Favorite DISNEYWORLD Resort Hotel
 

What is your favorite DISNEYWORLD Resort hotel? So many to pick from, not sure where to stay... Will not be traveling with kids.. Thanks!

Club level at Disney's Yacht Club or the Grand Floridian.

I've researched a lot, and we are going to split our stay between the Yacht Club and the Contemporary. There are good pictures (inside and out) of all the resorts at allearsnet.com, and disboards.com has a great resort forum that you might want to visit.

What's your price range. My favorite is Animal Kingdom Lodge but it's pricey. For closest to the Magic Kingdom, try Polynesian or Grand FLoridian.

Animal Kingdom Lodge. Nothing quite like this anywhere else. Maybe Africa. Very cool to be so close to the animals, and the inside of the hotel with its African theme is spectacular.

We usually "splurge" when we travel so I would prefer the more deluxe resorts.
Tandoori Girl- At the Animal Kingdom Lodge, are the safari view rooms worth the extra bucks? Have you tried the African theme restaurant there?

Thanks!

I thought they were worth it. The Lodge has animals hanging out on all sides of it, but the majority are in that central feeding area. Are there balconies on the back rooms? The balcony was a lot of fun, watching the animals and the feeding.

They have educational up-close opportunities there as well, with sort of a central area outside the lobby, Mickey's "rangers" to tell you about the animals, and a night-time fire in an outdoor fireplace. I recall there was some African-style storytelling when we were there, which we passed on but it sounded cool.

The pool there is also wonderful. It has a waterfall slide. There is a very reasonable small food mart at the hotel that has pre-packaged salads and sandwiches that are very good and very reasonable for sitting poolside. We went to the restaurant for dinner and it was excellent. I think it was called Junku. I'm not sure if you'll want to spend that much for your kids, it is pricey high-end nouvelle cuisine, some African wines that were very good. For breakfast, we had the concierge level comp-ed to us as an anniversary present from a friend, and had breakfast and happy hour there, maybe lunch, I don't recall. I have no idea what that costs but heard it was high so it might not be worth it. But I really loved the whole experience.

The view from the safari rooms are worth the extra money. Giko in the AKL is very good but I haven't eaten at the less formal buffet style restaurant.

Frankly, it is easy to walk into Epcot from either the Boardwalk or the Yacht/Beach Club and I've stayed in all of them.

Easier to get to the Magic Kingdom from the Grand, the Polyneasian, and the Contemporary and I've stayed in all of those, too.

Faster to get from the Yacht/Beach or Boardwalk to MGM Studios...

Best pool??? for the kids?? I think, without question the Yacht/Beach with its sandy bottom, water slide, and right next to the great ice cream parlor.

Have a great trip.

Thanks all for your responses. Helped alot!

My husband and I attended a convention for his work at the Coronodo Springs and it was wonderful. The rooms were nice but a little "colorful" but the creme de la creme were the acres and acres of the most georgous grounds I've ever seen. Each pool was in its own tropical setting and there were hammocks, footbridges, and flora and fauna everywhere. Would definatly stay there again.

If the Contemporary has reopened, a vote for the 2-3 story "wings" that are on the small beach along the lake.

Timely thread, thanks. We're just finalizing our vacation plans today and decided to tack 3 days in DisneyWorld onto our trip to Cancun.

We we're deciding between the Polynesian and the Animal Kingdom Lodge and opted for the latter based on the comments on this thread (and the rate it pages.) Our kids will love the ability to see the animals from the room.

BTW, the rate through Expedia was almost $150 a night less than the rate through Disney's website for the Savannah View room.

What happened to the Contemporary??? What do you mean if it has re opened? Did Hurricane Charley hit it?

AKL is beautiful and savanah room is very nice. If you are going to spend much of your time there, in the hotel complex, it's great. But if you are going to be in the various kingdoms more than at the hotel, it was my least favorite place. It's the last stop on the inter-transit busing systems and we had terrible waits both up an back at this location.

I think the Boardwalk resorts area and the Yacht Club especially are great, plus cut out that "commute". You aren't going to run back for a couple of hours in the pool, if you need 45 minutes to an hour each way for the trip to your hotel. You are also much more off the beaten path for the better restaurants. The ones at AKL are underwhelming and don't have a choice of ADULT/ higher end restaurants for a couple, if that's what you are looking for.

The last time that I was at WDW, The Contemporary was available to only members of the military. Was the normal resort for the military being refurbished? Sorry if I dated myself.

Last year at this time Shades of Green (the military resort) was being refurbished, so the military folks got the same rates for the Contemporary. It was never closed, but just filled up with military folks. Check mousesavers.com for special rate codes if you don't like to pay rack rate.

I haven't (yet) stayed there but the Grand Floridian is just so beautiful!

I disagree totally that AKL does not have wonderful food in a romantic setting. Jiko was excellent. Check the menus for AKL from this list:

http://allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

I did not care for Jiko's food. We had better food from them through room service than we got in the restaurant itself. It was almost cold and our reservations didn't get us in as promptly as expected. I can't stand cold food that is supposed to be hot.

And I have stayed at about 6 different DWorld properties and you don't have much CHOICE at AKL. There are better restaurants within the DW system and you have easier access to a great majority of them staying almost anywhere else.