Do you really spend alot of time in your room?

[airhead]

The thought of hanging around in my hotel room is not appealing. For us,its a place to sleep and leave all our stuff while we go have fun doing whatever!
Maybe if we went to WDW more often we would spend more time there,but I doubt it. That's not to say our resort selection isn't important,because it is.
There are some resorts I have no interest in staying at or visiting.

 

[camdensmom]

(I didn't have a chance to read through all the previous posts so I apologize if I am repeating things others have said)

To me it is not the "room" I am paying for, but "the resort."

The room size is not that important to me, but I do enjoy walking the grounds in the morning and at night. The pools, restuarant choices (including food court), type of guest it attracts (i.e. business folk at CSR, large school/sports/band groups at the values), distance and travel time to parks, and all that good stuff are more important than the room. My son also loves to play in the sand so a beach is a must for us.

We have stayed at many resorts. I personally don't care for the values because of the reasons I listed not because of room size. I have enjoyed all the moderates. This trip we will be staying at the POLY because we have a toddler and it is a short trip (4 nights) so a) it is more affordable b/c it is off season and a shorter trip than we normally do and b) we want to maximize our time and make life easier with a 2 year old and since we will spend the bulk of our time at the MK the monorail and boat will be appreciated.

So to answer your question...the room size doesn't matter much, but the resort overall does.

 

[D&R love Disney]

Room and resort are very inportant to us. We enjoy the pools and restaurants and having a balcony to sit on in the evening with a glass or 2 of wine is a prefect way to unwind. DH and I get a 1 br villa for just the 2 of us and we splurged on a 2 br at BCV when we took 2 of the kids. They loved having their own bedroom.

 

[simonkodousek]

We spend a good amount of time in our room, especially at the Polynesian. With a cramped room, we wouldn't spend much time in it, but if you are going to spend $300+ per night it is well worth it to spend some time in the room.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Between the two trips a year, we spend about 3 weeks in Disney. For us the resort is VERY important. We travel as a family of 5 so we probably require more room space than most families. Also I do not like to live out of a suitcase so I like enought closet and drawer space. Balcony or patio is important to me as DH is a runner and runs very early in the morning, before the kids wake up to go to the parks. The balcony or patio give me a chance to have my coffee and relax while DH runs and the kids sleep.

Transportation is also very important to us and that's another reason why we pick deluxe resorts. Nothing beats the monorail to MK or walking over to EPCOT.

We also spend at least a few days as the resort for some down time. The kids will participate in the kids activities (Pirate Cruise, Grand Adventures in Cooking etc.) and then we'll usually spend the rest of the day by the pool.

For the people who like to do the parks all day I can see why a clean, comfortable room would definitely be good enough. If you spend more time at the resort you might need more than that. I think it all depends on your touring style. We hit the parks at opening, come back to swim/nap, and then head back to the parks at night.

 

[ransom]

The OP has a good point, but I don't think it applies to everyone. Not everyone is a 100% commando park tourer, for example.

We spend a couple of hours in the room most mornings, plus a couple of hours most evenings.

Lots of folks come back to the resort for a few hours in the afternoon, too.

For us -- beyond the basics of cleanliness, etc -- it's important that we have a balcony to sit on in the evenings, and that the rooms aren't too cramped.

So we end up at Deluxe or DVC resorts.

To each his or her own, though!

 

[pyrxtc]

I don't spend much time in the room, just getting dressed or undressed. In January we will spending more time in the room because we'll be there so long.

 

[cmonroe]

This seems to be a purely subjective question. However, the OP seems to have asked about how important the room is to people. I'm not trying to stir any trouble, just making an observation. The reason I say this is because many of the posters emphasize the room, the feel of the hotel, the pools, the shopping, etc. To me, those are vastly different considerations than solely just the room.

For example, you might stay at a hotel that has smaller rooms, but is themed very well for your family. It might have great pools, and places to eat.

Just my two cents.

 

[Elmo888]

With kids, we spend more time in our room and time at the pool. Before kids, we spent time enjoying the room and the resort grounds. So, the room and resort are important to us.

After staying at WL, I wanted more space in the room, so we are trying ASMusic Family Suites. And, after staying at WL and POFQ a few years ago, I wonder if POR/POFQ rooms have more floor space than WL because of the difference in the size of the beds. It just seemed tight at WL, but then we hadn't stayed in a hotel room with our kids before. I felt like we had little room to get by each other. So, I need more floor space.

Anyway, I think that you will be happy with POR.

 

[DISNEYmooner2008]

We'll be staying at AKL for our honeymoon... So we WILL be spending lots of time in our room

 

[ransom]

We'll be staying at AKL for our honeymoon... So we WILL be spending lots of time in our room

 

[G8r4evr]

We go to the parks in the late morning and retun in early afternoon, so yep, we spend a good amount of time in our room. Not enough to justify the deluxe prices, but the corner room at CBR worked well for us =)

 

[Tara]

Room size and amenities are important to me, but even more important are factors like the location of the hotel, availability of dining, ease of transportation and an overall relaxing "feel" for my vacation.

 

[Taja]

As two middle-aged females, my travel buddy (BFF since age 7) and I probably view things differently than couples or families.

We've discovered that the first part of a longer WDW visit involves more time at the parks and less in room or at the resort. But our last few days we slow significantly and smell the roses. So we're splitting our next visit between a value resort and a deluxe resort, to see if that works well for us.

We've previously stayed at a value, moderate and deluxe resorts the entire visit. For the most part, the amenities of the moderate and deluxe resorts are wasted on us. We've both traveled a lot in our lives and aren't overly thrilled with the WDW deluxe resorts for the most part. Other than theming and convenient locations, they aren't terribly "deluxe" in my book.

Personally, I like a resort that is neat and clean, where I feel safe walking through the resort. I'm not much of a foodie, so restaurants aren't as important to me on a daily basis as they are to others. I swim 9 to 10 months of the year at home, and don't particularly care to do it when I travel.

It's really just a matter of personal tastes and preferences--what works for you and your family is what's right for you!

 

[Micca]

Whenever we are in the room we are so zonked from touring that we don't much care about the amenities. That said, we usually stay in a deluxe.

 

[heatherlynn444]

like others have said, it depends on youe touring style. we are in our early/mod twenties, with no kids. we sleep a little late, eat breakfast, head to teh parks till early afternoon, go back, swim, sit in the lobby, wlak aorund, etc. go to dinner, come back, sit int eh lobby, swim, shop, relax, etc. etc. (you get the idea) in fact, my favorite park of our honeymoon last january at the grand floridian were the times we sat outside gasparillas and watched wishes and sat out by the pool at night talking and relaxing, or sitting in the lobby or eating snacks at eh concierge lounge listening to the piano or orchestra. ah to be there right now...

 

[fla4fun]

For me, it depends on why I'm going to Disney. If I'm going for a long vacation (a week or more) or for a "de-stress" weekend, then my resort choice is very important because I typically spend 50% of my time at the resort. If I'm going for a weekend with a lot of activities planned (like my holiday trip next month) I'll either choose my resort by location or by price, depending on which matters most at the time, because I'll spend less time in the room. I could have changed resorts and spent a lot less on my trip for January 08 when the AP discounts came out, but my resort choice was important to me for that trip, so I kept my reservation the way it is.

 

[LeahA]

Wow! It's interesting to read all the responses. We go to Disney once a year. I never have viewed it as a "relaxing vacation." I guess my original question does not pertain to alot of you. Good for all of you that can go to Disney and relax! I have 3 very active boys, and besides a few hours at the pool daily, we are on the go at all times. I like to look at nice grounds at the resort but, my original question was about the "room" only.

 

[SGMCO]

I'm sure you will be just fine at POR with 5 in the room because there
are many families of 5 who stay there and have no problems.

Just think about the money you will be
saving compared to a Deluxe resort.

Your kids are still young enough not to mind
the close quarters and if you are not spending most of your time
in the room, I say go for it!!

You are going to love POR and enjoy exploring the grounds.
POR has a very nice TS Restaurant and CS restaurant.
Your boys will have so much fun in the Pool my DS did.
There is so much to do at POR--Have a Fun Trip!!

 

[camdensmom]

Wow! It's interesting to read all the responses. We go to Disney once a year. I never have viewed it as a "relaxing vacation." I guess my original question does not pertain to alot of you. Good for all of you that can go to Disney and relax! I have 3 very active boys, and besides a few hours at the pool daily, we are on the go at all times. I like to look at nice grounds at the resort but, my original question was about the "room" only.

Hmmm...given that additional info my first reaction was, "3 active boys...heck yeah room size is important." However, I quickly realized that with three active boys it's going to feel tight either way so I don't really think a few additional square feet will make much difference. If you don't weigh into considertation all of the other factors re: a resort then there is no reason to spend addition $ for the room.