When planning your Disney World vacation one of the important choices is where to stay. Disney offers more than 25 different resorts with a wide price range so even if your budget is on the lower end, you can still enjoy the immersive Disney magic! Some of the benefits of staying on property at a Disney World resort hotel including early entrance to the parks and complementary transportation to and from the theme parks, water parks and Disney Springs.
If you will be driving or renting a car during your vacation the moderate resorts offer complementary parking on-site. There is no charge for guests staying at any of the Disney hotels to use standard parking at the theme parks and water parks.
There are 5 moderate level hotels:
- Carribean Beach resort
- Coronado Springs
- Port Orleans French Quarter
- Port Orleans Riverside
- Cabins at Fort Wilderness resort
The saying “you get what you pay for” is definitely applicable when it comes to choosing a Disney resort. If you know that a majority of our time will be spent at the parks and only need a place to shower and sleep then a value resort might be a great choice for you. The standard rooms at the moderate resorts offer a bit more space than the value rooms in terms of square footage. Most rooms come with either 1 king bed or 2 queens and several offer a “5th” sleeper bed which is a twin murphy style bed.
The resorts are split into sections and are much bigger/more spread out compared to most of the value resorts. Aside from Port Orleans French Quater there are multiple bus stops, so you won’t have to walk as far to catch the bus to either the parks or even to the main building. A majority of the moderate resort’s hotel rooms are accessed from the outside, with the exception of the Grand Destino tower rooms at Coronado Spring, which are inside the building. When booking your room at the resorts you have a choice of standard or preferred rooms. The preferred rooms are almost always closer to the main building where you will find the front desk, dining and buses/transportation. The Port Orleans French Quarter resort is the smallest of all the moderate resorts so no matter which section you are placed in the walk to the main building is not too far but the other resorts are much more spread out.
The bathroom areas of these rooms have a double sink in the outer hall with the toilet and shower/tub in its own room. All the rooms come with standard amenities like pod coffee maker, mini fridge, iron and hair dryer. If you are planning to be spending a decent amount of time you will want more space which the moderate rooms offer but the most spacious are the 2-bedroom villas, but they also come with the higher cost per night.
The moderate resorts have several choices for dining. Each resort has a food court (quick service) dining area open for meals throughout the day. The food courts have several windows each offering a different style of food so there are plenty of choices for everyone in the group. They also have table service locations with the exception of French Quarter but you can take the boat over to Riverside or down to Disney Springs for meals.
If you are staying at one of the Fort Wilderness cabins you should look into the Hoop-dee-do review, an interactive dinner show. The cabins also have a kitchen so you can save money by cooking in and there is a small store with food for purchase.
The main pool at the moderate resorts is themed with the resort but there are several smaller no frills pools located around the resort. All pools do offer complementary life vest for guest to use while swimming. The main pool area at each moderate resort features slides, and most offer a dedicated kid play area.
One of the nice things about staying on site for your Disney vacation is the complementary transportation to the theme parks so you don’t have to worry about parking or finding your car at the end of a long day. All resorts have buses available for guest to the parks and Disney springs which run around every 20 minutes. Keep in mind that due to the multiple bus stops at each resort it may take a few buses before you are able to get on. The newest transportation option is the Disney Skyliner, for guests staying at the Caribbean Beach resort you will use the Skyliner to get to Hollywood Studios or Epcot. For guests staying at either Port Orleans Riverside or Port Orleans French Quarter there is a boat that goes between the sister resorts and to Disney Springs. For guests staying at Fort Wilderness including the cabins there is a boat directly do the Magic Kingdom.
The moderate level resorts are our families favorite because you get the extra room space and great pools with a reasonable nightly rate.