I m going in Christmas, so which one is better to stay in?thank you
Lake Buena Vista is a town, and a lake that the town is named after, on Disney property. Think of it more like a geographic area rather than a resort. Lake Buena Vista sometimes refers to a golf course and a group of hotels that are not owned by Walt Disney World; but are on Disney property near the Downtown Disney Marketplace. Sometimes locals refer to Downtown Disney as Lake Buena Vista. There is also a restaurant and shopping area near these hotels that is not owned by Disney called The Crossroads of Lake Buena Vista .Downtown Disney is a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex on Disney property and operated by Disney. You can use the Disney transportation system from hotels operated by Disney or from the theme parks to get to Downtown Disney, or you can drive your own car to park there. There is no fee to park at Downtown Disney. There is a movie theater there; and also DisneyQuest, Cirque de Soliel, House of Blues Concert Hall-which all charge admission. There is no overall admission fee to walk, shop, or dine at Downtown Disney.Downtown Disney at Walt Disney Worldhttp://disneyworld.disney.go.com/destina��Celebration is a housing and business area developed by Walt Disney World; it is now managed by a separate company Lexin Celebration Commercial LLC. There are single family homes, condos, and a Town Center business district with shops, restaurants, and other small businesses. Celebration Floridahttp://celebrationtowncenter.com/My personal preferance is to stay at a hotel or resort operated by Disney on Disney property. There are benefits to staying at a Disney operated resort that you don t get at other hotels on Disney property.Walt Disney WorldAccommodationshttp://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts��Here are examples of hotels in Lake Buena Vista (Disney property) that are not operated by Disney; Hilton Orlando Resort Lake Buena Vista http://book.hotelreservations.com/hotel/��Hyatt Regency Grand Cypresshttp://grandcypress.hyatt.com/hyatt/hote��Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spahttp://www.buenavistapalace.com/services��Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista, Downtown Disney Resort Areahttp://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en�� are nice but don t include all the benefits of the Disney hotels; still worth a look though:
Downtown Disney is like the movie National Lampoon s Christmas Vacation complete with slobs.Celebration is like the movie It s A Wonderful Life complete with banking crisis.Downtown Disney does not charge for entry but the North Pole has the most Christmas activities.
Lake Buena Vista is the Disney area. It is full of activities, hotels, restaurants etc. It is at the entrance to downtown Disney, making access to Disney easy. It is close to the I 4, the cross town highway. In other words, you d be right in the middle of the action. If you stayed in Celebration, you d be staying in a neighborhood. Although it is lovely , there is little to do in the town. There are a couple of restaurants, a movie theater, a sports bar, a coffee shop. There is a lake in the middle of town and 1 hotel which is very expensive and small and not really a place to stay if you re looking for a fun place. Basically, it is a quiet area but lovely. If you re young you wouldn t be happy there as you d have to leave the area every day to go find fun. You would be close to the 192, a highway that goes to disney and has lots of action, hotels, restaurants etc You could stay in that area. You would NOT have to pay to go to Downtown disney, it is free to park and to walk through. There are more activities in Lake Buena Vista and it s closer to all the disney parks so my recommendation would be to stay in that area.Have a good time.
downtown disney is in the thick of it all, it is close to disney quest, hard rock cafe and just a small ride to the parks as it is in the disney area. we wnet into celebration area the last time we were there and it is a small `town`, it has very old fashioned houses, quite old american style, it has a lake in the centre of it, but it is off the 192 as I recall, close to old town kissimmee. it is beautiful but not as close to the parks. if you book a villa though you may well be put in one on 192, so i d hire a car if I was you, as some of the sub-divisions are quite a wee drive away from parks. if you can get Lake Buena vista, then go there, I stayed there when I was only 11 with my parents in 1980, and my parents tell me it was very close to it all, but the times we ve taken our kids we stay in a villa on 192, but hire a car, so we can get aout.Hope that helps.