July 16, 2025 • 63 mins
What makes a Disney resort truly magical? Is it the proximity to the parks, the dining options, the pool, or that indescribable feeling you get when you first walk into the lobby? After staying at 13 different Disney resorts across both coasts, we're finally ready to rank them all—and some of our placements might surprise you!
From the Dolphin's lack of Disney theming to the Grand Floridian's perhaps too-bougie atmosphere, we deep dive into what worked (and what didn't) at each property. Even more surprising? The prestigious Grand Floridian only makes it to the middle of our rankings, while value resort All-Star Movies cracks the top 10 with its immersive Toy Story theming.
As we count down to our top five, we explore what truly creates that magical "we're here" feeling. The Yacht Club dazzles with Stormalong Bay and EPCOT proximity, the Grand Californian offers direct park access with a serene atmosphere, and the Polynesian delivers island vibes with spectacular fireworks views. Wilderness Lodge nearly takes the crown with its breathtaking lobby and peaceful seclusion despite being moments from Magic Kingdom.
But there's one resort that unanimously claimed our #1 spot. Animal Kingdom Lodge transports guests completely to an African safari lodge, with savanna views, cultural immersion, and a fully realized theme unlike anything else at Walt Disney World. From waking up to giraffes outside your balcony to exploring the extensive collection of African art in the lobby, it creates an experience impossible to replicate anywhere else on property.
Whether you're planning your first Disney trip or your twentieth, join us as we break down the pros and cons of each resort we've experienced. Which one will top your personal list?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
hello and welcome to circle of Parks podcast, episode
number 214.
Today we are going to rank allthe Disney resorts we have
stayed at.
There is far too much to seeand do.
We are here to help guide youthrough.
But before we do that we musttalk disney merch.
(00:45):
So this week's disney merch ondisneystorecom they have some
monorail tongs and I thoughtthey were tongs tongs.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, like clack clack , clack tongs yep why have you
not gotten them for me?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
so they are back in stock um is what it says and
it's 14 dollars, they're 14.99.
And it says welcome to ourmonorail tongs.
Please hold on to the handlesthroughout your culinary journey
and stay clear of dulleroptions.
After all, why use ordinarytongs when you can use the
(01:23):
stainless steel ones with aFigaro monorail tip?
So anyway, they're $14?
$14.99.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, get those.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So yeah, so apparently they've had them
before and I almost feel likemaybe I've glanced at them
before and seen that they wereout of stock, or maybe a long
time ago I covered this onDisney merch because they looked
very familiar to me.
A long time ago I covered thison Disney March because they
looked very familiar to me, butanyway again, monorail tongs for
cooking and grilling $14.99.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
With as much as I grill out.
Why do we not have these.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I mean I guess they can handle the temperatures.
I would just be like iffy tomess them up.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's almost one of those things you just don't want
to use them, just want to lookat them.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, kind of yeah but you know anyway, uh.
So yes, they are back in stockthis summer.
So again, that's atdisneystorecom.
Go check that out.
And that is this week's disneymarch thank you, brady, for
joining us.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Episode what is it?
214, 214.
We are going to rank theresorts that we have stayed at.
We've been wanting to do thisfor a while, yeah, and we wanted
to wait until we have stayed at.
We've been wanting to do thisfor a while, yeah, and we wanted
to wait until we've stayed atall the resorts.
That's going to take a long,long time, though.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
But we feel we have stayed at enough.
To be able to do this episodeTo be able to rank the resorts
that we have stayed at, and youmay be surprised at where they
rank Well.
Well, I was going to say itincludes walt, disney world and
disneyland and some goodneighbor hotels that are on walt
disney world property.
(02:53):
So, with that being said, I wantto say all these resorts are
still great right, right, yeslike if you said, hey, we're
going to go to Walt Disney World, but we are only staying at
this resort, I'm not out becauseof it's my least favorite
resort, right?
Yeah, like, these are all still, you're going to have a great
(03:13):
experience, you're going to getthat Disney customer service,
you're going to get all of thatright.
So I don't want people to thinkthat these are batteries.
There's no bad resort, right.
It's just which ones do we likebetter?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, right, is that really what it is Like, our
opinion, how we enjoy them, thatkind of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, so before we get into that, I'm Zach, if
you're new here, I'm Brittany.
We do this show every singleweek and our goal is to help
break your week up, take you toWalt Disney World, help you
relax throughout the week andhelp you have a better Walt
Disney World vacation.
Yes, so the resorts that wehave stayed at there's 13 of
them.
Correct, saratoga Springs wasour very first trip.
(03:54):
Mm-hmm.
Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Mm-hmm.
Coronado Springs, mm-hmm, theGrand Floridian.
Mm-hmm.
All-Star Movies the Polynesian,port Orleans, riverside,
disneyland Hotel, caribbeanBeach, the Dolphin, the
Wilderness Lodge, GrandCalifornian and the Yacht Club.
(04:18):
Yes, all right.
So we're going to start withour least favorite and end with
our favorite.
Now I'll say the top five arepretty easy.
Yes, right, and my leastfavorite were pretty easy in the
middle there, though rightthose were tough right, and
we're going to talk about why weranked them the way we ranked
(04:41):
them right, yeah, and so zach'slist has 13.
I have 14 because did you go ona trip without us?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
no, um, but we've stayed at coronado twice in
different sections of it, butit's still the same resort well,
it was a different britney'scoming up with her own rules.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Just whatever she wants to do, she's gonna do it
all right.
So you want to go first?
You want me to go first?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
yeah, so my least favorite so this is number 14
for you for me is the first timewe stayed at coronado springs
whoa we stayed in the villagesarea and I don't know, I just
feel, like you know, it is a bigspread out resort.
You have quite a bit of walkingto do to get to restaurants and
(05:28):
everything, and so thatexperience, not just because of
that, but the room we had, maybeit was just that particular
room, but I just felt, like youknow, I think they've they've
updated the room some since thenthat was an updated room.
Oh well, we just didn't have thebest experience and had a hard
(05:49):
time sleeping that trip that'salso the trip that was a blur
and we were really.
I understand we were reallymainly there just to sleep, but
I just did not enjoy staying atCoronado Springs Villages.
Okay, so that is my leastfavorite.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Least favorite.
Okay, so I just put cornadotogether as one, yeah well all
right.
So my least favorite resort isthe dolphin, and here's why
there is really no disneytheming here.
Now, if you're coming here on aconvention or you have
(06:24):
persuaded someone who didn'twant to go to Disney to go to
Disney and you got him there,got him or her there because
they didn't want to stay at aplace with Disney in your face,
right.
Yeah, this is that place, right.
Correct the deluxe uh perkswithout paying without paying
(06:48):
the deluxe price, but playing,paying like the moderate price.
This is where you're going towant to stay at right, because I
think we paid 400 a night herearound.
But you get those deluxe,deluxe perks, except the buses
at the magic kingdom don't go tothe bus terminal as the other
disney buses do.
They go to the transportationand ticket center right for the
swan and dolphin, and I thinkthat's correct for most other
(07:10):
good neighbor hotels.
But you get the early entry,you get the uh, you do get the
um, like deluxe resort guestsget to stay like from like 10 to
1 am at night, sometimes forcertain, like for apacata magic
kingdom, you know you get thatright.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You do with this one.
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yes, you do get that um, so there are perks to
staying here.
However, when we stayed here,was it bad?
No, it wasn't a bad trip.
We enjoyed it, but there was nodisney theming, and I likened
it to being invited to thepopular kids party in high
school and being there butnobody talking to you.
(07:46):
It's like you're there butyou're not right.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right yeah, I mean, and the the hotel is very nice
it is I mean very, very nice.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's a marriott right yes, it's on my marriott and um
.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So and it's, and it's nice that you know you can walk
to the side entrance of epcotit's a longer walk than I
thought it was.
Yes, so do you keep that inmind?
Like it?
I mean it's walking distance,it's just about 20 minutes it is
.
It is about a 20 minute walk,you are correct so, um, but I
mean, it was very nice, you knowif, if we were anywhere other
than disney, like it wouldprobably rank a lot higher,
(08:20):
because the only reason why I'msaying that is that was my next
one as well so that's yournumber 13 as well.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yes, okay, well, what do you want to say about it?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
or did I just yeah, for the most part, like just
because, like zach was saying,like I don't have to have disney
in your face or anything likethat.
But there really wasn't any ofthat disney magic.
Now you know if you are goingto be spending a lot more time
at the hotel and everything.
They have plenty of restaurantsthere beautiful, great
restaurants right, um you knowsomething for everybody.
(08:48):
Um you know whether it's alittle bit on the fancier side
or like just quick service,quick service and everything in
between.
I mean, they definitely had alot of choices um and again.
The perk is how close it is toepcot, but it's just, you know,
it didn't feel like dis.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And that's the thing, right, like we were at Disney.
But we didn't feel like we wereat a Disney resort.
Right, and that's that's thewhole point of it, right, but
when we're going on a Disneyvacation, we want to feel like
we're at Disney.
Right.
I mean, you're in the bubble,but you're not, so that's why it
is last on my list as leastfavorite resort.
Yes, all right, so I'm goingnext to number 12.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I mean, you can?
Well, you just went, we justboth did 13.
We both just did 13.
Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
This one, I think, is going to have a lot of people
screaming at us.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
This is you, not me this is mine, caribbean Beach.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I can hear people screaming now because
people love this resort.
And I understand why.
Right, it's a beautiful resort.
It is.
You're there on the Skyliner.
The Skyliner is the only reason.
This was not my least favorite.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And here's why this is my second to least favorite
resort the theming in the resortitself, in the main lobby, in
the pool.
It's beautiful, but once youwalk out, you're exposed to
everything else.
Right, and it's a large resort.
That's not why this is so badon my list.
It is because you can see theRiviera, you can see the
(10:19):
Skyliner.
You're not fully immersed inthat Caribbean beach theming,
right, and that is why I feltlike I just was not immersed in
this, right, like it didn'tfully transform me there.
Right.
Whereas all the other resorts westayed at.
You get that.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah Right, you can't see what's around, anything
else yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Even at the value resorts, you're still
encompassed in that theming,whichever it may be caribbean
beach.
I did not have that and that is.
I think that's what, like thefirst thing I said when we went
to the pool, like, oh, this is acool pool, but there's a
skyliner, there's the main road,there's the riviera, right,
like you're not encompassed inthat caribbean beach theming.
(11:01):
The food's great, greatrestaurants.
So again, not a bad resort,just one of my least favorites
okay what's next on your listnumber 12?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
number 12 on mine is all-star movies okay and not
because it's value.
Uh, I mean, I did like stayingthere.
Uh, the pool, you know, eventhough it was crowded it was, it
was still a very nice poolright um, you know they have,
like your, your food court areafor food and everything you know
, lots of different choices and,like zach was saying, you know
(11:34):
you are feeling like you're inthe disney bubble, but I think I
might would have enjoyed it hadit been one of our earlier
trips when the kids were smaller?
yeah, when they were youngerwhere now that they're older and
stuff, it's just not like ourcup of tea, you know.
Yeah.
But I mean, you know, Iremember sleeping decent here
(11:55):
and again, you know, enjoyingsome time at the pool, but it
just, I think again, had it beenlike five years ago it could
have been different.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
All right, number 11 on my list Saratoga Springs Okay
.
Now.
I'm going to preface this with.
I think Saratoga Springs may beone of the most underrated
resorts in all of Walt DisneyWorld.
Okay.
I loved staying here on ourfirst trip.
You get some Disney theming,but not in your face, right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Right, very subtle, very subtle.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It is walking distance to Disney Springs.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well, more so depending where you are staying
there.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, and again, not a bad resort.
I thought it was very relaxingthe room.
We stayed in a twobedroom villathanks to my brother and
sister-in-law, um, so we hadplenty of room.
It was a nice large room, but Ijust think there's much better
resorts theming wise right rightand but again, I will go down
(13:00):
saying that I think this may beone of the most underrated
resorts to say, because nobodytalks about it, and I remember
our stay here being very, verynice yeah I really did enjoy
staying here.
I would definitely stay hereagain right and you are.
I mean saratoga springs, is youknow from saratoga, new york,
right the horsing horse racing?
But it's not really likeheavily themed to that right,
(13:23):
like there's a horse in thefront and the check-in area
resort like resembles, like a, ahorse barn type of thing, and
it's very elegantly done.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
But outside of that there's some nods here and there
to it not a lot of rooms, butit's not in your face, but, but
yeah, it definitely was a verynice day.
You know, and this was beforewe knew a lot about disney.
This was our first trip yeah,yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So what's your number 11?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
caribbean beach okay um, so kind of a little bit off
of what zach was saying a coupleminutes ago.
You know the the perks are.
You know the skyliner being,can.
You know hop on it quickly.
The Riviera, you can walk overto it or catch the Skyliner over
to it.
You know, being right next door, the pool is very, very nice.
(14:13):
It is a nice pool.
I did like the fact that wherewe stayed, I can't think of the
section name of it right now.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
We had a preferred room.
We were pretty close to it.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right, I like the fact that we were close to the
lobby in the pool.
The food that we did try therewas good, the theming in the
lobby, on point I think.
But it is just such a bigresort and so spread out and,
you know, even though the pooland everything was very nice,
(14:46):
like what zach was saying, theroads right there it wasn't so
much that I could see theriviera and the skyliner, you
know, like where you catch it Ithink it was just more like the
road being there you know thetraffic noise, yeah, yeah yeah,
so um
Speaker 3 (15:00):
and the room I mean it was, it was okay, you know,
but we, we've stayed in nicer.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, I mean it was fine.
Yeah, can I go ahead and do mynumber 10 as well?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Number 10.
We're in the top 10 now.
All right, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
The only reason why is because you just talked about
this one as well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So number 10, Saratoga Springs.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay For you.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
All for you, all right, made your top 10, all
right, so I would.
I really would love to stayhere again one day, just because
I, because we are moreknowledgeable about things what
about the treehouse villas?
Well, so hold on okay, sothat's a possibility.
Um, but even like the, the typeof rooms that we stayed in
before, I know it won't be thatbig, since we won't be sharing
with anyone, but if you arecloser to the backside of it, I
(15:50):
guess you could say that's whereDisney Springs is, that's where
Disney Springs is and it's aneasier walk.
Now, sure you could walk therefrom any part of the resort.
Just know you're going to beadding more and more minutes and
I would not recommend walkingfrom the tree houses.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
No, that's its own thing, so keep that in mind.
They have their own bus loopwithin the resort.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Right, and so keep that in mind when you're
thinking oh okay, I can walk toDisney Springs, not if you're
staying in the tree houses.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
You can take the boat .
They have a boat to DisneySprings though, okay, so that's
an option.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right Now.
I have heard that the treehouses at Saratoga, though, they
book up really quickly, like ayear or more in advance, so keep
that in mind.
But they do look super cool,but they're not going to be
close to, like the lobby and therestaurants or the pool, so
also keep that in mind as well,and they usually go pretty quick
to DVC members.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
It's hard to get one if you're not a DVC member.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, but again I would like to stay here at some
point again because we didn'texperience the pool or any of
that stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It looked cool though .
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, so just to stay here, even if it's just for a
night, and experience the actualresort this time it is very
nice.
I mean we did eat quick serviceand shop a little bit there,
but other than that we didn't domuch on at the resort I still
remember, oh, but I did do amassage, sorry yes, you and um,
(17:11):
my sister, our sister-in-law,did a massage.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yes, I remember my my first thought when we walked
out of the lobby and the poolwas packed and I was like who
comes to disney and goes to thepool?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
yeah, you were like why are they not at the park?
Why?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
would you not be at the park?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Man, you need that resort day if you're there for a
while.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Breaking my top 10.
Number 10 all-star movies Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Top 10.
Top 10.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Number 10 all-star movies.
And you know it's a valueresort.
There's a ton of people there,but we stayed in the Toy Story
section of all-star movies.
I loved it.
The theming here, the detailloved it.
The Fantasia pool loved it.
The food court it.
(18:03):
It's crowded, yes, but somelike sometimes they have some
pretty unique stuff in thereyeah like I loved staying here.
It was fun now is it going tobe like a nice, peaceful,
relaxing time?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
no, that's what I was like, maybe when, if our kids
were.
But I really did enjoy our stayhere yeah, I thought it was fun
and again, I mean I know it wasmy number 12 and but I mean I
just I think we would havegotten a little more out of it
had they been younger.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, yeah, but I I loved it.
You know I wouldn't sleep onthis, yeah, yeah, I really
thoroughly enjoyed staying here.
Okay, all right, what's yournumber?
Nine?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
My number nine is Disneyland Hotel.
Whoa.
I know I was making a face, wow,and this is where it gets hard.
My next few it was like oh theycould really be in any order.
Because, don't get me wrong, Ilove Disneyland Hotel.
You know, the headboards andstuff with the fireworks and the
(19:05):
castles and the music.
I don't know how many times Iturned that on.
We played them all night long,yeah and um and the monorail,
like slides at the pool, arecool and you got Tongaroa
Terrace and, yeah, trader Sam'sand all that there right.
And then I like how each of thetowers, so to speak, are like
different, different like thedecorations.
Are, you know, frontierland orFantasyland or whatever?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
There's an Adventureland tower.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And now they have the DVC tower.
Yes, that was being built whenwe were there.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Right.
So I mean so I love the themingfor all of that and I like how
it's right there.
I mean, well, these resorts areright there on, you know, the
uh downtown disney, you know,and so I the location, all of
that great.
Um, it was just, I don't know,like it did feel crowded.
(19:55):
Now we were there the firstcouple days was the end of a
dance competition yes um, sothat added to it.
Um, but just it.
It took a long time, even whenthey were gone to, you know,
catch the elevators and it justI don't know, it wasn't like a
ah, relaxing feeling it wasoverwhelming, right I, I get
(20:16):
that, yeah, but the food, greatlocation, great, you know the,
the headboard and everything inthe room, all of that what about
the mickey hands holding thelights in the?
bathroom.
Oh yes, yeah, like the themingon point for sure.
Um and again, these next fewcould could easily be in any
order, like my.
The next three that I'm goingto talk about could be could
(20:37):
have been easily in this placeas well, so okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
My number nine.
We're going back to CoronadoSprings.
Just in general, okay, right.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
But you already talked about it.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
We talked about Sarah .
I talked about it, you talkedabout.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Oh yes, I'm sorry, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Keep up here, woman, all right.
So I didn't split the villaswith the tower Right, I'm just
doing it as a whole.
I didn't split the village, thevillas with the tower right,
I'm just doing it as a whole.
Again, a very large resort.
The theming is on point.
Again, we talked about it inour trip report.
We talked about it in our hotelreview.
This is a beautiful, beautifulresort, right, the music is
(21:20):
beautiful.
There's a lot of goodrestaurants here.
Are they great?
No, are they great.
No, are they good?
Yes, they're good.
They're not great.
The pool area is on point.
This is a beautiful resort,very well done.
The Tower Bar, dahlia Lounge,great views of Hollywood Studios
, great drinks up there.
I would like to go back and eatat the Tapas restaurant there,
(21:43):
or just eat, just me, and you goback to that lounge and just
hang out, right.
But again, like I said in thetrip reported in the hotel
review, when I walked into theresort lobby I didn't get that
feeling because it's verycrowded.
This is the main conventionhotel for Walt Disney World, so
(22:04):
you see more business peoplemixed in with the families and
that doesn't give me the hey,we're at Walt Disney World
feeling.
Does that make sense?
No, it does.
So that's why it is number nine.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
But it made top ten.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yes, it made top ten Right, so all right, what's your
number eight?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
People are going to be shocked.
What?
Just Okay, my number eightGrand Floridian.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh, wow, okay, All right, please explain.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So there's so much good here, but it's just.
You know, and I know we tend tostay at deluxe resorts more
often than not, but it I don'tknow.
I just felt like I was out ofplace a little bit here.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We're not that bougie .
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Like again, very nice and loved.
You know the room, the location.
You know it's one of themonorail resorts.
You know you can see the, thecastle, you, you and ryan had
watched fireworks from the boatdock.
You know, like all of thatstuff, the pool was very nice.
I wish we had eaten at some ofthe restaurants here.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
We didn't do that some of them weren't quite open
yet either, because this wasstill in the covid yeah and um,
but like one or two of them were.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
But anyway, so you know, I do wish that we had
experienced some of therestaurants here, but it just, I
don't know, it was a little toobougie for me Now.
Did we go visit it on ourresort day, me and Nolan, when
Zach and Ryan had other plans?
Yes, we did, but we weren'tthere long, you know, yeah, and
(23:46):
so I just yeah, I just uh,there's theming here and there
is a little bit of disney, verysubtle, but it is very subtle,
um, and I get why.
I mean, it's like that, what isit?
Victorian style?
it's yeah, victorian, yeah, turnof the century, victorian style
yeah, but I just I don't knowit out of everywhere that we've
(24:07):
stayed it just there was no wayit was going to make like my top
five.
Yeah, so uh, but again the lastone I talked about, this one in
the next two could have easilybeen in any order, so yeah, my
number eight.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
We're going back to the west coast going disneyland
hotel and a lot of the reasonsthat you echoed right great
resort.
I loved seeing all the picturesof walt in fantasyland.
We stayed in the fantasylandtower.
I loved all the theming.
I loved the pool.
I loved.
I love trader sam's.
I'm not a tiki bar guy but Ilove trader james you know, yeah
(24:43):
, uh, the pool was great, thelocation's great.
You're, you're there, like thisis.
This is not the originaldisneyland hotel that got torn
down and rebuilt, but thetheming is there.
You're literally right outsideof downtown disney.
It's a great resort.
The hotel room is great.
It's a great resort.
It made number eight because itis too much.
(25:05):
Sometimes, like when we get,when we walk into this resort or
when we walk into any resort,do you go?
Yeah, that's a lot of what Ijudge my opinions on right.
Right, and we did not get thishere because there were people
everywhere yeah, and theelevator thing.
(25:27):
I mean, it took us 10 minutes attimes to get an elevator right
and granted, we were on one ofthe top floors, but still.
But it shouldn't take 10minutes to go down the elevator,
it just shouldn't right, right,um, but again, number eight,
again.
It's not that we don't likethese resorts yeah this is just
if you're having to rank themlike.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
It's like ranking your kids, right you don't want
to do that, I'm just saying wedo have one we like better than
the other no, not really I'mkidding, we'll edit that part
out.
No, we're not, we're leaving itthere.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I just joke, it's a.
It's a joke people, it's a joke, people, it's a joke.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
All right Number seven for Brittany.
Number seven Port OrleansRiverside.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
How dare she?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Are you muting me?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yes, I said my number nine through six could have
been in any order.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yes, I'm messing with you.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Okay, september 9 through 6.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yes, I'm messing with you.
Okay, so, uh, port OrleansRiverside, and you know really
nothing to complain about.
Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It has a very relaxing vibe.
Um, the theming, I think, isreally on par.
You know the the?
Uh, it's not, it's Disneythemed, but still not in your
(26:47):
face.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
But it's more than subtle too it's a lot of um
princess, uh, princess and thefrog.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Princess and frog, yeah yeah, so yeah, you have,
like Tiana and the frog andeverything they have, uh,
carriage rides you can takebeautiful that really added to
it, especially like in theevening.
Um, maybe if we stay again I'lldo that or we can do that yeah
uh, and the food in the foodcourt great options, gumbo,
(27:16):
jambalaya, and then yourtraditional like hamburgers,
chicken, all of that stuff aswell, but really really good.
Um, you know, the pool was niceand relaxing.
Uh, we stayed.
I can't think of the name, butit was an easy walk to the, to
everything yes, it wasn't thatfar from now where a lot of
people say this is a pretty goodsize resort it is a very large
(27:38):
resort.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
All the moderates are going to be really large, right
but our.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
But the location for where we stayed was real easy to
to walk to everything um andthe outside theming to the
buildings is definitely themedto like your older, traditional
new orleans style southern yesyeah, so.
But yeah, I didn't ride on theboat, but zach has to.
(28:03):
You can get a boat and take itto disney springs I've ridden
this boat boat multiple timesright, you've also taken it from
disney springs here for Yeehaw,bob Correct, which I'm sure
Zach will talk about later.
Oh yeah and yeah, I justlocation-wise everything.
I think it's great and veryrelaxing.
It's one that you can walk inand outside and be like ah.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
You do get that ah feeling here, unless I'll talk
about it when I talk about PortOrleans River City.
You know what I'm going to say.
Yes, my number seven, grandFloridian.
Okay, I'm going to say thisabout the pool because I'm going
back and re-listening to ourold trip reports and I was
listening to this one todaywhile I was on my breaks at work
(28:48):
walking around the pool.
Here you have the castle on theleft.
You got the monorail going byon the right.
You don't get much more likeDisney than that, right, like
that's pretty awesome.
Yeah, right, that's really cool.
When you walk in, you do getthat Right this.
(29:09):
You get that here, right?
Well, not now, because of allthe construction, not now with
the construction and when westayed.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
you did with the gingerbread smell.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Yes, Even though it was crowded during, we stayed
during.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Christmas time, but you still walked in and you were
like I'm here but in your nicerclothes.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yes, so why this is not in my top?
Like how is Grand Floridian'snot in y'all's top five?
We're bougie.
This is a whole, nother levelof bougie that we're just not
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
We're just not.
And when we say that for thoseof you that haven't been like,
you are still fine wearing themepark clothes.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Wear whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yes, you know, unless you're going to one of their
nicer restaurants.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Didn't they have dress codes?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes, but you can still be in your Disney clothes.
But walking around, I just feltlike, oh, maybe I should have
put a sundress on instead.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Right, I should have a collar on Right.
The boys were like hey, don'ttouch anything Because the boys
were smaller.
Can I tell the story about theroom we stayed in?
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Depends on the story.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So we stayed in the Sugarless building, right, and
was it Nolan?
It was Nolan.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, because he was quite a bit younger.
What was?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
he four.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
No, he was like six, he was in 21.
Yeah, so almost six.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
He was like Daddy, we're staying in the Sugar Daddy
building.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Because he liked the candy sugar daddy right.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Well, he'd recently heard of it.
I don't think he liked it, butyeah, so we just that's just a
funny story we tell, but againbeautiful resort but zach was
like sugar, love sugar, lovesugar, love it was a.
It's a beautiful resort and Iknow this is.
This resort is probably on onmost people's top bucket list
resort to stay at right likepeople put it up on this
(30:58):
pedestal as almost unattainableright and and I get that, but it
just, it's just not us.
Yeah, I don't think we'll everstay here again.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
No.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Unless someone says, hey, let's go, stay at the Grand
Floridian.
Okay, we'll go.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But on our own we're not Like how we've talked about
like Magic Kingdom days andstuff, and it's okay to leave
and go eat somewhere, go chillthere, maybe do that it is a
very beautiful the customerservice here is.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I think this is the best customer service at any
resort we've ever stayed at.
Honestly.
Right, but yeah, I think there'sjust much better resorts.
All right.
So if you want to book a roomand package with Walt Disney
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Erica.
All right, number six, brittany.
What is your sixth favoriteresort that we stayed at in Walt
Disney World?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Grand Destino Tower at Coronado Springs.
Okay, number six and I said sixthrough nine could have been in
any order, did I not?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
You did so this could have easily been number nine.
You're cheating by usingCoronado Springs twice.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Because it's a different experience.
Continue.
The rooms are different.
I feel like in the tower it wasmuch quieter.
The size of the room was veryspacious.
We had a preferred view.
Um, it was a water view, so youcould, we could, look out and
we could see like the, the lakethere, and like three bridges
(33:41):
restaurant and the backside ofexpedition yeah, you could see
that and um, the tree of life,or yeah, um, anyway, you could
see all that.
And then on the movie nights,like you could even look down
and, if you wanted to, you know,see the movie that they're
watching out on the lawn.
Uh, and it was just, it was avery pretty view.
Um, yes, I know, like it's aconvention resort and there were
(34:05):
people there for business andstuff as well, but there were
times where I went down and gotlike a coffee and just sat on
the lower lobby level and justtook it all in and it was still
a relaxing vibe.
Yes, okay, and then there wereother chairs and stuff that were
next to like the big windowsand doors, looking out at
(34:25):
everything.
And you know, you could youjust you felt that encompassed
by disney feel, when you knowwhen you're, you were immersed
yes, you were fully immersed inthe theming care.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
That I will say.
As large as the resort is, youare still fully immersed in the
in the theming care at cornadoright in that pool.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You know the tower location, you know is real easy
to get to everything from thefood court, the shop, the pool
is a little bit of a walk, butnot much, and that pool theming
is just beautiful with thepyramid and so yeah, I just I
wanted to put that separatelybecause I really did enjoy the
(35:05):
tower where I didn't enjoy thevillages.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Ok, so my number six, port Orleans Riverside, and
it's not because of Yeehaw BobOkay, it's not.
Yeehaw Bob is just a massivebonus to this.
All right.
So we grew up in the South.
I grew up in like rural South.
You know Tennessee and thisreminds me a lot of my childhood
(35:34):
.
Right, like the theming, the,the water.
You know the water wheels, thepool theming is on point here,
and when you walk in this resort, except on a thursday, friday
or saturday night between nineand eleven o'clock, you go right
right it's very peaceful.
If you check in out within thosedays and hours, you're going to
(35:54):
see an 80-year-old bald mangoing ah right, and you're going
to go.
What is going on here, right?
Right, yeah, that is not arelaxing time.
Yeehaw Bob is a huge bonus ofthis resort.
I love him.
He's an icon.
Relaxing time yeehaw bob is ahuge bonus of this resort.
I love him.
He's an icon.
But this is not why he's so far.
(36:15):
This is he is not why it's sofar high on my list.
Okay, it's just.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It's a peaceful, relaxing resort, except when
britney sees a snake on the pathand you can hear her all over
the resort I didn't screambecause by the time I realized
what it was, it was already inthe grass, but had I realized it
like half a second soonerbecause I literally, like my
(36:37):
foot, almost touched it that'show close it was on the path
Like if I had realized it just ahalf second sooner the whole
resort would have heard me yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
But, like you said earlier, the food in the food
court area here is on point.
I think this may be some of thebest resort food you can get
anywhere yes, I would agree.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
And and flavorful too yes you know it's not like oh
yeah, let's just serve this upbecause stay on theming.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
It was flavorful and you can take the boats to, to
port orlean not port, yeah, portorleans, um, what's the other
one there, french quarter andyou can take it to disney
springs and saratoga springs.
There's their stops there and Ithink all of that, with the
carriage rides and all that,especially in like twilight hour
, just adds to the ambience ofthis place just being, yeah, so
(37:21):
relaxing, so peaceful I loved,just the atmosphere right and
they, they had those treesspanish mosses yes, that that
add to it.
Yeah, it's just, and you'reimmersed in this theme Right,
like there's nothing else takenaway from the immersiveness of
it in the storytelling.
I remember when we did the tripreport in the hotel review of
(37:43):
this.
The storytelling here is onpoint Right here is on point
right of the resort.
There's some backstories hereand it is very well done.
So, yeah, number six, portorleans riverside ahead of
disneyland hotel in the grandfloridian pretty, pretty big,
yeah, I think well, that wasahead on my list too.
(38:04):
Yeah, all right, we're in thetop five.
Now britney, what's number five?
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Number five, the Yacht Club.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Okay, that's my number five as well.
And again, these top five.
To even be in this top five,that's huge.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yes, so Yacht Club partially.
Location walking distance fromthe side entrance to Epcot.
You're right there, next toBeach Club, you can see Boardcot
.
Yep, you know you're rightthere.
You know, next to Beach Clubyou can see Boardwalk.
Beautiful Crescent Lake isright there, yeah, so you know,
just the views, the beach alongCrescent Lake and everything.
(38:42):
Just very, very pretty.
We had a room that facedStormalong Bay.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yes, a little bit of it.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, we had a water, water view, so it was kind of
like split a little yeah, yeah,you could see some of storm
along bay, which is their bigpool area and um, and then we
could see the lake there, and soif you're not familiar with
storm along bay, it's where.
If you are in that area, evenif you're staying at the
boardwalk and you see thisreally tall, tilted like pirate
(39:09):
ship, that's their slide andthen it has a sandbottom pool, a
lazy river, all of that at theresort.
So that just really adds to it,especially if you're there for
a resort day, just familygetting to play, wind down.
We didn't experience too manyof the actual restaurants in the
Yacht Club.
(39:30):
That was a mistake that we madeyeah, we did do a couple at
beach club there, but I reallywish we had tried some at yachts
yes um the room very nice.
The the decor in the room itselfwas more subtle you know, but
it is nautical theming, you know, and if you're looking you'll
see stuff, but it's not so muchin your face, but it's one of
those lobbies that when you walkin you definitely get the and
(39:53):
you can get an elevator.
You can take stairs, like wherewe were staying um.
The boys like to go up thestairs because there was like a
steering wheel that you could umlike a ship steering wheel.
Yeah, like a ship steering wheelthat you could turn and
everything.
So nolan had to do that eachtime, r Ryan did some too, and
you know we spent some timesometimes just sitting in that
lobby and it was.
It was just very nice.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
And again, location, location yeah, number five's
Yacht Club and we're, we'reamong some some big hitters here
now, right, yacht Club.
I remember the music here.
The music here is justwonderful right, especially
after we got of what got off ofour flight, which had been a
five-hour flight from la turnedinto an eight-hour flight and we
got there like nine o'clock atnight, after leaving la at 10
(40:37):
o'clock in the morning yeah andyou.
You walked in and the thetheming in there it's a little
darker, it's more nautical and Ijust heard that music in the
theming I was was just likeright here, Even with the crazy
party that was going on at thelounge next to the lobby didn't
matter.
It was just so peaceful, sorelaxing.
(40:58):
We want to try the restaurantshere.
Loved the decor in the rooms.
But let's be honest, You'recoming here for the side
entrance, number one.
For Epcot yeah, the pool, StormAlong Bay Pool.
This is the best pool handsdown on property.
Right, yeah, for sure.
This is why you're staying here.
This is why you're bookingyacht or beach club.
(41:20):
I would prefer the yacht club.
I like the theming better.
Beach club it is a littlebright, it isn't in your face.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
So beach club club I don't think would be as high on
this list for me, right, but wehaven't stayed there, we've been
in it.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, but I love the yacht club.
Great place, highly recommendit, love it, love it, just love
it.
That slide is awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
The pool is awesome and the pool doesn't seem overly
crowded even when there aretons of people there, because
the way it's laid out there'slike different areas that you
can swim in that go up to likefive feet and stuff, but then
you have kiddie areas as welland you know whirlpool spas, all
that.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
So all right number four for britney number four
grand california we're on thesame page, okay, okay so grand
california?
Speaker 1 (42:14):
um, it's.
Oh, there's quite a few reasonsfor one.
Let me look at the theming.
The theming reminds me of someI'm going to talk about here
soon, so I'm going to go aheadand kind of give some of my list
away.
Uh, you just don't know theorder yet, but it reminded me a
little bit of animal kingdomlodge in wilderness well,
(42:34):
there's a very good reasonbehind that yes, you can talk
about it when it's your turnokay so the theming reminded me
of those two, which I love, boththose resorts.
It has that very relaxing,relaxing, wilderness, western
kind of feel to it.
Um, the decor, even in the room, it was subtle, a little it was
(42:57):
a little more noticeable thansome other resorts, but it was
like chippendale and woodsy andum yeah, I just I don't know.
It was very, very relaxing.
When you walked in, it was.
I immediately was like ah, theyhave fireplaces in there, the
pool area, those seat cushionsat the pool are very comfortable
(43:19):
.
Some of the like, more like,they were like six inches thick.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, they were huge.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, it wasn't like those flimsy seat cushions or
even the ones that some of thenicer resorts in Walt Disney
World that are not flimsy, but Imean these were, like Zach said
, probably five or six inchesthick and the pool area was very
nice, the the bar andrestaurant there and everything
very nice.
But there's also a entranceright into DCA and it's like
(43:47):
literally you're walking rightinto the park yeah, it's not a
side entrance.
This is an entrance into thepark yeah from the resort right
like you are right there on apath that leads to a ride,
basically and it ties right intothe themed land at dca yes,
like where the grizzly?
Speaker 2 (44:03):
yes the grizzly river run, I think's the name of it.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Yeah, so yes, it's just so nice, very relaxing feel
.
Just absolutely loved it.
It is expensive, but I think itmight be worth it.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
This was the most expensive resort we've ever
stayed at.
This was more than the GrandFloridian.
Yeah, yeah, it hurt to pay forthis, but I agree.
Number four on my list.
It's great you walk in.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
You're immediately so it's number four for you too,
number four for me as well okay,you immediately walk in and you
go like there's not a hustlebustle here.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
The the customer service from the cast members
are just as high as they were atgrand floridian.
Right um it.
It feels like Wilderness Lodge,but it's different Because this
is more like Redwoods, likeyou're in the Redwood Forest,
right, right.
Yeah, themed amazing.
The room was great, even thoughI have a thing with Chippendale
(45:03):
now.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
But talk about why the theming is similar to so.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
I've talked about this ad nauseum before, but the
Grand californian, thewilderness lodge and animal
kingdom lodge are all built bythe same architect, right,
that's why they all have thathuge grand uh lobby and entrance
and all that.
So, yes, um, that entrance todc right there, that's huge
right massive.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
That's awesome yeah you can't beat that yeah, and
they do have a character dininghere.
We didn't experience, but itlooked like it would be super
cute.
You could kind?
Of see in from it and um theagain we we did eat like the the
pool restaurant the quickservice.
You know um the customer service.
When you were talking aboutthat reminded me the day we got
(45:50):
there.
They were having like a speciallike in their spa and
everything, and concierge reallytried to go out of their way to
get me in that day.
It just didn't work out.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
You want to get your nails in or something?
Speaker 1 (45:59):
no, no no, it was like a special facial or
something okay uh, it was likediscounted for like two days or
something.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Because we, when we got there early yeah, flying
from the east coast to the westcoast, you get there early and
we didn't have anything plannedfor the day except to just chill
at the pool.
So we were like, if it can getyou in, get you in.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Yeah, but I just appreciated how like they've
really just kind of overheard ustalking and was like, well, hey
, do you want me to just see?
And he was like, well, let mesee what I can do, you know.
And it didn't work out, but itwas definitely great customer
service.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, the pool's great.
Those seat cushions are justamazing.
I was like wow.
Yeah, don't eat the whole pizza.
It's not going to go well foryou.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Well, it depends, and so we got bigger pizzas somehow
than people next to us.
That got like a personal size.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
It did not go well for me that night.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Well, you got like all the meat.
Yeah, yeah, the all meat one itwas.
It was a rough night.
We'll just like margarita pizzaor something.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Yeah, yeah so yeah, number four grand california.
It's yeah, it's just yeah,you're gonna spend the money
here, though yeah, yeah, butit's beautiful, it is.
Number three?
I think we're all on the samepage from here on out.
Probably Brittany, number three.
What is your number threefavorite resort in Walt Disney
(47:18):
World?
Speaker 1 (47:19):
The Polynesian.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Okay, we're on the same page.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
The Polynesian, although I mean these top three
I love almost equally, honestly,yeah, so you know it could have
been two or three.
We'll put it that way.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I'm pretty set on my top three.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, but Polynesian love it, love it, love it.
You've heard us talk about itseveral times.
We go there a lot.
We've only stayed one nightthere.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
I want to stay more.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah, but it is so nice the rooms now are themed to
Moana, but I still feel likeit's not overly done it was done
really well.
It's noticeable, but the colorscheme and everything was done
really well with it.
Very clean, looking stillislandy.
The restaurants here are great,even with some changes to some
(48:09):
things.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
We've eaten at all the restaurants here.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Yeah, the food's great We've.
Yeah, like what is it?
Kona?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
We've eaten at Kona Cafe.
We've eaten at Ohana.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
We've eaten at Captain Cook's.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Me and Nolan have been to Trader Sam's.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
And the Tambu Lounge.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Tambu Lounge.
You've been there, yeah, so yesmultiple.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Did you say the?
Yeah, you did say Sam's.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Claire Sam's yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
So everything is great the decor, the ambiance,
just all of it.
The pool amazing, one of thebest pools.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I would say this is the second best pool yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
It is just beautiful, the location we've talked about
about, you know, watching thefireworks from the beach there.
You know, like on our recenttrip we did that now, had we
been um, at the time of thisrecording it's july 5th.
So if we were there this timeof year like you not just
anybody could go to the beach,like if it's fourth of july and
(49:08):
like new year's and stuff, youhave to be staying there to
watch the fireworks yeah, um, sojust keep that in mind.
But on you know other, most ofthe time you can, you can go and
watch the fireworks.
Just beautiful, breathtaking.
Um, even outside in theevenings um the outside part of
trader sam's area in captaincook's like there's someone like
(49:29):
the tiki torches and all thatstuff like the ukulele and all
that.
Yeah, so just very, very nice.
Uh, I do want to, you know, trysome of these restaurants again
.
Uh, this is another one, youknow, on a magic kingdom day or
something, or a resort day, ifyou wanted to, you know, just
(49:50):
because we had went right afterCOVID and stuff.
So I'd like to experience itone more time.
But just great, beautiful, loveit.
It's definitely one of those.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Every time I walk into the lobby it's the ah,
we're here, so yeah, Numberthree for me as well, I get that
feeling before we even walk inthe lobby.
That waterfall, oh yes, I'mjust like oh yeah yeah even as
crowded as that lobby gets,you're still like the music, the
(50:23):
smell, the decor.
You're just like ah yeah, thisis it.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
This is yeah.
Like you said, all therestaurants are great here,
San's, Ohana.
We'll see Well.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
I'd like to try it again.
We'll try it again, yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
The pool.
Here they've got a grotto inthe pool.
The water slide's great.
I remember you and Ryan went tothe edge of the pool to watch
the fireworks.
Me and Nolan stood in the pooland nolan just grabbed a life
vest and just floated on hisback and just like super chill.
You know, like that's what youcan do here.
You know, um would love to stayhere again.
I think the room it was a muchlarger room yes than I think
(51:04):
we've ever had it was veryspacious it's very large.
They themed it very well.
The the Moana theme is greatyou love.
Hey, hey by the Coffee Maker.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yes, every morning.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah, you're not going to go wrong here.
This is just a great resort.
This is a must visit every timewe go, every time we go, and it
is, for most people, for areason.
Right, you know?
Yeah, all right, top two.
There's two left.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Yep, so number two, wilderness Lodge, but I would
stay here anytime.
Yes, we went at Christmas andit really added to it because
it's just Christmas there.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
It is Christmas in a resort.
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yeah, I mean just the theming, the woodsy feel, um,
the huge fireplace, the treethat they had in the lobby, um,
the little station they had toget like hot chocolate and all
these gingerbread and chocolatetype desserts and everything
there it was just, it wasbeautiful.
But we've visited there evenwhen it wasn't decorated for
(52:18):
Christmas and still beautiful.
The pool here too, just theoutside of it and the backdrop,
so to speak, with like awaterfall and everything Very
grand.
Yes, very, very nice.
Just theming is on point hereas well.
The food is is pretty good.
Um, not the quick service somuch, but like the uh, the one
(52:40):
where geyser point well, geyserpoint, and then the one where
they're all rowdy oh the uh, thebuffet.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Why can I think of a buffet?
Speaker 1 (52:49):
well, it was a all you can eat family style yeah um
whispering whispering canyonyes, yes, where, like you know,
make sure you use your napkinsand if someone wants ketchup,
then you know you got to bring20 bottles of ketchup from the
previous table and all of thatit's fun.
It was very fun yeah so, butjust love the theming um, just
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,uh, geyser point, great, great
(53:12):
food, great experience, as longas you do it right.
But just love the theming Justbeautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
geyser Point, great, great food, great experience, as long as
you do it right anyway, oh, justthat one time.
And then, even though you'reencompassed at the Wilderness
Lodge, you do hear the boathorns, because that's how you
get to magic kingdom.
You do see the monorail alittle bit off in the distance
(53:34):
depending on where your room isyeah, depending on where your
room is, we could see it um, butit's definitely just very well
done, very relaxing.
The boys love it.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
The boys love poly too, um, so yeah, number two on
my list as well, echoing a lotof the things you said.
You walk in this lobby andyou're just like Right, it's
very peaceful.
This is different than theGrand California.
The Grand California is morelike a redwood forest.
(54:05):
This pays more of an homage tothe great lodges of the national
parks out west.
Right, so they're different,but not quite.
But this lobby is beautiful.
The check-in area is great, therestaurants are great, except
(54:26):
for the quick.
I mean again, you can't havegreat stuff in every resort,
right, right, like the quickservice place in yacht club.
It was nothing to write homeabout, right right so same thing
here, right, the wildernesslodge, the, you know quick
service restaurant is notsomething right home.
About same thing animal kingdom.
We're just gonna say now animalkingdom is our number one lodge
.
But the mara, nothing to writelike it sucks right.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
I'm just gonna say it that depends on what you get.
But but you can't have greatstuff.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
You can't, all of it can't be great right right so
the wilderness lodge.
I immediately felt like we werein snow white's forest.
We were eating.
When we first got there, wewere eating lunch and there was
a squirrel running along mychair and then, like a rabbit,
hopping along by us and it isjust like the most magical snow
(55:13):
white thing ever right, whichthere is a restaurant there
where you can meet snow whiteand some of the dwarfs and stuff
.
Yeah, and the evil queen orwhatever she is.
Yes, I love, love, love thetheming here the carolwood
pacific room, the the walt roomwhere his trains are, and tells
a story of the carolwood pacific.
Amazing.
(55:34):
This is by far one of myfavorite places on property to
go to.
Um, what I loved so much aboutthis.
Take that all the way.
You are basically on themonorail loop without the
monorail but you feel like youare miles away from it.
Right, and that is what I loveso much about this.
(55:55):
You are right there in the mixof everything, yes, but you
don't feel like you are.
You really don't, and that'swhat I love so much about this.
The geyser points great, allthat.
There's a reason we talk somuch about it, but the one thing
that stood out to me was we arein this wilderness environment,
but the magic kingdom isliterally right there right and
(56:16):
you didn't feel like the magickingdom was right there, right,
you know yeah and that is whatsets this apart, you know yeah,
yeah, love it.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
The shop there is one of my favorite gift shops too
it is.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
it's themed, themed really really well.
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1 (56:33):
I used to say that about the Polynesian shop, but
they were really redoing it whenwe were there just now, yeah.
So I don't know if they'regoing to keep it small like that
or they're just working on halfof it and then the half that
was open they'll work on andthen it'll all be that big space
again, or?
Speaker 2 (56:49):
not sure it will be.
Yeah, all right, so number onewe already said it britney
animal kingdom.
Animal kingdom lodge should beno surprise to anybody and this
is a lot of, because of the park.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
This is a lot of people's favorite resort, so
it's not just us right right,and I didn't want people to be
like oh, of course, becauseanimal kingdom is like your
favorite park y'all talk aboutall the time.
No, it's the the theming again.
Um, just a grand lobby,beautiful, beautiful, huge
windows looking out at thesavannah.
Um, just so many spots to lookat the savannah from the lobby.
(57:23):
You know different decks withrocking horses to look out.
Uh, and rocking horses rockingchairs rocking chairs to sit at,
to sit at and watch, um, youknow, around like as you're
going to the pool and stuff justdifferent look, lookout areas.
Um, of course, if you have aroom that's a savannah view room
, just loved waking up in themorning and having coffee on the
(57:48):
balcony and watching theanimals roam around.
Nolan, one of his favoriteanimals is the giraffes and we
would see the giraffes justright outside.
You know, ryan loved, like whenit rained it wasn't from our
room but at other parts of theresort when it was raining and
the wildebeest playing tag witheach other.
You know he still talks aboutthat.
(58:13):
Just the food now.
Zach said, like, quick serviceis anything to talk about, but
if you want to get zebra domes,you can get it at the mara and
the zebra domes are delicious,by the way.
Um, but when we were there wedid not eat at any sit-down
restaurants because it was rightafter covid.
But we have since gone there.
Me and zach have to eat at bomaloved it and we ate the
breakfast buffet and we weresupposed to eat at jico on our
(58:37):
couples only trip that gotcanceled right, yeah, so, um, so
we'd love to experience jicoand senna still, but boma,
wonderful, uh, the pools hereare very relaxing.
Um, just, yes, just love it,love it, love it when you, I
mean just when you walk in, itis that immediate.
Ah, we're here and I we haven'tstayed at christmas, but we
(58:59):
have visited at christmas, and,oh, I, I would love to stay
there at christmas sometime toospoiler alert no I mean, that's
up to you.
Speaker 2 (59:11):
The boys think we're staying at Pop Century for
Christmas.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
Yeah, no, we're staying here See, I covered and
didn't say it, you're the onesaying spoiler alert.
It's okay, well, they may haveheard just now, they didn't hear
.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
They're playing games .
Speaker 1 (59:26):
You almost gave it away the other day, though, and
I was like I know.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
So, names you almost gave it away the other day,
though, and I know so we got abounce back offer and erica was
able to snatch it up for us,yeah, so, um, animal kingdom
launch, it's number one, andhere's why it's number one for
me.
Yes, everything britney said,right, what made it number one
for me?
You feel like you are somewherecompletely different.
Here, right, there is nothingelse like this on Walt Disney
(59:54):
World property Like doesn't evencome close right.
Wormness Lodge we talked aboutyou're right there, but you're
not.
You don't even feel that.
Here, right, you feel like youwere completely at an African
lodge in Africa.
They did such an amazing jobhere with fully immersing you in
the music.
Oh, the music I love, love,love.
(01:00:15):
The regular music and theChristmas music here, yeah, love
it.
The theming, all the artifacts,all the animals, everything
about this is just amazing.
And we're staying here againbecause we again.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Just love it's.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
We just love it.
We want to stay at christmastime.
We're staying at christmas time.
We're doing it.
Number one animal kingdom lodge.
If you can book a savannah viewroom, please do yeah and if you
can't, the only way you canafford to stay here is to not
book a savannah view room.
Still book it, or like, juststay here even if you don't get
(01:00:54):
a savannah view room there'splenty of places to go.
Look at the savannah, right,right, it's just.
There's nothing like this inwalt disney world.
It's, it's just so well donevery, very much so yeah, so you
want to go down your list onemore time.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
All right, my list.
I made it difficult.
Number 14, coronado Springs andthe Villages, 13, the Dolphin,
12, all-star Movies, 11,caribbean Beach, 10, saratoga
Springs, 9, disneyland Hotel, 8,grand Floridian, 7, port
Orleans Riverside, 6,grandestino Tower at Coronado,
(01:01:32):
five Yacht Club, four GrandCalifornian, three Polynesian,
two Wilderness Lodge and oneAnimal Kingdom Lodge.
Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
All right, and mine were number 13, the Dolphin,
number 12, caribbean Beach,number 11, saratoga Springs,
number 10, all-star Movies,number nine, coronoga Springs,
number 10, all-star Movies,number 9, coronado Springs,
number 8, Disneyland Hotel,number 7, the Grand Floridian,
number 6, port Orleans Riverside, number 5, the Yacht Club,
(01:02:01):
number 4, the Grand Californian,number 3, the Polynesian,
number 2, the Wilderness Lodgeand number 1, animal Kingdom
Lodge.
And I want to say again onemore time you're not going to go
wrong staying at any of theseresorts.
Correct, right, you're reallynot.
But if we had to rank them,this is how we would.
this is how we would, so thankyou everybody for joining us.
Hope you enjoyed this episode.
It's been a long time coming,but we're just glad that you we
(01:02:24):
were able to get this episodeout.
Um, if you want to support thepodcast, the best way to do that
is to book your next vacationwith Travel Planner Erica.
Her website iswwwtravelplannerericacom.
She's on Facebook and Instagramat Travel Planner Erica, and
next week, for a very specialepisode, we're going to have her
and Johnny back on yes, solooking forward to talking to
(01:02:45):
you next week.
Yeah, and if you want to emailus, circleofparksmailcom, our
website's wwwcircleofparkscom,and we're on facebook, instagram
and x all that circle of parkslet us know.
Do you agree or disagree withour rankings, and how would you
rank the resorts that you stayedat?
I'm sure there'll be somedisagreements there will, but we
will talk to you next week fora very, very special episode all
(01:03:06):
right, talk to you soon, thankyou.
hello and welcome to circle of Parks podcast, episode
number 214.
Today we are going to rank allthe Disney resorts we have
stayed at.
There is far too much to seeand do.
We are here to help guide youthrough.
But before we do that we musttalk disney merch.
(00:45):
So this week's disney merch ondisneystorecom they have some
monorail tongs and I thoughtthey were tongs tongs.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, like clack clack , clack tongs yep why have you
not gotten them for me?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
so they are back in stock um is what it says and
it's 14 dollars, they're 14.99.
And it says welcome to ourmonorail tongs.
Please hold on to the handlesthroughout your culinary journey
and stay clear of dulleroptions.
After all, why use ordinarytongs when you can use the
(01:23):
stainless steel ones with aFigaro monorail tip?
So anyway, they're $14?
$14.99.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, get those.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So yeah, so apparently they've had them
before and I almost feel likemaybe I've glanced at them
before and seen that they wereout of stock, or maybe a long
time ago I covered this onDisney merch because they looked
very familiar to me.
A long time ago I covered thison Disney March because they
looked very familiar to me, butanyway again, monorail tongs for
cooking and grilling $14.99.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
With as much as I grill out.
Why do we not have these.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I mean I guess they can handle the temperatures.
I would just be like iffy tomess them up.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's almost one of those things you just don't want
to use them, just want to lookat them.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, kind of yeah but you know anyway, uh.
So yes, they are back in stockthis summer.
So again, that's atdisneystorecom.
Go check that out.
And that is this week's disneymarch thank you, brady, for
joining us.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Episode what is it?
214, 214.
We are going to rank theresorts that we have stayed at.
We've been wanting to do thisfor a while, yeah, and we wanted
to wait until we have stayed at.
We've been wanting to do thisfor a while, yeah, and we wanted
to wait until we've stayed atall the resorts.
That's going to take a long,long time, though.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
But we feel we have stayed at enough.
To be able to do this episodeTo be able to rank the resorts
that we have stayed at, and youmay be surprised at where they
rank Well.
Well, I was going to say itincludes walt, disney world and
disneyland and some goodneighbor hotels that are on walt
disney world property.
(02:53):
So, with that being said, I wantto say all these resorts are
still great right, right, yeslike if you said, hey, we're
going to go to Walt Disney World, but we are only staying at
this resort, I'm not out becauseof it's my least favorite
resort, right?
Yeah, like, these are all still, you're going to have a great
(03:13):
experience, you're going to getthat Disney customer service,
you're going to get all of thatright.
So I don't want people to thinkthat these are batteries.
There's no bad resort, right.
It's just which ones do we likebetter?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, right, is that really what it is Like, our
opinion, how we enjoy them, thatkind of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, so before we get into that, I'm Zach, if
you're new here, I'm Brittany.
We do this show every singleweek and our goal is to help
break your week up, take you toWalt Disney World, help you
relax throughout the week andhelp you have a better Walt
Disney World vacation.
Yes, so the resorts that wehave stayed at there's 13 of
them.
Correct, saratoga Springs wasour very first trip.
(03:54):
Mm-hmm.
Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Mm-hmm.
Coronado Springs, mm-hmm, theGrand Floridian.
Mm-hmm.
All-Star Movies the Polynesian,port Orleans, riverside,
disneyland Hotel, caribbeanBeach, the Dolphin, the
Wilderness Lodge, GrandCalifornian and the Yacht Club.
(04:18):
Yes, all right.
So we're going to start withour least favorite and end with
our favorite.
Now I'll say the top five arepretty easy.
Yes, right, and my leastfavorite were pretty easy in the
middle there, though rightthose were tough right, and
we're going to talk about why weranked them the way we ranked
(04:41):
them right, yeah, and so zach'slist has 13.
I have 14 because did you go ona trip without us?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
no, um, but we've stayed at coronado twice in
different sections of it, butit's still the same resort well,
it was a different britney'scoming up with her own rules.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Just whatever she wants to do, she's gonna do it
all right.
So you want to go first?
You want me to go first?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
yeah, so my least favorite so this is number 14
for you for me is the first timewe stayed at coronado springs
whoa we stayed in the villagesarea and I don't know, I just
feel, like you know, it is a bigspread out resort.
You have quite a bit of walkingto do to get to restaurants and
(05:28):
everything, and so thatexperience, not just because of
that, but the room we had, maybeit was just that particular
room, but I just felt, like youknow, I think they've they've
updated the room some since thenthat was an updated room.
Oh well, we just didn't have thebest experience and had a hard
(05:49):
time sleeping that trip that'salso the trip that was a blur
and we were really.
I understand we were reallymainly there just to sleep, but
I just did not enjoy staying atCoronado Springs Villages.
Okay, so that is my leastfavorite.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Least favorite.
Okay, so I just put cornadotogether as one, yeah well all
right.
So my least favorite resort isthe dolphin, and here's why
there is really no disneytheming here.
Now, if you're coming here on aconvention or you have
(06:24):
persuaded someone who didn'twant to go to Disney to go to
Disney and you got him there,got him or her there because
they didn't want to stay at aplace with Disney in your face,
right.
Yeah, this is that place, right.
Correct the deluxe uh perkswithout paying without paying
(06:48):
the deluxe price, but playing,paying like the moderate price.
This is where you're going towant to stay at right, because I
think we paid 400 a night herearound.
But you get those deluxe,deluxe perks, except the buses
at the magic kingdom don't go tothe bus terminal as the other
disney buses do.
They go to the transportationand ticket center right for the
swan and dolphin, and I thinkthat's correct for most other
(07:10):
good neighbor hotels.
But you get the early entry,you get the uh, you do get the
um, like deluxe resort guestsget to stay like from like 10 to
1 am at night, sometimes forcertain, like for apacata magic
kingdom, you know you get thatright.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You do with this one.
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yes, you do get that um, so there are perks to
staying here.
However, when we stayed here,was it bad?
No, it wasn't a bad trip.
We enjoyed it, but there was nodisney theming, and I likened
it to being invited to thepopular kids party in high
school and being there butnobody talking to you.
(07:46):
It's like you're there butyou're not right.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right yeah, I mean, and the the hotel is very nice
it is I mean very, very nice.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's a marriott right yes, it's on my marriott and um
.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So and it's, and it's nice that you know you can walk
to the side entrance of epcotit's a longer walk than I
thought it was.
Yes, so do you keep that inmind?
Like it?
I mean it's walking distance,it's just about 20 minutes it is
.
It is about a 20 minute walk,you are correct so, um, but I
mean, it was very nice, you knowif, if we were anywhere other
than disney, like it wouldprobably rank a lot higher,
(08:20):
because the only reason why I'msaying that is that was my next
one as well so that's yournumber 13 as well.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yes, okay, well, what do you want to say about it?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
or did I just yeah, for the most part, like just
because, like zach was saying,like I don't have to have disney
in your face or anything likethat.
But there really wasn't any ofthat disney magic.
Now you know if you are goingto be spending a lot more time
at the hotel and everything.
They have plenty of restaurantsthere beautiful, great
restaurants right, um you knowsomething for everybody.
(08:48):
Um you know whether it's alittle bit on the fancier side
or like just quick service,quick service and everything in
between.
I mean, they definitely had alot of choices um and again.
The perk is how close it is toepcot, but it's just, you know,
it didn't feel like dis.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And that's the thing, right, like we were at Disney.
But we didn't feel like we wereat a Disney resort.
Right, and that's that's thewhole point of it, right, but
when we're going on a Disneyvacation, we want to feel like
we're at Disney.
Right.
I mean, you're in the bubble,but you're not, so that's why it
is last on my list as leastfavorite resort.
Yes, all right, so I'm goingnext to number 12.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I mean, you can?
Well, you just went, we justboth did 13.
We both just did 13.
Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
This one, I think, is going to have a lot of people
screaming at us.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
This is you, not me this is mine, caribbean Beach.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, I can hear people screaming now because
people love this resort.
And I understand why.
Right, it's a beautiful resort.
It is.
You're there on the Skyliner.
The Skyliner is the only reason.
This was not my least favorite.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And here's why this is my second to least favorite
resort the theming in the resortitself, in the main lobby, in
the pool.
It's beautiful, but once youwalk out, you're exposed to
everything else.
Right, and it's a large resort.
That's not why this is so badon my list.
It is because you can see theRiviera, you can see the
(10:19):
Skyliner.
You're not fully immersed inthat Caribbean beach theming,
right, and that is why I feltlike I just was not immersed in
this, right, like it didn'tfully transform me there.
Right.
Whereas all the other resorts westayed at.
You get that.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah Right, you can't see what's around, anything
else yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Even at the value resorts, you're still
encompassed in that theming,whichever it may be caribbean
beach.
I did not have that and that is.
I think that's what, like thefirst thing I said when we went
to the pool, like, oh, this is acool pool, but there's a
skyliner, there's the main road,there's the riviera, right,
like you're not encompassed inthat caribbean beach theming.
(11:01):
The food's great, greatrestaurants.
So again, not a bad resort,just one of my least favorites
okay what's next on your listnumber 12?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
number 12 on mine is all-star movies okay and not
because it's value.
Uh, I mean, I did like stayingthere.
Uh, the pool, you know, eventhough it was crowded it was, it
was still a very nice poolright um, you know they have,
like your, your food court areafor food and everything you know
, lots of different choices and,like zach was saying, you know
(11:34):
you are feeling like you're inthe disney bubble, but I think I
might would have enjoyed it hadit been one of our earlier
trips when the kids were smaller?
yeah, when they were youngerwhere now that they're older and
stuff, it's just not like ourcup of tea, you know.
Yeah.
But I mean, you know, Iremember sleeping decent here
(11:55):
and again, you know, enjoyingsome time at the pool, but it
just, I think again, had it beenlike five years ago it could
have been different.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
All right, number 11 on my list Saratoga Springs Okay
.
Now.
I'm going to preface this with.
I think Saratoga Springs may beone of the most underrated
resorts in all of Walt DisneyWorld.
Okay.
I loved staying here on ourfirst trip.
You get some Disney theming,but not in your face, right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Right, very subtle, very subtle.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It is walking distance to Disney Springs.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well, more so depending where you are staying
there.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, and again, not a bad resort.
I thought it was very relaxingthe room.
We stayed in a twobedroom villathanks to my brother and
sister-in-law, um, so we hadplenty of room.
It was a nice large room, but Ijust think there's much better
resorts theming wise right rightand but again, I will go down
(13:00):
saying that I think this may beone of the most underrated
resorts to say, because nobodytalks about it, and I remember
our stay here being very, verynice yeah I really did enjoy
staying here.
I would definitely stay hereagain right and you are.
I mean saratoga springs, is youknow from saratoga, new york,
right the horsing horse racing?
But it's not really likeheavily themed to that right,
(13:23):
like there's a horse in thefront and the check-in area
resort like resembles, like a, ahorse barn type of thing, and
it's very elegantly done.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
But outside of that there's some nods here and there
to it not a lot of rooms, butit's not in your face, but, but
yeah, it definitely was a verynice day.
You know, and this was beforewe knew a lot about disney.
This was our first trip yeah,yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So what's your number 11?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
caribbean beach okay um, so kind of a little bit off
of what zach was saying a coupleminutes ago.
You know the the perks are.
You know the skyliner being,can.
You know hop on it quickly.
The Riviera, you can walk overto it or catch the Skyliner over
to it.
You know, being right next door, the pool is very, very nice.
(14:13):
It is a nice pool.
I did like the fact that wherewe stayed, I can't think of the
section name of it right now.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
We had a preferred room.
We were pretty close to it.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right, I like the fact that we were close to the
lobby in the pool.
The food that we did try therewas good, the theming in the
lobby, on point I think.
But it is just such a bigresort and so spread out and,
you know, even though the pooland everything was very nice,
(14:46):
like what zach was saying, theroads right there it wasn't so
much that I could see theriviera and the skyliner, you
know, like where you catch it Ithink it was just more like the
road being there you know thetraffic noise, yeah, yeah yeah,
so um
Speaker 3 (15:00):
and the room I mean it was, it was okay, you know,
but we, we've stayed in nicer.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, I mean it was fine.
Yeah, can I go ahead and do mynumber 10 as well?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Number 10.
We're in the top 10 now.
All right, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
The only reason why is because you just talked about
this one as well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So number 10, Saratoga Springs.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay For you.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
All for you, all right, made your top 10, all
right, so I would.
I really would love to stayhere again one day, just because
I, because we are moreknowledgeable about things what
about the treehouse villas?
Well, so hold on okay, sothat's a possibility.
Um, but even like the, the typeof rooms that we stayed in
before, I know it won't be thatbig, since we won't be sharing
with anyone, but if you arecloser to the backside of it, I
(15:50):
guess you could say that's whereDisney Springs is, that's where
Disney Springs is and it's aneasier walk.
Now, sure you could walk therefrom any part of the resort.
Just know you're going to beadding more and more minutes and
I would not recommend walkingfrom the tree houses.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
No, that's its own thing, so keep that in mind.
They have their own bus loopwithin the resort.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Right, and so keep that in mind when you're
thinking oh okay, I can walk toDisney Springs, not if you're
staying in the tree houses.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
You can take the boat .
They have a boat to DisneySprings though, okay, so that's
an option.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right Now.
I have heard that the treehouses at Saratoga, though, they
book up really quickly, like ayear or more in advance, so keep
that in mind.
But they do look super cool,but they're not going to be
close to, like the lobby and therestaurants or the pool, so
also keep that in mind as well,and they usually go pretty quick
to DVC members.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
It's hard to get one if you're not a DVC member.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, but again I would like to stay here at some
point again because we didn'texperience the pool or any of
that stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It looked cool though .
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, so just to stay here, even if it's just for a
night, and experience the actualresort this time it is very
nice.
I mean we did eat quick serviceand shop a little bit there,
but other than that we didn't domuch on at the resort I still
remember, oh, but I did do amassage, sorry yes, you and um,
(17:11):
my sister, our sister-in-law,did a massage.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yes, I remember my my first thought when we walked
out of the lobby and the poolwas packed and I was like who
comes to disney and goes to thepool?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
yeah, you were like why are they not at the park?
Why?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
would you not be at the park?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Man, you need that resort day if you're there for a
while.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Breaking my top 10.
Number 10 all-star movies Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Top 10.
Top 10.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Number 10 all-star movies.
And you know it's a valueresort.
There's a ton of people there,but we stayed in the Toy Story
section of all-star movies.
I loved it.
The theming here, the detailloved it.
The Fantasia pool loved it.
The food court it.
(18:03):
It's crowded, yes, but somelike sometimes they have some
pretty unique stuff in thereyeah like I loved staying here.
It was fun now is it going tobe like a nice, peaceful,
relaxing time?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
no, that's what I was like, maybe when, if our kids
were.
But I really did enjoy our stayhere yeah, I thought it was fun
and again, I mean I know it wasmy number 12 and but I mean I
just I think we would havegotten a little more out of it
had they been younger.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, yeah, but I I loved it.
You know I wouldn't sleep onthis, yeah, yeah, I really
thoroughly enjoyed staying here.
Okay, all right, what's yournumber?
Nine?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
My number nine is Disneyland Hotel.
Whoa.
I know I was making a face, wow,and this is where it gets hard.
My next few it was like oh theycould really be in any order.
Because, don't get me wrong, Ilove Disneyland Hotel.
You know, the headboards andstuff with the fireworks and the
(19:05):
castles and the music.
I don't know how many times Iturned that on.
We played them all night long,yeah and um and the monorail,
like slides at the pool, arecool and you got Tongaroa
Terrace and, yeah, trader Sam'sand all that there right.
And then I like how each of thetowers, so to speak, are like
different, different like thedecorations.
Are, you know, frontierland orFantasyland or whatever?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
There's an Adventureland tower.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And now they have the DVC tower.
Yes, that was being built whenwe were there.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Right.
So I mean so I love the themingfor all of that and I like how
it's right there.
I mean, well, these resorts areright there on, you know, the
uh downtown disney, you know,and so I the location, all of
that great.
Um, it was just, I don't know,like it did feel crowded.
(19:55):
Now we were there the firstcouple days was the end of a
dance competition yes um, sothat added to it.
Um, but just it.
It took a long time, even whenthey were gone to, you know,
catch the elevators and it justI don't know, it wasn't like a
ah, relaxing feeling it wasoverwhelming, right I, I get
(20:16):
that, yeah, but the food, greatlocation, great, you know the,
the headboard and everything inthe room, all of that what about
the mickey hands holding thelights in the?
bathroom.
Oh yes, yeah, like the themingon point for sure.
Um and again, these next fewcould could easily be in any
order, like my.
The next three that I'm goingto talk about could be could
(20:37):
have been easily in this placeas well, so okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
My number nine.
We're going back to CoronadoSprings.
Just in general, okay, right.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
But you already talked about it.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
We talked about Sarah .
I talked about it, you talkedabout.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Oh yes, I'm sorry, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Keep up here, woman, all right.
So I didn't split the villaswith the tower Right, I'm just
doing it as a whole.
I didn't split the village, thevillas with the tower right,
I'm just doing it as a whole.
Again, a very large resort.
The theming is on point.
Again, we talked about it inour trip report.
We talked about it in our hotelreview.
This is a beautiful, beautifulresort, right, the music is
(21:20):
beautiful.
There's a lot of goodrestaurants here.
Are they great?
No, are they great.
No, are they good?
Yes, they're good.
They're not great.
The pool area is on point.
This is a beautiful resort,very well done.
The Tower Bar, dahlia Lounge,great views of Hollywood Studios
, great drinks up there.
I would like to go back and eatat the Tapas restaurant there,
(21:43):
or just eat, just me, and you goback to that lounge and just
hang out, right.
But again, like I said in thetrip reported in the hotel
review, when I walked into theresort lobby I didn't get that
feeling because it's verycrowded.
This is the main conventionhotel for Walt Disney World, so
(22:04):
you see more business peoplemixed in with the families and
that doesn't give me the hey,we're at Walt Disney World
feeling.
Does that make sense?
No, it does.
So that's why it is number nine.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
But it made top ten.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yes, it made top ten Right, so all right, what's your
number eight?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
People are going to be shocked.
What?
Just Okay, my number eightGrand Floridian.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh, wow, okay, All right, please explain.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So there's so much good here, but it's just.
You know, and I know we tend tostay at deluxe resorts more
often than not, but it I don'tknow.
I just felt like I was out ofplace a little bit here.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We're not that bougie .
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Like again, very nice and loved.
You know the room, the location.
You know it's one of themonorail resorts.
You know you can see the, thecastle, you, you and ryan had
watched fireworks from the boatdock.
You know, like all of thatstuff, the pool was very nice.
I wish we had eaten at some ofthe restaurants here.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
We didn't do that some of them weren't quite open
yet either, because this wasstill in the covid yeah and um,
but like one or two of them were.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
But anyway, so you know, I do wish that we had
experienced some of therestaurants here, but it just, I
don't know, it was a little toobougie for me Now.
Did we go visit it on ourresort day, me and Nolan, when
Zach and Ryan had other plans?
Yes, we did, but we weren'tthere long, you know, yeah, and
(23:46):
so I just yeah, I just uh,there's theming here and there
is a little bit of disney, verysubtle, but it is very subtle,
um, and I get why.
I mean, it's like that, what isit?
Victorian style?
it's yeah, victorian, yeah, turnof the century, victorian style
yeah, but I just I don't knowit out of everywhere that we've
(24:07):
stayed it just there was no wayit was going to make like my top
five.
Yeah, so uh, but again the lastone I talked about, this one in
the next two could have easilybeen in any order, so yeah, my
number eight.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
We're going back to the west coast going disneyland
hotel and a lot of the reasonsthat you echoed right great
resort.
I loved seeing all the picturesof walt in fantasyland.
We stayed in the fantasylandtower.
I loved all the theming.
I loved the pool.
I loved.
I love trader sam's.
I'm not a tiki bar guy but Ilove trader james you know, yeah
(24:43):
, uh, the pool was great, thelocation's great.
You're, you're there, like thisis.
This is not the originaldisneyland hotel that got torn
down and rebuilt, but thetheming is there.
You're literally right outsideof downtown disney.
It's a great resort.
The hotel room is great.
It's a great resort.
It made number eight because itis too much.
(25:05):
Sometimes, like when we get,when we walk into this resort or
when we walk into any resort,do you go?
Yeah, that's a lot of what Ijudge my opinions on right.
Right, and we did not get thishere because there were people
everywhere yeah, and theelevator thing.
(25:27):
I mean, it took us 10 minutes attimes to get an elevator right
and granted, we were on one ofthe top floors, but still.
But it shouldn't take 10minutes to go down the elevator,
it just shouldn't right, right,um, but again, number eight,
again.
It's not that we don't likethese resorts yeah this is just
if you're having to rank themlike.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
It's like ranking your kids, right you don't want
to do that, I'm just saying wedo have one we like better than
the other no, not really I'mkidding, we'll edit that part
out.
No, we're not, we're leaving itthere.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I just joke, it's a.
It's a joke people, it's a joke, people, it's a joke.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
All right Number seven for Brittany.
Number seven Port OrleansRiverside.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
How dare she?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Are you muting me?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yes, I said my number nine through six could have
been in any order.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yes, I'm messing with you.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Okay, september 9 through 6.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yes, I'm messing with you.
Okay, so, uh, port OrleansRiverside, and you know really
nothing to complain about.
Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It has a very relaxing vibe.
Um, the theming, I think, isreally on par.
You know the the?
Uh, it's not, it's Disneythemed, but still not in your
(26:47):
face.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
But it's more than subtle too it's a lot of um
princess, uh, princess and thefrog.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Princess and frog, yeah yeah, so yeah, you have,
like Tiana and the frog andeverything they have, uh,
carriage rides you can takebeautiful that really added to
it, especially like in theevening.
Um, maybe if we stay again I'lldo that or we can do that yeah
uh, and the food in the foodcourt great options, gumbo,
(27:16):
jambalaya, and then yourtraditional like hamburgers,
chicken, all of that stuff aswell, but really really good.
Um, you know, the pool was niceand relaxing.
Uh, we stayed.
I can't think of the name, butit was an easy walk to the, to
everything yes, it wasn't thatfar from now where a lot of
people say this is a pretty goodsize resort it is a very large
(27:38):
resort.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
All the moderates are going to be really large, right
but our.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
But the location for where we stayed was real easy to
to walk to everything um andthe outside theming to the
buildings is definitely themedto like your older, traditional
new orleans style southern yesyeah, so.
But yeah, I didn't ride on theboat, but zach has to.
(28:03):
You can get a boat and take itto disney springs I've ridden
this boat boat multiple timesright, you've also taken it from
disney springs here for Yeehaw,bob Correct, which I'm sure
Zach will talk about later.
Oh yeah and yeah, I justlocation-wise everything.
I think it's great and veryrelaxing.
It's one that you can walk inand outside and be like ah.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
You do get that ah feeling here, unless I'll talk
about it when I talk about PortOrleans River City.
You know what I'm going to say.
Yes, my number seven, grandFloridian.
Okay, I'm going to say thisabout the pool because I'm going
back and re-listening to ourold trip reports and I was
listening to this one todaywhile I was on my breaks at work
(28:48):
walking around the pool.
Here you have the castle on theleft.
You got the monorail going byon the right.
You don't get much more likeDisney than that, right, like
that's pretty awesome.
Yeah, right, that's really cool.
When you walk in, you do getthat Right this.
(29:09):
You get that here, right?
Well, not now, because of allthe construction, not now with
the construction and when westayed.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
you did with the gingerbread smell.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Yes, Even though it was crowded during, we stayed
during.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Christmas time, but you still walked in and you were
like I'm here but in your nicerclothes.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yes, so why this is not in my top?
Like how is Grand Floridian'snot in y'all's top five?
We're bougie.
This is a whole, nother levelof bougie that we're just not
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
We're just not.
And when we say that for thoseof you that haven't been like,
you are still fine wearing themepark clothes.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Wear whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yes, you know, unless you're going to one of their
nicer restaurants.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Didn't they have dress codes?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes, but you can still be in your Disney clothes.
But walking around, I just feltlike, oh, maybe I should have
put a sundress on instead.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Right, I should have a collar on Right.
The boys were like hey, don'ttouch anything Because the boys
were smaller.
Can I tell the story about theroom we stayed in?
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Depends on the story.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So we stayed in the Sugarless building, right, and
was it Nolan?
It was Nolan.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, because he was quite a bit younger.
What was?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
he four.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
No, he was like six, he was in 21.
Yeah, so almost six.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
He was like Daddy, we're staying in the Sugar Daddy
building.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Because he liked the candy sugar daddy right.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Well, he'd recently heard of it.
I don't think he liked it, butyeah, so we just that's just a
funny story we tell, but againbeautiful resort but zach was
like sugar, love sugar, lovesugar, love it was a.
It's a beautiful resort and Iknow this is.
This resort is probably on onmost people's top bucket list
resort to stay at right likepeople put it up on this
(30:58):
pedestal as almost unattainableright and and I get that, but it
just, it's just not us.
Yeah, I don't think we'll everstay here again.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
No.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Unless someone says, hey, let's go, stay at the Grand
Floridian.
Okay, we'll go.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But on our own we're not Like how we've talked about
like Magic Kingdom days andstuff, and it's okay to leave
and go eat somewhere, go chillthere, maybe do that it is a
very beautiful the customerservice here is.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I think this is the best customer service at any
resort we've ever stayed at.
Honestly.
Right, but yeah, I think there'sjust much better resorts.
All right.
So if you want to book a roomand package with Walt Disney
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Erica.
All right, number six, brittany.
What is your sixth favoriteresort that we stayed at in Walt
Disney World?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Grand Destino Tower at Coronado Springs.
Okay, number six and I said sixthrough nine could have been in
any order, did I not?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
You did so this could have easily been number nine.
You're cheating by usingCoronado Springs twice.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Because it's a different experience.
Continue.
The rooms are different.
I feel like in the tower it wasmuch quieter.
The size of the room was veryspacious.
We had a preferred view.
Um, it was a water view, so youcould, we could, look out and
we could see like the, the lakethere, and like three bridges
(33:41):
restaurant and the backside ofexpedition yeah, you could see
that and um, the tree of life,or yeah, um, anyway, you could
see all that.
And then on the movie nights,like you could even look down
and, if you wanted to, you know,see the movie that they're
watching out on the lawn.
Uh, and it was just, it was avery pretty view.
Um, yes, I know, like it's aconvention resort and there were
(34:05):
people there for business andstuff as well, but there were
times where I went down and gotlike a coffee and just sat on
the lower lobby level and justtook it all in and it was still
a relaxing vibe.
Yes, okay, and then there wereother chairs and stuff that were
next to like the big windowsand doors, looking out at
(34:25):
everything.
And you know, you could youjust you felt that encompassed
by disney feel, when you knowwhen you're, you were immersed
yes, you were fully immersed inthe theming care.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
That I will say.
As large as the resort is, youare still fully immersed in the
in the theming care at cornadoright in that pool.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You know the tower location, you know is real easy
to get to everything from thefood court, the shop, the pool
is a little bit of a walk, butnot much, and that pool theming
is just beautiful with thepyramid and so yeah, I just I
wanted to put that separatelybecause I really did enjoy the
(35:05):
tower where I didn't enjoy thevillages.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Ok, so my number six, port Orleans Riverside, and
it's not because of Yeehaw BobOkay, it's not.
Yeehaw Bob is just a massivebonus to this.
All right.
So we grew up in the South.
I grew up in like rural South.
You know Tennessee and thisreminds me a lot of my childhood
(35:34):
.
Right, like the theming, the,the water.
You know the water wheels, thepool theming is on point here,
and when you walk in this resort, except on a thursday, friday
or saturday night between nineand eleven o'clock, you go right
right it's very peaceful.
If you check in out within thosedays and hours, you're going to
(35:54):
see an 80-year-old bald mangoing ah right, and you're going
to go.
What is going on here, right?
Right, yeah, that is not arelaxing time.
Yeehaw Bob is a huge bonus ofthis resort.
I love him.
He's an icon.
Relaxing time yeehaw bob is ahuge bonus of this resort.
I love him.
He's an icon.
But this is not why he's so far.
(36:15):
This is he is not why it's sofar high on my list.
Okay, it's just.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It's a peaceful, relaxing resort, except when
britney sees a snake on the pathand you can hear her all over
the resort I didn't screambecause by the time I realized
what it was, it was already inthe grass, but had I realized it
like half a second soonerbecause I literally, like my
(36:37):
foot, almost touched it that'show close it was on the path
Like if I had realized it just ahalf second sooner the whole
resort would have heard me yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
But, like you said earlier, the food in the food
court area here is on point.
I think this may be some of thebest resort food you can get
anywhere yes, I would agree.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
And and flavorful too yes you know it's not like oh
yeah, let's just serve this upbecause stay on theming.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
It was flavorful and you can take the boats to, to
port orlean not port, yeah, portorleans, um, what's the other
one there, french quarter andyou can take it to disney
springs and saratoga springs.
There's their stops there and Ithink all of that, with the
carriage rides and all that,especially in like twilight hour
, just adds to the ambience ofthis place just being, yeah, so
(37:21):
relaxing, so peaceful I loved,just the atmosphere right and
they, they had those treesspanish mosses yes, that that
add to it.
Yeah, it's just, and you'reimmersed in this theme Right,
like there's nothing else takenaway from the immersiveness of
it in the storytelling.
I remember when we did the tripreport in the hotel review of
(37:43):
this.
The storytelling here is onpoint Right here is on point
right of the resort.
There's some backstories hereand it is very well done.
So, yeah, number six, portorleans riverside ahead of
disneyland hotel in the grandfloridian pretty, pretty big,
yeah, I think well, that wasahead on my list too.
(38:04):
Yeah, all right, we're in thetop five.
Now britney, what's number five?
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Number five, the Yacht Club.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Okay, that's my number five as well.
And again, these top five.
To even be in this top five,that's huge.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yes, so Yacht Club partially.
Location walking distance fromthe side entrance to Epcot.
You're right there, next toBeach Club, you can see Boardcot
.
Yep, you know you're rightthere.
You know, next to Beach Clubyou can see Boardwalk.
Beautiful Crescent Lake isright there, yeah, so you know,
just the views, the beach alongCrescent Lake and everything.
(38:42):
Just very, very pretty.
We had a room that facedStormalong Bay.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yes, a little bit of it.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, we had a water, water view, so it was kind of
like split a little yeah, yeah,you could see some of storm
along bay, which is their bigpool area and um, and then we
could see the lake there, and soif you're not familiar with
storm along bay, it's where.
If you are in that area, evenif you're staying at the
boardwalk and you see thisreally tall, tilted like pirate
(39:09):
ship, that's their slide andthen it has a sandbottom pool, a
lazy river, all of that at theresort.
So that just really adds to it,especially if you're there for
a resort day, just familygetting to play, wind down.
We didn't experience too manyof the actual restaurants in the
Yacht Club.
(39:30):
That was a mistake that we madeyeah, we did do a couple at
beach club there, but I reallywish we had tried some at yachts
yes um the room very nice.
The the decor in the room itselfwas more subtle you know, but
it is nautical theming, you know, and if you're looking you'll
see stuff, but it's not so muchin your face, but it's one of
those lobbies that when you walkin you definitely get the and
(39:53):
you can get an elevator.
You can take stairs, like wherewe were staying um.
The boys like to go up thestairs because there was like a
steering wheel that you could umlike a ship steering wheel.
Yeah, like a ship steering wheelthat you could turn and
everything.
So nolan had to do that eachtime, r Ryan did some too, and
you know we spent some timesometimes just sitting in that
lobby and it was.
It was just very nice.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
And again, location, location yeah, number five's
Yacht Club and we're, we'reamong some some big hitters here
now, right, yacht Club.
I remember the music here.
The music here is justwonderful right, especially
after we got of what got off ofour flight, which had been a
five-hour flight from la turnedinto an eight-hour flight and we
got there like nine o'clock atnight, after leaving la at 10
(40:37):
o'clock in the morning yeah andyou.
You walked in and the thetheming in there it's a little
darker, it's more nautical and Ijust heard that music in the
theming I was was just likeright here, Even with the crazy
party that was going on at thelounge next to the lobby didn't
matter.
It was just so peaceful, sorelaxing.
(40:58):
We want to try the restaurantshere.
Loved the decor in the rooms.
But let's be honest, You'recoming here for the side
entrance, number one.
For Epcot yeah, the pool, StormAlong Bay Pool.
This is the best pool handsdown on property.
Right, yeah, for sure.
This is why you're staying here.
This is why you're bookingyacht or beach club.
(41:20):
I would prefer the yacht club.
I like the theming better.
Beach club it is a littlebright, it isn't in your face.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
So beach club club I don't think would be as high on
this list for me, right, but wehaven't stayed there, we've been
in it.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, but I love the yacht club.
Great place, highly recommendit, love it, love it, just love
it.
That slide is awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
The pool is awesome and the pool doesn't seem overly
crowded even when there aretons of people there, because
the way it's laid out there'slike different areas that you
can swim in that go up to likefive feet and stuff, but then
you have kiddie areas as welland you know whirlpool spas, all
that.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
So all right number four for britney number four
grand california we're on thesame page, okay, okay so grand
california?
Speaker 1 (42:14):
um, it's.
Oh, there's quite a few reasonsfor one.
Let me look at the theming.
The theming reminds me of someI'm going to talk about here
soon, so I'm going to go aheadand kind of give some of my list
away.
Uh, you just don't know theorder yet, but it reminded me a
little bit of animal kingdomlodge in wilderness well,
(42:34):
there's a very good reasonbehind that yes, you can talk
about it when it's your turnokay so the theming reminded me
of those two, which I love, boththose resorts.
It has that very relaxing,relaxing, wilderness, western
kind of feel to it.
Um, the decor, even in the room, it was subtle, a little it was
(42:57):
a little more noticeable thansome other resorts, but it was
like chippendale and woodsy andum yeah, I just I don't know.
It was very, very relaxing.
When you walked in, it was.
I immediately was like ah, theyhave fireplaces in there, the
pool area, those seat cushionsat the pool are very comfortable
(43:19):
.
Some of the like, more like,they were like six inches thick.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, they were huge.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, it wasn't like those flimsy seat cushions or
even the ones that some of thenicer resorts in Walt Disney
World that are not flimsy, but Imean these were, like Zach said
, probably five or six inchesthick and the pool area was very
nice, the the bar andrestaurant there and everything
very nice.
But there's also a entranceright into DCA and it's like
(43:47):
literally you're walking rightinto the park yeah, it's not a
side entrance.
This is an entrance into thepark yeah from the resort right
like you are right there on apath that leads to a ride,
basically and it ties right intothe themed land at dca yes,
like where the grizzly?
Speaker 2 (44:03):
yes the grizzly river run, I think's the name of it.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Yeah, so yes, it's just so nice, very relaxing feel
.
Just absolutely loved it.
It is expensive, but I think itmight be worth it.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
This was the most expensive resort we've ever
stayed at.
This was more than the GrandFloridian.
Yeah, yeah, it hurt to pay forthis, but I agree.
Number four on my list.
It's great you walk in.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
You're immediately so it's number four for you too,
number four for me as well okay,you immediately walk in and you
go like there's not a hustlebustle here.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
The the customer service from the cast members
are just as high as they were atgrand floridian.
Right um it.
It feels like Wilderness Lodge,but it's different Because this
is more like Redwoods, likeyou're in the Redwood Forest,
right, right.
Yeah, themed amazing.
The room was great, even thoughI have a thing with Chippendale
(45:03):
now.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
But talk about why the theming is similar to so.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
I've talked about this ad nauseum before, but the
Grand californian, thewilderness lodge and animal
kingdom lodge are all built bythe same architect, right,
that's why they all have thathuge grand uh lobby and entrance
and all that.
So, yes, um, that entrance todc right there, that's huge
right massive.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
That's awesome yeah you can't beat that yeah, and
they do have a character dininghere.
We didn't experience, but itlooked like it would be super
cute.
You could kind?
Of see in from it and um theagain we we did eat like the the
pool restaurant the quickservice.
You know um the customer service.
When you were talking aboutthat reminded me the day we got
(45:50):
there.
They were having like a speciallike in their spa and
everything, and concierge reallytried to go out of their way to
get me in that day.
It just didn't work out.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
You want to get your nails in or something?
Speaker 1 (45:59):
no, no no, it was like a special facial or
something okay uh, it was likediscounted for like two days or
something.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Because we, when we got there early yeah, flying
from the east coast to the westcoast, you get there early and
we didn't have anything plannedfor the day except to just chill
at the pool.
So we were like, if it can getyou in, get you in.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Yeah, but I just appreciated how like they've
really just kind of overheard ustalking and was like, well, hey
, do you want me to just see?
And he was like, well, let mesee what I can do, you know.
And it didn't work out, but itwas definitely great customer
service.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, the pool's great.
Those seat cushions are justamazing.
I was like wow.
Yeah, don't eat the whole pizza.
It's not going to go well foryou.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Well, it depends, and so we got bigger pizzas somehow
than people next to us.
That got like a personal size.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
It did not go well for me that night.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Well, you got like all the meat.
Yeah, yeah, the all meat one itwas.
It was a rough night.
We'll just like margarita pizzaor something.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Yeah, yeah so yeah, number four grand california.
It's yeah, it's just yeah,you're gonna spend the money
here, though yeah, yeah, butit's beautiful, it is.
Number three?
I think we're all on the samepage from here on out.
Probably Brittany, number three.
What is your number threefavorite resort in Walt Disney
(47:18):
World?
Speaker 1 (47:19):
The Polynesian.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Okay, we're on the same page.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
The Polynesian, although I mean these top three
I love almost equally, honestly,yeah, so you know it could have
been two or three.
We'll put it that way.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I'm pretty set on my top three.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, but Polynesian love it, love it, love it.
You've heard us talk about itseveral times.
We go there a lot.
We've only stayed one nightthere.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
I want to stay more.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah, but it is so nice the rooms now are themed to
Moana, but I still feel likeit's not overly done it was done
really well.
It's noticeable, but the colorscheme and everything was done
really well with it.
Very clean, looking stillislandy.
The restaurants here are great,even with some changes to some
(48:09):
things.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
We've eaten at all the restaurants here.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Yeah, the food's great We've.
Yeah, like what is it?
Kona?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
We've eaten at Kona Cafe.
We've eaten at Ohana.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
We've eaten at Captain Cook's.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Me and Nolan have been to Trader Sam's.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
And the Tambu Lounge.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Tambu Lounge.
You've been there, yeah, so yesmultiple.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Did you say the?
Yeah, you did say Sam's.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Claire Sam's yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
So everything is great the decor, the ambiance,
just all of it.
The pool amazing, one of thebest pools.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I would say this is the second best pool yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
It is just beautiful, the location we've talked about
about, you know, watching thefireworks from the beach there.
You know, like on our recenttrip we did that now, had we
been um, at the time of thisrecording it's july 5th.
So if we were there this timeof year like you not just
anybody could go to the beach,like if it's fourth of july and
(49:08):
like new year's and stuff, youhave to be staying there to
watch the fireworks yeah, um, sojust keep that in mind.
But on you know other, most ofthe time you can, you can go and
watch the fireworks.
Just beautiful, breathtaking.
Um, even outside in theevenings um the outside part of
trader sam's area in captaincook's like there's someone like
(49:29):
the tiki torches and all thatstuff like the ukulele and all
that.
Yeah, so just very, very nice.
Uh, I do want to, you know, trysome of these restaurants again
.
Uh, this is another one, youknow, on a magic kingdom day or
something, or a resort day, ifyou wanted to, you know, just
(49:50):
because we had went right afterCOVID and stuff.
So I'd like to experience itone more time.
But just great, beautiful, loveit.
It's definitely one of those.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Every time I walk into the lobby it's the ah,
we're here, so yeah, Numberthree for me as well, I get that
feeling before we even walk inthe lobby.
That waterfall, oh yes, I'mjust like oh yeah yeah even as
crowded as that lobby gets,you're still like the music, the
(50:23):
smell, the decor.
You're just like ah yeah, thisis it.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
This is yeah.
Like you said, all therestaurants are great here,
San's, Ohana.
We'll see Well.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
I'd like to try it again.
We'll try it again, yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
The pool.
Here they've got a grotto inthe pool.
The water slide's great.
I remember you and Ryan went tothe edge of the pool to watch
the fireworks.
Me and Nolan stood in the pooland nolan just grabbed a life
vest and just floated on hisback and just like super chill.
You know, like that's what youcan do here.
You know, um would love to stayhere again.
I think the room it was a muchlarger room yes than I think
(51:04):
we've ever had it was veryspacious it's very large.
They themed it very well.
The the Moana theme is greatyou love.
Hey, hey by the Coffee Maker.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yes, every morning.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah, you're not going to go wrong here.
This is just a great resort.
This is a must visit every timewe go, every time we go, and it
is, for most people, for areason.
Right, you know?
Yeah, all right, top two.
There's two left.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Yep, so number two, wilderness Lodge, but I would
stay here anytime.
Yes, we went at Christmas andit really added to it because
it's just Christmas there.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
It is Christmas in a resort.
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yeah, I mean just the theming, the woodsy feel, um,
the huge fireplace, the treethat they had in the lobby, um,
the little station they had toget like hot chocolate and all
these gingerbread and chocolatetype desserts and everything
there it was just, it wasbeautiful.
But we've visited there evenwhen it wasn't decorated for
(52:18):
Christmas and still beautiful.
The pool here too, just theoutside of it and the backdrop,
so to speak, with like awaterfall and everything Very
grand.
Yes, very, very nice.
Just theming is on point hereas well.
The food is is pretty good.
Um, not the quick service somuch, but like the uh, the one
(52:40):
where geyser point well, geyserpoint, and then the one where
they're all rowdy oh the uh, thebuffet.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Why can I think of a buffet?
Speaker 1 (52:49):
well, it was a all you can eat family style yeah um
whispering whispering canyonyes, yes, where, like you know,
make sure you use your napkinsand if someone wants ketchup,
then you know you got to bring20 bottles of ketchup from the
previous table and all of thatit's fun.
It was very fun yeah so, butjust love the theming um, just
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,uh, geyser point, great, great
(53:12):
food, great experience, as longas you do it right.
But just love the theming Justbeautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
geyser Point, great, great food, great experience, as long as
you do it right anyway, oh, justthat one time.
And then, even though you'reencompassed at the Wilderness
Lodge, you do hear the boathorns, because that's how you
get to magic kingdom.
You do see the monorail alittle bit off in the distance
(53:34):
depending on where your room isyeah, depending on where your
room is, we could see it um, butit's definitely just very well
done, very relaxing.
The boys love it.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
The boys love poly too, um, so yeah, number two on
my list as well, echoing a lotof the things you said.
You walk in this lobby andyou're just like Right, it's
very peaceful.
This is different than theGrand California.
The Grand California is morelike a redwood forest.
(54:05):
This pays more of an homage tothe great lodges of the national
parks out west.
Right, so they're different,but not quite.
But this lobby is beautiful.
The check-in area is great, therestaurants are great, except
(54:26):
for the quick.
I mean again, you can't havegreat stuff in every resort,
right, right, like the quickservice place in yacht club.
It was nothing to write homeabout, right right so same thing
here, right, the wildernesslodge, the, you know quick
service restaurant is notsomething right home.
About same thing animal kingdom.
We're just gonna say now animalkingdom is our number one lodge
.
But the mara, nothing to writelike it sucks right.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
I'm just gonna say it that depends on what you get.
But but you can't have greatstuff.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
You can't, all of it can't be great right right so
the wilderness lodge.
I immediately felt like we werein snow white's forest.
We were eating.
When we first got there, wewere eating lunch and there was
a squirrel running along mychair and then, like a rabbit,
hopping along by us and it isjust like the most magical snow
(55:13):
white thing ever right, whichthere is a restaurant there
where you can meet snow whiteand some of the dwarfs and stuff
.
Yeah, and the evil queen orwhatever she is.
Yes, I love, love, love thetheming here the carolwood
pacific room, the the walt roomwhere his trains are, and tells
a story of the carolwood pacific.
Amazing.
(55:34):
This is by far one of myfavorite places on property to
go to.
Um, what I loved so much aboutthis.
Take that all the way.
You are basically on themonorail loop without the
monorail but you feel like youare miles away from it.
Right, and that is what I loveso much about this.
(55:55):
You are right there in the mixof everything, yes, but you
don't feel like you are.
You really don't, and that'swhat I love so much about this.
The geyser points great, allthat.
There's a reason we talk somuch about it, but the one thing
that stood out to me was we arein this wilderness environment,
but the magic kingdom isliterally right there right and
(56:16):
you didn't feel like the magickingdom was right there, right,
you know yeah and that is whatsets this apart, you know yeah,
yeah, love it.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
The shop there is one of my favorite gift shops too
it is.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
it's themed, themed really really well.
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1 (56:33):
I used to say that about the Polynesian shop, but
they were really redoing it whenwe were there just now, yeah.
So I don't know if they'regoing to keep it small like that
or they're just working on halfof it and then the half that
was open they'll work on andthen it'll all be that big space
again, or?
Speaker 2 (56:49):
not sure it will be.
Yeah, all right, so number onewe already said it britney
animal kingdom.
Animal kingdom lodge should beno surprise to anybody and this
is a lot of, because of the park.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
This is a lot of people's favorite resort, so
it's not just us right right,and I didn't want people to be
like oh, of course, becauseanimal kingdom is like your
favorite park y'all talk aboutall the time.
No, it's the the theming again.
Um, just a grand lobby,beautiful, beautiful, huge
windows looking out at thesavannah.
Um, just so many spots to lookat the savannah from the lobby.
(57:23):
You know different decks withrocking horses to look out.
Uh, and rocking horses rockingchairs rocking chairs to sit at,
to sit at and watch, um, youknow, around like as you're
going to the pool and stuff justdifferent look, lookout areas.
Um, of course, if you have aroom that's a savannah view room
, just loved waking up in themorning and having coffee on the
(57:48):
balcony and watching theanimals roam around.
Nolan, one of his favoriteanimals is the giraffes and we
would see the giraffes justright outside.
You know, ryan loved, like whenit rained it wasn't from our
room but at other parts of theresort when it was raining and
the wildebeest playing tag witheach other.
You know he still talks aboutthat.
(58:13):
Just the food now.
Zach said, like, quick serviceis anything to talk about, but
if you want to get zebra domes,you can get it at the mara and
the zebra domes are delicious,by the way.
Um, but when we were there wedid not eat at any sit-down
restaurants because it was rightafter covid.
But we have since gone there.
Me and zach have to eat at bomaloved it and we ate the
breakfast buffet and we weresupposed to eat at jico on our
(58:37):
couples only trip that gotcanceled right, yeah, so, um, so
we'd love to experience jicoand senna still, but boma,
wonderful, uh, the pools hereare very relaxing.
Um, just, yes, just love it,love it, love it when you, I
mean just when you walk in, itis that immediate.
Ah, we're here and I we haven'tstayed at christmas, but we
(58:59):
have visited at christmas, and,oh, I, I would love to stay
there at christmas sometime toospoiler alert no I mean, that's
up to you.
Speaker 2 (59:11):
The boys think we're staying at Pop Century for
Christmas.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
Yeah, no, we're staying here See, I covered and
didn't say it, you're the onesaying spoiler alert.
It's okay, well, they may haveheard just now, they didn't hear
.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
They're playing games .
Speaker 1 (59:26):
You almost gave it away the other day, though, and
I was like I know.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
So, names you almost gave it away the other day,
though, and I know so we got abounce back offer and erica was
able to snatch it up for us,yeah, so, um, animal kingdom
launch, it's number one, andhere's why it's number one for
me.
Yes, everything britney said,right, what made it number one
for me?
You feel like you are somewherecompletely different.
Here, right, there is nothingelse like this on Walt Disney
(59:54):
World property Like doesn't evencome close right.
Wormness Lodge we talked aboutyou're right there, but you're
not.
You don't even feel that.
Here, right, you feel like youwere completely at an African
lodge in Africa.
They did such an amazing jobhere with fully immersing you in
the music.
Oh, the music I love, love,love.
(01:00:15):
The regular music and theChristmas music here, yeah, love
it.
The theming, all the artifacts,all the animals, everything
about this is just amazing.
And we're staying here againbecause we again.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Just love it's.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
We just love it.
We want to stay at christmastime.
We're staying at christmas time.
We're doing it.
Number one animal kingdom lodge.
If you can book a savannah viewroom, please do yeah and if you
can't, the only way you canafford to stay here is to not
book a savannah view room.
Still book it, or like, juststay here even if you don't get
(01:00:54):
a savannah view room there'splenty of places to go.
Look at the savannah, right,right, it's just.
There's nothing like this inwalt disney world.
It's, it's just so well donevery, very much so yeah, so you
want to go down your list onemore time.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
All right, my list.
I made it difficult.
Number 14, coronado Springs andthe Villages, 13, the Dolphin,
12, all-star Movies, 11,caribbean Beach, 10, saratoga
Springs, 9, disneyland Hotel, 8,grand Floridian, 7, port
Orleans Riverside, 6,grandestino Tower at Coronado,
(01:01:32):
five Yacht Club, four GrandCalifornian, three Polynesian,
two Wilderness Lodge and oneAnimal Kingdom Lodge.
Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
All right, and mine were number 13, the Dolphin,
number 12, caribbean Beach,number 11, saratoga Springs,
number 10, all-star Movies,number nine, coronoga Springs,
number 10, all-star Movies,number 9, coronado Springs,
number 8, Disneyland Hotel,number 7, the Grand Floridian,
number 6, port Orleans Riverside, number 5, the Yacht Club,
(01:02:01):
number 4, the Grand Californian,number 3, the Polynesian,
number 2, the Wilderness Lodgeand number 1, animal Kingdom
Lodge.
And I want to say again onemore time you're not going to go
wrong staying at any of theseresorts.
Correct, right, you're reallynot.
But if we had to rank them,this is how we would.
this is how we would, so thankyou everybody for joining us.
Hope you enjoyed this episode.
It's been a long time coming,but we're just glad that you we
(01:02:24):
were able to get this episodeout.
Um, if you want to support thepodcast, the best way to do that
is to book your next vacationwith Travel Planner Erica.
Her website iswwwtravelplannerericacom.
She's on Facebook and Instagramat Travel Planner Erica, and
next week, for a very specialepisode, we're going to have her
and Johnny back on yes, solooking forward to talking to
(01:02:45):
you next week.
Yeah, and if you want to emailus, circleofparksmailcom, our
website's wwwcircleofparkscom,and we're on facebook, instagram
and x all that circle of parkslet us know.
Do you agree or disagree withour rankings, and how would you
rank the resorts that you stayedat?
I'm sure there'll be somedisagreements there will, but we
will talk to you next week fora very, very special episode all
(01:03:06):
right, talk to you soon, thankyou.
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