Hotel proximity

[DontFeedTheSHU]

Hey all. Looking into Disneyworld next year and am researching hotels. I know there are multiple Disney parks on the property. Of the available Disney Hotels, which one is best situated closest to the Magic Kingdom? Or does one particular hotel(s) put you in a good spot to be close to all parks?
Thank you in advance.

 

[HopperFan]

Hey all. Looking into Disneyworld next year and am researching hotels. I know there are multiple Disney parks on the property. Of the available Disney Hotels, which one is best situated closest to the Magic Kingdom? Or does one particular hotel(s) put you in a good spot to be close to all parks?
Thank you in advance.

This forum is for non-Disney hotels. You should ask in the Disney Resort forum.

 

[Upatnoon]

The Contemporary is walking distance to MK or you can use the monorail.

Disneyworld is vast and linked by robust transportation system. All the resorts have access to all the theme parks without issue.

I'd suggest starting with a budget to help guide what resorts to consider.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

Hey all. Looking into Disneyworld next year and am researching hotels. I know there are multiple Disney parks on the property. Of the available Disney Hotels, which one is best situated closest to the Magic Kingdom? Or does one particular hotel(s) put you in a good spot to be close to all parks?
Thank you in advance.

Do you have a budget?

 

[Sue M]

Any of the MK resorts are close to MK. The Contemporary is the only one you can walk to from the park. It’s about a 10ish min walk. The Poly and Grand Floridian are a short monorail or boat ride away. Wilderness Lodge is a boat or bus ride away.

 

[Hopefully]

WDW is approximately 46 square miles. It is about the size of Manhattan. It is enormous. No one hotel is really close to all parks.
What is the makeup of your party, ages? Do you anticipate spending more time in one Theme Park over others?
All WDW theme parks are connected by a robust transportation system including buses, boats, Monorails, and soon Gondolas. Lots of folks have cars and drive. The grounds are like a small city, with lots of streets and traffic. Many folks get frustrated by the bus waits which average near 20 minutes, but it is like a large Urban city transportation system and busy.
I would first set a budget for your trip. Then look at Resorts in the budget category that you will want a choowe the theme that most appeals to you. Then ask all your questions about that resort.
Good Luck in your research and Welcome to the DIS

 

[Disneylover99]

Hey all. Looking into Disneyworld next year and am researching hotels. I know there are multiple Disney parks on the property. Of the available Disney Hotels, which one is best situated closest to the Magic Kingdom? Or does one particular hotel(s) put you in a good spot to be close to all parks?
Thank you in advance.

Since the Contemporary is the only resort you can walk to the MK from, I'd say it's situated closest to the MK.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Since the Contemporary is the only resort you can walk to the MK from, I'd say it's situated closest to the MK.

But furthest from every. other. park. Magic Kingdom itself is remote from almost everything.
Deluxe: Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Dolphin, Swan are all walking distance from two more centrally located parks.
Moderate: Caribbean Beach
Value: Pop Century, Art of Animation
DVC only: Old Key West

 

[Disneylover99]

But furthest from every. other. park. Magic Kingdom itself is remote from almost everything.
Deluxe: Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Dolphin, Swan are all walking distance from two more centrally located parks.
Moderate: Caribbean Beach
Value: Pop Century, Art of Animation
DVC only: Old Key West

My response was to the OP's first question.

 

[NH-to-FL]

to DISboards!

As the previous posters have noted, the Contemporary is the closest to the Magic Kingdom. It is a short walk to the park. That said, the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian are also close but require a boat or monorail ride to get to the MK.

The Epcot resorts, the Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Swan, and Dolphin are close to two parks, Epcot and Hollywood Studio. You can walk or take a boat to those two parks and use the Disney bus service to the other parks.

Be forewarned, you will pay for the 'walk to a park' convenience. These resorts are all in the 'deluxe' category and are the most expensive on property.

As @Hopefully mentioned above, Disney World covers a lot of area and being close to one or two parks still leaves you quite far away from the others. Fire up Google maps, type in WDW and zoom out to get a sense for how big 46 square miles really is.
Good luck with your planning and wishing you a visit!

 

[rwdavis2]

May I suggest you google for WDW maps.

 

[Deb & Bill]

May I suggest you google for WDW maps.

Or just use Google Maps for Lake Buena Vista, FL. You'll see it all and locations will be labeled.

 

[_19disnA]

The disney property is so large there isn't any hotel close to ALL of the theme parks. Need to start the planning based on which theme park(s) you plan to visit and then based on your budget, check the available hotels. If you will have a car will make movement between parks easier. Some like the disney buses, while others hate them. LOTS of older threads on those topics.

 

[marmar]

WElcome noobie!

Whenever I coach a first timer for DisneyWorld, I poin them to the. Dis boards, and all ears.net. I also send them to bookstore for Birnbaums guide. There are other guides, but they can be overwhelming to a complete novice.

I got lucky on my first trip. It was almost 30 years ago. I walked into a travel agent and after a few minutes discussion,along with my 9 year old, she said we would be happiest focusing on Epcot. We stayed at the Yacht club. The trip was so awesome, we’ve been back every 2 years since then. The next trip I had a mediocre agent. If she had done our first trip,we would not have come back.

Since then we’ve stayed at every deluxe except for Contemporary. Where we stay is determined by our focus that trip. That first Travel agent was right. We are Epcot people.over half our stays are at one of the Epcot resorts. One of the rookies I coached is MK family and they always stay at Contemporary. Another spends all their time in parks and stays in a Value,cause they only sleep in the resort.

Your vacation should match your goals. Everyone has their own perfect stay

 

[Lynne M]

to the DISboards!

The resort that's physically closest to the Magic Kingdom is the Contemporary. There's a walking path from the resort to the MK entrance. There's also monorail service from the Contemporary to MK.

Next closest would be the other monorail resorts: the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian.

Going out from there, Wilderness Lodge, and the Fort Wilderness Campground.

The CR, Poly, GF and Wilderness Lodge also have associated Disney Vacation Club (timeshare) resorts which can be booked by the general public, if you're looking for villa-style accommodations.

 

[snappy]

Some guests do a split stay, half of the stay in a MK resort and the other half in am Epcot area resort. The odd man out would be an animal kingdom resort, Jambo or Kidani. The animal kingdom park is somewhat remote and you have to bus, drive or take an Uber/Lift even from Jambo and Kidani.
It’s a great park though and worth a day or two visit in my opinion. Have fun planning. I second the all ears website. Great info about restaurants.
I spent several years just “lurking” after finding the Dis boards in 2002. It’s a lot of info to take in. The threads at the top of each board are very helpful and worth a look. Good luck!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Overall, Disney transportation provided from the resorts to the theme parks is usually pretty good. Buses are not bad at all. If you have stroller aged children, you must remove them from the stroller and fold it up on all buses and occasionally on the monorail and boats.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

May I ask your budget?

 

[Nancyg56]

Before thinking about location, think about budget. I love the monorail and Epcot resorts, but they are pricy. I always look at what I can afford and then try to fit my wants into that.

In regards to convenience to the MK, any monorail resort will do. I htink that for transportation alone, of the MK resorts, I prefer the Poly because I find that the walk to TT&C is a nice perk as well as the easy entry to the monorail

 

[bumbershoot]

I'd suggest starting with a budget to help guide what resorts to consider.

Yes.

WDW is approximately 46 square miles. It is about the size of Manhattan. It is enormous.

This is what got me the most during our first trip. And even once I wrapped my mind around it being bigger than my city, I was shocked to see highway-style roads there! Was expecting 35mph small roads like are inside of a medium sized city like mine.

It’s stunningly big.

Buses are not bad at all.

Unless you are in my family, in which case you end up with junky experiences with the buses often enough that you’re happy to pay for a rental car (I’m Dvc so I don’t yet have the parking fee).