Any advice for large families?

[JP-STL]

We are planning a trip to WDW for June. This will be our 4th time, but the last trip was 7 years ago...when we had only 2 children (actually, we had three but the baby stayed home with Gramma).

Now, we have 5 children. Can anyone give me some advice on planning a trip for a family of 7? Our children will be 4, 5, 7, 9 and 13 year old.

We've stayed twice at POFQ, and loved it. Once at All-Star (Sports, I think but I'm not sure...we didn't spend many waking hours there) and that was OK. Last trip we stayed off-property in a condo a couple miles from WDW. Didn't enjoy that as much. Loved the extra space, but hated the hassle and wasted time of staying off-property. Plus, we missed the intangibles (the "magic") of staying in a Disney resort.

My wife and I are both Catholic school employees...in other words, our finances are somewhat limited.

What "villa" or "condo" options are there in the Disney resorts? Would we get better value staying in a two-bedroom villa, or simply try for adjoining rooms at a moderate resort like POFQ?

We're planning to stay for at least a week, so we'd like some resort amenities like a cool pool.

I'd love to stay in a villa at the Yacht Club or Beach Club, but I'm not sure that's within our budget. Are there any discounts or deals to be had? Are the Old Key West villas any cheaper? Or the Boardwalk?

Any advice would be appreciated. BTW, for our last vacation, we took a Disney Cruise two years ago, and found the cruise forum on this site to be a tremendous resource. I posted a legthy trip report after the cruise, which might provide some insight into our prefernces and our travel style. I tried to post a link to it, but board rules won't let me...I don't have enough posts under my belt to be allowed that priviledge yet. But if you search the cruise forum for posts by JP-STL you will find it if you're interested.

Thanks for any advice from others with larger families.

 

[stacy6552]

Disney has "home away from home" resorts: OKW, BWV, BCV and the WLV would all accomodate you in a 2 bedroom villa. Disney books these for cash and you can get the usual discounts, like AAA. Or if you are willing to trade off a few things like daily housekeeping and the added booking issues, you could rent points for one of these from a DVC member. By booking issues, I mean you would have to find a member willing to rent to you (there is a page here on the DIS for that) and book through them.

Since you enjoy the space of the villas, I would definately go for one of these resorts. Even if you have to pay a bit more, you will find it wirth the expense to have the space and amenities of the villas and the magic of Disney. By dining in you can offset some of the expense.

 

[jahexom]

How about 2 rooms at the Swan/Dolphin with the Teacher discount? Great pool and great location.

Jen

 

[liquid]

We have four children now and we will be staying in 2 rooms at the Caribbean Beach. I'm a SAHM and we homeschool, so I understand about limited finances!

My husband wants this to be a *real* vacation for me, with no cooking, so a kitchen was not a priority, though we agreed that it could come in handy. We considered a cabin at FW - I thought they were fine but he really did not want to be sleeping either on the pull-out sofa or in with some of the kids for 10 nights. Then we considered a 2-br Villa - veeeeery nice, but just too much money. The Values - ok, and we would get 2 bathrooms!! But, after taking a look at the Moderates, he and my older girls just fell in love with the CBR. The rooms will be bigger, the pool has a cool slide and they can imagine themselves in Pirates of the Caribbean the whole time!

So, we decided to start planning/saving for next fall. Then we found out about the dining plan, which made us decide to check airline prices right away! SIX round trip tickets were less than $700.!!!

So, we're going this fall and our savings account took a pretty big hit. But I think that it will be worth it, as this will likely be our only big family trip. By the time we can swing something like this again, we will have one, maybe two in college and I'm sure that we'll need any extra money for that!

This is all probably TMI, but I hope that it helped you some.

 

[DW mouser]

We are going in March and since it's peak time we are doing a moderate this time around. We picked POFQ. I would say if your worried about finances, stick with a moderate or even a value and do the dining plan. There are 7 of us and I got 3 rooms at POFQ and the dining plan for what 2 rooms at a deluxe would of been. The extra bathrooms will be so handy too!!! Sice you've already stayed at PO, maybe one of the oter moderates would work for you, but with 5 children you may also want a smaller resort! Less walking to everything! Let us know what you decide to do. It's fun seeing what people decide!! It took me a lot of posts and asking about different resorts before I decided.

 

[minnie61650]

I agree 2 rooms at a mod or a value would probally be much more affordable.
Just think two CONNECTING (make sure you ask for connecting) rooms means 2 bathrooms.
Actually even though I can easily afford any of the deluxe resorts I prefer The All Star resorts.
I would recomment Music or Movies.

Here is a site with a map of All Star Sports and All Star Music.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/allstarmap.htm
Scroll down.All Star Music is at the bottom of the page.
The Calypso buildings at All Star Music are #1 and #10 are nearest to the food court and bus stop.
They are the preferred buildings and cost about $12 extra per night.
The Calypso pool at ASMU has Donald Duck.

Here is the map of All Movies.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/allstarmovie.JPG
The Fantasia Buildings are the preferred buildings.
The All Star Movie Fantasia pool has Mickey.
The buses are wonderful.
Bus ride times according to PassPorter.com
All Star Movies has pop up fountains now also.
Bus rides are shorter from the ALL Stars than POP according to PassPorter.com

All Star Buses------------Pop buses
MK 20 min---------------MK 25 min
Epcot 10 min------------Epcot 20 min
MGM 10 min--------------MGM 15 min
AK 10 min----------------AK 15 min
DTD 15 min---------------DTD 20 min

The All Star resorts have 1960 rooms each.
Pop has 2,880rooms.
That means more people in the pools,food court and in line waiting for the bus at POP.
When phase 2 of POP is built it will be 2 bus stops at POP and the 2 POPs will have the same # of rooms as the 3 All Stars.

Also All Star is closer to the main road to get to parks and thats why bus rides are shorter from there than from POP.

A WORD ABOUT BUS SHARING:

It is usually just our stop and maybe one more on the way to the parks. On the way back sometimes its all 3 but often Sports and Music share and Movies has it's own bus back.

I guess some people who stay at POP see all 3 All Star names on the return sign of our bus stop when they head to the POP bus stop and think All Stars also has 3 stops on the way to the park.
(Even when we stop at another AS resort to load up it has not taken more than 5 minutes and we are on our way!)

I love the All Star Resorts --they can't be beat. I have visited WDW more than a dozen times with the 1st time in Oct. 1971. It was brand new. I've stayed at FW, Disney Inn, a few the of Hotels on hotel Blvd., CBR and the towers at the Contemporary. I got to see the MK from my balcony at the Contemporary and I'm happy I got to experience it once. I just prefer the All Star Resorts.
The theaming is pure Disney.
My last 4 visits have been at The All Stars and this fall when we take dd,dsil, and our grandson age 3 we are staying at the All Stars Music. I thought about AKL and even though we can well afford AKL I just wanted Alex to experience the Disney Magic at the All Stars on his first visit.
Where else can one find Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse at the pool?
I can hardly wait.
Linda

 

[kdtwiss]

I think if you can swing it, renting DVC points for a resort like OKW would be great for you. Nice to have a kitchen with so many little ones!
If you plan really well and go Sunday night through Thursday night you stay will be much cheaper. The villas are rented on a point basis and Fri and Sat are nearly triple points if I remember right. How long are you going for?
Also with so many children I don't know if you will need the Park Hopper option, I know we have 4 and while it took some planning not having that was no problem.
If you do choose a moderate or value (2 rooms) I would say the dining plan would save you a bundle!!

 

[Chicago526]

First of all, 5 kids!!! God bless you!

I think your best option is 2 connecting rooms at a value resort (2 bath rooms, and with two rooms, the little ones can nap while the older ones watch tv in the other room).

Otherwise, I think your best bet is to rent points from a DVC member and get a two bedroom villa. I'm not sure what that would run you, you can get more info on the DVC section of these boards. Here's a link http://disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

 

[ANNFMUR]

I love hearing about these large families going to WDW. We only have 3 and are planning a trip next year. I am really encouraged because I thought only those with alot of money could make it happen. I am so excited about my saving plan. We are cutting back here and there and have a bank just for this trip. The kids are really enthused about saving as well I just hope we can keep the momentum

 

[tw1nsmom]

Another option would be to rent an RV/travel trailer and camp at Fort Wilderness. There are supposed to be companies in the WDW area that will deliver and set up the RV for you. Of course if you could borrow an RV from a friend, that would be the cheapest way.

It would probably cost about the same or a little more than two value resort rooms. But...you would have a place to cook and a lot of people love all of the activities at Fort Wilderness. Plus, it's very convenient to take the boat to MK.

 

[nem75]

I too have 5 children and we frequently go to WDW and have a blast. Our favorite place to stay is Pop Century. The bus service is great, the theming is so fun, the price is right as well. There arent any slides in the pools but there is a water fountain area that is a lot of fun for the kids. We get the connecting rooms and there is plenty of space. The kids usually take over one room with their coloring and TV choices and then when it is bedtime two come over and share one of the beds in our room.

The other option we also take advantage of is renting the DVC points form thhe rent/trade board and get a 2 bedroom villa. The least expensive route would be Old Key West. They have a main pool with a slide and several quiet pools. It is a much larger resort but very beautiful and peaceful and the 2 bedrooms have 1300 sq feet... they are humungous. And dont forget the 2 person jacuzzi tub. You may want to visit that board to get the link to the point charts. The weekends are very expensive point wise so a Sun-Thurs stay would be most cost effecient. But I think the average cost is $10-11 per point. If you went with the villa you could always piggyback a stay at the value resorts for the weekend.

You will have so much fun. Use fast passes and afternoon breaks liberally. Not everyone will want to ride the same things so have a plan to have each person pick one must-do attraction each day so there arent any hurt feelings. Take your patience and snacks like pretzel bags or fruit snacks as those little purchases add up fast with 7 people.

Good Luck!
Christy