Disney Springs Hotels. More Benefits. More Magic.

In December of last year Disney announced new perks for guests staying at Disney Springs Hotels. Based on this new agreement, Disney Springs Hotels now offer perks that are very similar to on-property resorts bearing the Disney name. More specifically, these seven hotels now permit guests to make FastPass reservations 60 days before travel and to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours within the parks. Should these new perks effect your decision on where to stay at Disney World? Possibly. It’s definitely a topic worth exploring. Today’s post covers the benefits of staying at a Disney Springs Hotel.

Disney Springs Hotels

Let’s start with the basics.

Disney extended the “Official Disney World Hotel” badge to seven properties in the Disney Springs area in January of this year. Most bear familiar brand names. Yet, none of them are owned by Disney. The hotels include: B Resort & Spa, Best Western, Doubletree Suites, Hilton Buena Vista Palace, Hilton Lake Buena Vista, Holiday Inn and Windham Garden. You can explore the details at disneyspringshotels.com.

Benefits of Disney Springs Hotels

So what are the benefits of staying at a Disney Springs Hotel? In my opinion, there are several. They include: location, transportation, FastPass, Magic Hours, price and availability.

We’ll explore each of these in detail.

Location, Location, Location

The first benefit of staying in a Disney Springs Hotel is obviously the close proximity to Disney Springs. This massive complex, once called Downtown Disney, offers an endless variety of shopping, dining and entertainment. There are seriously more options here than you can reasonably conquer in a single vacation. Well, unless you’re a super hero or something.

Some of the entertainment, such as outdoor concerts and holiday displays, are even free. You can check out the ever-growing list of options on Disney Springs website  or skip to just the new stuff that I covered in a recent post.

The great location also reduces commute time to the parks and other Disney resorts. You can walk or ride the bus to Disney Springs and then board another bus (or boat!) to a Disney resort. Or, hop a bus at your own hotel and travel to the Disney parks nearby.

Bus Service

Speaking of transportation, guests at Disney Springs Hotels have access to bus transportation throughout Disney World. The buses are operated by Disney and run approximately every 30 minutes.

While the service isn’t perfect, it’s included in the cost of your hotel stay and somewhat similar to the service at Disney-owned resorts. The buses from Disney Springs Hotels tend to make more stops then the Disney resort ones do, but they are larger too.

FastPass

One of the biggest and newest perks of staying in a Disney Springs Hotel is the ability to book FastPass selections 60 days before travel. This is a change from last year when guests had to wait until the 30 day mark.

FastPass selections are kind of like appointments you can make before your vacation to hold your space in line for various attractions, shows or character meetings. They won’t make or break your vacation, but they can definitely save you time in line. Allowing Disney Resort Hotel guests to make these selections at 60 days prior to their vacations instead of 30 greatly improves their chances of scoring the most desirable options. It also gives these guests the exact same benefit as staying in a Disney-owned resort.

Extra Magic Hours

Speaking of getting the same benefits as Disney resort guests, Disney Springs Hotel guests are also now permitted to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours. Extra Magic Hours, like the name suggests, are additional hours in the Disney parks reserved for select guests. This “extra” time ranges from 10 or more hours per week, depending on the season.

Price? Price. It’s complicated.

Another benefit of booking a Disney Springs Hotel is price. Well, at least in theory. Typically you can find a lower nightly rate for a hotel room near Disney Springs than you can in a traditional Disney World Resort.

The trick is factoring in all of the other costs to make sure it’s a true comparison. I tried pricing a fictional trip to Orlando today to get an idea of how the rates really compare. Here’s a chart of my completely non-scientific (and non-discounted!) results. It’s based on a six-night stay from November 4-10 for two adults and two kids (ages 5 and 10):

First, you’ll notice the Disney Springs Resorts are similar to the Moderate (like Port Orleans) or Value (like Pop Century) Disney-owned hotels in terms of pricing. The majority of rooms near Disney Springs are much less expensive than those in a Disney Deluxe Resort, although you could argue the amenities and service levels are lower too.

Second, the majority of the Disney Springs Resorts charge daily resort fees. These fees are already baked into the prices listed above, but make sure you include them too if you’re running your own price comparisons. The resort fees range from $14 to $35 a day depending on location. Some resorts offer different perks within the fee (sunscreen, bottles of water, Starbucks, wi-fi) to justify the extra price (optimistically) or make hotel comparisons harder (more likely).

What you can’t see on the chart are the range of room styles and the overall room space available at the Disney Springs Resorts. In general, I think it’s fair to say you get a larger room for comparable or less money than you would get in a traditional Disney resort. You’ll also have the opportunity for greater savings at these locations, by utilizing discount travel sites, AAA promotions or hotel loyalty reward points. DisneySpringsHotels.com often offers specials on rooms and shopping at Disney Springs too.

Availability

Another benefit of the Disney Springs Hotel is overall availability of rooms. You’ll find a wider variety of options across these seven properties than you’ll find in the comparable Disney-owned moderate or value resorts.

You’re also likely to find rooms still available closer to departure.  All of the resorts listed above still had rooms available to book for a week in November roughly seven weeks from today. I could not find any availability for comparable Moderate or Value resorts on Disney’s web site for the same time frame.

What’s the catch?

Surprisingly, not much.

In order to take advantage of the 60-day FastPass and the Extra Magic Hours privileges, guests of Disney Springs Resorts need to create a My Disney Experience account. It’s pretty easy to do on the main Disney World website or within the My Disney Experience app. Guests also need to purchase park tickets prior to their trip and then link those tickets and hotel reservations to their account. It may take a few more steps then you’re used to, but it’s not all that different from booking a Disney resort stay.

Once you have a Disney account and your tickets are linked, you can change and modify your FastPass selections through the Disney app just like anybody else staying on property.

Oh, and you’ll also have to book your vacation before 2021. Although Disney originally planned for the new FastPass and Extra Magic Hours benefits expire in 2019, the benefits are now available for reservations through December 31, 2020.

So the Disney Springs Resorts are just like the Disney owned Resorts Now?

Well, yes and no.

The new FastPass and Extra Magic Hours benefits definitely make a stay at a Disney Springs Hotel much more similar to staying in a traditional Disney resort. These are two of the biggest perks for staying on property, in my opinion, and now they are available to more guests.

It doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same as a Disney resort though. Obviously the Disney resorts offer more overt Disney theming and Disney-related activities then their Disney Springs counterparts. They also offer Magic Bands, which resort guests use to unlock their rooms, enter parks, board attractions and make purchases. If you stay at a Disney Springs Hotel you can still purchase Magic Bands separately ($15+ each) to use at the park gates and attractions. You just won’t be able to use them to access your hotel room or make purchases.

Disney resorts also offer free airport transportation to their guests. The service is called Disney’s Magical Express and includes luggage handling for both legs of your trip. If you’re staying at a Disney Springs Hotel and flying into Orlando International Airport you’ll need to rent a car or purchase other transportation. Options include shuttles (roughly $22 a person one way), cabs ($50+) or Uber.

The final benefit of staying at a Disney resort over a Disney Springs Hotel involves dining. If you stay at a Disney resort you can start booking dining reservations for your entire trip at 180 days before departure. If you stay at a Disney Springs Hotel, you’ll have to book each day separately like everybody else. Also, please note that the Disney Dining Plans are only available to those staying in on-property Disney resorts.

Conclusion

There are clearly many benefits of staying at a Disney Springs Hotel. Some of them, like location, price and availability have been true for a while. Others, like the Disney-operated bus service, FastPass privileges and Extra Magic Hours are new this year. Together, these benefits make a stay at a Disney Springs Hotel much more similar to a vacation at a Disney resort.

How important the differences are between the two types of accommodations really depends on your situation. Are you driving? Then the airport transportation benefit at Disney resorts doesn’t matter. Are you dining on Mickey pretzels and quick-service meals only? Then the 180-day reservation mark won’t effect you either. Do you have a large travel group and a limited budget? Well, then the decision could effect you greatly.

You get the idea. Just make sure you keep in mind that the current benefits of Disney Springs Hotels will change again after 2020. Disney added two new resort towers in 2019 at Coronado Springs and adjacent to Caribbean Beach. There’s also a new Star Wars hotel, a new Nature-based hotel and the new tower at the Disney World Swan and Dolphin complex under construction too. In other words, as more Disney-owned rooms come on line the likelihood of Disney offering perks to off-property hotels decreases.

Better get to Disney World soon before the rules change again.

Add a little (Disney Springs) magic to your world!