The Hilton... A Lot Cheaper Than I Expected

It happened again, Allison was reading about accommodations in and around Disney World, and we came across another hotel that peaked our interest.  This time however is was a hotel that wasn't an official Disney hotel, but it had some perks of the classic Disney hotels, the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista.  We never really gave much thought to hotels outside of the Disney parks because we wanted to enjoy the benefits that come with staying on property.  The problem is, the Hilton is one of the only non-Disney hotels to enjoy some of the benefits of the Disney hotels, including extra magic hours.

The main advantage to the Hilton, the price.  The Hilton hotel can be almost half the price as many of the on site resorts, and from what I've read it's a pretty nice hotel to boot.  It also offers shuttle services to all of the parks, and is walking distance to Downtown Disney.  So it's pretty close to a Disney resort, for a lot less money.  It doesn't offer a few of the perks like free delivery of purchases back to your hotel room, and access to certain facilities, but it still seems pretty good.  Once again Allison and I had to try and figure out if we should change our hotel plans once again.  This time, Allison made a chart featuring the Hilton, the Yacht Club resort, and Port Orleans resort, comparing the advantages and the disadvantages.

Yacht Club	Port Orleans	Hilton
Likely $550/night (high season)	Likely $250/night (high season)	Likely $130/night; $209 comparable to Yacht Club (based on website)
Plus taxes	Plus taxes	Plus taxes
		Plus $22/night “daily resort charge plus taxes
Free parking	Free parking	Parking $13/night
Free wifi	Free wifi	Wifi – part of “Daily resort charge”
Free extended theme park hours	Free extended theme park hours	Extended theme park hours – part of “Daily resort charge”
Free transportation to all parks every 20 minutes or more	Free transportation to all parks every 20 minutes or more	Transportation to the four theme parks only – part of “Daily resort charge”. Schedule unknown.
Onsite movie screenings (+ movies on TV??)	Onsite movie screenings (+ movies on TV??)	Unlimited movie rentals – part of “Daily resort charge”
$15 for unlimited drinks (resort refillable mug) - optional	$15 for unlimited drinks (resort refillable mug) - optional	2 coffees or 2 bottles of water/day – part of “Daily resort charge”
Free parking at parks/water parks/etc.	Free parking at parks/water parks/etc.	$17 (?) to park at water parks or other theme parks
TOTAL: $565 + tax	TOTAL: $265 + tax	TOTAL: $182 + tax TOTAL: $262 + tax
Concierge service for Disney	Concierge service for Disney	Guest services at parks
Purchases delivered	Purchases delivered
“Best pool in park”	Pool with slide	Pool
Gym		Gym (extra $$??)
Coin laundry ($4)	Coin laundry ($4)	Only laundry valet (likely $100-250) or off-site
Near Epcot (monorail to MK), Hollywood Studios	Near Downtown Disney	Near Downtown Disney
Bracelets/card do everything	Bracelets/card do everything	Bracelets plus credit card plus hotel key to carry
Fridge in room	Fridge in room	NO fridge in room

After making this chart and talking it over, we eventually decided that the Hilton probably won't work for us.  While we do like the price, the location is really important to us.  So we've decided that the Yacht club is still our number one pick.  The thing is, after thinking about it some more, and reading a bit on Port Orleans, I'm starting to rethink which hotel we might stay at on the grounds.