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Waldorf Astoria Orlando - An Official Walt Disney World® Hotel
Orlando, Florida, United States · Waldorf Astoria · High Luxury
Waldorf Astoria Orlando opened in 2009 at Bonnet Creek beside Walt Disney World as the first newly built Waldorf Astoria since the 1931 New York hotel, launching Hiltons brand expansion beyond the mother ship. An 18-hole Rees Jones golf club and official Disney World hotel status make it a meeting-and-mouse hybrid on privately owned land bordered by Disney on three sides.
- 497 rooms
- Opened 2009
- Neighborhood: Bonnet Creek
- Architect: Rees Jones
About Waldorf Astoria Orlando - An Official Walt Disney World® Hotel
- Anchors the Bonnet Creek Resort complex adjacent to Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista.
- Privately owned land bordered on three sides by Disney property.
- Waldorf Astoria Golf Club opened in 2009 as a public 18-hole Rees Jones course.
- Carries Official Walt Disney World Hotel status while remaining Hilton-managed.
History
The land on which Waldorf Astoria Orlando stands has a stranger history than most resort hotels can claim. In 1962, a Hong Kong-based investor named Ling Kai Kung — operating through a secretive entity called World Union Industrial Corporation with a mailing address in the Cayman Islands — purchased approximately 482 acres of Central Florida wilderness for reasons that were never clearly explained. Two years later, Walt Disney's agents began the largest secret land acquisition in American real estate history, assembling the property that would become Walt Disney World. They managed to buy land to the north, south, and west of Kung's parcel, but they could not acquire it. The mystery property sat surrounded by Disney land for decades, unused, while EPCOT and Caribbean Beach Resort and countless other Disney developments rose on three sides of it.
Ling Kai Kung died in 1992, and it was not until the late 1990s that his estate began working with developers and with Disney's governing entity, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, to plan the site's future. In 2006, Hilton Hotels Corporation announced plans for a 1,000-room Signia by Hilton hotel and a 497-room Waldorf Astoria on the property, to share a 115,000-square-foot convention center and an 18-hole golf course designed by Rees Jones. Construction proceeded and both hotels opened on October 1, 2009 — exactly 38 years after the opening of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The Waldorf Astoria Orlando was, notably, the first newly built Waldorf Astoria since the original New York hotel in 1931, and the inaugural property in what Hilton launched as the Waldorf Astoria Collection brand.
The resort occupies a position unique in the Orlando market: officially designated an Official Walt Disney World Hotel while not being a Disney property, offering free shuttle service to the parks, and bordered on three sides by Disney-owned land. A 75-acre nature preserve and the Bonnet Creek water channel separate its eastern and western portions. The Waldorf Astoria Golf Club, which opened the same day as the hotels, was the first golf course to carry the Waldorf Astoria name. Today the 497-room resort — recently renovated throughout — features multiple restaurants, a full-service spa, pool complex, and the 120,000 square feet of convention and meeting space it shares with the adjacent Signia by Hilton, making it simultaneously one of the most intimate Waldorf Astorias in the world and one of the largest meeting venues in the Orlando luxury market.
The setting
Waldorf Astoria Orlando occupies Bonnet Creek Resort Lane within the 482-acre Bonnet Creek enclave, a resort district encircled on three sides by Walt Disney World property on land a mystery investor secured before Walt Disney could acquire it in 1962. The hotel opened October 1, 2009, the same date the original Waldorf=Astoria debuted in New York 78 years prior, making it the first newly constructed Waldorf Astoria since 1931 and the first bearing the Waldorf name outside Manhattan. Disney Springs is 14 minutes by car, Walt Disney World Resort just an 18-minute walk or 24-minute drive, and Disney's Hollywood Studios reachable in 26 minutes, while 75 acres of protected wetlands buffer this Art Deco luxury landmark from the broader corridor. 4.5 miles from Epcot.
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Sauna
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Kids' club
- Golf course
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star (2026)
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