Whole family in one room

[MMluvsWDW]

My husband and I are looking at DVC (studio pts vs 1 bdrm pts) or will we stay in a value to do Disney and skip DVC. However, I've been noticing a trend and am wondering what others think, especially on the budget board. Growing up my family always traveled and we rarely got two rooms or had more than a general hotel room (think pop). I'm finding more and more after talking with people that this type of travel is too small of a room or unacceptable. Why can't a family of four make 1 bathroom work?What's everyone else's opinion? Is it bad for a family to share a week in a hotel room and "make it work?" Is it really that bad as parents?

 

[roadtrippin2wdw]

I personally don't think it's weird for a family if four to stay in one hotel room. I always feel pretty lucky to be in that one room with my family somewhere so awesome! I understand the luxury of more than one room, but I don't think it's necessary.

 

[Hannathy]

We always and have always just stayed in one room, Never understood the problem either. Even if it is a larger group we always stay in one room (at places that have larger occupancy) So we have had 6 with 1 bath. We spent 12 Days at Disney at Pop with 4 in the room including a teen girl and had no problems. To us it is just more fun to be in one room, especially if it includes my sister and nephew who we don't get to see as much as we like.

Back in the day when I was growing up no one had more than 1 bathroom and we are talking baby boomer size families and we all survived.

So unless I hit the mega lottery we will continue to have 1 room.

 

[jakoky]

Hi there...we are a family of 5 and we always share a room...actually, next to being at disney, it is my second favourite part of the trip...all of us in one room together, no cleaning to be done, everyone in great moods...we have had some really fun times in the room, lots of laughing and very little bickering out of the kids...budgetwise and fun

 

[cheerforchelsea]

Sharing a room is just part of the fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[weewuvvdisney]

We've been 4 in a room at ASMovies. One child and three adults. No problemo....

Don't remember ever staying in a hotel growing up.....

We don't spend enough time in our room so it's never a problem for us.

 

[MnMomtoboys]

We are a family of six and will have 1 room. We know a few times the guys will shower down at the pools.

 

[v.t.]

We always stay in one room, we will be doing 6 in a room this summer. We never have any problems with just one bathroom, my boys always volunteer to skip their showers and head to the pools instead.

 

[MissionWDW]

We are a family of six and if there was an affordable Disney resort that allowed us all to stay in one room.....we would make it happen. Last October, we stayed at Pop and because of the occupant restrictions, we had two conjoining rooms. For the first six nights, there were eight of us in those two rooms...my inlaws were with us. When we are on vacation, we like to be out and taking advantage of the sites. Our hotel room is to sleep, shower, dress. BTW...to make things a little more roomy for sleeping, I did pack air beds. I grew up in a same size family...there were four of us girls sharing bedrooms and ONE bathroom. Doesn't seem strange to me at all.

 

[rie'smom]

Growing up, we always had 2 rooms, one for my parents and for the kids. This was in the 60's and 70's, so not too new. If our teenage daughter invites a friend or friends, we get 2 rooms. If it's just the 3 of us, we usually get 1 room.

 

[indimom]

our trips have been with four or five people. We are staying two weeks at Pop this year in one room.
That being said, we did seriously consider doing a two bed/two bath offsite condo for this trip because it looked soooo spacious and inviting (and was the same price as a Disney value). The kids loved the thought of having their own beds. DS is a serious early riser and was looking forward to being able to get out of bed in the AM, get something to eat and watch TV, rather than lying there quietly so he doesn't bother anyone...
Once we got a pin code, we just couldn't pass up the savings or the perks of staying on Disney property. It's really not a hardship though, we are accustomed to sharing a room, and I've got a pretty good plan in place for making use of the space available to us...and we'll just wear our boy out so he sleeps in a little longer.

 

[Darcy03231]

We're a family of 6 and have shared hotel rooms where its allowed. Unfortunately, most places that are reasonable have a limit of 5 to a room so we have to get two rooms.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

We are a family of 5 so at Disney we can't all be in one room, but my grandparents go with us and our oldest sleeps in their room (connected to ours.) However, she still uses our bathroom to shower and to get ready so there are 5 of us sharing one bathroom. We only have one bathroom at home, so this is nothing new for us. Maybe if you are used to having your own space it would be hard for you, but we are so used to it, I almost don't want more bathrooms on vacation so we don't get too used to it.

Any other time we stay at a hotel it is just one room.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

Here's my opinion: We are a family of 5. If we go away somewhere for 2-4 nights we manage with 1 room. But when we have gone to disney in the past, we have stayed 10 days - 2 weeks.

If we are going to be somewhere that long my hubby & I like our privacy at night (if you know what I mean) and we like a little extra space to spread out & not be on top of each other.

If I can stay in a 3 BR 2 bath condo with a full kitchen, living & dining space off property, for less $ than cramming into 1 room with 1 bathroom and not even so much as a refrigerator on property, with my my whole family , I am going to. But that is just my opinion, and is also based on the length of stay we have.

If I were to go down for a long weekend, or 4 night trip, I might try on property in 1 room once, just to see what I am missing, but everytime I price it out, my budget side gets the best of me & tells me, stay at the condo again, more space to relax for way less $$$$.

 

[eliza61]

My husband and I are looking at DVC (studio pts vs 1 bdrm pts) or will we stay in a value to do Disney and skip DVC. However, I've been noticing a trend and am wondering what others think, especially on the budget board. Growing up my family always traveled and we rarely got two rooms or had more than a general hotel room (think pop). I'm finding more and more after talking with people that this type of travel is too small of a room or unacceptable. Why can't a family of four make 1 bathroom work?What's everyone else's opinion? Is it bad for a family to share a week in a hotel room and "make it work?" Is it really that bad as parents?

For me it's not a matter of "Can't". Vacations for me are different than every day life. I want to at the very least be comfortable. for my family of 4, no way would a value room work. How is it a vacation if we are tripping over some one every time we stand up. Now I may be a little different in that I'm a bit "pooh" size and my sons are all over 6 ft tall.

It doesn't make you bad or good. It's simple a matter of preference. If we could not afford to get two rooms, we would rather wait and save up a little more money.

I just don't want to go on my very hard earned vacation and then be miserable because I'm stepping over people to get to the bathroom.

Sorry 10 days in a value room with 4 of us may lead to a homicide.

 

[punkin]

I have done 4 in a room and it's been fine. This last vacation, however, we rented a two bedroom villa with two baths (we had a 5th person and it was spring break so onsite was prohibitively expensive). Wow!!!! what a difference. I'm not sure I can go back.

We did stay 4 in a room on the trip back (we drove) and it was fine.

 

[Chelley00]

Back when most of us were kids, there weren't fire codes and occupancy restrictions, so staying 4-5 and even 6+ in one room wasn't such a big deal.

I have no problem staying in one room when it's just four of us, but when you add another 2 people like in our family, it's cramped bed wise, one bathroom for 6 people just doesn't cut it. We'd stay in one room if suites were cheaper, but 2 rooms is just much cheaper.

 

[Disney Ella]

For one night, four people in a room is not a problem. Any longer than that, forget it. We spent the last three nights of our last WDW trip in one room at CSR. There wasn't enough drawer space for four people, so things were scattered throughout luggage and drawers. Someone has to make a compromise and turn off the TV at night. We don't usually all go to bed at the same time, but in a hotel room, there is nowhere for the late nighters to go. I like staying onsite, but I like having enough space for all of us more, particularly since I have teenagers. We have rented points in the past and stayed at DVC, but staying offsite is still cheaper. Having space at a decent price is much more magical to me than being onsite.

 

[annsteere]

Does anybody else consider the gender of your kids?

Maybe, this comes from growing up in a family of all girls. . .

At some point, fairly early on, it just seemed odd to have DS and DD sleeping in the same double bed. Doing DH with DS and having me sleep with DD didn't work quite right either.

We won a trip to AKL where we shared a room but the kids had bunk beds. I've done a trip with DD and her girlfriend and we shared a room at PoP.

Our family of 4 has shared a tent and that felt fine. (Early risers go outside and start coffee over the fire embers left by the nightowls). But, the four of us haven't fit comfortably in a single hotel room for a while. That makes travel more expensive for the 4 of us than it was when my mom, dad and the three girls always shared a room.

 

[debelfish]

to share a bed anymore. We made them this past weekend and they bickered about it. But I am not willing to sleep with either of them either.
At WDW we have stayed with WL and AKL with Bunk Beds, at Poly and BC my son stayed on the daybead. Now we feel limited to the Deluxes so that one can use the daybed.