Best Hotel Lobbies at Disney World- Historic Details, Themes, Amenities You Can’t Miss!

Your entire Disney World experience is many times determined by your first step into your Disney World hotel lobby.

There are certainly other factors that can affect your Disney World experience. Other than the theme parks, there's the restaurants you visit, the pool, or the size of your room. But more than any of those factors, your hotel lobby sets the tone for your entire Disney World visit.

I'm convinced that with a good lobby, you can still have a great Disney vacation, but with a great lobby, you can have one of the most magical Disney World experiences ever.

With that said, here's the ranking of our best hotel lobbies at Disney World.

How We Judged the Hotel Lobbies at Disney World

There are three major factors we looked at when judging the best hotel lobbies at Disney World.

First, we took a look at the details and theming of the hotel lobby. Other than asking the obvious “do the details match the overall theme of the hotel?,” we also look at the amount of detail that was designed into the lobby. How many layers of details were designed into the lobby? How do the details stay true to the overall theme of the hotel?

Second, we looked how grandiose the lobby is. In other words, did this lobby have the “wow” factor that tells us, “yeah, this vacation is going to be awesome”? How grandiose the lobby is can be determined by things like how wide or tall it is, the colors used, the lighting, and any images used.

Finally, we looked at if there are comfortable spaces to relax in the lobby. A great hotel lobby is more than just a place to sit and wait for your room to be ready. It's a place for you and your kiddos to have fun in. It serves as a great place to set your laptop down and do work.

Given these three factors, let's go over the best hotel lobbies at Disney World – in no particular order.

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

With its elegant theming, tall ceiling, and ornate decorations, it's hard not to be impressed by the lobby at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. If its detailed carpet, ornate furniture, the beautiful depictions of favorite Disney characters on the floor, giant birdcage elevator, and grand staircases don't give away its elegance, I don't know what does!

Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

With the spirit of the South Pacific, Disney's Polynesian Village Resort never ceases to “wow” me every time I walk into its lobby. Even before looking around at its beauty, the magnificent scents catch your nose. Then, as the lobby opens up, you get the feeling of being in the tropics with the flora all over the first floor, the hanging lanterns overhead, the wooded support structures, and even the tiki statue in the middle.

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Disney's Contemporary Resort

Disney's Contemporary Resort has one of the most fun, beautiful, and magnificent lobbies in all of Disney World. Its fourth floor Grand Canyon concourse is brilliantly engineered to have a futuristic theme and has one of the most inspiring designs that screams “Disney World.” Its piéce de résistance is Mary Blair's beautiful mural with its popular five-legged goat. And as cliché as it sounds, how cool is it to have the Disney World Monorail literally run through the lobby of the Contemporary?

Disney's Coronado Springs – Gran Destino Tower

Gran Destino Tower took what was already a beautiful Moderate-level resort and elevated it to compete with the Deluxe-level resorts. Take one step into the lobby of the Tower and you'll understand exactly why. The lobby is magnificent yet whimsical, designed after the Catalan Modernism style. This lobby represents something Disney does best: it appears magnificent and elegant, yet approachable and fun.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House

Much like Gran Destino Tower, Jambo House at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge offers the same “wow” factor as you step inside. Its high ceilings paired with rich cultural details literally take you to a whole different place. What sets Animal Kingdom Lodge from any of the other Disney World resorts is its dedication to African culture, with galleries and various pieces of art to truly immerse you.

Disney's Wilderness Lodge

Let's take the grandness of both Animal Kingdom Lodge and Gran Destino Tower and turn the knob up to 11. That's what you get with Wilderness Lodge's lobby. It feels significantly scaled up with its width, its tall ceilings, and its wall of windows showcasing Bay Lake in the distance. With Wilderness Lodge, you feel like you're leaving Florida and entering a Pacific Northwest national park. This lobby is truly a marvel of beauty.

Disney's Yacht Club

Much like the Grand Floridian, there's just something about Yacht Club that makes it feel elegant and sophisticated yet still welcoming. The blues, whites, and browns give a sense of playfulness, yet the dim lighting gives the feel of refinement and intimacy. And to top things off, the oversized globe in the middle of the lobby and the steering wheel along the staircase give you the sense of adventure. The lobby at the Yacht Club really stands out.

Disney's BoardWalk Inn

If you've ever wondered what it's like to walk around the famous seaside boardwalks of the 1920s and 1930s, Disney's BoardWalk hits the bullseye. The first thing you'll see when you step into the lobby and look up is the beautiful “Hippocampus Electrolier.” Then as you walk around the check-in area, you'll spot the miniature rollercoaster and the beautiful paintings of each of the Disney castles around the world. The lobby of the BoardWalk is a masterclass in Disney's attention-to-detail.

“Children of the Corn” Chairs

And yes, staying true to its theming, you'll even find children of the corn chairs.

Here's What Didn't Make Our List

To make a short list the best hotel lobbies at Disney World is no small task, and as a result, there were several beautiful lobbies that didn't make our list.

Disney's Riviera Resort

The lobby of Disney's Riviera Resort is certainly beautiful. It's also a great place to sit and wait to check into your room. However, we have to admit that it's quite small. When the lobby is busy (which it often times is), it sometimes feels as crowded as Main Street, U.S.A. on a weekend afternoon. However, just steps away from the hotel's lobby is a quiet study area, a peaceful courtyard, and one of our favorite restaurants, Topolino's Terrace – Flavors of the Riviera.

Disney's Art of Animation Resort

The lobby of Art of Animation is easily our favorite lobby of all the Value resorts. It's fun and whimsical with a ton of detail to keep you busy while you're waiting to check into your room. And as Disney aficionados, the animation theming is such a fun theme that attracts us! However, to us the lobby doesn't transport us the way other lobbies do. Upon stepping in, it's still obvious that the lobby's main function is for checking in – nothing else.

Disney's Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter

The lobby of French Quarter is one of the most unique lobbies at Disney World. It's arguably the only lobby at Disney World that gives you the feeling of walking outdoors – yet you're inside a building. And its colors and ornate metalwork scream New Orleans. Of course, the smell of beignets at Scat Cat's Club – Café only adds to it! However, much like the lobby at the Riviera, the lobby of French Quarter is quite small, with limited space to hang out or do work.

My Favorite Hotel Lobby at Disney World

You might be surprised that my favorite hotel lobby at Disney World isn't at a Deluxe resort.

When choosing my favorite lobby, I certainly factored in how grandiose it is. I looked at the details and theming. I also looked at its places to work or hang out (heck, I wrote many of my articles in Disney World hotel lobbies). However, there was one extra factor I looked at for my favorite hotel lobby: how the lobby unfolds itself to you.

The lobby at Coronado Springs – Gran Destino Tower unfolds itself to you beautifully. The moment you walk in, you immediately see the beauty of its columns and the magnificence of its high ceilings. However, several steps later, you realize just how magnificent the lobby is because of the fact that you're really on the second floor, with a staircase going down to the ground level of the lobby. Then you look up at the tall ceiling only to realize that the mirror on the ceiling makes the lobby feel even bigger.

Without fail, I'm amazed by my walk through Gran Destino Tower every single time I enter the lobby and I'm sure you will too.

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