Disney's Riviera Resort

For us, the Riviera was a mixed bag. We loved being so close to the gondola for Epcot. The rooms are also fine for what they are. Our room was clean and relatively well appointed. Where the hotel dramatically fell off was the front desk. Disney charges a significant premium for excellent customer service and experience. We understand this and stay at Disney resorts very frequently. The lobby was bedlam. There appeared to be no central queue for customer service. There were just some people walking around with iPads. You could wait and wait and everyone else would get taken care of but not you. I was not a fan of that. Also, we generally plan our park experience to conclude with a few minutes in the hot tub. Disney is good about explaining when items like the pool will be unavailable so we checked that right before we checked in. However, when we went to the hot tub, it was nothing but a sign saying it was closed. We went to the lobby to find out if and when it would be open and why it was closed. The gal at the front desk, Samantha, only shook her head as if she was listening empathetically. We received no information and nothing more than a completely fake apology. There is no guest services manager. They can’t do anything - even so much as comp a lightning lane or a bottle of water which we might not even use. My significant other has DVC membership and we are annual passholders. We were considering buying more DVC points. We stayed here partly to determine whether we wanted to buy in at the Riviera or not. For us, the decision is - not. You may want to stay at the Riviera from time to time and I’m sure we’ll be back despite the difficulties, but I would certainly never buy DVC here.

Love the pools and the resort location loved that it was on the Disney Skyliner close to Epcot and all other resorts I like that you could get over to the Bord Walk easy it was great The food was delicious for breakfast every morning. Loved being able to look out at night time to see the firework show at Topolino’s Tower.

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 a

This hotel is the perfect combination of elegance and Disney fun. Impeccable service, beautiful rooms, and subtle Disney theming everywhere. We loved the outside lawn area to play games and the walkability to the skyliner as well as the food hall at Caribbean Beach and when we wanted other food options - though the food here is delicious.

Wonderful, Disney resort! Feels like you're in the Mediterranean. We got the double preferred room, sleeps 10, had four showers/tubs full kitchen, laundry. Wonderful view of the backyard oasis pool space! You can ride if there's any Skyliner, right from the back door of the hotel!! Amazing!!!

Have to admit. We were really looking forward to our stay. However the resort proved far smaller and provided fewer things to do than most every level Disney resorts. The hotel actually seemed like a prison. It's on the gondola line, which is convenient. However, it appears they are worried that other guests may resort-hop into their limited facilities. It may have been for privacy and security, but it made part of our party frustrated and the other half nervous. Limited food options outside of the $$$Topolino Terrace with quite limited seating. Very small gift shop. Coffee shop was quite nice. Won't be back.

We had such a wonderful stay. All the cast members at this hotel were so helpful and nice. The resort is clean and our 1 bedroom standard view room was clean, spacious and beautifully decorated and was well stocked with dishes, cups, glasses, silverware, etc. Love that there are two vanities, a walk-in shower and a tub, although we don’t typically use tubs on vacation. The bed was a little soft for us, but slept okay. Loved the view of the fireworks at EPCOT and even Magic Kingdom in the distance from our balcony. The TVs were large and offered some on-demand Disney documentaries and shows. I think if you are a Disney+ member, you can also access that through the TV, but we did not attempt to do that, so I cannot be 100% sure. There was ample drawer & closet storage, as well as ample storage in the bathrooms. Disney enters your room on a daily basis to empty the trash and perform a quick room inspection for safety. We don’t have a problem with this, in fact we love having our trash emptied on a daily basis, but just something to be aware of in case you need to put any valuables in the safe. The food at the resort was excellent. There is the nice restaurant, Topolino’s Terrace, on the 10th floor, a counter service place, Primo Piatto, on the 1st floor, as well as an indoor/outdoor bar/restaurant, Bar Riva. All had very tasty food and good service, although the line to order food or pay for to-go items at Primo Piatto can take a while, so give yourself ample time. There is a bocce ball court, as well as a life size chess set, pool, hot tub, and plenty areas to sit outside and enjoy the day. This resort is centrally located for visiting both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. Only down side is the Skyline doesn’t operate when lightning is in the area (totally understandable), and there is no bus transportation between this resort and EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, so transportation cast members will try to arrange for a bus to take guests back to the Riviera but that can take a while. We waited about an hour, and by that time the lightning had cleared out, so we were able to take the skyline back to the Riviera. This is just something to be aware of if you are staying at the Riviera, especially during the summer. If this happens, a good option might be to get one of the Minnie Mouse Lyft cars to take you back to the resort, but that isn’t a cheap option. A huge thank you to the staff at The Riviera Resort. They truly do a wonderful job and we cannot wait to return.

This hotel was worth the money! We had a blast in the pool singing along to the song trivia on our down day. The place smells fantastic. The location was so convenient. The room was very comfortable. Even the pull down bed was “magical”. Aka, comfortable. The washer and drier were broke when we got there and were fixed by the time we got back from dinner. The grounds were beautiful also

This is one of the DVC resorts at Disney. We have stayed there before and is one of my daughter’s favorites. It has the feel of a hotel, which some like and some do not. It is really beautiful and the staff Disney perfect, helpful, courteous. With its own restaurants, bar, pools, etc. one never needs to actually leave. My favorite part is that it is connected to the Skyliner gondola system which goes to both the Studios and Epcot. Sadly, was down for maintenance on the Riviera portion. If was routine and if I had known I might have chosen a different resort. Communication would have been helpful. It was a 10 minute walk to the Caribbean Resort. A nice walk actually, but if they had a golf cart to transfer people it would have been nice. There was an internal bus, but we did not know about it until later. It would have been great if they told us at check in. My only complaint is that I arrived around 9 am. I was told that checkin to the room was not officially until 4 pm. Since folks arrive at all hours I thought surely there could be a room available before that time. Sadly, no. I got a message at 3:45 pm that I could go to the room. They did store the bags for us and I was able to do things during the day. We ate that night a Topolino’son the 10th floor and watched the Epcot fireworks