2024 Awards: Best of Disney World Resorts

2024 is wrapping up, and that means that we have lots of data to review, and lots of recommendations to make for those of you considering 2025 Walt Disney World vacations. Over the course of this week, I’m reviewing results from our post-visit surveys that we received this year, and helping you interpret what they should mean for your next vacation. Today we’re going over all of the satisfaction data from our resort surveys. Which resorts got the best overall scores? Which have the best food? Or the rooms with the least noise?

This serves as your obligatory reminder that the accuracy of these results fully depends on the number of people that are willing to fill out post-visit surveys after their Walt Disney World vacations. Make sure to submit your thoughts after your WDW vacations so that we can continue providing meaningful insights!

Overall Satisfaction

We received almost 5000 unique resort surveys so far in 2024. That gives us a lot of information to slice and dice, but the number that we most frequently pay attention to is overall satisfaction. Each survey respondent is asked to rate their resort stay as “very satisfied,” “somewhat satisfied,” “neither,” “somewhat dissatisfied,” or “very dissatisfied.” I take each of these responses and convert them to a 5-point scale. Very Satisfied = 5 points, Very Dissatisfied = 1 point, and so on. Then I can average the responses to get an approximation for the overall satisfaction at each resort.

First, let’s talk about the graph here. Each color corresponds to a specific resort tier:

• Blue = DVC Resort
• Green = Deluxe Resort
• Yellow = Moderate Resort
• Red = Value Resort

Plus, we have a bonus color – gray for Shades of Green and Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. I treat these slightly differently than any other resort because they’re really hard to compare.

The colored box shows the average overall satisfaction for each resort, and the lines to each side represent the 95% confidence interval. Even though we get a lot of surveys, we’re obviously not surveying the entire population of people that stayed at these resorts. So based on the number of surveys we get, and how different they are from one another, the “real” satisfaction at each resort could actually be anywhere along these lines. At least we’re statistically 95% confident the “real” satisfaction is along that line.

So who are the big winners here?

Best Overall DVC Resort: Riviera Resort

Best Overall Deluxe Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House

Best Overall Moderate Resort: Coronado Springs (by a hair – as in .006 higher than POFQ)

Best Overall Value Resort: Art of Animation

*Keep in mind that these “bests” are somewhat misleading. Those 95% lines overlap A LOT, which means that although Jambo, for example, edged out other Disney-owned deluxe resorts, its confidence lines overlap with almost every other deluxe resort too. It has the highest average, but the real winner could technically be any of those other resorts too. Things we can say for certain are along the lines of “Coronado Springs is definitely better than Caribbean Beach” because those lines don’t overlap.

Another note – every single resort has an average satisfaction that is over 4.1 on a scale of 5. And approximately half are above 4.5. That means more people respond “Very Satisfied” than “Somewhat Satisfied”. The bar is set really really high for WDW resorts.

Overall Repeatability

For a slightly different look at similar data, we ask how likely each respondent stay again at this resort during a future stay.

This chart looks very different than the one from 2023 (found here). For one thing, value resorts have plummeted back down the list. I guess the new-ness from their refurbishments has worn off and people aren’t as willing to try them again. There has also been a resurgence of deluxe resorts. Last year, almost all of the top scores were from DVC resorts, and the deluxe resorts had relatively low scores.

Most Repeatable DVC Resort: Bay Lake Tower

Most Repeatable Deluxe Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House

Most Repeatable Moderate Resort: Port Orleans – French Quarter

Most Repeatable Value Resort: Pop Century

That’s two deluxe wins in a row for Jambo House … I see my repeated praise is finally starting to pay off 🙂

Best Resort Food

We’ll look at awards for all dining locations later this week, but for now let’s look at which resorts are rated most highly for their dining options.

Quick Service/Food Court

1. Riviera Resort
2. Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
3. Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House
4. Polynesian Village Resort
5. Wilderness Lodge

The Riviera Resort taking top spot here isn’t surprising. Primo Piatto and Bar Riva are right next door to each other, and both provide truly stellar dining experiences. Bar Riva can be table service or counter service based on how and where you choose to eat. At French Quarter, you can order from Sassagoula … or head over to Scat Cat’s Cafe. Beignets are the secret to high satisfaction. Jambo House has convenient access to Mara and to the Uzima Springs Pool Bar. And, Captain Cook’s at the Polynesian certainly has some fun and delicious items along with a great location. Wilderness Lodge is an interesting one. Roaring Fork scores below average, but if you count Geyser Point as counter service, that definitely gives reason for Wilderness Lodge to have a high rating.

Table Service Dining

1. Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo)
2. Grand Floridian Resort
3. Riviera Resort
4. Wilderness Lodge (plus DVC wings)
5. Animal Kingdom Lodge (Kidani)

Both portions of Animal Kingdom make the list, and you all know I’m biased on that front. Once again we have Jambo coming out on the very top! Jiko + Boma + Sanaa is a formidable foodie line-up. I could do a long weekend at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and never set foot at any dining location outside of the lodge and be a perfectly happy camper. Next up is Grand Floridian and its impressive slate of options (hello Grand Floridian Cafe and Citricos and Narcoosees and Victoria & Alberts). A lot of fancy. A lot of expensive. A lot of great. Table-service dining is pretty much a slam dunk at Riviera, with Topolino’s Terrace. It’s one of the hardest reservations to get on-property for a reason – but increasing prices have led to a slight decrease in satisfaction (Riviera had the top spot last year). Wilderness Lodge wraps up our top 5. With a one-two punch from Whispering Canyon Cafe and Storybook Dining at Artist Point, it’s very worthy of a spot near the top.

Best Resort Rooms

Is the most important part of a resort the rooms themselves? Do you need a lot of space, or quiet rooms for resting? These will be the important categories for you to pay attention to.

Room Cleanliness

1. Swan Reserve
2. Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo)
3. Riviera Resort
4. Copper Creek Villas
5. Grand Floridian Resort

Nice new shiny rooms is what people prioritize when they think about “clean”. This makes sense. Mousekeeping is awesome and works hard at every resort. So the difference really comes down to refurbishments and having less of a run-down feel.

Best for Room Size

1. Treehouse Villas
2. Riviera Resort
3. Old Key West
4. Animal Kingdom Lodge (Kidani)
5. Grand Floridian Resort

The Treehouse Villas are certainly large – but arranged in a weird way that doesn’t always feel like it makes good use of all of that space. Riviera has the second-largest studios in all of WDW, so its inclusion on this list isn’t a surprise either. Old Key West has large rooms. And they’re organized well, so you notice how roomy they are. Next we have Kidani, which is a bit of a head-scratcher. Some rooms are larger here than at Jambo, but not all. And finally, Grand Floridian is a more obvious choice. You’ll find the biggest standard rooms here.

Best for Quiet Rooms

1. Treehouse Villas
2. Fort Wilderness Cabins
3. Riviera Resort
4. Boulder Ridge Villas
5. Saratoga Springs

Spoiler alert: rooms that are more spread out (or in totally separate buildings) are quieter. Obviously the Cabins and Treehouse Villas prove this point perfectly. They each have their own building for each “room”. Your room is as quiet as you make it. Riviera isn’t like that at all, but does benefit from some newer soundproofing attempts. And the Boulder Ridge Villas are pretty spread out with lots of rooms far away from any type of lobby. Lots of peace and quiet. Then we wrap up with Saratoga Springs, with more spread-out buildings and fewer crowds than many other resorts.

Best Pools

Do your kids just want to play in a pool all day? Or do you enjoy taking a midday break with lounging and swimming? Then these are the categories for you!

Pool Size

1. Yacht Club Resort
2. Beach Club Villas
3. Beach Club Resort
4. Boulder Ridge Villas
5. Copper Creek Villas

The survey doesn’t have a category for pool theme, otherwise this list would have the same top three and then probably a very large gap. Still, the top three here deserve their spots. Stormalong Bay, which is shared by the top three resorts, is THE Walt Disney World pool. If you can afford it, and pool time is important to you, it’s the obvious choice. But it will be closed for a significant portion of 2025. Next up are Boulder Ridge and Copper Creek, both at Wilderness Lodge (which also scores just outside of the top 5). The pools here are large AND well-themed.

Pool Crowds

1. Swan Reserve
2. Boulder Ridge Villas
3. Riviera Resort
4. Copper Creek Villas
5. Old Key West

So here’s the thing. Big, popular pools are still … popular pools. Which means that they get crowded with lots and lots of humans. If you don’t necessarily care about how large the pool is, and instead you just want some space to yourself, this is the more important list. Swan Reserve is something of a boutique hotel that has much lower capacity than its siblings or pretty much any other WDW resort, so there are fewer humans to fill up the pools. Boulder Ridge and Copper Creek benefit from large pools without the crowds of a resort like Beach/Yacht Club and Polynesian. Old Key West makes sense too, because there are multiple pools spread throughout the resort. Riviera is an interesting new addition to this top 5, though. It’s not a huge pool, and it is a pretty popular one. It must handle the crowds well.

Best for Wayfinding

Is just stumbling back to your room at the end of a long park day without getting lost your top priority? Here are the resorts for you:

1. Port Orleans – French Quarter
2. Boulder Ridge Villas
3. Riviera Resort
4. Wilderness Lodge
5. Bay Lake Tower

No big surprises here, as these are all small locations with relatively straight-forward layouts. In fact, only French Quarter even has multiple buildings. But there are so few of them, and they are so close together that it doesn’t matter much.

Best Staff

Do you want to be well cared for by the best cast members? You really can’t go wrong with any on-property resorts, but let’s find the best of the best for the sake of rounding out our 2024 awards.

1. Riviera Resort
2. Copper Creek Villas
3. Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo)
4. Boulder Ridge Villas
5. Wilderness Lodge

Interestingly, only one resort is a repeat in this category from last year, and that’s the Riviera Resort. Jambo appears on another top 5, and Wilderness Lodge and its DVC wings all surge to the top. Big shout-out to the cast members there!

What Does This Mean For You?

1. Was 2024 the year of Animal Kingdom Lodge? Are people finally figuring out that you get great food and rooms and built-in entertainment all for typically the lowest price of any deluxe resort? Good. Let’s keep it going in 2025.
2. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the “best of” lists are filled with Deluxe and DVC entries. But that doesn’t mean that you have to pay a lot of money to find something that will suit your needs. French Quarter has decent scores overall, and has high repeatability.
3. Every WDW resort has high satisfaction by any sort of real-world measure. No resort has a repeatability score of less than 82%, and no resort has overall satisfaction lower than 4.1. These are all really high scores, and anything above that is almost just nitpicking. Find the aspects that are important to you, and make your decisions based on those.

Did any of the 2024 winners surprise you? Would you have ranked anything differently? Is there somewhere you’re looking forward to staying in 2024? Let me know in the comments!