Family of Five conundrum

[swimmom]

Help needed!!! I am planning a 4 night trip this August. My youngest turns three at the end of the summer and I am desperate to get one last trip in before he starts costing big bucks. I am considering 2 rooms at a value or moderate or maybe renting points for a DVC studio and squeezing in (seems a better value than a Deluxe). Any comments or advice would be most welcome.

 

[woody5]

If your youngest still won't be three when you go then you can still technically stay at any of the resorts. We are also a family of five. What works best for us is two rooms at a moderate. We like them much better than the values. When the kids were younger we did POR with the trundle bed. It works out great when the kids are little.

 

[yecats]

PORS would hold your family of 5 (youngest child could sleep on pull out bed). DVC would also work BWV (studio 5065 had queen bed, double pull out sofa and one daybed type of sleeper (for child up to about 10 years old). OKW would work as there are two queen beds but I am not sure if they would roll in a rollaway bed or give you a packnplay type of bed there. Lastly and costing a bit more money would be a Ft. Wilderness trailer (holds up to 6) and you could offset the cost a bit by having the kitchen and eating some meals in. Oh one last option, there is the doubletree suites resort in DTD which also holds six (mousesavers sometimes has special prices listed on her website so you may want to check that out).

 

[beeje149]

Get one room at the AKL. Buy a single size Areo bed at WalMart ($40) and have your 3yr old sleep there or have the kids take turns. It comes with an auto pump that inflates the bed in less than a minute and you can store it under the beds at the AKL. I mean lets face it rooms are used for sleeping only at WDW and between the extra magic hours at night and in the morning not alot of sleeping happens either. You will be alot happier at this resort than you would at a value with two rooms and the cost would be about the same. Just my opinion

 

[swimmom]

I know this is a resort board but whats the take on a DVC studio vs. a room at a deluxe? Frankly we are used to the Deluxe rooms and the thought of toting along a sleeping bag or the aero bed idea (good one!!) appeals to me.

 

[bellarella]

I haven't been, but I chose a deluxe over the DVC studio for our upcoming trip. The sleeping arangements are better IMHO at a deluxe. The deluxe has two queen beds and a day bed, whereas the DVC studio we were looking at had a queen and a sofa bed.

Now that being said, I was very tempted to do adjoining rooms at a value instead. For us, though, this will likely be our only trip to WDW in a very long time and we really wanted the convenience of a monorail resort. We are betting that we will be so tired that we will *want* to go to bed at the same time as the kids this time!

 

[duck_adoo]

We're also squeezing in a trip before our twin 9 dd's turn 10 (adult tix for both) and the baby turns 3. We're staying at POR in Aug. I think the trundle will work for now. We'll have to see what happens as they get older
Good Luck!

 

[KristiKelly]

We have rented DVC points for a studio before, it is much cheaper than a deluxe room through Disney. We stayed for 6 days @ Beach Club Villas for $830. Your 3 kids would love the pool there. The beds, as one poster wrote, would be 1 queen and 1 pull-out sleeper sofa. I'm sure there's room for a twin aero bed. Our kids loved sleeping on the sleeper sofa though. When we stayed at the Poly last fall, DD asked if they got to sleep on the couch again. During the day, the sleeper does give lots more floor and seating space though than having 2 queen size beds. If you rented points for OKW studio, I think they have 2 queen beds and larger studios. You can see room designs @ www.allearsnet.com

 

[swimmom]

CAn you get a guarantee for a room with a trundle at POR?Also, I know this sounds crazy but my almost three year old is a big kid - should I bring a birth certificate to prove his age or is that just being paranoid??

 

[Cindy's Mom]

CAn you get a guarantee for a room with a trundle at POR?Also, I know this sounds crazy but my almost three year old is a big kid - should I bring a birth certificate to prove his age or is that just being paranoid??

Swimmom, we are in the same boat - we just completed our "son is turning 3 trip AKA the last time he's free trip" and my son is also big - I brought the birth certificate only because I had it. No one ever challenged his age; entry into parks, character meals or anything else that a 3 year old would have paid for. So bring it if you have it, if not - don't fret.

 

[paigevz]

My two year old was not only big, but said he was three when asked due to being asked constantly "how old are you? Are you three?"..........so we were really worried too and brought his birth certificate............no one ever asked us or him.

 

[durango kid]

Swimmom,

My family of five spent a week there last May. We asked for, and were given a trundle bed. It was only available at PoR, they do not have this option at PoFQ. At any rate, two teen daughters shared one bed and a nine y/o on the trundle. We had no problems, but we are a close family. We are also a dvc family. This was a non point using, last minute, spent too much time watching WDW on the discovery channel, had to go, trip.

 

[Mary Anne]

OkWest Studio has two queen beds and a mini kitchen. I would stay there over a mod anyday.

 

[Lizzybee]

As a family of 5 (2 senior citizens, one 34 yr old, a 7 yr old and a 10 yr old) we have stayed at POR twice and love it. My mom and I took turns on the trundle to avoid sleeping with my kung fu sleeper daughter (she's all knees and elbows). My mom is 63 and 5'7" and I'm 34 and 5'5"and a half. We thought the trundle was comfy! LOL Anyway, we love the resort and found it was cheaper than 2 rooms at a value resort. What little time we spent in the room didn't seem crowded, but we pretty much changed and slept there.