Big families, any tips?

[willgb09]

We are planning our first trip, and will have 7 (possibly 8 with a baby) people going. I'm trying to figure out the best ways to plan with such a large family, the majority being children. Anyone who has travelled with lots of kids have any helpful tips or advice? I'm looking for any kind of advice, whether it be where to stay, where to eat, money saving tips, all around advice. We are rookies when it comes to travelling.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Will you be driving or flying down? I ask because renting a house off-site could give you a ton of space for a fraction of the cost of staying on Disney property, but you will need a car. With possibly six kids that look like they are all car seat sized, I would only go this option if you were driving down and did not have to rent a car and deal with car seats. But that's just me, and I only have one car seat to deal with.

 

[mrsp1030]

I agree with previous poster....a lot depends on if you are flying or driving..There are plenty of affordable rental houses nearby that would accommodate your size but if you want to stay on property, my advice would be to rent DVC points.

 

[willgb09]

I'm thinking we'll probably fly just to take advantage of all the time we can. Driving for us would be at least 24 hours, not including stops, plus a hotel stay. If I can get my husband to add on days to the trip, I would consider driving, but for now, flying is my plan.

 

[EPCOTgrl1]

So because you are flying and if you are staying on property you will have to be in a 2 BR somewhere. You might want to look at renting DVC points. It MIGHT be cheaper then to pay for the room. If you do get a 2 BR then you will have a full kitchen, washer/dryer in the room, and a pack-n-play for the baby.

To make it cheaper food wise you will want to look into having groceries delivered to the room. There are many options out there. I normally send down what I can and get the rest at the little store that Disney has, others use grocery delivery programs. That way you can save money by having breakfast in the room. You could also get stuff for snacks in the park as well as packing lunches to take with you. I know it sounds like a lot of work but in the end it is cheaper.

If you would like to buy food, the portion sizes tend to be enough to feed 2, or maybe even 3 little kids (depending on their ages). Speaking of ages what are the age ranges of the kids? That will help with it comes to planning what you will do in the parks.

 

[tarzanman]

I second the renting DVC points idea. You can find out more about it on the DVC Rent/Trade board.

We have coordinated multiple big family trips in the past couple of years. #1 tip has to be setting people's expectations early that you can't do everything even in 5 days or even 10 days and you can't do everything together. It's just too many people going to the bathroom and needing to eat at different times (babies and toddlers). #2 tip has to be to coordinate a meal of the day but not all meals to eat together. You are on a family vacation for a reason. #3 is to ask people what their must do's are and try to fit in as much as you can

 

[MandiC]

With a large family flying in, I personally would try to stay on site but I do believe that your only option with a family bigger than 6 is DVC or getting 2 rooms.
I see from your signature that you have a 1 year old? Is this the included baby? Toddlers UNDER age 3 do not 'count' towards room capacity. So, if by chance you will only have 6 people above age 3 in the room you do open yourselves up to the options of a cabin at Fort Wilderness or a family suite at a value resort. It would be tight but if you don't mind would save a lot of money. Depending on when you plan to stay this could actually save you a lot more money than you might imagine. DVC does not qualify for promotions like free dining. If you go at certain times in the fall you could get free dining with the cabins or family suite. The dining plans included in this promotion depend on which resort you are staying at. Values include a quick service plan, so you would need to plan on spending some money out of pocket for food, this is what you would get with the family suite. With the cabins, they are considered a moderate so you would get the basic plan. You could either do breakfast in the room, use a snack credit for breakfast or pay out of pocket but your other meals would be covered. Also the family suites and cabins both have refrigerators and microwaves, the cabins include a stove even I believe.

The other benefit to staying on site is that you can use Disney transportation so you don't have to worry about renting a vehicle big enough and car seats.

 

[mjkacmom]

We did it with 9 (our family, and my parents). We rented a 2 bedroom villa at the Beach club for us, a studio for my parents. I know you can get a lot more bang for your buck staying offsite, but for us, it was better to stay onsite, so we could split up. My youngest were 4, so many times, one of us would take them back for a rest, while the others stayed in a park, or hopped to another one. My parents took the little ones to a parade in MK while DH and I took the bigger kids for sushi. It would have been difficult for all of us to stay on one schedule. We had groceries delivered from Garden Grocer.

 

[willgb09]

I really don't understand renting DVC points at all. Is it cheaper to do that then to book two value rooms?

We have Amazon Prime, so I was planning on sending what I can to the resort to save on luggage fees. I'll have to check in to the Garden Grocer for perishables, though, thanks! We are not huge breakfast eaters, so I was thinking poptarts, granola bars, individual cereal cups would be good for a quick breakfast and then to pack snacks for throughout the day.

We plan to go next year, hoping December to celebrate our anniversary, so my kids will be 11 (so Disney adult), 8, 7, 5, 3, and then possibly a baby if we conceive within the next few months. There will be for sure 7 of us for room requirements, so we will need two rooms for value rooms.

I wasn't planning on doing the dining plan unless it is a free promotion when we go. I just don't think it will be worth it for us. I'm thinking it will be cheaper to split meals most of the time. I will also budget for some higher expensed meals. I haven't done much research on restaurants yet, so I'll start doing that to get a general idea of what is offered where.

 

[mjkacmom]

Our DVC villa cost us about the same as 2 moderate rooms would have cost. However, you can't compare 2 value rooms to a 2 bedroom villa! The Beach Club has the most amazing pool, plus you can walk to two parks! Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, full kitchen, balconies, living room, washer and dryer (which I used every day - only packed a few days of clothes for everyone). It was huge! My kids were amazed. Having a full kitchen helped with meals. There are other 2 bedrooms on other properties, as well.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dvc...v&sa=X&ei=G-8SVa6FGce-ggT3m4DADg&ved=0CB0QsAQ

 

[EPCOTgrl1]

I really don't understand renting DVC points at all. Is it cheaper to do that then to book two value rooms?

If you were planning on doing 2 value rooms then price wise it will not compare to renting DVC points. I am guessing it will be much cheaper to do the value room. Again the down side to having 2 value rooms is no free laundry and no kitchen (which would be big money savers). The only other thing that you will be missing with 2 value rooms is the space that you will have in the 2 BR. So in the end you have to do the math for your family.

I also agree with you not doing the Dinning Plan. It normally is only free in September anyway.

I also agree that you do need to set exception before you go down. Not everyone will be able to do everything that they want because of the ages of the kids. The oldest will be able to go on a ride by themselves if they are tall enough but everyone else needs to be with an adult.

 

[RockinDisney]

If you are looking at value, you should look at the Art of Animation family suites if you want to stay onsite the have kitchenettes. If staying onsite isn't a must, renting a house gives you a kitchen and washer/dryer which with little people can be a big benefit.

If you do stay on property, i recommend an electric tea kettle. It is great for oatmeal in the morning, or soups in the evening. With amazon prime you can have it shiiped right to the hotel. I am also a big believer in carrying lots of snacks! Those can be sent from Amazon also. I have never gone with as many children as you are but i have gone with 3 and there were a few afternoons when after being at the parks, everyone was tired and heating up soup and almond butter and jelly sandwiches beat fighting lines or having to go back out.

 

[willgb09]

It looks like I need to do some pricing out to see if it's more beneficial to pay a higher room price but cheaper food versus a low room rate and higher food pricing. Laundry wise, how many loads did you do while there? I'm just trying to get a general idea on how much it could cost to do loads. If it's roughly $6 per load, and we'd do, say, 5 loads, that's an extra $30 added to the value (plus shipping our detergent via Amazon). If it costs more than $30, it might be smarter just to check another bag at the airport.

I'm going to sit down with the kids and have them make a wish list of what they want to do. We'll discuss from there how to accomplish what we can, but we'll definitely talk about how we can't do everything. I'm okay with us splitting up some for the older kids to do the height requirement stuff.

Our family won't all fit into the Art of Animation family suites. We'd still need two of those. I haven't checked into prices of DVC points, but are they less than $700 a night? That's just a rough guess on what two AoA suites would cost. Really, doing two AoA rooms is my wish for room choices, but do those have connecting rooms?

I appreciate everyone's great advice. It's really made me look at our importances way more.

 

[Lilliputian]

There are no connecting AoA suites. You'd have to have two completely separate suites, making it less appealing.

We've had 5 children our last few trips and will have 6 on our next. Since we got to 4 children, we've started preferring staying offsite. At the time of year we go, we can get a 5 bedroom, 5 bath home for around $200 a night, including tax and pool heat, at Windsor Hills. You could get even cheaper if you stayed in Windsor Palms or Indian Creek. Not only do we get a ton of space, but we have a full kitchen, a washer and dryer, our very own swimming pool and hot tub (makes a great kiddie pool if you don't turn the heat on), and a garage converted to a game room. Staying somewhere that we can easily come back for naptime and have the older ones be able to read in bed for a little while and then get up and do something fun without disturbing the little ones still asleep is invaluable to us.

Of course, there are always particulars that make some things better than others for certain families. We drive, so we have our own 12 passenger van with us and don't have to rent one. We also have food allergies, and while WDW is better than just about anywhere for food allergies, having our own kitchen is also fantastic so that we can have a little more variety and a little less hassle, not to mention saving money. We go when it's reliably warmer and know we'll be able to use the pool. We also get APs and do 2 longer (2 weeks or more) trips per year with them, so our parking is "free." And because we do go on frequent long trips, the extra transportation time (while extremely minimal) isn't a big deal for us. Really, I don't think we spend that much time on transportation, but there is always the chance that we'll go back for an afternoon break and decide to just stay in for the evening rather than going back. That's not a big deal when you spend a lot of time there, but it is a big deal when you don't go often.

We haven't rented DVC points, but I've looked into it. The reason that we haven't done it is because we'd have to plan too far ahead and wouldn't be able to cancel as easily. We don't usually book our vacation until 3-4 months before we go, and by then we probably wouldn't be able to get one 2 bedroom suite for a long period of time without switching rooms. (Plus with our longer trips, we'd probably have to rent from at least 2 owners.) It's a viable option, though, and if it does work for your family, it's definitely worth looking into.

 

[theyoungs07]

We prefer staying offsite, but we drive because airfare would be too much to justify, our drive is only 17 hours drive time (probably closer to 24 hours on the road).

I have a family of 10 (8 kids from 13 down to 6 months) and we're going in April. I wanted my kids to get a different Disney experience so this time we're using 2 rooms at POP for 4 nights and then offsite for the rest of our trip. With a family your size, renting a vehicle would probably be costly, so flying would mean staying onsite. I think renting DVC looks nice, but it's hard for me because I always compare it to the awesome offsite accommodations we get in houses...for less money. We're testing onsite with the short stint to see if renting/buying DVC is right in our future.

We do long trips as I can't see driving for 4 days for a 5 day trip, so we'll be staying 13 nights in Orlando. I use most of my vacation days for the year, but it's worth it and we only do it every other year.

For more large family tips, check this thread I created a while back
http://www.disboards.com/threads/large-family-tips-and-discussion.3138060/

 

[Sarahbelle341]

With the ages of your kids I would go with two rooms at POP (connecting if possible). Its probably your cheapest option. And since POP is right across the bridge from Art of Animation you can use their food court and check out the theming. The pool at POP is nice and the icons will be fun for your kids. With the ages of your kids you are in the sweet spot for the disney dining plan. If you plan to do character meals you will save a lot of money getting the dining plan instead of paying out of pocket. Family style character meals would probably be the simplest since you wouldn't have to deal with multiple trips to the buffet. If you are used to deluxe accomodations then renting points can be a good deal but POP is clean and has a nice Disney theme. With your kids ages I would rather save the money than have a fancier hotel. My DS is 5 and he likes the value hotels with the giant Disney icons better than the more expensive hotels.

 

[Hans Olo]

We're going to Disney for the first time ever in June. We will have 7 people, myself, my husband, my mom and my 4 kids ages 9,7,5 and 4.

What we are doing is renting a camper from Greenberg and getting a full hook up site at Fort Wilderness. This way comes out way cheaper than having to get multiple rooms plus we get all the benefits of staying onsite! I love the fact that my kids can run around and play outside and not feel so cooped up in a room

Hope you find something that works for you!!