No, never remember the hotel. You spend little time there.

Anonymous wrote:Curious if the hotel was the one thing they remembered most (ex: a great pool or room) or one particular part of the theme park stands out.

How important is a “fun” hotel with the pool and characters? Or is the visit to the parks the place where majority of the memories are made?

I think it depends on how privileged your kid already is tbh.

My family was solid 80s middle class and we went in exactly three “airplane-destination vacations” during my childhood. The rest (about 6-7 additional vacations on top of the airplane ones from ages 3 to 18) were driving trips where we stayed in some sort of motor lodge or motel, which we still felt like was pretty cool! And bonus if it had a POOL!
My mom planned our Disney trip for a year (no internet, obviously! Just all the “insider” books from the library!) and we stayed in one of the hotels that had a monorail stop! I still have vivid, magical memories of every single part of that vacation. The room, the pool, the hotel restaurants, the arcade inside the hotel, the luau at the Polynesian hotel…..all of it was larger than life!

But I think if I tried to take my kids on the same trip, they would not be even half as impressed because they are just sort of used to all the luxuries in a way that we just weren’t at all. It’s not even that we are that well off. It’s just that eating out was a once a month (maybe!) thing at my house as a kid and it’s just much more common than that. A Marriott isn’t fancy to my kids. And neither is a “regular” pool.

You know your kids, OP. I think only you can determine what will make a lasting impression.

My teen loved the Hard Rock Hotel bc she could check out a guitar as well as hear music under the water in the pool.

Anonymous wrote:It really depends what you are looking to do/for - we like the hotels because we like good pool scenes and took off some time out of the parks to hang at the hotel - but if you aren't doing that, don't bother with a nice hotel situation.

+1. We stayed at the boardwalk and came back in the afternoon and hung out at the pool. DS remembers the pool and all the activities going on then. We also like the boat ride to the parks. That was nice and really easy.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the hotel with larger than life cartoons! The Art of Animation. The Giant Ursula. The Lion king cave. The Cars town! So memorable.

Same here. Trying to plan a future trip and not sure the kids are going to let us stay anywhere else!

I just asked my teens what they remembered from our trip to Disney when they were 5 and 7. They’re answer? The ribs at our hotel and a really long wait in line for one of the rides.

The ribs weren’t all that special but for some reason stood out.

It has been 33 years since I went as a kid the first time and 29 years the second time. I remember the hotels but especially the time we stayed at a Disney property hotel (the Polynesian) because I had never stayed in a hotel like that before and it was magical. The tram, the food, the staff…
That said I also remember the Comfort Inn we stayed at the other time and my memories from that trip are more park-based.

I don’t think you can go wrong either way - Disney is magical regardless! If you can afford on property go for it.

My kid really liked the hotel we stayed in at Universal (Dockside inn) because it was set up like a regular hotel room with a small separate bedroom that he got to stay in. I remember it because it had a nice large picnic table and tons of hooks to hang stuff

Anonymous wrote:We stayed at Animal Kingdom, so that was pretty memorable.

We stayed there too. My kids only remember playing with the phone and having the front desk put Goofy on.

Anonymous wrote:Beach Club pool was their favorite and what they remember.

+1. Me too!

We have stayed at:
Contemporary
Beach Club
Boardwalk
Polynesian
Old Key West
Riviera
Saratoga Springs
Grand Floridian
Wilderness Lodge
Animal Kingdom Lodge

Most memorable are Animal Kingdom with the savanna view, Riviera for the Skyliner, and Beach Club for the pool.

My kids loved the boats to/ from the hotels. And they also really enjoyed the Fort Wilderness campground and the activities there. The common thread is that they like to be moving and not standing in lines.

We went twice when DD was younger (now a teen). She remembers the Contemporary because the monorail goes through it. She doesn't remember the Grand Floridian. She also really liked the Hard Rock when we went to Universal. The pool has underwater music.

Anonymous wrote:Curious if the hotel was the one thing they remembered most (ex: a great pool or room) or one particular part of the theme park stands out.

How important is a “fun” hotel with the pool and characters? Or is the visit to the parks the place where majority of the memories are made?

Holly Hound at the Holiday Inn. Nothing else matters.

My son (now 12) have been heading to Orlando a few times for the past few years. We have stayed at All Star Music, Pop Century and Loews Royal Pacific for Universal. We are all day park people and do not care that much about the hotels. Pop century is on the skyliner route which makes life so much wildly better at Disney that it is hard to describe. We did Royal Pacific because with the premier resorts you get express pass which as a mom and kid with ADHD, we consider highest on the importance list. Honestly, it was a really really nice hotel and he does remember that one (I told him not to expect hotels that nice for future reference).