pools - TouringPlans.com Blog

We’ve taken a look at the general pool situation at Walt Disney World, as well as the pool specifics about the value level resorts. Now it’s time to dig in to the details about the pools at the Disney moderate resorts: Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans French Quarter, and Port Orleans Riverside, as well as the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. (Disney classifies the Fort Wilderness cabins as moderate level accommodations.)

CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

• How many pools are there? There are seven real pools. The main feature pool, Fuentes del Morro, is located in Old Port Royale Centertown. There are also six smaller quiet pools, one each in the Martinique, Barbados, Aruba, Jamaica, Trinidad South, and Trinidad North guest room areas.
• What is the pool themeing? The feature pool has an old fashioned pirate theme, with faux pirate outpost ruins.
• What’s the kiddie pool situation? There is an aquatic play area, reserved for children under 48″ tall, adjacent to the main feature pool. The water around the play area is shallow and appropriate for the smallest children. There is also a small traditional kiddie pool.
• Are there water slides? Yes, there are twin mini-slides in the aquatic play area. There are two medium-sized slides in the feature pool, appropriate for older children.
• Is there a nearby playground? The aquatic play area functions much like a playground, with interactive elements. Traditional playgrounds are located in the Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad South village areas.
• What’s the nearest food option? The Banana Cabana bar is located directly adjacent to the main feature pool. The Market Street food court and Shutters full-service restaurant are located in nearby Centertown. Other than vending machines, there are no food options near the quiet pools.
• Are there showers at the pool? Yes, there is a locker room with showers located next to the main feature pool.
• Are there hot tubs? Yes. There is a small hot tub located next to the main feature pool.
• Are there towels available at the pool? Yes, there are towels available at the main feature pool. Towels are typically not available at the quiet pools.
• How deep is the pool? The main feature pool is four feet, ten inches at its deepest point. The quiet pools average four feet, six inches at their deepest point.
• Are there zero entry pools? Yes, the main feature pool has a zero entry access point. The children’s aquatic play area is also zero entry. The quiet pools are standard entry.
• Are poolside cabanas available? No.
• Are there poolside activities? Yes. All activities take place at the feature pool area. Schedules may vary seasonally, but recently there were planned events from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. every afternoon, plus a movie under the stars in the evening. Events may include: Dance Parties, “What’s in Your Beach Bag,” “Mickey Who?,” Notable Quotes, and others. Weather permitting, there is a free campfire with s’mores.
• Anything else? There are laundry facilities near the pool in each village area. There are often hair wrap artists located at the Dig Site pool mid-day. While there are plentiful beaches here, there is no swimming allowed in the lake.

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While the theme park attractions may be the reason that people come to Walt Disney World, often the reason they stay at Walt Disney World is the hotel pool. All of the Disney World hotels have at least one, if not several, pools on site, many of which have elaborate themeing, kiddie play zones, or other enticements that can make a day at the resort just as fun as a day at the parks.

Zero entry pool at the Polynesian.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing some deep water exploration of the pool situation at Walt Disney World. So put on your swim fins, folks, and get ready to dive in.

What’s the overall pool situation like at the Disney World resorts?

While all Disney hotels have pools, there is a great deal of variation between the resorts in the size, atmosphere, and amenities of the pools at each location. The pools range from basic water-in-the-ground (albeit with colorful themed elements) at the All Star Resorts, to a de facto mini water park, with multiple slides, sandy play areas, and a lazy river at the Yacht & Beach Clubs.

Some resorts have elaborate interactive water play zones for children, some have hot tubs, some have deluxe cabana rentals, some have quiet pools for restful relaxation, some have zero entry approaches to the water. Sometimes these features, or the lack thereof, can have a big impact on your vacation enjoyment.

In a future post, I’ll get into the specific set-up at each hotel, but for now we’ll cover issues that apply to the pools in general.

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Walt Disney World Veterans instinctively understand the differences between Disney’s resort classification system: value, moderate, deluxe, and villa. But new Disney travelers, or folks who’ve previously only stayed off site, are often confused by the terminology. Sure deluxe sounds, well, deluxe, but what exactly makes it that way. What makes it more deluxe than a moderate resort? What does moderate mean, anyway? And why is moderate more deluxe than value when there are some value rooms that cost more than moderate rooms? To help you sort it all out, here’s a handy-dandy cheat sheet detailing the differences in the Disney resort categories.

But before we get going, it may be helpful to list the hotels that fall into each of the classification categories.

The deluxe resorts are: Grand Floridian, Contemporary, Polynesian, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House, and Wilderness Lodge. The moderate resorts are: Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter, Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach Resort, and the Fort Wilderness Cabins. The value resorts are: All Star Movies, All Star Music, All Star Sports, Pop Century, and Art of Animation. The dedicated villa resorts are Old Key West and Saratoga Springs. Additionally, there are villa rooms at the Beach Club, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, and Contemporary (Bay Lake Tower) resorts. The amenities of those villas are shared with the deluxe resorts that host them. The Fort Wilderness campground remains unclassified. Campground guests have all the privileges of Fort Wilderness cabin guests except, of course, having a Disney roof over their head.

Room Size

Value resort accomodations are fairly basic.

• Value resorts: The typical standard room, sleeping up to four guests plus a baby in a crib, is approximately 260 square feet. The typical family suite, sleeping up to six guests plus a baby in a crib is approximately 520 square feet.
• Moderate resorts: Typical standard rooms at Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, and Port Orleans are approximately 314 square feet. These rooms sleep up to four guests, plus a baby in a crib. There are some rooms at Port Orleans Riverside equipped to sleep up to five guests plus a baby. There are some suites at Coronado Springs. The Fort Wilderness cabins, which sleep up to six guests plus a baby, are approximately 504 square feet.
• Deluxe resorts: There are a variety of room types and sizes at the deluxe hotels. These range from standad rooms of about 344 square feet at the Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge (rooms sleeping four plus a baby) on up suites of more than a thousand square feet. Typical rooms at the Grand Floridian sleep up to five guests plus a baby in 440 square feet.
• Villa resorts: There are studio, one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom villas. These range in size from a 316 square foot studio at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, to a nearly 2,500 square foot three bedroom grand villa at the Boardwalk. Most studio rooms sleep up to four guests plus a baby. The grand villas sleep up to 12 guests plus a baby.
• Things to think about: Not surprisingly, the rooms get larger as you move up in the resort classification level. However, the square footage of your room may not matter to you if you’ll only be spending time in your room to sleep.

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In my experience, in order to be able to maintain calm and control for situations that demand good behavior (waiting for restaurants, waiting for attractions), most kids need periods of activity that allow them to use pent up energy and blow off steam. They need to move their bodies and “get their wiggles out.” A typical Walt Disney World vacation does involve lots of movement, but this tends to be of the energy sapping sort (walking from ride A to ride B), rather than the energy rejuvenating sort (free and creative play).

The water play areas at the resorts are great place to expend excess energy.

So in a regimented Touring Plans, gotta-hustle-to-the-next-attraction world, how to do you get your kids to move their bodies in a constructive, appropriate, and fun manner. Here are some tips.

Take a mid-afternoon break at your resort.

This is an old saw, but it works. If at all possible, you should take a mid-day break to recharge your batteries. Some folks recommend that the best activity for break time is a nap, and for the youngest children (and my husband) this may be true. But I’d argue that for preschoolers on up, a free movement break can be equally reinvigorating.

So what can kids do at the resort to move around? Of course all the WDW resort hotels have pools which are heated to at least 80 degrees year round. I’ve seen hardy souls Marco Poloing like mad, even when the air temperature was 45 degrees. Many of the resort pools have splash areas, fountains, slides or other interactive features which encourage use of multiple muscle groups.

The resorts also have small playgrounds with slides and basic climbing structures. While most of these are covered, be aware that the plastic and metal elements can become quite hot in the Florida sun. Test surfaces yourself before allowing your child to play freely.

And best of all, many of the resorts have lawns, beaches, or courtyards that practically beg kids to run around. I’m talking to you faux football field at All Star Sports.

You can make free time more entertaining by packing one or two pieces of small sports equipment such as a frisbee, ball or jump rope. Every time my kids have tossed a frisbee in an open area at our hotel, they’ve made friends with other children who wanted to join in the fun. Be mindful to keep the noise level to a dull roar, but otherwise go ahead and enjoy the open space. Depending on your child’s need for exercise, you may want to factor the availability of play areas into your resort decision.

Many resorts have open areas for free play.

While “pool hopping” is generally not allowed at Walt Disney World, you are welcome to use the playgrounds and open areas at any of the WDW hotels. For example, if you’re staying at a distant off-site hotel and want a mid-day break from the Magic Kingdom, a good solution can be to take a brief boat ride over to Fort Wilderness for lunch and playtime. There is a well-shaded climbing structure and beach area where you can let kids be, well, kids for an hour or so.

And at all the resorts keep an eye out for special opportunities for movement such as beachside sack races or hula hoop contests.

What if Your Kids are Antsy in the Parks?

Despite your plan to take a break at the hotel, sometimes that’s just not in the cards. Or, perhaps you’re planning on taking a resort break later, but your child need to move around NOW. Never fear, there are some location in the parks where free play is possible.

Honey, I shrunk the kids and blew up an ant.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The primary spot for unfettered play at DHS is the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Your kids probably won’t understand why there’s a supersized Play-doh can or a giant ant sitting there, but they’ll love climbing on the netting bridges, zooming down the slides, or playing hide and seek with their siblings in the secret tunnels. Think McDonald’s Playland on steroids.

There’s only one exit, so if your kids are big enough not to get stepped on, park yourself near that exit and catch up on your emails while you wait for the young ‘uns to burn off their excess energy.

A stealth energy burner can be the Disney Channel Rocks show which takes place in front of the big hat several times a day. This attraction includes a section where kids can dance their hearts out. For an uninhibited child this is a chance for both the illusion of fame and the expenditure of a few calories.

Animal Kingdom

The Animal Kingdom equivalent of the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground is The Boneyard in DinoLand. In addition to slides and climbing structures, there’s a sand pit area where kids can dig for buried “dinosaur bones.” Your child will definitely get some sand in his shoes here; be prepared with an extra set of socks to facilitate clean up.

The Boneyard has lots of places to explore.

While not specifically designed as an active movement area, you might want to take a squirmy child over to the Affection Section at Rafiki’s Planet Watch. This petting zoo allows kids to freely interact with, hug, and pat the tamest group of sheep and goats I have ever encountered. This has a huge calming effect on many youngsters.

Epcot

Epcot does not have a dedicated playground area. The closest thing to free play you’ll find at Epcot is the interactive fountain splash area in the walkway between Future World and the World Showcase. This is an area where kids will, obviously, get wet. For here, and many other locations, it makes sense to keep a dry set of clothing in your backpack or diaper bag.

Your kids WILL get wet at the Epcot water play zone.

While not free form play, the exhibits at Innoventions do offer some physical activity. One of my kids’ favorities is the “Where’s the Fire” attraction which involves running from room to room in a mock house while identifying fire hazards. Similarly, the Kodak Image Works area in the Imagination Pavilion involves movement like jumping and stomping to activate some of the attraction features.

If you happen to be at Epcot during Flower and Garden season, you may find that there are temporary play structures erected for the Festival. Be sure to take advantage of them.

Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is experiencing a transition in the availability of free movement areas. The Ariel’s Grotto water play area and the Toontown Donald’s Boat water play area were both closed as part of the Fantasyland refurbishment and expansion. Beyond the old standby Tom Sawyer Island, currently the only real play areas at the Magic Kingdom are a teeny todder-sized climb area near the exit to Splash Mountain and the new-and-improved interactive queue at the Winnie the Pooh ride.

You can play in the Pooh queue even if you don't want to go on the ride.

The latest version of the Magic Kingdom map mentions the Casey Jr. Splash and Soak Station in the Storybook Circus area. When this opens, I assume it will provide some relief for families who want a place for their kids to cool off and run around. Again, bring extra clothing for your wet wigglers.

Much like the Disney Channel show at Hollywood Studios, the “Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It” parade invites guests to get their groove on and dance during the show. If you shake your groove thing, maybe your cranky kids will join you and activate some endorphins.

Where have you found to let your kids be kids at Walt Disney World? What are your tricks for helping little ones burn off excess energy? Let us know in the comments below.