3 Families, 8 people offsite house

[MinnieVanMom]

We are 3 families with a total of 8 people. 2 of the couples have a child each, they are opposite sex.

We are interested is a house offsite because even with our DVC, we think we need more room and I don't have points for a grand villa.

I have never rented a house in the USA before and am hesitant.

We want a pool and a place to sit by the pool, I would also bathrooms for each couple. On a wish is a good kitchen. We will have a mini van.

Do you have a favorite house or location?

 

[swilshire]

Mystic Dunes has condos that would work for you. The 3br lockoffs sleep 12 with a king bed in the master bedroom, a second bedroom with two queens (I think, might be fulls) and the lockoff part also has a bed with a sleeper sofa. Each family would have their own bathroom and there would be two sitting areas. That's a bonus if the kids want to hang out and watch television or something while the adults relax in the other side of the unit. The kitchens are not huge, but they are fine. Most anything you need to cook with is available, but you can call and ask for other items if something is missing.

There are multiple pools, convenient to most of the buildings. The resort is very close to the parks.

Sheila

 

[sympatico]

There's lots of 5 and 7 bedroom homes in the area. We stayed in this 6 bedroom 4 bathroom in Windsor Hills: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p250801
and this 7 bedroom in Emerald Island: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p253707

These two 6 bedroom homes in WH get good reviews: http://storytimeorlandorental.com/
There's hundreds of homes on vrbo and homeaway.
Here's a map to show where they are. The blue markers are subdivisions, Windsor Hills is #1 and Emerald Island is #15
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=...8.272032,-81.608849&spn=0.068335,0.11055&z=13

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Searching to get good one is not difficult as Google makes it to easy.

The OP didn't say she couldn't find houses with the correct number of bedrooms. She is looking for feedback from others based on their past experiences. Google can help you find what you are looking for, but sometimes its nice to have reviews from others before deciding.

We are 3 families with a total of 8 people. 2 of the couples have a child each, they are opposite sex.

We are interested is a house offsite because even with our DVC, we think we need more room and I don't have points for a grand villa.

I have never rented a house in the USA before and am hesitant.

We want a pool and a place to sit by the pool, I would also bathrooms for each couple. On a wish is a good kitchen. We will have a mini van.

Do you have a favorite house or location?

 

[MinnieVanMom]

Thank you so much. Yes I am finding houses on WH and other places but wanted to hear from others and their experiences. I am hesitant and would rather know that someone from the Dis has stayed in a house and like it before we just pick any place at all. These are the ones we have responses from so far.

http://www.sunkissed-villas.com/villainfo.aspx
http://www.windsorhillsfloridavilla.com
http://windsor-hills-villa.com
http://www.ov4u.com/evlanai.htm
http://www.windsorhillsrentals.com/royal_ascot.html

 

[robinb]

We are 3 families with a total of 8 people. 2 of the couples have a child each, they are opposite sex.

We are interested is a house offsite because even with our DVC, we think we need more room and I don't have points for a grand villa.

I have never rented a house in the USA before and am hesitant.

We want a pool and a place to sit by the pool, I would also bathrooms for each couple. On a wish is a good kitchen. We will have a mini van.

Do you have a favorite house or location?

We stayed at a very nice 4-bedroom pool home in Rolling Hills but the bed room make up would not work for you (2 of the rooms had twin beds). We LOVED the location which was across the street from Windsor Hills but without the higher prices. It took less than 10-minutes to drive into WDW.

It sounds like you're looking at 3-5 bedrooms. Are the families with children willing to share a room with their child? Or do they want a room on their own? You should be able to find a 3-bedroom home with a king master bedroom plus 2 bedrooms with double/queen sized beds for a reasonable price. The bedding *might* be a little tricky since many 3-bedrooms have twin beds in them. If the kids are young enough to share a room you can bump up to a 4-bedroom. If the parents want to sleep alone and the kids are too old to share a room then you are either stuck with sleeping one on a pull out couch, or going to a 5-bedroom home. Once you get past 3-4 bedrooms the home prices go up sharply. One thing to consider is that you really only need a 3-bedroom to sleep everyone and if you go up in size (and price) to make the parents more comfortable then you might want to come up with a way to split the price of the house fairly. If you end up with a 5-bedroom then the families will be using 2 bedrooms each and the couple only 1 and the couple may or may not be OK with splitting things equally.

I found the house I rented by searching through VRBO and Home Away. I also went to the Windsor Hills rental page: http://www.windsorhillsrent.com/ and filled out their query form. Areas that I looked at were Windsor Hills, Windsor Palms, Rolling Hills, Formosa Garden and Indian Hills. Here is a map with all the rental communities on it so you know where a house is based on it's community: http://www.ipgflorida.com/rentalsbycommunity/communitymap.aspx .

 

[musicluvr40]

We just stayed in an amazing 7 bedroom 5 bathroom home from June 22-29.

We used Joanie at Sterling Vacation Homes and stayed in the Formosa Springs Villa.

www.sterlingvacationhomes.com

The house is literally 5 minutes from Animal Kingdom. There are four king bedrooms and three bedrooms with multiple beds in them. Our party was:

myself
DH
DD 14
DD 10

my mom

my sister's family - there are five of them including three boys ages 2,5,7

My daughters each had their own rooms and they had a bathroom to themselves. My mom had her own room/bathroom. My sister's family had the entire upstairs to themselves.

There is a pool, hot tub, and baby pool. The property is amazing, and it is a great company to work with. She has several properties with between 5 and 8 bedrooms. The kitchen was large and there are two washers and dryers. It was our first time to stay offsite and we felt very spoiled by being able to stay in such a wonderful home.

Hope this helps!

 

[MinnieVanMom]

Did you feel that staying offsite took away from the Magic? Also, how long does it really take to get to the parking lot at say MK or Epcot?

I want to stay in house and DH wants to use all the DVC points and have us sleeping on the pull out in the living room while the other families have bedroom. He wants the entire Disney experience. I want a room to call my own.

 

[robinb]

Did you feel that staying offsite took away from the Magic? Also, how long does it really take to get to the parking lot at say MK or Epcot?

I want to stay in house and DH wants to use all the DVC points and have us sleeping on the pull out in the living room while the other families have bedroom. He wants the entire Disney experience. I want a room to call my own.

My house took about 8 minutes to Epcot and a few more to the MK. It is only a few minutes drive away from AKL so it is very, very close. I didn't miss the "magic" and we are also DVC members. Having a lot of room to spread out and our own pool was much more magical than being squished into a studio. Oh ... and I don't use my own DVC points and sleep on the couch. I did that once and I will NEVER do that again. I get the master bedroom. End of discussion.

 

[lorilori]

We stayed last month at the 4 bedroom at www.romancingthemouse.com and it was great. We had three bedrooms with king beds and then the 4th bedroom set up with two twin beds. Each of the bedrooms had their own bathroom. The pool area had a table and chairs plus lounge chairs and overlooked the lake instead of another house and the kitchen had everything we needed.

 

[dougsmom98]

We are staying at this house for the fourth time this coming February. It is a little further out (17-20 minutes from the parks), but the house really works well for us. It is right off exit 58 on I-4. The parks are around exit 62. We have had 3+ families in this home and there is plenty of room so that you don't get sick of each other.

http://www.vrbo.com/46990

 

[musicluvr40]

I did not feel it took away from the magic. We have previously pretty much stayed on property. We normally go during October during fall break. My immediate family - there are four of us - went down a few days early and stayed at Port Orleans Riverside in a royal room. It was a nice room and we did use Disney transportation. Between waiting on a bus and then having to stand for every trip except one we spent at least 30 minutes standing for transportation.

I will admit - I was nervous about staying off property. When we moved into the house my girls each were able to stay in their own room. My husband and I stayed in a beautiful huge bedroom with a big bathroom. The owner of the home had a lot of Disney touches - three of the kids' bedrooms were all decorated in Disney as was the kitchen.

Each day when we drove to the parks it took us less time to drive there, park, and get to the entrance of the park with the exception of MK. I timed the MK trip - it took 50 minutes from pulling out of the driveway until we arrived at the holding area where they do the welcome show. It was seriously about 10 minutes less than when we took a bus. The other parks took less time in our own car and the walk from car to tram was often less than the walk from bus to entry.

We ended up loving being off property. We loved having our own pool - we swam every day multiple times with just our own family. We had breakfast at a leisurely pace in the kitchen as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the food court. We loved having our car there and being able to sit especially at the end of a long day. We were able to throw a load of laundry in while we swam or ate lunch and came home with almost no dirty clothes. Will we stay on property again? Probably if there is a good discount but we are hooked on off property.

I know this is long with lots of info - hope this helps. The wonderful thing about Disney and the Orlando area is that there are so many choices out there to suit everyone's needs. Enjoy!

 

[spiceycat]

i am a dvc owner too.

so ask yourself - would it bother you or dh to drive to the parks instead of wdw transportation. you will also have to provide airport transportation if staying offsite - would just rent a few cars or vans.

now offsite can be close or a little further away - Kissimmee (on the whole) is close - Windsor Hills is in kissimmee and pretty close.

while Davenport and Clermont are just a few more minutes they are generally cheaper.

love BLT - so can understand both of you.

there is a timeshare even close - WBC - is a good choice - even now with the increase in price. would go for 2 - 2 bedroom - or 2 -3-bedrooms. find the WBC fan site for who to rent from.