Value vs Moderate – looking for opinions – please sell me!!

[letsgoagainsoon]

I'm in the minority! I'd save the money. This September we will be staying at POR our first mod ever, only because we are a party of five now.

Did you actually check if they have rooms available during that time at POR or another mod? I tried to change my ressies and they told me by switching my current free dining to the newest free dining that there were none of those rooms available so I'd be paying rack for a garden room (that's all they had) for addl 2000.00. I ended up keeping what I had.

(I'm just asking because I know someone else just tried to switch up and she went through all this and she couldn't get anything either!)

 

[BrownHP800]

We went through a similar situation.

We were pretty sure we were going to stay at All Star Sports with the free dining. I then mentioned to my wife that after a couple of days that I think I would be tired of just counter service all the time. We looked into upgrading the dining plan. My wife was going to make the reservation and I left for work. I get to work and I get a call saying she booked us at PORFQ. After talking to a CM it turns out it was only about $120 difference to upgrade to the mod. The main selling point was the fact POFQ had queen beds and All Star has only doubles. I am pretty tall and a double bed is a little difficult for me to fit. Plus we have never stayed at POFQ before makes it just a little bonus.

 

[McKelly]

We've stayed at values and mods. POP AND POR are our favorites. If we are going in the winter/spring months, I would rather save the money because we are in the parks more. If we go in the summer, we spend more time at the resort becasue it is sweltering and we need the break from the heat, so then we go with POR. Plus, mods have covered bus stops - need that shade in the summer!

I do feel like my vacation is "busier" at POP, it feels like POP has more energy. But I don't think that's a bad thing........just different.

Bed size is another factor for us, but since you have a two year old, you would be able to book a king at the value and then that doesn't matter much in your situation.

 

[Fluff724]

Here's a different perspective....with a 2 year old we actually preferred the QSDP over the traditional. Every child is different of course, but 2 can be a trying age and we found it so much easier to just grab quick meals on the go. The table service meals at Disney can take a long time, waiting to be seated, slow service at times, and that can be a nightmare with a cranky toddler.

So I think you should stick with what you have, or even switch to ASMovies for the super cute theme.

If you do switch to a mod, CBR has an amazing toddler area at their pool that my DS LOVED when he was 2.

 

[Headed4Fun]

We went in February and had the same decision to make. We opted for the moderate (POFQ) and were very glad we did. We enjoyed the resort and location. They also had a nice peaceful boat ride to Downtown Disney which we thoroughly enjoyed. We also used every bit of our table service meals. The kids (ages 5 and 20 months) had a blast at each of the character meals and it was nice to not have to come out of pocket for any of those. We actually liked taking a break from the day to sit down for a while to enjoy a meal.

If it were me, I would opt for a moderate and drop the park hopper to save money. We found that picking a park each day and staying with it was more than enough with two young children. It did require a little more planning with our dining reservations but it was just fine.

Had such a great time that we're going back in December to do it all again! And this time around, we opted for the moderate again! Good luck with your decision and have a fabulous time!

 

[darkwing]

Wow - thank you to all for your feedback so far! I love these boards and I love that everyone is so willing to help. To answer a couple of questions the free dining is still available for us at the Moderate resorts for the dates we're going so it's definitely an option. I did start to look up dining reservations and it looks like there are a large number of ADR's still available so I am starting to lean in the Moderate direction (just need to convince myself that we will do 6 or 7 sit downs to help justify the cost difference.)

I hadn't really thought about the bed situation but I read somewhere that if you have 3 people in a room a King bed is not possible at the Value resorts, but I'm thinking maybe because she's under 3 (and won't be using a bed) that they would give us King? This would actually help sway me back to the Value resort!

Long story short - keep the suggestions/opinions coming if you have them - I really appreciate it!!