Disney Resort

I have been overwhelmed planning a Disney resort trip.

The contemporary's Bay lake towers has a full kitchen but you have to walk across to the Contemporary to get on the monorail. I am actually leaning towards the contemporary because of access to MK which is where we will spend the most days.

I've stayed an Animal Kingdom and Polynesian. AK is beautiful, but with little kids, your best bet is to stay at a monorail resort, if you can afford to choose one of the deluxe resorts. It will be SO much easier to get back to your resort for a rest/swim break if you are on the monorail. I loved Polynesian, but wouldn't hesitate to stay at any one of the Disney resorts.

I just love Disney. Floridian is charming and has the best breakfast, but it is kinda country club. I've never stayed at Poly but I have friends who have and have loved it. The Contemporary is cool in that if you go to the pool areaa on the docks at night you always get a surprise visit from a character. Capt Hook was awesome. You also get a great view of the boat parade. I do not like the balcony's so high up so you might not want that with small kids.

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I would stay at the Wilderness Lodge . You can take the boat to the Magic Kingdom which is the park you will be at most. I don't know if you plan on naps with your kids but will find they will need one at least every couple of days. I would not stay at the Animal Kingdom because it is far from the Magic Kingdom. We love the Beach Club . You can take the boat to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.Have a magical day !

The Contemporary is very nice but I thought the room was small (it was the first hotel built in the 70's). There were 4 of us in the room and it was crowded. You also have long waits for the elevators, there are 4 and they are small too. The Bay Lake Towers are nice and they have kitchens (they are set up like apartments), this would save you some money on food, but you will need a car to get to the market. The walk is not too far to the Contemporary and the monorail system.

The monorail stops at the Grand Floridian, Polynesian and the Contemporary. If you are only planning on spending most of your time at the Magic Kingdom I would stay at one of these hotels. I have not stayed at any of the hotels near Animal Kingdom, but that park is the farthest away from the others.

They also offer busses to all their parks and downtown Disney and you can bring you stroller(s) on the bus.

We have stayed twice at Old Key West. The resort was built for the vacation club members, but they do allow you to book rooms as well. You basically have a very nice two bedroom apartment. The master is very large with a jetted tub, the 2nd bedroom has two full sized beds and a bathroom of it's own. The nice thing about these rooms are that you have a full kitchen, so you can have breakfast in your room, another great perk is washer and dryer in your room!!

There is a large main pool and smaller pools sprinkled over the property.

We probably would not stay anywhere else, we've just gotten too spoiled!!

Don't dismiss the other parks, they all have something great to offer.

Have fun!

M.

We've been about 8 times and we would never stay anywhere but the Polynesian. We love the atmosphere of the hotel and I could stay there and never even go to a park! The character breakfast at O'Hana is great. We also love the luau there.

The Grand Floridian is very nice as well. More like a country club feel. Good food.

There is a boat taxi that also goes to/from MK between the Grand Floridian and Polynesian. Fun and fast.

That said, Contemporary is very nice too. Chef Mickey is one of the best character dinners.

We had great views of the nightly fireworks show at the Polynesian as well. You can sit on the beach and watch them. LOVE the Polynesian.

Have fun.

I haven't been to Disney yet, but I have been researching like crazy and got a lot of great tips from moms on this site, but friends also. Some of my friends loved the Polynesian (which we are probably going to stay at) and I had a few other friends that stayed at the Value Resorts, the All-Star Sports and then the Pop Century. Those ones are not for us, because the decor is very "loud" and totally kid oriented, which I want, to an extent! I think we are going to stay at one of the hotels on the monorail. Also, stay inside the park because there are a lot of perks that go with it. There is a fantastic site called allears.net that will give you any info you want. I also got a book from my library Walt Disney World with Kids (Kim Wright Wiley) and it is great. Totally lays out everything for you and gives you tips that you wouldn't have known otherwise. Have fun!