Advice for young family with light sleeper

[Camno's Mama]

We are interested in staying onsite, and have not been able to do it before for budgeting reasons. We do not want to stay at the value resorts mostly because the rooms are small, and we have a little boy that doesn't sleep through much, and I can't imagine a week of tiptoeing around until we go to bed! Doesn't sound muc like a vacation to me! We have had a lot of success staying at the pool homes, but just want to try something different.

So, that said, can anyone recommend a hotel that would fit our needs? We cannot afford to stay at the luxury places. And we would love a place that has a fridge! And I'm not sure at this point if we are flying or driving, so I'm not sure how that factors in with parking, etc.

We like to do things offsite, too. We probably won't be doing the dining plan for that reason mostly. So, we want to stay somewhere that makes doing offsite stuff pretty easy if we want to.

If we didn't have a car, is there transporation to anywhere offsite?

I guess we really want to experience the Disney magic, but there are things we like to do that aren't on the property!

Thanks!

 

[maxiesmom]

How about renting points for a 1-bedroom villa? Depending on what time of year you are going, you could get one for the same price as a moderate resort.

 

[Irishhockey]

I would recommend one of the Family Suites over at All Star Music. It has a seperate bedroom with a queen bed, tv, and even bathroom area so you and your hubby could have your own space once the little guy went down in the main room area. There's also a fridge, microwave, sink and 2 full bathrooms. The family suites are a great "meet in the middle" between the villas and standard hotel rooms. The rates are decent as well!

With staying onsite, you are very limited in your transportation options. Your only off property form of transportation would be a Taxi, which can be a hassel and costly depending on what your looking to do. I would definately suggest a car if your planning on going off property more than once or twice in the trip.

The All Star resorts, where the Family Suites are located, is at the southern line of the property with very easy and fast access to I-4.

 

[lucas]

What about a cabin at Fort Wilderness? The bedroom is in the back and has a door that closes. There is another bed in the front of the cabin that pulls down from the wall, so it is like being in 2 different rooms. There is a fridge and no connecting walls with any neighbors. I love the quiet of the cabins.

 

[littleelvis]

I would also bring a noise machine (like a white noise, spa alarm clock). You can get those any where for as less as 5.00 dollars. They block out some of the room noise and keep the sound the same. It really helped us.

 

[Ilovestitch]

I would second the suggestion of the Wilderness cabins-- you would have a nice living room area and full kitchen.

 

[Ride Junkie]

DH and I are both light sleepers (I will wake up if someone steps on a twig 2 blocks away). We always pack a small travel fan that creates white noise. We never travel without that thing!

 

[minnie61650]

DH and I stayed in a Family Suite at All Star Music ( a value resort) last Sept. (2006)

We really enjoyed the Queen size bed, the kitchenette with the microwave, having a sofa and cushioned chair to sit on and relax after a day at the parks before retiring for the evening.

I thought the pullouts very comfortable.

They are designed so the back cushion and seat cushion of the pullout support the pullout. There is no meatle bar to hurt the sleepers back.

Info thread--Pullouts in Family Suites at ASMU with photos of how the pullout is supported.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=18100990#post18100990

Here is the layout of the Family Suites:

Here is my review of the Suites:

www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=17640774&postcount=7

For more photos and info please see this info thread:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1392879



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Tips to reduce room noise at your resort

I stay at the values quite often and have never had an issue with noise.

The noise issues come with :

1. The main pool is located very close to some of the value rooms.

The themed pools at the mods and deluxes are set away from the rooms.

Tip: Ask for a room facing away or located a ways from the main pool.

2. Turbo toilets

The Values are newer and have the turbo toilets.

Tip: Close your bathroom door at night because noise travels through the plumbing.

3. Connecting rooms

About 50% of the value rooms have connecting doors.

Noise will travel under the connecting doors in a room.

Tip: If you have noisy neighbors open your connecting door and place a rolled up bath towel on the floor between then close and lock your connecting door.

These tips should help you get a restful sleep wherever you choose to stay.

Have fun at Disney!

 

[solferino]

Dittoing the suggestions of a white noise machine or small fan to bring along. We don't leave home without the white noise machine. Makes a huge difference. Bandannas to wear as an eye mask is also helpful for DH.

 

[Tink415]

The most inexpensive option with seperate sleeping areas are the Family Suites at ASMu. I know you said you didn't want Value Resorts but these are really nice and roomy. I would give a light sleeper the bedroom so parents could come and go thru the rest of the rooms as they wanted and the bedroom door could stay shut. And definetely bring a fan or noise machine. Next up in price would be Fort Wilderness Cabins but I wouldn't stay there without a car. Any other resorts with seperate sleeping rooms will cost more. If you want to go off-site its easiest to have a car. Buses are possible, but too much trouble to figure out for me. Taxis work well but can add up to more than a small car rental if you take more than 1 taxi a day. You could take Magical Express to/from airport and rent a car at the Car Care Center by MK or car rental desk at Dolphin for a few days in the middle of your vacation. I do this sometimes when rental car rates are really high. One 10 day stay over Christmas I rented a small car for 5 days in the middle, got to go outlet shopping, offsite restaurants, Universal, etc for less than $100. A big enough rental to hold the luggage & people was over $600 at the time. It took time to pickup and drop off the car but it worked good and I would do it again! Good luck with your plans

 

[lucas]

DH and I are both light sleepers (I will wake up if someone steps on a twig 2 blocks away). We always pack a small travel fan that creates white noise. We never travel without that thing!

That cracked me up because... me too!

And thanks for reminding me, in my previous post I forgot to mention about white noise machines. We are driving to WDW next week and I am bringing my white noise machine AND my fan. I also leave the bathroom fan on while I am going to sleep (it lasts about 30 minutes).

minnie61650, I totally agree about connecting rooms being noisy - the sound travels right under the doors. We unfortunately experienced that at the Poly. Great idea about putting a towel in between the doors. Now we always request rooms that do not connect.

 

[Crazy4Disney43611]

I would rent points, I ahve and got a 2BR Villa for some of the same reasons you stated and it didn't cost much more than a Mod. If you want any info on renting pm and I'd love to help. Have a magical trip

 

[Ellasgirls]

You can also get connecting value rooms and then keep the door open between them...the you have 2 bathrooms, 2 tv's. Our dd is also a pretty light sleeper but after a day at WDW she slept very hard....nothing woke her up! Good luck and you will love staying on grounds!

 

[Crazy4Disney43611]

Unfortunately the only downfall to the adjoining rooms is that you're not guaranteed it unless you have more children than adults or for medical reasons...or so I have been told by CRO.

 

[minnie61650]

Unfortunately the only downfall to the adjoining rooms is that you're not guaranteed it unless you have more children than adults or for medical reasons...or so I have been told by CRO.

You are correct.

Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.


As a mother of 4 (All grown now. My oldest is in her 30's and my youngest is 22) I often wished Disney had more options for larger families.
When the children were younger and we would go to Disney they did not have DVC or the family suites. In fact Disney did not have a Moderate until CBR opened in the late 1980's so if we wanted to stay onsite we either rented 2 rooms at a deluxe or stayed in the cabins.

I wrote to Disney many times over the years asking for more options for families so when I heard they were building the New Family Suites at All Star Music it just made me so happy!

In the late 80's I booked 2 connecting rooms at CBR for my family.
When we checked in there were no connecting rooms left but we were able to get rooms next to each other on the second floor.
Our two oldest were teens so I put them in one room and the 2 little ones who were 5 and 7 stayed with us. It worked for us because our older children were able to stay in a room without us but if they were younger DH and I would have had to split up.

Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.

If there are 2 adults Disney can split the adults and children into two rooms that are not connecting. They try hard not to do this but it can and does happen sometimes. If however it is one adult with 5 children Disney should try harder to find connecting rooms since some of the children cannot be left in a room without an adult. But if you look at the threads posted below you will see that sometimes even Disney mixes up.


It does happen. Far too often IMHO.

From this thread;

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1145289

Just wanted to re-iterate what others have said:

We requesting connecting rooms at CBR in January--not really a busy time & we were early for check-in. They did not have us in connecting rooms. They said they could accommodate us, but it would be smoking rooms--which was our #1 request non-smoking.

We were side-by-side, so we just went outside to go next door, so it wasn't a huge deal for us. But if you definitely want to be together--I would go with a suite. You could also look into renting DVC points for a villa.

Here are a couple more threads about guests not getting connecting rooms:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1095679

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=785797&page=1&pp=15

From this thread:

http://disboards.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=13528958

One of the threads that Linda posted a link to was my experience last March. I had many conversations with the higher-ups at Guest Services and was told that even if it says "guaranteed" it is not truly "guaranteed." It just has higher priority over the "requests." Because on a given day, there might only be 25 connecting room sets opening up, but 27 "guaranteed connecting rooms for families" ressies checking in. 2 of those families are not going to get their "guarantee."

I know, I was shocked that we had to fight so hard to get put in rooms that had just been fumigated for lice (they were taken out of the inventory, but re-opened because we insisted we needed rooms.) I sort of assumed that if they didn't have the rooms for us, they'd find rooms elsewhere on Disney property. For that stay, we were sometimes 2 adults and sometimes only 1. Now we will book offsite if we need to do that again. If there are 2 of us adults, we book connecting and hope for the best. Otherwise, we'll split the kids.

My point is to make backup plans if you are depending on connecting rooms.

That is one of the main reasons if my family were young I would choose a Suite over 2 connecting rooms or I would be prepared that I may need to split the family up and sleep in a different room than DH.