Would you put more emphasis on location/overall ambience vs. room condition??

[minniebeth]

My priorities:
1. clean and pristine room and more importantly the bathroom (newly refurbed or brand new would top the list!)
2. resort ammenities
3. theming
4. location

That's why staying at Art of Animation in early July was amazing for me...new modern bathroom was the nicest I've ever stayed on property.

 

[Dwo]

Ambience - if I dont like the theme and feel of the resort I wont be happy there even if all brand new furnishings.

CBR had a great vibe and theme even though furnishings a bit tired.

Never had a cleanliness problem at any Disney resort.

 

[CanadianPaco]

First and most important I need a nice, clean room. After that theme and location.

I agree!!

 

[guppy1013]

Location location location! We have stayed at all star movies(2x), boardwalk villas, wilderness lodge, and dolphin. Love places with multiple modes of transportation- boat to Epcot and HS, or even walk from the Epcot resorts. And staying at those Epcot resorts gives you the boardwalk for night life too. Stayed at Dolphin last time and Swan booked for November/December. The rooms are amazing....heavenly beds, wow. But obviously, no "Disney" theming, no DDP..maybe priorities will change once girls get older

 

[pepe of ohio]

Most important for us.... Location and feeling totally relaxed at that resort....

First off, location.... Like other modes of transportation besides just buses.... Being close to a park, best for us has been WL....

We're totally relaxed at this resort ( over 10+ stays) must mean something,,,, the boat to the MK is the cincher...very compact resort all under one roof... Saves us a ton on unnecessary walking and time....

 

[Planogirl]

I want first and foremost a relatively quiet resort. I love a place to unwind once we get out of the parks. I love to stroll around and sit on a bench or whatever when we are back at the resort. Cleanliness is also important but anything beyond that is just extras.

 

[waynesgirl]

See, this is a great question...

My DH normally doesn't care about the room- air/heat, clean, basic, and comfortable bed is all he cares about on a trip...unless it is Disney, of course.

I work for hotels, so I tend to be a little more precise on what I book and what I want. I want good reviews (I pull from a variety of sources), I want wi-fi, breakfast, and indoor corridors for safety. I prefer built within 5 years.

When at Disney, for both of us, it is a little different. At first, it was pricing when we started going, thus off-site or values. But as we go farther into our trips, we prefer location and convenience in travel. We don't necessarily care about a food court/dining options on site- there are still a lot of CS options in each park we want to try- or even about the pool/theming-I generally forget my swimsuit in the mad rush to pack everyone else's clothes and stuff- but we do care about the travel options so that is why we pretty much have ended up in Deluxe properties over the last several visits. We find it to be superior customer service regardless of the resort level but long bus rides are a pain and the EP and MK resorts provide the easiest methods to hit multiple parks in a day, which is our style.

 

[cluvsdisney]

My first priority would be ammenites then location.

I really expect any room I rent anywhere to be clean so I don't really take that into consideration when choosing a hotel/resort. In general, we stay in chain hotels (Disney, Wyndham, Marriott, Hyatt, etc) and find the housekeeping is fine.

 

[DougEMG]

1. clean and pristine room
2. Location
3. resort ammenities
4. theming


Which is why I prefer to stay in an Epcot resort or MK resort.

 

[marylandgirl]

I definitely pick location over anything. I like convenience of traveling to/from parks (ex. a monorail resort). Then it would be theming for me. While I love all the monorail resorts for their location, The GF is a bit too stuffy for me. Like something like Poly, with more of a laid back feeling to it. I think then it would come down to room size, updated and cleanliness. Don't care too much about amenities as we don't spend a whole lot of time around resort.

 

[Land Shark]

For us depends on the timing and length of stay. If a short trip or during F&W we like to stay at any of the EPCOT resorts since that is where we spend the most time. And we are happy at any of them so it usually comes down to where we can get the best rate.

For longer trips, it usually depended on theming and what resort the kids would enjoy the most based on their age and interests, since we would spend more time there. When they were very young it was the All Star resorts. Then we moved to a MK resort since we spent most time there and then AKL a couple times after it opened.

So in summary i guess we would be:
1. Location
2. Resort amenities
3. Theming
4. Never had an issue with cleanliness

 

[Mousemommy1]

OP here.

I personally have never had any major issues with cleanliness at a WDW resort either. I fully expect any resort/hotel that I am paying to stay at should be clean and in good working order.

I guess at Disney, that gets magnified, because when you start looking at location, you start looking at big $$$$ and just expect cleanliness that much more.

I have found in asking people about room condition at a resort, they will sometimes say the room was less than perfect but everything else was great so they are willing to overlook the room. I wouldn't.

 

[patsal]

Clenliness, location, amenities, theming. Don't get me wrong I love a well themed room, but if it is skeevy or not located where I want to be then I don't want to be there.
Amenities are lower on the list because I sometimes trael with a different purpose. 2 days for food and wine I won't be in the rom anyway, just clean and close is important. 14 day extended family vacation amenities become important.
While a giant Mouse or whatever paint job is cute in the end I want clean!

 

[goodferry]

For us location, amenities, transportation are important. I have never had a room at WDW I felt was in an unacceptable condition

 

[Masonmj84]

For us location, amenities, transportation are important. I have never had a room at WDW I felt was in an unacceptable condition

Same.

We don't care for the values because the theming is not attractive to us and the rooms seem a bit spartan. We also don't care about a food court because we eat mostly TS. Plus, we worry about being overrun by unruly groups of teenagers.

In contrast, the mods fit the bill for most trips because they provide most of what we're looking for: nice enough rooms, queen beds (except CBR), attractive theming and grounds, covered bus stops, and pool area with hot tub, water slide, and towels. For us, the price difference of moderate over value is well worth it.

On the other hand, we have a hard time justifying the price difference between deluxe and moderate based on amenities alone. We're not into CL (because we like eating a lot of TS meals, CL is too much food - and while we like a lot of the restaurants in the deluxe resorts, we don't need to stay in the resorts to eat in the restaurants). Room-wise, the average deluxe is maybe 30% bigger and nicer than a mod. But, to us, most of this is just fluff as we find the moderate rooms perfectly adequate. So, for us, based solely on amenities, the price difference of deluxe over moderate isn't close to being worth it.

For us, the biggest thing the deluxes have going for them is location. And we value that. A lot. But even the best situated deluxe resorts require you to use busses to visit 2 parks (we don't drive at WDW). So we're of the opinion that, to get enough bang for your buck staying deluxe, you about have to do a split stay (specifically, a MK resort/EP resort split). And even then, we're of the opinion that it's not worth it without substantial room discounts (because you can always stay mod and take cabs for far less than the rack rate difference).

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

Personally, we think both are equally important and would not choose a resort unless it met our needs/wants 110%. It's too much $$ to spend unless we are confident we will be 110% happy!