Disney's Riviera Resort — Hotel in Bay Lake

Worst hotel I've ever stayed in. Way too overpriced, even for a Disney resort. You could easily go to the real Riviera, stay in far better resort hotel, & have far better & authentic food, far better customer service, & far better views with transportation for far less than this Disney hotel. To say that the hotel is a disgrace to the Italian or French Riviera names would be an understatement. The place looks & feels cheap. From the horrible & region inaccurate grey exterior to the disgustingly & disrespectful fake materials to the regional namesake of this monstrosity of an establishment. Worst interior I've ever seen, & the exterior gave the interior a run for its money for the worst design. Disney should be embarrassed by this cheap & poorly built resort. The only things that should be more shamed are the positive reviews by individuals who obviously have no clue as to what a beautiful Riviera hotel resort actually should be. It's just pitiful. People have no class anymore. They'll settle for just about anything as long as it has a Disney brand on it or some loser overhyped "influencer" tells their weak minds what to believe & do. Transportation, outside the Skyliners (if they're actually working), is really bad. The service was well below par of a motel six. Seriously, this isn't anywhere near the service levels of its moderate luxury level that Disney calls it. The rooms are small for the price & boring for the cost. Cheap materials everywhere. The carpets felt like something out of a Walmart outlet clearance bin. Found stains & dirt in the room. We were able to move to a new room after a substantial 2.5-hour wait on a very long travel day. Ridiculous! Unfortunately, the bedding was from a going out of business Big Lots store. Beds were very hard & uncomfortable. We got very little sleep. A/C is loud. Lights on & blinking brightly throughout the room with the light switches off. The towels were harsher than a porcupine's back, & our shower smelled of mildew up entering it the first time. It was supposedly thoroughly cleaned, but by the third night, there was a hint of the mildew again. How Disney thinks that's acceptable in such an overpriced hotel, I have no idea. All of the cheap & below standards things in this resort are an absolute disgrace. Much less in a far less hotel. The food was ok, but again, nowhere near the quality suggested by extraordinaryly high prices. We refused to eat in any of the restaurants there again, despite being convenient after long days at the parks, due to a family friend getting very sick from a meal. And others not feeling well afterward either. The refunds for our troubles, after considerable complaints to managers that had no clue what customer service is, certainly didn't cover our pains & suffering. We had to leave early due to our horrible stay. Everyone in our group agreed that we'll never return to Disney, because we had bad experiences elsewhere throughout the Disney World Resort as well. I can't believe that Disney has fallen so embarrassingly far. It's obviously that the CEO & other management sincerely don't care about their guests anymore. They only care about money. I guess they don't have to care & can be extremely greedy when there are so many fools that will tolerate horrible service, cheap decor, disgusting design, sickening food, & embarrassing customer service. Sad. Well...I had to step up to say something about it all. You've been warned. We'll be taking our business down I-4 to Universal & other entertainment spots like so many others have. We thought we'd give WDW another try after so many decades of loving Disney & being big fans, but we have joined the many smart individuals bailing on Disney until its management & wrong direction change. Upper management, especially the CEO & board members, have to go. They've created a sinking steamboat. May God have mercy...

It's still the newest deluxe level resort hotel in Disney World. It's design and décor seems to be inspired by trips that Walt Disney took to the French Riviera, and maybe the Amalfi Coast. I think my favorite decorative feature has to be the mosaic murals that arch up to 20 feet in the tunnel that leads you to the Skyliner station. These murals consist of over a million tiny tiles that were all laid by hand. It's absolutely amazing to see them up close. A lot of work went into creating this tunnel art. There are also 2 waterfall features between the arches that provide relaxing sounds as you're walking to the station.

The reception to the hotel is very friendly and welcoming. Disney World (as a whole) is known for its service & hospitality. We had already checked in through the My Disney Experience app, so there was no need to approach the receptionist. Your room number will show up on the app when your room is ready. Just use your Magicband to open the door. They will hold your luggage for you if desired.

We arrived before 7:00 am so that we could start our first adventure in requesting Lightning Lanes and Virtual Queues. All the discombobulation and concerns around understanding and using Genie, Genie Plus, and the Magicband became a distant memory. In hindsight, I wish we would have grabbed some coffee from Le Petit Café before heading out to the Skyliner that would take us to EPCOT. This has to be the best perk about staying at Disney's Riviera Resort. The station is a short walk away, and it takes you to EPCOT and/or Disney's Hollywood Studio. I can confirm that it's great for early entry to EPCOT. It takes you straight to the France Pavillion for early entry onto Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. The rope drop for that pavillion opens at 8:15 am.

I'm not going to get into everything that the resort offers to guests. You can get that information anywhere. I will say that our Deluxe Studio Room was very roomy and clean. It's more of a family friendly room since it accommodates 5 people. There's a Jack & Jill bathroom with a dividing door. One side has the shower stall & toilet. The other half has a bathtub with a shower head and sink. It's overkill for just 2 people. They do have Tower Studios, but I've read that they are too small. You might as well pay a little more for the deluxe. The Florida resident resort discount compensated for that. It also has a small kitchenette (no oven), and 2 pull down beds. A single bed under the TV station, and a queen pull down bed over the couch. It was unused space for us, but I totally understand the need to accommodate a larger family. I'd rather have a true queen, or a king size bed. Our bed felt more like a double than a queen, which is fine. It was still comfortable. I also appreciated the space under the bed. It can be used to store luggage so that it's out of the way. I thought the best feature of the room was the rain shower head. It was very relaxing after a long day in the sun.

I can't say much about the entertainment and activities. We were pretty much gone all day. We visited Le petit Café in the evening for coffee and a pastry. We also had a quick service breakfast at Primo Piatto. I did expect more in the way of complimentary breakfast, snacks, and/or coffee for resort guests. But then again, there is complimentary parking and transportation. The Skyliner doesn't go to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. This is when you take their bus system which is actually quite efficient. It runs every 20 minutes, and it goes directly to the designated theme park. There's a direct bus for each park at Disney's Riviera Resort. I totally recommend taking the bus to the Magic Kingdom for early entry. It drops you off right at the entrance gate. Yep, transportation is the #1 reason...

Shockingly Unhelpful and Inhumane Treatment at Disney’s Riviera Resort

As long-time Disney Passholders who visit the parks regularly, dine at Disney restaurants, and stay at various Disney resorts, I never imagined I would have to write such a negative review. Unfortunately, my recent experience at Disney’s Riviera Resort was both shocking and deeply disappointing.

During a visit to EPCOT, my wife was in the France pavilion when a sudden, severe downpour began. She had no umbrella or rain poncho with her. Disney even canceled all fireworks that evening due to the extreme weather conditions. The only practical way for her to leave without getting completely soaked was to take the Skyliner directly to the Riviera Resort, which is located right next to the France pavilion. Walking through the entire park to the main exit in that kind of storm was simply not an option.

Knowing she had made it to the Riviera lobby, I drove there to pick her up. At the security gate, I explained the situation in full detail — that my wife was already inside the resort, waiting in the lobby, and simply needed me to drive under the gate to pick her up. The security guard refused to let me enter, citing a “policy” that only current resort guests may drive onto the property.

I asked for a manager. The manager arrived and, despite the extraordinary circumstances, repeated the same rigid policy word-for-word, showing no empathy or willingness to help. My wife also pleaded with the concierge in the lobby, but he acted like a robot, offering no solutions and again hiding behind “the policy.”

The absurdity of the situation reached a peak when we decided she might as well return to EPCOT so I could pick her up from the main entrance — only to find out the Skyliner had stopped running due to the weather. That left her completely stranded at the Riviera. The only way out was for her to walk, in heavy rain, through deep puddles, along a road used only by resort shuttles and cars heading to the security gate — a road without proper pedestrian walkways.

I was asking for nothing more than to drive a few hundred feet past a gate to pick up my wife, in conditions where there was no other reasonable or safe way for her to leave. Yet the staff remained absolutely inflexible, offering zero human compassion or problem-solving.

The most frustrating part? If I had a dining reservation at the Riviera, they would have let me in without question. But because our dinner reservation was at another Disney resort, they refused to accommodate us — even though we are loyal Disney guests and Passholders.

This experience left me questioning Disney’s commitment to guest care. Policies are important, but so is common sense and basic human decency. That evening, Disney’s Riviera Resort showed neither.

I truly hope management re-evaluates the way they handle exceptional situations like this. What happened to us was unnecessary, unkind, and unsafe — and it’s not what anyone should expect from “The Most Magical...