Since I'm now at the part of the trip where we have landed at our last resort, I thought I would share some thoughts on the resorts we stayed at on this trip and our experience with Disney resorts in general. I have now been to Disney World five times. On two of those, I stayed at the All Stars resorts, and once I stayed at Coronado Springs. This trip and last trip, we did a split stay between three deluxe resorts. On this trip, it was obviously The Contemporary, The Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom Lodge. On our last trip it was Wilderness Lodge, Beach Club and the Polynesian.
On our last trip, we thought we were doing a once-in-a-lifetime trip, which is partly how we justified upgrading to the deluxe resorts (ha ha
little did we know!) We picked our top three resorts to stay at. We did consider location and other variables (i.e. we wanted one close to the MK and one close to Epcot, and we wanted one on the monorail loop) but it was also the three resorts that just appealed to us the most.
(Yes, I like monorails!) On this trip, I was worried that the resorts would be a bit of a letdown. We picked the three resorts we stayed at to try three new resorts. We stuck with the idea of at least one near MK/one near Epcot, and one on the monorail loop, but since the last three resorts were our favourite resorts, part of me worried that this trip would never live up to our last one.
It turns out that I am glad that we tried the new resorts. I don't know if I could name a favourite Disney resort, because they are just all so different. I love the theming at both Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge, as I think they are the ones with the best attention to detail that really transport you to another place. I love the pool area at the Beach Club the best, since it's so vast and has so many features, though I think the hotel decor is a bit stuffier/not as much fun as WL and AKL. I found The Boardwalk to be very similar to the BC in terms of the indoor decor, and the pool area at Boardwalk is not nearly as elaborate as BC's; but man oh man, did I enjoy our nights strolling around on the Boardwalk. It was so great to have that entertainment right outside our door. And I think the Crescent Lake area is a really convenient place to stay. (My only complaint about The Boardwalk is that yes, the drink refills really ARE a mile away from your room!)
The Polynesian felt like a great, classic Disney place to stay - thankfully, this was pre-construction. Chad grew up camping at Fort Wilderness so for him to get to stay at the Poly was kind of childhood dream come true. I didn't think the rooms at the Poly were anything special, and the pool area is (was?) small, but the grounds were lovely. The convenience of the monorail was great. And we loved having Dole Whips at our resort!
That brings me to The Contemporary. This is really the only disappointing place I have stayed at Disney, and I knew I would be disappointed by the hotel itself before we even got there. The concourse with the monorails was pretty cool, but overall the hotel felt very much like any other hotel in any other city in the world. It was not very theme-y and so to me, it was not very Disney. It was a perfectly fine room and there is nothing specific I would complain about; it was just no WL or AKL.
Even being able to watch the MK fireworks from the Contemporary property didn't make it up for me.
Having said that, the convenience of being walking distance to MK was wonderful. This was particularly true on the last night of our trip, when Mallory didn't feel well after dinner at 'Ohana. Chad took Liam into the MK while Mallory and I rode the monorail back to our resort. An hour later she felt better, and ten minutes after that we were in the park, texting Chad to find a place to meet up. Had we been staying at a resort that we'd have to bus to and from the MK on our last night, it would have been super easy to throw in the towel and just call it a night once we were back in our room.
Anyway
didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but thought I would give an opinion on the resorts. Next up - back to the trip report!