Every Disney World Resort Pool, Ranked (2026)

Not every Disney resort pool is worth building a pool day around, and if you're a DVC owner splitting points across resorts, or just deciding whether a Deluxe upgrade is worth the extra cash, the pool is one of the better tiebreakers nobody talks about enough. Some of these are destinations. Most are just a nice pool at a nice hotel. Here's the honest ranking.

The two that are actually worth a special trip

Stormalong Bay at Beach Club and Yacht Club is the best pool at Disney World and it isn't close. It's a 3-acre water feature shared by the two resorts, with a real lazy river, a roughly 230-foot shipwreck slide, and a sandy-bottom shallow end that feels more like a lagoon than a hotel pool. It's wristbanded, so only Beach Club and Yacht Club guests get in, which is exactly why it's worth booking one of those two resorts over a comparable Deluxe if a pool day matters to your trip. If you've got a free afternoon and access to either resort, go. There's a reason people who've stayed there rarely stop talking about it.

The Lava Pool at Polynesian Village, the one with the volcano, is the other one that earns the trip. A waterslide comes out of a rock volcano, the theming carries all the way down to the rockwork and tropical planting, and it's genuinely fun for kids and adults both. It doesn't have Stormalong Bay's scale, but it's the best single-resort pool that isn't shared property, and it's the reason a lot of families pick Poly over Grand Floridian even though GF sits right next door on the monorail loop.

Very good, but don't switch resorts just for these

Animal Kingdom Lodge splits its two pools between Jambo House's Uzima Springs and Kidani Village's Samawati Springs, and Samawati has a genuinely good kid splash area. Neither is a slide-and-lazy-river destination, but the savanna views from the pool deck are something no other resort on property can offer, and that alone makes the pool experience feel bigger than it technically is.

Port Orleans Riverside has Ol' Man Island, a rustic swimming hole with a rope bridge and a small waterslide that leans into the bayou theme instead of fighting it. It's understated compared to the volcano or the shipwreck, but it's one of the more relaxed pool vibes on property, and the Moderate price tag makes it a real value pick if a great pool matters more to you than a great slide.

BoardWalk Inn's Luna Park pool has the Keister Coaster waterslide and a boardwalk-carnival theme that photographs well, and it sits close enough to Stormalong Bay that BoardWalk guests sometimes forget they don't have wristband access there. Luna Park stands fine on its own; just don't book BoardWalk assuming you're getting Beach Club's pool too.

Caribbean Beach's Fuentes del Morro is themed to a Spanish fort with waterslides built into the fort walls, plus quiet pools spread through the villages if you don't want to walk to the main one. For a Moderate, it overdelivers.

Coronado Springs has the Dig Site, a Mayan pyramid-themed pool with a real slide and a decent-sized layout for a Moderate resort. It's a notch below Fuentes del Morro in scale but the pyramid theming is more distinctive up close, and the Gran Destino Tower rooms are a short walk away if you've got the points or cash for that side of the resort.

Fine if you're already staying there, not worth chasing

Grand Floridian's Beach Pool (with a waterslide and a waterfall) and the quieter Courtyard Pool are both nice, well-maintained pools that match the resort's personality: polished and a little formal. If you're staying at GF for the monorail, the dining, or the walk to Magic Kingdom, the pool is a pleasant bonus, not the reason you booked. Same story at Contemporary, where the Feature Pool and Bay Lake Pool are solid but not destinations, and Wilderness Lodge, where Copper Creek Springs has a modest slide but the real draw at that resort is the boat to Magic Kingdom, not the water.

Riviera's beach-entry pool with a slide facing the Skyliner line is fine, a little underrated actually, but it's competing with a resort whose real selling point is the gondola to two parks, not the water.

Art of Animation's Big Blue Pool (Finding Nemo themed) is the best pool in the Value tier by a real margin, and if you've got young kids who'd get a kick out of swimming near giant Nemo and Dory statues, it's worth requesting that section over the resort's other three wings. Pop Century's three pools (Hippy Dippy, Bowling Pin, and Computer) are fine, standard Value-tier pools, nothing more.

All-Star Resorts and the rest of the Value tier round out the bottom. Each All-Star resort has two themed pools, and they do the job on a hot afternoon, but nobody is picking All-Star Sports over All-Star Movies because of the water.

What this actually means for your trip

If a real pool day is part of why you're going to Disney World, and you're deciding between two Deluxe resorts that are otherwise a wash for your park plans, let the pool break the tie: Beach Club or Yacht Club over almost anything else, Polynesian over Grand Floridian if the monorail loop doesn't matter to you either way. If you're locked into a Moderate for budget reasons, Port Orleans Riverside and Caribbean Beach are the two where the pool itself is a real reason to book, not an afterthought you tolerate once you're there. And if you're at a Value resort, request the Finding Nemo section at Art of Animation before you accept whatever room category the system hands you. The pool won't make or break a Disney trip, but at these prices, it's worth five minutes of research before you book. One water park note while we're on the subject: Typhoon Lagoon has been closed for refurbishment since September 9, 2026, with no reopening date announced, so Blizzard Beach is your water park option for now.