limited options-family of five?

[allison443]

We would like to visit Disney World with our three daughters ages 15, 10 and 5. We last visited six years ago, we only had two daughters then! In looking at the options for accomodations on site it seems our only possibilites are Riverside and the Beach Club. Those resorts allow five people per room. Otherwise to stay at any other resort, would we have to get two rooms? Can it possibly be true that every family with 2 adults and 3 kids stays at either Riverside or Beach Club? Thank you for any information you can give me!

[JillU-DVC]

Depending on your budget, you should really consider the Home Away from Home Resorts (Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas and the Beach Club Villas which open July 1, I think).

For a family your size, I would suggest a 2 bedroom villa. You'll get a master bedroom with a king sized bed, LARGE bathroom with a whirlpool tub, two vanities and a separate shower. Plus a 2nd bedroom with 2 queen sized beds (at OKW; other resorts have 1 queen sized and a fold out sofa), a bathroom for the 2nd bedroom, plus a living room and full kitchen, and at least one balcony. And there's a washer and dryer in the villa! One of the sofa's in the living room will be a sofa bed, giving you the 5th bed you're looking for. There will be 3 TVs (one in each bedroom and 1 in the living room). Plus with 3 daughters, I'm sure the 2nd bathroom would come in handy!

You can stay at any of the above resorts by paying with cash through CRO, or you can rent points from a member of the Disney Vacation Club. You can look for points to rent at:

DVC Point Rental board (http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=29)

You can check to see how many points you'd need to rent at:

DVC Points calculator (http://www.wdwinfo.com/resort/dvcpoint.shtml)

In general, people charge around $10 per point to rent points to you.

These resorts are absolutely beautiful, but beware, you may get used to all the extra space. I've been a DVC owner for only 2 years now, and I keep thinking I need to add more points! Plus we've gotten spoiled, and now I only want to stay in 1 bedrooms!

Look into this option - in my opinion, it's the best way to go!

[cottontail]

Hi
I would think that you could also go to the polynesian they have two queens and a daybed the size of a single bed. Also the contemporary has the same bed set up.

You could book two rooms at the all star.

Deb.

[LKS]

The deluxes are definitely an option. Our family of 5 is staying first at the Contemporary, then at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. At AKL, you will need to get a Deluxe room to accomdate 5.

[daannzzz]

Grand Floridian
Contemporary
Polynesian
Yacht Club
Beach Club
Wilderness lodge ( deluxe room)
Animal Kingdom Lodge ( deluxe )
Port Orleans Riverside
.... all these can accomodate 5 along with the home away from home resorts.

[Ricola]

POR's Bayou rooms hav 2 double beds and a rollout trundle bed; they are bot huge roome, but IMO there would be room for your family!

[Uncle Mikey]

I think you should really consider booking two connecting rooms at the All-Stars. This would give you two bathrooms. You could also put the children down to sleep early in one room and allow a little peace and quiet time for the two of you in the other.

[Momto8]

We've stayed 5 (2 adults and 3 kids) in a room at POR, BWI, Dolphin, and YC. We've also gotten 2 connecting rooms at the All Stars. I like having the two bathrooms, but also like staying in a deluxe if there are good rates available.

[tsharkey]

I'm in the same situation as you, with 3 kids ages 13, 10, and 6. All of the suggestions in your responses seem very costly. There is no value resort or moderate other than Riverside available to families of 5. Any resort outside the park allows 5 in a room no questions asked. If you don't mind the tight quarters neither do they.

I have addressed this problem to guest relations and had a nice talk with the lady on the phone. Email me for details. It might help if you email them with your concerns. The reasoning behind it is fire codes. What is the difference between a crib in the room or someone with a roll away? Cribs are allowed I think. I suggested Disney make rooms available for 5 when building Pop Century as they do with Riverside.

Wouldn't it be nice to try another reasonably priced Disney Resort other than Riverside? Riverside was fabulous and fun but the kids would love to try something else next time.

[LBYC-19]

This trip we are getting two rooms ( three teens now) at the Dolphin (with DC discount which will be 50% off rack rates), and we are paying the same price for one room at the Dolphin as my sister is at PO-R, and I'm pretty sure the Dolphin room size is bigger. We always request ground floor/poolside as it gives us an extra "room" with the patio. It's a deluxe resort in a beautiful location in the Boardwalk area, and the price with the Disney Club discount can't be beat! Without this rate, we surely would have been off site as we are going during a peak spring vacation week. Good luck.

P.S. There are many Dolphin threads on this board that will probably answer any question you have (and those you would never think of, too!)

[twinmomto3boys]

Allison,
I just posted a response to you on another board!
We are going to have the same problem next year. We are a family of 5, but our youngest is still in a crib so we have more options this year. Next year we will either buy into the DVC or stay off site. We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa at the Wilderness Lodge in January and we LOVED it! We got a discount, but it was still expensive.

We love staying on site and have been staying on site for years, but this whole situation sure is tempting us to try off site especially with early entry perks gone. We have been looking into Vistana Villages for off site. It's a new Sheraton resort. They have 2 bedroom villas with a full size kitchen and washer dryer. $120 night for December with 7th night free. Check out the boards for off site resorts if you are interested in that.

Wilderness Lodge has deluxe rooms that sleep more than 4 (6 I think). That is another good option as someone else already mentioned.

Good luck!
RobinL

[Sammy]

Another family of 5 with the same problem here.....

If Annual Passes are an option for you, I noticed on Mousesavers that AP rates for the All Stars will be $54 (8/25/02-9/30/02). With tax, it comes out to the same for two rooms at the All Stars as for one room at POR. Even though we love POR, we are considering this other option for sometime in September....it would actually be great to have two bathrooms, 4 beds, and room to spread out a bit more.

[Lewisc]

You'd really be a lot more comfortable staying offsite in a place like Vistana. Even if Disney changed the rules, 5 people is really too many for the size rooms they have.
BWV only sleep 4 in a 1 bedroom. I really think that's not fair, they could have put 2 queen or double beds in some of the MBR and still had plenty of space. A 2 bedroom is a good (but very pricey) alternative.

[kimmar067]

...I used your link to the above post with the points calculator. What does the column with "Magic" mean...???

[threeboysmom]

This is a major concern with my DH and I and a big reason why we stay offsite so much. The trundle bed at POR is a good idea. Why don't they have these at more of their resorts? It doesn't take up space and would only be used by those families who need an additional bed in the room. It certainly couldn't cost Disney that much to install trundle beds at all their resorts (in a small percentage of rooms at each) for families to request if they have more than 2 children. Just a thought....

And by the way, how many of you actually "live" in your hotel room during the day? Those rooms are plenty big enough for 2 adults and 3 children (even 4 if they're young). All you're doing is sleeping anyways.... And getting ready in the morning is no big deal either (well, unless you have teenage girls in your room with you :) )

Disney, are you listening?

[fortwilderness]

All of the Fort Wilderness Cabins sleep 6 plus you have a full kitchen. There are two regular beds and a bunk bed so your girls wouldn't have to share a bed if they didn't want too. They are very reasonably priced in comparison to the other properties in the "world". :)

[kimmar067]

...so that JillU-DVC can read (and answer) my previous post on this thread.....:earseek:

[Richyams]

I would vote for an OKW one or two bedroom unit.

[glo]

Check out the Swan and Dolphin FAQ on this site. You can get to it by clicking on the link below. They have quite a few discounts offered, and you can put 5 people in the room, be within walking distance of MGM and Epcot, and the Boarwalk is only a minutes walk away.
Good luck and look at the discounts....

[BCV23]

Our family of 5 has stayed many, many times at the Poly and never felt crowded. The newer buildings are a little larger and are also closer to the TTC. We also did the cabins twice many years ago when our second and then third child were babies. Lots of fun.

[kimmar067]

...first post on this thread, I asked about the "magic" column. Can someone P L E A S E answer my question......????
(re: point calculator.....it show you how many points you need to purchase. In the 3rd column it says "Magic" and I would like to know what that means...)

[Richyams]

That third column is the season. Points per night vary at diffferent times of the year. Those times are broken up into seasons. Magic, Adventure, Dream....and there are two more...I think there are a total of five different seasons.

[wdwnutze]

We are also a family of 5 and have stayed at the Poly 2x. We find the rooms to be very spacious. We stayed in the Tahiti bldg last Aug.(I think the rooms are among the largest in that bldg.) We had 2 adults, 17yo ds, 9yo dd, and 2 1/2yo dd and felt we had plenty of room. We enjoyed having a 1st floor room so we could enjoy the patio and the kids could play on the beach and the grass in front of the room. We started our stay out at the BC and found the rooms to be much smaller than the Poly so we requested a resort change which they did no problem.

[kimmar067]

So does Magic mean a season like "value season", "peak season", etc....????

[Richyams]

I am sorry, I just spent the last fifteen minutes looking for the point charts on line. I guess I could get up and walk over to my cabnet and pull mine out, but that would be WAY too much trouble.

If you ask about the seasons and their relative requirements, I am sure someone there will post the order of the seasons in seconds.

[Richyams]

Adventure, Choice, Dream, Magic, Premier

These are the seasons from the lowest point season, Adventure, to the highest point season, Premier.

I found it...

[kimmar067]

...Richyams for your speedy reply!!
(Actually I was hoping it would mean "Magic" as in "Magic Plan" - entry to parks & one perk as in the packages offered by Disney)
Well, I can dream, can't I...!?!?!?!

[JillU-DVC]

Sorry, guys, I've been out sick for the last several days and have not read the boards. To answer kimmar067's question about "Magic" season, here's what I found in my DVC manual for year 2002; other years would be similar except the holidays would be different.

It's really just a way of rating the year with different point values - more popular times of the year cost more in points per night to stay than less popular times of the year.

Adventure season (with certain holiday exceptions)
Jan 1-31
Sept 1-30
Dec 1-14

Choice Season
Oct. 1-31
Nov 1-26
Nov 30
Dec 15-23

Dream Season
Feb. 1-15
May 1-31
June 1-10
August 16-31

Magic Season
Feb 16-28
March 1-23
April 7-30
June 11-30
July 1-31
August 1-15
Nov 27-29

Premier Season
March 24-31
April 1-6
Dec 24-31

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you - hope this helps!!

[kimmar067]

...thank you for the informative information. I hope you are feeling much better....

[Bonnie40]

This is an interesting thread. We just returned from WDW and for the first time stayed off-site. I was disappointed with Disney because when I was trying to make reservations, I found out just how limited I was (with a family of 5) to stay on-site affordably. I was told that because my youngest is now over 9 years old, we were not allowed to stay at POR - we would have to upgrade from a moderate to a deluxe accommodation. I was surprised and expressed my disappointment at the lack of forward thinking on Disney's part. Not all families can afford to stay at the expensive resorts, and when you're from Canada, we have to add an additional 60% to the rate for exchange. Makes it unaffordable for most people. Anyway, we had a fantastic time, and found that being off-site wasn't such a burden as we thought.

Bonnie

[cottontail]

Hi Bonnie, glad you had a nice time, where did you end up staying?

You know I don't think they ask ages of younger children when you check in, I guess if you had told the reservationist a little white lie that he was 8 years old they would have let you in.

It angers me that wdw is a place for families, and someone told you that you couldn't go to that resort cause your child was 9. That is a ridiculous rule, what difference to them how old your child is that is going to sleep on that little pull out bed. I thought you could have 5 in the alligator bayou rooms.

Deb.