It’s a very personal choice as to whether you go for a rental home or a room in a hotel.
The houses can be great: they give you substantially more space, multiple bedrooms, often a private pool, sometimes a communal pool too, kitchen, lounge, and often a pool table in the garage.
The downside is that the houses are not on Disney property and are generally between 10 to 30 minutes away by car. We wouldn’t advise staying in a rental home that’s advertised as more than 30 minutes away from Disney.
Clearly a house can be anything from a one-bedroom condo/apartment up to a 10-bedroom private villa – and everything in between.
If you’re thinking of staying in a hotel, then staying at a Disney resort hotel is perfect and immerses you in the whole Disney experience – if you want that!
In addition to the Disney hotels, there are literally hundreds of other hotels outside of Disney in Kissimmee, along International Drive, and along the 192 highway. Their nightly rates vary from $50 a night up to over a $1,000 and cater for all tastes and demands.
These non-Disney hotels can be much better value, have larger rooms and match guests’ desire for a non-Disney retreat.
Staying in a Disney hotel (or resorts as they are known) on Disney property has many upsides:
However, Disney resort hotel rooms are not cheap, and the rooms are no bigger than non-Disney hotels. You’re paying for the Disney experience, which some will want, and some will want to leave behind when they exit the parks each day!
From a personal perspective, we stayed in a number of Disney resorts when the kids were growing up: Port Orleans Riverside, Caribbean Beach, Yacht Club, Polynesian Village, and the Grand Floridian, where we were married.
Squeezing three, four and then five of us into a room just about worked, as the rooms generally have the option of two queen beds and a hidden-away day bed.
As our kids have got older and wanted their own bedrooms, and we generally wanted more space and a pool, we have stayed in rental homes. We have forsaken the Disney experience and immersion for a bit more space and accepted the extra miles that we are driving each day.
If it’s your first time at Disney and you can stretch your budget, then staying at a Disney hotel can be a wonderful experience.
With over 25 hotels on Disney property, Disney does have hotels that cater for all tastes and, more importantly, budgets.
Their entry level hotels are classified as Value Resorts, with All-Stars Movies and Pop Century being examples. Nightly rates vary across the year from $123 through to $264, depending on the season and the day of the week.
The next level up are Moderate Resorts, such as Port Orleans Riverside and Caribbean Beach. Nightly rates vary across the year from $266 through to $486, depending on the season, day of the week and room type.
The top level of Disney hotels is known as the Deluxe Resorts, which include Yacht Club and Grand Floridian. Nightly rates vary across the year from $522 through to $1,441, depending on the season, day of the week and room type.
Port Orleans Riverside is a lovely southern US themed hotel set in a huge area with its own river and direct access by boat to Disney Springs. There is no direct access to any of the theme parks, but the bus service is frequent and easy to use, or just use your rental car.
Yacht Club is set on Disney’s boardwalk and next to EPCOT, the rooms are a good size, and it has its own mini water park. You’re naturally paying for the whole Disney experience and the fact that you can walk to EPCOT and get a ski-type gondola or water taxi to Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park.
Nightly room rates for these two hotels for 2024 can be found from the superb Mousesavers.com website, a great site for Disney hotel information, pricing and discounts:
If you do choose to go with a hotel on Disney property, then book it through Jo Raccuia at Small World Vacations, a US-based Disney authorised travel agent that we have been using to book our Disney hotel rooms for over 15 years.
Why? Well, firstly, Jo provides a great level of customer service, and, secondly, Jo will ensure that any hotel discounts that Disney releases – and they do release discounts for all times of the year – that cover your vacation period are applied to your reservation, even after you’ve made your reservation!
With Jo and Small World Vacations you can make reservations at any of the Walt Disney World on-site resort hotels (including Disney Springs) and the Universal Orlando hotels, too.
Worth noting that, with the hotel reservations being made with Disney in the US, certain, occasional discounts or packages being offered by Disney in the UK may not be available through Small World Vacations.
And remember, by booking a Disney hotel room directly with Disney (or one its authorised partners, such as Small World Vacations) you are paying per hotel ROOM per night, not per person per room per night!
Once you have received your resort hotel reservation confirmation from Jo, then you can head over to My Disney Experience (either online or through the app), login to your account, and add your reservation number (on the Disney confirmation attached to Jo’s email) to your Disney account.
Once added, you’ll be able to manage your hotel reservation directly: you can add guests, make special room requests, add a credit card for charging, and check in up to 60 days before your arrival.
If you choose to go with renting a house for your Disney vacation, you can book it through Vrbo, Airbnb, Expedia or your chosen travel partner.
We’ve booked many times through Vrbo and never had a problem. You can refine/filter your search easily based on location, budget, number of bedrooms, whether it has a private pool and so on.
If you’re looking for a rental house, consider one in the following Orlando areas: Windsor Hills, Indian Ridge, Champions Gate area, and Solterra Resort.
Generally, the rental houses are going to be to the south and west of Walt Disney World, on developments along and between the 192 and I4 highways.
As examples, we have recently stayed in (and thoroughly enjoyed) the following two houses, available on Vrbo: