Families of 5 @ Disney

[dana1696]

We just went last week for the first time with our kids, 12 yr old and 6 yr old twins. We stayed in a cabin at Ft. Wilderness, but like mentioned above, we did rent a golf cart. This is not an annual trip for us and we won't be able to do it again for about 3 years. This trip was a small fortune ($7000), but well worth it and we did some extra things that we won't be doing next time.

 

[scottwhite1964]

Hey, I have 5 and its hard. 3 trips down this year so I know the cost. Last week we stayed at World Quest Resort. 3 bedroom condo, it was pretty nice. 1 mile from disney. My kids are a little older so we stay all day in the park. Driving to and from wasnt bad only about 10 mins. If your like me and sick of being jamed try it. I like it alot. 210 a night for a 3 bed 2 bath by the pool.They quote you 189 but after taxes its 210 plus a free breakfast.We have always stayed on site but I wanted to try World Quest, It was sweet.

 

[Colleen27]

I do however think the option of having the two rooms at a value resort is a great choice. We were told that the rooms are guaranteed to be connecting if there are more kids than adults in the party. This is what we do and will continue to do. But I do understand why people would like more options. The price per person for a trip is usually more for larger families--especially for families of 6 or 7 people.

We were told that the only way they guarantee connecting rooms is if there aren't enough adults to go around, like if a single mom is traveling with 4+ children. For a couple taking their 3+ kids, Disney will try to honor the request but it isn't guaranteed.

 

[Disneydreamer5]

Thats the biggest complaint I have. Even if I split myself and DH there is no guarentee that they will put up together in adjoining rooms.
Has anyone in a large family ever actually been seperated? I am just curious. I wonder why they won't just put you together no matter what if you request it. Has anyone ever asked them? 'I think I will next time. If there ever is a next time I mean.

 

[3smithboys]

I'm right there with you! I have 3 boys a 10 year old and 5 year old twins. I wasn't planning on having any more than 2 (of course I wouldn't give up my bonus), but I have found that the regular world isn't built for 5 and Disney is even worse. I have looked into staying in different places onsite, and there aren't really any affordable options at the Deluxe level without breaking the bank! We love POR, but know that we will grow out of it in the near future. I would love to have more choices at the Mod and Deluxe level!

 

[my2minnies]

Thats the biggest complaint I have. Even if I split myself and DH there is no guarentee that they will put up together in adjoining rooms.
Has anyone in a large family ever actually been seperated? I am just curious. I wonder why they won't just put you together no matter what if you request it. Has anyone ever asked them? 'I think I will next time. If there ever is a next time I mean.

That is funny--we have booked two rooms three times now and each time they said it was guaranteed that they would be connecting. It is strange how the CM's alll give different info.

 

[MALE*RN*777]

We still do the Value Resort because our youngest next year will be only 2 but the following years we may camp at Fort Wilderness.

 

[tinkerbellmichelle]

We were told that the only way they guarantee connecting rooms is if there aren't enough adults to go around, like if a single mom is traveling with 4+ children. For a couple taking their 3+ kids, Disney will try to honor the request but it isn't guaranteed.

We were basically told the opposite. That because we're a family they can guarantee us connecting rooms; however, if we weren't one family, or we were requesting it for grandparents or something that they wouldn't. On our confirmation it says guaranteed connecting rooms for families or something like that.

 

[DISNEYNUTS]

We have 2 rooms at POR and were told when the kids outnumber the adults you are guarenteed joining rooms. we have 3 kids

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Thats the biggest complaint I have. Even if I split myself and DH there is no guarentee that they will put up together in adjoining rooms.
Has anyone in a large family ever actually been seperated? I am just curious. I wonder why they won't just put you together no matter what if you request it. Has anyone ever asked them? 'I think I will next time. If there ever is a next time I mean.

Just for clarification, adjoining rooms are beside each other and connecting rooms have the door in between. A number of people on this thread have said they want adjoining rooms and if that is what you request your two rooms will be beside each other, not connecting.

As far as the guarantee, we have booked two connecting rooms at a value a number of times and have never been split up. We do travel at slower times though. If you are traveling at a super busy time there is always the slight, outside chance that your family could get split up, afterall there are only so many connecting rooms in WDW. It's such a small chance though, I really don't factor it in when I am planning our trips.

 

[jellybeans0607]

Just for clarification, adjoining rooms are beside each other and connecting rooms have the door in between. A number of people on this thread have said they want adjoining rooms and if that is what you request your two rooms will be beside each other, not connecting.

As far as the guarantee, we have booked two connecting rooms at a value a number of times and have never been split up. We do travel at slower times though. If you are traveling at a super busy time there is always the slight, outside chance that your family could get split up, afterall there are only so many connecting rooms in WDW. It's such a small chance though, I really don't factor it in when I am planning our trips.

And just to add to this, adjoining can also mean "near" each other. We had a room inbetween us on our last trip. We had always asked for adjoining rooms and sometimes we would get "connecting" sometimes we wouldn't. This past trip was the first time the rooms weren't even touching. I asked at the front desk what was going on and he said they have much more leeway with "adjoining" than they do with "connecting". semantics!

 

[jkeenan]

We did adjoining rooms at POP Century and it worked out great.

 

[TheRatPack]

Yes, there are options but for a family of 5 it's still a little frustrating to know that when your baby turns 3 that your lodging costs will double. Of course people know that it will cost more the larger their family is (extra tickets, extra food, etc), but some may not assume that it would be that much more for one extra person. Once you know the options you listed, you know what to expect, but going from 2-3 kids may be a surprise for some who have had a regular room budget in mind.

LOL, try going from a family of 4 to a family of 7. We adopted a couple of years ago, went through the foster care system as we wanted an 'older' child (toddler and up) and were presented with a few sibling groups and then BOOM, our match was a sibling group of 3!!!! We knew they were our children the moment we laid eyes on them though....so we were excited, still it makes for a much more budget friendly vacation when you're used to 1 room.

We do connecting rooms at a Value. It's nice to have 2 bathrooms, 4 beds and the door in between. You can place the 'do not disturb' card in the connecting room door (where the kids are) and put the upper lock on the door and most little kids can't unlock that. You could even get those stick on door alarms at Walgreens and take one of those with you...so if their door is opened it would cause an alarm to go off. If you use the door alarm just make sure that you put that do not disturb card in the door outside....the housekeeping staff sometimes open the door, not knowing it's a connecting The way we separate our children though, we have my teenage dd in the same room with the little ones at night....so the little ones aren't all alone with access to an outside door

 

[maxiesmom]

That is funny--we have booked two rooms three times now and each time they said it was guaranteed that they would be connecting. It is strange how the CM's alll give different info.

Even if they tell you that, you may be split up. I have read posts on here before from people it has happened to. As long as Disney can put an adult in each room with the children, they do not HAVE to give you connecting rooms. Most times you will get them, but being split into 2 non-connecting rooms is not unheard of.

As far as room size and occupency, Disney just follows the model of most hotels in the US, and that is 4 to a room in most cases. I can understand wanting more options, but I can't understand the posts that feel entitled or blame Disney for having what is a completely normal room occupency level. And that is 4. If you want to start adding people beyond that, then it is going to cost you.

Do the same people who complain about how the larger rooms at Disney cost more go to the local car lot and complain that a mini van cost more than a small car?

And, fwiw, most of my Disney trips have been made as part of a family of 6. So yes, I understand all the problems you may encounter being part of a larger family. But I don't think it is Disney's responsiblity to make the vacation more affordable for us, just because we have a larger than average number of people in our family. And I get the fact that just because you 1 more person in your group that you need another whole room. But the only way to make that arrangement totally fair to everyone would for Disney to charge for their rooms per person. And I can't see how they could do that and not raise their prices into the stratosphere.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

We did adjoining rooms at POP Century and it worked out great.

So they were beside each other, or connecting with the door in between?

 

[RangerPooh]

While we're a family of 4, grandma and grandpa or a cousin usually vacations wiht us bumping our group to 5 or 6 people. We've stayed at POR on numerous occassions and have always liked it. You just ahve to be mindful of the amount of time that you spend in the bathroom, lol. We stayed at FW once and loved it! Definately one to cnsider, especially if you can get a discount code. We've also done the Poly with 5, but probably won't got that route again due to cost. Instead what we did wa spurchased DVC which is working well for us. While we have not stayed off site we ave looked into it, ut alays return to on-property options. 2 rooms is another option that we have considered.

 

[jenedpey]

Just wanted to post a minor clarification. Someone earlier posted that DVC studio and 1 Bedrooms only hold 4 people over the age of 3 and you have to go to a 2 bedroom for 5 people. Animal Kingdom Villas in the Kidani location (opening soon) has 1 Bedroom Villas that hold 5 people and include 2 bathrooms. Sleeping arrangments are 1 King size bed, 1 pull out couch and 1 pull out chair.

 

[shelby101301]

The DVC villas have a similar problem - both the studios and the 1 bedrooms sleep 4. So a family going from 4 to 5 has to go from a studio all the way up to a 2 bedroom that has space for 8.

To answer the original question, our solution was to buy DVC. I did want to say AK Kidani suites will accomoate 5 - they have sleeper chairs that pull out into a bed. I believe that is the new trend for DVC resorts. Also, one bedrooms are big enough that you can get an air mattress to accomodate an extra child.

Don't quote me though, as I am a new owner and still learning the ropes. But it was a good solution for us as we like to go every year. So we bought enough points to get us that (as much as we would have liked to buy lots more LOL)

We are satisfied so far as I priced our first trip on the Disney site, and it came up as over $4000....that's almost a third of what we paid for the whole DVC membership!

 

[Colleen27]

To answer the original question, our solution was to buy DVC. I did want to say AK Kidani suites will accomoate 5 - they have sleeper chairs that pull out into a bed. I believe that is the new trend for DVC resorts. Also, one bedrooms are big enough that you can get an air mattress to accomodate an extra child.

Don't quote me though, as I am a new owner and still learning the ropes. But it was a good solution for us as we like to go every year. So we bought enough points to get us that (as much as we would have liked to buy lots more LOL)

We are satisfied so far as I priced our first trip on the Disney site, and it came up as over $4000....that's almost a third of what we paid for the whole DVC membership!

That's going to be our solution too in the long run. We're hoping to buy DVC next year, and I should have been more clear because I do know that non-value level AKV and the new BLT at the Contemporary sleep 5 in a 1 bedroom. In fact, that's one of the things that tipped the scales in favor of buying DVC - if they'd stuck with the limit of 4 in a 1 bedroom (even if it is a largely unenforced rule), it wouldn't be nearly as attractive to us.

 

[Mommy2JulietJocelyn]

We made the decision to buy DVC on this past trip. Can I tell you how excited I am!?! We bought at Animal Kingdom - their one bedrooms fit 5 people and 1 under 3 (so they could accomadate 6 technically - if I ever convince DH about another baby.) Anyway - That is the route we went because we know we have a lot of vacations left to Disney and this gives us more options. In august we go down for our 1st trip and we are taking IL's with us.