Deciding on a Disney resort can be more exhausting than chasing around a toddler all day. There are so many choices, all the resorts blend together and how do you know which ones to avoid? Here's our list of the 8 worst Disney resorts and why you should not book them. 

With the best pool on property you would think the rest of the resort would live up to the hype. Nope! This resort is HUGE with very long hallways and is hard to navigate with young kids.  You will get your 10,000 steps in before you even get to the parks in the morning. The vibe of the resort is early 20th century New England seaside but the rooms fall flat on this. The rooms are clean but bland and look like your average room at a Hilton, not a room you paid $650 a night for. The rooms are devoid of warmth, theme, and charm: the style is totally plain and nondescript, there aren’t any whimsical touches, and the new look isn’t an extension of the resort’s overarching theme.  The standard view rooms overlook the parking lot and the Garden or Woods view just look at weeds. There's nothing magical about these rooms at all. 
There are several excellent table service restaurants onsite (Yachtsman Steakhouse-Yumm!) but the quick service options leave much to be desired. The Beach Club Marketplace is it's main quick service option but the menu is very small with only a handful of oddly put together items to choose from.  You are better off walking over to Epcot or the Boardwalk for a quick service meal.
Pro Tip: Book a Concierge Water View room for good location, access to snacks all day, and a great view. 

Coronado Springs is on almost every worst hotel list and rightfully so. The resort is massive and requires you to take a bus just to get to the park bus station. You will even need to take a bus to get to the pool depending on where your room is. Who wants to load a stroller and 8 kids with all their crap onto not one, but two buses just to get to Magic Kingdom? No thanks!  Forget finding something to eat quickly, the convention center makes the main buildings feel like a street fight waiting to happen. 
The pool is nice here with a slide and fantastic Margaritas, so it's not all bad. Margaritas do make everything better!
Pro Tip: Set on this resort? Book at room in the new luxurious Gran Destino Tower instead for an upscale experience.

The Contemporary is cool to look at from afar but once you get there, that's where the coolness ends. Who wants to sleep in a train station? You are woken up every morning at 6am to the sound of the monorail loudly rushing by. If that's not annoying enough, once you fall back asleep you will be woken up 5 minutes later from the dishes clanking at the restaurant below. When you walk out of your room and look down, all you see are people eating...gross! The pool is about the same as any community pool you can find at home.  There is nothing uniquely Disney about the grounds at this resort at all.  
The same can be said about Bay Lake Tower - the only great thing about this resort is its Theme park View, that being said, it's cramped and you trip over yourself, spouse, and suitcases if you are in a studio. The bigger rooms need updating badly. 
The proximity to the parks is the one main perk of this resort so if that's what you want, then this is the resort for you. 
Pro Tip: Book a Theme Park View and watch the fireworks nightly from your room. ​

Do you like walking miles to get something to drink or eat? Then stay in the Pirate rooms at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, they are 8 thousand miles away from any sort of humanity.  Who wants to walk 15 minutes just to get a drink of water, with kids in tow.  Distance aside, there is a reason the pirate rooms are the least booked category of any Disney resort hotel. The double beds in these rooms are big pirate ships with a very thin mattress. They are massive and make the small room feel even more cramped. Who can even sleep in a double bed with someone else anyways? The rooms are so cramped that there is no where to put your suitcases let alone a stroller.  If you like the pirate motif, you will also love the musty smell. These rooms are tired and need a major refurb.
Pro tip: Skip the pirate rooms and book a preferred room here for close proximity to the food court, pool, and Skyliner.  

First, the new rooms are really nice–an unequivocal upgrade. They balance theme and style, sporting functional improvements and smart design choices. There’s also no shortage of fun Disney details, including vibrant character art and other clever touches that make SSR’s rooms “distinctly Disney.”
​Thankfully the rooms at this Deluxe Villa property were recently refurbished because that's the only redeeming quality. Do not stay here without a car, your feet with thank me later. The pools are nice but good luck trying to find a place to sit, chairs are scarce and there is no staff anywhere to help. Food is also an issue at this resort. You have to take a bus to get food from most rooms, that alone is a nightmare with little ones. The quick service doesn't have a lot of options for kids and what they offer for adults was not great. Save your money and go to McDonalds. 
Pro Tip: Rent a car if you stay here, book a preferred room, or choose a different property altogether. 

3. Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village

Of the Deluxe Villa resorts, Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village is the worst.  When measuring distance from the parks, it literally is in Africa! The resort only offers bus transportation to all four parks making for a very long day with tired little ones.  While the rooms are very large with amazing safari views, that's where the magic ends. 
Kidani Village does not have a quick service restaurant on site, so if you are looking for a quick breakfast, you will have to trek over to Jambo just to grab a muffin. The hallways in the resort are ridiculously long, you will get lost just going to the lobby. To access the pool (which I’ll admit is very nice) you have to walk through a parking garage, eew!
Pro Tip: Skip Kidani and stay at Jambo House Villas for that same cool vibe with the animals but better amenities.

The Grand Floridian is Walt Disney World’s flagship property, with rack rates to match. The Grand is far and away the most expensive hotel at Walt Disney World, and whether it’s worth the money is debatable. The lowest rate you will see at this resort is $757 per night with the average being closer to $900.  This nightly rate is not even remotely commensurate with its quality. 
Yes, the resort is full of amenities but the rooms lack so much that it's hard to see past that. The rooms are dated without all the modern lighting, storage, and features you expect at this price point. The beds are comfortable, but that's it. They definitely need a refurb of the rooms here. 
Common areas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa are much nicer. The hotel is inarguably grandiose and sophisticated, and the execution of the Victorian theme is incredibly well done.  Most areas offer tremendous detail and a sense of luxury, with a handful of locations being stuffy or overly reminiscent of grandma’s house.  For the most part, the Grand Floridian feels imbued with a sense of sophistication. The lobby makes a strong first impression, and the common areas are exactly what you’d expect of Walt Disney World’s flagship resort.  Personally, for this amount of money–even understanding that staying on property at Walt Disney World costs a premium–I expect perfection. The Grand Floridian is a far cry from perfection, and simply not worth the exorbitant rates it charges, at least in my opinion.  If luxury were my utmost concern, I’d book the Four Seasons. If I weren’t so worried about luxury or were taking a trip more geared towards kids, I’d book Disney's Polynesian Resort. 
​Pro Tip: Stay at Disney's Polynesian Resort for newer rooms and better amenities.

If your resort is a large aspect of your vacation and you plan on spending a lot of time there, you may not think too highly of the Value Resorts. From my experience, this goes for all of the Value Resorts, especially the three All Star Resorts, which differ from one another little besides in theme.  You will feel like herded cattle staying at any of these resorts.  There are always big “groups” of people here, whether it be cheerleaders or football players who often run rampant over the resort.
The rooms are tiny with no room for luggage or a stroller. Bring earplugs because the walls are paper thin and you will undoubtedly hear your neighbor snoring. 
There are no table service restaurants at any of these resorts and the food at the food court is a crap shoot. 
The pools are always mobbed and dirty with no slides and no towels. If you want a towel, you have to go to the lobby, wait in the long line and ask a crabby cast member for one.  Good luck fighting the masses to get breakfast in the morning, those lines are longer than the ones in the parks.  When you leave the park after a long day and all you want to do is get into your bed, you might as well take a nap on the sidewalk. The All Stars share the furthest bus corral at every park, and because they share buses, the wait in line is at least three buses deep just to get on.  Plan to stand the entire way back. 
​Staying at the All Stars is like drawing the short stick. 
Pro Tip: Spend a little bit more and book Art of Animation for a better value property option.

Mickey's Dream Vacations is a full-service travel agency, specializing in Family & Romance Travel. We take the stress out of travel planning. ​

Let’s face it, traveling with kids sometimes feels like that Dickens quote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Best of times because children delight in the simple things, like jumping on a fluffy hotel bed or building a sandcastle. But they can easily get tired or bored, and hello, we’ve entered Whine City.
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Hawaii, though, is such a family-friendly destination, it’s not a question of finding great things to do with the kids so much as narrowing down all the activities.

Here are some of the best kid-friendly activities in the Islands.

​Check Out the Lava
​Twice a day, it’s gonna blow! Well, in a controlled manner. The daily lava show at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, near downtown Honolulu, lets kids get up close and personal with molten basalt cinder rock, poured out by a staffer wearing a cool space suit.
Then take the littles to play inside the giant volcano model before heading to the museum’s planetarium to learn how Polynesian wayfinders navigate by the stars.

​Meet a Seahorse
​A pregnant male? Whaaat? Blow the kids’ minds during a one-hour tour of an eco-friendly aqua-farm, where, yes, the daddy seahorses are the ones who give birth.
At Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm on Hawaii Island, near Kona, more than 25 species of seahorses are bred and hand-raised. Learn about breeds like the sea dragon, and maybe even get to hold a seahorse.
Eco-bonus: The family-owned company works to help vulnerable wild seahorse populations.

​Slurp Noodles
​Hawaii takes its noodles very seriously, and no island more so than Maui. Sam Sato’s, in business since 1933 and famous for its “dry mein” noodle dish, is in Wailuku and is considered by locals a must-do pilgrimage.
Insider’s tip: It’s only open for breakfast and lunch. For noodles at dinnertime, try Star Noodle, near Lahaina. It makes its ramen, udon and saimin noodles in house, daily. Parents will appreciate the sake options.

​Spend All Day in the Water
​What’s better than the beach? A mind-blowing pool…steps from the beach. Sheraton Waikiki has your family covered with two distinct pool areas, including Helumoa Playground, the property’s beachfront water experience — and a family favorite.
Older kids might take a wet and wild spin down Helumoa’s 70-foot-long water slide or play in the interactive fountain area, while the youngest of kiddos can wade in the shallow pool.
As for the adults? Rest easy in chaise water loungers or an oceanfront cabana, as you watch your little ones make a splash.

Hike to a Waterfall
​Burn off kids’ energy with a hike through a lush rainforest. Oahu’s Manoa Falls Trail is just over three miles round-trip. The pièce de résistance is the 150-foot waterfall, though the bamboo thicket is impressive, too.
For safety’s sake, avoid the trail after heavy rain, and always stay on the path. The path can be muddy, so leave the brand-new white sandals at the hotel.

Watch Chocolate Grow
​If they’ve been reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” kids might be interested to find out where chocolate really comes from. Hawaii is the only state that grows cocoa beans commercially.
Lydgate Farms, on Kauai’s east side, has a “branch-to-bar” tour and tasting, where a guide takes you through the process of growing cacao trees and harvesting and processing the cacao beans, with extensive tastings of chocolate and exotic fruits, like sapodilla and eggfruit. Bonus: Kids under 12 are free.

​Paddle to the Turtles
​Turtle Town is just off Makena Beach on Maui. This stretch of coastline has coral reefs favored by Hawaiian green sea turtles — gentle giants who can grow to four feet long and up to 350 pounds.
An outrigger canoe tour lets your family get close (respectfully, as these are a threatened species) and learn about Polynesian culture. Hawaiian Paddle Sports has a tour specifically for families with small children or first-time paddlers.

Mickey's Dream Vacations is a full-service travel agency, specializing in Family & Romance Travel. We take the stress out of travel planning. ​