Which Resort to Choose?

[itsMichelle]

So I'm planning a trip for 2014 sometime during the Flower and Garden Festival.

Ideally, I would prefer to stay in a resort for less then 250$ a night. Unfortunately that pretty much eliminated all the Epcot resorts which are the only ones I've ever been in so I have no way to judge/compare any of the ones I'm looking at.

This is what I was thinking:
AoA - LM or a suite if there happens to be a discount getting me to around my magic price
CBR
CSR
POR
POFQ
and -maybe- POP

These are my main concerns:
Having to take the bus everywhere. I'm used to being within walking distance of HS and Epcot so I'm afraid of having to rely on the buses to get everywhere - therefore I'd prefer the resorts with the shortest average bus ride, especially to MK and Epcot. AK/DHS are low priority.
I would like to stay somewhere that has good food! I don't need TS I am plenty happy with CS and QS as I don't eat too much. I'm also not picky!
I need a resort that I can spend some downtime at and not feel too much like I'm missing the Boardwalk. I usually take one day for just staying at the Resort pool. I'm 21 so I don't need any fancy slides or nothing - just a nice relaxing pool area.

I will be meeting up with a friend for the first time on this trip hyper. So again, a nice resort area would be really lovely so we can spend time chatting and such outside the parks

 

[elaw]

So I'm planning a trip for 2014 sometime during the Flower and Garden Festival.

Ideally, I would prefer to stay in a resort for less then 250$ a night. Unfortunately that pretty much eliminated all the Epcot resorts which are the only ones I've ever been in so I have no way to judge/compare any of the ones I'm looking at.

This is what I was thinking:
AoA - LM or a suite if there happens to be a discount getting me to around my magic price
CBR
CSR
POR
POFQ
and -maybe- POP

These are my main concerns:
Having to take the bus everywhere. I'm used to being within walking distance of HS and Epcot so I'm afraid this might ruin the trip - therefore I'd prefer the resorts with the shortest average bus ride to MK and Epcot. AK/DHS are low priority.
I would like to stay somewhere that has good food! I don't need TS I am plenty happy with CS and QS as I don't eat too much. I'm also not picky!
I need a resort that I can spend some downtime at and not feel too much like I'm missing the Boardwalk. I usually take one day for just staying at the Resort pool. I'm 21 so I don't need any fancy slides or nothing - just a nice relaxing pool area.

I will be meeting up with a friend for the first time on this trip hyper. So again, a nice resort area would be really lovely so we can spend time chatting and such outside the parks

Have you considerd the Swalpin? (Swan and/or Dolphin)
Of the Disney resorts on your list, POR (my favorite Moderate) ,POFQ and CSR are pretty close to EPCOT/ DHS and CSR is a bit further out but closer to DHS. None are particularly close to the MK. I personally would choose POR if those were my choices.

 

[itsMichelle]

Have you considerd the Swalpin? (Swan and/or Dolphin)
Of the Disney resorts on your list, POR (my favorite Moderate) ,POFQ and CSR are close to EPCOT/ DHS and CSR is closer to DHS

I did, right now their rates do not fit my budget. They are over $300 a night! The cheapest I could find within any of my speculative dates is $283 and that's a bit more then I'm comfortable with. On top of that I would need transportation from the airport. I was originally planning to stay there as last year my mother and I were able to book a room with AAA for $189 a night during the Summer. I will be constantly checking to see if a decrease happens but at this time it's not doable

POR is my number one right now because I've read so many fantastic reviews of the resort here, it makes me really want to try it out

 

[elaw]

I did, right now their rates do not fit my budget. They are over $300 a night right now. The cheapest I could find within my dates is $283 right now and that's a bit more then I'm comfortable with. On top of that I would need transportation from the airport. I was originally planning to stay there as last year my mother and I were able to book a room with AAA for $189 a night during the Summer, but the rates as of now are too high. I will be constantly checking to see if a decrease happens but right now it's not doable

POR is my number one right now because I've read so many fantastic reviews of the resort here, it makes me really want to try it out

I think all of the moderates are great ... even though we can afford to stay deluxe, we like to split stay with a moderate during the first couple/few days of our trip. Sure it's nice to be able to walk to the parks (EPCOT/DHS) but the busses have never ruined any of our trips.

 

[Sue M]

Our fav moderate is POR. Love the mansion section, either Magnolia Terrace or Acadian house are great locations. Beautiful grounds, great food court and the boat to DTD is fun. They also have evening entertainment in the lounge.

 

[itsMichelle]

I think all of the moderates are great ... even though we can afford to stay deluxe, we like to split stay with a moderate during the first couple/few days of our trip. Sure it's nice to be able to walk to the parks (EPCOT/DHS) but the busses have never ruined any of our trips.

More often then not the buses were fine. There was however this one time on my last trip they were absolutely terrible. We waited at the Dolphin 45 minutes for a bus to MK. When it finally came it was already packed . Almost missed an ADR because of it! In the end though seeing the castle completely erased any aggravations as I had, as it always does.

I don't mind taking the buses in general I would just like to minimize time spent on them I'm just afraid of having to rely on them to get everywhere so I was more interested in knowing what other peoples experiences were at the resorts I'm considering. I know the MK bus is shared between BW, BC, YC and Swalphin. So I guess the question I should have asked are which resorts buses has the least other resorts on it.

 

[elaw]

More often then not the buses were fine. There was however this one time on my last trip they were absolutely terrible. We waited at the Dolphin 45 minutes for a bus to MK. When it finally came it was already packed . Almost missed an ADR because of it! In the end though seeing the castle completely erased any aggravations as I had, as it always does.

I don't mind taking the buses in general I would just like to minimize time spent on them I'm just afraid of having to rely on them to get everywhere so I was more interested in knowing what other peoples experiences were at the resorts I'm considering. I know the MK bus is shared between BW, BC, YC and Swalphin. So I guess the question I should have asked are which resorts buses has the least other resorts on it.

I found the busses from the Deluxe EPCOT resorts to be some of the longest waits. POFQ seemed to have the shortest waits whe we stayed there (It sometimes shares with POR) but most of the other Mods don't share with other resorts. All of the resorts can have bus issues from time to time.