Where is the best place to stay at Disney?

Disney's Polynesian Resort

Where you should stay depends on your budget, the number of people in your group/family, what kind of transportation you will need, and also personal preference. To simplify things, you have two main categories: On-site (Disney-owned) and off-site (non-Disney) hotels.

On-site (Disney owned): Disney has 17 resorts in three categories, Deluxe, Moderate, and Value. (There are more resorts than 17 if you include the Vacation Club ones, but let’s simplify things for now.)

Pros:
1-Staying in their resorts allows you to buy a “package” from Disney, that includes your park tickets, with options to include airfare, and the Dining Plan. If Disney runs any seasonal specials, it’s going to be on these packages, they generally don’t incentivize people to stay anywhere else.

2-If you like the idea of getting the Disney Dining Plan, which will allow you to basically pre-pay the majority of your food, then you have to stay on-site. Only Disney resort guests can get the Dining Plan.  (more on Dining Plan in later posts)

3-Disney provides buses that go from their resorts to all the parks all day long.  They also give you round trip transportation to the airport.  This could potentially save you from needing to rent a car. Several of their resorts are so close to certain parks, that you can get to them in 5 to 10 minutes by means of boats, walkways, or monorail. These are, of course, the more expensive ones to stay in. (naturally!)

4- Resort guests are given extra bonus time at the parks.  One park each day opens about an hour early, and one park each day stays open several hours later.  This can be a nice little bonus time for you to take advantage of.

5- Every Disney Resort is heavily themed with heavy with lots of Disney charm. Getting to have that Disney magic with you even when you go back to your hotel can be a great thing.

Cons:
1- First is money. If, for example, you want to be a short monorail ride from Cinderella’s Castle, be prepared to pay for it. Like all real estate, it’s all about location. Every Disney resort is nice, and all are kid-friendly. But, the value resorts can be quite a hike from the parks. It can take as long as 45 min to an hour to get from Disney’s All Star Movies Resort to Magic Kingdom on their buses. In my opinion, if you need the price range of the value resorts, you are better off staying at an Off-site location and renting a car.

2- Those extra park hours can sound like an awesome perk, but in actuality, because so many people stay on-site, there can still be a ton of people with long lines. In fact, many experts will tell you to avoid whichever parks offer the extra hours because those parks will be busier all day long.

3- All though being surrounded by Disney can be a great plus for Disney geeks like me, if you, or someone you’re traveling with are not a big fan of being surrounded by Mickey 24/7, then off-site may be a good idea. A break to a calmer, less Disney-fied hotel can be just the thing for some people.

4- Even the deluxe Disney resorts, while still having a lot to offer, are really just hotels. Which means one room and a bathroom. That means you may have four, five, or even six bodies in one small space. Getting ready in the morning, and coming back when you’re all tired and want to relax can be more difficult when you don’t have much room for people to spread out. One TV to fight over. One toilet to wait for. You get the idea… while it’s true that you may not spend that much time in your rooms, when you are there, you need it to work well for you.

Staying off-site:

Pros:
1- Cheaper rates. Quite often they are cheaper than Disney’s deluxe and moderate room rates, and the ones that are in the same ball park ($79-89) as Disney’s value resorts are usually much nicer. In other words, you stay at Disney’s value resorts which are glorified Holiday-Inn type rooms and far off from the parks, or for the same price, stay at a much nicer, swankier hotel, with more perks and probably the same travel distance away.

2- More room. Many times you can rent vacation units of even full homes that will give you tons of room- multiple bedrooms, kitchen, etc… (more on my favorite place like this in a minute)

3- If you belong to any type of vacation clubs, frequent user programs, etc… you may be able to take advantage of those by using one of their Orlando locations. It’s something to look into.

4- If you are booking less than six months away, availability may be low in Disney’s resorts- especially their moderate and value ones. Whereas they are usually many more options off-site.

5- Having your own car (or rental car) means that you don’t have to wait around for buses to come get you. You won’t have to stand and hold one of those handles on a packed bus at the end of a long day. And your travel time will probably be the same or not much longer that the on-site locations.

Cons:
1- No “Disney magic”. Enough said.

2- You won’t have all those buses taking you to all the Disney parks, so you will definitely have to rent a car if you don’t have yours there.

3- As I said before, no Disney Dining plan option. If that’s important to you, you may to stay on-site.

4- Off-site hotels may not be able to give you any help or advice on Disney related matters if you need it.

5- No extra park hours available.

Ok, so to sum up everything: Here’s my favorite of both types and what circumstances they’re good for:

Disney’s Polynesian Resort
If you: have a bigger budget, really want to be extremely close to Magic Kingdom (if you have 2-7 year old then that’ll be the favorite park), and have four or less people in your room, then my favorite is the Polynesian Resort. It’s got a gorgeous tropical theme, it is right across from the castle, and a quick monorail ride from Magic Kingdom. So if you have little ones under the age of four traveling with you, it’s wonderful to be able to leave the parks and get back to your room quickly for nap time. They have a wonderful pool- sitting on the beach while the kids swim, looking over the water towards the castle- that’s heaven to me!

Wyndam’s Bonnet Creek Resort:
If you: have bigger family or many people traveling with you,  like having more space, like the idea of having a kitchen to use, and want a quiet oasis to come back to each day then this is the place for you. All though not Disney owned, it’s location is great- you can see the Epcot ball from many of the rooms.  It’s a timeshare resort- but you don’t need to be a member. There are so many people selling their weeks, you can rent it for a song. Seriously it’s awesome. Last time we went with friends, and rented a three bedroom unit (holds 12 people) for 8 nights, for $1200. That’s $150 a night-which is great- but when you consider that if we had to rent traditional hotel rooms we’d have been in three rooms, then you really see the savings. Plus, the kids have their own rooms, with TVs, and there’s a full kitchen to have breakfast (and coffee!) in each morning, and a washer and dryer for laundry. Plus they have great pools, a lazy river, kids activities… it’s great. We usually rent from Redweek.com.  It’s a place where owners sell the weeks they can’t use. Check out their rates for yourself.