Four Seasons Resort Orlando opened in August 2014 inside the gates of Walt Disney World, in Golden Oak, Disney's private community of large homes east of Fort Wilderness. It is a 17-storey Spanish Revival tower beside a lake, with 443 rooms and suites on 26.5 acres of lawns, palms and live oaks and a golf course beyond. A Disney Planning Center, staffed by a Disney Cast Member, handles park tickets, dining and character events, and every guest gets Disney's 30-minute Early Theme Park Entry on each day of the stay.
Every guest room is 500 sq ft (46 m²), with a king bed and a queen sofa bed or two queens, room for three adults or two adults and two children, a balcony or terrace and a marble bathroom. The four categories are sold by view and floor: the Resort Room on the 2nd to 4th floors, with an obstructed view; the Golden Oak View, over the community's tree-lined streets; the Lake View on the 2nd to 5th floors, over the lake, golf course and pools; and the Park View on the 6th to 16th floors, facing the nightly Disney fireworks. Suites start at 825 sq ft (77 m²) with two bathrooms, and the 14 Park View Deluxe Suites were refreshed in 2023.
It is chosen for how much happens without leaving. Explorer Island is a five-acre play area kept for resort guests, with a water park at its heart: a lazy river with a 9-foot waterfall and a rapids section winds through palms and tropical planting, two 242-foot-long slides run down from a "ruined" mansion's tower, one of them see-through, a splash zone fires jets 30 feet up among broken columns, and the lakeside family pool slopes in from a beach entry. Kids For All Seasons, free for ages 4 to 12, runs from 9am to 5pm every day. Oasis, the adults-only (21+) infinity pool by the lake, has a whirlpool and cabanas. Add a spa with 18 treatment rooms, an 18-hole Tom Fazio course, tennis and pickleball, Goofy's character breakfast on Thursdays and Saturdays, and Capa, a Spanish steakhouse on the 17th floor whose terrace faces the Magic Kingdom fireworks.
The trade is cost and transport. Rooms start at about $1,395 a night before tax, a resort fee is added each night, and parking is valet only. Free coaches run once an hour to each of the four parks, with no monorail, Skyliner or walking route, so park days follow the timetable. Book it when the resort is half the holiday: a family Disney week, or a couple who want the parks in the morning and the spa and an adults' pool after lunch.
