The Moderate Resorts at Walt Disney World
OVERVIEW: DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORTS
You can have a wonderful visit at any Walt Disney World resort. However, this site recommends that first time visitors to Walt Disney World avoid the moderate resorts, while noting that these resorts are wonderful for visits after the first. (See this for why.)
That said, the moderates do represent almost 30% of the room capacity of Walt Disney World, and will be sought by some you regardless of this site’s advice, or because this site’s recommended resorts are sold out. (For what the moderates provide, and how they compare to the other Disney World resort classes, click here)
Because of this, I’ve stayed in each of the moderate resorts over the last six months, and am providing as a result a series of up-to-date reviews. which this article summarizes. These stays have also resulted in minor modifications to the recommendations for large families—especially in the material that begins on this page.
DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORT RECOMMENDATIONS
Resorts are ranked on this site for first time visitors based first on their kid appeal, and then on their convenience.
On this basis, the moderates are recommended in the following order:
- Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
- Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside
- Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter
- The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
(The first four are very close–especially 3 and 4…)
MORE DETAILS ON DISNEY’S MODERATES
There are currently 5 moderate resorts at Walt Disney World:
- Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, the first to be designated a moderate, which opened in 1988
- Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter (opened in 1991 as Disney’s Port Orleans Resort)
- Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside (opened in 1992 as Disney’s Dixie Landing Resort)
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (opened 1997) and
- The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, officially classed as moderate in 2008, but opened (as Wilderness Homes) in 1986. (Fort Wilderness Campground opened much earlier, but precursors to the Cabins did not arrive until 1986.)
The moderates have much more room than the value resorts, more amenities, and (except for Fort Wilderness) much better landscaping. See this for what you get by Disney World price class.
Although the typical moderate room, at 314 square feet (the cabins have 508 square feet), looks much smaller than the rooms available at the deluxe resorts, differences in hall/entry layout make the living space of the typical moderates much more comparable to many Walt Disney World deluxes than raw square footage would imply. See this for more on square footage and livability.
DISTINCTIONS AMONG DISNEY WORLD MODERATES
Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. Only moderate with no elevators at all. Only moderate with no indoor bar/lounge. Only moderate with full beds. Only moderate with kid-aimed room decor. After recent renovations, best pool of any moderate. (See thumbnail for the baby pool’s theming.) Most kid-appealing of moderates.
Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. Only moderate with a spa. Only moderate with a health club. Only moderate with substantial room service. Only moderate with only one sink per room, rather than two. Only moderate that hosts conventions. $5 (pre-tax) per night more than other moderates.
Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside. Only moderate that can sleep 5 (only in Alligator Bayou section, with fifth on a 67″ trundle bed). No elevators in Alligator Bayou section. (Magnolia Bend section has elevators.) With Port Orleans French Quarter, only moderate not on a lake.
Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter. Only moderate with no sit-down restaurant. With Port Orleans Riverside, only moderate with no lake. Only moderate with no quiet pool. Only moderate with no marina. Most compact of moderates. Most romantic of moderates. Click here for more on queen bed at French Quarter.
The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. Only moderate that can sleep six. Only moderate with a full kitchen. Only moderate with 2 rooms. Only moderate that takes two transport acts to get to a theme park. Only moderate with a porch, and a barbecue grill. Only moderate materially more expensive than the others.
*Three, four, or five moderates? Unnecessary confusion has been caused in the past by websites, guidebooks—and Wikipedia—as to whether there are three or four moderates. Many group the two Port Orleans resorts as one, leave out the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, and hence have counted 3 moderate resorts.
However, the two Port Orleans resorts are listed separately in Disney’s list of resorts by type that comes at the bottom of every resort’s home page, and have separate listings in Disney’s online “I know the Resort I want” list; neither list provides an entry for “Port Orleans Resort.” Moreover, they have entirely separate check-in processes, and have reasonable physical distance between them.
For these reasons, the two are treated as distinct resorts in this discussion.
Recently, Disney has complicated this issue by adding the Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort to the group of resorts it labels as “moderates.” Disney’s intent in doing so was to make clearer the level of amenities one gets in one of these Cabins—higher than that at a value, not as nice as in a deluxe, comparable to the other four moderates.
So five moderates…
MORE ON WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD
- For where to stay, see this
- For your next best choices, in order, see this
- For picking your resort based on appeal to kids, see this
- For picking your resort based on convenience, see this
- For where not to stay, see this
- For what you get in each resort price category, see this
- For Walt Disney World resort price seasons, see this
- For resort reviews, see this
- For the value resorts, see this
- For the moderate resorts, see this
- For the deluxe resorts, see this
- For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
- For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this
- For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this
- Military/DOD families should look at this
- Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this
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