Disney's Old Key West Resort

Quieter and greener than a first-time visitor expects a Disney resort to be, and that is the point of it. Low-rise pastel buildings with white balustrades and tin roofs sit under palms and live oaks, spread along the Sassagoula River and around a golf course, styled as Florida Keys conch houses rather than anything cartoonish. Old Key West was the first Disney Vacation Club property ever built, and it still feels different from everything that followed.

Scale is the first thing to understand. Old Key West covers a very large site broken into named neighbourhoods, and buildings are scattered rather than gathered. Hospitality House is the centre, holding reception, the restaurant, the shop, the main pool and the boat dock. Some accommodation is a two minute stroll from it. Some is a genuine walk, and that is why building location matters more here than at almost any other Disney hotel.

Villas are the reason people book and rebook. Old Key West was built before Disney worked out how to make villas smaller, so the accommodation is unusually generous for the tier, with proper living rooms, real kitchens and balconies you can actually sit on. Families who have stayed here once tend to find newer resorts cramped by comparison.

Early Theme Park Entry applies as it does at every Walt Disney World hotel, letting your party into a park 30 minutes before the published opening time on each morning of the stay. Extended Evening Hours come with the Deluxe Villa tier, so you are eligible for the late sessions Disney runs at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Old Key West is one of the more affordable ways into that perk.

Character is the honest selling point. There are no fireworks views, no gondolas and no monorail, and the theming is gentle rather than immersive. What you get instead is space, greenery, a boat to Disney Springs and the sense of staying somewhere residential, which suits a long stay far better than a themed courtyard does.

Start with the Deluxe Studios, the entry category and the one most UK families price first. Sleeping arrangements are built around a queen bed plus additional sleeping surfaces, and layouts vary between villas, so check the bed configuration shown on the booking page for your own dates rather than assuming. Cooking is by kitchenette, with a small fridge, a microwave, a sink and a coffee maker, which covers cereal, milk, cold drinks and reheating.

One Bedroom Villas here are the reason Old Key West has such a loyal following. You get a separate bedroom behind a door, a full kitchen with a cooker, a full-size fridge and a dishwasher, a proper living and dining area, a washer and dryer inside the villa and a whirlpool bath in the main bathroom. Rather than a hotel room with extras bolted on, it reads as a small flat, and after ten days in Florida that distinction stops being abstract.

Two Bedroom Villas add a Deluxe Studio alongside the one bedroom layout, giving two bathrooms and enough room for two couples or a family travelling with grandparents. Three Bedroom Grand Villas sit at the top of the range across two storeys and suit the largest parties, though inventory is small and they need booking well ahead.

Laundry is the detail that matters most on a fortnight. Two weeks of park clothes in Florida humidity produce an alarming amount of washing, and having a machine and a dryer behind your own front door means the family packs for a week and washes twice. Studio guests use the guest laundry rooms near the pools instead and pay by card.

Location within the resort is a booking decision in its own right. Villas near Hospitality House put you by the main pool, the restaurant, the shop and the boat. Villas out at South Point, Old Turtle Pond or Miller's Road are quieter and greener but further from everything, with their own bus stops and quiet pools. Make the request when you book and repeat it at check-in, particularly if anyone in the party struggles with distance.

Loungers are usually findable here even in August, which is not something you can say of many Disney pools. Sandcastle Pool is the feature pool, holding around 149,000 gallons beside Hospitality House, with a deck generous enough to absorb a crowd. A sandcastle-shaped water slide drops into the main water, a lighthouse stands alongside with a dry sauna at its base, and there is a whirlpool spa, a small sand play area and a separate kiddie pool for toddlers. Depth suits mixed ages.

Three quiet pools are spread through the resort, in the Old Turtle Pond, South Point and Miller's Road neighbourhoods, and each has its own whirlpool spa. Guests staying near one tend to use it as their default and only visit Sandcastle when the children want the slide. Having a pool a minute from your own villa is one of the underrated pleasures of a resort this spread out.

Activities on the daily schedule include themed pool parties, pool games, relays and trivia, all listed in the My Disney Experience app. Lifeguards work posted hours, towels are provided, and the slide carries a height requirement, so check it before promising anything to a small child.

Dry recreation is better here than at most Disney hotels because there is space for it. Tennis and basketball courts, shuffleboard, a playground, a games arcade and a fitness centre sit around Hospitality House, and bikes can be hired for the paths that link the neighbourhoods. Boat hire and fishing outings run from the marina on the Sassagoula River, and Community Hall lends games and runs children's activities on wet afternoons.

Walking and running deserve their own mention. Paved paths loop the whole property past water and golf holes, and early mornings here are properly pleasant before the heat arrives. Guests who like a resort they can wander around rather than one they simply sleep in usually end up loving Old Key West for exactly this reason.

Disney Springs is the immediate neighbour and the reason many guests choose this side of the resort. Boats run there directly, there is no admission charge, and you get a two-storey World of Disney store, cinemas, live music and dozens of restaurants. Arrival evening is the obvious time to go, while everyone is still five hours out of step with home.

Typhoon Lagoon water park sits close by, as does Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa across the water, and the Lake Buena Vista golf course wraps around parts of the property. Golfers have a course on the doorstep, which is unusual at Walt Disney World and worth knowing if that is part of the trip.

Parks are all a similar distance by bus. Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom each sit within a reasonable coach ride, though none is walkable and none has a direct water or gondola link from here. Plan around the bus times rather than assuming you can pop back mid-afternoon.

Off property, the shops and supermarkets around Lake Buena Vista, Palm Parkway and Highway 535 are roughly 2 to 3 miles east and are the closest proper grocery run of any Disney resort. Publix is where most British families end up for breakfast supplies, drinks and washing powder. Universal Orlando is about 11 miles north east on Interstate 4, 20 to 25 minutes outside rush hour.

Anyone with a hire car and a spare day should know that Clearwater Beach on the Gulf coast is around 95 miles west, a comfortable morning's drive on Interstate 4 and a proper break in the middle of a fortnight of parks.

Long-stay families are the core audience and Old Key West rewards them properly. Two weeks in a one bedroom villa with a full kitchen, a washing machine, a living room and a balcony is a completely different holiday from two weeks in a hotel room, and it is usually the least expensive way to get all of that inside the Disney bubble.

Larger parties do well here too. Two Bedroom Villas give two bathrooms and enough living space for six or seven people to coexist, and Three Bedroom Grand Villas keep a big family group under one roof rather than split across corridors. Space per pound is the resort's strongest card.

Repeat visitors who already know Walt Disney World tend to gravitate here. Once the pressure to see everything has gone, the quiet paths, the golf course, the boat to Disney Springs and the pool a minute from your door start to matter more than a themed lobby. Plenty of British families come back to Old Key West year after year for exactly that.

First-time visitors with young children should think carefully. Everything is by bus, the site is large, and there is no fireworks view, no gondola and no walking route to a park. A family determined to do four parks in seven days with a four year old will find the logistics harder here than at an EPCOT-area resort.

Anyone with mobility needs should book with care rather than avoid the resort. A villa near Hospitality House works very well indeed, with the restaurant, the shop, the main pool, the boat and a bus stop all within a short flat walk. A villa out at Miller's Road with the same needs will not.