What perks do the resort hotels have that the value resorts don't?

[winterwhite]

We are heading to Disney for our 4th trip.

I should add that I travel extensively. Been in a lot of hotels, all over the world.

My personal opinion, and that's all it is, my personal opinion, is that the only disney hotels that are worth their price are the values, and the mods at a discount.

I personally feel that for the price the rooms look worn, the resorts are too busy, and the amenities are not well regulated so they're enjoyable for everyone. Go see Stormalong Bay and tell me it's fun to be packed into a miniature water park, at your own hotel. The hotels are huge and the constant exposure to other guests (and their children) is a negative to me.

Our next stay is a split stay. We are doing 2 nights at the Dolphin, because Epcot is our favorite park and this time I said I wanted to be able to walk back and forth. The other two nights are at Riverside, which we are paying $137/nt for and solely because we spend a lot of time at downtown disney and really like riding the riverboats back and forth.

There is no way we could justify paying $400+ a night to stay in a crowded hotel with sort of an artificial feel, when you can stay in a 1br suite at the Waldorf Astoria for less than that, and even see the parks from your room. Nothing Disney offers in terms of comfort, service, or style even approaches that. We stayed there, and the JW Marriott (on same property) and loved it. Really top notch, 5 star experience.

The wyndham/hilton bonnet creek is gorgeous and we drove past it multiple times when getting around WDW last year. For the cost of a deluxe, you could stay there, rent a car, and STILL have a taxi take you to/from the parks every time you wanted, and come out ahead. You can also take advantage of the restaurants/shopping that greater Orlando has to offer. Their rates are insanely low, and again, you can get rooms and watch the fireworks from your own room!

For us, we stay at the values for a quick trip, or POR. The rest of the time, we save the $$ and go offsite. It's been great and the money we save has been phenomenal. We can easily do a 5 night trip for 2 with no-expiration tickets and all food/transportation/souveniers for less than $1200 all in.

 

[Aliceacc]

I've stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC, and enjoyed it immensely. Likewise the Marriot Marquis. And the Palmer House in Chicago. And LePavillon in New Orleans. And a lot of other wonderful hotels that I've enjoyed immensely. And I've stayed in my share of Holiday Inns and La Quuintas and anjoyed them as well.

I've also stayed at the Poly and Beach Club, and enjoyed them immensely as well. My kids had the time of their lives at Stormalong Bay.

Different strokes for different folks. Fortunately, my husband and 3 kids-- who could not stay at one room in a Disney moderate-- all agree. So there's no need to justify anything to anyone.

Stay where you want to stay. Find the resort or hotel that makes the most sense to your vacation style, your budget, your taste.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Stay where you want to stay. Find the resort or hotel that makes the most sense to your vacation style, your budget, your taste.

I agree. It's all about what things are important to you and what fits what you want to spend on a particular trip.

 

[DJFan88]

One thing I've noticed about deluxes is that for the parks they use bus transportation for, it usually isn't ideal. At BC, you're sharing with YC, Boardwalk, Swan and Dolphin. That's five large resorts sharing one tiny bus, with everyone wanting to get to MK for rope drop. Have fun. Boat, walking, and monorail access I guess makes up for the buses, but take that into consideration. If you're spending more of your time at Epcot or in HS, then perhaps one morning on the MK or AK bus is doable. But if you want to stay deluxe and spend most of your time in MK, try a monorail

With the exception of the All-Stars, POP and AoA as values don't share buses with another resort, which cuts transportation and loading time. Sometimes the All-Stars get split up at park closing too. Disney does try to make up for the fact that the resorts that have to rely solely on buses aren't completely out of luck.

Every resort has its own feel to it and I'm sure anyone can find their home away from home. Have a magical trip!

I had to look some of this up since I wondered after reading this how it'd factor in.
Not sure how this really applies if POP has it's own bus but has 2880 rooms and the BC shares a bus with similar resorts who each have lesser number of rooms. Example All STars has 5740 rooms, 298 suites, BC with YC has 1197 rooms, 112 suites, 208 villas. Boardwalk 378rooms, 20 suites, 533 villas.Dolphin does have more, like 1509 and swan has 756 and 191 suites between. The Moderate POR with POFQ has 3056. CBR which buses it's own resort with multiple stops has 2,112 rooms. So, conversely the buses similarly service the same number of rooms? Yes, there is still more at the Epcot circle,if comparing to POP. But I don't think it's as dramatic. But, it's also possible that they have more buses out where the need is greater. Also, I think just as you say they sometimes split up some busses at park closing, I think they do that for all the resorts, maybe not splitting them up, but sending out more busses. (I know for a fact that whatever resort I'm currently staying at, the resort I stayed at last time has 5 busses to 1! I know cause I watch them go by while waiting at the park.)
Point is,for every person who claims their place has the best busses, there is someone who'll tell you that the busses there are lousy. Just not sure there is a real factor here.
If a person has a car, perhaps using it to go to AK would help??? Don't know, never tried that. Guess you're just stuck if going to MK, unless you really want to do the whole walking/monorail transfer. Wonder how that'd work out? Probably fine under some circumstances in the middle of the day,but of course not at night.

 

[DJFan88]

The other two nights are at Riverside, which we are paying $137/nt for and solely because we spend a lot of time at downtown disney and really like riding the riverboats back and forth.

For us, we stay at the values for a quick trip, or POR. The rest of the time, we save the $$ and go offsite. It's been great and the money we save has been phenomenal. We can easily do a 5 night trip for 2 with no-expiration tickets and all food/transportation/souveniers for less than $1200 all in.

I agree --- POR is wonderful! In fact, we'll be back next year, because it's my favorite! We are going to split stay BC, however, because I wanted to try it. But I can't imagine going and not going back to POR. We go at least 9 nights so no big deal on split stay.

 

[disneyfan2kids]

Well said

Awesome! And I agree! Some of my favorite memories with my kids happened at the Disney resorts themselves. Finding hidden mickeys in the carpets or the lamps. Waiting at the bus stops doing disney trivia. Sitting in the room late night watching the "top 7 must see's at Disney" that is on all the time and knowing her dialogue word for word and trying to one up each other while repeating. Having Mickey or Stitch (?!) give you your wake up call. Mickey gear as far as the eye can see in every shop. Mickey waffles. pretzels, and mac and cheese available 24/7. Good stuff... All of it.

 

[MolonLabe]

Value is in the eye of the beholder.

I will never spend a minute at a Value but will happily scrimp and save an extra year for a deluxe. and not just because I can get a queen size bed.

I've stayed at POP (value) to Contemporary and I'm going back to CR next month.

Deluxe rooms at WDW are much bigger than their value counterparts but they are tiny in comparison to what would rate 'deluxe' elsewhere.

If we were to do another full on commando style full open to close every day trip, I'd go back to POP. Why not? It's not like you get anything really better at POP over CR (or Poly or GF) if you are only sleeping in your room at night and noting else.

The beds and linen aren't that much nicer either. Certainly not to rate the price difference. They are all inferior to what I have at home.

I am choosing CR for our upcoming trip for convenience more than anything.

We have 3 MK days and a MNSSHP night, walking to an from MK is a huge benefit... considering we have some early nights we'll be using our balcony to view Hallowishes on two of those nights. It's like paying for private viewing and then we can go right to bed.

Hopefully the crappy monorail won't fail us on our 3 EP days. We may or may not head back to CR early on two of those EP nights to watch fireworks from the balcony... again. None of us care for illuminations.

DHS is a close cab ride away. Deluxe bus service sucks, and that's putting it kindly.

We're giving deluxe one last try this trip, from the small rooms (for the price) to the failing 'perks' (like monorail service and buses), we are about done with staying on property. The biggest push for us this trip was free dining to be honest.

As to increased foot traffic in Deluxes, aside from Poly, you only have to deal with that around the lobby... it's not an issue around your room, especially not at CR.

Well, I suppose it may be if you are on a lower level, but we've never stayed below the 11th floor.