Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs Resort Review
Gran Destino Tower is a new addition to Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World, offering accommodations that are arguably Deluxe-caliber. This hotel review shares room photos, thoughts on amenities, pros & cons of staying here, and getting a near luxury-level experience but at a Moderate price! (Updated September 25, 2025.)
One thing we won’t be covering extensively is the themed design and my personal grievances with Walt Disney World plopping Gran Destino Tower down in the middle of a sprawling Moderate Resort. For that, see our Gran Destino Tower First Impressions & Photos. Likewise, if you’re looking for a review of the outlying building clusters, see our Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort Review.
It cannot be understated just how different the rest of Coronado Springs is from Gran Destino. While the latter is at the former, these are less similar to one another than the Contemporary is to Polynesian Village Resort. The outlying buildings of Coronado Springs are materially different from Gran Destino Tower, even if they are technically part of the same property.
Coronado Springs Resort is Walt Disney World’s main convention center hotel, and Gran Destino Tower undoubtedly was built to satisfy the conventioneer demographic that only has a passing (at best) interest in Disney. This is evident in the general design and substantive offerings, which are reminiscent of Las Vegas. It’s also apparent in the indoor pathway to the convention center, slate of amenities, room features, and much more.
Along with the explosion of high-end dining at Disney Springs and new lounges added over the past few years, this is yet another way that Walt Disney World is catering to demographics beyond just families with small children. To the contrary, Gran Destino Tower seems to intentionally avoid appealing to families.
While there are legit criticisms about how this has resulted in more muted theming, the upside is that regular guests to whom this style might appeal–who aren’t conventioneers–can also take advantage of Gran Destino Tower’s approach.
Our latest update is basically a ‘check-in’ on Gran Destino Tower, as I’ve stayed at Coronado Springs (pretty much an even mix of the tower and outlying buildings) more than anywhere else at Walt Disney World in the last 6 years.
That includes 4 separate stays just this year, most recently within the last month for the 2025 Destination D23, one of the aforementioned conventions hosted at the hotel. During all of these stays, I’ve really come to appreciate Gran Destino Tower and the slate of amenities it offers. The convenience of having everything under one roof cannot be overstated, especially at the end (or beginning) of a long day.
There’s also really something to be said for having both everything under one roof and the sprawling resort complex right outside the door. There’s no other resort at Walt Disney World like this, and I’ve really come to appreciate being able to take advantage of convenience when the situation calls for it, or wandering around a massive and lush resort complex that’s well-themed and transportive.
I may not love that boxy exterior, but Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs Resort offers the best of both worlds. After logging well over a dozen stays here in the last several years, I felt it only appropriate to return to this resort review and share how the hotel has grown on me. It’s now one of my favorites in all of Walt Disney World, and there’s a reason it’s so high in our Rankings of All Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World.
Don’t just take our word for it, though. Back during the NBA Bubble when the league’s season was finished at Walt Disney World, teams were hosted at three different resorts: Coronado Springs, as well as Yacht Club and Grand Floridian–two older Deluxe Resorts, with the latter generally regarded as Walt Disney World’s flagship hotel. Despite that, there were reports that Lebron James, who stayed in the Castillo Presidential Suite at Gran Destino Tower, and other players at Coronado mocked those staying at the, ahem, ‘lesser’ Yacht Club and Grand Floridian (to paraphrase their actual words).
While I still prefer both of those Deluxe Resorts to Gran Destino, it’s easy to see how someone with no nostalgia might prefer the flashier, Las Vegas-style sensibilities of the newer Gran Destino Tower. That’s doubly true when taking the parks and location out of the equation (as the NBA Bubble necessarily did). Suffice to say, Gran Destino Tower punches pretty far above its weight and price point!
Let’s start with a look at the guest rooms in Gran Destino Tower…
Gran Destino Tower offers 545 guest rooms, including 50 suites and Club Level rooms. Regular rooms are differentiated by their view and whether they have two queen beds or one king bed. Rooms are 375 square feet in size, which is larger than other Moderate Resorts.
This is actually larger than some Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts, on par with Epcot Deluxes, and smaller than Magic Kingdom Deluxe Resorts. (See our Hotel Room Sizes at Walt Disney World for more.) In reality, these rooms do not feel significantly larger than regular rooms at Coronado Springs, though. Much of it is devoted to the entry hallway.
The other downside as compared to all of those Deluxes is that Gran Destino does not offer balconies, which is potentially a big blow. During a nicer time of year, I would’ve missed having a balcony, but not during our July stay when the ‘feels like’ temperature was over 100 degrees most of the day.
Guest rooms in Gran Destino have laminate faux-hardwood floors, a sizable desk, wall-mounted smart television, pod-style coffee machine, and mini-fridge (technically a ‘beverage cooler’). The room also has a good amount of storage, with multiple drawers, plus a dedicated armoire, and luggage storage under the bed.
Walt Disney World has been touting this television, which features interactive content and personalization. It’s possible to display Disney PhotoPass images on the screen, and stream from personal devices to the in-room television. (This is another feature that’s reminiscent of Las Vegas hotels.)
In terms of style, there are some accents like the headboard and wall patterns to give the room some semblance of character. Calling this room “themed” to anything would be a colossal stretch, and not even remotely accurate. It’s fine, but if you told me this were a Marriott or Hilton in some random place, I wouldn’t question that.
That’s likely an intentional choice, and we’ll reiterate once again that Gran Destino Tower was designed in large part for conventioneers who aren’t particularly interested in Disney. These rooms will likewise appeal to other guests who want a muted room design. (As is becoming par for the course, there are no bed runners, and the sterile white bedding adds to the boring, vanilla appearance of Gran Destino’s rooms.)
Gran Destino’s bathrooms are among the nicest, but also the most perplexing at Walt Disney World. The bathroom is separated from the main living space by a large sliding door, and there’s another door that divides the two sinks and the glass-walled shower from the toilet…and the shower rack?
This is an interesting use of space in the bathroom, as the sink and shower cannot simultaneously be used except by those who are intimately familiar with one another. It’s almost as if these rooms were designed for couples or parties of one, which would again make sense for conventioneers.
The flip side to this is that this use of space in the bathroom alone will likely make Gran Destino Tower really unappealing to families, as it’ll prolong the time it takes everyone to get ready in the morning. Theoretically, it would take twice as long for everyone to shower and get out the door–that’s a tough sell for parties looking to rope drop the parks.
The good news is that, layout aside, it’s all really nice. It features a hand-held shower head and a ceiling-mounted rainfall shower head. The sink area has a vanity cabinet with plenty of storage and shelving, large mirror. Lighting is multi-directional and brilliantly illuminates the area.
When it comes to room categories, we’d recommend sticking with standard view. It’s cheaper and from this side of the tower, you’re potentially facing Epcot or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The water view is facing away from the parks and towards the rest of Coronado Springs Resort (you can also see Expedition Everest in the distance).
We’d recommend requesting a standard room that faces Disney’s Hollywood Studios or Epcot (some standard rooms will have views of both), and also a higher floor. The reasons for both requests should be pretty self explanatory. These standard rooms will be on floors 3 through 14, with higher level rooms reserved for suites and Club Level.
Gran Destino also offers the ability to book rooms with access to the Chronos Club Lounge, which is Gran Destino’s Club Level. Chronos Lounge serves breakfast, dinner, and dessert options, as well as alcohol and coffee (the espresso is the same as what’s served at Barcelona Lounge!) throughout the day. It’s among the largest Club Level lounges at Walt Disney World.
Chronos Club is also by far the cheapest Club Level at Walt Disney World, often costing around $100 extra per night over standard rooms in Gran Destino Tower. Again, this is because Chronos Club is at a Moderate Resort, so the baseline price is lower to begin with.
Despite this, we view Chronos Club as one of the best Club Levels in all of Walt Disney World. Like Gran Destino Tower as a whole, it punches far above its weight, and offers tremendous bang for buck. The food generally offers something for everyone with comfort cuisine, plant-based options, and more adventurous foods. The lounge is lovely and the views are fantastic.
If you do two meals per day (breakfast and dinner) in the Club Level Lounge, or even just breakfast plus dessert and a couple of beers when you return from the park, you’re already getting your money’s worth on the lower end of the pricing premium spectrum. Chronos Club is one of our favorite splurges, and earns our highest recommendation among all Club Level options at Walt Disney World.
If you’d prefer to do dining at Gran Destino Tower as you go, there are a trio of options. Toledo – Tapas, Steak & Seafood is the rooftop table service restaurant that is arguably California Grill-lite.
The next-door Dahlia Lounge offers one of the coolest bars at Walt Disney World. Downstairs, the lobby Barcelona Lounge is a coffee bar during by day and a bar by night.
Toledo and Dahlia Lounge have become two of our favorite “hidden gem” restaurants in all of Walt Disney World. It’s worth noting that we aren’t the only ones who have high praise for Toledo–it’s one of the few Michelin-recognized restaurants at Walt Disney World.
Toledo and Dahlia Lounge are both closer to what you’d expect at a Deluxe Resort than they are a Moderate Resort. The rooftop location is a huge selling point, and both also offer a nice moody atmosphere and lighting.
These strike us as similar in atmosphere to the adult areas of the various Disney Cruise Line ships. (We’ll also have full reviews of both soon.)
In addition to the convention center on the other side of El Centro, there are a number of meeting spaces in Gran Destino Tower. While it’s unlikely many people reading this will have much use for them, but they’re quiet areas when not being utilized by convention guests.
There are also a lot of public workspaces in the lobby, which are a good option if you need to take your laptop out of the room to get some work done. In general, we found the lobby to be a fairly loud activity hub, so you might want to bring headphones.
We also found the fitness center to be far more popular than its counterparts at other resorts. My plan was to take photos of it at 5 a.m. before anyone was in there, but even at that hour, several people were using it.
I’m not going to awkwardly take photos of people working out, so you’ll just have to take my word that it’s nice. Above is a photo of a random lamp instead.
Elevators are another interesting, nice, and Vegas-like feature of Gran Destino.
Rather than hitting the up or down button, you tap your floor, and the screen directs you to a certain elevator. It’s much more efficient than a normal elevator system, and we loved it. (With that said, I also rode the elevator with no less than 3 parties who were somehow confused when the elevator didn’t stop at their floor.)
Otherwise, resort amenities at Gran Destino Tower are those at Coronado Springs Resort, and are covered in our full review of the main hotel. Since there is no pool inside Gran Destino Tower or connected to it, the most significant of these is the Dig Site pool.
This makes our list of the Top 10 Pools at Walt Disney World; there is a lot to love about this pool area, which has a ton of recreation options beyond just the pool, some of which are more appealing to adults. The Dig Site pool is the main amenity that’s fairly far from Gran Destino Tower and not connected via a covered walkway. You have to use one of the bridges connecting Gran Destino to the outlying resort.
One of the biggest supposed deal-breakers for Gran Destino Tower is transportation. Due to its location at Coronado Springs, this is arguably the nicest hotel in all of Walt Disney World that does not have a novel form of transportation (e.g. Skyliner, monorail, boat, etc.). It’s all buses to the parks.
In addition to that, there are multiple bus stops around Coronado Springs since it’s one of the larger and more sprawling resorts at Walt Disney World. The plus side is that there’s a bus stop right outside Gran Destino Tower; the downside is that transportation can be time-consuming and crowded, especially at popular hours or during peak season.
It gets better when Coronado Springs is hosting a convention, as those guests are less likely to utilize buses. It’s also not nearly as bad during the off-season or even when the parks are only somewhat busy.
Transportation is definitely the biggest weakness of Gran Destino, which otherwise comes very close to being the perfect Deluxe-caliber tower resort at Moderate prices. No big deal if you plan on renting a car or using Uber/Lyft…and the money you save staying here could be put towards that to ease commutes.
For families who are focused on the parks, Gran Destino Tower will have less appeal than other hotels unless you can get past the use of space in the restroom and lack of Disney themed design. There are other upsides, but these two downsides would seem to pretty much make it a non-starter. There’s also the more ‘adult’ and convention atmosphere, which is already a frequent complaint about Coronado Springs and will only be more pronounced at Gran Destino.
Setting aside the issues of theme, scale, etc., this is pretty much all upside for adult couples who book here. Gran Destino Tower instantly becomes our #1 mid-range hotel recommendation for an adults-only trip to Walt Disney World or for honeymooners who are on a budget. As appealing and romantic as Port Orleans is, Gran Destino has it beat on substance.
With Gran Destino, you get the consolidated hotel experience and have almost all of the amenities you need under one air-conditioned roof, and don’t have to brave the Florida sun and heat to have dinner, go to the bar, or use the fitness center. Additionally, the main food court, convention center, and even the bus stops are all pretty close and under covered or indoor walkways.
For some Walt Disney World guests, me included, part of the resort experience is the expansive and lush grounds, with area to explore, enjoy the themed environments, and so forth. As a guest of Gran Destino Tower, you also get that…but only if/when you want it. You don’t have to walk 15 minutes outside from the lobby to your room when it’s hot, humid, or rainy.
Finally, you don’t see the ugly building towering on the horizon if you’re inside said ugly building. This makes staying in Gran Destino Tower something of a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario.
By contrast, guests of the outlying buildings arguably have a ‘worst of both worlds’ scenario: they have to walk outdoors those long distances to Gran Destino or El Centro, while also having tower serve as an eyesore from their building clusters.
Because of this, Coronado Springs Resort now only appeals to us in one of two scenarios: 1) we book Gran Destino, or 2) the outlying buildings are cheaper than every other Moderate Resort by at least $15-20 per night.
Overall, that’s pretty much where we stand with Gran Destino. From the outside around Coronado Springs, it’s an ugly eyesore…but if you’re staying inside of it, you don’t necessarily see that exterior too much. The Las Vegas-lite style won’t appeal to everyone, but the same could be said for more thematically-rich hotels at Walt Disney World, too.
If you don’t care about theme, are value-conscious, want Deluxe-caliber amenities and somewhere with a more adult vibe, Gran Destino is tough to beat. Just keep in mind that even then you’ll have to sacrifice a balcony on your room and being within walking, boat, or monorail distance of Magic Kingdom or Epcot. If you don’t mind all of that, you can save a considerable amount of money by booking Gran Destino. With all of that in mind, it should have tremendous appeal to some Walt Disney World guests.
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Your Thoughts
Does Gran Destino appeal to you? Is the (lack of) theme a deal-breaker for you? What do you think of the bathroom layout? Are the upgraded amenities a selling point for you? Do you agree or disagree with our review? 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!
Hey Tom, we are considering staying here for a couple of nights for 1 day at MK….question for me is on the bus transportation…..when catching the bus outside of Gran Destino Tower or in front of Coronado Springs Lobby does the bus then make the rounds to the other bus stops on the property and then leave to the park???? If so that is the downside for me….I am spoiled by the other resorts and the loop the bus makes would frustrate me so!
Stephanie
I stayed there this past July. The bus transportation was a major downside. When staying in the tower, I believe you are first to get picked up for the internal loop to go to Magic Kingdom. But on the way home, you are the last drop off. Which could easily take 15 minutes. Just for the internal loop. We ended up taking an Uber to go to the parks.
While the rooms in the tower are one of my favorites. A transportation is enough to make me stay elsewhere. Unless you factor in the money, you’ve saved by staying at the tower, use the money you saved towards Ubers/Lyft.
One piece of advice I’d add with the internal loop is just to get off at the first stop and walk if you’re not too tired.
This is what I always do at the end of the night, as it’s a lovely stroll across the grounds and sure beats being packed like sardines on the bus.
If you get the bus at the lobby of Destino Tower, that’s the last stop before it leaves the entire resort area. I walked from my hotel to the front of Destino because it was faster than waiting for all the stops when I was going to a park.
th tower is the last stop on the bus loop. This is both coming and going. The downside here is if the rest of the resorts is busy then the bus can be full before it gets to the tower.
We’ve stayed here for week long trips and have not had that bad of experience, even seeing a quick backup bus arrive after a full bus departs, but to Tom’s point it would just be the weeks we were there too and the guest demographic against a convention.
Even at its worst though it’s a fantastic stay! (and you can always find a quick Uber with the $$ you save!)
Not a fan at all, especially since Grand Destino Towers were built. We stayed both before and after the tower was built (last time was about a year ago.) The best thing there is Cafe Rix. The outlying campus is so huge and felt very isolated from the main entrance.
When we stayed at the towers, it was surprising how there is a lack of outlets in the rooms. Our group of 3 had difficulty charging everything. I find the touch less elevators to be strange—not a fan of getting in a steel box without any buttons inside. Some people may think this is sleek, but it just made me feel claustrophobic. The original check in is now just a huge lounge with a long hall connecting the eating to the tower. It seemed like a big waste of space that Disney could not figure out what to do with it.
The transportation was horrible. We were there when it was relatively busy. We waited for a bus over an hour and ended up taking an uber so we didn’t miss our lightning lane passes.
I am glad other people like it. It is not even on our list at all — even if it had a great price tag.
Do you have a review of the DVC club level rooms at animal kingdom anywhere? Thanks!
Here you go: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/animal-kingdom-lodge-kilimanjaro-club-level-review/
Our collective family opinion: GDT is the best tower hotel in all of WDW, and it elevates all of Coronado Springs to deluxe-lite status. IF you stay there when there’s minimal convention activity then the cost benefit is outstanding, the transportation is perfectly fine, the grounds are delightfully peaceful, and the dining access is outstanding.
A gem hiding in plain sight.
Convention activity is such a mixed bag. It makes the tower itself slammed, especially the bars and restaurants–but transportation and pools are usually much less crowded when there’s a convention, as those guests don’t use the rest of the resort nearly as much.
Kind of hard to hide a gem this tall (and new), but Walt Disney World has managed to do it!
Tom, it’s May 23, 2025 and I’m reading this. You paid $275 a night for Chronos Club?! 2019? The cheapest rack rate room is almost $600/night in January! Wowsers. I think you can get a preferred room at Pop Century for $275/night now
Yes, it was $275 back then…and honestly, I remember thinking it was expensive at the time!
Suffice to say, I’ve removed that price with today’s refresh of the review. What I wouldn’t give to go back to prices ~6 years ago…not to mention included perks like free FastPass, Disney’s Magical Express + luggage handling, etc.
The Towers are much better than the other Coronado rooms. Much closer to dining and transportation. The pool is a long ways from everywhere. I would only suggest staying at Coronado if you can get a Tower room. All others are dated and too far from everything you need.
THIS couple doesn’t go for Disney NOT to have Disney theming . As for an “adult feel”…being around drinkers or people talking about their kids over families having fun isn’t for me. I’m glad they have a place to be separated from the rest of us though so for that! THANK YOU for a funny, well-written and very informative review!
This bathroom design is identical to the guest rooms at Loews Portofino Bay at Universal. We just stayed there as a family of 4, and it does require some extra time/strategy. Overall not a dealbreaker but fairly annoying.
We’ve booked a room in the tower for December. Do all the rooms in the tower have showers? Any have a shower/tub combo? I have a child that only takes baths.
We stayed here in February just before everything closed.we liked the room . Considerable walking distance to the food court which was crowded with getting a seat a challenge. To cap off every thing else, crowds and waits for everything, they charged me $20 per day just to park our car in the hotel lot. Won’t be returning anytime soon.
$20/night is the self-parking price for any Disney branded Moderate Resort Hotels on property. A per night fee for self-parking at Disney Resorts Hotels was implemented in 2019. The fee is $25/night at the Deluxe Resorts Hotels and Villas (when booking through DVC Villas direct through Disney, as a non-DVC owner), and $15/night at the Value Resort Hotels. Valet parking is $33/night at the Grand Floridian, Polynesian Village, Contemporary, Yacht Club, Beach Club, BoardWalk, Wilderness Lodge, and Animal Kingdom Lodge Resorts. These prices all include taxes.
Food for thought, parking at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, managed by Marriott, is $32 + tax/day for self-parking and $42 + tax/day for valet parking. Ironically, Four Seasons Orlando arguably has the best deal for overnight parking on Disney property, coming in at $26/night for valet parking (no self-parking available), but you’ll have to shell out the $1,023/night starting room price (for off season with a fully-obstructed view) first to avail yourself of that “deal”.
Thanks for the review. I booked a room at the Grand Destino for our trip this year. We’ve stayed at the Coronado before (while the building was under construction), so this way we can do a different resort (sort of) while we stay at one we’ve stayed at before.
The bathroom situation is different, but that’s okay. We prefer our showers after sweating in the parks all day instead of before we go to them, so getting ready before rope drop won’t be an issue. Most of the resorts have the toilet in with the shower with the sinks separated. This might work better because the toilet is separated, which means no panic attacks because the child has to go “really really bad!” but someone’s taking a shower so he/she can’t.
The lack of Disney theming isn’t a deal breaker for us, either. The original Coronado rooms don’t have much, and the kids didn’t care. Seems the resorts with the most Disney theming are the values, so we’re okay with sacrificing that for nicer amenities. The kids care more about the pools than they do the theme of the rooms. They can get their Disney fix in the gift shop, during the pool-side activities, and the movies under the stars.
I have to say, we adored the tower. It definitely felt like a deluxe hotel, but the grounds were also lovely to walk. We liked that we got the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here with my kids. I think the internal hallways and access to the food court without going outside is awesome, especially with littles in rainy Florida during mid day breaks. I don’t love over the top Disney theming in my hotel, I like a break from the parks and this certainly provided that.
Stayed at Coronado Springs and had to check in at Gran Destino. Is that normal procedure?
Plus, there was a line of over 20 people with ONE (1) check-in employee. Finally some manager started pulling people out of line, but what is the normal process?
My overall point is: this is a confusing situation. Why isn’t there separate check-in for Coronado Springs? It’s hard to self park, hard to stand in line, and hard to get back to your car with this system.
Overall, Gran Destino seems to be an annoying barrier between you and your room at Coronado Springs.
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I think it looks great-but as you said, more for couples. When I travel back with my husband alone I won’t mind sacrificing traditional Disney theming. I’ll enjoy more of an adult crowd as well.
Booked 2 nights at Gran Destino next month for me and my husband, specifically for the adult vibe. Love the Dahlia Lounge and Three Bridges bar, and am so disappointed that Toledo hasn’t reopened. We’re not even doing the parks this trip, going to enjoy the resort.
Just came back from a 6 night stay at the Gran Destino Tower. My wife and I were there during the power outage which affected our room. We were moved to a room that had a view of Epcot and Hollywood studios so we were able to watch both parks fireworks which was great. Overall the hotel reminded us of the Shanghai Disneyland hotel but with less theming. I also thought the buses were more crowded than normal and we had to take Uber a few times from the park as we would have had to wait for 2 or 3 buses to come before being able to board one. We enjoyed our stay at the tower and thought the staff was extremely friendly. That being said the bus situation majorly detracted from our experience