Disney's Art of Animation Resort
Art of Animation is Walt Disney World's newest Value resort, and the one that turns four Disney and Pixar films into places you can walk into. Its courtyards recreate Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid at a scale built for young children, and its Family Suites sleep six with a separate bedroom and a kitchenette.
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Is it worth it?
A Value resort with theming and family suites nothing else at the price matches, strongest for a family of five or six.
Art of Animation is the newest of Walt Disney World's five Value resorts, opened in 2012 in the Wide World of Sports area of the resort in Florida, across a lake from its sister resort Pop Century. What sets it apart is theming you walk into rather than past. Each courtyard recreates a whole scene from Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King or The Little Mermaid, with around 2,500 sculpted figures across the grounds and the buildings sized so a small child feels the scale of it. On top of that it has the Big Blue Pool with its shallow, beach-style edge and a shaded toddler splash pad, its own Skyliner stop and Family Suites that sleep six. It works best for a family of five or six who need that space, or a younger family who plan to spend real time at the pool.
The counterweight is the price. The Value label really only fits the standard Little Mermaid rooms; the Family Suites are priced like a Moderate resort and brush Deluxe rates at the busiest times. For a family of four, Pop Century across the lake shares the same Skyliner station for less, with a room many reviewers rate as good or better. The Little Mermaid rooms are also a long, uncovered walk from the food court and pools.
The Family Suites
A separate bedroom, two bathrooms and a kitchenette, sleeping six. Nothing else at the Value tier does that, which is why larger families book here.
Four films you walk into
Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, each built out as a full courtyard at a child's eye height.
The Big Blue Pool
A beach-style shallow edge and a shaded toddler splash pad, the best water play of any Value resort for little ones.
The Skyliner catch
Its own gondola stop reaches EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, pram unfolded, but the other two parks are bus-only and it closes in storms.
What it really costs
The suites are priced like a Moderate, not a Value, and Pop Century is usually better value for a family of four.
Where is it?
The Wide World of Sports area of Walt Disney World in Florida, across Hourglass Lake from Pop Century.
Quick facts for UK families
A resort built as four film sets
Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, each given its own courtyard at a scale a small child can feel.
Most Disney resorts have a theme. Art of Animation has four, and each is built out at full size. The Cars courtyard is Radiator Springs laid out in the Florida sun, with life-sized Lightning McQueen and Sally in front of the Wheel Well Motel arch, Tow Mater over at his garage and the neon Cozy Cone Motel by the pool. In the Finding Nemo courtyard, Mr Ray, Crush and Nemo stand among giant coral. The Lion King buildings are scaled to young Simba's eye-line so an adult feels small, with Timon, Pumbaa and Simba crossing a fallen log. The Little Mermaid wing is presided over by a 35-foot King Triton. There are roughly 2,500 sculpted figures across the resort, so a child stands among the characters at their size rather than looking up at a mural. It makes an impression on young children that parents tend to underestimate, and in the Cars courtyard the character cars' headlights switch on at dusk, worth timing an evening walk to catch. Older children have plenty to spot around the Cars courtyard. The character cars wear joke number plates, Mater's reading A-113, the animation-school room number the Pixar team hides across its films, and Lightning McQueen's silhouette is painted into the rooftop clouds for anyone who looks up.
The whole resort is framed around how an animated film is made. The main building, Animation Hall, is a walk from rough pencil sketches at the door to finished colour artwork inside, under a chandelier built from around 77 storyboard panels signed by the films' directors. The food court is named for the painted landscapes animators create, the shop for the ink-and-paint stage and the arcade for the digital era that followed. It is loud and busy by design, with themed music playing through every courtyard and a guest list that is overwhelmingly families with young children, so it suits families who want a lively resort rather than a quiet one.
The site has an odd back-story that explains its one architectural quirk. The land was a Disney-owned airfield until the early 1990s, then the half-built second half of Pop Century across the lake, three buildings left as bare shells when tourism collapsed after 2001 and nicknamed the ghost hotel for the best part of a decade. When Disney finished the site as Art of Animation in 2012 those motel-style shells became the Little Mermaid wing, which is why it alone has exterior walkways while the three suite wings have weather-protected indoor corridors.
Before you pick a roomSuites in three wings, standard rooms in the fourth
There are two very different sorts of room here, and where each sits shapes the stay. The Family Suites fill three themed wings, Cars, Finding Nemo and The Lion King, and all three share hotel-style interior corridors, which are weather-protected, quieter and much easier with a pram. The standard rooms are all in the fourth wing, The Little Mermaid, the only section with exterior, motel-style walkways open to the weather. Those Little Mermaid rooms are also the farthest buildings from Animation Hall, the food court, the bus stop and the main pool, and the far end is a walk of around seven minutes that feels longer with a loaded pram at the end of a park day. Among the suites, the Finding Nemo wing sits closest to the pool and the Skyliner, the Cars wing is the most central of the rest, and the Lion King wing is the quietest and the most remote.
Rooms and suites
A standard room sleeps four, a Family Suite sleeps six, and the gap between the two is what most families are really choosing.
The headline is the Family Suite, and it is the reason a larger family picks this resort. At around 565 square feet it is roughly double a standard Value room, with a master bedroom holding a queen bed and its own bathroom, a living area with a double sofa bed and a second bathroom, plus a kitchenette. The three suite wings share an identical floor plan, so only the decor changes between Cars, Finding Nemo and The Lion King. The table below covers every room category on the resort.
| Room | Type | Size | Sleeps | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Little Mermaid Standard Room | Standard room | 277 sq ft (26 m²) | 4 | One king or two queen beds. A single bathroom split so the sink, toilet and shower can be used at once, plus a mini-fridge and no microwave. The only rooms with exterior, motel-style walkways and the longest walk to the food court and pools. |
| Finding Nemo Family Suite | Family suite | 565 sq ft (52 m²) | 6 | A separate bedroom, two bathrooms, a kitchenette and the fold-down table-bed. Closest to the Big Blue Pool and the Skyliner, and the priciest of the three suites. |
| Cars Family Suite | Family suite | 565 sq ft (52 m²) | 6 | The same layout with Radiator Springs decor. The cheapest of the three suites, with the quiet Cozy Cone Pool and its free cabanas in the courtyard. |
| The Lion King Family Suite | Family suite | 565 sq ft (52 m²) | 6 | The same layout with savanna decor. The quietest and most remote, farthest from the food court and pools. |
| Family Suite, theme assigned at check-in | Family suite | 565 sq ft (52 m²) | 6 | A cheaper suite booking where Disney gives you one of the three films at check-in, for families who do not mind which. |
The third bed is a table-bed, a dining table for four that folds down into a low double, which is a quiet plus for a toddler as there is less to fall from, though it means the living area is given over to sleeping once everyone is down. The kitchenette has a mini-fridge, a microwave, a sink and a pod coffee maker, but no hob, oven or crockery, so it warms bottles, keeps milk and baby food cold and reheats park leftovers rather than letting you cook a meal. The two bathrooms are the thing that makes a suite manageable with little ones, and the second one has a bath, which is the one you will want for bathing a baby or toddler. Officially a suite sleeps six adults, or seven with a cot added, though most families with young children read it as four adults and two children.
The decor is the only real difference between the three suite wings. The Cars suites carry Radiator Springs indoors, with toolbox-style dressers and a sleeping-Mater mural above the table-bed. The Finding Nemo suites go coral and ocean, with coral-shaped chairs and bubble ceiling lights. The Lion King suites are the most worked of the three, with log coffee-tables that have the films' song lyrics set into the wood rings, a Zazu headboard and a chair shaped like the grub Pumbaa eats. The layout underneath is identical, so it comes down to which film your children would rather wake up inside.
The standard Little Mermaid rooms are a different proposition. At around 277 square feet they are bigger than a Pop Century room and heavily themed, with clamshell headboards and a shower tiled as Ariel's grotto that reviewers single out, but they sleep four rather than six, and they are never discounted. There is only one bathroom, though the sink and vanity are divided off from the toilet and shower by a curtain, with a solid door between the toilet and the shower, so up to three of the party can get ready at the same time rather than queueing for a single door. If a standard room is what your budget allows, they suit committed Little Mermaid fans, and it is worth asking for one of the nearer buildings rather than the far end. Every room has a Hey Disney voice assistant, complimentary Wi-Fi and a digital door key through the My Disney Experience app.
Booking for 2027 or 2028The rooms are being refurbished
Art of Animation is refreshing its rooms for the first time since it opened, building by building from summer 2027 into late 2028, and it stays open throughout. The Little Mermaid standard rooms gain a pull-down Murphy bed that folds down from a dining table, the same idea Pop Century already uses, which adds a sleeping surface and softens the sleeps-four limit those rooms have now. The Family Suites are being refurbished too, though Disney hasn't released the new suite designs. If your dates fall in that window it is worth checking the official page for which buildings are active and asking for a room away from the work, since the rooms are done a wing at a time rather than the whole resort closing.
Every place to eat and drink
One food court and one pool bar, no table-service restaurant, but a food court a cut above the Value norm.
Landscape of Flavors, inside Animation Hall, is the resort's food court, and it is widely rated the best of any Walt Disney World Value resort. It's counter service, so you order at the till or in the app and carry your tray to a table, with nothing to book. Five food shops run from pizza, pasta and burgers to sandwiches, a bakery and a world-flavours bowl counter with dishes like Mongolian beef and butter chicken. Character-shaped waffles at breakfast, in Nemo, Lightning McQueen, Simba and Ariel shapes, and a build-your-own pasta option help with fussy young eaters, and there are clearly labelled allergy-friendly and plant-based items. For a treat the bakery counter runs to a Mermaid Tail Cupcake and a Sketchbook Cake iced with edible Simba pencil sketches. It also serves on real plates and cutlery rather than disposables, and its four seating halls are themed as the painted backgrounds of the four films, two touches that lift it above the usual Value food court. It gets very busy at peak meals, so mobile ordering through the My Disney Experience app is worth using, especially for breakfast before an early park start. A refillable drinks mug is sold for the length of your stay and works at any resort food court.
The only other place to eat is The Drop Off, the bar beside the Big Blue Pool, which does light food and snacks alongside drinks through the day and into the evening, its signature drink the Big Blue Ocean served with a light-up souvenir cube. Pizza can be delivered to the room in the evenings, though there is no full room service. What the resort has none of is a table-service restaurant, the sit-down kind you book ahead and that rarely takes a walk-in, so a proper dinner or a character meal means travelling to another resort or a park. Caribbean Beach's Sebastian's Bistro and Riviera's Topolino's Terrace are both a short hop along the gondola line. You can also walk over the bridge to Pop Century's own food court for a change of menu, though the two resorts' pools are kept separate and you cannot swap between them.
Pools and water play
Three pools and the best toddler splash provision of any Value resort.
The Big Blue Pool, in the Finding Nemo courtyard, is the largest resort pool at Walt Disney World, themed with giant Finding Nemo set pieces including a Mr Ray with a 27-foot wingspan. It has a zero-entry edge, meaning it slopes in from the deck like a beach rather than starting with a step, which suits toddlers and nervous swimmers, and it is heated in the cooler months with lifeguards on duty and complimentary life jackets and towels at the poolside. Beside it is the Schoolyard Sprayground, a shaded splash zone of jets and gushing water for children of 48 inches (122 cm) and under, and it is the single amenity families with young children return to most, several saying their toddlers used it more than the pool itself. It stays open even when the main pool is closed.
The other two pools are quieter. The Cozy Cone Pool in the Cars courtyard is the smallest and often the warmest, and it is ringed by eight free traffic-cone cabanas on a first-come basis, which are among the only complimentary pool cabanas anywhere at Walt Disney World and worth arriving early for in peak season. Flippin' Fins in the Little Mermaid wing is the simplest of the three. None of the three pools has a waterslide, and the resort has no hot tub at all, which surprises some UK families who expect both at a resort this size.
Beyond the poolsPlaygrounds, campfires and evenings in
There is a fair amount to fill an evening at the resort without leaving it. A campfire runs nightly at Pride Rock in the Lion King courtyard with free marshmallows to roast, an outdoor film plays most evenings near the Big Blue Pool and Pixel Play arcade sits in Animation Hall. A scenic 1.38-mile (2.2 km) trail rings the resort and Hourglass Lake, with trivia signs along the lakeside path, film facts on the Art of Animation side and decade memories on Pop Century's. From the water's edge behind the Lion King courtyard you can sometimes catch EPCOT's evening fireworks across the lake. Two dry playgrounds add to the mix, Squirt's Righteous Reef in the Finding Nemo courtyard and the Elephant Graveyard play area in the Lion King courtyard. Worth knowing about Righteous Reef is that it has no fence and several exits, which a parent of two toddlers flagged as hard to supervise, so it needs a close eye. The Elephant Graveyard's caves and skeleton look built for climbing, but 'No Climbing' signs run right through it, which takes the edge off it for the age it seems aimed at. In summer the resort adds a seasonal Cool Kids' Summer programme of character greetings, a poolside party, crafts, a pyjama party with Minnie Mouse and story time, though the dates and line-up shift year to year, so check the app for your stay. At Christmas Animation Hall and the courtyards are dressed in animation-themed decorations, so a December stay looks different again. There is no gym, no spa and no fishing on the lake.
Getting to the parks by Skyliner and bus
Its own gondola line to two parks, buses to the other two and no pram to fold on the Skyliner.
The Skyliner is the resort's best way to reach the parks and a real advantage with a pram, because you roll straight onto the gondola without folding it, which you cannot do on a bus. Some of the gondolas are wrapped in Disney and Pixar artwork, which young children watch out for. The station sits on the Generation Gap Bridge and is shared with Pop Century, and the line reaches EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. There are no toilets, food or shops at the station, so it's worth a last loo stop before you join the queue. Every journey changes at the Caribbean Beach hub on the way, and door-to-door it is roughly 20 to 35 minutes. The gondolas serve only those two parks, so Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are bus-only. They close in lightning, high wind and heavy rain, which are near-daily on Florida summer afternoons. The shared station queues badly at peak mornings, and the whole line shuts for maintenance for about a week in late January. On the nights EPCOT runs its Extended Evening Hours there is also no Skyliner back to the resort once it finishes, so a late night at that park means the bus home. The Skyliner is the better ride when it is running, but it stops often enough that you always need to know where the bus stop is.
Buses run from the front of Animation Hall direct to all four theme parks, Disney Springs and the two water parks, with no transfers, roughly every 20 minutes, and prams must be folded on board. For getting around the wider resort there is also the Minnie Van car service through the Lyft app, at extra cost. Parking at the resort and at all four parks is free for hotel guests.
Checking in and early entryArrival, check-in and early entry
You can check in through the My Disney Experience app in the days before you travel, with a message when the room is ready, and check-in is from 3pm with check-out by 11am. The same app acts as your digital room key, so you open the door from your phone. As a Disney resort guest you also get Early Theme Park Entry, currently 30 minutes before each park opens to everyone else, on every day of your stay, which is one of the more useful perks with young children as the parks are cooler and quieter first thing. The exact early-entry timing can move, so check the app for your dates. Staying on-site also gives you a head start on Lightning Lane passes, which let you book shorter waits on chosen rides. You can buy them up to seven days before you arrive, against three days for anyone staying off-site, so the busiest rides are easier to lock in early. How both work, and how UK families buy them, is set out in our tickets and passes guide. Disney has also run a summer perk of a free water park visit on your check-in day, though it's seasonal and the terms change, so it's a bonus to check for rather than count on. In the room, the Hey Disney voice assistant can order extra towels and wake the children with a Disney character.
Babies, toddlers and the day-to-day
The suite is set up for the youngest children, and there's plenty around the resort for the rest of the day.
For a family with a baby or toddler, the Family Suite is the draw. The separate bedroom means the adults are not sitting in the dark from 7pm once a child is asleep, and the second bathroom has a bath for bathing a little one. There's room in that bedroom to set a cot away from the living area, so a baby can go down while everyone else is still up. In summer the Cool Kids' Summer programme lists complimentary infant items including bottle warmers, baby baths and nightlights, which are worth confirming when you book.
The single shop, Ink & Paint in Animation Hall, stocks nappies, formula, sun cream and over-the-counter medicine alongside its merchandise, which saves a trip off-site. There is no kids' club on the resort, but in-room babysitting can be booked property-wide through Kids Nite Out, whose sitters are first-aid trained, with at least a day's notice. When you are out for the day, each theme park has a Baby Care Centre for changing, feeding and nursing. None of the walkways are covered, so a poncho is worth packing for the Florida afternoon storms. Housekeeping runs every other day, so ask at the desk for towels and supplies on the off-days. The resort is also one of a handful at Walt Disney World that takes dogs, in designated rooms, if that shapes your plans either way.
The practical stuffLaundry, first aid and getting help
There are 24-hour self-service laundry rooms by each of the three pools, taking a card rather than coins, so you can pack lighter and wash mid-stay rather than carrying a fortnight of clothes across the Atlantic.
There is no nurse or medical room at the resort, as at any Value hotel. If a child is ill or hurt in the room, the in-room phone reaches the Front Desk 24 hours a day, and cast members can arrange complimentary transport to the nearby AdventHealth Centra Care urgent-care centre. Out for the day, each of the four theme parks has a staffed First Aid Station with a registered nurse during opening hours, which is where to head for a temperature, a scrape or a dose of something you forgot to pack. The same Front Desk in Animation Hall runs a 24-hour ATM and currency exchange for anyone carrying cash, a small business centre and package delivery, so anything you buy in the parks can be sent back to the resort for collection rather than pushed round in the pram for the rest of the day.
For families travelling with a disabled member, accessible rooms are available across all the room categories, with the specific features requested when you book through Disney. The Skyliner gondolas include accessible cabins that hold up to six plus a wheelchair, and the suites, with their interior corridors and lifts, are easier to manage than the Little Mermaid wing's exterior walkways and long path for anyone with a pram or a mobility need.
Loves and gripes
The praise families repeat, and the complaints that come up just as often.
The most consistent praise from families with young children is for the two bathrooms in a suite, which parents repeatedly call priceless with little ones. Families also single out the free traffic-cone cabanas at the Cozy Cone Pool and the food court, which serves on real plates rather than disposables. The theming lands hardest of all with young children, and several families say their children were reluctant to move on to a different resort afterwards. The interior corridors in the suite wings come up too, for keeping the rooms quieter and out of the weather, and the nightly campfire and outdoor films are a quiet bonus with children who tire before dinner.
The complaints are just as consistent. It is one of the loudest, busiest resorts at Walt Disney World, with themed music through every courtyard and a food court that gets chaotic at peak meals. Opinion on the Little Mermaid rooms splits sharply, some families charmed by them and others finding the decoration cheap for rooms that are never discounted. The Skyliner queues 20 to 40 minutes at the shared station on busy mornings and shuts in storms. The Righteous Reef playground isn't fenced, housekeeping comes only every other day, and families expecting a hot tub or a sit-down restaurant at a resort this size are surprised to find neither.
The choice across the lakeHow it compares to Pop Century and the other resorts nearby
The comparison nearly every family weighs is Art of Animation against Pop Century, its sister resort across Hourglass Lake, because the two share the same Skyliner station. Pop Century is cheaper a night, has slightly smaller standard rooms with exterior corridors and already fits a fold-down bed in its rooms, but it tops out at sleeping four and its theming is less immersive. Art of Animation wins on the intensity of the theming, the Big Blue Pool and its toddler splash pad, the food court and above all the suites, which are the only Value option that sleeps five or six with a separate bedroom. For a family of four, Pop Century usually costs less for a comparable room. Either way you can walk over the bridge to see Art of Animation's courtyards without staying there.
Two other resorts are worth a look if Pop Century isn't the answer. If a waterslide, a bar and a proper sit-down restaurant on-site are the gap for you, Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort is the Moderate along the same Skyliner, and it's the line's hub so there's no transfer to change at. Its standard rooms sleep four though, so a family of five or six is back to needing a suite here. At the cheaper end, Disney's three All-Star resorts undercut Art of Animation on price but are bus-only, with plainer pools and no toddler splash pad, so for a family with little ones this is the stronger resort of the Values even before the theming.
Questions parents ask
A few things families weigh up before booking Art of Animation.
How do the three suites differ with young children?
The three are an identical layout, so it comes down to location and price. The one thing that isn't on the room list is noise. Pool-facing suites, the Finding Nemo ones especially, catch the sound off the Big Blue Pool, so if anyone in the party wakes easily it's worth asking for a non-pool-facing room when you book rather than hoping for one at check-in.
Do we need a suite to manage bottles and baby food?
If warming bottles or baby food matters to you, a suite is the safer bet, since only its kitchenette has a microwave. Many families go a step further and book a grocery delivery to the suite before they arrive, which stocks the fridge with milk, snacks and baby food and saves park prices on the basics.
Can we book two suites with a connecting door?
No. The suites have no connecting internal doors, so an extended family across two suites will have two separate doors off the corridor rather than a linked pair. If rooms that join up matter to you, this is not the resort for it, though you can still ask at booking for suites close to each other.
Where do we book a proper sit-down or character meal?
It'll be at another Disney hotel or in a park. Character meals, like the Minnie breakfast at the Beach Club's Cape May Café, are among the hardest reservations to get, so book the moment your window opens in the My Disney Experience app, as early as your trip allows. An ordinary table-service dinner has more give and can usually be booked closer to the date.
Is a cot provided, and is it free?
Yes, a cot is free in any room, arranged at online check-in or by calling the resort before you travel. Full-size cots are limited in number, so it's worth requesting one as early as you can, and some families travelling with a baby bring or rent their own to be sure of having one.
Art of Animation photos
The King Triton wing, the Cars and Finding Nemo and Lion King courtyards and the Skyliner station, all in one place.
Open the Art of Animation photo gallery →
Useful links
- Disney's Art of Animation Resort: the official hotel page for rooms, dining and live prices.
- Disney's Pop Century Resort: our guide to the sister resort families most often compare it with.
- Tickets and passes: how tickets, early entry and UK booking work at Walt Disney World.
- Walt Disney World with little ones: our guide to the resort, its parks and getting there.
Last updated 9 July 2026.
