Grand Villas Question...

[roydavid7771]

Hi all,

I finally got the green light to plan a large family trip to WDW next fall to celebrate three wedding anniversaries as well as my nephew's first trip (and our child's...crossing my fingers).

All together, we'll have four couples, a four year old, and a 9-10 month old. My question is, do any of the grand villas have a spare room that can convert to a fourth bedroom? I'd hate to have my sister in law and her husband sleep on the pullout again (no separate room for them since they have no kids). If not, I'll have to look into an alternate accomodation arrangement. Thanks!

 

[ngchiro]

I'd book them a studio or even 2 2BR's

 

[eliza61]

Not sure about the grand villas but I will give you my experience at planning a family reunion at wdw.

A few years ago my family had our family reunion at wdw, 18 folks. LOL. now your family is not that large but here were some helpful tips.

1) we thought about a few grand villas. Keep in mind the amount of noise 10 people can generate. We found that for some reason folks being together tended to raise the volume exponentially. LOL.

2)Togetherness and length of stay. I love my siblings, I really do. I mean I grew up with them, but some thing strange happened on the way to adulthood. Our dynamics changed when spouses and kids get in the mix. As much as I love them, after day 5, my dh and I were craving a little "space".

Good luck. group trips can be fun.

oh, we ended up not getting the grand villa but getting a few 2 bedroom suites and a few regular hotel rooms.

 

[roydavid7771]

Thanks for the responses. I was looking for most economical as well as comfortable accomodations we could find. I'm leaning towards a either a 2BR with 2 studios, or two 2BR villas. I know it'll be tough since I'm looking to plan for next October, so I gues I better put my requests in now!

 

[raenyny]

Planning the same thing at the moment we are going with 2 -2 bedrooms we are a family of 6 plus my daughter is bringing a friend so that will be 1 room then my parents and my brother his wife and 2 kids in a 2 bedroom lockoff this way my parents can still come and go with some privacy

 

[slindamood]

We had 17 for a family reunion at BWV a few years ago. We had a grand villa (7 People), a 2 BR (6 people) and 2 studios (2 people each). Even though each of those units could have slept more people we found the separation and the extra space well worth the banking and borrowing of points. It was only 3 nights.

We had dinner 2 evenings in the GV and needed the extra dinnerware and cookware (and maybe dining chairs?) from the 2BR to make it work. We were able to seat everyone, and it was a fun time.

 

[com_op_2000]

For my family gathering we did 3 studios for 8 adults and 1 DGS(2). We were able to separate by family unit and therefor everyone had there own space, to get away if needed.
Be sure if you do multiple rooms, to palce a "Travel with" notice on all the rooms with the reservation numbers of all the other rooms. That way the assignment CMs can know of any request that applies to all the rooms.

 

[crisi]

We did two two bedrooms.

Also not mentioned is that you should plan on someone cancelling on you. When you are talking about a large group, its fairly inevitable that someone will not be able to afford (or not choose to afford) their portion (airfare/park tickets are still expensive even if the room is a gift) or that someone will end up with a conflict (in our case, late term pregnancy and cancer turn out to be pretty understandable conflicts - but people have been left holding the bag on rooms for soccer tournaments.)

 

[drusba]

As to the original question, VGF has a fourth "media" room with a pull out queen which obviously could be used as a bedroom, but it is still a pull-out. AKV Jambo has a separate room without doors that has the pool table in it and thus cannot really be used as a bedroom. None of the others have a separate extra room. AKV Kidani and BLT GVs have an alcove area at the top of the stairs with a pull-out couch that provides a possible extra "open' sleeping area.

Note when you say next October or next fall, I am hoping you mean 2015 because we are already within the seven month window for most of this upcoming Oct and your choice of resorts is soon going to be very limited if you are talking about 2014.

 

[Pirate Granny]

We only have ten people, so a OKW GV fits us just fine THIS time??? We do the large family trips (with our 3 grown DD and their families) every three years. I think if we expand our numbers for the 2017 then we may get an extra studio and we may play musical beds...give the grown adults a couple of days in the studio to enjoy quiet and cuddle time while we have the grandchildren in the GV.... OR we may take the couch in the living room (like we are doing for 4 nights this year in a BCV 2-bedroom) as our SIL doesn't arrive until we move in the OKW HH GV. We are also taking the couch for the 2-bedroom lock off VGF got the last two night as it sleeps ten too and we figure to give it a try before it's impossible to book. My preference was GV TPV BLT but my DDs really lobbied for VGF...it is a family trip... We love being together and the cousins really enjoy the time as they only see each other a couple of times a year and are perfect ages 4 and 7.

 

[wdwnut]

We're a group of 21 this May in 2 BWV GVs. It's all close family, and we've done this before. It's going to be a little crazy this time with (4) 3 year olds, and a 5,7,and 10 year old. I was going to get 1 GV and (2) 2br villas but half the party really wanted the GV.

 

[Pirate Granny]

WoW. great fun...

 

[Pirate Granny]

WoW. great fun...

 

[graychef]

We're going 16 deep in Dec/Jan.

Seven 18+
Three 10-18
Five 3-9
One 0-2

It works out that we can get three studios and one 1-BR. We thought about a GV but there are way too many kids.

 

[Dean]

Hi all,

I finally got the green light to plan a large family trip to WDW next fall to celebrate three wedding anniversaries as well as my nephew's first trip (and our child's...crossing my fingers).

All together, we'll have four couples, a four year old, and a 9-10 month old. My question is, do any of the grand villas have a spare room that can convert to a fourth bedroom? I'd hate to have my sister in law and her husband sleep on the pullout again (no separate room for them since they have no kids). If not, I'll have to look into an alternate accomodation arrangement. Thanks!

If you don't want a couple in the LR or 4 adults in a BR, you'll need more than the 3 BR. I'd suggest the following in the order listed.

1. 2 BR plus 2 studios (cheapest & most flexible)
2. Two 2 BR (close second, second master)
3. 3 BR plus 1 studio

All give you the sleeping you need and some flexibility on canceling part if needed. If you were considering the DP for anyone, these options wold give you some flexibility including the DP for some or even different plans for different groups.

 

[Halle]

GV 's are the best but DH and I feel it only accommodates 3 families. Our best solution with 5 families was a grand villa and 2 studios. The GV was the gathering place and everyone had their own room/private space.