Family of 5-Help

[dahrjo]

We have planned a trip to Disney for Feb. break. This will be the first for the kids. All I have done so far is book the flight with SW. I am soo confused about the rest. The flights took so much work-checking here and there, etc. Now, I need to do that with hotel and cars, too????
I'm not sure where to stay-on or off site. If we really need a car for the whole time??
I see with 5 in the family-choices are somewhat limited.
I don't know what to work on next. And park tickets, too!
I did get a quote from Small World for POR for $2700. Then I read about their
restaurant being closed?
Any ideas from anybody?
Thanks

 

[FrenchSnowWhite]

Did you plan on getting the Meal Plan if you stay on-site?

We are a family of 5, and we'll be staying at POR in 34 days , yes the food court will be closed, but we can go to POFQ that's a 10 min walk, or take the boat, it a 2 min ride. We plan on eating breakfast in the room.

If you choose to stay on-site, you won't need to rent a car, because with Disney buses you can go anywhere from a park to a resort and to DTD. Not Sea World or Universal ofcourse!!!

POR is quiet and peacefull . No hassle to take the car, and take the road and be stuck in traffic

You could also get 2 connecting rooms at a value like All Stars of POP for about 100$ more (depends on the month you're planning). That's what we almost did when we found out that the food court would be closed, but finally we love POR to much!!!!

If you stay off site, alot of hotels offer buses service that goes to all parks. But its not as flexible as staying on site!

I really suggest you stay on site, less hassle, and more fun fun fun

 

[mouseketeer_mom]

What's your budget? POR would certainly accommodate your family size. You would be on-site and could use Disney transportation for free (including a ride from the airport as part of your package). Will you be paying out of pocket for your meals or will you be using the dining plan? If you don't want to use the dining plan and paying out of pocket may be more expensive, the cabins at Fort Wilderness accommodate 6 and come with a kitchen.

You really have many options. I found setting a budget first helped. Choose a place to stay and then make a decision regarding meals. Oh, and how old are your children? This makes a big difference as well.

Good luck and happy planning!

 

[unbroken chain]

I'd say it depends on your budget. For 5, if your youngest is under 3, you can stay in any resort with a crib in the room. If your youngest is over 3, I think your choices on property are: Family suites at All-Stars, Port Orleans Riverside in the "Alligator Bayou" section only (which has a trundle bed), certain deluxe resorts (Contemporary, Polynesian) and some of the home-away-from-home resorts. Or, 2 rooms (ask for connecting) at any resort. You can price them on Disney's website, but I think Port Orleans would be the least expensive.

However, there are many good off-property choices, which are a lot less and you can get a 2-room suite, for example. Of course, they don't have the Disney theming. It's really a question of where you want to put your money.

I would say at most off-property places you would definitely want a car. On property, they do have bus transportation.

If you will spend a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, I'd think about a resort on the monorail, especially if you will want to go back to your room in the afternoon for the kids to take a nap. But, those can be very pricey. You are paying for convenience. I'd say if you were doing without a car, you'd want even more to be on the monorail. In fact, maybe you can justify the extra cost by not renting a car.

Some people feel that they don't spend much time in the room and they'd rather have a servicable room, have the flexibility of a rental car, and spend money on great restaurants and souvenirs. Others feel that they need to be close to their rooms and their kids won't eat anything but peanut butter sandwiches anyway, so why spend money on restaurants?

So, probably you first want to decide what is most important to you in terms of your budget, and work from there.

Good luck! Planning is a lot of fun, but if you get overwhelmed, a travel agent could really help a lot.

 

[dahrjo]

I hadn't thought about the meal plans. Where do I get information about those? My kids ages are 10, 8 and 5.

 

[popeyeohoh]

Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou. All Star Music also has family suites.

 

[pixie dust 112]

We have planned a trip to Disney for Feb. break. This will be the first for the kids. All I have done so far is book the flight with SW. I am soo confused about the rest. The flights took so much work-checking here and there, etc. Now, I need to do that with hotel and cars, too????
I'm not sure where to stay-on or off site. If we really need a car for the whole time??
I see with 5 in the family-choices are somewhat limited.
I don't know what to work on next. And park tickets, too!
I did get a quote from Small World for POR for $2700. Then I read about their
restaurant being closed?
Any ideas from anybody?
Thanks

I always recommend staying onsite. You can then take advantage of Disney transportation, both to and from the airport as well as from your resort to the parks and to downtown disney. Where to stay on site somewhat depends on the ages and sizes of the kids.

We haves stayed at POR many times. We are also a family of five. We spent 5 days there in Sept/Oct. My kids are tall and were ages 10, 12 and 14 at the time. 10 year old still loved the trundle bed. The room is getting a bit small as my family gets taller, but we still love that resort. So far as the restaurant is concerned, in all the times we've stayed there we've never eaten at the restaurant! They have a great foodcourt so we prefer to eat there and then be on our way! Also great boatride to Downtown Disney.

We stayed at Boardwalk Inn (BWI) this summer for 1a days. The room is much bigger but the day bed seems to be smaller than the trundle bed. MyDD is 5'1" and sleeps curled up. I think it was a tight squeeze but she never complained and loved the daybed.

WE've also stayed at Contemporary. Really big rooms so nice for a long stay, and I think there day bed is bigger. But CR doesn't have so much of a disney feel to it.

If you're kids are small I'd go with POR.

I also like on site with 5 because if some kids want to be in the park and one wants to go swimming, My DH or I can just hop a bus back to the resort with the swimmer, while the other stays in the park.

Let us know what you decide. No matter what, you're sure to have a good time.

About the tickets that's tougher for me because we get annual passes. But I recommend you check www.allearsnet.com or www.mousesavers.com, those sites are loaded with great info, including charts on figuring your best deal with tickets. You can subscribe to newsletters from both.

I haven't used a travel agent in over 10 years because with all the info from these sites, I get better deals by planning myself!

 

[unbroken chain]

I believe the dining plans are about $38/day for 10 and over, and $11/day for 3-9. You get lunch with dessert, dinner with appetizer and dessert and a snack (which includes fruit, which could be breakfast). It's a good deal IF you would have been eating all that food anyway. In our case, we about break even, so we get it for the convenience.

One meal is counter service (you would probably want that to be lunch) and one is table service (sit down - probably dinner). There are all kinds of details and planning strategies about how to use these to best advantage, and certain meals require 2 credits.

You must stay at a Disney resort to get the dining plan. It's not available if you are staying off-site. BUT, note that you cannot get the dining plan and a discounted room rate unless you either (i) book through AAA or (ii) Disney is running a discount code for your time period. If you call Disney and ask for the AAA discount and the dining plan, they will tell you that you can't get the dining plan with the discounted room. If you call AAA, presto, you can get both (assuming AAA discount rooms are available).

http://www.mousesavers.com/diningplantips2006.html

Note that if you are going to eat out, you will want to make your reservations early (now) to get the best choice (of course you can only make reservations for table service, not counter service). This is especially true with the dining plan, because to feel like you are getting the best deal, you may want to eat in the best restaurants.

 

[disneygal33]

I agree, if you can stay on site. When we go to Disney, that's what we do. We drive down, park our car in the resort parking lot and don't get back into the car until we're ready to go home.
We are a family of 5. We usually stay at a deluxe because our kids are bigger and we need the day bed the deluxe offer.

 

[byoung]

On site and you get to use ME to and from airport.

 

[KERdad06]

We are also a family of 5, and also brought my mom with on our first trip this October. We stayed in 2 connecting rooms at the All Star Music, worked great for us, especially with 2 bathrooms.

Disney transportation was also great for us, especially with never being there before. At the end of our trip we rented a car to visit some places off site, and got lost several times, maybe it was just my co-pilot?

Anyway, I think onsite is the way to go. DW also did the DDP, and that was GREAT for us.

Have a fun trip!

 

[Cee]

My family of five have had the most room to spread out using these resorts.
You can rent points on the DVC forum and save. It's fabulous. IMO, it's
the only way to go. Good luck and have a magical vacation!

 

[Caltha]

We are also a family of five staying at AKL Deluxe room with Bunk beds. These are meant to be a bigger room than POR. We have a QS, bunk Beds and a trundle. So hopefully that will work for us. Our kids are 14, 12,9. I think it does depend on your kids ages though.
I was orginally booked at ASMu Family Suites, but after hearing about turbo toilets, paper thin walls and lots of young kids, I changed over to AKL. I know the extra money will we worth it. We are there for 11 nights.