Drury Plaza Disney Springs Review
There’s a lot of buzz about the new Drury Plaza at Disney Springs, officially the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando- Disney Springs Area. It has unbelievable amenities—free breakfast, free drinks, a fitness center, and a pool with a splash pad—at an unbelievable price. But is it better than staying at a Disney Hotel? I’ll give you the facts and opinions after staying there with my family, and let you decide.
(This article contains affiliate links. If you use one of the links to book a trip, I’ll earn a commission and go to Disney more. It won’t cost you anything extra.)
History of Drury Disney Springs
The Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando - Disney Springs Area is a relatively new hotel, having opened in October 2022. However, the property on which it is located has a long history.
The hotel is located on the site of the former Travelodge at Lake Buena Vista, which opened in 1972. This was one of the first hotels in the Walt Disney World area, opening just months after Magic Kingdom. The Travelodge was a popular hotel for guests visiting Walt Disney World Resort, and it was eventually acquired by Best Western in 2000.
In 2017, Drury Hotels purchased the Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort Hotel. Drury then began a major renovation of the hotel, which included adding a new tower and expanding the hotel from 325 to 604 rooms.
So now, how is it? How does it compare to Disney hotels? What are you sacrificing in order to save money? I stayed there with my wife and 3 kids in a king suite for a week, so I’ll tell you about our experience and cover all it offers.
If you want to know all the tips for saving money at Disney World, click here.
Overview of Drury Disney Springs
First, while the Drury is not a Disney-owned and operated hotel, it is a “Good Neighbor” hotel, which means you can book it as part of a Disney vacation package and comes with certain perks, like early park admission.
The lobby is clean, well-lit, and stylish. There is modest Disney theming to let you know where you are, but you don’t feel like you escaped into Fantasyland, just a nice hotel. The EPCOT-esque geodesic wallpaper in the elevator lobbies was a nice touch, though. The staff is friendly and helpful. The check-in process is as easy as any other resort. One plus you’ll find here is a free coffee station that stays ready for you 24/7.
I’ll go over the full list of amenities further down, but there’s a pool, splash pad, coin laundry, free breakfast, three free drinks a day, free light dinner, an arcade, inside restaurant and bar, outside restaurant and bar, gift shop, Pizza Hut window, and as I mentioned, free coffee. The Drury also has a 17,000 sq. ft. event facility if you decide to bring your business or host a small conference. There was a chiropractor convention while we were there, but they weren’t offering their services to broken theme park parents. Opportunity missed.
If you’re already interested, head Hotels.com to see prices and availability (affiliate link). If not, keep reading.
Drury Plaza Disney Springs Location
The Drury is located across the street from the B Resort and about .75 miles from Disney Springs. It’s a manageable and safe walk to Disney Springs, if a bit on the long side (especially when I’m pushing a stroller and prodding my older kids to walk faster). You will be on a sidewalk the whole time and only have to cross entrances to other parking lots, never an actual street. Once you get to Disney Springs, you’ll take a footbridge over the main road, which will put you into Disney Springs at a security tent near the Christmas Shoppe.
Making Second Daughter to the Right do all the hard work on the path to Disney Springs. (about 2/3 of the way there)
If you select a room with a view, you have a nice view of Disney Springs, particularly the hot air balloon. Even better, you can see the fireworks from both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, though at a pretty big distance. I could make out the EPCOT ball and the Contemporary easily, but could not clearly see the castle. Since this is a relatively tall hotel (18 stories), there are some great views to be had. We asked for a higher floor room and got the 10th floor.
The view from our room at the Drury-Plaza at Disney Springs (Disney Springs on the left, Epcot fireworks on the right)
So, if you’re comparing it to a Disney hotel, it’s harder to get to Disney Springs than any of the Disney brand hotels in the area, but it’s not any farther from the Disney parks than many of the Disney hotels. Obviously, the deluxe resorts near Magic Kingdom or EPCOT are much closer to their respective parks.
Drury Disney Springs Price
The prices at the Drury are unbelievably, almost suspiciously, reasonable. A regular room averages around $200 a night. Low times (August) can drop as low as $150, and the highest price I could find was New Year’s Eve on a weekend for $300 a night.
But the good financial news doesn’t stop there. This hotel offers free breakfast and free drinks to those of age (I’ll get to this later), but the price doesn’t change with the number of guests. It truly is free breakfast, not included breakfast. I had my family of 5, and it didn’t cost any more than if it had just been me.
Now the greatest reason anyone should stay at the Drury, in my opinion, is the suite. While the regular room prices are reasonable, the suite rooms are laughably reasonable. You can get a suite, on average, for $250 a night. It can be as low as $200 or as high as $400 (New Year’s Eve), or $500 for the oversized suite. That’s significantly less than Disney value resort suites, and more than 60% less than most other suites. We have a big family and love having suites, especially for the baby, so this was an unbelievable win for us. Head here to check current prices or use your favorite hotel booking app. Remember, you can book through Disney as well.
To round out the price point information, a lot of offsite resorts stick you with extra fees. Drury does not charge a resort fee, but they do charge a $25 a day fee for parking if you brought a car. Food, drinks, souvenirs, and arcade games are similarly priced to what you would find at Disney properties.
Drury Disney Springs Transportation
One of the shuttles that can carry you to the Disney Parks.
Transportation from Drury Disney Springs to the Disney Parks
Drury offers regular transportation to and from all of the Disney parks and occasional transportation to Disney Springs. The frequency of buses varies based on the day. The buses are less frequent than you would find at a Disney hotel, but they are usually hourly for most of the day.
In some ways, these buses can be better than Disney buses. They’ll only have one stop as opposed to large Disney resorts with multiple stops. And you can reserve them ahead of time to make sure you get on. Important Note: you do not HAVE to reserve it. Many people get stressed out about that misconception. If you reserve it, you’re guaranteed a spot regardless of how crowded it is.
One downfall of the non-Disney buses is on trips to Magic Kingdom. Instead of dropping off at the front of the park like the Disney buses, they drop off at the Transportation and Ticket Center, from which you’ll have to take the monorail or ferry to get to the entrance of Magic Kingdom. Disney buses go straight to the entrance of the park.
If you want to see the current schedule for the Drury buses click here. https://floridabusservice.com/druryplaza/
How to get from Orlando Airport to Drury Disney Springs
One thing that Drury Plaza lacks is dedicated transportation from the airport. Disney and other local hotels utilize Mears to get you reliably to the hotel, but to get to Drury, you’ll have a few options. The easiest way is to utilize Lyft or Uber, since you only pay per car instead of per person. This is only a good option if you don’t need multiple car seats. If you do have little kids with you, you may want to book a private service like GearFusion or Orlando Magical Rides.
Another option, albeit a little unconventional, is to take Mears anyways. Since it goes to Double Tree, Wyndham, B Resort, and several other resorts within walking distance to Drury, you could do this and save some money. This might not be the best option if you have a ton of luggage with you.
Drury Disney Springs Rooms
I know what you’re wondering. The rooms are cheap, but how do they compare to Disney rooms? I can happily tell you that they are every bit as spacious and well appointed as a room at Disney. The regular rooms are 300 sq. ft. The deluxe rooms are 360 sq. ft. The regular room size is bigger than a value resort, and the deluxe is bigger than most moderates and some deluxes at Disney. The regular rooms all come with a large bathroom with a large walk-in shower, as well as an extra sink outside the bathroom. Many of them have terraces (balconies). Only deluxe resorts at Disney have balconies.
Again, the suites are where the Drury really shines. At 480 sq. ft., they are smaller than the Disney suites, but can accommodate a lot of people. You can get a king suite that can hold up to 5 people (plus a baby), or a double queen suite that can hold up to 7 (albeit cramped, plus a baby). The pull-out couches have a chaise lounge attached to the side that can accommodate an extra person. Since our stay, Drury has finished developing some oversized suites with even more square footage.
The lack of square footage is because the living room area is smaller (no big deal), but they only have one bathroom (the biggest downfall). All Disney suites have an extra half bath, which for us means being able to put the baby to sleep in a pack and play in the master bathroom and having an extra bathroom to use. Here’s a gallery of the room we stayed in.
The rooms are all brand new. They are nice and in good working order. They all open into the hotel, instead of motel style, which is nicer than just about everything at Disney except deluxes and the Gran Destino tower. Being brand new also means that there are outlets, USB ports, and even USB-C ports everywhere.
The rooms also come with a drink cooler, a bar sink (in the suites), and a microwave. Very few Disney resorts have microwaves, so that’s a huge plus. But there is one major, bizarre flaw with the rooms. There is no lock on the bathroom door or on the door into the master bedroom of the suite. I love the people I stay with, but it’s still a little weird to not be able to use the bathroom or get dressed without any oblivious children wandering in.
So if you’re trying to decide between Disney and Drury based on the rooms, you would have to pay significantly more for a similar room at Disney, especially for the suites. If you have a big family or don’t like being all in one room, this might be the economical choice for you.
Drury Disney Springs Free Breakfast
About half of the serving areas for breakfast. Around both sides are cereal, pastries, and Mickey waffles
One of the big perks of staying at Drury versus a Disney hotel is free breakfast. Breakfast options at Disney are so laughably bad that grocery delivery is one the most frequently asked questions. Nobody enjoys paying four dollars for a bowl of cereal and then having to buy the milk, or a $10 breakfast sandwich for everyone in the family every morning. Quick service hotel breakfast at Disney might be the biggest failure of Disney hotels besides the laundry machines always being broken. I love a good table service breakfast at Disney (even though it’s expensive), but usually I just want some quick calories to head to the park. That’s what Drury provides.
Drury has a dining area on the second floor (probably to deter non-guests from stealing food), that provides free breakfast—and not just continental breakfast. There’s real eggs, biscuits and gravy, sausage, fresh fruit, assorted pastries, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, home fries, toast, and best of all, a Mickey waffle station. Add decent coffee and juice to the list, and this prepares you for a great day at the park. And it’s free!!
A new bride gets a ceremonial Mickey waffle as part of her nuptials.
Drury Disney Springs Kickback
Many of the off-property resorts offer free breakfast as a lure to get people away from the Disney hotels, but Drury goes above and beyond the rest. Every Drury hotel (not just this one) offers the 5:30-7:30 kickback. All adults get 3 free drinks per night (using a punch card), and there’s tons of food as well! They always have hot dogs and nachos, and they rotate several other heavy hors d’oeuvres and vegetables each night. They also have free popcorn!
The Kickback Drink Menu. You can order anything that has those ingredients (one shot per drink). No bourbon, only “whiskey,” which means Jack Daniels.
Are the drinks and food amazing? No. But it’s free, and it doesn’t cost $15-30 a person like most Disney’s meals. The drinks are small pours, 8oz beers and small cocktails, but again, every drink at Disney is $10-15, so this is amazing. My big gripe is that there is no bourbon.
The kickback is held in the same area as breakfast in a large cafeteria on the second floor. Once again, probably to deter non-guests from trying to use it. Pro Tip: I ordered doubles, so I wouldn’t have to stand in line as long.
Drury Inn Disney Springs Amenities
Drury has many other things that hotels offer. Some of it good, some of it lackluster. It has a tiny gift shop with food items. It has a Pizza Hut express, which is just a window in the gift shop. It’s not great, but it was a life saver for a family with kids that only eat pizza.
The Pizza Hut Express window in the Drury gift shop.
It has laundry service. It works okay, not great, but not any worse than Disney’s laundry service (which is terrible). But there is one bizarre feature—it only takes quarters. To make things worse, there is no change machine to exchange cash. Then it has a sign telling you get cash from the gift shop. The gift shop will tell you to go to the front desk. Then your wife will accidentally wash not one, but two, shelf stable milks with the laundry, which will then have to be run again. Finally, you make out of the laundry room after spending $20 in quarters in a room that was at least 85 degrees. End Rant. In Drury’s defense, the credit card machines on the Disney laundry machines regularly break.
It also has a small arcade. My daughters had fun in there during some down time, but it is much smaller than Disney hotel arcades. That being said, who goes to Disney for the hotel arcade?
One minor thing that sets Drury apart from most of the Disney hotels is that it has a fitness center. I’m not sure why Disney only offers these at deluxe resorts and Gran Destino Tower. Maybe it’s because Disney caters to children that aren’t allowed in the fitness center or because they assume most adults will be too exhausted from the parks to use it. Whatever the reason, the fact that Drury has one might move the needle for someone wanting to pay value resort prices. As an avid fitness enthusiast of sorts, (see my post on doing Crossfit at Disney World) I was pleasantly surprised to find a fitness center here.
Drury Disney Springs fitness center. Not pictured: weight machines and free weights
Drury Disney Springs Pool
A view of the pool, hot tub, and splash pad from our room on the 10th floor
Drury has a decent size pool with lots of seating around the deck and provided towels. It doesn’t have a zero-entry area for small children, but it does have a larger area that is flat and only one foot deep for little kids to play in. The Drury pool is certainly lacking as far as the theming or features like waterslides that you might be used to at Disney resorts. It also doesn’t have lifeguards, which when compared to the world-famous, hyper-vigilant lifeguards at Disney, is a big drawback—unless you’re my daughters who see any lack of lifeguards as an opportunity to beg me to throw them in the pool. The pool also has two 25m lanes running through the middle of it. If you want to use them, I’d recommend swimming early before the pool fills up.
The Drury pool does have several features that set it apart from many Disney hotels. Whereas Disney pools typically only offer rows and rows of reclining beach chairs, Drury offers a variety of seating, including shaded cabana chairs and chairs with thick cushions. Drury also has a hot tub, an amenity that value resorts don’t offer.
Finally, Drury has a splash pad with several water features. It is nothing compared to some of the fantastic areas at Disney like Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans French Quarter, or the deluxe resorts, but it’s a fun option for kids. That being said, my 18mo slipped several times on the outer edges of the splash pad. The final time resulted in needing ice for his head at the bar. We only used it once because of this.
All three Children to the Right playing at the Splash Pad. Third Baby to the Right slipped on the blue and white part. This was the day before his epic first haircut at Harmony Barber Shop.
Drury Disney Springs with Kids
So how is Drury Plaza with kids? My two older kids loved it. They really enjoyed the pull-out couch, the view of the fireworks, the arcade, the Pizza Hut window, the ice cream at the gift shop, and the breakfast. Interestingly, they also thoroughly enjoyed a Disney themed hopscotch decal that was on the floor in the lobby (so maybe they aren’t the best critics).
They weren’t big fans of the kickback food (no pizza or chicken fingers) except the free popcorn. They ate a lot of popcorn. I think between some of subtle Disney theming and the free popcorn and Mickey waffles, they felt like they were at Disney World. The pool was fun for them, but since they’ve been to several Disney resort pools, they knew the difference.
Drury Disney Springs with a baby
Drury for a baby is a great experience. If you only have the baby with you, being able to put them in a different room in a suite for barely more than the price of a hotel room is unbelievable. In a Disney suite we would have been able to put him to sleep in the master bathroom to allow the four of us to use all the space to stay up later. In this case, he occupied the master bedroom once he was asleep, while the four of us stayed at the front living room area with the sleeper sofa. However, the setup was still better than all five of us sharing one big room, something we’ve only ever done at Disney World one night.
There was plenty of room in the fridge for his milk, and there was a lot for him to eat at breakfast and the kickback. I mentioned before that the splash pad was a letdown because he couldn’t keep his feet when he tried to run. He also was fascinated by the hopscotch decal and the stuffed animals in the gift shop.
The Magic Kingdom hopscotch decal was a surprise hit
All in all, the Drury Plaza at Disney Springs is a great option for parents of small children if the need extra room without the extra price tag of a Disney suite. Just like Disney, Drury also provides a pack and play.
Drury Disney Springs Kitchen+Bar
The final area at the Drury Plaza Orlando-Disney Springs area is the Kitchen+Bar and the pool bar and grill. I lump them together because it’s the same kitchen and menu, and they are adjacent to each other. Flat out, the food and drinks here were top notch.
The Kitchen+Bar
Where the cafeteria that offers the kickback and breakfast is economical and decent, the Kitchen+Bar is excellent (and not free). It’s almost a completely different world than the cafeteria. No bustling crowds and trays, only upscale lighting and creative fare. Over the course of our trip, we had amazing tacos, hamburgers, and a quesadilla there. I also had a superb old fashioned or two.
Drury Inn Disney Springs Review
All in all, the Drury Plaza at Disney Springs is a great option for people who want a little bit of the Disney magic without having to take out a second mortgage. While you will lose some of the overt theming, smells, and wonder that you get at a real Disney resort, the Drury doesn’t feel cheap. It feels like a great vacation that’s far better than the price. My family felt that we weren’t sacrificing much by staying here. If you want to see to a full breakdown of the pros and cons of staying offsite at Disney, click here.
It’s great for kids, infants, adults, and especially larger families because the suites are so reasonably priced. It does maintain some of the magic with its views, proximity to Disney, and subtle theming. We loved our time here, and we’ll return here any time we want to go to Disney for cheap. However, I don’t want to give the impression that Drury is better. We still long to be at the Disney Resorts as well.
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