Our Summer Staycation at Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista at Disney Springs

We are back from a short summer staycation in Orlando, and I can’t wait to share our experience during our stay at Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista near Disney Springs.

Our family loves packing the car up and heading up to Disney on a whim since we are only a few hours away from Orlando.   It has been a few years since we’ve done that and decided this weekend we would tag along with dad on his work trip to Orlando for short summer staycation with the kids.  Although we are Disney annual pass holders, this time around we had no plans to visit any of the parks.  But we still wanted the kids to have a magical experience.  With that in mind, my husband found us a really affordable hotel through booking.com to book a room for under a $100 a night at an official Walt Disney World hotel.  Even though you might think in order to stay on Disney property means you will have to stay at a Disney-owned resort.  That is not the case there are a few options available that won’t break the bank while still providing that Disney Magic, we all love.

Wyndham Lake Buena Vista located right next door to the newly renovated Disney Springs area and is also an official Walt Disney World Resort.  It was an excellent option for us when we planning our last minute family staycation.  This hotel offers 394 guest rooms across their expansive resort style property with a variety of outdoor activities including a tennis court, basketball court and a sand volleyball area surrounding the aquatic pool area.  At Wyndham Lake Buena Vista you get all the same perks you would get if we’re to be staying on a Disney-owned property including access to extra magic hours, 60 Day FastPass+ thru 2020 and not to mention there is on-site character dining three days a week!  Also available to guest is the continuous bus transportation to all four Disney parks, so much to do at Disney Springs with the kids.

When traveling with two small children under the age of five keeping them entertained is always on the top of my mom list. That is why I knew that there would be so much to do on site and off site nearby at this hotel I was not too worried about any complaints of boredom from these two.  And for the price that my husband was able to find the room at along with all the amazing amenities honestly, the two things I was most excited about was the Oasis Aquatic Pool area & Character breakfast.  Moms, we all know that one thing that kids love is playing in the water and our favorite amenity so far at Wyndham Garden Lake Beuna Vista has to be the Oasis Aquatic Pool Playground.  Located on the expansive sun deck there are two pools available to cool off in after soaking up some sun on one of the many lounge chairs.  A zero entry pool area for the kids to wade in, splash around on the aquatic playground or chill out in the shade under a pool cabana.  Hungry or need a cocktail then head over to the Oasis Bar & Grill for some delicious fish tacos and a refreshing mocktail! (I had the kids with me)

OUR STAY

Pool Day

After waking up bright and early Friday morning Rian and I made our way downstairs for some coffee & donuts at the 24-hour cafe located in courtyard style hotel lobby.  I picked up two coffee’s (one for dad and one for myself) as well as some snacks for later by the pool.  We discovered a little children’s reading nook, on our way back up to our room, there were a few small tables and chairs to sit an read the books available and a TV.  Since Neve and daddy were taking their vacation sleep seriously, we killed some time down in the children’s reading nook for a while.  Rian was able to watch some Mickey Mouse Clube House while I enjoyed my coffee.

We then continued our tour outdoors to discover the really cool Oasis Aquatic pool playground.  Rian was so excited he did several happy dances when he saw all the fun things to do.  If you watched my stories on Instagram then you probably caught one of his silly moves from last Friday.  He then proceeded to plan the rest of our day by the pool, which I really did not mind.  On this visit to Orlando, I wanted to hang out at the hotel and enjoy all the amenities while there.  I was also on a momcation in my mind, I planned on wearing my chic white tropical swimsuit & my Eshne petite green mirror shades, I was gonna enjoy my MOMcation and you couldn’t tell me otherwise.  We headed back up to to the room to get ready and see if dad and sissy were up.  They were, so we had breakfast together then dad helped me get the kids ready for the pool before he headed out for his convention.

We said goodbye to daddy and made our way down to the pool.  As soon as Neve’s little feet the ground she made a beeline for the aquatic playground.  I quickly dropped our bags on a blue lounge chair near the water’s entrance and joined her in the warm water for some fun.  She was a little apprehensive at first so she waited it out with me on the sidelines for chill time on the seating that runs all the way around the children’s playground area.  I like that Rian was able to play on and around the aquatic playground on his own and still be within my eyesight. (Keep in mind there is no lifeguard on duty) Neve got a little more adventurous but she had me join her a few times on the jungle gym to get splashed and sprayed by the water.  She even wanted to hang out under the big ROCK waterfall feature and kept saying “rock” and pointing towards it.  If I would have let her go she might have attempted going out towards it on her own.  After a  few hours, the aquatic playground tired out both of the kids and made them extremely HUNGRY! Luckily the Oasis Bar & Grill is located right next to the pool so I ordered us some fish tacos, fruit, fries, and drinks.  The pool staff was so helpful when they saw that I was alone with both of the kids, they brought out our drinks and food out to our seats.  They even helped me open up the kid’s beverages, because they were so thirsty, while I made them each a plate of food.

As I said, this Aquatic pool playground has to be my favorite feature thus far at Wyndham Lake Buena Vista.  The kids did not even ask about going to the parks once they had so much fun right at the hotel pool.  So if you’re looking for a relaxing day at the pool with the kids then I highly recommend that you book your next vacation at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista.  They have an amazing pool play area for kids of all ages.  The only thing that I was disappointed about was that we didn’t get a chance to enjoy it again after our character breakfast on Saturday.  Unfortunately, the hotel was not able to accommodate our late checkout request due to high occupancy over the weekend.

Character Dining 

On our last morning, we planned on taking the kids to the on-site character dining between 7:30 am -10:30 am severed in their Lakeview Resturant.  Character breakfast is offered three times a week Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings.  Saturday morning we didn’t feel like we had to rush to get the kids up early so we let them sleep in a little later.  Once they were up and dressed, all we had to do was walk out of our room, down the hall and into the Lakeview Resturant.  The Lakeview restaurant is located in the main building just a short walk up the lobby stairs which also took us thru a doorway that leads to our floor.  We did not figure this out until that morning even with all our exploring, that is how big the property is.

As soon as we walked in we were seated and noticed immediately that it wasn’t very busy even for a Saturday morning at about 9:30 am.  We even saw Goofy at one of the other guest tables as we placed our drinks orders.  We were all pretty excited but the kids couldn’t sit still as they watched the characters make their way from table to table.  Rian was ready with his “why did the chicken cross the road”  jokes to share with Goofy and Pluto when they stopped by our table.  Even Neve couldn’t hold back her excitement and gave goofy a ton of hugs!  As I mentioned at this character breakfast, it wasn’t as busy so we go to spend a lot more time with Goofy and Pluto!  You’ll also love that this character breakfast is a lot cheaper than most Disney character breakfast, at a steal $29+ for adults and 13+ for kids!  If you want to see some of our character breakfast, click here, to see some video from my IG stories.

After breakfast, we headed back to our Garden view room to pack up and head back home.  I was a little sad as we walked back to our room past the pool area because like I said I really wanted to go back to spend the day with dad and the kids at the pool.  Even though we did have to leave earlier than planned we really enjoyed our stay at Wyndham Lake Buena Vista.  The garden view room that we stayed in was spacious with two full-size beds, a mini fridge, and two cup coffee maker.  However, I would have liked a microwave in our room to warm up our daughter’s bottle in the night.  They did have one for rent at $25 a night or you could trek downstairs to warm the bottle in one of the microwaves in the lobby area.  We didn’t choose either option our daughter understood and ended up not even waking up for her usual middle of the night bottle.  From what I saw the rooms are currently undergoing renovations so I am expecting to hopefully see a bigger tub next time we visit.  The kids love to take baths together and I found the tub was a bit small for both of them.  All in all, we had a great time relaxing in our room and poolside, I highly recommend you guys book your next vacation here.

Our mini staycation in Orlando was exactly what we needed to kick off our summer vacation.  We had a marvelous time at this hotel for the cost, its proximity to Disney Springs and Disney parks, all of the official Walt Disney hotel perks along with the fun kid-friendly amenities this has become one of our family’s favorite hotels.  We cannot wait to plan our next family vacation at Wyndham Lake Beuna Vista and we recommend that you check out this budget-friendly hotel and all of its wonderful amenities, check out the full list below.

Hotel Amenities

• Disney Character Breakfast Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings 7:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
• Bus transportation to all Disney Theme Parks and Water Parks
• Access to Disney Extra Magic Hours 
• Access to Disney’s FastPass+ service** (up to 60 days in advance of arrival)
• Golf discounts on greens fees and rental equipment at all four Walt Disney World Golf championship courses.
• Reservations for Disney dinner shows and restaurants
• Disney gift shop
• 24 Hour Cafe, Restaurant & Bar Lounge, In-Room Service, Banquet catering.
• Meeting & Banquet Halls 25k Sqft
• Oasis Aquatic Pool Bar & Grill
• Oasis Aquatic Pool & Playground Area
• Outdoor Sports Areas: Lighted Tennis & Basketball Courts, Sand Volleyball
• Game & Arcade Room
• 24hour Business center
• 24hour Fitness center
• Children’s Reading Nook & Quiet Areas
• Guest laundry & Dry Cleaning 
• Car rental on-site & Valet Services; Parking Fee $20 plus tax Daily includes Valet Parking
• Off-site pet accommodations on Disney property – “Best Friends Pet Care“

We really enjoyed our stay at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista and can’t wait to go back soon.  If you have any questions leave me a comment below I will try to answer as best as I can.  or if you do stay at this hotel I would love to hear about it leave me a comment below or you can use hashtag #cincitytravels on Instagram if you do stay here I want to see your photos.