Six to eight of you in Kissimmee: where to stay

If there are six, seven or eight of you heading to the Orlando parks, you want one of four things in Kissimmee: a two-bedroom at Storey Lake, or the three-bedroom townhouse at Regal Oaks. Those are the shapes that fit a small group without paying for bedrooms nobody sleeps in. 2688 Waterfront Townhouse sleeps eight across three bedrooms with its own hot tub on the lanai. The Storey Lake apartments, 3121-207, 3121-103, 3150-106 and 3191-307, each hold six or seven. Below is how they actually differ, because on paper four of them look identical and they are not.

The Storey Lake four, and how to tell them apart

All four are 2-bed, 2-bath apartments of the same size inside the same gated resort, four miles from Walt Disney World. The free clubhouse waterpark is the reason people book them: heated pool, lazy river, kids' splash zone, water slides, gym, tiki bar, ice cream shop. Mini golf and the kayaks on the lake carry a small per-person fee from the resort. Everything else is in the rate.

Where they diverge is the second bedroom and the view, and for a group of six that is the whole decision.

• 3191-307 sleeps seven, the most of the four. Second bedroom has a double bunk with a twin on top plus a roll-out twin, which is why the number goes up. Lake-view balcony looks straight across the water at the clubhouse and waterpark. Kitchen has an air fryer, and there's a rice cooker.
• 3121-103 sleeps six and is the one to book if anyone in the group has allergies: no carpets anywhere, roller blackout and sun-screen blinds in every room, cotton linen. Frozen-accented master with a king, a Moana-decorated second room with a queen and a twin, and a small boho relax room with a day bed and trundle. The kitchen runs to a slow cooker, an electric grill and a proper set of pans, and there's a cocktail set on the lake-view patio.
• 3150-106 sleeps six, ground floor, and looks at the pool rather than the lake. Second bedroom is done in Animal Kingdom style, queen and a twin. It keeps shampoo, conditioner and body soap stocked, plus coffee and an ice maker, which matters more than it sounds on a July afternoon.
• 3121-207 sleeps six and is the simplest layout: king with a private bathroom, then a full bed and a roll-out. Dining seats six, breakfast bar seats two, lake view off the balcony.

All four keep a pack-and-play and a high chair on site at no charge, and all four have in-unit laundry. If you're travelling with a baby, that combination is the reason to stay in an apartment rather than a hotel room.

Eight people, three bedrooms and a hot tub on the porch

The 2688 Waterfront Townhouse at Regal Oaks is the only one of this group with a private hot tub, and it sits on a screened lanai looking over the water. Three bedrooms: king master with an ensuite, a queen room, a twin room, and a queen sleeper sofa in the living room that takes the count to eight. Two full bathrooms plus a half bath downstairs, which is the detail that stops a group of eight from queuing.

It's also meaningfully bigger than the Storey Lake apartments, with a sectional, a fireplace and a dedicated workspace if someone is dialling into a call between park days. The resort clubhouse is a two-minute walk and has a heated pool, water slides, a jacuzzi, two game rooms with billiards and ping pong, a gym, a tennis court, a restaurant and a poolside bar.

The location is the other argument. Regal Oaks sits a block and a half off Highway 192, next door to Old Town and Fun Spot. Disney is about eight minutes, Disney Springs about nine, Universal twenty to twenty-five. For a group that wants somewhere to go in the evening without committing to another park day, nothing else here is as well placed.

Old Town is the evening you didn't plan

Old Town is eighteen acres of open-air walking district on 192, three miles east of the Disney entrance, and it's free to wander. Forty-five shops, fifteen places to eat, seventeen rides. The Saturday classic car show has been running for more than thirty years, and there are car and motorcycle cruises Wednesday through Sunday. There's an Italian-built Ferris wheel, the Hurricane coaster, the Happy Days Arcade, and Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf with thirty-six holes. Flippers Pizzeria and Old Town Ice Cream do the job after a long park day. Fun Spot America is right alongside.

From the townhouse you're effectively next door. From Storey Lake it's about four miles east along 192, which is a short drive and an easy one, since you'll be on that road anyway for Publix, Target and Walmart, all around a mile from the apartments.

If you came for the bass, not the castle

Lake Tohopekaliga is a different Kissimmee from the one on the resort brochures, and it's a fifteen-minute drive from the parks corridor. Big Toho Marina on Lakeview Drive is the lake's largest ramp, with slips, a bait shop, a fishing pier and the Captain and Tequila Dockside restaurant on the water. Kissimmee Lakefront Park, a few doors down at 201 Lakeview Drive, has six launch lanes and stays open around the clock, plus a splash pad and playground that buy you an hour of peace if half the group fishes and half doesn't.

Two other ramps are worth knowing. Southport Park on the south shore runs three lanes from six in the morning until eight at night, with a restaurant and an airboat concession. Whaley's Landing on the southeast shore is two lanes, open all hours, no facilities at all. Makinson Island sits out in the middle of the lake as a conservation area and you can reach it by boat from the Lakefront ramps. Toho is known for bass and for birds, often in the same hour.

None of the small-group homes here sit on Toho itself. If a dawn launch is the point of the trip, the townhouse at Regal Oaks puts you closest to the highway running east toward the lake, and the Storey Lake apartments aren't far behind.

Picking between them

Six adults who want separate beds and a view should take 3191-307, because the bunk-plus-roll-out second room is the only one that gets to seven without anyone on a sofa. A family of six with a toddler should take 3121-103 or 3150-106: both keep the crib and high chair on site, 3121-103 is carpet-free for anyone with allergies, 3150-106 is on the ground floor with the pool outside. Two families travelling together, or any group of seven or eight, should take the Regal Oaks townhouse, where the half bath downstairs and the private hot tub earn their keep.

One practical note that catches people out: there's no daily housekeeping in the rate at any of these, and the starter pack of toiletries and detergent covers the first night, not the week. Publix is a couple of minutes away. Do a shop on arrival and you'll barely think about it again.

Booking

These five are the small-group end of what we run in Kissimmee. If your numbers grow, the same portfolio runs considerably larger pool houses nearby, including 610PB at ChampionsGate, a five-bedroom townhouse for ten with a private pool and optional heating.

Occupancy limits, house rules and current rates are on each property page, and availability moves fast in school holidays. Book direct with us.