Planning our Disney Trip: Accommodations

Planning for Disney is just as much fun for us as going to Disney (well, maybe not as much, but you get the idea). We take into account the following things:

– Crowd Calendar
– Dining
– Accommodations
– Fast Passes
– Transportation

There are basically two main options when thinking about visiting the WDW: Inside Disney property or Outside.

For a long time, my family and I stayed outside the Disney property. I remember when we were younger staying at a Holiday Inn in Kissimmee, FL. Back then the hotel stay was my dad’s greatest expense, together with meals (since flights were less than $100 and park admission was cheaper). We would eat at a Denny’s before hitting the parks and eat at a Burger King when coming out at night.

Right now, as an adult, I wouldn’t call that a vacation, but back then for our budget it was either doing that or not going to Disney World at all.

I am not against staying in a cheap motel, especially since that’s what your budget allows, but I would definitely recommend staying at a Disney hotel.

There are three levels of Disney hotels:

– Value
– Moderate
– Deluxe

I have stayed in all three of them. Here’s what I have to say:

1) Value:

Value Hotels include the All-Star hotels (movies, sports, music), Pop Century and Art of Animation.
I have visited the All-Stars Movie Resort. The hotel is very much like a Holiday Inn, but the grounds are amazing, especially for the children. I must add that there are a lot of families in these resorts. The Art of Animation resort has a new special “family suite” which is almost like two rooms in one. It has a room with full bath and two sofa beds (TV room and dining room) which also share a full bathroom. We have been very tempted to stay in this resort, but we never have.

All-Stars Movie Resort

The rest of the resorts have your standard room, food court and pools. Disney transportation also stops at these resorts. So far as I can tell, the difference between the Moderate/Deluxe resorts and the Value resorts when it comes to transportation is that most of the time the lines to wait for the buses do not have shade. Otherwise, is the same experience. Also, the order the buses go around the All-Stars hotels matters. Apart from peak times, when each resort has its own bus route, buses will visit All-Stars Sports first and Movies last. That means that if they are picking up, the bus may be less crowded if you’re staying at the Sports, and if you are tired from the park, you would be dropped off first at the Sports.

In my opinion the quality of the pools and food courts is comparable to the Moderate and Deluxe resorts and also, you are closer to the parks than a Holiday Inn in Kissimmee for about almost the same price.

2) Moderate:

Moderate resorts are our favorites if your party is small. We have stayed at the Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter. We have never visited Coronado Springs.

Port Orleans French Quarter Resort

We like the French Quarter the best because it is the smallest of them. It is cute and homey and no matter where you stay the bus stop/food court/pool area will be close by. There is only one bus stop and it’s near the front lobby. Just like the Value resorts, during park opening and closing hours the resort has one bus, but during slow times the route includes the Port Orleans Riverside. Still, it will stop at the French Quarter First.

Another thing we like about the French Quarter is it has boat access to Disney Springs. There is rarely a line to or from Disney Springs and the boat also makes a stop at the Riverside.

What we didn’t like about the Caribbean Beach is how big it is. It has several bus stops and getting from one place to the next takes a while.

Moderate Resorts are a good choice if you have a bigger budget. It’s worth it, in my opinion.

3. Deluxe:

Deluxe Resorts are expensive! At least in my opinion. They are very nice, but the cost outweighs the point of a resort at Disney. Besides, most resorts (if not all of them) in this category are part of Disney’s timeshare program (Disney Vacation Club).

We have stayed in the Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa once and we will do it again for our coming trip. What we like about this resort is the space. We like renting the two-bedroom villa when we invite our parents to come, but if we ever just visited ourselves we would probably rent a one-bedroom villa and have the kids stay in the sofa bed.

Another great point about these villas (excluding the studio, which resembles a regular room in the value/moderate resorts) is that they have kitchens. We usually either visit a Walmart or other grocery store if we’re traveling by car of order from Amazon’s Pantry/Now service to have enough food for a daily breakfast, snacks and even the occasional lunch. Food is expensive in WDW and we have found that having milk, coffee, cereal, eggs and quesadillas as a quick breakfast in the morning. We even buy sodas and beer in case we want something to drink besides water and save a lot by buying it outside the parks.

Those savings still don’t justify how expensive Deluxe Resorts are, unless you are using Disney Vacation Club rented points.

We use David’s Vacation Club Rentals. There are downsides to using this system, too. For example, once you request a quote you have 24 hours to decide and if you do, you have to pay for your stay 100%. There are no refunds, no cancellations, no changes. You better be sure once you make a decision. Still, when we visited we were three families: my family of four stayed in one room with full bath, my brother, his wife and one year old stayed in the other room with two queen beds and my parents stayed in the living room’s sofa bed. The cost of the room during peak season (it was during New Years) divided by the three families equaled the cost of a Moderate Resort.

The hotel was big, but gave us the opportunity to staying in the same space together. During our next visit we will rent the same room, but we will only be two families. Our kids are older and they will stay in the living room. We are going during the slow season and the cost per family will still be about the same as a moderate resort.

I hope you enjoy your next trip to Walt Disney World, Florida!

cheers!