1st trip + 3 kids = where to stay?

[Belle83]

I think if I were you, I would book a regular room at Wilderness Lodge. Because your youngest is so young, you would only need 1 room. You would be close to Magic Kingdom (just a boat ride away).

I would also look at one regular room at a moderate hotel, keeping in mind you won't have a balcony or anything to hang out on while the kids sleep.

The value resorts have family suites, or you could get two connecting rooms at a value, if you want more space. You could technically all fit in one regular room at a value but it would be cramped.

Play around on the WDW website to compare prices, WDW is definitely more affordable than what your TA probably quoted.

 

[1971DBday]

Your travel agent gave you very pricey options. For me, transportation is a big deal- when my kids were smaller I didn't want to stay in the parks all day or let them sleep in the stroller. I guess i'm selfish but I wanted a hassle free vacation for me, as well as the kids. So, if I were in your shoes I would revisit the deluxes. Go when you can get a good discount. Price out a standard room, not a one bedroom as the price difference can be quite pricey. My kids are now older, but thinking back, a monorail room, cheapest you can get, would be ideal. Maybe garden view at the poly.

Agree!!! I personally would book on my own or look for another travel agent. Either he/she doesn't know enough about Disney or is only concerned with making the $$$$.

As a family of 4 plus 1 you have a lot of options. Our first trips as a family of 5 started when our youngest was 8 months old. The values did not interest us so we started with a moderate - Coronado Springs Resort - next year tried Caribbean Beach (did not like) - back to Coronado and then we were to big for a regular room at Coronado and Port Orleans did not interest us. We treated ourselves to the Polynesian and fell in love! The amenities, location, transportation, food, etc. had won us over.

This year we wanted to change it up a little (even though we still love the Poly) and we are trying the Beach Club. Determine your budget and your must haves. At our first trip it was a pool slide for the kids and a hot tub for hubby that led us to the moderates.

Good luck!

 

[HNW999]

Have you considered staying off disney? So many reasonable options including houses with private pool that are unbelievably inexpensive and still close to WDW. A parking pass is good all day. When the kids were little we would stay off disney in a home rental for most of our stay and then "splurge" 1-2 nights at Yacht club / beach club. (Their pool is so awesome).

Actually, we will be doing that again this year

...Just a thought.

 

[2excited2sleep]

We stayed at Art of Animation. My kids are 7, 5 and 19 months. Plenty of room for them to run around. I would definitely stay at AoA again. The kids loved it!

 

[wbmom]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Very good information to think about. I will be looking with another travel agent just to get a feel for what someone else would recommend. For our first trip I am too "green" to try to book everything on my own!

 

[Fiveisaparty]

My kids were 5 2 and 1 the first time we went. We stayed at the cabins in ft wilderness and loved them (stayed there the following year too). It was nice because they are all real beds (no fold ups all real mattresses). We had two separate areas for sleeping. One year we stayed at asmu family suite and we hated it. I wanted the kids to go to bed earlier so they had the room and then dh and I had the fold out-yuck! We stayed at por last year and it was really nice, we enjoyed it since the kids were older and easy to get to sleep. If your younger one needs their own space to sleep the cabins are an affordable option, I liked taking the boat to mk and the buses were frequent.