Planning a trip to Disney World and can't decide which hotel to stay in. A value resort because we won't be in the room that often, but heard they are not quiet. And I'm a light sleeper. Or stay at a moderate resort.
Any suggestions?

How many people? What budget?

We've stayed in the Caribbean Beach type hotels several times. Room to rooom noise has never been an issue. If you can get an upper floor room and away from the busiest routes, the outside noise is not a problem either.

Go on Priceline and bid on resort in the specific area you want. You just might get the Gaylord Palms Resort which is quite nice, bus service and not on the resort (which can be a good thing). Go to www.biddingfortravel.com to see how to do the bidding process.

We have stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter twice and been very happy with it. It is a moderate. The rooms were quiet and the transportation convenient. We had an upper floor room each time.

Seconding Port Orleans; it's been fairly quiet when we've stayed there. I would imagine Caribbean Beach would be the same.

Gaylord Palms rooms that overlook the atrium area can be noisy (there's music in the atrium area as well as people at all hours), but the ones that overlook the parking lots are very quiet.

If you're travelling with small children...

We stayed at the Caribbean Beach hotel a bottom floor with a view of the pool.

Loved it. Our building was one of the ones further out, sorry can't remember the name. Easy to be in room and get to the pool. For us it was summer and the pool was open late so everyone relaxed after a hot day in the park.

We prefer the Coronado Springs for a moderate resort. Love the pool, the rooms have hair dryers,coffee makers and refrigerators (not sure all moderates do. There's a gym and hair dresser. Because its a convention resort there are a few more amentities than the other moderates. Plus they don't share bus routes with other resorts so makes for quicker transits.

www.DisBoards.com has an entire forum devoted to the hotels on Disney property with a FAQ for each. You might want to browse there for in-depth info. You will probably find comments about noise levels, or you can ask there.

thanks for your suggestions. There is only going to be 2 of us. Myself and my 15yr.old son. As far as budget is concerned I can afford either value or moderate.

Our family is just the two of us and a 15 year old!

If you haven't already, let him be part of the planning (ie checking the amenities for a 15 year old)

Our concerns now is that there is a bed for him and not a pull out couch because he's so tall.

We're headed to DC and chose a Residence Inn so we could each have our own bedroom.

There is a special offer- buy 4- get 3 days free with combo tickets (regular or park hopper) and food or $200.00 to spend card also added- being offered at Disney right now. That literally puts the price of everything combined at about 1/2 of "regular" rates or buying them separately.

I had a thread on this about 10 days ago- as my DD and also some of her friends' families- booked for June 2009. I helped them with locations and much else- as I had all the route maps and advice too from here and mousesavers, as well.

It's the best deal I've ever seen at WDW.

She's staying at Port Orleans because she wants the bus and the also a water station. It's also not far from Downtown Disney, the monorail and some other access choices she has chosen.

She has 4 people total in her package which saved more than $2,100- not even counting the food plan givens.

I'd look into it. Even if you don't want to spend the days in Disney, want to go to Sea World or Universal or whatever, this one is totally worth it.

You need to book by January 29th or very near that date. If your trip occurs before the end of March, you also get another $200 free card to use on anything else there.

I've stayed at the All Star Sports recently as well as the Beach Club and Old Key West in the past. The All star resorts are a really good value. We were there for a soccer tournament and this was the only hotel with the shuttle to the fields so we really had no choice. It actually worked out really well for us, we loved having the food court for an easy quick breakfast. We didn't spend much time at the hotel so really it was just a place to sleep. If you are concerned about noise stay away from the rooms that face the pool and the football area. We were on the back/parking lot side and it was very quiet. Some of the others in our group were facing the pool and it was noisy until very late (after midnight)

We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter with our grandson. The room was fine and quiet. Now, the food offered there was pretty bad.

We are having a "grand gathering" at the Polynesian. When we first signed up I nearly passed out when I saw the price for just the room. It was going to be $2500 for a week for me and my sister. Geez, I've gone to Europe on less. Anyway, with the new deal it is $2200 (total) for the room, 7 days worth of Park Hopper tickets for both of us, and a $200 dining card. I know we could stay somewhere cheaper but I like being on the Monorail.