Riverside, Caribbean or Animal Kingdom lodge?

[Gojira ゴジラ]

Thanks for reading folks.

We've been to the Animal Kingdom. We love it but we think it was just too far to anywhere else but the Animal Kingdom. And waiting for the bus was a major pain.

So we stayed at the Caribbean last year. We have some mixed feelings but they were leaning toward not liking it (bed bugs, far from the bus stop etc). Two things we like: The Carribean Burger and it did not take too long to wait for the bus.

This year we have the option to go to either one of them, but we haven't tried the Riverside yet. So I have a few questions:

1. How frequent does the bus come? Do you have to wait long?
2. I notice the room layout is identical with the Caribbean, what about the quality of the room?
3. What are the differences between the Riverside and the French Quarters?
4. Which one is better?

Two other non-Riverside questions:
3. Which do you recommend most (AK/Caribbean/Riverside/FQ)?
4. I could stretch it out to the Beach Club, but do you think it's worth the extra hundreds?

Thanks so much

 

[juniorthomas]

Yeah both of us had.
At one point we thought our skin was too sensitive. We stayed on AKL, Grand Californian (LA), Caribbean and all ended up with bed bugs.

But after staying on different hotels on non-disney related vacations, with no bed bugs or whatsoever, we concluded it was just happened that our rooms were dirty.

@Ariel: how long does it take to walk?

Did you actually see bed bugs? You should be able to see them, as they aren't invisible to the naked eye. They do hide well though...

 

[Ariel484]

...@Ariel: how long does it take to walk?

Hmm...Beach Club to Hollywood Studios, maybe 15-20 minutes?

Beach Club to Epcot (via the International Gateway), probably a 5-10 minute walk at the most depending on where your room is located.

Someone else may be able to answer that one more accurately.

We just really, REALLY being able to walk to/from the parks, so we're completely spoiled by the Epcot Resort location. If you don't want to walk to Hollywood Studios you can also take the boat (probably a 20-minute ride - it also stops at the Boardwalk and the Swan/Dolphin)...the boat also goes to the International Gateway (again, stops at the Boardwalk and Swan/Dolphin), but in my opinion the walk from the Beach Club is so short it's hardly worth it to take the boat.

Have a GREAT time! :wave:

 

[MaxsDad]

I have stayed at AKL several times. Your comment about the buses seems pretty common on here. However, I have found all those comments to be far from my experiences. For example, I was there April 10-17. The number of times a bus was waiting at the stop on me out numbered the times I had to wait on a bus by at least 3 to 1. I can think of two waits that MAY have been fifteen minutes, both coming back from Epcot. The other waits were between 0 and 5.

Maybe we are just lucky.

 

[ThinkTink721]

We have stayed at Riverside a couple of times & we really enjoyed it.

1. How frequent does the bus come? we stayed in the summer & during Thanksgiving Do you have to wait long? the longest that we had for a bus was probably 20 minutes, but it usually didn't take that long
2. What about the quality of the room? when we stayed there the rooms were fine - nothing was too worn & it was clean
3. What are the differences between the Riverside and the French Quarter? we have never stayed at FQ, but we have eaten at their food court & have visited their pools; only 4 people can stay in a room at the FQ, while 5 people can stay in certain areas at POR; I have heard that the FQ rooms are nice though
4. Which one is better? I have heard that for couples, the FQ is nice & for families, POR is better

Two other non-Riverside questions:
3. Which do you recommend most? if I had my choice, I would love to try the Caribbean (but we have 5 people in our family); I do recommend POR
4. I could stretch it out to the Beach Club, but do you think it's worth the extra hundreds? I would love to stay here, but we don't spend a majority of our time at the resort, so I would be hesitant to spend the extra $; but, the Beach Club is extremely nice

:wave: