“Value” “Moderate” and “Deluxe” Hotels

This one is sort-of obvious, but not really if you’ve never been to Disney. I’ll focus on Walt Disney World because it has the best and most examples and the widest range within those examples (and it’s my favorite).

Value means the cheapest room is somewhere around $200 - $400 a night depending on the time of year. $200 (sometimes less when they’re running discounts) will get you in at one of the three All-Star resorts themed around Sports, Music, or Movies (we like Movies best!). They are identical to one another save for the theming and they are HUGE comprising several buildings, each with different sub-themes (All-Star Movies features 101 Dalmatians, Toy Story, Fantasia, The Mighty Ducks, and Herbie: The Love Bug) with hundreds of rooms spread across a wide campus with one of more large pools and other recreational areas with a central gift shop, arcade, check-in and food court/cafeteria style dining hub. That’s a room with a Queen size bed and usually a sofa bed. Even the smallest/cheapest room at WDW can technically squeeze four people in so if you don’t mind close quarters, $200 for four people is value! The corridor to your room is outside (in the style of a motel - but not a motel!) in a covered walkway, and the bulk of the theming is in common spaces. (Your room will have, let’s call them disney touches.) If you’ve ever seen pictures of giant dalmation or Toy Story character statues that’s at All-Star Movies resort. Even the cheapest room is a cut above a similarly priced non-Disney hotel, though [see my Planning page for a slight screed about this…]

Within the value tier are two more resorts that are a little more expensive than the All-Star trio: Pop Century and Art of Animation. These are twin resorts with basically the same layout as All-Stars but with access to the Skyliner, and - in the case of Art of Animation - some specifically themed rooms and suites. While Pop Century is basically the same as All-Stars but with different decades as its theme, Art of Animation is definitely an elevated experience, theming-wise, and it has Little Mermaid rooms and Cars, Lion King, and Finding Nemo family suites. The pools are also bigger and nicer [pictured: one of the pools at Art of Animation].

The value resorts are great for younger kids! They go NUTS for the theming. And at that price point, it’s a bullseye. Maybe your 7 year old is going to flip out over a turn-of-the-Century Saratoga horse racing theme, but mine was very into the Toy Story theming and the food court at All-Star Movies. And we were perfectly happy getting on the bus every morning and back again at at the end of the day. Oy yeah - that’s the other major thing about the All-Stars: the only mode of transport available (aside from getting your own car service) is the bus. The other thing to note is that school groups will book at All-Stars for class trips.

Moderate Hotels are, well, moderately priced - by Disney standards. Like the five value resorts, there are five moderates: Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans - French Quarter, Port Orleans - Riverside, and The Cabins at Fort Wilderness. The gist with moderate resorts is the rooms are a little bigger, the theming is a little more immersive (and unique), and in addition to the food court there’s a sit-down restaurant (except for Port Orleans, which shares one between both resorts). The resorts themselves tend to cover more ground, have more recreational ammenities generally (aka more things to do), better pools, and generally have much more of a “resort” feel. The cheapest rooms range from $250 to about $500 depending on the time of year - except for the cabins, which are typically more expensive from the jump.

In terms of transportation, the moderates are served mostly by buses (some of them have multiple bus stops because they’re so spread out). Caribbean Beach is right next to the Skyliner hub, and both Port Orleans resorts and the Cabins are Fort Wilderness are a boat ride from Disney Springs and Magic Kingdom, respectively.

Deluxe hotels are… you guessed it: Fancy. Usually 4 or 5 star affairs with nightly rack rates for a standard room with a view of the parking lot starting around $700 (at time of writing, it’s $853) to $1,500 if you want to see fireworks from your standard room. If you want to see fireworks on Christmas, that’ll be $1,580. Deluxe rooms can technically sleep “up to 5 adults” so I suppose you could split the cost. But who are these five adults? Are they in a polycule? If not, are you really going to share two queen beds and a fold out bed that comes out of the wall? There’s still only one loo…

Where was I? Ah yes. The rooms are bigger, there are multiple restaurants, and there are more & better transportation options. Deluxe hotels also offer extended evening hours (though this perk comes and goes) at certain parks. The three hotels closest to the Magic Kingdom - The Contemporary, The Polynesian (the two originals), and the Grand Floridian - are known as the Monorail Hotels because, well, they’re on the main Monorail loop. There’s also a cluster of deluxe resorts down near EPCOT - The Boardwalk Inn, and the Yacht and Beach Clubs (these are separate resorts that are next to each other, kinda like the Port Orleans pair). I’m a big fan of Boardwalk because you can grab a thing of cotton candy and walk right on over to EPCOT while you snack. It’s less than ten minutes walk.

The remaining deluxe resorts are the Wilderness Lodge; Animal Kingdom Lodge; Old Key West; Saratoga Springs; Riviera Resort

That’s a total of 21 resorts. 5 value, 5 moderate, and 11 deluxe. Disney really wants you to spring for those deluxe resorts…

Hold on… I said somewhere that there were 25 resorts. It depends whether you count the Vacation Club resorts separately. My beloved Bay Lake Tower is right next door to the Contemporary and when you’re booking rooms there, you’ll see BLT rooms listed. If you count DVC resorts separately, there are 32. If you don’t, there are 21.