Guests booking a Walt Disney World vacation at a deluxe resort may notice that that the “Preferred” hotel room type is no longer an option. The resort has switched to a simplified classification system with only three room types for most deluxe resort hotels.

Hotel Room Types Condensed for Deluxe Resorts

Guests will now choose between a Theme Park View (when possible, based on the resort location), a Water View, or a Resort View at deluxe resort hotels. Historically, you would be able to choose different classifications within each option; these additional modifiers have largely been removed from deluxe resorts. This change condenses the list of options considerably when looking to book a hotel room.

Guests are still be able to leave a note requesting a specific room or view but the resort will not be able to guarantee your choice at booking.

Rooms Dependent on Resort

The new types of rooms are dependent on which accommodations you are interested in. For an example, let’s take a look at the Animal Kingdom Lodge options screenshots below.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

Some of the new descriptors, including Water View and Resort View can be seen above. These rooms will overlook pools, water features, or parts of the resort itself. For a Resort View, his could mean the side of another building or a parking lot. Previously, guests could specifically request a pool view at Walt Disney World Resorts, and Resort View was often simply listed as Standard View.

Depending on the resort, special options become available on the booking screen. Since the above screenshot is also from Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, a Savanna View room option is listed. This obviously wouldn’t be the case at other resorts, because they do not have that feature on-site.

Even though it’s a deluxe resort, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge can’t offer a Theme Park View because of its location; it’s impossible. If that’s something you’re interested in having during your stay, you’ll want to make sure you choose a resort that clearly has it listed as an option. We have a handy list for you below.

In addition, while some hotel room descriptors have remained in-tact, including Garden View at most deluxe and many moderate and value resorts, “Preferred Room” is no longer a choice for any of the deluxe resort hotels.

Here are the examples of Deluxe resorts with special room view options:

• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa: Theme Park View
• Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort: Pool or Marina View (same as previous description), Theme Park View, Lagoon View
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge: Nature Fireworks View, Nature View, Courtyard View
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort: Theme Park View
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort: Garden or Woods View

If you haven’t checked out our walkthrough of the newly remodeled rooms at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, take a look the video below.

Moderate and Value Level Resort Hotel Room Categories

Value and Moderate resorts still appear to offer the Preferred Room option. Some of the descriptions for other types of rooms have been adjusted for this change. For example, instead of just a Pool View room, guests may now book a Pool or Water View accommodation. Below is a screen grab from the Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort booking screen.

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort

The image above shows several rooms available at this resort hotel with the new “Water or Pool View” description.

Disney’s Pop Century Resort

Finally, we’ll take a look at Disney’s Pop Century Resort, a Value level hotel. The image is below.

Here the traditional room types are available for guest selection. Preferred Room, Preferred Pool View, and other historically available choices are still listed as active options.

We have a walkthrough of the newly refurbished Disney’s All-Star Music Resort rooms, too. Take a look.

We’re not sure if they plan to change room categories further, but we’ll keep you posted if anything changes.

What do you think of the new system and changes? Let us know in the comments.

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