MK, and earned our share of battle scars from it, so watching the show from Gaspy’s (and not having to wait an hour to secure an OK spot that ends up being lost to a latecomer 5 minutes after the show starts ) and then walking less than 5 minutes back to our room was definitely a breath of fresh air.

Now, what we saw as the negatives of VGF:

• Simply, there seem to be too many rooms given the size of the resort amenities and the resources. Everything felt crowded here at all times. For example, it was easier to find a table at a QS location in MK than at Gaspy’s.
• Beach pool is small for a feature pool. It’s beautiful, but seems to have been designed at a time when average capacity was two thirds of what it currently is.
• A noticeable knock on VGF is the location of the DVC building with respect to dining options. In order to get a morning coffee or prepared food before 10am, you have to walk to Gaspy’s clear across the resort (or obviously make it yourself).
• I struggle to find any notable distinction between the monorail and a bus. Given how short the ride is to MK, the monorail works fine and I’m sure has some element of magic for kids. But, the ride to EPCOT…wow – I don’t remember it from the last time we stayed at GF (maybe because it was winter and the weather was comfortable) but won’t ever be doing that again. That felt the same as taking a bus to Disney Springs to get to another resort. Given how much we love EPCOT, the lack of convenient transportation to it is a big time negative for us. I feel like enough people don’t talk about how badly it sucks to get between EPCOT and VGF, especially when it’s hot.
• Lots of minor maintenance-related problems in our room that I would have thought would have been addressed before we checked in (broken locks, missing items, burned out lights). Not a huge deal at all - we're relatively easy-going guests - and they were apologetic and quick to fix everything, but for a flagship resort that’s top-of-the-market as far as cost, not something that should be as quickly forgiven either. Again, it just seems like they have too much capacity given their resources.
• No space under the bed for luggage? This one seemed more odd than a negative. It really didn’t matter because you could park a sedan in the walk-in closet. I just thought that under-the-bed was a Disney standard nowadays.

Onto our thoughts about the best parts of RIV:

• *Most* of the property is stunning. More on that below.
• Fantastic food and drink options. Even more if you are willing to walk to CBR or take a quick Skyliner flight to the Boardwalk.
• Internally, the resort is very well laid out. Getting to and from the rooms, the lobby, the restaurants, the pool, the Skyliner, the bus stop, etc. is all very efficient given its size.
• There were some little things that were well thought out in the room. Just generally the location and size of things seemed better than VGF. However, the kitchen cabinet/countertop space is sorely lacking compared to VGF.
• The pools are a good size for the resort. There was plenty of open seating and space at both at all times of the day. The seating here is noticeably more comfortable than any other resort, including VGF.
• The pool bathrooms are exceptionally nice. I cringe whenever I have to use these, but the ones at RIV were actually not bad at all. Far away from the pool, though, which I’m sure helped.
• The rooms are big, but it does feel a little like they are big just for the sake of being big. It didn’t feel like the space was ideally utilized like it was at VGF. I wonder if they could have reconfigured the room to give you a little more usable space in the kitchen.
• The Skyliner is great and any negative comments or cautionary tales about it are likely the result of random bad luck and are not representative of the typical experience. At the start of the day, you might have to wait a few (literally, probably less than 3) minutes to get an open car to EPCOT. At the end of the day, at no point did we rush anything, cut anything short, or stand in the *perfect* spot for fireworks (we were in Mexico) to beat the crowds to the Skyliner; yet we did not wait more than 10-15 minutes to get on. A 10-15 minute wait in a line that is constantly moving at a normal walking speed for the Skyliner is infinitely better than a 10 minute wait for a bus or a 15 minute walk in the heat. The only time we saw the Skyliner stop temporarily was during a bad storm – but we saw the storm coming and decided to avoid the park while it rolled through anyways.
• It’s hard to explain it, but the resort just has a relaxed feel, especially compared to VGF. Possibly because it was designed for a bit more capacity than its current average. Nothing felt rushed here, you never felt like you were fighting to get a table or a chair, and there were hardly lines for anything. Everything seemed clean and well-maintained and nothing and no one seemed stretched thin.
• The bus to DS, MK and AK is direct and not ever shared with another resort. That’s becoming a luxury, even amongst the deluxe resorts. Add that to the ease of the Skyliner for EPCOT and MK, and you have one of the most ideal overall transportation setups. Also, if you are using a ride share service within WDW, RIV is centrally located, so those trips tend to be quicker and cheaper on average.

Finally, what we thought were the drawbacks of RIV:

• The resort is a really nice version of a Mariott/Hilton/Hyatt hotel. It’s beautiful, but it would be equally as remarkable off I-80 in Omaha or Des Moines. There’s just not much here that makes it special to WDW other than some small pieces of art in the living room.
• The living room is a bit awkwardly laid out. It seems like the designers felt the TV should be equally viewable from both the couch and the table, so they placed it between the two. The result is that it is not in front of either, so you don’t ever feel like you’re sitting where you should be.
• It’s not clear why you would have the “standard” rooms looking directly at a theme park and one of the most iconic structures in the world in Spaceship Earth, while the “preferred” rooms look at a moderate hotel with unimpressive architecture (no shame at all to CBR, it’s just the two-story block buildings aren’t much to look at). I think the answer is primarily due to the placement of the parking lot. Which then raises the question: why would you put a parking lot in front of a picturesque resort? They easily could have had a “theme park” view, “preferred” view, and “standard” view simply by tucking the parking lot off to the side of the building opposite the Skyliner, where there is nothing but a beach that appears to be seldom used. That probably would have helped their points sales woes as well. My suspicion is that this decision was made by someone who is used to designing off-highway four-star hotels in major cities, where the proximity of the parking lot to the main entrance of the building is a desirable feature.
• The theme seemed to be somewhat off. It seemed more like the designers were going for a luxury central American/Caribbean resort that had some artificial French/Italian influence. To be more thematically appropriate, a lot of the concrete could have been shady gravel walkways under a canopy of trees. The look of the building is too "new" and "sterile" to be from an old-world region. I feel like there were too many palm trees and too few types of other mature trees like pine/oak/olive that are more prominent in the region; and, overall, just too few trees. And, for a region that is known to be a top destination for luxury boating, how in the world was the only boat/yacht that we saw the model of the Disney Wish outside Primo Piatto? This didn’t impact our enjoyment of the resort, but more falls in the category of us wondering “who was paid actual money to design this?”

With all of that said, having booked a standard room at RIV that did have direct views of Spaceship Earth, and not being terribly bothered by its identity crisis, RIV was a very enjoyable stay all around.

I’m also so happy we stayed at VGF again, and I think it's beautiful, but I think we’ll give that one another break for a while. It feels like it's lost a little of its luster for its own guests by pandering to the guests of other resorts.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

This is a really well thought out review, I enjoyed reading it! I never go into the trip reports forum or I would have read this sooner so I’m glad you linked it in another post. (This would have also be great to post in the DVC resorts forum!).

I’ve only stayed at BPK all the times we’ve been to VGF so I’ve not actually experienced the villa rooms. BPK has a preferred location for us, much closer to food, main lobby and pool, so we do love it there. The villas building feels a bit far from things, especially the boat dock (we’re not huge fans of the monorail and would almost always choose the boats if possible).

But as much as we enjoy VGF, we really love Riviera. My memories never do the place justice. It’s understated and maybe a little boring for some, but we find all the smaller details really charming and we LOVE the layout and compactness of the resort plus some of our favorite eateries are there. I also think the location gets an unfair rep. I agree with you, it’s pretty centrally located I find it’s also was a really quick bus to MK, AK and Disney Springs. Plus, you make a great point about not sharing buses with any other resorts. And the skyliner is our favorite mode of transportation so it’s a massive win, for us anyway.

With the Poly Tower joining this very modern and point rich group, I wonder how it’ll stack up against these 2.

 

[Counting Stars]

This is a really well thought out review, I enjoyed reading it! I never go into the trip reports forum or I would have read this sooner so I’m glad you linked it in another post. (This would have also be great to post in the DVC resorts forum!).

I agree with @MelindandtheMouse! I just stumbled across your trip report. Thanks for taking the time to share and put together such a well thought out report!

 

[Dotluvsdisney]

Thank you for your report! We had a similar experience as far as the noticeable lack of crowds and the people around us not appearing to be stretched thin. It was delightful! Hope your personal circumstances improve.