Disney's Riviera Resort

We stayed here last September and loved it, so we decided to stay here again this year. I love that it’s a newer resort, so it feels fresh and bright. I also think the size is great, as it’s not overwhelming. The pool area is nice, and we love the suite style rooms just for the convenience of making breakfast and having snacks in the room with children. Overall, we’d stay here again probably, but I might be inclined to try Polynesian or a monorail resort next time. We’ve also done the Four Seasons, which by by far blows Disney resorts out of the water in terms of service, food, etc. But there’s a special magic in staying on Disney property, so it depends on what type of trip you want. The cons - The resort is only offering service every other day, and it’s just a supply and towel replenishment. This one kills me. I’m on vacation, and paying a lot per night, and I can’t even come back at the end of the day to a made up bed and clean room. So Mom does it herself - not very magical. The food offerings are not good. Toppolinos is great for Disney food, but the pool and QS offer extremely limited menus. If you eat there several times you’ll be so tired of it. They didn’t even offer a vegetable to go with the kids grilled chicken when I asked! Come on. Room service option would be nice too, but I get it’s a DVC property technically. So maybe Grand Floridian or Polynesian would suit us better in this aspect. The rooms - I didn’t remember this last year, but there are no duvets on the beds. There are sheets and a scratchy blanket - like the kind you get at Walmart and toss in a closet for a random guest. That’s so bizarre! Maybe some people cram a bunch of adults into a suite, but for us it’s just a family of four paying $800-1000 a night - without a duvet or quality bedding. Otherwise the space is great, layout is great, and I like the design a lot. The skyliner doesn’t work when it rains, and that kind of negates that whole property benefit. It’s just not efficient in that regard because it’s FL. Again, it is a lovely hotel, and we would probably stay again. But Disney has removed so many benefits of staying on property, and for the same (or a little more) we could stay at the Four Seasons and have a cleaned room daily, three times the food and recreation options, park bus service, kids club, room service etc. Read less

I stayed here for 6 nights in August 2021. This is a new hotel but everything felt very cheap to me. The hotel has a vibe of mass-manufactured faux luxury. It felt very similar to a Vegas hotel. It is not a quality built luxury property. The lobby is very small and unimpressive. I think they made a mistake with this. At check-in we were provided ZERO information about the hotel. No map, no nothing. The map on the Disney app shows you nothing. They didn't even tell us how to get to our room. "Here's your room number, now get out of our face" was the attitude The food options are abysmal. There is a convenience store in the lobby but it doesn't open until 8:30 AM after you've already left for the parks. So silly. The only real restaurant is Toppolinos which is hard to get into and ungodly expensive for a very average breakfast. Dinner was very good at this restaurant, however, but $200 for 2 people. Primo Piatto was fine for a quick service breakfast but below average food quality (although the prices weren't bad). Our room was the largest negative surprise for a couple of 2. We had a standard deluxe studio. The room was TINY - it is the smallest hotel room I have had in recent memory - it felt like a European or Asian room. So small. As a couple of 2 we were tripping over each other the whole stay. I cannot fathom more than 2 people staying in this room even though there is bedding for 5. 5 people in this tiny room would be utterly insane. The other surprise which is my fault is that the primary bed is a queen. There is no option for a king bed in a deluxe studio. So, as a couple accustomed to a king bed, we had lots of bruises from all the kicks and punches by the end of our stay, not to mention very restless sleep. We considered using the murphy bed, but the mattress was very low quality and they do not provide any bedding for the murphy bed. Are you supposed to bring your own? I am not sure. Also be aware that there is no bedspread of comforter - you receive three sheets on the bed. That's all. If you are accustomed to being cozy with a heavy comforter or blanket, you won't get that here. For the duration of our six day stay, we were provided with TWO (2) plastic cups in the room. Be sure to take care of your plastic cups because you aren't getting any more! Otherwise, there is NOTHING provided in the bathroom or kitchenette for drinking or eating. How do people deal with this? Are you supposed to bring your own supplies from home? This is what $600/night buys you at Disney. This hotel is not doing any cleaning of the rooms. Our towels were refreshed every two days and trash (sometimes) emptied, but that's it. I found the attention to detail in the rooms sorely lacking, as well. The microwave is situated facing the bed and the brightness of the clock on the microwave rivals the Death Star. Green laser light in your eyes all night long. So, we had to sacrifice some of our rationed towels to wrap the microwave and dim the light. Lots of details and problems like this throughout the rooms. I was constantly annoyed with the lack of thoughtfulness and ergonomics in the room. The one and only highlight of this hotel is the Skyliner. We loved being able to walk out of the hotel and be to Epcot or Hollywood Studios in 10-12 minutes. A couple of notes, however - the Skliner is often broken or shut down due to rain, which forced us to use a bus or Uber. They do not run the Skyliner if there is rain, wind, lightning. This seems to be a major oversight in FLORIDA where it rains every day. There were also some occasions where it just seemed broken for no reason. There was never a line at our hotel but we experienced 10-20 minute lines to board at Epcot upon park closing. Unless you are leaving at closing, you won't experience lines. Overall, the Riviera is comparable with a $150/night Hyatt, Marriott, etc. It feels like a solid 3 star hotel for $600+/night. If you have stayed in a real $600/night hotel you will be sorely disappointed with the Riviera. This is where I have a real problem with Disney. Their hotels offer the worst value of any hotels on earth. As hotels, they fail miserably. The Waldorf Astoria which is nearby puts this hotel to shame for a fraction of the price. Everything Disney is expensive and that's ok. The park ticket prices are high, but fine. The merchandise prices are high, but fine. The food prices are high, but fine. The hotels, though, are just such a terrible terrible terrible value - there is no excuse. The other positive note I would have is that the clientele seemed to be more upscale, which I appreciated. No riff raff at this hotel. Summary... Pros: Skyliner, no riff raff, Toppolinos dinner Cons: Virtually everything else Read less

The Riviera was a beautiful hotel and the service was fantastic. I stayed 4 nights in April 2021 on a solo trip after a friend cancelled last minute and I found it to be the perfect Disney hotel for a solo traveler. It’s not huge and it’s done in the style of a “normal” hotel, rather than in the more traditionally disney style of multiple buildings and lots of parking lots. This made it easy (and safe) to come and go without feeling like I was wandering around alone at night (I don’t really worry much about safety at WDW, but it was nice to really feel there was nothing to worry about!). Design wise, it feels very grown up and tasteful, with touches of Disney rather than sometimes in your face Disney styling at other resorts. I was in a Deluxe Studio on the 7th floor with a view of the pool and Skyliner and it was a perfect spot. The pools are beautiful and it was so relaxing to be able to take the convenient Skyliner back to the hotel for a midday swim break. The food felt a bit limited (one croque monsieur is really the max for me), but the mobile order set up was convenient and easy to use. The cafe in the lobby doesn’t serve much food, but being able to grab a nice latte on the way out to the bus pick up was great. You could probably walk to food at Caribbean Beach for some variety, but I think it would take at least 10-15 minutes to get that far around the lake. Might be easier to just Skyliner over to Epcot and pick something up in the Boardwalk area. Overall, I loved this hotel and thought it was worth the cost as part of a Disney vacation package. If you’re just planning a run-and-gun trip to be in the parks from open to close, it probably wouldn’t be worth the price; I’d stick to Pop Century for that purpose. But if you want to do some relaxing on your trip, the Riviera offered a wonderful place to swim, rest in the room, and enjoy the common spaces in a beautiful hotel in between early mornings and evenings at the parks. Read less