Walt Disney World Resort Hotel vs Lake Buena Vista Hotel

I recently returned from Orlando where I spent 10 nights in Lake Buena Vista and 4 nights at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. We chose to do this as Disney has taken away a lot of the benefits for staying onsite, so despite having stayed in Disney hotels in the past, we thought we’d save money by doing a twin centre holiday. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort Orlando Lake Buena Vista, in a room with a kid’s den. The room was enormous, and our girls loved that they had two sets of bunkbeds to choose from! The den also had a tv and Xbox, although we didn’t have time to play on it. The room also had a fridge, microwave and coffee maker. Onsite in the hotel was an AppleBees, which was very handy as the kids could eat free there – unfortunately, as my daughter and I have coeliac disease the only thing the had that was gluten free was eggs and bacon. My husband and other daughter loved the breakfast though. On day one we came across the first huge difference between staying offsite compared to staying in a resort hotel – the transport! We got to the bus stop for the Disney bus, 20 minutes early as I’d read the time wrong, and it’s a good job I did as there was already quite a queue and it just got longer and longer. When the bus did arrive, we were lucky enough to get a seat, but then had to have our girls sit on our laps as they crammed everyone on the bus – the driver’s saying was “if you can see the floor there’s room for more”. It was rammed as the next bus wasn’t for another hour and a half. Once we set off the driver then informed us that they only dropped off at the Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot – we’d need to get the monorail from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom. Had I known this before we got on, I’d have got an Uber. We arrived at Epcot, walked to the monorail, jumped on that to The Ticket and Transportation Centre and then got the ferry to the entrance to the magic kingdom – from hotel to gate it took us around 2 hours. After a busy first day at the park, we headed back to the hotel, we got an Uber as the bus only picked up from Epcot at 6:30pm and we wanted to leave earlier than that. I have to say, getting an Uber or Lyft around Disney is so easy and not too expensive (around $13), so we didn’t bother with the free bus again. When we got back, we got the girls showered and put them to bed. Unfortunately, we had a pool view room, and the pool was open until 11pm with loud music playing, luckily the girls were so tired they crashed out, but it did keep me awake. When we moved to Disney the Pools closed at 10pm and there was no loud music. The pool was a good size and had a splash area for little ones. There are no lifeguards, but as it was only us when we went in the pool, I wasn’t worried about this. The Holiday Inn was great value for money and the girls loved it UNTIL we moved to Disney. On our check out day, my youngest cried as she didn’t want to leave as she was happy there, but you should have seen her face when we pulled up to the Art Of Animation! We had already checked in online, via the My Disney Experience (MDE) app, so when we arrived, we left our luggage with Bell Services and went to have a look around. The shop was the size of The Disney Store in London, and the Food Hall was amazing. The girls (and my husband) were particularly taken by the arcade. We ordered some food via the MDE and received a notification when it was ready to collect. While we were eating, I received a message to say our room was ready and what number it was. We already had magic bands link to the app that acted like room keys, but if you didn’t have these there is an “Unlock my door” facility – again in the app. As we reached our room our luggage was being taken in by a cast member – every cast member we saw said hello to us with a smile and made us feel welcome. The room was something else – although small – the theming in our Little Mermaid room was incredible – me and the girls couldn’t stop smiling. We got changed and headed down to the pool, “The Big Blue”, the biggest pool on Disney property. There were cast members playing games with the kids and so many lifeguards. Our first park visit was Epcot and we decided to get the Skyliner there. I’ve never been on the Skyliner before but I blooming LOVED it. I wish you could get to every park via it, it’s so peaceful with some amazing views. It also runs to Hollywood Studios. After a busy day walking around the park, it was a lovely and relaxing way to travel back and we avoided all the traffic (we could see it as we floated above). The next day we headed to the Magic Kingdom. When we got to the bus stops, there was a bus per park, and they ran every 10-15 minutes. Many people don’t realise you can’t park near or drive up to the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, you must park/get dropped off at the Ticket and Transportation centre and then get a monorail or ferry over to the park. But when you stay in a Disney resort hotel, you avoid this and get dropped right by the gate – this is handy in the morning but an absolute blessing in the evening after the fireworks.

Value for money, offsite is definitely a good option, especially the Holiday Inn Resort Orlando Lake Buena Vista. But for service, cleanliness, convenience and transportation it has to be a Disney Resort Hotel.