Disney's Florentine Hotel Review

Disney’s Florentine Resort is the newest hotel at Mumbai Disneyland Resort. It is themed to Renaissance-era Florence, with a careful Marco Polo backstory connecting it to the greater resort. This review features room photos, our thoughts on amenities, and whether it’s worth booking a stay here during your vacation to Mumbai. (Last updated April 13, 2020.

Though Mumbai Disneyland doesn’t do tiered hotels, regarding cost we would rank the Florentine as a Moderate. This was a wise decision by Disney, to act as a balance between their Deluxe-value Mumbai Disneyland Hotel and their Value-level Mickey & Pals Hotel. The Florentine offers great value for its price, with a really well-executed theme and nice amenities which make it feel more “Discount Deluxe.”

We stayed at the Florentine for two nights, and we were profoundly blown away by its depth. This resort feels like stepping back in time to Renaissance-era Florence (there’s more than a little Venice here too), into the time of Marco Polo…or Mickey Polo, as the hotel depicts him. Polo's Asian travels let Disney use a surprising amount of Indian elements in this Italian hotel. For local guests, the Florentine is surely a great mix of the familiar and the exotic.

The Renaissance vibe is evident the moment you arrive, crossing a medieval bridge over the Arno River. The hotel rises like a Tuscan villa up from manicured gardens. We arrived via taxi along the resort’s outer ring road, and the slow curving reveal of the Florentine behind rows of cypress trees was both understated and beautiful.

A replica of Il Duomo anchors the resort. Radiating from this center, the hotel resembles sun-baked townhouses under red tile roofs. Cracked plaster facades reveal masonry beneath, giving the resort a fantastic lived-in quality. We emerged in the Piazza Florentina taxi drop-off point, which circles a fountain replica of Trajan’s Column. On closer inspection, its levels chronologically tell of Marco Polo’s travels.

The entry lobby, set inside the dome, is wow-inducing. The interior is a fusion of Medici Palaces, with ample artistic liberties taken to make it more than a mere copy. A centerpiece statue of “Mickey Polo” under the cupola makes the space unmistakably Disney. Authentic Eastern artifacts on display make it unmistakably Indian.

There were families waiting, and children playing near an epic fireplace. Colorful tapestries depicted Mickey’s travels east. Savvy touches like this make the Florentine both very adult and very child-friendly!

We passed through a glass-covered courtyard to check in. It was surreal standing in natural sunlight without feeling Mumbai’s sweltering humidity. The cast members were very efficient, and I almost wish we had more time to soak in the atmosphere. I quickly ducked into the nearby Galleria Mercantile purchase a power converter, and I had no trouble getting one even with the language barrier. This also proved to be the best shop on-property to get resort-branded merchandise.

Our coverage of the Florentine’s thematic details only scratches the surface. The result of such rich design is that you are transported away from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai to a quiet palatial villa centuries ago and continents away.

A quick word on location. The Florentine is located on the southeastern shore of Storybook Lake. Of all the resort’s hotels, it is the furthest from Mumbai Disneyland but also the closest to the new Disney Bazaar shopping district. While everything on-property is easily walkable, nearby shuttle buses and Storybook Lake boats make park access even more convenient! Hotel guests also 30 minutes of early access to the park, which in an invaluable perk.

Let’s take a look inside the guest rooms…

It’s no surprise at all that the rich detail of the common areas is matched in the rooms. Rooms glisten with fine Oriental carpeting, hardwood floors, and Renaissance paintings on the wall depicting Disney characters (we loved the “Minnie Lisa”). Molding also featured characters. The designers really nailed the balance between Disney theming and luxury.

The Florentine has 5 floors and 504 total rooms. Each room has the option for Standard Bed or King Bed. The bedding was very comfortable, and slightly softer than elsewhere in India.

There are a few view options available when making reservations. We opted for the Storybook View, which offered panoramic views of Storybook Lake and a cool breeze. What could be better? How about unobstructed nighttime viewing of the Electrical Water Pageant! Less expensive room options include Piazza View and Garden View. We’re sure these are also amazing, but we totally recommend splurging for a lake view!

Bathrooms are nice too. They offer western-style fixtures, which can be hard to come by in India. One very nice touch was the shower tile work of Medici Mickey & Minnie. There were lots of Florentine-branded toiletries, which I stole.

The Florentine includes three fancy suites at Deluxe pricing. I spoke with the managers in advance, and they let me take pictures inside the Michelangelo Suite on the top floor. Disney’s Imagineers went above-and-beyond in here, from inset murals to wrought iron lighting fixtures. I loved the soothing, masculine vibe. Too bad it’s beyond our usual price range! We didn’t get to see the Honeymoon Suite or the Botticelli Suite, which I’m assured are both far more feminine.

The hotel grounds transport you lightyears from the chaos of Mumbai. This will likely be one of the Florentine’s overlooked selling points! I could spend hours wandering the villa garden pathways, inspecting the detailed Fab Five Renaissance statues on plinths, listening to the gentle fountains, and just generally getting lost in the ambiance.

Thankfully, there’s more to the Florentine’s grounds than the manicured sculpture garden. Disney always excels at rockwork, and they’ve nestled the hotel into a lush limestone karst mountainside. Tiered waterfalls and crystal-clear pools – apparently inspired by Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes – take you back to an Arcadian nature. I was reminded of Wilderness Lodge’s geyser pools, even though this is totally different.

The Arno Springs Pool is another fine addition to Disney’s portfolio! It nicely unites the two garden areas. Thematically, the pools resemble a Roman bathhouse built into the Croatian coastline. The aqueduct water slide is tons of fun! Families flocked to this area in late afternoon to cool down or grab a bite at the nearby Cucina Tuscana.

The Florentine offers many other recreation activities. Hiking trails circle Storybook Lake, and I made it a point to wake up extra early before Mumbai’s heat set in to get a quick morning job. The resort hosts Movie Nights in a lobby-side den. There’s also a fitness center near the pool, which I didn’t get a chance to visit, plus a few other typical amenities.

With regards to restaurants, the Florentine more than holds its own. My favorite would be Carnival Café, not so much for the food – a typical family-friendly Disney buffeteria offering both Continental and Indian options – but for the setting. This is one of the most playful restaurants Disney has made!

Words cannot describe how festive, silly, and overall simply fun the Carnival Café is! Image a restaurant where it’s Mardis Gras 24/7. Okay, maybe that’s not the right term. “Venetian Carnival” is more accurate, but maybe more obscure. Any way, imagine gigantic Disney-themed character masks everywhere, turning what is nominally a float warehouse into a colorful and surreal dreamland that totally fits the overall Mumbai Disneyland vibe like a (white four-fingered) glove! Naturally, there are ample character meet & greets.

At night, Carnival Café is made even better by Mickey’s Merry Masquerade. This is a family-friendly dinner theater show that’s equal parts Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue and Cirque du Soleil.

There isn’t really any story to Mickey’s Merry Masquerade. It's rather a pageant of characters and color and song. Many beloved Disney tunes play, all in a Bollywood-meets-Renaissance style, and the result engages audiences tremendously well. The climactic showstopper is “Topsy-Turvy” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is perhaps slightly anachronistic for the setting but after seeing it done it’s hard to say what would work better.

For a quieter, more adult meal, I recommend the Florentine’s signature table service establishment, Ristorante Marco Polo. It is set on the hotel’s lower level with pristine, intimate views of the Arno River. The beautiful indoors dining room is spacious and airy, while outdoor seating evokes romantic thoughts of the Venetian canal. Food-wise, they offer a combination of Indian and Italian. My favorite was the cold minestrone soup as an appetizer, which was tremendously refreshing in Mumbai’s humidity. The Marco Polo concept lets the Florentine cleverly maintain theme while still satisfying local tastes.

Additional restaurants include Cucina Tuscana, a rustic stonework villa (set near the Arno Springs Pool) which does tasty quick service pizzas. We ordered them as room service, and the resulting meal was a pleasant surprise – far better pizza than we’ve come to expect from either Disney or India.

Refreshment Workshop is another good quick service option. They mostly serve wraps, which is a clever way to justify both Western- and Indian-style food in one setting. I was particularly fond of the tandoori chicken wrap with fries, but there’s no bad option here. Vegetarian options here and elsewhere on property are plentiful and tasty.

This eatery includes an extensive sit-down dining area themed to Leonardo Da Vinci’s workshop. Disney put a lot of work into this, and it pays off both aesthetically and with crowds. Fully animated flying machines and ornithopters following overhead guide wires kept the families we saw endlessly entertained.

Medici Lounge is a bar located just off the lobby, set in a vaulted wine cave. It’s classy and usually pretty quiet, since we noticed that Indian culture doesn’t much do casual drinking. In that way it’s a lot like the Bacchus Lounge at Shanghai Disneyland. I only ever saw westerners here. Happily Mumbai Disneyland is popular enough with foreigners that shouldn't be a problem for them.

(Expect full reviews of the Florentine’s restaurants eventually.)

Overall, Disney’s Florentine Hotel is a fantastic addition to the Mumbai Disneyland Resort. It bridges the gaps between existing hotels, and adds an exotic international theme which doesn’t betray the resort’s Indian style. The pricing maxes out at $275/night here, putting it squarely in the Moderate category by foreign standards. That’s somewhat expensive by Indian standards, though still cheaper than Mumbai Disneyland Hotel and offering a similar high-quality experience. If you're visiting India anytime soon, I would highly recommend a night or two here. It matches and exceeds so much that Disney has already achieved in Mumbai.

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If you’re thinking of visiting India for the first time and are overwhelmed with planning, definitely check out our Mumbai Disneyland Resort Planning Guide. It covers much more of the resort, from getting there to WIFI to currency and much, much more.

YOUR THOUGHTS...

What do you think about Disney’s Florentine Hotel? Have you stayed here? Want to stay here? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!

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