Anyone stay in a family resort at All Star resorts?

[nathaliabrown]

It seems like I have been posting alot...Sorry. Getting things together so I can make my payments next month for Next years trip.

There is 6 of us. We are wanting to go checking in Nov 21 2014. It seems this year free dinning ending around that time so I am hoping we will get it this year so we will have it for our trip!! ( completely went off topic here lol)

The issue is we have 6 people and the cheapest route is a family resort at the moderate. But it says it comes with :

All Star - Family Suite
View Photos
Views of the Pool, Courtyard or Parking Area
1 Queen Bed and 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Chair and 1 Double-Size Sleeper Sofa and 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Ottoman
Sleeps up to 6

Will this be comfortable? Its me, DH, my mom, DD15, DD6, DS8.

Our only other option is to get two rooms which is more $. I would love to stay at port Orleans so we get the free Dinning Plus but the biggest it sleeps is 5.

Has anyone stayed here?

 

[jensen]

We are only 4 people, but we've stayed in the all star music family suite and thought it was great! There is a queen bed in the bedroom, a sofa sleeper that can sleep 2 and two separate fold-out chairs that sleep one each.

As I recall, the sleepers were plenty large and comfortable for an adult. So, I wouldn't worry about sleeping arrangements. And having two bathrooms will be great for getting ready in the mornings.

Your other option would be a cabin at Fort Wilderness... but, I've never stayed there, so cannot compare for you.

 

[donac]

We stayed there last summer with ds's and their gf's. We were only there for 3 nights before we moved but we would do it again. We thought it was great.

 

[PHXscuba]

I think the only issue with the Family Suite is whether your mother would be willing to sleep on a fold-out. I hear they are much more comfortable than usual pull-out sleepers, but everyone has different tolerances.

You could put your mother and a daughter on the foldout couch, smaller child on the sleeper ottoman (not as big as a twin but certainly would fit a 6 or 8 year-old). That leaves the twin sleeper chair for the remaining child. Or your mother on the twin, daughters on the pullout sofa, and son on the ottoman.

You mentioned "family resort at the moderate." Remember that All-Star Music is a Value Resort, not a moderate. But I know you can still upgrade your free dining if you want to pay for it. I assume two moderate rooms with free dining is still more expensive than a Family Suite and upgrading the dining plan?

We really liked our family suite with our 4 kids -- a door between us and them, two bathrooms, and a kitchenette that we used.

I believe on the resorts board there is/was a thread on the Family Suites at All-Star Music. I know the Art of Animation suites have gotten all the press lately, but I actually like the ASM ones better because you get 4 beds instead of 3, a bigger kitchenette, and they are cheaper too!

PHXscuba

 

[Southernmiss]

It seems like I have been posting alot...Sorry. Getting things together so I can make my payments next month for Next years trip.

There is 6 of us. We are wanting to go checking in Nov 21 2014. It seems this year free dinning ending around that time so I am hoping we will get it this year so we will have it for our trip!! ( completely went off topic here lol)

The issue is we have 6 people and the cheapest route is a family resort at the moderate. But it says it comes with :

All Star - Family Suite
View Photos
Views of the Pool, Courtyard or Parking Area
1 Queen Bed and 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Chair and 1 Double-Size Sleeper Sofa and 1 Twin-Size Sleeper Ottoman
Sleeps up to 6

Will this be comfortable? Its me, DH, my mom, DD15, DD6, DS8.

Our only other option is to get two rooms which is more $. I would love to stay at port Orleans so we get the free Dinning Plus but the biggest it sleeps is 5.

Has anyone stayed here?

Someone mentioned Fort Wilderness Cabins. We absolutely love the cabins

Comfortably sleeps 6 on real beds! We liked having a full kitchen and did a lot of crockpot meals which saved us $$ in food.

 

[maxiesmom]

Someone mentioned Fort Wilderness Cabins. We absolutely love the cabins

Comfortably sleeps 6 on real beds! We liked having a full kitchen and did a lot of crockpot meals which saved us $$ in food.

I wouldn't consider the murphy bed in the cabin a real bed, any more than the fold outs in a family suite are real beds.

OP--My question is, where would your mom sleep? I don't think there is any way I would be at ease sleeping in a queen sized bed while I put my mom on a fold out with one of my kids.

Having said that, we have stayed in a family suite before, with 3 adults and 3 kids. We all loved it! Even me, who ended up sharing the couch fold out with one of my nieces.

 

[Marionnette]

Your family will certainly fit into an ASMu Family Suite. The question is really whether everyone will be comfortable. I would be especially wary of having my mother sleep on a foldout bed, but my mother is 78 and has an arthritic hip. However, I'm in my early 50's and wouldn't be too keen on spending a week sleeping on a foldout sofa, either. Everyone is different and your mother might be fine. I would get her input on resort preferences for this very reason.

POR rooms can sleep a maximum of 5 people (plus 1 infant) if one of those people is a small child under the age of 10. Larger children and adults would not be comfortable on the drop-down bed. It appears that your family would not qualify to stay in a single room at POR due to the number of people.

It is also less expensive to stay at a value and upgrade to the DDP than it is to stay in a moderate during Free Dining. However, sometimes the family suites are not included in the Free Dining promotion even though the rest of the ASMu resort is.

At this point, it's all conjecture. You should really choose a resort that is within your budget and make your plans accordingly. There are never any guarantees that a discount will be made available or that one that has been offered in the past will be repeated to cover the days that you plan to travel. If you like the look of ASMu and feel that the family suites are "doable" for your family, then book it and hope for some sort of discount later. If staying at a Moderate appeals to you more, and your budget allows, then book there instead.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Hmmm. . .for the number of people and the ages, I'd almost suggest renting 2 studios at Old Key West from someone and just outright buying the Dining Plan or going a la carte on food. Not sure if it would be cheaper, but with this you'd get 2 queen beds per room and 2 bathrooms, so your mom could have her own bed as could the 15 year old. It would also buy a little privacy for your DD and your mom (and for you and your DH) every now and again.

ETA: Okay, did the math. . .IF you get free dining or a room discount, there's a bit of savings from ASMU vs. renting 2 OKW studios on points. You'll have to decide if it's worth it. I will say that DH and I are taking my DB and my Dear Niece and Dear Nephew (DNi and DNe) at Mardi Gras and we're staying at OKW - I just don't want my DB to have to sleep on a sleeper sofar, and DNi and DNe are teenagers - they each spend forever in the bathroom, so we NEED two bathrooms, even if someone has to go down a hall and/or stairs to get to the second one. I thought about a DVC one bedroom (we're DVC peeps), which also sleeps 5, gave a shudder and went with 2 studios.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I just stayed at a suite at Art of Animation, and I slept on the Murphy bed, it is a regular mattress. I liked it quite a bit, and preferred that to moving things around to pull out a sofa bed.

I love the 2 full bathrooms.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We are 4 and stayed in the All Star Music Family Suite.

My husband and I squeezed into the queen size bed (we are used to a king). The bed was hard to me but my husband said it was perfect. I really missed having more room on the bed and didn't sleep well at all.

The sleeper chair was great. My oldest slept there and said he loved it. So that's where I would put your Mom.

The sleeper couch unfortunately was very uncomfortable for my DD. That mattress was really, really thin. Looking back I wish I had asked to get her a new mattress and see if that was better. She ended up putting the sheets on the couch unopened and sleeping there.
Two people would fit on it if they weren't big so your 2 DD's would fit.

We didn't open the ottoman - but you could put your youngest on that easily.

We loved having the mini kitchen and having 2 bathrooms and 2 TV's was wonderful. I really liked the resort overall.
I just wish the beds had been more comfy.

 

[Southernmiss]

I wouldn't consider the murphy bed in the cabin a real bed, any more than the fold outs in a family suite are real beds.

OP--My question is, where would your mom sleep? I don't think there is any way I would be at ease sleeping in a queen sized bed while I put my mom on a fold out with one of my kids.

Having said that, we have stayed in a family suite before, with 3 adults and 3 kids. We all loved it! Even me, who ended up sharing the couch fold out with one of my nieces.

Dh and I had no issues with sleeping on the Murphy bed. It was a real mattress.

In the bedroom are a full size bed and a set if bunks.

For a week at Disney going from morning to night enjoying time with family we are just looking for a clean cofortable place to sleep.

 

[Shagley]

We stayed in an ASMu family suite about 2 years ago and I found the pull out beds to be pretty uncomfortable for adults. I am in my 40's and was not comfortable at all on the pull out couch. My sister slept on the pull out chair, and after two nights we pulled the mattress off of the ottoman and put that on top of the mattress on the chair and she slept on both mattresses. We both agreed that the mattresses on the pull out couch and chair were very thin and pretty saggy. Hopefully they have replaced them by now. Also, kids probably won't find the pull out beds as uncomfortable as we did.

Actually, the price of two regular rooms are very close to, or even a little cheaper than the price of the family suite. That is the option that we are going with when we go with my parents again next year. We will kind of miss the kitchenette, but we can live without a coffee maker and a microwave and we would rather sleep comfortably. We will still have two bathrooms, and everyone will get an actual bed - yay!