Disney Question of the Week: Where should I stay at Walt Disney World?

It's tough for me to answer this one really, as it all depends on the travel party and what you like to do there. Typically our travel party consists of myself, my husband and our 3 kids PLUS usually my husband's parents as well. We usually arrange to meet other family members down there at some point also, like my parents. However, my parents are not as into seeing all the parks as we are and they are big golfers, so they may spend some time doing some golfing while at Disney.

I can tell you one thing I NEVER recommend is staying offsite. I don't care about your budget and if you think it's a great way to save money, I just believe to get the whole Disney experience you need to be at a Disney hotel, or at the VERY least one of the hotels right in the Downtown Disney area. Otherwise, you are dealing with the commute TO the parks as well as the commute WITHIN the parks. You have to pay for parking each time you visit a park and you don't get the advantage of the Extra Magic Hours. There are certain days of the week that Disney parks are open 1 to 3 hours early or stay open 1 to 3 hours later in the evening and you can't take advantage of that unless you are staying in a Disney resort. Perhaps I'll change my thoughts on this in later years but for now that's just my advice.


I'll never forget the first time I took my husband to Walt Disney World. This was before we were married and I had a friend who had a wedding in Florida in February. This was the perfect chance for me to make a return to Walt Disney World as an adult. Frank and I had previously had a trip to Disneyland in California, but he had never visited WDW. As a child he had grown up in California so he had all kinds of DisneyLAND experience but he couldn't quite comprehend a visit to Walt Disney World. I was looking forward to showing it to him.

Once we were there, one of the things he couldn't get over was the sheer SIZE of the parks. This was not Disneyland with one little park. This was a group of parks scattered around the area and all of them huge. Two years later we would return, this time bringing his parents along with us and also introducing them to WDW for the very first time. Their reaction was the same regarding the size. They now return with us on just about every trip, especially with the kids, and I think sometimes they look forward to it just as much, if not more, than we do.

Despite the size of the Walt Disney World area, all Disney properties offer continuous service to and from their parks in some form or another. Even the Value resorts offer bus service to all Disney parks as well as Downtown Disney and the water parks. Going up another level to a moderate resort gains you a slightly larger room some additional ameneties and sometimes other transportation options such as boats. Stay at a deluxe or home away from home resort, you get more options available at your resort and more transportation options too, such as monorail service.

Some people will stay at off-site hotels because the hotels offer shuttle service to the parks, but most of the time those shuttles only run on certain schedules at certain times of the day, and those buses don't drop you off at the parks or pick you up at the parks in areas that are as convenient as the Disney buses in most cases. Do you really want to spend more time waiting for a bus? I would say probably not.

The Disney value properties such as Pop Century and the All-Star Movies, Music or Sports hotels are great for families wanting to stay within a budget. You can get some great deals on these rooms especially during Non-Peak times of the year. All of these properties offer free bus service to and from each of the Disney parks that runs on a continual basis. I stayed at the All-Star Music resort during a trip in February of 1997 and even though it was just my husband and myself we still enjoyed it. We liked the convenience of the food court to get drinks and food quickly at our hotel, and the bus service worked out great for us too.

Moderate hotels such as Port Orleans Riverside offer a little more than value hotels. You still get several pools on property and the food court, but you also get some other kind of food options, like a sit-down restaurant on the property. The Port Orleans properties also offer boat service to the Downtown Disney area and you can rent bikes and boats on property to ride around in the water around that area. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside (formerly Dixie Landings) in 1999 when it was myself and my husband, as well as my father-in-law and mother-in-law and my sister-in-law and her husband. We each had our own room and they were a bit bigger than the value rooms but still nothing too fancy for us. There was no need when we tended to spend most of our time wandering the parks anyway. We loved the grounds of the resort, despite the hike from our rooms to the food court. Heck, we were at Walt Disney World, where you walked all over the place anyway, what was another walk?

Deluxe hotels like the Contemporary or Polynesian are really something to see. Many people shun the Contemporary for the fact that it's NOT really so Contemporary any longer, but you simply can't beat the convenience of being able to walk directly to the Magic Kingdom from that resort. It's perfect if you have small kids who really want to spend most of their time in the Magic Kingdom anyway. Plus, if you are bringing your own stroller to the parks, you don't have to drop it off at the end of the day at the park and haul a sleeping kid on a tram or a monorail or a bus. You just walk right back to your room and drop that sleeping kid right off in the bed at the hotel room. It's great. We've stayed at the Contemporary twice and loved it.

We have also stayed at the Polynesian where we had a great lagoon view room. We could see the castle across the water. I can remember getting up with my 3-year-old son during the early morning hours when it was still dark outside and we sat together and watched the castle change colors and it was great.

The highest and most expensive level is the Home Away From Home resorts. Here you get bigger rooms and suite options, kitchen or kitchenettes, and additional options such of boat transportation or the ability to walk to some of the parks. For example, if you stay at the Boardwalk or Beach Club you can walk to EPCOT where you enter the park through a different entrance than the rest of the general public. There are currently no HAFH resorts on the monorail line, but there is increasing speculation that the Contemporary is in the process of building a group of Disney Vacation Club resorts on their property. We'll just have to wait and see.

So, if you are a Disney Vacation Club member, you stay at the Home Away From Home properties and it's a great way to take advantage of additional Disney perks. We became Disney Vacation Club members last year finally and our next trip this November will be taking advantage of our membership to stay at both the Old Key West and the Saratoga Springs resort. We are looking forward to it. Previously we have stayed at the Boardwalk resort and we just LOVED it. With small kids, it was great to come back to the room, put them down for a nap, then sneak into another room to watch tv. Plus we had a full kitchen so we could prepare meals and snacks whenever we wanted to do so to save money. Although I have to admit, half the fun of going to Walt Disney World is being able to enjoy the many various food options that are there. Yes the food is expensive, but it's very rare that we are every disappointed in a Disney restaurant.

So where should you stay at Walt Disney World? My answer to that is ANYWHERE as long as it's a Disney resort. I don't really think you can be disappointed in any of them and the service at each one is usually top notch. If you still can't decided, send me your information about your party size, the ages of people in your group, and I'll give you some suggestions though.