Families of 5 --- what do you do???

[KorieDWnut]

We are a family of 5 - Me, DH, DS12, DD10 and DD8. It has always been a pet peeve of mine that there aren't more options in Disney Resorts for a family of 5. If you don't want to get 2 rooms, it is POR w/trundle or Deluxe. No cheepo rooms for us!

We have been lucky enough to stay once at the Poly (2001 - with a good discount), once at the Beach Club (2003 - incredible discount because my SIL is DOD and SOG was closed) and once at POR (2003 - moved there when SIL left and no longer had DOD discount at Beach Club ).

This coming January we are staying at the Poly again for 6 nights and I feel extrememly fortunate that we can afford to do so. Not everyone would be able to do this, and there have certainly been times (and will be again I'm sure) when we couldn't afford to.

I am just curious what other families of 5 do? Do people do 2 rooms at the Values? Always POR 2/ trundle? Deluxe? Are there other options I don't know about?

Thanks for any response!

sjlupin

My youngest will be 4 next week. The last trip this past Nov we stayed at Riverside for the pull out trundle bed. Before that we always just asked for a crib even if she didn't sleep in, just so that we could stay in a value. She is too old to do that anymore so we stayed at Riverside. We couldn't afford a suite or 2 connecting rooms. I think it stinks too because my kids are so little that they can still all fit into one bed and be more than comfortable but what can you do. Hotel rooms for us are just something you sleep in, take a nap in and put your stuff. We are not "resort" people. next time we go we will probably do Riverside again, unless we wait a few years and save up for a deluxe hotel.

When I was little my parents always had us stay at either Poly or Fort Wilderness in the cabins. Those places are sooo expensive now, my mom is amazed because 18 years ago they were not THAT much $$

 

[Justntime]

I agree there are not a lot of good options. We are trying the cabins this year and feel like we are getting a good deal.

A full kitchen to help save money, a grill to cook out on and a seperate room to put the kids in. I also like the idea of parking at my front door. I think I will also save some time by driving to Epcot, MGM and AK early in the morning.

I will let you know how it works out but this made sense for our family. We also like the idea of being close to Chip and Dale and the movies. Oh yeah the kids are excited about the golf cart.

 

[KorieDWnut]

I agree there are not a lot of good options. We are trying the cabins this year and feel like we are getting a good deal.

A full kitchen to help save money, a grill to cook out on and a seperate room to put the kids in. I also like the idea of parking at my front door. I think I will also save some time by driving to Epcot, MGM and AK early in the morning.

I will let you know how it works out but this made sense for our family. We also like the idea of being close to Chip and Dale and the movies. Oh yeah the kids are excited about the golf cart.

I have stayed at the cabins 3 times but I wasn't paying for it, I was 11, 12 and then 13. I do know that they were (and still are) my favorite place to stay. There was just so much for a kid to do. I was an explorer and loved to just go off on my own on the on site busses to different stops along the resort. I liked going to the country store, there are movies, sing alongs, walking/biking trails, just so fun.

I wish we weren't priced out of it, I really think dh would love it.

 

[Bear and Honey]

Thank you everybody for the ideas for large families.
My sister is married and has a little girl, but they are in the process of adopting three more kids. We already made plans to go to WDW in June 2008 and now we are trying to figure out where they could stay with out it costing an arm and a leg.

 

[Family Fun Mom]

Having a larger family, everything costs more. Food, cars, clothing. You name it. Disney is just like anything else. More people=more expense.

Families of five do not expect free park tickets or free meals for the third child. We'd just like to be able to stay in a hotel room at a reasonable cost, without splitting up the family.

Our 5th family member was born five years ago and we have stayed in numerous hotels, all over the place. Disney is the only one that requires us to upgrade to a deluxe room for hundreds more a night, or pay double for two rooms. Everywhere else we just pay $10 to $25 (a night, not free) for a rollaway. Why is that so hard for Disney to offer? It's frustrating.

To answer the OP's question; when we went we stayed at POR and loved it. Beautiful resort. However, since the kids are getting bigger we are opting for two rooms at POP next time. This will most likely be our last on-site Disney exclusive trip. After this, we'll rent a condo or home and explore the other things Orlando has to offer.

 

[angiepangie8]

We have 5 going to Disney:3 adults and 2 kids.
We have looked into renting a DVC at AKV. A 1 Bedroom sleeps 5 there, but we are trying to get a 2 Bedroom now which actually will sleep 9.

 

[LorieBell]

I agree, there just aren't enough options for a family of five. We are staying at POR in September and I just know that I am going to end up sleeping on the trundle bed!

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

In 6 sleeps we start our drive with five to Disney. After checking out our options. we decided to go with the Poly even though it is pretty expensive.

 

[gabbyrosebud]

I agree, there just aren't enough options for a family of five. We are staying at POR in September and I just know that I am going to end up sleeping on the trundle bed!

Hi! My Mom, sister, DD and I will be going to Disney next Sept.. We wanted to stay in 1 room to save money. We were looking into POR because of the trundle bed. My sister would probably sleep on it, so I was curious if it was large enough for an adult? She is very petite, only 5 feet tall. What do you all think? Does anyone have a picture of the trundle bed? Thanks!

 

[mnasmom3]

We've done 1 room at POR in the past, but it's tight quarters for a week so this time we decided to try 2 rooms at a value. Slightly more expensive, but we'll have 2 bathrooms, everyone gets a real bed, and more room to move around.

 

[madge]

I am just curious what other families of 5 do? Do people do 2 rooms at the Values? Always POR 2/ trundle? Deluxe? Are there other options I don't know about?

Thanks for any response!

sjlupin

This trip, we're staying 2 nights at the Dolphin, and a week offsite at Vistana Villages (in a 2BR condo).

We've also stayed at Shades of Green and PO-R in the past.

 

[madge]

Families of five do not expect free park tickets or free meals for the third child. We'd just like to be able to stay in a hotel room at a reasonable cost, without splitting up the family.

Our 5th family member was born five years ago and we have stayed in numerous hotels, all over the place. Disney is the only one that requires us to upgrade to a deluxe room for hundreds more a night, or pay double for two rooms. Everywhere else we just pay $10 to $25 (a night, not free) for a rollaway. Why is that so hard for Disney to offer? It's frustrating.

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday while booking a one night stay at a Hampton Inn the night before our flight.... where children under 18 stay for free in the same room as their parents. And I know Hampton isn't the old hotel brand that offers that to families.

 

[mnasmom3]

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday while booking a one night stay at a Hampton Inn the night before our flight.... where children under 18 stay for free in the same room as their parents. And I know Hampton isn't the old hotel brand that offers that to families.

When I mentioned other hotel practices to them and how we've always been able to use rollaways at other hotels, all the CM would say is that it is a fire hazard and against bylaws (illegal in the city of orlando or the state or county, perhaps? Or simply just a bunch of bologna? I dunno) He kept telling me about my other options. All of which cost a lot of money, of course. POR w/trundle, upgrade to deluxe resort, 2 rooms at value, family suites. That's about it.

 

[hbehrman]

My plan is that we are staying at POR evertime we go until our son gets too big for the trundle, and we are going with free dining on a package. Within the package we are getting MYW tickets with no expiration.

Last year we got:
7 day MYW tickets, Park hopping, Water Parks (6 plusses) and No expiration = 13 days of fun (I count Waterparks as 1 day) for the best bang for buck for the least amount. Also got MNSSHP. We only used 3 days from our MYW tickets and no plusses.

This year we are getting 10 day MYW base ticket with No expiration and MNSSHP.

In this way we plan not to spend any money on tickets in the future when our son can no longer fit in the trundle. This will allow us to start staying in a Deluxe at a room only discounted rate while not spending so much money on tickets. We plan to use only one hopping ticket a visit as a "Best of Day" on our future trips. Note we at this point we are going in Value Season.

Anyway thats my plan.

 

[Aliceacc]

As much as it's going to break the bank, we're going for the Contemporary next summer. We got the AAA discount (finally) and it's helping a tremendous amount. We also skipped the meal plan... we don't need all that many table service meals.

The idea of being able to walk/carry/monorail a cranky 5 year old back for a mid afternoon swim or nap while her dad stays at the Magic Kingdom with the 2 older kids... as the commercial says: "Priceless!"

This will probably be a once-in-a-childhood trip for my kids; we're both teachers and can't afford a vacation of this magnitude on a regular basis.

But just this once, we're going Deluxe

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

As a family of 5 we have stayed:

off-site villa rental with extended family (2003)
Yacht Club (2005)
Contemporary (April 2007)

Ds14 is now too tall to sleep on a daybed (dd12 and dd7 share one of the beds).

We've been saving hard and are going to buy into DVC this fall

 

[tink_lover]

"But just this once, we're going Deluxe" I had to laugh at this because it is what I said last year when booking our spring break vacation for this past spring. We stayed at CR. Just now I'm in the process of booking for 2008 and we are hooked on CR!!!! It was so convenient with the little ones. I figure when they are older we can go to Pop or one of the other values, but Deluxe was so amazing.

 

[lemondog]

We are a family of 5. Next summer will be our first family vacation to WDW. We opted for the Poly. DH is not a big theme park fan, so we'll spend a good amount of time hanging at the hotel, swimming, etc. So we opted for a nicely themed hotel, close to the MK (where we'll spend most of our time) that has big rooms for us to spread out. As my kids get older and we need more space/bathrooms, then we'll probably do either the AS Family Suites or maybe even the FW Cabins. I just LOVE staying in the MK area -- to me that is the most Disney-ish.

I agree with the OP, though, that there are just not enough AFFORDABLE options for families of 5. They really need one more mod that can accomodate 5. Not everyone can afford a deluxe, and even the FW cabins and AS Suites are closing in on deluxe prices.

 

[angiepangie8]

My friend has a family of 5 and she said the last 2 years they've stayed at POR with a trundle bed. She also said that she wished that they had more options for larger families. They enjoyed their POR stays, but it was a little tight.

 

[skipper]

They should offer a 2nd room discount for larger families in a Mod. Otherwise it tends to push them off site to an affordable 2BR Villa like the Sheraton Vistana, etc. I've had some good stays at offsite timeshares, to the point that on-site is no longer a very good value.

If they stay on-site they will spend more on meals, entertainment, etc anyway. It just makes sense.