Why You Should Stay at an Official Disney Hotel
Choosing where to stay can be a stressful conversation. I know this because I was recently discussing it with a family member.
I have a nephew who is taking his family to Walt Disney World for the first time, and he could stay at a condo in the area for cheap.
Disney
During the course of our conversation, I methodically detailed all the reasons he should choose a Disney resort instead. And now I’ll tell them to you.
Here’s why you should always stay at an official Disney hotel.
Disney Dining Plan Option
Disney
Let’s start with a few things you may not have considered or possibly even known.
My family member is a foodie, which is a constant source of humor between us. I literally cannot eat spicy food, or it could send me to the hospital.
Photo: Disney
Conversely, he did the One Chip Challenge and didn’t even need the milk. Yes, he’s a show-off.
Anyway, as a foodie, one of the reasons he’s excited about vacationing at Disney is all the wondrous dining he’s heard me praise for years now.
Photo: Disney
He’d planned to buy the Disney Dining Plan for his family, and he will. I strongly recommended it to him as I do for everyone.
However, what you might not know is that you must be staying at an official Disney resort to book a dining plan package.
Photo: Disney
So, this option wouldn’t even be available to my nephew if he chose that cheap condo instead.
As with most aspects of a Disney vacation, you get what you pay for.
Early Booking Windows for Special Events
Photo: Disney
Here’s a relatively new reason to stay at an official Disney hotel. You sometimes gain exclusive access to ticket options.
For example, as I’m typing this, the only people who can purchase tickets to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) at the moment are the ones staying onsite.
By the time you read this, the window will have opened for everyone else. People like me with existing fall reservations could book earlier.
Why does that matter? Many specialty event tickets sell out rapidly, sometimes in a matter of hours.
Disney Springs Halloween PhotoPass
Last year’s MNSSHP sold out literally every date, as did Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and most of the Disneyland After Dark parties.
So, when Disney provides guests with that exclusive booking window, it rewards everyone staying at official resorts with a de facto guarantee for ticket purchases.
We know that we won’t get sold out, and I’m speaking from experience here. Last week, I used the exclusive booking window to snag some MNSSHP tickets for Halloween Night.
And I’m so glad I did. This night became the first to sell out on Thursday, May 22nd, 162 days before Halloween.
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
People who weren’t staying at official Disney hotels only had a couple of hours to try to buy MNSSHP tickets for Halloween Night. Guests staying onsite had more than a week.
This sort of difference is crucial when booking exclusive Disney events.
Early Theme Park Entry
If you’ve read any of my writing this year, you know that I consider this reason the big one.
In fact, I just wrote an evaluation of several non-Lightning Lane options the other day. In my evaluation, I opined that the only viable one is…Early Theme Park Entry.
When you have this amenity, you gain control of your entire morning itinerary. You KNOW that you will enter the park 30 minutes before everyone else.
That’s the key benefit of this amenity. You enter a Disney theme park 30 minutes before anyone not staying at a Disney resort, which includes all the Central Florida area guests.
Early Theme Park Entry
So, you’re starting at/near the front of the line each day, allowing you to experience a park’s guest attraction before a large line forms.
Early Theme Park Entry cuts your wait time in half at an attraction like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Toy Story Mania, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, or Avatar Flight of Passage.
I swear by this amenity and consider it the biggest game-changer in terms of park visits other than Lightning Lane. And Lightning Lane costs money.
Free Water Park Visits
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon
During 2025 and most of 2026, guests staying at official Walt Disney World resorts gain an additional benefit.
On the first day of your trip, you can visit a Disney water park for free!
Currently, admission to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Disney’s Blizzard Beach costs $74 per adult and $68 per child ages three to nine.
So, this is a spectacularly valuable amenity for water park fans. The only catch is that water park visits aren’t free after the first day.
Blizzard Beach
Disney wants to give guests a way to relax and unwind on the first day of our vacations, and the timing on this amenity has proven ideal.
As of this week, both water parks are operating simultaneously for the first time in six (!) years.
Logistics
Westgate
As I diligently explained to my nephew, traffic qualifies as THE worst problem when staying off-site.
While many Central Florida hotels advertise shuttle service to and from the parks, they’re shaky on the details.
Visit Orlando
They don’t mention that the service is often daily rather than even hourly. The hotel basically dumps you at a theme park and abandons you there all day.
Also, the trip itself eats up far too much of your valuable park time as you navigate through aggravating Orlando traffic. And guess where this traffic is most congested!
Disney
Obviously, the answer is Disney, the most popular paid tourist destination in the world.
Thus, when you stay at a non-Disney hotel, you’ll spend far too much of your vacation wishing you’d picked somewhere closer.
Disney
Meanwhile, Disney’s logistics embody the ideal for any vacation, not just a theme park one.
When you travel, you want to get to and from your various destinations as quickly as possible.
Gold Monorail
Some Disney resorts reside RIGHT by the entrances to Disney theme parks. Others utilize Disney’s brilliant transportation options to sidestep Orlando traffic.
Specifically, the classic Disney monorail system and the new Disney Skyliner monorail system don’t require any use of roads.
Monorail at Disney’s Grand Floridian
Disney’s logistics in Orlando are the pinnacle of the entire theme park industry. That’s an objective fact.
Restaurants
Photo: Disney
Did you know that Disney owns and operates a Michelin star restaurant? That statement still blows my mind, yet it’s absolutely true.
Victoria & Albert’s won this most prestigious honor, stamping it as the pinnacle of theme park dining.
(Steven Diaz, Photographer)
Remarkably, this place is far from the only exquisite restaurant you’ll find Disney hotels.
While the menus at the Value Tier hotels generally aren’t as impressive, every property in the Moderate tier features at least one fine dining experience.
In the Deluxe Tier, you’ll find fabulous dining options such as ‘Ohana, California Grill, Jiko – The Cooking Place, Narcoossee’s, Olivia’s Café, and Whispering Canyon Café.
The diversity of these restaurants will shock you, with everything from tasty Polynesian plates to bottomless campfire skillets to the most delicious African cuisine.
Disney
Many Disney restaurants even host character meals, allowing you to interact with your favorite costumed characters during your meal. It’s as magical as Disney gets.
Value and Savings
Photo: Washington Post
For whatever reason, Disney has been wheelin’ and dealin’ so far in 2025.
While many casual tourists consider Disney hotel prices expensive relative to those in the surrounding area, I consider that belief factually inaccurate.
Photo: skillastics.com
Yes, some Disney hotels undeniably cost more, but it’s another example of consumers getting what they pay for.
Disney officials have cleverly created a vacation entry point for budgets of all shapes and sizes.
Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks crowds
On some occasions, Disney prices its properties even more generously, and that’s what is happening this summer.
Disney has recently offered more discounts than at any time over the past five years. So, you should get in while the getting is good.
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Feature photo: Disney
