Best resort for person who can't walk far?

[DryerLintFan]

My wife's dear aunt is travelling with us for a 4-night stay with Autism on the Seas. Our son will be going on the park each day with his staff support, and the ladies will be staying at the resort. DA has issues walking very far, but won't use a chair or ECV. The group is staying at Art of Animation, and we'd be booked in the hotel-style rooms.

My concern is the long walk from the hotel rooms to the food court...(I've been assured the pool is close to the rooms).

Which resort - without going to the top level resorts such as the Contemporary would have the shortest walking distances for pool & food? Any guidance is appreciated.

If you can afford it then the main building at Wilderness Lodge would be a great option for short walks as it is more like a "regular" hotel and has all indoor corridors.
But if not then a preferred location at a value (Pop or All-Stars) to get close to main building, or for a nicer experience then French Quarter, again preferred if possible or pool view to stay closer to main building.

Also in terms of the Little Mermaid rooms at AoA, there is a pool (Flippin Fins) right next to the building, but the more popular pool (Big Blue) is quite a walk away.
If the main reason for her being there is being with the family group then being at another resort where they need to travel to see the family would probably be a worse option anyway. Best option might just be to stay with the group.

I just wanted to echo the answer above. The Little Mermaid rooms are close to the Little Mermaid pool, which is a standard pool with nothing special. It's surrounded by tall Little Mermaid themed decorations, but the pool itself is just your typical hotel pool. By the food court (quite a walk away) is the zero entry fancy pool with splash pad that you see in all the photos, the Finding Nemo pool. Then additionally even further from the Little Mermaid rooms is a really cute Cars themed pool that you may want to visit as well. So all in all it's a lot of walking.

If you can stay in a family suite you'll be more centered to transportation, food court, and pools.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

To be fair...none of the Disney hotels are small/little by design.

They lead the way in implementing ada access...but all their construction is of size/scale

 

[awoogala]

If you were inclined to look at the Contemporary Garden rooms, they do have some rooms that are right on top of the pool, and a short walk to the elevators /food court/restaurants.
Also POP was very close- if you get a Nemo suite.
The Nemo suites were actually quite nice, my teens loved the space and having a second bathroom and mini kitchen.
Also, you may want to think about using Lyft to get to the parks, since there is a LOT of walking to get from parking/trams to the front of the park.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

If you were inclined to look at the Contemporary Garden rooms, they do have some rooms that are right on top of the pool, and a short walk to the elevators /food court/restaurants.
Also POP was very close- if you get a Nemo suite.
The Nemo suites were actually quite nice, my teens loved the space and having a second bathroom and mini kitchen.
Also, you may want to think about using Lyft to get to the parks, since there is a LOT of walking to get from parking/trams to the front of the park.

Nemo suites are at art of animation...which is a good bit more pricey than POP or the moderates

 

[awoogala]

Nemo suites are at art of animation...which is a good bit more pricey than POP or the moderates

sorry. pop and aoa are so close I forgot! lol (and yes, it is pricier)

 

[Raineman]

I can vouch for POFQ. It is much smaller in size. We had a room near the main building and the pool was close by as well. We really love it there. It's worth the extra cost over a value in my opinion.

We have stayed at both POR and POFQ, and I would rather stay at the farthest building at POFQ than most of the buildings at POR, when it comes to walking times. When we went to POFQ last November, we didn't ask for any special room requests, and we ended up getting a corner room that was so close to the front, we could look out our window straight down into the dining room of Sassagoula Floatworks. We'll probably never get that lucky again

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

My wife's dear aunt is travelling with us for a 4-night stay with Autism on the Seas. Our son will be going on the park each day with his staff support, and the ladies will be staying at the resort. DA has issues walking very far, but won't use a chair or ECV. The group is staying at Art of Animation, and we'd be booked in the hotel-style rooms.

My concern is the long walk from the hotel rooms to the food court...(I've been assured the pool is close to the rooms).

Which resort - without going to the top level resorts such as the Contemporary would have the shortest walking distances for pool & food? Any guidance is appreciated.

Alll of the resorts have preferred rooms available to be able to be close to the main building and buses, etc. We stayed preferred at POR which was great. POR is known for it's far away rooms, but as if at any resort, you can book preferred. Otherwise, it's crap shoot where your room will be. The room/resort walking is nothing to the walking you need to do to get from the buses, to the main gate/security, and then into the parks, which have lots of walking themselves. Then you get to do it in reverse. We have mobility issues, but using preferred rooms and taking rest periods helps. The agreed upon amount of milage you walk at WDW is estimated at 10 miles a day, or more.
So, I think, just pick the resort you want to stay at and go preferred. Good luck.

 

[ScottyBurkett]

Thanks again to everyone....the ladies are mulling over whether to do POFQ or possibly the Contemporary Towers. Again, appreciate all the suggestions, its been very helpful.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

If they will be staying at the resort, I would highly recommend looking into animal kingdom lodge. They could watch the animals, enjoy the lobby, etc. and the food court there is quite good.

The port Orleans hotels are also nice and if they wanted to have a short outing, they could take the boat to the other port Orleans or Disney springs. Even if they just want to go for a boat road it’s very relaxing.