TxRabbit
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2007
We are going to Florida in July for our family vacation. My husband just told me that we have to go to Orlando for 3 nights for business and we should look into a Disney resort stay. I'm looking for a resort with zero depth pool...this is a must have! Since we are not visiting parks it has to be a resort with alot going on too! We've stayed at Poly, Grand Floridian and Contempary so I know at least Poly and GF have that. What other hotels offer this? I love the Boardwalk but it doesn't look like that one has a zero depth???
Having stayed at both BC and AKL (but not CBR or SSR)...I respectfully offer these insights to the two resorts:
I like AKL's ACCESS to the pool. IF you choose to stay in a pool view room at AKL, then you will have very easy access to the pool. For Savannah view, I think there is one wing where the room are pool view on one side Savannah on the other. Those Savannah rooms would have an easy trip to the pool. I remember that BC seemed like such a pain to get to the pool compared to AKL. I suppose you could request an area that would be closer, but as I recall, it was quite a trek to get to the pool area.
Will you be alone? If you are traveling for business, will you ever be the only one supervising your children? This can be more difficult to do at the BC pool. The pool itself is incredible, with lots of things to do there, BUT, some of those things may be rough business if you are the sole parent. I did a detailed, picture filled report of the pool at BC.
Here are the kid areas:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20674510&postcount=16
The Shipwreck Slide:
http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20674569&postcount=17
The Lazy River:
http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20693023&postcount=23
The AKL pool is a very nice pool. It is very large. The slide there is smaller and clearly visible from the pool.
About activities: I give the slight edge to AKL on resort activities. Both will have activites that happen during the day. Fun contests and other things that are lead by the staff. I remember that AKL also had arts and crafts (there was a bracelet making activity one day where they provided you with the materials), the story time at the camp fire, the musical instrument parade from the gift shop through the lobby, looking at the savannah with night vision goggles, so sort of something associated with the restaurant there (kid decorating something or I don't remember exactly), but I remember that there were SO many activities at AKL. If you spend some time on the AKL threads, you can find out more information about the current activities.
Quick Service Food: IMO Mara has more choices and better seating options than the BC Marketplace or Hurricane Hannah's. If you were grabbing a bite to eat from being at the pool, very easy to do with more options than Hurricane Hannah's. ALSO if you'd like to sit in air conditioned comfort, also available. The marketplace has little indoor seating.
I also think that it would be better to stay at a resort that isn't in view of any of the parks, especially if you aren't going to a park. So AKL would be better in that case.
There are two things about BC that may sway your opinion over there. 1. The rooms at BC are bigger (however a full sized balcony isn't guaranteed, but you could stay at YC where it is, if that's important to you). 2. BC has a character breakfast. If you wanted to see characters but not go to a park, then you could eat at Cape May onsite. It's a great character breakfast.
HTH!