[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: I am about to give you an honest, unfiltered review of our stay so far at Disney’s Riviera Resort, from the room to the pool, to the food. I’m breaking down the pros and cons, my personal thoughts on room requests. Plus I’ll let you know if this resort really lives up to the hype and if it’s worth the price.

[00:00:21] Dana Stanley: Or if there are reasons I’d skip this resort completely. So stick around because we’re diving deep into what makes this resort unique and what you might wanna consider before booking your stay here. Hello and welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. I’m your host, Dana Stanley, creator of Laid Back Magic.

[00:00:40] Dana Stanley: As a mom of three, I know how tough it can be to find time to plan a Disney World trip. That doesn’t leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. That’s why I’m here to help moms like you create Disney vacations that feel even better than they look on paper here. We’re not chasing perfection, but creating our next favorite memories.

[00:00:57] Dana Stanley: So whether you’re brand new to Disney or looking to go deeper into the details, this podcast is your go-to for simple tips, mindset shifts, real life trip recaps, and expert insights to make your trip magical and manageable. New episodes drop every Monday. So be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment.

[00:01:14] Dana Stanley: Okay, let’s dive in. You are about to listen to a different kind of episode because I recorded this while on our Disney World trip this past week, but when I got back I realized I talked quite a bit. So this week’s episode is going to be a part one of two. So make sure you come back next week for part two where I really touch on my experience with Disney Skyliner.

[00:01:41] Dana Stanley: Whether you’re staying at the Riviera or not, I feel like it could be very helpful if you have plans or are booked at any of Disney World skyline or resorts. Right now I’m sitting in our one bedroom preferred view room at the Riviera and. I truly have the most perfect view. Crew is napping, and Colton has the girls at the pool, so I can actually see them.

[00:02:07] Dana Stanley: If I look a little bit to my left and down. We’re on the sixth floor. So not the highest floor. I think the highest floor is ninth or 10th, and we’re not the lowest floor. We’re like kind of right in the middle of the middle. I’m overlooking the beautiful lake. And then I have the skyliner a little bit to my right and I can just see really the whole line from Riviera going to Caribbean Beach.

[00:02:35] Dana Stanley: Across the lake, I can see the Caribbean beach pool, and when I look down I can see both of the Riviera pools and the splash pad. I see kids playing and playing bocce ball. I really have a view of like the entire courtyard and the Skyliner two. And while I’m a stickler for audio, I apologize in advance if the audio sounds a little different for this episode, since I’m recording with a much smaller, different microphone than my usual podcast mic at home.

[00:03:08] Dana Stanley: But I wanted to give you like my very initial fresh thoughts while I was here. If you’re not familiar with Disney’s Riviera, it’s a deluxe resort that also hosts DBC or Disney Vacation Club, which is Disney’s timeshare program. I didn’t book through DBC this time I usually do and rent points, but I actually booked through Disney because the discount they had for annual pass holders this summer was really good and couldn’t pass it up.

[00:03:37] Dana Stanley: And also because this was such a last minute trip, like we booked it. Like a month out. This was like one of the only rooms that was available, honestly, of a resort that was new. Like I wanted a resort that I hadn’t stayed at before and there was tons of one bedroom preferred views. So here we are. In terms of location, technically this is in the quote Epcot area because you can take a Skyliner ride straight to Epcot in like about nine, 10 minutes, but there’s no walkability to any of the parks.

[00:04:11] Dana Stanley: So yes, it’s in the same area as Boardwalk Beach or Yacht Club, but it’s farther outside of Crescent Lake, so you can only walk to Caribbean Beach. That’s it. There’s no boats, nothing else to the parks. So you can take a Skyliner ride straight to Epcot or to get to Hollywood Studios. You can take a five minute skylight ride to Caribbean Beach, the one that I’m looking at, get off and then have another like five, six minute ride to Hollywood Studios.

[00:04:44] Dana Stanley: Assuming that the Skyliner is running and not stopping a lot, which I will get to in a little bit. And then to get to the other resorts, magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, you would go to the bus. There’s free buses. You don’t share a bus. There are not multiple bus stops, which is wonderful. So Skyliner for Hollywood and Epcot, and then the Bus for Magic and Animal Kingdom.

[00:05:08] Dana Stanley: Let’s start with the absolute first impressions, like when we pulled up to the building, so it feels less charming to me from the outside than somewhere just lower, like not as tall, literally. That’s the biggest characteristic to me. That stands out because there are a lot of deluxe resorts that are not very tall, like Boardwalk old Key West.

[00:05:34] Dana Stanley: And then there are some that are very tall, like the contemporary, the Dolphin and the Riviera feels very tall to me, and I feel like the higher a hotel is, the more like commercial it feels, if that makes sense. That being said, when you pull up everything feels very like sparkly and. Nice and splendid, like with the cobblestones when you’re walking up and then you see the medallion on the floor.

[00:06:01] Dana Stanley: Then when you walk in, the lobby doesn’t have a huge ceiling, but I actually like that. I’m not a fan of those like big, impressive lobbies with just the really tall ceilings and like a big chandelier. I’m not a huge fan of those. They get like echoey. And again, it makes it feel just more commercial hotel and that doesn’t feel like this.

[00:06:22] Dana Stanley: Everything feels very nice and new, like it’s just a new resort and it feels like it. I feel like a lot of the deluxe resorts as nice as they are. They’re just getting old and this feels new. Like it has that like fresh paint feeling, even though it’s not like brand spanking new, but you get what I mean.

[00:06:40] Dana Stanley: And we got to the Riviera so early because we took like a 6:45 AM flight. So I think when we got here it was a little before 10:00 AM which is crazy. Like the flight itself was actually even shorter. I don’t know, maybe they went fast. I’m not asking any questions. I’m not complaining. But we got to Florida very quickly.

[00:07:01] Dana Stanley: We don’t check bags, so we didn’t have to wait for that. We used away we go, they were there waiting for us, so we just got to the hotel really quickly. And one of the good and bad things about an early flight is that check-in starts at four. So you are really waiting around like it’s a while when you get there early, which I’m not gonna lie, is extremely hard when you have a toddler who now hasn’t napped.

[00:07:25] Dana Stanley: And was up at four in the morning, and this ended up backfiring a little bit like later in the night, which I will get to. But one of the good things is that when you get there so early, it was almost like a resort day for us. Like we didn’t go into the parks, which I’m glad we didn’t. And really just explore the Riviera.

[00:07:45] Dana Stanley: We hadn’t been there before, so I wanted to visit everything. And we did. We got coffee, we shopped, we went to the pool, we ate, we drank, we did crafts, all the things. And this all felt really easy because hands down, what I love most about this resort is how compact it is. It seems really big because it’s so tall, but the actual footprint is really small.

[00:08:11] Dana Stanley: So from end to end of the resort. Is 570 feet, and I did some like Google Maps, distance research to do this. Like if you walked from one end and went diagonal all the way to the other end is still just not a lot of space. Whereas Boardwalk, which I’m really familiar with, is more like 900 feet, almost a thousand feet.

[00:08:34] Dana Stanley: If you needed to get from one place to another. Depending on where your room is and where you’re headed, then you have somewhere like the Polynesian is huge, like 1600 feet. So to put that in perspective, Riviera is one of those places you don’t have to worry too much about where your room is or where you’re headed because everything is really easy to get to.

[00:08:55] Dana Stanley: A lot of resorts, I put in very specific requests because depending on what building you get or how far you are from the elevator, like I hate being far from an elevator, like that’s one of my pet peeves. I feel like I always forget like my sunglasses or something, and I’m like running all the way back to the room and then all the way back to the elevator.

[00:09:13] Dana Stanley: Not so much lately, but in the past that used to be a big thing was I needed to be close to an elevator. And when I was researching for my room request at Riviera, and after chatting with my travel agent friend Melissa, who was actually there the same time as us, she requested the West wing but ended up getting the east wing, which is over on the topo side.

[00:09:37] Dana Stanley: But she did also get a higher floor, which is what she wanted, and she had a beautiful view, whereas I requested a higher floor and also said to just prioritize our room being early over that. But our room still wasn’t ready at like 3 45. I was hoping by like two I was really secretly hoping we’d be in by two.

[00:09:58] Dana Stanley: I should have known better. I haven’t had. A room ready before check-in, in years, especially a one bedroom, like forget it. But around that time we were starting to like lose our minds with crew. Our 21 month old, I went over and talked to the host there and was like, Hey, I know I already like talked to you guys and checked in and let you know that we’re here.

[00:10:19] Dana Stanley: And I know that check-ins not till four, but just wanted to see like the status of our room. Have we been assigned a room? And if so, I wanna let you know that any requests I put in, I do not care. Like I just want a room. I don’t care where it is. I think he probably shouldn’t have been showing me what he was showing me on his tablet.

[00:10:38] Dana Stanley: But essentially they can see all of these rooms with different statuses, like housekeeper in room or housekeeping complete. Waiting for final check-in approval. And this is why I always do both an online check-in and also when we get there, just talk to somebody like, Hey, we had an early flight. Just wanna know that we’re here.

[00:11:00] Dana Stanley: Because he was able to get me into a different room that I was not assigned to. So this was like a while. This was like a lot of back and forth and I had kind of just told him. To forget it. Like I was like, it’s fine. Like I’m gonna go for a walk with the baby and that kind of thing. Because he was like, oh, we can do this room, but it’s like not on a higher floor.

[00:11:24] Dana Stanley: And I’d say it was fine. And then when he would click on it, he would say like, oh, it’s not letting me assign you to that. Just a lot of like back and forth. And I was getting very confused as to what room numbers he was saying, what floors he was saying. East Wing, west Wing. I was like, okay, just let me know when my room’s ready.

[00:11:40] Dana Stanley: And about five minutes after I walked away, he came back and found me and said, I got you in a room. It’s 8 5 4 6, which by the way, that’s our room number 8 5 4 6. It’s perfect. I love where we are. So there’s really pros and cons to being anywhere because. Besides having, let’s say like a ground floor or like a second floor room.

[00:12:02] Dana Stanley: If you get a room that’s at least one of the higher floors, I don’t really see a downside because you’re gonna have a good view. I know there are standard view rooms that aren’t preferred, that are actually facing the other side of where you see Epcot and Epcot fireworks. So I just feel like there’s pros and cons to being anywhere.

[00:12:22] Dana Stanley: If you’re in the West Wing, you’re closer to the Skyliner. Technically, if you’re on the East wing, you’re closer to all the food spots and the main pool. But again, with this resort in particular, I wouldn’t stress too much about where you get put. I do think I would request a higher floor if I had to choose, but I think that would be my only request.

[00:12:43] Dana Stanley: And honestly, if that sounds like meh to you, I don’t even necessarily think you need to do that. I would just leave it blank. When I was checking in online, I believe I had five options for room requests, and that was higher floor, lower floor, west Wing, east Wing, and closer to the elevator. And I think, if I remember correctly, I could ask Melissa.

[00:13:04] Dana Stanley: I think you could pick two, and then there’s a little box that you can check. That just says like, Hey, don’t prioritize these things over my room getting ready, which I had checked, but again, our room wasn’t ready until four anyway, so we ended up in the West Wing on the fifth floor, but in the most center of like the arm of the West Wing.

[00:13:25] Dana Stanley: So it’s very easy getting to the lobby, which is also where you’d go for buses and Ubers to grab coffee. But even quote all the way to the east wing where all the food is is very quick. I had been picturing that we were kind of at the part of the West Wing that was like jutting out when I was picturing the map.

[00:13:47] Dana Stanley: But then once we got to the room and I saw the view. I realized that we’re closer to the middle, which I really like, and we were kind of imagining that the two wings weren’t connected like the, almost like two towers. But the good news is that’s not the case. We went to Topos for dinner the night that we got there.

[00:14:06] Dana Stanley: And I was shocked how fast I got back to her room from the quote East Wing. It was very quick. Like nothing is far is what I’m getting at. And that’s definitely the first and number one thing that I love about the resort itself is everything feels so laid back and easy and calm because like no one’s rushing from place to place.

[00:14:27] Dana Stanley: You’re not rushing from place to place in the morning. Colton’s been going down and getting two lattes with an extra shot and he’s back in. Two minutes, like it’s just so nice and easy to get food and go to the pool, especially because we have kids of like different ages. It’s just nice when you’re popping in and out and changing clothes and grabbing swimsuits and things that everything is so close together.

[00:14:53] Dana Stanley: I’ve been sharing our trip on my Instagram stories and the amount of dms that I have gotten about wanting me very specifically to compare Boardwalk versus Riviera. Is like astounding. And the more I thought about it, I guess it makes sense because they’re kind of in the same area. They’re both deluxe and a lot of people have stayed at one or the other, or a lot of people have boardwalk booked right now and they’re like considering switching to Riviera.

[00:15:21] Dana Stanley: And there are so many factors that I would ask someone before giving an answer. Like, have you stayed at either of them before? Are you scared of heights? How much resort time are you gonna have? What’s the availability like? Like what kind of room would you get? Will you be in a studio or a one bedroom?

[00:15:41] Dana Stanley: How much does it cost? What’s the cost comparison? How many people are you bringing with you without having all of that information, if you haven’t stayed at either resort, my pick will still always be boardwalk, but something you have to know about me and Colton too, is we will always choose. Where the resort is over everything else, like the location comes first over the room, over the pool, over the food.

[00:16:09] Dana Stanley: Now what I don’t love about Riviera is very simple, and that’s just that I can’t walk to a park and boardwalk. While it does have some cons, probably the main one being just food options. Being able to use my own two feet is always going to be more reliable. To get to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, then the Skyliner, and that’s just a fact.

[00:16:33] Dana Stanley: And to me that’s just priceless in my opinion. But that might not be for you. You may think that the Skyliner is the best thing ever and your kids love it and it’s like a ride in itself and you have picky eaters or you’re going during like hurricane season. And you don’t wanna be going outside for food like you have to at Boardwalk and maybe you only have two park days and you’ll mostly be at the resort, then I would very much consider Riviera for you.

[00:17:03] Dana Stanley: I’m not saying it would be like my number one pick, but it would be in the running and worth a conversation for sure. And I mean, every time we’re like in this room or walk into this room, I say to Colton, I love this room. Like I love the bathroom. I love the kitchen. It’s really big. Like it just feels huge to me.

[00:17:26] Dana Stanley: Like I feel very happy here. Colton says I’m in the honeymoon phase, but I don’t think that’s true. Like it is really a beautiful, comfortable, upscale feeling resort. And I was saying to him like, no, this is so much bigger than the boardwalk one bedroom. So I was looking up comparisons because we were like wondering like, okay, how much bigger.

[00:17:47] Dana Stanley: The boardwalk’s one bedroom is actually one of the smallest one bedrooms you can get on property. So Riviera is a full 100 square feet, bigger than boardwalks, and honestly, you feel it when you’re in here because the toilet is in a separate space. So you have your shower, toilet, and a sink. Then you have a door to a really, like a separate room.

[00:18:11] Dana Stanley: If you wanna call it a space, but it’s big. You have a door that goes into a soaking tub and another sink and then another door, and we literally put cruise crib in there and he has truly his own room. Right now. It has two doors that you can close, so it’s set up perfectly. I can get to him from my side of the room.

[00:18:34] Dana Stanley: There’s like these double sliding barn doors that open and close. And then I can go the other way from like the toilet side of the bathroom. It’s perfect. So really the girls are sleeping in the Murphy bed in the main living space. We have the main bedroom, which is a king. He’s in his little room in the bathroom.

[00:18:56] Dana Stanley: So it feels like a three bedroom to me right now. Like it feels like we’re in this grand villa and it’s only a one bedroom. So I’m gonna keep talking up Riviera just a little bit more because I wish Boardwalk had. Some of these qualities with two things very specifically, and one is the splash pad here, there’s a main pool, a quiet pool, and then a splash pad, and they’re all separate from each other, and the splash pad is great.

[00:19:21] Dana Stanley: Like crew could just stay there all day. I will make a note that kids over 48 inches aren’t supposed to go on any splash pads and they will check here, like they are measuring kids and they’re all gated. So like if you wanna be at the splash pad, but you have another kid that’s over 48 inches, they’ll have to like open the gate and go to the main pool that has a slide, which yes, I went down.

[00:19:45] Dana Stanley: Yes, it’s very fun. My girls have gone down like 500 times so far. The main pool here is on the small side. I would say boardwalks is maybe just a tiny bit bigger, but it doesn’t bother me. I think it’s really easy to keep track of your kids and the Riviera has a zero entry spot, so like if you could get a chair by that zero entry with a toddler is so nice.

[00:20:08] Dana Stanley: And the second thing is just the food. It’s so nice being able to stay under one roof to get whatever food you need from your coffee. And like Mickey waffles. Chicken fingers and then really good food too. Like the burger from Bar Riva was exponentially better than any pool Sai food I’ve ever had at Boardwalk by a landslide.

[00:20:29] Dana Stanley: And I think it’s because it’s a new resort like you live and you learn. So they knew what they needed to give a better experience. The guests, and they have a full kitchen, I’m assuming, versus the pool bar at Boardwalk is just smaller and probably not equipped to have certain foods. Whereas Riviera, like they really thought out the food situation here and it has a hundred percent paid off.

[00:20:54] Dana Stanley: Everyone overwhelmingly talks about the food here from the lemon ricotta pancakes to the salads, and yet it’s just good and it’s convenient and you don’t have to walk outside to get it. If it’s raining, there’s a way to get to it from the inside. And on the topic of food, we went to Topos the day that we got here for dinner.

[00:21:13] Dana Stanley: And while it was a terrible idea on our part because crew hadn’t napped, like I said. He absolutely lost his mind. So like anyone that was at Topos for dinner on July 10th, I am so, so sorry. I really tried my best. He ended up sleeping on me for like 10 glorious minutes, but I ended up just ditching on dinner early to get him back to the room.

[00:21:36] Dana Stanley: Poor thing was so shot. We have been to topos for the character breakfast, which is, in my opinion, like the best character breakfast in terms of like the overall experience and food. And I can confirm dinner was insanely good. I really wish I was able to like fully enjoy it and not like scarf down a couple bites, but from what I had experienced and eaten.

[00:22:01] Dana Stanley: It was up to par with like Citra coast over at Grand Flo, Indian, California Grill, like all on the same levels. And it’s insanely easy to get a reservation ’cause most people just think of it for breakfast because there’s no characters at dinner. A plus two is if you eat there, let’s say you eat there at five 30 like we did, you can go back and show your receipt and they’ll let you go out to the private viewing area to watch the Epcot fireworks, which is.

[00:22:29] Dana Stanley: Of course, like we were 100% not able to do that, but that’s good to know for next time. That’s all for part one of this episode. Make sure to come back next week for part two where I really touch on my experience with Disney’s Skyliner and I will see you then. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Laid Back Magic Way podcast.

[00:22:51] Dana Stanley: If you enjoy today’s episode and it was helpful for you, it would mean the world to me. If you’d write a quick review, your reviews, help more moms like you find the show, and I read every single one of them seriously. Thank you. In advance, you can find. Me on Instagram at somewhere worthwhile and I’d love to hear from you there.

[00:23:08] Dana Stanley: DM me if you have any questions about this episode or what you’d like to see in future ones. Until then, keep planning for your next favorite memory and I’ll see you next time.