What is the difference between all the Disney World Hotels?

Today I’m going to give you a quick overview of all the different Walt Disney World Resorts.  But before I do, make sure you follow me on Instagram, @NowViewingTheWorld, for even more travel tips.

Now, there are some great off property hotels in the area, but for this blog, I’m going to stick to the Disney resort hotels.

Disney offers a tiered system for their hotels.  Their main three tiers are Value, Moderate, and Deluxe with each tier offering amenities appropriate to the tier – basically you get what you pay for.  But Disney also has a campground and a partnership with what they call Good Neighbor Hotels.  These are major hotel chains, such as the Holiday Inn and Hilton.  They are not technically Disney hotels, but they are in the Disney bubble and offer many of the same benefits. 

The Value Tier is the lowest tier with more budget friendly options. When I talk about pricing, just know that the room category and time of year are big factors in the price.  I will give a rough base price average just to give you an idea of what to expect.  The average price for a Value resort is roughly $200 per night.

These resorts are:

• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
• Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort

• The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort ($100+ per night) – which offers campsites for tent camping, RV hook ups, and cabins

The Moderate Tier is the mid-level range that offers a few more amenities and dining options than the Value resorts.  The average cost of a Moderate resort is $300 per night.

These resorts are:

• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
• The Cabin’s at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

The Deluxe Tier gets slightly more complicated as there are many more options and the tier actually gets broken into 2 sub tiers.  These resorts offer the greatest number of amenities as well as better locations to the resorts and more transportation options, which I will go into in the Transportation video.  The average cost per night is anywhere from $450-$700 and as high as $900+ per night. 

These resorts are:

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
• Disney’s Beach Club Resort
• Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
• Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

Deluxe Villas

• Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Copper Creek Villas & Cabins
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort
• Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
• Disney’s Riviera Resort
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
• The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Other Select Deluxe Hotels

• Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
• Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
• Walt Disney World Swan Reserve Hotel

All Disney resorts offer a 30 minutes early entry every day to all parks.

The Value resorts have a quick service restaurant, usually a food court in their main building.  They have a main pool and a couple smaller quiet pools, playgrounds, arcades, and Movie Under the Stars.

The Moderate resorts up the ante with a table service restaurant or two, water slides, additional transportation options, campfires where you can roast marshmallows, fishing, bike rentals, and more.

The Deluxe resorts include the most, and if you choose to stay at a Deluxe Resort, I recommend including one resort day in your park touring plan so enjoy everything it has to offer.  In addition to everything at the lower tiered resorts, the Deluxe resorts also offer things like Signature restaurants, gyms and spas, boat rentals, tennis, pirate cruises, pool cabana rentals, animal viewing areas, and more. One additional difference is the Deluxe resorts have interior hallways leading to the rooms, whereas the Value and Moderate resorts have exterior hallways. Meaning, you do not need to go inside a building before entering your room. The exception to this is the family suites at Art of Animation.

Each resort has its own theme as well, so that can also be a factor when deciding where to stay.  There are resorts with themes for the younger fans like the All-Star Movies – each section of the resort is themed after one of the animated classics or the Port Orleans Royal Guest rooms themed after the Princess and the Frog.  And then there are the resorts themed after tropical vacations like the Caribbean Beach resort, where each section of the resort is themed after a different island in the Caribbean.  And some of the resorts have a more luxurious feel like the Grand Floridian and Yacht Club over on the Boardwalk.

Lastly, the Good Neighbor resorts are located in the Disney Springs area of the Disney bubble.  They offer transportation to and from the Disney parks and if you book one of these hotels through Disney, you can also take advantage of the block of park reservations that are reserved for Disney resort guests.

These hotels are:

• Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World
• B Resort & Spa Lake Buena Vista
• Doubletree Suites by Hilton Orlando
• Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
• Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
• Holiday Inn Orlando – Disney Springs Area
• Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
• Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
• Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
• Waldorf Astoria Orlando
• Shades of Green – a resort dedicated to our military

There are many other hotels in the area that may offer shuttles to the parks as well, but they are not part of the Good Neighbor program, and therefore, are not subject to the same Disney benefits and amenities.

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