Find my hotel
Large resort pool with water slide and palm trees in Orlando

Orlando Resorts Worth Staying In

The word resort does a lot of unearned work in Orlando. It is worth paying for only when your itinerary has days that are not park days.

30-Second Verdict

If your week has four park days out of five nights, book a hotel and skip the resort premium. If it has two or three park days out of seven nights, a resort is doing real work, and Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, Gaylord Palms and JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes give you the most hours back per dollar. Four Seasons Resort Orlando is the best of them and priced accordingly.

The test

Count the mornings on your itinerary where nobody has a park reservation. Multiply by the number of people in your party. That is how many person-days the resort facilities have to fill. If the answer is zero or one, you are buying a lazy river you will look at from a bus window.

This matters because a resort recovers the cost of those facilities from every guest, whether or not they use them. In Orlando that usually appears as a resort fee and a parking charge on top of the nightly rate, so a resort at the same advertised price as a select-service hotel is not at the same price at all.

Always ask for the all-in nightly total

Resort fees and self-parking charges vary by property and change without much notice, so this site does not publish the amounts. Confirm both with the hotel before you compare two rates against each other.

The resorts

The best resort in Orlando

Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort

Golden Oak, Walt Disney World★★★★★9.3/10157 reviews

  • Luxury Pick
  • Lazy river
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Luxury

Explorer Island is a proper family water area with a lazy river and slides, and the adults-only pool is far enough away to be genuinely separate. Add a full spa, a golf course and Disney theme park transportation as an Official Walt Disney World Hotel, and it is the only Orlando resort that serves two very different holidays at once.

Best for: Mixed groups where the adults and the children want different days

Watch out: The nightly rate is in a different bracket from everything else on this page.

Check current ratesRead the hotel guide
Best water park attached to a hotel

Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center

Kissimmee★★★★9/101,058 reviews

  • Best for Families
  • Water park
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Theme park shuttle

Gaylord Palms is organised around a covered atrium and a water park rather than a lobby, which makes it one of the few Orlando hotels that still works in heavy afternoon rain. It sits on the Kissimmee side of Walt Disney World.

Best for: Families who want a full day on the property without theme park tickets

Watch out: It runs conventions alongside families, so the public areas can be crowded and rates swing with the events calendar.

Check current ratesRead the hotel guide
Best resort inside Disney property

Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek

Bonnet Creek★★★★★8.3/10437 reviews

  • Best Rest Day
  • Lazy river
  • Water slides
  • Theme park shuttle
  • Spa

An Official Walt Disney World Hotel with a lazy river, a water slide and a Disney theme park shuttle. It gives a Disney-weighted trip the rest day that Disney's own Value and Moderate resorts cannot.

Best for: Disney trips that need a serious pool complex

Watch out: You are inside the Disney bubble geographically and outside it commercially, so parking and resort charges apply in a way they would not at a Disney resort.

Check current ratesRead the hotel guide
Best resort away from the parks

JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes

Grande Lakes★★★★★9/10291 reviews

  • Luxury Pick
  • Lazy river
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Fitness center
  • Luxury

Grande Lakes shares a water feature and a golf course between the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton, so the family half of the campus still has access to the adult half. It is the strongest choice when the point is to be at a resort rather than near a gate.

Best for: Travelers treating the resort as the destination

Watch out: Every park is a drive. Four or more park days and the location starts working against you.

Check current ratesRead the hotel guide
Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Lake Buena Vista
Best mid-priced resort near Disney

Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort

Lake Buena Vista★★★★8.7/101,561 reviews

  • Best Value
  • Pool
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Theme park shuttle

Grand Cypress sits close to the Lake Buena Vista side of Disney with a large landscaped pool complex and a golf course, at a price level below Bonnet Creek. It is the compromise choice when the resort matters but the budget is finite.

Best for: Families who want resort grounds without a luxury rate

Watch out: It is an older property than the Bonnet Creek generation. Check recent guest feedback on the room category you are booking.

Check current rates
Orlando World Center Marriott in Lake Buena Vista
Biggest pool complex in the Lake Buena Vista area

Orlando World Center Marriott

Lake Buena Vista★★★★8.5/10583 reviews

  • Best for Families
  • Pool
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Business facilities
  • Theme park shuttle

A convention resort with a large water area, close enough to Disney that a mid-afternoon return is realistic. It is the volume option in this area, which keeps rates lower than the Bonnet Creek resorts.

Best for: Large groups and families who want a water area close to Disney

Watch out: Its scale is the point and also the drawback. Expect queues at check-in and a long walk to the pool from some towers.

Check current rates
Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in ChampionsGate
Best golf resort for a family

Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate

ChampionsGate★★★★8.8/10228 reviews

  • Best Rest Day
  • Lazy river
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Fitness center

ChampionsGate pairs two championship courses with a lazy river and a water slide, which is an unusual combination for a golf resort. It sits south west of Disney off I-4, so the parks are a drive rather than a hop.

Best for: Golfers travelling with a family who still wants a lazy river

Watch out: This is a resort for people who will spend most of the week on the property. Using it as a park base means a lot of driving.

Check current rates
Best resort on Universal property

Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando

Universal Orlando★★★★8.7/103,557 reviews

  • On-Site
  • Pool
  • Walkable to a park
  • Spa
  • Works without a car

Royal Pacific is the Universal on-site hotel that feels most like a resort rather than a hotel, with a large lagoon pool, a walking path to Islands of Adventure and a water taxi to CityWalk.

Best for: Universal trips that want a resort feel and a walking path

Watch out: Universal's resort pools are smaller in scale than the Disney-side water parks on this page. Come for the location and the benefits, not for a water park.

Check current ratesRead the hotel guide
Caribe Royale Orlando in Lake Buena Vista
Best all-suite resort near Disney

Caribe Royale Orlando

Lake Buena Vista★★★★8.8/103,570 reviews

  • Best for Families
  • Best Value
  • Family suites
  • Kitchenette
  • Pool
  • Water slides
  • Spa
  • Theme park shuttle

Every standard unit is a one-bedroom suite with a separate living room, which changes evenings completely when small children go to bed early. The water slide and the pool area are large enough to fill an afternoon.

Best for: Families who want a separate living area at a mid-range price

Watch out: It is a convention property as well, and the buildings are spread out. Ask for a room near the pool if that matters.

Check current rates

When a resort is the wrong purchase

Best for

  • Seven nights with two or three park days.
  • Travelling with children under about eight, when an afternoon break is not optional.
  • A group where not everyone has park tickets.
  • Florida summer, when a mid-day pool hour is the difference between finishing the day and abandoning it.

Skip it if

  • You have four or five park days in five nights. You will use the bed and nothing else.
  • You are watching the budget and the resort fee plus parking is a meaningful share of the room rate.
  • You need a genuine kitchen. Most resorts on this page give you a mini-fridge, not a kitchen.
  • You want to walk to a theme park. Only the Universal on-site hotels and a handful of Disney resorts do that.
The trade-off

Resort facilities are charged to everyone and used by some. The question is never whether the lazy river is good. It is how many hours your party will actually spend in it.

Hotel details and the guest scores on this page were checked in August 2026.

We earn a commission when you book through the links on this page. It never changes which hotels we select or how we rank them. Read the full disclosure.

Common questions

What is a resort fee in Orlando?

A mandatory daily charge on top of the room rate that bundles things like Wi-Fi, pool access, fitness centre use and sometimes self-parking or a shuttle. It is charged whether or not you use any of it, and it varies a lot between properties. Ask for the total including fees and parking before comparing two hotels.

Do Disney resorts charge a resort fee?

Disney's own resort hotels have historically not charged a separate resort fee, which is one reason a Disney Value rate can be closer to an off-site resort rate than it first appears. Parking and other charges are a separate question and change over time, so confirm the current terms with Disney when you book.

Which Orlando resort has the best pool?

For a family water park inside the hotel, Gaylord Palms. For a lazy river with a luxury setting, JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes or Four Seasons Resort Orlando. For a lazy river on Disney property at a lower price, Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek. Which is best depends on whether you want a water park or a place to read by the water.