How to Decide Where to Stay at Disney

You’re ready to book your Walt Disney World vacation…and not a moment too soon!

Still, as you plan your dream trip to Disney, you’ll face one crucial decision right off the bat.

Which hotel will you pick to make your visit as magical as possible?

Here are a few tips on how to decide where to stay at Disney World.

The Price

Let’s not beat around the bush here. Money matters when planning a vacation.

I’ve been pricing Disney cruises all week, and I’m as price-sensitive as anyone.

Of course, I’m also like many of you because I’ll eventually say “Screw it!” and book a more expensive trip.

We all deserve to splurge a little in life, and vacation is the best possible time to do so.

Still, you want to remain budget-conscious when planning your trip.

So, you absolutely must consider pricing when booking your hotel room.

At Disney World, that generally means that you’ll choose the Tier of resort where you’ll stay.

You can book the Value Tier resorts, such as the All-Star properties, for the cheapest rates.

Alternatively, you can choose a Moderate Tier hotel, which often provides the best value.

Finally, you could go all-out and book a Deluxe Tier property, thereby giving yourself the best possible hotel stay.

There’s no wrong answer here, as your decision often comes down to two factors.

1) What’s your budget? 2) How much time will you spend at your hotel/in your room?

For people with tighter budgets, a Value Tier resort is perfectly fine, although I’ll add a pro tip.

You can often book a much better Moderate Tier hotel room for just a bit more money.

The upgrade often justifies the expense unless factor two outweighs factor one.

When you won’t spend much time at your hotel or in your room, you should book a cheaper one.

Again, there’s no wrong answer here as long as you’re staying onsite.

However, not choosing an official Disney hotel is a mistake, as we’ll discuss in a bit.

The Amenities

Every official Disney resort offers its fair share of amenities, all of which are terrific.

You cannot help but notice the Disney touches that Imagineers have imbued at every hotel.

As a baseline, every Disney World hotel hosts an immaculately themed pool and a restaurant.

Most resorts host multiple pools and resorts, but it’s another example of, “You get what you pay for.”

At Value Tier resorts, you should expect most of the restaurants to mirror mall food courts.

That’s actually a good thing, as it’ll allow your entire traveling party to find something they like.

Most vacation dining options are compromise choices. So, you’re just skipping to the last page here.

You’re eating at a place where everyone is sure to pick an entrée that appeals to them.

Similarly, the pools cater to the masses, as they’re huge and capable of hosting tons of people.

In reality, you’ll rarely encounter large crowds at the pools on all but the most crowded dates.

Most people at Disney World want to spend their time at the theme parks or shopping.

However, should you prefer better meals or higher-quality pools, you’ll find them at the better resorts.

Many of Disney World’s official hotel restaurants are a foodie’s dream come true.

One of them, while price-prohibitive for most, is even a Michelin Star restaurant!

Similarly, at least one pool at Disney’s Beach Club Resort is basically a mini-water park.

Again, amenities like this may matter greatly to you, or they may not.

Your answer will depend on how much time you spend at the resort.

The Location

I just mentioned Beach Club, which segues nicely into this conversation.

Not all Disney World resorts are created equally when it comes to location.

Some of them reside a fairly significant distance away from your favorite theme parks.

Others, like Beach Club, are right by the park, which will make your vacation soooo much more convenient. On the official Walt Disney World website, you can tell where a resort is.

Disney lists them by the area of the Orlando campus where they’re located, which is quite helpful.

When you plan to spend most of your time at a specific theme park, you should try to stay near there.

For example, the odds strongly indicate that Magic Kingdom will be your favorite theme park.

It’s the most popular theme park in the world and significantly more heavily attended than the others.

Presuming you fall in the majority, you should prioritize a Magic Kingdom Area resort.

Conversely, let’s say that you love the zoo and want to hang out at Disney’s Animal Kingdom a lot.

If so, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is your ideal hotel during your stay.

By thinking in terms of location, you can save yourself plenty of vacation aggravation.

The Transportation Options

Speaking of which, here’s the dirty little secret of Disney World vacations.

The internal bus system, while free and well managed, can be rather mercurial.

For this reason, you’d rather not spend any more time on the buses than is absolutely necessary.

When you stay at places like the All-Star resorts, you’re guaranteeing that you’ll ride the buses a lot.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. That’s totally fine. Millions of tourists have done it for more than 50 years.

Still, you avoid the chaotic nature of the buses by choosing a resort with better transportation options.

The Monorail Resorts all host monorail stations in their main buildings.

More recently, the Disney Skyliner has changed the way that people move around the campus.

When you choose a hotel with a Skyliner station, you can efficiently get to two different theme parks.

Those are EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT runs a monorail to Magic Kingdom.

So, you can connect to three different theme parks without ever needing a bus.

Then, we have places like Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground.

You can take boat service from these hotels and be dropped off right by Magic Kingdom’s front gate.

How much value will you get from such transportation? I would argue a lot.

Anyone who doesn’t mind riding on Disney buses won’t care at all, though.

Why Staying Onsite Is Better

When you stay at an official Disney World resort, you gain one other vital amenity.

Early Theme Park Entry provides you with access to a Disney park before it technically opens.

Guests staying onsite get to enter the theme park of their choice 30 minutes early.

So, you can enter a theme park that opens at 9 a.m. at 8:30, which is a huge benefit.

You can target one attraction and likely ride it before the park even opens to regular guests.

This amenity alone can save you an hour or more of waiting in line for your favorite attraction.

Just last week, 18 different Disney World attractions (!) required a wait of 60+ minutes.

Two others fell just short of that threshold at 59 minutes, which is a splitting of hairs.

That’s basically 20 attractions that average waits of at least an hour.

So, you can understand the advantage of Early Theme Park Entry. You pick a ride and go there.

Then, you’re exiting the ride at the same time that others are arriving at it as the park opens.

Frankly, all the amenities at Disney World resorts will make you appreciate staying onsite.

The Cheat Code

Then, we have the one thing I haven’t told you yet. Disney often offers hotel discounts.

You cannot possibly keep up with all the best prices available, though. And that’s okay!

Someone can and will do it for you! So, please contact an agent at MickeyTravels.

It’s a Diamond Earmarked agency, which is Disney’s highest mark for a travel agency.

MickeyTravels agents monitor all the best deals at the parks, which is a lifesaver for you.

They’ll save you all the stress of finding the best deals and do it for you.

Remarkably, MickeyTravels provides its best-in-class services free of charge to you.

So, as I always say, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reaching out to them.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below. One of the agents from MickeyTravels, an EarMarked By Disney – Authorized Travel Agency – Diamond Level, will be in touch soon!