I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about Old Key West, so bear with me.
All of the praised aspects of Old Key West are true. It's quiet. It's a real break from the parks. And on points or on cash it's arguably one of the easiest ways into a Deluxe resort at Disney World, because Old Key West doesn't carry the same demand as the monorail or the Skyliner resorts. The downside is that all of this comes from the same place. It's an enormous resort spread out over a sizable area, and whether it's peaceful or exhausting largely depends on where you happen to be staying, whether you have young children along, and how much your kids have left in the tank after yet another stop on the internal bus loop.
We spent a full week at Old Key West over July 4th week, right in the middle of the America's 250th birthday celebration. It was a family of four in a Deluxe Studio near Hospitality House, something we booked on our own DVC points. That may very well be the best possible setup to experience Old Key West at its best.
Some parts of our stay were excellent. The Sandcastle Pool was the event of the trip for our children. Olivia's Cafe turned out to be better than we'd expected. And the boat trip over to Disney Springs was the calmest part of the entire stay. Other parts of the trip wore on us, something I'll get to in a moment, because they're the kind of things you probably want to know before booking a stay at this resort.
Ultimately, if you're looking for a quiet spot at Disney World with access to Disney Springs and all the perks of a Deluxe resort while stretching your points or your resort budget, Old Key West is definitely worth considering. We're glad we tried it once, but for our next trip we'd likely pick somewhere else.
The Best Thing Here Is the Slower Pace
Old Key West doesn't really try to impress you when you arrive. There's no big lobby moment, and there's no dramatic ride in either. What you get instead looks more like a quiet vacation neighborhood, pastel buildings and palm trees and winding paths along the golf course, with throwback music playing on the walkways. The whole place has an older, slower Disney feel to it, and honestly whether that comes across as charming or dated probably says more about you than it does about the resort.
For us it worked best when we weren't rushing anywhere in particular. Wandering around near Hospitality House, walking over to the pool, waiting on the boat. Those slower moments are pretty rare on a busy Disney trip, and Old Key West seems to be built almost entirely out of them.
The Disney Springs boat deserves its own mention here. After a hot, crowded day in the parks, just sitting on that boat with the breeze coming off the water felt like an actual reset. It was probably the only transportation we took all week that felt like part of the vacation rather than just a way of getting somewhere. If Disney Springs figures into your plans in a big way (here's what's worth doing there and every way to get there), the boat alone moves Old Key West up the list a fair amount.
Our Deluxe Studio Was Convenient, Not Perfect
The studio gave us two real queen beds, not a bed plus a pull-down, and with kids that's a bigger deal than it probably sounds. Everyone slept fine all week, which is not nothing.
Location did a lot of the heavy lifting for us too. Being near Hospitality House meant the pool, Olivia's, and the buses never started with a long walk, and with a stroller in the picture that mattered pretty much every single day. The resort is big enough that I suspect a room out on one of the far loops would have produced a very different review. If we ever book here again, room location is the first thing I'd be asking about.
The room itself was fine. The layout was less fine. The kitchenette sits right next to the bathroom, which felt strange on day one and, if anything, felt stranger by day seven. Not a trip ruiner exactly, but a full week gives the odd design choices plenty of time to make themselves known.
The elevators were the real problem, or more accurately the lack of elevators. Our building didn't have one, so the stroller went up and down the stairs in my arms every single day of the trip. If you're traveling with little kids, heavy luggage, groceries, or anyone with mobility concerns, this is worth checking on before you book. Old Key West has plenty of charm, but it was also built in a different era, and sometimes that era means stairs.
The Pool Carried the Whole Stay
The Sandcastle Pool was easily the best thing Old Key West did for our family, and it wasn't particularly close.
My 11 year old loved the big waterslide, and I'll admit I loved going down it right along with him. It's that classic Disney pool energy where nobody is really watching the clock and the kids always want one more hour than you planned on.
But the memory I'm actually keeping from this trip is my 3 year old in her little life jacket, holding onto a pool noodle, paddling toward us all on her own and laughing the entire way there. For those few minutes there was no pros and cons list running in my head at all. Old Key West just worked.
I also tried the lighthouse sauna near the pool, mostly because it's a sauna shaped like a lighthouse and at some point you just have to. A sauna in Florida in July is a slightly insane proposition and I didn't last very long in there. Fun detail though, and the pool area in general has a lot more personality than the resort's sleepy reputation would suggest.
If your family is actually planning to spend time at the resort rather than just sleeping there, the pool is a real point in Old Key West's favor.
Olivia's Cafe Was the Food Surprise of the Trip
We did breakfast at Olivia's one morning and I ordered the buttermilk chicken, mostly out of curiosity more than anything. It turned out to be the best buttermilk chicken I've ever had, full stop. I did not expect that sentence to come out of an Old Key West review, but here we are.
Olivia's fits the resort well. It's relaxed, it's comfortable, and it's better than it looks on paper. If you're staying here, go at least once. Even if you're not staying here, a quiet breakfast at Olivia's probably beats fighting for a table at the busier resort restaurants anyway.
Transportation Is Where the Resort Gets Complicated
The boat is great. The buses are where your expectations start to matter.
Old Key West is spread out enough that the buses make four or five internal stops, and we were usually the last of them. That's nothing at 9am. At 10pm, with tired kids and a packed stroller, watching the resort roll by your window stop after stop after stop, it adds up. A quiet, spread-out resort sounds wonderful when you're reading about it at home on the couch. It feels a little different at the end of a long park day.
This is also where I'll repeat the location point one more time. Being near Hospitality House softened a good deal of this for us. Without that particular room, I suspect this review would read noticeably grumpier than it does.
And if rope drop mornings matter to your family, the bus timing is part of that math too. Our rope drop guide covers how early you actually need to be up and moving.
A July 4th Fireworks Night We Won't Forget
The biggest single highlight of the trip didn't actually happen at the resort at all. We were there over July 4th and the America's 250th celebration, and I watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the train station up at the top of Main Street.
That spot turned out to be fantastic. It's elevated, it looks straight down Main Street to the castle, and there's air conditioning a few steps away, which matters more than you'd think in July. For this particular show the fireworks launched from all around the park, a full 360 degrees of them, so the whole place felt wrapped up in the celebration. It was one of those Disney nights that ends up feeling bigger than all the planning that got you there.
Old Key West wasn't the reason that night was special, but it was the home base for it. A very quiet resort anchoring a very loud Disney week. If you're considering a holiday week yourself, I'd look at the Magic Kingdom crowd calendar first so you know exactly what you're signing up for.
Who Should Book Old Key West
Old Key West is for guests who want quiet and space more than they want a headliner resort, especially if Disney Springs is a real part of the plan. You still keep resort benefits like early park entry, plus the extended evening hours on the nights they're offered, without paying anything close to flagship prices or point counts.
We're DVC members, and this week came out of our own points, so the value question wasn't exactly theoretical for us. Old Key West is regularly one of the cheapest DVC resorts to book on points, you can see what a week actually costs on the Old Key West point charts, and you can run your own dates through the DVC points calculator before you commit to anything. If you're still deciding whether DVC makes sense for your family in the first place, I'd start with our honest look at whether DVC is worth it.
Skip it if elevators are a dealbreaker and you can't guarantee a building that has one, if layout quirks would bother you over a full week, or if fast park transportation and newer resort energy are what you're really after. None of that is a complaint exactly, it's more a description of what this resort is.
Final Verdict
We came home with some genuinely great memories. My son on the waterslide. My daughter laughing her way across the pool with that noodle of hers. The breeze on the Disney Springs boat, the throwback music on the paths, the buttermilk chicken, the fireworks wrapping all the way around Main Street.
We also came home with the other list. The stairs, the stroller, the awkward kitchenette, and being the last stop on the bus loop after long park days.
Would we stay again? Probably not, unless it was the only Deluxe resort left to book. But we're glad we tried it once. Old Key West is a good resort, and for the right family it's probably a great one. That family just isn't quite ours.