As the NBA and Disney continue to finalize plans for Walt Disney World Resort to host the rest of the NBA season, we’re starting to get a better look at what the NBA at Disney World will look like. In this post, we’re going to discuss the hotels the NBA is planning to use.
In this post, we’ll cover:
The NBA is (probably) coming to Disney World
Gran Destino Tower
Grand Floridian
Yacht Club
Were there other options?
What if I had a trip planned to these hotels?
What’s This About the NBA?
The NBA season was paused back in March because of the pandemic. The NBA wants to safely finish the season, and at some point it became clear to everyone that Walt Disney World is a great option for that.
ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex, an athletic complex at Walt Disney World, has facilities capable of hosting NBA games. Wide World of Sports regularly hosts peewee, high school, and college athletics competitions of all sorts.
Additionally, Walt Disney World and its hotels are designed pretty well to ensure you can protect NBA players and staff from outsiders, thus minimizing the risk of the virus spreading within the NBA.
The big reason the NBA is choosing Walt Disney World is to create a “bubble” environment where everyone who comes into contact with players will be tested regularly, and the players themselves will be tested regularly.
The rumored schedule (still up in the air) would have the NBA returning at the end of July and finishing around mid-October.
As part of this plan, the NBA and Disney will need to dedicate some hotel space for the NBA players, their families, and NBA staff. While lots of details remain to be resolved, we so far know what hotels the NBA is planning to use—Gran Destino Tower, Grand Floridian, and Yacht Club.
Gran Destino Tower
According to the initial plans, Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs will host the Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers, Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz, and the Heat. These are the top four teams in each of the two conferences, currently.
Gran Destino Tower is a new (2019) tower at Coronado Springs Resort. We reviewed Gran Destino here, but we haven’t made it into a standard room at the hotel yet. We have a separate review covering most of Coronado Springs. Gran Destino Tower also has a club level—the Chronos Club (review)—that will presumably be used by the league.
You can use the arrows to tap through some pictures of Gran Destino and Chronos Club. We have a video walkthrough of a deluxe suite (the only room type we’ve stayed in there) a bit below. The above-linked reviews go into more detail.
Coronado Springs—which includes Gran Destino Tower along with several other blocks of rooms—has long been rumored as a site for NBA players, but now the plans specify Gran Destino Tower only. If it’s the case that the rest of the hotel will simply go unused, then this is an easy bubble to maintain. More on this in a bit.
Gran Destino Tower is one of our favorite hotels at Walt Disney World. It’s more “nice hotel” than “nice Disney hotel”, but that works fine for NBA players (and we’ve been happy with it).
The rooms are among the newest at Walt Disney World. The Club Lounge is arguably the best at Walt Disney World. The lobby and common areas are beautiful and spacious. (Note: The below walkthrough is of a deluxe suite. We haven’t stayed in a standard room at Gran Destino yet.)
If the players also have access to the rest of Coronado Springs—or even some of it—they should be happy with the amount of shared and outdoor space they have at Gran Destino / Coronado Springs (granted—these are much larger people than me).
Most of the downsides of the hotel are from a theme park touring perspective—specifically that you have to take the bus to all four parks, and the bus makes a lot of stops around Coronado Springs.
This won’t be a problem for the NBA players, though, since they won’t be regularly going to the parks or sharing buses with other guests. For us, we’ve taken to using Lyft / Uber / Minnie Vans when we’re in a rush from Gran Destino Tower.
There are lots of talks about when the players’ families can come to stay, and whether or not they’ll be able to visit the parks. Whatever the case, you can be sure you won’t have the family walking onto a bus with you and then heading right back to the their player-spouse.
What about the rest of Coronado Springs?
It is a bit odd to only use the tower. While Gran Destino tower is a step above the rest of Coronado Springs, the other rooms are still good rooms.
It’s possible the numbers just didn’t work out cleanly for using all of and just Coronado Springs, so Disney instead will leave the rest of the hotel empty. I doubt they’d try to have it be open to other guests, as maintaining that bubble would seem a lot of unnecessary work.
Moreover, it sounds like the plan is that once six (of the 22 teams) are eliminated from playoff contention, Yacht Club will cease being used, and the remaining teams will be allowed to start bringing family members and associates into the bubble. Given this shifting volume of people, it’s possible most of Coronado Springs will start unused, only to be filled with friends and family later on.
There were rumblings about room quality complaints with the NBA a few weeks back, and I wonder if that could have been partly about some players being in the tower, near everything, while the rest of Coronado requires a walk to get to major amenities. That might be another reason they decided to use other hotels, rather than the rest of Coronado Springs.
Grand Floridian
According to the initial plans, the Grand Floridian will host the Thunder, 76ers, Rockets, Pacers, Mavericks, Nets, Grizzlies, and Magic. These are the next four teams in each conference, currently. If the standings didn’t change between now and the start of the playoffs, these eight teams and the eight at Gran Destino would make the playoffs.
Grand Floridian is the flagship and most expensive hotel at Walt Disney World Resort. We have a review of Grand Floridian here. We also have a review of the Royal Palm Club Level here.
You can use the arrows to tap through some pictures of Grand Floridian and Royal Palm Club Level. The above-linked reviews go into more detail. We have a video walkthrough of a room a bit below.
We’re not fans of the Grand Floridian. That mostly comes down to its price, but its rooms are also a step back from the more modern rooms you’ll find at Gran Destino, Yacht Club, and Animal Kingdom Lodge.
The high price of Grand Floridian is usually justified by its proximity to Magic Kingdom along with its “luxury” theming. Most NBA players have stayed in hotels far nicer than Grand Floridian, and the proximity to Magic Kingdom won’t be useful to them.
Like Gran Destino and the Coronado campus, Grand Floridian has plenty of open and outdoor space. Overall, this seems like a fine pick. Except for one big problem (after the video)…
The deluxe resorts—including Grand Floridian—face a real challenge when it comes to maintaining a bubble atmosphere: they have companion DVC properties that are opening to guests on June 22. Several restaurants at Grand Floridian are also scheduled to reopen at that time.
DVC is Disney Vacation Club—a timeshare program operated by Disney. Several hotels have DVC properties that are basically a separate set of rooms or buildings. Their amenities overlap (but don’t perfectly coincide) with those of the other hotel guests.
For the NBA and Disney, the challenge is that you’re trying to create a bubble environment where you’ve already announced you’ll be opening some parts of the hotel to other guests.
In the case of Grand Floridian, the Grand Floridian Villas buildings are separate, but the feature pool, restaurants, and monorail access of Grand Floridian are a huge reason people stay at—and own interest in—the Grand Floridian Villas.
So…what are DVC guests at Grand Floridian Villas to do? Well, let’s look at a map of Grand Floridian (archived at The Dis). Below I’ve put a box around the DVC property…
Theoretically, the DVC guests could be given the Beach Pool, as well, with the NBA using the Courtyard Pool. Monorail and restaurant access are…trickier…to sort out if you have NBA players at the hotel.
I suspect, given the location, Grand Floridian Villas guests will be redirected to Polynesian, down a short walking path, for their amenities as long as the NBA is in town. Frankly, I prefer Polynesian, but I imagine people who paid top dollar for their Grand Floridian Villas won’t be happy with this outcome.
Yacht Club
According to the initial plans, Yacht Club will host the Blazers, Kings, Pelicans, Spurs, Suns, and then Wizards. These are three teams from each conference that currently fall in spots 9 through 11 in the seedings. If the playoffs started today, they would not be in.
Yacht Club is a deluxe hotel in the Boardwalk area, between Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We’ve reviewed Yacht Club here, and we’ve reviewed the Regatta Club Lounge, too.
You can use the arrows to tap through some pictures of Yacht Club and Regatta Club Level. We have a video walkthrough of a room a bit below. The above-linked reviews go into more detail.
We’re big fans of the Yacht Club rooms, and the pool (Stormalong Bay) is the best at Walt Disney World. We have a few dislikes about the resort, but they mostly come down to things like service and convention guests, neither of which should be a problem for the NBA.
Like Grand Floridian, Yacht Club has a bit of a challenge in that it shares some amenities with the DVC property at Beach Club Villas. Unlike Grand Floridian, it shouldn’t be too hard to avoid DVC interference.
Here’s a look at the map of the hotel:
Yacht Club is left, Beach Club is center-right, and the Beach Club Villas are upper right. The Villas are the DVC property that is scheduled to reopen June 22. The rest of Beach Club could presumably remain closed while the NBA is in town, with guests relocated to Boardwalk Inn, if necessary.
Closing Beach Club maybe isn’t necessary, though. Yacht Club and Beach Club do typically share a ton of amenities and staff, including Stormalong Bay pool. Interestingly, Disney has already told us that Stormalong Bay will be closed to guests, which I suppose should have been our first tip that these hotels were in the running for the NBA.
Beyond the pool, it shouldn’t be too hard to draw a line between the NBA and other guests. The hotels are basically only connected by a single pathway right in the middle. The dividing line is sort of where the AED symbol is. It wouldn’t be difficult to simply cut off Yacht Club and the pool from the rest of the resort complex.
Yacht Club is also near the Boardwalk, which sees a ton of foot traffic from guests at nearby hotels or just wanting to step outside the parks. It’s also a dining and nightlife hotspot (nowhere as busy or large as Disney Springs, though).
That is, it’s not too tough to build the bubble around Yacht Club, but a lot more outsiders are going to touch the edge of that bubble than at Gran Destino or Grand Floridian.
The other problem with Yacht Club is that, particularly relative to Gran Destino and Grand Floridian, it’s pretty cramped. Most of the outdoor space is at the Boardwalk, which will presumably be inaccessible to NBA players. The lobby isn’t tiny, but it isn’t like the lobbies of the Grand or Gran Destino.
Were there better choices?
Well, not really. As much as I enjoy them, we can cut the value resorts because of their size / lesser room quality. (I’d take the Pop Century and All Star Movies rooms over the Grand Floridian rooms any day, but I’m much smaller than an NBA player.)
Port Orleans would be a decent option in theory. The amount of space and ease of creating a bubble would make it a good option, but the room quality isn’t top-notch.
More problematically, though, Port Orleans Riverside would be a poor choice (particularly in this moment) because of its antebellum theming. Since the bulk of the Port Orleans rooms are at Riverside (the other part is French Quarter), this was an easy “no.”
Caribbean Beach is adjacent to a DVC property (Riviera Resort), has lower quality rooms, and is the Skyliner hub. It’s definitely not preferable to the hotels the NBA settled on.
Fort Wilderness reopens to guests June 22, as do DVC properties at Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Boardwalk, Polynesian, and Contemporary (Bay Lake Tower).
Of those, Contemporary is the easiest to bubble. I prefer the Contemporary rooms to those at the Grand Floridian, but it’s maybe a tough call.
It’s much easier to separate Bay Lake Tower from the rest of Contemporary than to separate Grand Floridian Villas from the rest of Grand Floridian.
But if Disney is going to divert Grand Floridian Villas guests over to Polynesian, then it’s possible things like guest demand, the walking path from Magic Kingdom to Contemporary, and the prestige of Grand Floridian tilted the scales.
Animal Kingdom Lodge also would make a good bubble. It’s not hard to keep Kidani Village (the DVC property that is confirmed reopening) guests separated from Jambo House guests (which has a DVC property that isn’t reopening).
I’m a little surprised to see Grand Floridian and Yacht Club chosen over Animal Kingdom Lodge. Animal Kingdom Lodge has the best rooms, best amenities, and best common spaces of those three.
My best explanation for picking Grand Floridian comes down to optics. Grand Floridian is the flagship hotel at Walt Disney World, even if it isn’t actually the best. Housing NBA players in Animal Kingdom Lodge might have had a bad look with the Grand Floridian a viable option.
As for Yacht Club, we’re only expecting that hotel to be in use for a few weeks. Guests who had planned stays at Yacht Club could be moved to Beach Club or Boardwalk with little issues. This small disruption makes more sense than having to rebook Animal Kingdom Lodge guests, I suppose.
What If I Had a Trip Planned To These Hotels?
Everything at Walt Disney World is still in flux. If this NBA plan does come to fruition, I would expect these hotels to be closed to other guests while the NBA is using them. This is all speculation at this point, but here’s what I’m expecting.
Gran Destino Tower and likely the rest of Coronado Springs will be closed to other guests through October 12. That entire campus makes the most sense to continue housing everyone and their guests through the end of the Finals.
Yacht Club would likely be closed until the expected start of the NBA playoffs on August 17. It’s not clear whether Boardwalk or Beach Club will be impacted, though we already know the DVC properties at those two hotels are scheduled to reopen June 22.
Grand Floridian is tougher to nail down, and it depends on how much the NBA wants to shuffle players and their guests around. I doubt they’d move players on August 17, when the playoffs start, but it’s tough to imagine them keeping their flagship blocked off all the way through the Finals if only one team is still there (they could just move the team).
If you are booked at these hotels, I’d expect Disney to be in touch about relocating you. To where? I’m unsure.
The Grand Floridian Villas, Polynesian Village, and Contemporary all seem like fine places to relocate Grand Floridian guests. Similarly, Beach Club Villas, Beach Club, and Boardwalk Inn and Villas are all good options for Yacht Club guests.
Gran Destino and Coronado guests are in a tougher position. Gran Destino is the best bang-for-your-buck in Walt Disney World. It’s easily the best of the moderate options, in our opinion. That issue aside, there’s surely enough availability at Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans for Disney to move reservations there.
We’ll be following this issue, and will update either this post or our Disney World Reopening — Hotels post when we learn more.
Important: Disney World Phased Reopening Notice
This topic is temporarily impacted by the ongoing phased reopening of Walt Disney World after its extended mid-2020 closure. We highly recommend you also visit our Walt Disney World Reopening Masterpost, where we highlight specific issues guests will face during this unique time.
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