Any tips for a family of 5?

[Durham]

I'm planning our first trip to Disney. I'm hoping to go sometime in the first two weeks of May '09. The information out there is overwhelming, any suggestions?

 

[ahalla]

There is a great book that is published annually, it is called Walt Disney world with Kids and it is published by Fordor's. I found this very helpful. Also, check into the passporter (passporter.com). How old are your kids and what type of rides do they like? If you want to take in some character dinners or even a dining show the Hoop de doo musical review was amazing. My kids loved it. DHS has alot of shows, kids of all ages will love them as well. Work in pool days. Disney can be exhausting and you may need some down time. If you are planning on going on Toy Story mania (highly recommend), get to the park early and head straight there to get your fastpasses. You will need them.
Hope this helps!

 

[mollyseven]

Hi there.
I would suggest not booking a package through a travel agent.
Our biggest mistake the first trip we took was that we booked a package through Nolitours and that was overspending. You do not need to spend that much on a trip. Book directly through disney or CAA and get your airfare separately.
Fly through Buffalo....it's wayyy cheaper unless you look at going SUnwing from Toronto and there is a cheap flight on sale now. .. otherwise fly out of buffalo...it may take an extra hour to drive there but the wait is an hour less at the airport, the airport is wayyyy smaller and the customs/etc on your way home is a cinch crossing the border as opposed to toronto airport.
We have stayed at Pop, Caribbean Beach, Port Oleans, and Coronado Springs.
We went in May in 06 and it was great.
If you have kids who like star wars I would see about the dates and see if you can go then cause that is great too....otherwise I'd go the beginning of May to avoid the high heat at the end of May.
.....I have lots to add if you'd like to know but will stop for now.

 

[LLWDW]

I think you've come to the right place, this site has a wealth of information. A book is a good idea too. My first trip I used Birnbaum's. There are books available at the library to save the $. I suggest Port Orleans Riverside for your resort as it can accommodate 5. Don't be overwhelmed by all the info, just enjoy the planning, it's so much fun.

 

[grantclaire]

Hi. I took my family of five to WDW in 2003. We stayed in a 2 br unit offsite(always a big debate) it worked great the two girls had a bedroom, my son slept on the sofa bed and we had our own bedroom. There was a full kitchen that helped to keep food costs down. I don't think I can ever stay in one hotel room again. We like to use The Unofficial Guide to WDW. Good luck and have a great time,

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Unless your children are under the age of three then there aren't many Disney resorts that let you have five in a room. Your choices are;

1)the deluxe resorts-most will do it.
2)cabin in fort wilderness (but keep in mind you only have 1 bathroom and 1 TV and that you need to take a bus in the campground to get to your cabin)
3)Port Orlean's Riverside.It is a moderate resort. They will give you a trundle bed. You can't see TV from the Trundle bed and if your child is older than 10 it will probably be too small.
4)the family suite at All star Music. It is a value resort but the suite is more expensive than Port Orlean's Riverside with the trundle bed. However you get two bathrooms and two TV's and I know from experience that the pull out beds aren't too bad for sleeping. It also has a queen bed in the bedroom. Most values only have doubles.

In terms of being at the parks I would suggest you work out in advance who will be riding with who on the rides. 5 people mean someone is usually left out and to avoid any meltdowns you should talk about it before you are in the heat of the moment. We opted to take grandparents with us so we could have a one on one adult child ratio.

 

[braddillman]

We're also a family of 5, boy 6, girls 8 & 10, from Halifax.

We're big fans of off-site. We stay in a timeshare on I-drive, but there are plenty of house rentals, unused timeshares, etc. to choose among. We've use RCI a couple of times, they sometimes have a 2-BR (full kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry, privacy for parents) for $350/wk. Our kids loved the pool and on-site arts and crafts. Way more relaxing than cramming 5 into a hotel room, and the on-site choices for 5 are much more limited than for 4.

Rental cars seem pretty cheap to me, < $200/wk typical for a midsize which handles 3 kids (2 in boosters) - last time we had a PT Cruiser.

For flights, we flew from Halifax but we got 3 flights courtesy aeroplan. BTW, there is a great board just for aeroplan at FlyerTalk here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan-375/

I'm very tempted to fly from Bangor; if you live near the U.S. seriously consider it. If you consider driving, there is also the autotrain from virginia, which is explained in a thread on this board in detail. Not sure it's great for Canadians, but I spent a lot of time looking at it - you save on a rental car, you do more driving but you can make that back sleeping on the train, the kids would love it... maybe someday.

Flights are usually our biggest cost, so we like to go less often, but stay longer (say, 2 weeks every 2 years save more air fare than 1 wk/yr).

Our biggest savings come from not eating in restaurants so often. We simply go to a grocery store and buy things the kids like that are easy to cook - frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, spaghetti, salad-kit-in-a-bag, cereal, etc. Suppertime means 1 parent takes the kids to the pool, the other heats/boils/unwraps the meal (and gets a minute to sit without the kids). Hey, it's not like the kids would eat much healthier in a restaurant (or if they do that it'd be cheaper). There's a big wal-mart supercenter near disney, just google it, they have groceries including a butcher, bakery, everything.

We eat out sometimes, last time we treated ourselves to the rainforest cafe in AK - it was a great mid-day break, a very hot day and that restaurant is very cool inside (almost cold). The kids favorite was golden corral (what did you expect? LOL). The loved to pick and choose, make their own sundaes, etc. I think it was about $8/each. My wife couldn't eat anything but roast pork and roast turkey, because EVERYTHING has MSG (she's allergic) - what did you expect? LOL

Although I budgeted more for buying snacks in-park, the kids actually didn't mind at all eating granola bars, etc. from the backpack - they figured out they wasted less time by eating while standing in line.

I invested the $20 for Tour Guide Mike, and I thought it was worth the money, especially if you're a 1st-timer. TGM has nice, detailed explanations of WHY the recommendations are. I found by reading them I had much better luck at improvising changes on the fly, and I never made a detailed plan or paper notes at all. But understanding HOW and WHY things are busy or not is much easier to remember. Also consider the unofficial guide, I never tried it but I think its more like $8.

My kids' favorite was the water parks, and they preferred TL over BB for the wave pool. Each park has a couple of areas, one for < 5yrs, 1 for 5-10yrs which they really liked. In fact, I think they liked the water parks at least as much as the regular ones, so give them serious consideration.

My closing argument: thinking only of money, staying onsite saves you a rental car (if you don't mind waiting for the bus), but you must eat in disney restaurants and stay in a hotel room. Staying offsite means a rental car, $10/day parking and cooking, but IMHO you get a lot more value.

 

[CdnKayDee]

First off, want to say that you made a good choice with staying for 2 weeks. There is a wealth of info out there but with Boards like this there will be lots of people to help you out.

Don't be overwhelmed. Planning is part of the fun of the Disney vacation.

 

[Sillyminny40]

We are a family of 5: ds16, ds16, ds 12 and have gone to Orlando 4 times. Next month is 5th time.

First: Port Orleans with trundle bed (one week) TA Small but well worth it for onsite. That trundle bed is 3 x 5 feet!
Second: Vistana Villages 2 br (full kitchen) 10 days TA
Third: a small hotel with pull out couch (Yuch uncomfy!) 8 days, booked ourselves (airmiles + cousin worked at Marriot got us a good rate but not worth it for 5 people in small room)
Fourth: 5 br vacation home with sister's family (wow great!) but NO Disney this time.
Fifth: BW at Disney one week totally onsite nothing else. Booked through our TA same price as online or Disney. Staying here due to incredibly great offer 4/3.

You will find everything you need at this site but I disagree about TAs. It some cases they do not cost you more if you know what to ask for. There are some TAs who know b__ all about WDW that is true! LOL! Compare, compare, compare! The tour package can cost you more indeed.

Let us know ages, etc and we can all contribute more of our experience.

 

[boundfordisney]

I HAVE USED THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO WALT DISNEY WORLD AS WELL I THINK THAT ITS THE BEST BOOK OUT THERE ALSO HAVE THE PASSPORTERS ITS GOOD TO. HOW OLD ARE THE KIDS? IF YOUR BUDGET ALLOWS I WOULD DO CIRQUE ITS SO WORTH IT! EVEN CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 3 HAVE BEEN WOWED BY IT! SAT BESIDE A FAMILY WITH 2 LITTLE ONES., 3 AND 5 WOULD HAVE BEEN THE AGES AND WE NEVER HEARD A PEEP OUT OF EITHER OF THEM! READ ALL ABOUT IT IN THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE! WE WILL BE GOING IN MAY AS WELL THE 2ND TO THE 9TH AND STAYING AT THE YACHT CLUB WHICH WOULD ACCOMONDATE ALL OF YOU! HAVE FUN PLANNING!

 

[momdad4kids]

I HAVE USED THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO WALT DISNEY WORLD AS WELL I THINK THAT ITS THE BEST BOOK OUT THERE ALSO HAVE THE PASSPORTERS ITS GOOD TO. HOW OLD ARE THE KIDS? IF YOUR BUDGET ALLOWS I WOULD DO CIRQUE ITS SO WORTH IT! EVEN CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 3 HAVE BEEN WOWED BY IT! SAT BESIDE A FAMILY WITH 2 LITTLE ONES., 3 AND 5 WOULD HAVE BEEN THE AGES AND WE NEVER HEARD A PEEP OUT OF EITHER OF THEM! READ ALL ABOUT IT IN THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE! WE WILL BE GOING IN MAY AS WELL THE 2ND TO THE 9TH AND STAYING AT THE YACHT CLUB WHICH WOULD ACCOMONDATE ALL OF YOU! HAVE FUN PLANNING!

The Unofficial Guide is akin to the bible for anyone going to Disney, Touring plans work ,packed with good tips and information. We've used it since 1996.This time I purchased a copy of Brinbaums Official guide and went back and bought the Unofficial after, the view from the official was just a little to pro Disney for my taste.Mickeys always smiling because he knows your going to leave lots of cash behind.
At first it looks a little like your about to read "war and Peace" but once you start its surprising how many of the questions you have will be answered,What the guide cant answer you can find here. Not sure if youre aware or not but PoP Centuary offers connecting rooms as well. Im not sure what province your in but dont be scared to look at prices for flights stateside,airfare most likely will be your single largest cost.If your looking at May 09 you may even want to consider driving,if you have the time and can stand being in a vehicle together for more than 2 hrs the drive can be as much fun getting there as being there.