dvc resort
Disney's Old Key West Resort
The short answer
The first Disney Vacation Club resort, opened in 1991, and still the one with the largest rooms — a studio here has two queen beds and roughly the space of a deluxe hotel room. Studios start around $490 in 2026. The catch is buses only, an internal loop reviewers call inefficient, and a refurbishment running through 2026.
How you get to the parks
- Sassagoula River Cruiseto Disney Springs
- Busto every park, from every resort
- Wheelchair or ECVhow each bus, monorail, Skyliner and boat boards
Routes as Disney publishes them, read Sep 2026.
How long it really takes to get to each park
We haven’t timed this resort yet. A door-to-gate time goes here once we have walked the route with a stopwatch at least five times — a single reading hides the variation that actually makes people miss a breakfast reservation. How we measure.
What it costs
$149cheapest$558median$816dearest
Rack rate for a standard room in the cheapest 2026 season, tax included, from Disney’s published rate calendar. Read Sep 8, 2026.
Who it’s right for
Anyone who has driven or hired a car, which removes the biggest objection. Repeat visitors who already know the parks and are optimising for a good room to come back to. Families of four who want two real queen beds instead of a sofa bed. Longer stays, where the kitchen and laundry earn their keep. And anyone renting Disney Vacation Club points, where this and Saratoga Springs are the cheapest ways onto property.
Who it’s wrong for
First-time visitors without a car — the buses and the internal loop will define the trip, and reviewers say so directly. Anyone on a short, park-intensive schedule where transport time is the scarce resource. Guests who want a themed lobby and evening atmosphere; this is a quiet residential resort by design. And anyone booking in 2026 who cannot tolerate the risk of active refurbishment.
Is it worth the money?
If room size is what you are buying, this is the best value at Walt Disney World and it is not particularly close. Two queen beds and around 376 square feet for $490 undercuts every deluxe hotel room on property and most of the moderates once you account for the kitchenette.
The price of that is transport. There is no monorail, no Skyliner, no walk to a park and no boat to a park — only buses, on an internal loop that Disney Tourist Blog names as its "biggest complaint," calling it inefficient with too many u-turns. That same review is blunt about who it suits: most underrated for longtime fans and for anyone with a car, and "a bad option for most" first-time visitors relying on buses.
That is the trade, stated plainly. Best rooms, worst transport, lowest price of the three.
Where to eat here
Every restaurant here with its own page on this site, with the typical spend a head from that page.
- Gurgling Suitcase · Lounge, about $18
- Olivia's Cafe · Table service, about $31
- Good's Food to Go · Counter service, about $16
What the rooms are actually like
The reason to stay here. Deluxe Studios have two queen beds — not a queen and a sofa bed, which is what almost every other villa resort gives you — plus a table, a kitchenette and a second vanity outside the bathroom.
Published square footage disagrees and the gap is large enough to matter: Disney Vacation Club Fan and several resale sites give 376 square feet, while Disney Tourist Blog's review states 390 and compares it directly to Bay Lake Tower's roughly 300. Disney does not publish the figure.
Either way it is the largest studio in the Disney Vacation Club portfolio and close to a standard deluxe hotel room, which no other villa studio is.
The balconies are unusually large, to the point that a commenter on Disney Tourist Blog called it "the only DVC resort with a useful balcony." One-bedroom villas sleep five and have a full kitchen and a washer-dryer.
Sleeps up to 4, not counting infants — the table below says which room that takes.
Every room type, and who fits in it
Straight from Disney’s own booking data, checked 2026-09-19. Occupancy excludes infants — Disney counts a baby in a cot separately, which is why a room that “sleeps 5” here can appear as 6 on their site.
| Room | Sleeps (excl. infants) | Adults | Beds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deluxe Studio Views of Water, Woodlands or Fairways | 4 | 4 | 2 Queen Bed |
| 1 Bedroom Villa Views of Water, Woodlands or Fairways | 5 | 5 | 1 King Bed + 1 Queen-Size Sleeper Sofa + 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Chair |
| 2 Bedroom Villa Views of Water, Woodlands or Fairways | 9 | 9 | 1 King Bed + 2 Queen Bed + 1 Queen-Size Sleeper Sofa + 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Chair |
| 3 Bedroom Grand Villa Views of Water, Woodlands or Fairways | 12 | 12 | 1 King Bed + 2 Queen Bed + 2 Double Bed + 1 Queen-Size Sleeper Sofa + 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Chair |
Which room should you request?
Low-rise, three storeys, spread along the Sassagoula River and around the Lake Buena Vista golf course, with mature landscaping with thirty-five years of growth on it. It is quiet in a way newer resorts are not.
Hospitality House is the hub — lobby, main pool, all four dining outlets and the boat dock. Buildings are numbered outward from there and the far ones are a long way out. The boat to Disney Springs runs from Hospitality House; everything else is a bus, and the internal loop makes several stops before it leaves the resort.
What are the pools like?
- Sandcastle Pool at Hospitality House — has a slide
- Old Turtle Pond quiet pool — quiet pool
- South Point quiet pool — quiet pool
- Miller's Road quiet pool — quiet pool
Disney’s own recreation page accounts for 4 pools. Named by Disney: Sandcastle Pool. Disney’s pool page, read 2026-09-19.
What has changed recently?
A full room refurbishment is under way and is expected to run through 2026 and possibly into 2027, so a stay booked this year may land in a renovated room, an unrenovated one, or next to construction. The previous refurbishment toned down the Key West beach theming and added subtle character art; Disney Tourist Blog's verdict on that round was that the rooms came out "too modern" and lost the laid-back vacation-home feel that was the point. Ask at booking which buildings are active.
Working from here
excellent
The largest rooms and the largest balconies of any villa resort, which is the whole game for working from a hotel. Studios have a real table, not a console; one-bedrooms have a full kitchen, a washer-dryer and a separate living room, so one person can work while another sleeps. The R.E.S.T. Beach Fitness Center is open 24 hours on a MagicBand. The weakness is the same as everywhere here: no café worth sitting in, so the work happens in the room or on the balcony.
Common questions
- Why are Old Key West rooms bigger than other DVC rooms?
- Because it was built first, in 1991, before the studio format was standardised. Old Key West studios have two queen beds and around 376 square feet; later resorts settled on a queen plus a sofa bed in roughly 300 to 370. Disney Tourist Blog puts Old Key West at 390 against Bay Lake Tower's 300. It has never been rebuilt to match, which is why it remains the largest.
- How big is an Old Key West studio, exactly?
- Sources disagree. Disney Vacation Club Fan and several resale sites give 376 square feet; Disney Tourist Blog's review states 390. Disney does not publish the number on the resort page. The honest answer is somewhere between the two and larger than any other villa studio on property — which is the part that actually affects your stay.
- Is Old Key West being refurbished in 2026?
- Yes. A full room refurbishment is on the 2026 Disney Vacation Club construction calendar and is expected to run through most of the year, possibly into 2027. Disney has not published a building-by-building schedule, so ask which buildings are active when you book, and treat any 2026 stay as carrying refurbishment risk.
- Old Key West or Saratoga Springs?
- They are the two cheapest villa resorts, within $5 a night of each other in 2026, and they answer different questions. Old Key West has much larger rooms, two queen beds and better balconies. Saratoga Springs has newer rooms, better pools and a walk to Disney Springs. Both are buses only and both have a much-criticised internal loop. Take Old Key West for the room, Saratoga for the location.
- How do you get to the parks from Old Key West?
- Buses, to all four parks and both water parks, and nothing else. There is a boat, but it goes to Disney Springs, not to any park. The internal bus loop stops at several points around the resort before leaving, which is the most consistent complaint in reviews. If you have a car, parking is free for resort guests and most guests here drive.
What it looks like
Illustration, not a photograph of this resort — a real one is on our shot list.
Sources
- Walt Disney World — Disney's Old Key West Resort (official page: villa types, pools, Olivia's Cafe, transport, R.E.S.T. Beach Fitness Center) — Disney official · checked
- MouseSavers — Old Key West 2026 rates and season dates — reported by · checked
- DVC Fan — Deluxe Studio at Disney's Old Key West Resort (376 sq ft) — reported by · checked
- Wikipedia — Disney's Old Key West Resort (opened 20 December 1991 as Disney's Vacation Club Resort, renamed January 1996; dining outlets) — aggregated, cross-checked · checked
- Disney Tourist Blog — Old Key West review (firsthand: 390 sq ft figure, balconies, internal bus loop, post-refurbishment verdict, who it suits) — Melissa was there · checked
- TouringPlans — Disney's Old Key West Resort — reported by · checked
- MouseSavers — 2026 Walt Disney World room rates and season dates — reported by · checked
- Walt Disney World — Disney's Old Key West Resort: room types and rates (official booking data: 4 room types, sleeping 4–12 excluding infants) — Disney official · checked