Five in a studio vs. four in a 1 Bedroom???

[sharadoc]

I wonder if Disney will ever upgrade 1BR Villas to all sleep 5 since some studios now sleep 5? Feels like all TV furniture should have the pull-down bed. We loved having that option instead of the sofabed when 3 of us stayed in a studio at BWV in December btw. When planning our June trip, we preferred BWV but potentially have a 5th person joining us so had to go with OKW to be sure.

 

[Hopefully]

I hope not. I don't believe they all have room

 

[Lumpy1106]

I hope not. I don't believe they all have room

Why do you say this? We bought BLT because the 1 br's do sleep 5. The AoA 1br suites sleep 6. I will be the first to admit I am not familiar with the 1br suite layouts for all of the resorts, but it seems like you could do this pretty easily with a murphy bed and a pull-out chair sleeper. BLT has the pull-out chair and pull-out sofa. The dining area seems really inefficient though - could easily do the murphy bed there like the ones in AoA. I have a hard time believing the 1br's at the other resorts are all that much different.

 

[SharonZ]

There's definitely not enough room.

 

[Hopefully]

Why do you say this? We bought BLT because the 1 br's do sleep 5. The AoA 1br suites sleep 6. I will be the first to admit I am not familiar with the 1br suite layouts for all of the resorts, but it seems like you could do this pretty easily with a murphy bed and a pull-out chair sleeper. BLT has the pull-out chair and pull-out sofa. The dining area seems really inefficient though - could easily do the murphy bed there like the ones in AoA. I have a hard time believing the 1br's at the other resorts are all that much different.

I said it because it is fact. Not all 1 BR Villas are big enough for a chair sleeper.
I hope you did thorough research before your purchase

 

[Lumpy1106]

I said it because it is fact. Not all 1 BR Villas are big enough for a chair sleeper.
I hope you did thorough research before your purchase

Yes we did - thanks for your concern. Just had the same thought as OP as I know a lot of the 1 BR's (CCV for example) specifically say they sleep 4. I'm more than happy at BLT so it's not a problem.

 

[crvetter]

The occupancy limits of BRV/BWV/BCV/SSR 1 bedrooms change to 5 (all except CCV sleep 5 if booked on points) if the room is booked on points (cash is a hard limit at 4 and anyone exceeding that can be asked to leave). SSR is going through a refurb and adding a 3rd sleeping surface and has the same layout in the 1 beds as BRV/BWV/BCV so in theory once they get hard good refurbs they can add it too (BRV we will see soon if it is added). I suspect for cash booking once the refurb is done at SSR the 1 beds officially allow 5.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Did you consider the RIV 1-bedroom as an option?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

CCV won't ever sleep 5. They built it not sleeping 5 within the last 3 years.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I do want to air a bit of a gripe on this topic. This is something you just don't see coming as a parent but it's true - the world is built for families of 4. Cars fit 4 comfortably, 5 not as much. Go ahead, try and book a regular hotel room anywhere - maximum occupancy is 4. OK, so we have to stay in suites. How about let's go on a cruise? Yeah - staterooms fit 4 and absolutely no more. they have a few higher-end suites that fit more but the price skyrockets - or you book 2 staterooms...or you just get priced out - bummer.

So yeah, we knew going in that a lot of the DVC 1 br's only sleep 4 - but comeon Disney! Throw us families of 5 a bone why don't you? did you seriously not know families of 5 have this dilemma? Of course you did. Now, if it had just been OKW, fine, it's the first, there's a learning curve - but no. CCV was the newest when we bought and it absolutely will not sleep 5. Did Disney take the architect behind the woodshed and explain how dumb this is until they fixed it? No. Apparently us families of 5 are just obligated to really crank up the points and book 2 br's. Yeah, no. Credit where it is due, RIV 1 br's do sleep 5, but the point chart on that one is, well, might as well book that 2 br somewhere else, you know?

The bittersweet of this is in a couple of years my son will be off to college and we won't have this dilemma anymore. That does raise a different set of issues than the family of 4 does as they age into needing more space - that problem is already solved in our case. It's just too bad Disney didn't think this one through.

Thanks for letting me vent...

 

[kaytieeldr]

Apparently us families of 5 are just obligated to really crank up the points and book 2 br's.

Or families of five can buy/book one of a number of properties that do hold five people: BRV/BWV/BC (thanks,@cvrsetter!) CBR, POR, pretty much any deluxe. Or six: Fort Wilderness Cabins, AoA Family Suites, All Star Music Family Suites. That's a huge increase over when the choices were a few Deluxe, FWC, or POT Alligator Bayou.

 

[DebbieB]

The occupancy limits of BRV/BWV/BCV/SSR 1 bedrooms change to 5 (all except CCV sleep 5 if booked on points) if the room is booked on points (cash is a hard limit at 4 and anyone exceeding that can be asked to leave). SSR is going through a refurb and adding a 3rd sleeping surface and has the same layout in the 1 beds as BRV/BWV/BCV so in theory once they get hard good refurbs they can add it too (BRV we will see soon if it is added). I suspect for cash booking once the refurb is done at SSR the 1 beds officially allow 5.

What they did at SSR is take out the breakfast bar to allow room for the pull down bed. They left studios at 4. The dilemma at the other resorts is can they leave studios at 5 and increase 1 bedrooms to 5, which pushes up the total occupancy numbers of the resort, more perhaps than it was originally designed for. OKW increased 1 bedrooms to 5 but left studios at 4. Will be interesting to see.

 

[crvetter]

What they did at SSR is take out the breakfast bar to allow room for the pull down bed. They left studios at 4. The dilemma at the other resorts is can they leave studios at 5 and increase 1 bedrooms to 5, which pushes up the total occupancy numbers of the resort, more perhaps than it was originally designed for. OKW increased 1 bedrooms to 5 but left studios at 4. Will be interesting to see.

The rooms I referenced (SSR pre Reno, BRV/BWV/BCV) already allow for 5 to be booked and accounted for already in the 1 bedrooms. It’s just not allowed for cash bookings. So the resorts have been designed for 5 in the 1 beds they just didn’t provide the sleep surface for the 5th guest. So by adding the sleeping surface they really aren’t increasing the occupancy since so few of the DVC rooms go to the cash side anyways so most of the 1 bedrooms being booked at those resorts are eligible for 5. But any sort of code and design and DVC MF calculations already use 5 in the rooms.

 

[DebbieB]

The rooms I referenced (SSR pre Reno, BRV/BWV/BCV) already allow for 5 to be booked and accounted for already in the 1 bedrooms. It’s just not allowed for cash bookings. So the resorts have been designed for 5 in the 1 beds they just didn’t provide the sleep surface for the 5th guest. So by adding the sleeping surface they really aren’t increasing the occupancy since so few of the DVC rooms go to the cash side anyways so most of the 1 bedrooms being booked at those resorts are eligible for 5. But any sort of code and design and DVC MF calculations already use 5 in the rooms.

They were all originally built as 4 and 4, now they would be 5 and 5 officially If they change the 1 bedrooms. The fact that they didn’t increase the studios at SSR makes me wonder how they will handle it. People were also expecting them to increase the studios at AKV and VGC and they didn’t, 1 bedrooms already had 5. Moving the studios back to 4 would cause a lot of turmoil.

 

[quandrea]

I do want to air a bit of a gripe on this topic. This is something you just don't see coming as a parent but it's true - the world is built for families of 4. Cars fit 4 comfortably, 5 not as much. Go ahead, try and book a regular hotel room anywhere - maximum occupancy is 4. OK, so we have to stay in suites. How about let's go on a cruise? Yeah - staterooms fit 4 and absolutely no more. they have a few higher-end suites that fit more but the price skyrockets - or you book 2 staterooms...or you just get priced out - bummer.

So yeah, we knew going in that a lot of the DVC 1 br's only sleep 4 - but comeon Disney! Throw us families of 5 a bone why don't you? did you seriously not know families of 5 have this dilemma? Of course you did. Now, if it had just been OKW, fine, it's the first, there's a learning curve - but no. CCV was the newest when we bought and it absolutely will not sleep 5. Did Disney take the architect behind the woodshed and explain how dumb this is until they fixed it? No. Apparently us families of 5 are just obligated to really crank up the points and book 2 br's. Yeah, no. Credit where it is due, RIV 1 br's do sleep 5, but the point chart on that one is, well, might as well book that 2 br somewhere else, you know?

The bittersweet of this is in a couple of years my son will be off to college and we won't have this dilemma anymore. That does raise a different set of issues than the family of 4 does as they age into needing more space - that problem is already solved in our case. It's just too bad Disney didn't think this one through.

Thanks for letting me vent...

Why did you purchase at CCV? We are a family of five. You’re right—travel prices basically double when you add a fifth. We own at AKV and SSR. Love AK for its sleeper chair. If not staying there, we gravitate towards OKW for its space and sleeper chair. If we stay at BWV, another favourite, we bring a camping cot—very comfortable and packs in our carry on luggage. We will never book CCV because of the need for a two bedroom—too much space we do not need and too many points. The hard four occupancy was a deal breaker.

Really looking forward to the SSR Reno with the new pull down bed.

 

[Hopefully]

I do want to air a bit of a gripe on this topic. This is something you just don't see coming as a parent but it's true - the world is built for families of 4. Cars fit 4 comfortably, 5 not as much. Go ahead, try and book a regular hotel room anywhere - maximum occupancy is 4. OK, so we have to stay in suites. How about let's go on a cruise? Yeah - staterooms fit 4 and absolutely no more. they have a few higher-end suites that fit more but the price skyrockets - or you book 2 staterooms...or you just get priced out - bummer.

So yeah, we knew going in that a lot of the DVC 1 br's only sleep 4 - but comeon Disney! Throw us families of 5 a bone why don't you? did you seriously not know families of 5 have this dilemma? Of course you did. Now, if it had just been OKW, fine, it's the first, there's a learning curve - but no. CCV was the newest when we bought and it absolutely will not sleep 5. Did Disney take the architect behind the woodshed and explain how dumb this is until they fixed it? No. Apparently us families of 5 are just obligated to really crank up the points and book 2 br's. Yeah, no. Credit where it is due, RIV 1 br's do sleep 5, but the point chart on that one is, well, might as well book that 2 br somewhere else, you know?

The bittersweet of this is in a couple of years my son will be off to college and we won't have this dilemma anymore. That does raise a different set of issues than the family of 4 does as they age into needing more space - that problem is already solved in our case. It's just too bad Disney didn't think this one through.

Thanks for letting me vent...

At least your Rant explains your quick, close to rude, replies above. I STRONGLY believe your frustration is misplaced. Apparently you chose to be a family of five. Regardless it is not Disney's problem. We are a family of 5 and love our DVC just the way it is

 

[_auroraborealis_]

CCV was the newest when we bought and it absolutely will not sleep 5. Did Disney take the architect behind the woodshed and explain how dumb this is until they fixed it?

CCV was highly limited by being hotel unit conversions. RIV was from the foundation up. CCV does not fit 5 because they are truly small and you cannot move support walls and beams converting WL rooms.

This is on you for buying CCV.

 

[Lynne M]

Since this thread seems to be focusing on DVC owners and ownership, I'm going to move it to the DVC Resorts board.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Just a thought about purchasing enough points...through the years your needs do change and it is best to buy enough to cover your current requirements and a bit more. Banking and borrowing allow for longer term planning and adding on is an option if you family grows larger than your annual allocation of points. If your car isn't big enough for your family you buy a bigger one.

We bought OKW in 1996 when our son was 8 YO and we have stayed in studios, 1 BR, 2BR and 3BR (at various DVC's) based on number of guests. We have purchased other resorts and sold all of them and are back to our original OKW. We have been doing couples stays since high school. Our son finished grad school, married and now we need either a 2 BR or 1 Studio and 1 BR (we did that last Halloween). IMHO DVC allows you to create a unique vacation every single time you go, and offers endless possibilities for accommodations - within Disney's parameters - it is just the way it is.

 

[Deb & Bill]

BRV and BWV wouldn't be able to add the murphy bed under the television because the door to the connecting studio (to make a lockoff two bedroom) is in the living room. So no wall is long enough to put in the murphy bed without tearing out the kitchen and totally changing it. SSR and BCV might be able to since they put the connecting door at the entrance of the villa.

If they wanted BRV and BWV one bedrooms to sleep five, they'd have to add a hammock on the porch.