Poly - love the vibe, watching the water pageant and fireworks from the beach, spacious rooms, lots of excellent room locations close to the main building, boat to MK, Oasis pool, Lapu Lapu and bread pudding at Tambu Lounge
POFQ - love the vibe and theming, so very, very, small - compared to the other moderates - that is my favourite thing.... you cannot beat the size!
My favorite resort is the Wilderness Lodge! I love the ambiance, theming, food choices, and the boat to the Magic Kingdom! I have never stayed at any of the moderates.
Deluxe: Animal Kingdom Lodge by a long shot. I stayed at Kidani, but the whole resort is nice and relaxing. The theming is great. I had a standard view, but there are so many places to relax and see the animal. The quick service place is great, and the whole resort is beautiful and unique.
I've only stayed at a moderate once, so I don't have much to offer there. I stayed at Coronado Springs and liked it. Good bus service, comfortable rooms, and I loved the hammicks next to the lake.
Deluxe- Beach Club! Being able to walk into Epcot and Hollywood Studios is awesome. Swimming in Stormalong Bay and getting ice cream from Beaches and Cream / Ample Hills are our favourite things.
Moderate- POFQ- Boat to Disney Springs is fantastic. We also love the vibe and size of resort. Beignets are pretty good too
We have loved all of our deluxe stays, but the Poly is our favorite for the following reasons:
- beautiful tropical atmosphere
- great pool as it backs up to the beach with a distant view of the castle (can watch fireworks while swimming)
- Captain Cooks
- beach for watching the fireworks
- just 2 monorail stops from MK and a quick 5-7 minute walk to the TTC to catch the Epcot monorail
I can't compare the mods as we've only stayed at one (CBR), but we loved everything about it and wouldn't hesitate to go back.
Deluxe: The Grand Floridian. The theming is luxurious, the rooms are large. We had amazing experiences with the CM's during our stay. Just loved everything about it.
Moderate: Port Orleans French Quarter. Cute theming. Small resort and everything is close. Good bus service.
Deluxe - the Contemporary. Our favorite part about it was having that short walk to MK! MK is our favorite park and the one where we spend the most time, so we really loved not having to use buses or even the monorail. We also thought the rooms were so sleek and nice looking (and spacious), and we liked that the bathroom had a separate toilet room.
Mod - POFQ - we really like how small the resort is and that they only have one bus stop. My kids always liked their food court and pool too.
Deluxe- For me its a toss up between the Poly and the Boardwalk. I love the vibe of the Poly and the convenience of the monorail to go to MK and the walk to the TTC to go to EPCOT is barely a 5 minute walk. The Boardwalk is such a great vibe as well. You can't beat waking into EPCOT at the International Gateway and also being able to walk to DHS.
Moderate - Coronado Springs. I believe it to be the most underrated resort on property. The new rooms are beautiful and the grounds are very well maintained.
Deluxe - any of the Epcot resorts including Swan/Dolphin, we just stay at whichever one is the less but my heart belongs to YC. I love the more adult feel of it over BC, I love the location and I love the views.
Moderate - I really just stay at whichever one is less and have no loyalty to any of them, I find something to like about all of them. We have stayed the last three moderate stays at CSR but again just because it was less.
Our 1st deluxe stay isn't until June (AKL)
Our favorite moderate FQ. It is themed nicely and everything is just a 5 minute walk away and I actually like the food court there and on our last 2 trips they have upgraded our rooms. I always book standard rooms (cause we are just there to sleep) but on our 3rd trip they upgraded us to a garden view very close to the front of the complex and on the 4th trip they gave us a beautiful 3rd floor river view.
Deluxe - Board Walk for the themeing, location near Epcot and DHS and the bars and restaurants on the boards to say nothing of the nightly entertainment.
Moderate - POR, really the only mod we've stayed at with the exception of 2 nights at POFQ, no reason other than familiarity.
Only stayed once at Deluxe but really enjoyed AKL with the savannah view. Unlike anything else out there IMO.
Favorite Moderate has to be CBR (at least pre construction). Yes it's huge but the vibe is fantastic there, pool is great, it just blew us away. Beautiful grounds. We did stay in a preferred room to keep close to everything however. Also of note is that the buses were very short rides to the very close HS and EP.
Your favorite deluxe resort: Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge
Why? The theming. It's immersive and relaxing.
Your favorite moderate resort: Port Orleans Riverside
Why? Enjoy the theming of the Alligator Bayou section. Decent location in terms of travel time to EPCOT and MK
Favorite is the Wilderness Lodge for its themeing and close proximity to the Magic Kingdom. We also loved the Beach Club for its location at the Boardwalk and World Showcase.
Deluxe: This is tough between the Wilderness Lodge and AKL. Wilderness wins out because of the boat transportation to MK while AKL has you stuck on buses wherever you want to go. The AKL is the best of the two if you just compare the resorts themselves though in our opinion.
Moderate: As many others have said, POFQ. It is small, very nicely themed, and offers a boat to Disney Springs.