Ok, so I’m going to dish all of the secrets that I can about what the best Disney World Resorts for kids are!
I have a daughter who has stayed at several Disney Resorts in her short life. So I have a bit of experience in this particular matter.
First I’ll spill the list and then I’ll get into details.
Here is a shortlist of the best Disney World resorts for kids:
- Disney’s Art of Animation
- Disney’s All-Star Resorts (Movies/Music/Sports)
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Obviously, there are benefits to every Disney Resort and I’m not downing any of their other resorts in the least!
But these are the resorts that are best for kids. Not teenagers, or adults.
If you are planning a trip to Disney and you have little kids, you want them to have fun and you want it to be for them.
I feel that the theming of these resorts is perfect for the little ones because they are mainly cartoon themed and made for little kids.
They also mostly happen to be value resorts (Polynesian Village Resort excluded) so that should be of interest to many of you who have children.
So without further ado, let’s talk about these different resorts and why they are great for children.
Disney’s Art of Animation
Back in 2015, we took our daughter to stay at the Art Of Animation Resort. We love this resort and we took my parents as well! This would probably take my number one spot for the best Disney resort for kids. It was just the best experience, with Art of Animations’ unbelievable theming and massive pool! We stayed in the Finding Nemo suite, which is a preferred location because it is close to the big pool and main lobby. Just to give you a brief overview, the Art of Animation has 1120 family suites and 864 standard rooms and those are divided into three different categories:
- Little Mermaid Rooms
- Lion King Suites
- Cars Suites
- Finding Nemo Suites
Little Mermaid Rooms
The Little Mermaid rooms are 277 square feet and are aptly themed with Ariel and all of her friends. So if you have a little princess that is into Ariel they will love it! These are the furthest from the main lobby but they do offer their own pool called the Flippin’ Fin pool. Aptly themed after the Little Mermaid. This makes staying in these room a bit easier knowing that there is a pool right near the rooms. The little mermaid rooms feature 2 queen beds or 1 king bed. These rooms recently went thru a refurbishment so they offer hard floors instead of the old carpet, under bed storage and they upgraded the old double beds to queens. These rooms are the least expensive in the resort and are the smallest.
Lion King Suites
If you have a little lion cub in your family who just can’t wait to be king then these are the rooms for you. Beautifully jungle-themed, but yet modern rooms with all the little touches that will make you feel like you are right there with all the characters from the Lion King. All family suites offer 1 Queen Bed, 1 Double-Size Table murphy bed and 1 Double-Size Sleeper Sofa. These rooms are located to the left one you exit the lobby between the Finding Nemo Suites and the Little Mermaid rooms.
Cars Suites
The cars suites are themed after the Cars movies. There are awesome touches throughout these rooms. The TV Stand is shaped like a toolbox. The couch is the same style as an old leather car seat, and there are traffic cones throughout the theming. A perfect fit for the little Mater or Lightning McQueen in your family! All family suites offer 1 Queen Bed, 1 Double-Size Table murphy bed and 1 Double-Size Sleeper Sofa. These rooms are located to the right one you exit the lobby. This area also features it’s own pool called the Cozy Cone Pool with 8 cone shaped cabanas that you can use free of charge, on a first come first serve basis.
Finding Nemo Suites
When you walk into these beautifully themed beach suites you feel like you are right in the ocean with Nemo and all his friends! All family suites offer 1 Queen Bed, 1 Double-Size Table murphy bed and 1 Double-Size Sleeper Sofa. These rooms are located right outside of the lobby.
One thing to note about the Finding Nemo Suites is that they are usually priced a little bit higher because they are in the preferred location right along with the main Finding Nemo pool which is amazing!
The Main Pool
It’s definitely one of the most beautiful pools in all of Disney World. It’s the first one that had music pumped into the pool via speakers so when you put your head underwater you’re getting that Disney feel!
The entire pool is just beautifully themed! You have splash pads for the little ones and a big pool for the bigger ones just a great place all around!
Just the fact that this is considered a value pool is unbelievable other than the fact that it doesn’t have a slide like your moderates do at their main pools.
Things For Kids To Do At Art Of Animation
There are a few other amenities for children that should be mentioned. If you have a child that loves to draw and is very artistic then this resort is perfect!
During the day, your kids can become an artist and sketch a Disney character. The best part is that there is a winner each day and his or her drawing is displayed in the lobby!
They also have a different movie played outside each night called movies under the stars. Make sure you check the weekly resort schedule that they give you when you check-in and try to plan for one of these!
With the addition of the Skyliner, this and Pop Century are in my top favorite resorts on property. We love the access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios without having to get on a bus.
Disney’s All-Star Resorts
Disney’s All-Star Resorts are technically split up into three separate resorts. Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, and Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort.
Each has their own flair and particular theming, but all are great for kids and all are value resorts.
Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
If your kids are all about music then this is the resort to take them to. Right from the moment when you walk in the lobby and see Maestro Mickey’s you know that you are about to be emersed in music.
Even the pool is shaped like a guitar!
The theming covers many different music genres, including country, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, calypso, and Broadway-style show tunes.
The room styles include Standard, Preferred, and Family Suites.
Standard and preferred rooms offer 2 double beds, Family suites offer 1 Queen Bed and 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Chair and 1 Double-Size Sleeper Sofa and 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Ottoman.
Check out this video for a walkthrough of the resort.
Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
This resort is themed after several different Disney movies.
Including a Fantasia-themed pool, a smaller pond pool themed after the Mighty Ducks, Herbie The Love Bug, Puppies from 101 Dalmatians, and you can even find some of Andy’s friends from Toy Story kicking around.
You can smell caramel popcorn when you walk in the front door of the resort lobby.
You’ll also find theater seating in the lobby with a big screen TV for the kids to sit and watch while you are checking in.
This particular resort is renowned for its outdoor movies at night, similar to what I had mentioned earlier with Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.
All rooms offer 1 King Bed or 1 Queen-Size Table Bed and 1 Queen Bed. These rooms were also refurbished to offer the hard floors, extra under-bed storage and updates décor.
You can watch a resort tour in the video below to give you a better look.
Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
This is the resort that is all about sports, so if your kids are like most then they enjoy one sport or another.
From the moment you walk into the lobby and see all the pictures of the world-class athletes, you know that you are surrounded by sports.
At the End Zone food court, you can have all of your traditional favorites including chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, chicken wings, flatbread pizzas, and much more.
As with most of the resorts, they do have an arcade and the pool has a surfing theme.
From the tennis theming one part of the resort to the football theming in another, there is something here for everyone!
All rooms offer 2 double beds.
Check out the full walkthrough of the resort below:
Disney’s Pop Century Resort
Pop Century has recently undergone quite a renovation and due to that is quickly becoming quite a hot spot for people looking for a kid-friendly Walt Disney World Disney resort for their family’s vacation. On our last trip this is where we stayed and we absolutely loved it!
This resort has wonderful theming that covers all of the eras from the 1950’s to the 1990’s.
While it may not have the theming of the other resorts that I had previously mentioned it is known as more of a baby/preschool friendly resort.
The Pop Century is both budget and kid-friendly and is an overall popular favorite family pick.
The hotel is exploding with vibrant colors and exciting themes that smaller children will love and definitely has enough onsite entertainment to keep your little ones busy.
The resort has three pools, the largest being the 60’s themed Hippy Dippy pool and features a splash pad, as well.
All rooms offer 1 King Bed or 1 Queen Bed and 1 Queen-Size murphy Table Bed. We stayed in the room with 1 queen and 1 murphy bed. This was great for us as we kept the 2nd bed up as a table during the day to give us more space and pulled it down when it was time to go to bed. The bed stayed made so it was easy to just pull it down and hop into bed. These style beds also offer the same mattress as the other bed so everyone is comfortable.
With the addition of the Skyliner, this and Art of Animation are in my top favorite resorts on property. We love the access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios without having to get on a bus.
You can check out the full walkthrough of the Disney resort below.
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
This is probably one of my favorite resorts. Has been ever since I was a kid. The reasons are endless because the size of the resort and all of the things for families to do here seem endless!
While, yes, this is on the pricer side as far as Disney World resorts go, it is absolutely worth every penny. This beautiful south pacific themed resort is sprawling. There is so much to do here it’s not even funny!
The Poly just reopened after an extensive renovation retheming all of their rooms to include Moana.
From the exotic tastes of the island food at the spirit of Aloha dinner show to the tropical outdoor evening atmosphere, this is one of those resorts that you never forget and neither will your kids.
The resort sits directly on the monorail loop and right across the seven seas lagoon directly at the Magic Kingdom. In fact, one of the nicest features of this resort is that you can sit right on the beach and watch the fireworks from across the lake every night if you want.
But I think my favorite part of this entire resort is that you get the ultimate Disney experience. You are treated like you are family when you stay at a deluxe Disney resort. Just remember the old adage when you think about the cost of staying here. You get what you pay for.
Make sure you check out the full walkthrough below:
Conclusion
No matter what Disney resort you decide to stay at, they are all family-friendly. Every single one of them. So you really can’t go wrong.
In fact, I almost mentioned Port Orlean’s Riverside here because honestly. They have some of the most beautiful princess themed rooms. But the resort as a whole is not really “kid-themed”. Although it is very friendly for a family vacation and I normally highly recommend it as one of the best moderate resorts in Disney World.
So Port Orlean’s might be another resort that you should consider if you have children as well now that I think of it. We’ll get more into Port Orleans in future posts.
