Okay you guys, I’m finally closing out the posts for our Disney World trip! For the last post, I’m going to talk about the resort we stayed at! Before really giving my review (spoiler alert: loved this hotel and will 1000000% be back for sure), I want to explain some of the different categories to booking that Disney World does with their resorts/hotels because I’ve gotten a few questions and get that it can be a little confusing.
Disney World has a variety of different hotels on property to choose from and they separate the hotels into 3 different categories : Value, Moderate, and Deluxe Resorts. The difference between them is mainly amenities and convenience when it comes from getting from the hotel to the parks. All hotels on property give you early access to the parks (ie an extra hour before the parks actually open to the public) and all the hotels give you free transportation from your hotel to the park of your choosing.
I’m going to basically summarize what I learned in all my research of the different levels and the different hotel offerings but to be honest, I knew from the get go that we were going for the deluxe option, it was more a decision of which one in that category, which I’ll get too! I do want to say that I also have friends who have stayed at Value Resorts and absolutely loved them as well, although, these friends weren’t traveling with kids, so keep that in mind.
Value Resort
Think like your basic Holiday Inn or budget friendly hotel and make it Disney. These “value” resorts popped up because Disney realized it was losing customers to more budget friendly hotels in the area and realized if they had something to compete, guests would probably likely pick the Disney budget resort over the other ones. These are much simpler, no bells and whistles hotel rooms that are Disney themed to bring some magic, but other than that- your basic standard hotel. Transportation to the parks is all via bus from these hotels.
Moderate Resort
Moderate resorts have some better overall theming and landscaping around the hotel, bigger rooms, and some upgraded amenities and at least one full service table restaurant on property. Depending on the resort, all travel to the parks via bus and some also have boat options.
Deluxe Resort
Alright from the get go, I knew we were booking a deluxe resort. Expensive? Yes, obviously you’re paying a much higher price tag but these resorts are a completely immersive experience, theming is top to bottom, they serve specialty items that you can only otherwise get in the parks itself (ours had a Dole Whip cabana that served Disney’s famous Dole Whip!) All have transportation to the parks; tram, monorail, bus, boat, anything you can think of.
*something to keep in mind also- the length of your stay, if you’re doing like one night, maybe the Value works for you? We stayed for a week, so we wanted somewhere comfortable and enjoyable for us to be at for an extended amount of time.
There are a handful of Deluxe Resorts to choose from, I narrowed down our options to two: The Polynesian Village Resort and The Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Animal Kingdom lodge has rooms overlooking the safari of Animal Kingdom; where you can overlook your balcony at giraffes walking by! It looked amazing, however at the time of our trip, a lot of this resort was under construction, and almost all the rooms that I wanted were literally the rooms and floors that were under construction- so this was a pass for this trip.
When I looked up the Polynesian Resort, I showed my daughter and she was so excited to visit “Moana’s House.” A lot of the theming of this resort is Moana and Lilo and Stitch themed, so very tropical! If you have littles that like either movie, they’ll love this resort! The pools are also absolutely amazing and there’s even a Moana splash pad where littles can climb up on Moana’s boat with her!
With the deluxe resorts, you’re getting a lot of space. With the Polynesian, there are two different pools and beachfront access where you can sit on the beach and watch the fireworks from Magic Kingdom! There are a variety of different dining options from sit down, full service, to walk up and take out options. You’re also a short walk to the central tram way where you can board a specific tram directly to any of the parks. I definitely recommend looking at your transportation options when you’re deciding on a hotel!
We took the monorail directly from our hotel to Magic Kingdom and then took a boat back from Magic Kingdom to the hotel. The boat was so much fun! To EPCOT, we ended up walking to the TTC (ticket and transit center) to board the EPCOT monorail that went directly to EPCOT (this was the fastest option as the monorail directly from our hotel had a few other stops before reaching EPCOT. The only option to Animal Kingdom (for any resort/hotel) is via bus.
The biggest pro for us, other than the amazing Moana theming- was the fact that you can go sit on the “beach” of the resort and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks any night you wanted (as long as they were doing them at the park that night). The resort is set up so that they play the exact audio as the park, so you’re literally watching the same firework show from the comfort of a beach chair. It was so amazing.
All in all, the Polynesian Resort gets a 100/10 for us! We even did all of our laundry on property before flying home! It was so amazing and literally to this day my daughter asks when we’re going back to Moana’s house.
I am still reliving all the memories from this amazing vacation and cannot wait to start planning another one!! If you missed any of the previous posts, here’s a round-up for convenience:
Thanks for reading!
