Family of 5 - 2 Value Rooms or 1 POR?

[Megsie1000]

Staying in May for a quick "budget" trip with an AP discount. We got spoiled by the Poly but that is not in the cards again any time soon due to price.

I have never stayed at the POR before. My Mom and I stayed POP when it was just the 2 of us and liked it fine. Like I said - spoiled by Poly. LOL

So with a family of 5 (Me, DH, 9, 7 & 4-year olds) would you go for POP and get 2 rooms or go for POR and get 1 room? I like the idea of trying POR but I am worried about all of us cramming into a small room. POP appeals to me because we would have two bathrooms and more beds, storage space, etc.

POR appeals because of the more lush grounds. DH is also staying behind a few of the days just to relax at the resort while the rest of us go to the park and I figure he would enjoy the POR more (although perhaps not enjoy all of us cramming into one room like sardines (?)

Price difference is about $200. POP is more because 2 rooms.

Thoughts?

 

[gilesmt]

I would go for POR, I never stayed at the pop, it seems okay and I would like it but we could never do with just double beds. There is 5 of us most times unless future SIL come. We have done POR and SoG, the military next to the poly. I am debating SoG or POR also. Our kids are now 22 and 25 and with 8 yo grand dd we think we need the big rooms at SoG. Yours are still small enough. When we stayed a toor we had the preferred rooms at alligator bayous. They are queen beds and you have the Murphy bed so you have enough beds. If you clean up each day, and don't spend lots of time in hotel room, it would be okay. We usually just sleep in beds and are up early and out all day. The plus is the pool, with the slides, when we where there we could pool hop to pofq and they had a different slide so that was great being able to pool hop. They also have the quieter pools in between some of the buildings, I know one was right outside the laundry room so I could do laundry while granddd was swimming with my dd, that was when they were younger like 3 and 16. I also remember we used the pool showers, that cut down on the room showers, since twice a week I would just wash them up at pool shower and not have to deal with all of them in just one bathroom.i love everything about POR, the food was great, you can go over easily to pofq if you want a change one morning, there banana fried dough stuff was great. Depending on what your husband wants to do when your gone without him they have many options, like a walk or jog to pofq, a bike ride between the two, a carriage ride, a boat ride to dtd, they have a pirate cruise during the day for the kids, that was a lot of fun. For me, giving up a queen size bed just is not worth it. Yes the rooms are small, compared to poly but you can make it work. I never had much trouble getting a bus, they where crowded on the way home, very crowded some nights, less others, I should say never had trouble unless we had ressies at another resort, then we were always late.i keep thinking I want to go back, but for us it would be more money to go down to a smaller room so as much as I want to with older ones we need the larger room, but if they were younger I would spend a little more to go back to the POR, I loved it.

 

[pepe of ohio]

I'd do anything I could to not stay at a value....any of them...

Theming is too bizarre, in your face Disney, they feel like glorified motel 6's..... Others enjoy them.... Just not our cup of tea after traveling 1100 miles, we enjoy something more upscale ... Only moderate that interests us is POFQ. Good luck!

 

[Missytara]

Go for it; your husband will love spending the afternoons by himself around the quiet pool and you will enjoy the experience of going moderate more.

 

[Megsie1000]

For me, giving up a queen size bed just is not worth it.

Oh I agree with you on the beds. I have no desire to share a full bed. But if we get two rooms at the POP I get my own bed!

 

[mum2four]

I would go with one room at POR. Your children are young enough that I think you would be fine in one room. I also have young children and personally I would not want to risk NOT having connecting rooms while on vacation. That would be a big disappointment for me. Plus, POR is very beautiful, and the POP theming does not appeal to me at all. Just my 2 cents.

 

[HHMcG]

For MY family of 5 I would choose 2 rooms at Pop.

I like having two rooms so DH and I can stay up a later without disturbing everyone else or if (when) one of the kids gets up too early we can keep them in one room and not distrub the other kids.
But my kids are younger and probably go to bed earlier then yours and at least one is destine to be up by 6am every day.

 

[TinkerbellsMom0923]

While we like all the resorts, we love Pop and I would go for the 2 rooms there. We did that last year with 3 adults-my son, my friend and I. It worked out great. To me Pop is Disney...

 

[sweetdana]

Fot the space if prices are similar I would do the 2 value.

the biggest diffs are
more room (will be less, as one 1 room)
2 qu instead of 2 fulls (in your case 4 fulls or you could get a K in 1 room)
coffee pot.. (go for preffered and get refill mugs)


hot tub .. this will be a bummer.. but for sure not worth the rest.

My vote is value..

 

[Megsie1000]

We did miss the hot tub in January at Polynesian - still cannot believe Poly did not have a hot tub! Everything else was wonderful, though, so I could not complain too much. LOL

But I am thinking late May we will not miss a hot tub so much.

 

[Albytaps]

We are DVC members so we're always staying in 2 bedroom suites, which are awesome. However, we are running low on points this year and decided to do a split stay this trip. We are a family of 6 so we always have to do 2 rooms if we aren't staying in a suite.

We were interested in the Art of Animation hotel which is "up in your face Disney" and wanted to try it out. When we started looking, we noticed they have a lot of family suites there! We are so excited to try it out. We are staying in a Finding Nemo room:

Oh, and the price is close to $300 per night.

 

[dvcHammer]

Here is how we have made the room filling crowd at POR very manageable. It's all about room location and taking advantage of it.

Alligator Bayou section in a building by a quiet pool, ground floor.

This not only gives you the outdoor seating area by a pool that is rarely crowded, but you get a spare restroom for those moments when there is a line. Laundry is right there as well.

Buildings 17, 24 and 25 fit this very well.

 

[Megsie1000]

I do like the idea of the AoA and would love to try it. However, we are traveling with my BIL who is going on a trip with just his daughter and they want to book a standard room. Of course none of the Little Mermaid rooms are available for when we are going, so that's out.

 

[3pletprincesses]

We as a family of 5 and now 6 because we have a baby, we stay at POR. We love the resort and will be sad when we will need to rooms as won't be able to afford 2 rooms there every year. The resort is big and we spend little time in the room but we do take advantage of the quiet pools. They are just that, quiet pools. Last August very little people used them compare to the main pool. We normally only used our room to get ready for bed, sleep or change before going to the pool. I spent a bit more time when the baby was sleeping. I would go there before stay at value.

 

[MistressMerryweather]

We like POR. We love the atmosphere and the boat to DTD. Love the option of visiting FQ, and swimming there. We are a familly of 6, with the baby, and it will be sad next year when we can't stay at POR anymore. Baby will be 2 and another on the way.

 

[tractorsexy]

We did two rooms at POP with some teenagers and it worked out great for us. They had their own room while we had the three yr old with us. Two TV's, two bathrooms so we would bet ready for the parks in a timely manner not crowded in front of one mirror. The teenagers stayed up late and we went to sleep when we wanted to and had no conflict what so ever on the trip. Plus we would leave the park and they returned to their room when they wanted to. It worked for us but its your time at the world so enjoy it.

 

[ChristineOH]

We have one stay at the Poly under our belt. My three kids are each two tears older than yours. POR is SO much less expensive than the Poly, that I figured we should try it out, to see how it would work for our family. (Less expensive means more trips!) Better to try it now, when the kids are smaller. Two rooms at POP will work when you have teens, but POR? Not so much.

 

[SRiley1985]

Staying in May for a quick "budget" trip with an AP discount. We got spoiled by the Poly but that is not in the cards again any time soon due to price.

I have never stayed at the POR before. My Mom and I stayed POP when it was just the 2 of us and liked it fine. Like I said - spoiled by Poly. LOL

So with a family of 5 (Me, DH, 9, 7 & 4-year olds) would you go for POP and get 2 rooms or go for POR and get 1 room? I like the idea of trying POR but I am worried about all of us cramming into a small room. POP appeals to me because we would have two bathrooms and more beds, storage space, etc.

POR appeals because of the more lush grounds. DH is also staying behind a few of the days just to relax at the resort while the rest of us go to the park and I figure he would enjoy the POR more (although perhaps not enjoy all of us cramming into one room like sardines (?)

Price difference is about $200. POP is more because 2 rooms.

Thoughts?

An issue with getting two rooms is that they are not guaranteed to be connecting or even in the same building.

I would go with POR. The grounds are nicer, more relaxed feel, boat to DTD (which my daughter loved last year when we stayed at POFQ) and a main pool with slide and hot tub.

 

[Aliceacc]

For my kids, it would be all about the pool. I would choose POR.

Also, I'm not a gambler when it comes to vacations. If I can't be guaranteed connecting rooms, then I'm not going to chance it.

 

[jasonflk]

We have been looking into the different options for our family for our trip. Me dw ds12 ds10 when we travel.

As someone said you won't guarantee two connecting rooms and for that reason alone we went for a family suite at all star music. We had looked at PoR but thought it might not be spacious enough for us, though it worked out as the cheapest option.

I think however given age of your kids your dh. Por is your best bet, your husband can also take the boat to DtD for a change of scene