The Best Disney World Hotels and Resorts That Are Close to the Theme Parks

Disney resorts will never be worth what Disney charges for them. The idea of spending $600–$900 a night for a room with laminate floors, basic platform beds, and not even bathrobes would appall any true connoisseur of luxury hotels. The plain fact is that Disney’s concept of upscale hospitality is the rest of the world’s concept of blandly moderate accommodations. 

The real reason people pay those savings-sapping Disney hotel rates at Walt Disney World (pictured above) and Disneyland is not for a true luxury experience. It’s for proximity. Staying at a Disney resort can be great for quicker access to the theme parks. Or, as Disney fans like to say in their own peculiar parlance, for the “immersion.”

But it’s not true that the more expensive a Walt Disney World hotel is, the closer it is to the front gates of one of the resort’s four theme parks. 

You’ll almost always save money by staying off Disney property and driving yourself to the theme parks. But if you want faster access to the rides, these are the best Disney resorts to choose. 

The moderately priced Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort is located at a crucial stop on the free Disney Skyliner gondola system. Take it west, and you’re at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in minutes; take the gondola north and you’ve got direct service to Epcot. 

Why isn’t this hotel ranked higher? Because it’s too big. It’s so big, in fact—some 200 acres—that it requires its own internal shuttle bus loop route. (So does Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, which didn’t make this list at all because it only connects to the theme parks by road.)

At Caribbean Beach, if you aren’t assigned a room near the Skyliner station—and at Disney, you can’t guarantee your room's location until you check in—you could be walking 20 minutes each way to catch that ride. Woe to anyone assigned to the Martinique section! Being on the wrong side of that 45-acre central pond could add a lot of commuting time to what appears to be, on paper, a well-connected resort.

Every hotel on Disney World property is served by a free shuttle bus. Caribbean Beach's bus service to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom is no better than what you’d get at the cheapest Disney hotels like the All-Stars. Disney buses generally pick up passengers every 20 minutes and take about 15 minutes to get to either park. You cannot walk to any theme parks from this hotel—it's the Skyliner that puts this resort on our list.

Disney's Art of Animation Resort, on the southern end of the Disney Skyliner's route, has a mix of room types that Disney categorizes on the middle and low end of its pricing (though prices are still high by non-Disney standards). The theming and construction of the rooms are a bit drab compared to the more expensive hotels on this list.

From here, free Skyliner service goes directly to Epcot in about 20 minutes, or to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in about 10 minutes with an easy change at Caribbean Beach that's sheltered from the weather.

Otherwise, you're forced to take the roads. Bus rides to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom go every 20 minutes and take about 15 minutes to get to either park. You cannot walk to any theme parks from here, but the Skyliner connection earns this property a spot on our list. 

Disney’s Pop Century Resort is the only fully “value”-priced Disney hotel on the Skyliner gondola system; Pop Century shares a station with the Art of Animation resort mentioned above. Free Skyliner service goes directly to Epcot in about 20 minutes, or to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in about 10 minutes with a sheltered change at Caribbean Beach. 

The buildings at Pop Century cluster slightly closer to the Skyliner station than Art of Animation’s buildings (even though Art of Animation’s structures were originally intended to be an expansion of the motel-style Pop Century concept), and the rooms here are uniformly less expensive, so it ranks higher on our list. In fact, Pop Century is the cheapest Disney hotel with the best easy connections to theme parks. All the other hotels on our list cost more.

Bus rides to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom from here go every 20 minutes and take about 15 minutes to get to either park. Buses tend to be crowded—everyone likes to save money. You cannot walk to any theme parks from here.

Although this Sheraton property isn't run by Disney, the Walt Disney World Dolphin is better-connected to theme parks than many Disney hotels are. Walk to the side door of Epcot along a pleasant lakefront in about 15 minutes, reach the front door of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in about 20 minutes, or take the leisurely shuttle boats to either. The boat stops twice to and from Epcot; coming back from Hollywood Studios, the shared Swan/Dolphin dock is the first stop.

If you’re staying at the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, which is another 5-minute walk across the street, you’ll use the same boat dock and lakefront path, so we're simply including that hotel here.

To get to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you’ll have to wait for a coach-style shuttle bus every 20–25 minutes—less frequent than buses at Disney-run hotels (additionally, the bus may not be wheelchair-accessible the way Disney shuttles are).

When you arrive at Magic Kingdom, the bus lets you out at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC), not at the gates, so you’ll still have to use a ferry or monorail to finish your commute. To get around that, you could walk 10–15 minutes to the front of the Disney-run Yacht Club or Boardwalk and catch the official Disney bus directly to the Magic Kingdom gates from there. But you won’t save much time.

Across Crescent Lake from the Dolphin, the Swan (run by Westin) allows you to walk to the side door of Epcot in about 20 minutes or to the front door of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in about 15 minutes. Alternatively, you can take a free shuttle boat to either park. The boat stops twice going to and from Epcot, but coming back from Hollywood Studios, the shared Swan/Dolphin dock (pictured above) is the first stop.

It’s about 5 minutes faster to walk to Hollywood Studios from the Swan than from the Dolphin, and the Swan is smaller and more manageable than its sister hotel, which is why the Swan edges out the Dolphin in this ranking.

For access to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, follow the same rules for the Dolphin (above). You'll have to get out at the TTC unless you catch an official Disney shuttle from the Boardwalk—but the access to Epcot is sweet.

Although Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa has been planted directly to the west of Magic Kingdom since 1988, the hotel hasn’t always had a walking connection to the park. A footpath was completed in 2020, but because it crosses an important service canal via a swing bridge, that route is not always open. When it is, you can walk to the gates of Magic Kingdom in about 15 minutes. At any time, you can catch a cute ferry shuttle that arrives every 20 minutes or so. 

The storied Walt Disney World monorail (pictured above) connects this hotel to Magic Kingdom (1 stop) as well as to the Transportation and Ticket Center (3 stops), where you can transfer to a direct monorail to Epcot. Expect the trip to take about half an hour, all told, provided the monorail is operational.

For direct access to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you have to use a bus or your own car.

Magic Kingdom is within sight of the beaches of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. To actually reach the park, you take the monorail 2 stops (when you leave the park, it’s 3 stops) or catch one of the regular ferries across Seven Seas Lagoon (usually arriving every 20 minutes). When there's not construction blocking the way, you can walk to the other side of the lagoon on a footpath to Magic Kingdom, but it's not the quickest method.

The free monorail connects this hotel to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC), where you can change for another monorail to Epcot. If you don’t want to take two monorails to do that, you also have the option of walking 10–15 minutes to the TTC and simply catching the Epcot monorail from there.

For direct service to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you have to use a bus or your own car.

One of the first hotels built at Walt Disney World has the luxury of being practically part of the resort's first theme park. An easy 5-minute walk across the hotel parking lot takes you to the gates of Magic Kingdom. 

The monorail connects this hotel to the Transportation and Ticket Center (1 stop), where you can change for a monorail to Epcot, as well as to Magic Kingdom, taking the long way around the lagoon (4 stops). When you leave Magic Kingdom (if you don’t walk), this hotel is the first monorail stop. 

For direct service to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you have to use a bus or your own car.

Having Magic Kingdom within strolling distance makes the Contemporary very tempting, and the sight of the monorail trundling through the hotel's atrium, below the rooms, is a vision of true Americana.

But there are other Disney hotels that have even better links to more theme parks. 

Disney’s Yacht Club is the rare Disney hotel that’s walkable to two theme parks: Epcot (about 15 minutes) and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (about 25 minutes). Or you can walk to the Disney Skyliner station in about 10 minutes and catch a free gondola to the Hollywood Studios front gate. There’s even another option: free Friendship Boat service to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios.

The Yacht Club also has one of the best pool areas in the whole Disney empire. But you'll pay dearly for the privilege—rooms commonly scrape $1,000 a night.

For direct service to Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you still have to use a bus or your own car—but unlike at the Swan, Dolphin, and Reserve, which are next door, the buses from the Yacht Club are Disney-run, so they let you off directly at the Magic Kingdom's gates.

Essentially the same hotel as Yacht Club (including in price) except more blue in color and slightly closer to Epcot, Disney's Beach Club allows you to walk to the World Showcase entrance of Epcot in about 10 minutes, marginally quicker than the walk from Yacht Club.

Walking to Disney’s Hollywood Studios takes about 30 minutes, following a lovely if circuitous route along the water. Or you can use the Disney Skyliner gondola station (a 5-minute stroll east of the hotel) to get there. And there’s a third option: taking a free ferry service to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios. The ferry shares a dock with the Yacht Club. To Hollywood Studios, the ferry might be worth it, but to reach Epcot you might as well walk.

Beach Club also shares its spectacular pool zone with the Yacht Club.

For direct service to Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you'll have to use your own wheels or the free Disney-run buses that stop in front of the hotel. Unlike at the Swan and Dolphin, located to the west along the same pond, these buses let you off directly at the Magic Kingdom gates.

If you stay at either Yacht Club or Beach Club, you also have the option of walking through Epcot to catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom area, but you'll need valid Park Hopper tickets for that. Plus, the walk is longer (20–25 minutes) than you might guess, and the shortcut only works during Epcot's operating schedule (and Epcot almost always closes hours earlier in the day than Magic Kingdom does). 

Which Walt Disney World hotels didn’t make our list?

Disney hotels didn't rank at all if they fully require road vehicles to reach a theme park, as is the case with Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge (pictured above) and Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter. Also not included here: Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, which is deeply atmospheric but requires road travel to three parks and, if you're not driving, is only connected to Magic Kingdom by a ferry you might have to wait for.

For Disneyland in Anaheim, California, hotels are much easier. All three Disney-run hotels in Anaheim are within walking distance of the theme parks. The only question is how easy you want that commute to be.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is the only Disney hotel in the U.S. with a dedicated entrance directly into a theme park. Guests may walk straight from the hotel into Disney California Adventure Park. Otherwise, they can walk to the gates of the original Disneyland park in about 5 minutes. (The two theme parks connect to each other via a 1-minute walk.)

Second-closest, but still just a 10-minute walk through Downtown Disney to the theme parks, is the Disneyland Hotel.

The third and final choice is Pixar Place Hotel (pictured above), located a 10- or 15-minute walk from the park gates. However, the quickest park access from Pixar Place Hotel crosses a busy road (with a crosswalk), so even though the hotel is dreamily close to the action, it’s still the last choice of the three Disney-run hotels in Anaheim. It also happens to have the lowest rates of the three.

Jason Cochran is the author of the award-winning Frommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando guidebook.