As soon as you enter Disney's Old Key West resort, you immediately get those Florida vibes and expect to hear Jimmy buffet music playing. In fact, there just may have been some tropical music playing as we arrived.
The Lobby at Old Key West Resort
I would like to say the palm trees were swaying when we arrived, but it was in the middle of the afternoon and of course it was hot, no breeze yet. Old Key West is a Vacation Club resort. In fact, it is Disney's original Vacation Club. It opened in December of 1990 and was simply named "Disney's Vacation Club Resort" until 1996 when it was renamed to "Disney's Old Key West Resort".
When we arrived, our room was not ready yet, so we decided to get some lunch. Although this is one of Disney's largest resorts, it has limited dining options.
The only table service restaurant here is Olivia's. We were not able to get a table here at this time, but we did eat here later on during our stay at Old Key West. You can read about that HERE.
Goods Food to Go is the only quick service spot here. This is just a walk up counter, not a restaurant or food court like some of the other resorts. This is were we ended up having lunch on the day we checked in. It was surprisingly good. You can read about that HERE.
The Gurgling Suitcase is the place for libations and spirits. They offer both alcoholic and non alcoholic specialty drinks, soup of the day, and finger foods like nachos, hushpuppies, pickle chips, shrimp cocktail, and other small bites. We did not get food from here, but I wish we had. The Gurgling suitcase is open each night till 10:00 pm. You can see a complete menu HERE.
We concluded that the food options are limited at this large resort because this of course is a Vacation Club resort and all the rooms have either a kitchenette or full kitchen and guests have the ability to keep and make food in their rooms or villas.
By the time we returned from Disney springs, our room was ready. Thank goodness we had a great Disney van driver that afternoon. He took us and all our luggage to our room, which was in the very back of the resort. It definitely would have been a hike for us to do by ourselves. We had a Deluxe Studio, not a villa, so I was surprised that we were so far away from the main promenade/ hospitality house of the resort. I know there are certain buildings that only have villas and ones that only have studios. The last time we stayed here in a studio, we were near the entrance to the resort, so I was hoping that is where we would be again.
It took us a minute to find our room because it was tucked into a corner.
We did not make any room requests, but we were happy to see we were on the ground floor!
At the time of this post, Old Key West Resort is the only resort that has Deluxe Studios that have two queen beds. All the others have only one bed and then a pullout bed, either a murphy bed or a sofa bed.
We did appreciate all the space. As far as decor though, it is not Disney-ish, nor is it themed all the well. Our room did have some seafoam green walls to go along with the island vibe, but that's about it.
Our kitchenette had a mini fridge, sink, microwave, toaster, coffee pot with coffee and creamer. It also hade plastic utensils and paper products. At one point, we wanted to boil water for something, so housekeeping brought us an electric kettle.
Our bathroom was very spacious. This is one of the few bathrooms we've had at Disney resorts that is not split in some way. Usually the vanity area is separate from the shower/tub area. The other rooms that we had that were similar to this was our room at Wilderness Lodge/ Boulder Ridge and when we stayed at the Beach Club. I do believe our bathrooms at Wilderness lodge and Beach Club were set up a little different because they were accessible rooms. You can check out the Wilderness lodge room HERE. You can check out the Beach Club room HERE.
This was a spacious bathroom, but it did only have one sink.
We had a nice patio off of our room, complete with two chairs and a small table. We didn't have much of a view though, just some shrubs.
Like I mentioned, this is a large resort. It is almost like a neighborhood with it's different street names and roadways.
To give you an idea of the size of Old Key West, here is the resort map. our room was in the South Point Road area. There are 5 main sections of the resort and each have their own bus stop.
1. Hospitality House uses the main bus stop at the front of the resort
2. Peninsular Road
3. Miller's Road
4. Old Turtle Pond Road
5. South Point Road
We were in building 51, so we were pretty close to the bus stop which was nice. The area circled in blue is the main area where the lobby, shops, food service, and recreation are. We of course were not close to that. You could always grab a bus to take you to this area, but we ended up walking.
Also I want to add that although there is a main pool, each section has a pool too. Peninsular Road and Hospitality House sections do not have a pool since they are close enough to the main pool area.
As far as recreation at Old Key West, there is so much to do. I wish we had more time here. Of curse there is that main pool I mentioned. Guess what, inside that lighthouse is actually a sauna. I wanted to check it out, but really, who wants to go in a sauna in Florida in the summer? The slide at the main pool is actually a sand castle. I didn't get a great picture of it but you can see the back of it in the picture below.
There is a nice sandy playground area for the kids.
There are tennis courts here for tennis and for pickle ball. We actually planned to play pickleball here but just could not fit it into our schedule. They actually have certain days in the morning where they will do an introduction to pickleball class,
They have sand volleyball courts.
I don't know the significance of this tree, but I thought it was neat.
Shuffleboard anyone?
Most of the equipment for the sports can be found at hanks Rent n Return in the main promenade.
One thing that was on our list for sure, was to rent Surrey bikes. We have stayed at other Disney resorts that have Surrey bikes, but have never tried them out. But, once again, time got away from us and we never got to rent them. I hear they are quite challenging to operate, especially on really hot days!
They also have individual bikes to rent. Our family did rent these bikes on one of our previous stays at Old Key West. You can read about that HERE.
Unlike equipment rental for the sports courts, bike rental is not free. At the time, these were the fees for rental Surrey bikes and individual bikes. We rented bikes here about 10 years ago, and I was surprised to see that the bike rental prices stayed exactly the same. Thanks Disney!
And it's not only Space mountain that has a height requirement! You need to be 58 inches to pedal a Surrey bike. I suppose if your child is less than that, they can still ride along, just not pedal.
Like all DVC resorts, there is a Community Hall. At old Key West, the Community Hall is called Conch Flats Community Hall. Here you can rent board games, movies, get information about recreation at the resort, and sometimes they have crafts. Some crafts are free and some are paid.
Throughout the resort, in the hospitality area, there are signs that will tell you what is going on for the week. This includes wellness activities, camp fires, and movies under the stars! There is always something going on. Disney recreation use to host "Resort Races". Old Key West had one that was called "The Southern Most Run". You can read about that HERE. I sure do wish they would bring those races back.
We had just missed the complimentary yoga!
And last but not least, Old Key West's best kept secret, the Key lime Dole Whip! you can get lime dole whip other places on Disney property, but at the time of this post, this is the only place to get the Key lime Dole Whip and it is amazing, right down to the graham cracker crumbles! This refreshing treat can be found at Good Food to Go !
Although Old Key West is a Vacation Club Resort, anyone can stay here. You do not have to be a Disney Vacation Club member. You can rent points, or pay cash for rooms. This is a really lovely resort but it would not be my "go to" resort.
It is one of the least expensive of the DVC resorts and room availability is generally plentiful.
Rooms are large, even the Deluxe Studios.
If you are someone that is going to the park every day and plan to eat all your meals at the parks, then you may not mind how large and spread out this resort is. You will just make sure that you are near a bus stop.
I do think this resort would be great for a leisurely stay at Disney as there is already so much to do at this resort if you are not going to the parks everyday. However, if this is the case, I would definitely request a "preferred" room, which is close to the Hospitality House. You may have to pay more to be in this prime location, but it might be worth it.
Till next time ~ M and L
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Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.