Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney World Now Open!
Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando is a new on-site hotel at Walt Disney World. This resort within walking distance of Disney Springs is now partially open, with construction nearing completion. This post shares delay details, our commentary, official info, and whether you should book these accommodations. (Updated February 27, 2023.)
By way of background, the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney Springs is technically a partially-new hotel. It replaces the Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort, and is a full renovation to that existing property plus a totally new tower. In 2017, Drury Hotels bought the Best Western property for $20.5 million and continued to operate the hotel as normal while planning this expansion.
Permits were filed for this project back in 2018 and construction began the following year. Then the closure of Walt Disney World happened. The Best Western never reopened when other Disney Springs hotels started returning, and the project was paused for a while. I know this because it’s on the route we used to take to Trader Joe’s, and I always marveled that so much equipment was on-site yet nothing was happening…
February 27, 2023 Update: Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando in the Disney Springs Resort Area welcomed its first guests during last year’s holiday season, and just held its official grand opening celebration. As you might recall, the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando was originally scheduled to open last fall, but had its opening date quietly pushed back a few times.
“We are pleased to provide our guests the opportunity to visit the Walt Disney World Resort with the exceptional value and customer service that Drury Hotels has provided for 50 years,” said Chuck Drury, President and CEO of Drury Hotels. “Our guests are at the very center of everything we do, and we hope to exceed their expectations with this incredible new hotel in the heart of the Disney Springs Resort Area.”
When construction is completed, Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando will feature 604 rooms with a targeted finish date in Spring 2023. It’s our understanding that the first phase, which is open already, features 264 rooms, or fewer than half of the total room count. (We’re planning a review stay, with late April 2023 as a tentative date, but we’ll push that back if the entire hotel isn’t done by then.)
Guests can also reserve one of the 78 two-room suites, perfect accommodations for families of up to six guests. In-room amenities include a 55” smart flat screen television, mini refrigerator, microwave, alarm clock with Bluetooth and charging station, executive work spaces, and in-room safe. The Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando within the Disney Springs Area will also offer 17,000+ square feet of meeting and event space for up to 250 persons.
Previously, the company has confirmed that the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney Springs would offer the following amenities and perks:
- Drury will NOT charge a resort fee. The resort fee is normally $25 + tax per room night. According to Drury, the average length of stay is typically 5 nights, so this reflects a savings of $125. This decision aligns with Drury’s commitment to provide its guests with exceptional service and amenities at an honest value.
- Other complimentary hotel amenities include hot breakfast, dinnertime snacks and beverages at our 5:30 Kickback, WiFi, and shuttle service to all Walt Disney World theme parks and Disney Springs. (The hotel is also within walking distance of Disney Springs.)
- Starbucks Coffee will be onsite in the Market Place, along with Pizza Hut Express and two other onsite restaurants.
Here’s other info and past commentary about the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney Springs…
The Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney Springs will feature a host of amenities and is in close proximity to the Walt Disney World theme parks. Drury also will offer transportation to and from the theme parks and other surrounding attractions.
The new hotel will be within walking distance of Disney Springs, and can be booked as part of a Walt Disney World vacation package. There are also a number of restaurants and stores within walking distance off-site on Vineland.
“We look forward to welcoming guests and providing them with a magical experience,” said Chuck Drury, CEO of Drury Hotels. “Our designation as an Official Walt Disney World Hotel means we have been entrusted to adhere to exceptional service standards. Given our track record of providing award-winning guest service, I know our team’s efforts will delight and impress our guests and visitors.”
Tom Drury, a seven-year veteran in the hotel and hospitality industry, has been named the hotel’s general manager. Drury team member, John Branciforte, will serve as the hotel director of sales. Once open, the hotel will employ 150 full- and part-time team members.
The Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando Lake Buena Vista will feature a resort-style pool, splash pad and poolside dining and refreshments at the Lakeside Bar & Grill. It will also offer an extensive marketplace for grab-and-go food items and sundries, and a cozier dining experience at The Kitchen + Bar.
Additionally, there will be a wide range of complimentary amenities, including hot breakfast with pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, fresh fruit, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, KELSO+BROS coffee, and more. The new Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando will also offer a daily 5:30 pm reception including hot food and cold beverages, as well as 24-hour business and fitness centers.
The Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando offers a number of special and discounted rates for auto club members, seniors, federal government, military, law enforcement and more. Most of these appear to be 10% off standard nightly rates.
Additionally, Florida residents will be able to save 10% on rates (proof of ID required at check-in) at the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando Lake Buena Vista.
It appears that the best discount will be for Walt Disney World Annual Passholders, who can enjoy up to a 15% discount off the Best Flexible Rate when booked through the official Drury Hotels website.
As with all other Disney Springs Area resorts, Annual Passholders can make Disney Park Pass reservations for their length of stay if staying at the Drury Plaza Hotel. This means you will not be subject to passholder daily allotments to the theme parks.
In pricing out a range of different dates, the best pricing I could find was the above. That’s not too shabby for a new on-site hotel at Walt Disney World, but it’s nothing remarkable, either. As with most of the Disney Springs Area resorts, my expectation is that the biggest savings won’t come with any of the above affiliations, but via Priceline, Hotwire, and other discount booking sites.
That’s one thing we loved about its predecessor, the Best Western. That hotel almost always had great last minute rates, and we’d frequently use it as a gap-filler reservation on nights when rates were high elsewhere. I loved that Best Western–it offered great budget accommodations and spacious rooms.
I’m also excited for the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney Springs. I don’t expect it to be anything like the Best Western in terms of pricing, but it should also benefit from being newer and having a more robust slate of amenities. Plus, more on-site hotels and competition is always a good thing, especially at a time when resort prices have spiraled out of control.
We’re also eager to check out another Drury Hotel. Admittedly, our experience is rather limited with this Midwestern chain, but we have heard nothing but great things. It sounds like an excellently-run family operation that takes care of its staff and guests. Based on feedback from friends and other travelers, they punch above their weight and the free hot breakfast and dinner/happy hour services are excellent. That alone is worth a lot for those who can take advantage, as food isn’t getting any cheaper at Walt Disney World! (If you have any feedback about Drury, we’d love to hear it in the comments.)
With that said, there’s absolutely no way I’d book this for November or December. Although Drury claims that the first phase is nearing completion, I’m skeptical. That doesn’t appear true when driving past the property. Although significant progress has been made in the last several months, it looks like there’s still a lot to be done.
If using other recent Orlando hotel projects as benchmarks, it’s impossible to say with certainty that it’ll be done on time. Labor shortages and supply chain woes are ongoing–and there’s the potential the latter could worsen in the coming months.
Anyone who booked the Swan Reserve last February when its reservations opened for summer can tell you how that went. Several delays later, the hotel finally opened–four months late. In fairness, that hotel had some unique issues and delays necessitated by work needing to be redone, but it’s hardly an outlier in terms of construction projects not hitting their original target.
The bigger difference between the Swan Reserve and this is that the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando doesn’t have a gigantic fish pyramid next door to which it can relocate displaced guests. Personally, I would not gamble with a cancellation during what’s likely to be another busy holiday season.
Nevertheless, the Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando is an attractive option, especially for those already planning ahead for 2023 Walt Disney World vacations. As a general matter, we think the Disney Springs Area Resorts are underrated and overlooked by a lot of fans.
That should start to change, especially as visitors find alternative airport transportation to Walt Disney World, which will also open the door to third party hotels for some. The options at Disney Springs are compelling in that they’re technically on-site, significantly cheaper, and offer on-site perks like early entry. For how these hotels stack up, see our Disney Springs Resort Rankings.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Have you stayed at the new Drury Plaza Hotel Orlando at Disney Springs? If so, what did you think of the hotel? How was the breakfast? What about transportation to the parks? Any other highlights or lowlights? Did you ever stay at the Best Western in the same location? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Does anyone have any information on how well the shuttle works? We are staying at the Drury next week and hoping to make it to early entry but are nervous about the reliability of the shuttles. It will be spring break so we know that minutes can make a difference in the morning for some rides! We will also have a car but considering taking the shuttle to save on parking fees at the park!
There is a shuttle schedule so you can make reservations for your departure time.
Just as a note for those considering using the Disney Springs buses – unless something has changed since I visited in January ’23, Disney Springs does not have a direct bus service to any of the four parks. You *can* walk from the hotel over to Saratoga Springs to catch a bus to a park, or take a bus from Disney Springs to a hotel close to the park you want to visit, though. My recs are Contemporary for MK (then walk), Beach Club for Epcot (then walk), Caribbean Beach for HWS (use skyliner), and Animal Kingdom Lodge for AK (use bus).
Also just adding another voice of support for the Drury Chain. I live in STL where their headquarters either is (or was, I don’t really keep updated), and have stayed in them a lot when traveling to local conventions. They really do have nice staff and the free breakfast and Happy-hour are actually worth stopping by for. It’s decent hot stuff, not just a cheap bagel thrown on a plate. I love that there’s no resort fee, too! That alone might convince me to try booking here…
This takes me back, as we stayed there when it was originally the Travelodge at Lake Buena Vista in either 1974 or 1975. We have stayed at several Drury Inns and I find the chain is one that gives more bang for the buck than most other chains. Suddenly quite possible…but not charging a $25 resort fee, but charging a $25 parking fee? Ugh. Still, this becomes a worthy consideration.
Ah the old Best Western. We stayed there once, and there was a raccoon going through the garbage at the pool, and a cockroach floating in the toilet when we checked in.
Hello there – In early December I was the first guest at Drury Plaza Hotel at Disney Springs. Everyone there was incredibly friendly. I stayed for twenty six consecutive wonderful nights. I was treated like family for the entire stay and many treated me like a best friend and I on occasion return to visit with them. The only way to describe my stay there is – SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS! Just me here, disneyjim
I wish they would expand the parks instead of trying to cram more people in via more hotels. 🙁
I just stayed at the Disney Springs Drury hotel from Feb 19-21. The hotel is beautiful even though one tower is still not done. the lobby and pool are very nicely appointed. The employees working there seem to be genuinely happy to be there. the breakfast/kickback dining area take up the entire second floor on the new tower. There are three separate serving lines for food. Currently only using two. There are two bars as all adults over 21 get three free alcoholic drinks during the evening kickback. The only thing I can complain about is that they do charge a $25.00 parking fee. The older Drury by Universal is not currently charging a parking fee.
I look forward to actual reviews from stays. A hotel that gets my party of six early entry at the parks, includes breakfast, and gets a spacious suite with a park view for about half the cost of an AoA family suite seems like a no-brainer. I can use the savings to pay for rides to the parks, not to mention our food budget. I wish more places would standardize this format of two beds and a living area with a sofa bed.
We have a 2 day stay coming up this weekend so I will reply back here! I also am eager to find out how the park will know that I get early morning entry hours…
We stayed here for a few nights in February. It was great! Very clean and the beds were very comfortable. It was maybe a 10 minute walk to Disney Springs. And I wouldn’t worry too much about the shuttle schedule. You could always take a Disney bus back to Disney Springs and walk to the hotel. I definitely recommend this hotel.
Tom is right. Fish. The “Dolphins” in question are the mythological variety you sometimes see on old charts, and are definitely fish. But you have probably also eaten Dolphinfish, as it normally goes by its Hawaiian name on menus (Mahi-mahi). I’m not saying the Dolphins on the hotel are Mahi, but they are definitely not mammals.
a gigantic mammal pyramid next door,.. a dolphin is not a fish
You’ve seen the creatures on top of the Dolphin, right? They are fish, not dolphins.
sorry Charlie,.. Statues of the resort’s namesakes sit atop both the Swan and Dolphin. Each of the two 56-foot tall dolphin statues and two 47-foot swans, weigh 60,000 pounds. These nautical statues are works of art that represent the mythological and contemporary symbols of water, chosen by Graves to further entertain the beholder.
Tom is right. Fish. The “Dolphins” in question are the mythological variety you sometimes see on old charts, and are definitely fish. But you have probably also eaten Dolphinfish, as it normally goes by its Hawaiian name on menus (Mahi-mahi). I’m not saying the Dolphins on the hotel are Mahi, but they are definitely not mammals.
well, not to beat a dead fish but I grabbed that description of the sculptures from the Swan and Dolphin site,.. yes, that antique representation of the dolphin sure looks fishy but maybe the architect should have the last word on his design?
https://swandolphin.com/more/art/
Can anyone verify if you are charged to park you car on a daily basis?
I would like to visit that hotel in August 2023 for our trip to Disney. Any comments about it? I am afraid about shuttle schedule for 4 Disney parks (and 2 water parks). Thank you!
We will also be visiting there soon. We have two ecv’s and called to see if their transportation could take us to the parks.
They said their regular shuttles could not but we could request a special transit from their dispatcher. We could also
ride the ecv’s the short distance to Disney Springs and get a Disney bus which can get us to any park or hotel.
We stayed here for a few nights in February. It was great! Very clean and the beds were very comfortable. It was maybe a 10 minute walk to Disney Springs. And I wouldn’t worry too much about the shuttle schedule. You could always take a Disney bus back to Disney Springs and walk to the hotel. I definitely recommend this hotel.
We were supposed to stay at the Drury Plaza/Disney Springs November 12-20, 2022. We were given a choice to either get a voucher for one-half off a future stay or be relocated to the Drury Hotel near Universal Studios for our current stay. I want to say that we also had a “backup” reservation at a Disney resort, which would be where we would normally stay. My work schedule isn’t very forgiving so rescheduling wasn’t really much of an option…especially since we were wanting to go to a Disney Christmas party in November.
We have been disappointed with Disney leadership decisions recently, so we chose to cancel our reservation at the Disney resort and be relocated to the Drury Hotel near Universal. I have to say that we were given a great deal to stay there and were given early park entry vouchers. We enjoyed the free breakfast nearly every morning and participated in the Kickback (basically happy hour with food/drinks) three or four times. I was really bummed initially about having to drive to WDW every day, but it turned out to not be much of an issue, since we drove our own car.
We took a chance to stay at Drury near Universal instead of staying at our normal Disney resort, but as my wife said, we would have been crazy to pass up a great deal on lodging and try the Drury experience instead of pay to stay at a Disney resort we have stayed in many times already. Drury staff bent over backwards to make our trip as pleasant as it could have been. After the trip was over, we had NO complaints. The hotel was spotless. Driving to WDW wasn’t bad. The free breakfast and Kickback had good food/drinks. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. Our room was quiet and extremely comfortable. We also received a voucher towards a one-night stay on a future visit to any Drury property.
With all this being said, we have already priced out our WDW vacation for later this year. Although the prices of staying at the Drury Plaza aren’t quite as comparable as they were when we booked in 2022 (@ $700 cheaper in 2022 vs. @ $200 cheaper staying at Drury Plaza in 2023), my wife really wants to give the Drury Plaza a try again and I can’t really think of a reason not to do so. I have to qualify all of this by saying we have stayed at many Drury hotels throughout the years and have ALWAYS had a good experience. The Drury team has been impressive throughout our entire experience. It was a difficult decision to cancel our on-property reservation to take a chance on the Drury hotel, but it turned out to be a great decision.
We’ve reached out to Drury’s PR team for an update on the opening date (more than once) and they haven’t responded. If anyone has received an indication from the hotel team (within the last few days) about when they intend to open, please share!
My days were Dec 2, booked through Drury, then through the 9th booked through Disney. The rep, calling from headquarters, said they were going to open the 8th or 9th.
please let me know when you hear from Disney, I’ll let you know if I do too
They left me a message yesterday, 11/11/22, saying they wouldn’t be able to accommodate my reservation for 12/1-12/3/22 and to please return their call. I did and left a message and they called me back today. She said that, because of the new hurricane, the building inspector notified them that they would not be able to inspect them in time to open on December 1 and everything had to be pushed back a week. She said that I could either move my reservation to after December 8 or I could stay at the Drury location closer to Universal for my original dates at no charge. She told me this hotel was only 5 miles further. Since we’re sneaking this trip in when the kids don’t have school and we’re only going to the parks one day and I really didn’t want to hassle with changing flights, I stuck with our original dates. She also told me that transportation wouldn’t be provided to Disney from this location. Since I was being refunded my entire hotel stay, I thought I can pony up the money for Uber/Lyft. She also told me that I would have some type of voucher at the desk to ensure that we could still partake in Early Entry hours. I did receive the confirmation email for our new location showing a zero “total for stay, including tax,” just as she said I would. I did notice that my original confirmation was for “2 queen beds, Deluxe” and the new reservation shows the same, but “Upper floor.” She also said it would take a few days for the hotel costs to process back to my card. She thanked me multiple times and said they were quite disappointed to be running into the trouble, etc. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t check out the new hotel, but pleased with how they handled it.
Joanna that doesn’t seem like a bad deal at all! I just have to wait for Disney since I had booked the rest as a package. But I would agree I was very impressed with how Drury handled the one night we booked directly with them! It’s actually something that really is out of their control and I appreciate how they handle it.
Drury told us today that they won’t be open until the 9th of Dec. our dates are Dec 3-10, my daughter booked through Disney in case this exact thing happened.
she’s going to call Disney today or try to anyway and see if she can get some kind of an answer on where we’ll be put.
We have just received an email from Drury, they say they are opening on the 8th December!
Doesn’t help you Donna, I am sorry and hope you can work it out with Disney.
Have a wonderful trip.