5th Sleeper or Universal?

[FrozenTundra1]

For our trip in January 2022, I am debating between a room at CBR with a 5th sleeper for 7 days, followed by 7 days at Universal, or just staying at Universal the whole trip. We will have our own car.

My dilemma is that we are a family of 5. How comfortable will that 5th sleeper, pull-down bed be for a week? My youngest daughter is 12 and only 4'11". Unless she gets a growth spurt she'll fit but ...

I don't want to pay for a suite at Pop Century or elsewhere on property. For point of reference, Universal's Surfside/Endless summer has 3 queens for less than CBR.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Hmm, my 12 yo last slept on the pull down 5th sleeper at CBR last August when we went when it first reopened. We stayed for a week. She was just shy of 12 and about 4'8 or so and she was fine. She even said if we go again, she'd still do the pulldown and she's about 4'10" now. We were fairly comfortable for the week but we are only a family of 4. We do the 5th sleeper since my daughter enjoys having her own bed and she likes the theming. We usually folded the sleeper up when we were in the room for any amount of time but we really didn't hang out too much in the room. We had one full resort day and we spent most of it at Disney Springs.

Maybe split the stay and do CBR first and then switch to Surfside for the universal portion. That wouldn't be too bad since you will have your car and to me that always feels like two vacations in one. The idea of staying at Universal while visiting WDW would just not sit well with my type A personality.

A couple of other options, you could rent DVC points and see if there are any 1 bedrooms that would be cost effective. I know that several agencies have amended the cancellation/change policies as of late and that could save some money and give you a bit more room. A few 1 bedrooms will sleep 5.

You could go value at WDW and do two adjoining rooms at POP, etc. This along with staying offsite, would be my least favorite option for my family.

Another option is to just do a condo/home off property. We've done that before when traveling with a larger party since it saves so much more money than staying onsite. But then doing this would require you to uber/lyft to parks and then potentially having to pay to park if you drive. Just depends on what's more important, space, being on site, etc. Either way, 14 days at WDW and Universal sounds like a great trip.

If it were me and my family of 5, I'd probably do the split stay.

 

[jimmymc]

I personally don't like commuting from Universal to Disney even with a car, so I would stay somewhere on property.

Your daughter should be fine in the 5th sleeper. Backup plan is you can run to Target and get a twin-sized air mattress. Like TheSouthernBelle suggested, you can also look at renting a DVC room with more space.

 

[gopher101]

I just came back from universal. We stayed at Cabana Bay in an outside family suite facing the pool. 217 a night before taxes.

 

[nkereina]

How many days will you be doing Disney parks? Keep in mind that you'd have to pay for parking each time you go to a park or pay for Uber, so that diminishes some of the savings. You'd also have to contend with rush hour traffic if trying to make rope drop, and any construction delays.

We always do split stays between Universal and WDW. Its just more convenient and allows you to maximize your time in both places. The 5th sleeper pull down is roughly the same size as a crib mattress for reference, so I think she would fit fine. I've read its meant for those roughly 12 and younger anyhow. You could also have an air mattress shipped or packed with you as a back-up plan, as mentioned. Many people do this and then will stand it up against the wall next to the bed so its out of the way during the day. IMO, its worth the hassle, cost and smaller room to not have to commute from Universal every day for 5 days or a week or however long.

 

[Lisse24]

I'm a single, but I travel with a family of 5. IMO, the Universal rooms, even the cheap ones at Endless Summer are just SO much nicer for a big family than Disney rooms. They're bigger, have divided spaces, and are cheaper. I would say, find a nice big room at Universal and settle in for the week - especially when the benefits to staying on property are so clear with Universal and kinda meh when it comes to Disney, atm.

 

[MomOTwins]

Two weeks is too long for me to want to stay at a single hotel, especially when you factor in the commute to the parks for the Disney half. Do the split stay.