WDW Magazine April 2018: Beaches and Bayous | Page 49

also typically two to three times (or more!) as expensive as the Moderates. Most Deluxe
Resorts offer rooms for four or five people, although two of the best, the Wilderness and
Animal Kingdom Lodges, have no five-person rooms.
I strongly recommend that first-timers stay in a Disney-owned resort, for a combination
of the perks that they offer, the environment they create, and the transportation options
they afford. However, I’m not so keen on the Moderates for first-timers who won’t be
spending much time at the hotel and/or who appreciate a particularly kid-appealing
environment. My advice for such first-timers intrigued by the Moderates is to do a split
stay instead, booking a Value Resort room for the first two-thirds of a trip and a room at
the Wilderness Lodge for the last third of their trip. This set of rooms on average will have
on average about the same cost and amenities as a Moderate stay but much higher kid
appeal.
As is common among “middle” choices, the Moderates are challenged by the lower end
on value for money and by the upper end on delight. The extra space and slightly better
amenities of a Moderate are not clearly twice as good as a Value Resort stay, and while
Disney’s Deluxe Resorts are painfully expensive, there are several that I would
recommend to first-timers who can afford them as being well worth it—the Polynesian,
Wilderness Lodge, and Animal Kingdom Lodge, in particular.
PHOTO BY LAURIE SAPP