Help! Have I booked in the best resort for our family?!

[My2Cinderellas]

I so know where you are coming from! I am planning our family's first trip this spring and it's going to be a "once in a lifetime" trip. I don't see us becoming frequent visitors. I want every detail to be well thought out and perfect for us.

We also prefer to have a suite or two rooms when traveling - especially when the kiddos were very small and went to bed so early. AFter sitting in the bathroom a few times to read or play cards while they went to sleep, I decided the extra cost was justified.

HOWEVER, on site at Disney - this becomes too costly. The cheapest option is value level, but I like a little nicer place. The girls are getting older and I expect that they will be tired and fall asleep quickly. Our choices were narrowed down to a tight budget week at WL, or a week at POFQ with a little more spending $$. DH really wanted POFQ for some reason so that's where we are booked. I'm leary of the double beds, but that's my only hesitation.

I'm sure whatever you choose will be fine. If you want opinions, I would stick with POR. You can't really do the FW cabins without a rental car (from what I've read) and that's yet an extra cost. My friends went in Dec and did swim in the afternoon - they did fight over who had to get out to help the kiddos - it was a bit breezy. Crazy people from Iowa...

 

[wrldpossibility]

I looked into that, just to see. Doing the math, it seems I'd spend almost double for a DVC villa than either two rooms at POR or a FW cabin. I need 10 nights, with one weekend in there, and due to our party size, I think I have to get a 2 bedroom (the one bedrooms say party of 4). So I'd need 360 points in Dec. 06, and at $12 a point...yikes! Too much for us. So unless I'm missing something, it's definitely not a savings. Maybe if we were allowed to get a one-bedroom...

And to clarify, yes, I'm talking about getting one cabin, not two. We may be a bit cramped, but we travel well together and all get along. But reading more, I see I'd have to get a golf cart or rental car, which I'd rather not. But the extra room sounds great. So hard to decide! I guess we could always split our stay? I like the idea of being settled in one home resort, though.

 

[jodifla]

I looked into that, just to see. Doing the math, it seems I'd spend almost double for a DVC villa than either two rooms at POR or a FW cabin. I need 10 nights, with one weekend in there, and due to our party size, I think I have to get a 2 bedroom (the one bedrooms say party of 4). So I'd need 360 points in Dec. 06, and at $12 a point...yikes! Too much for us. So unless I'm missing something, it's definitely not a savings. Maybe if we were allowed to get a one-bedroom...

And to clarify, yes, I'm talking about getting one cabin, not two. We may be a bit cramped, but we travel well together and all get along. But reading more, I see I'd have to get a golf cart or rental car, which I'd rather not. But the extra room sounds great. So hard to decide! I guess we could always split our stay? I like the idea of being settled in one home resort, though.

If you have a child under 3, they don't count in the room occupancy for DVC. What is killer on DVC is the weekend points....they are expensive.

But the DVC resorts are fantastic. POFQ is nice, too, but we haven't been there since we bought DVC. We love being able to put our DS to sleep in another room. Makes it a REAL vacation.

 

[wrldpossibility]

The weekend we're there is right in the middle of our trip, so we can't change it around. Worth looking into though! Thanks for explaining it to me. It seems we'll stay at POR...for now at least!

 

[Vavasmon]

Just my $0.02 here:

- if your kids are excited about the pools don't switch - we went in Dec 2001 (stayed at the ASMO) and the pool was open every day we were there - the life guards were bundeled up like it was below 0. We swam with the air temps in the low 40's (the pools are heated) - I suggest some sweats you don't care about to jump into after the swim. When DD was younger she preferred hotel/resort pools to waterparks any day. Both the pools at POFQ and POR are a lot of fun (the POR pool has some deeper spots)

- I have stayed twice at the POFQ, the one time at the ASMO, and once at the Wilderness lodge. I think the rooms at the PO were fine for five people if one is a small child. We had 2 adults (myself and my sister), my DD, and her DD at the POFQ and never felt cramped. I agree 100% with the previous poster - DD is always so tired she just falls asleep with the TV and or other things going on - I would suggest if you like read bring a book light since we found the room lights a little bright.

- I also think 7 people with just 1 bathroom is a recepie for disaster.

- I have never done the MYW dining plan (I will use it next August) but used the silver plan twice. We enjoy at least 1 sit down meal per day and I liked the convience of having it pre-payed. I never worried about "getting the biggest dollar value". We tended to share some of the meals and at least broke even both times. I think the new plan is even better it that reguard - It costs a lot less if you only used the old credits for food - I find it hard to believe you colud "loose money" if you use all the credits - We always bought at least a water bottle every day at 2.50 each.

- Any Disney hotel is going to be a lot of fun. Staying on property is the only way to go in my opinion.

 

[jojomg]

I stayed at cbr and csr and we fit two cots in the room..por won't let you get a cot..rollaway bed because they have the trundle bed.. a tiny little plastic mattress that made crinkling noise all night...we stayed at the deluxe room at the wl..a living room with queen sofa bed and a bedroom with two queens...but only one bathroom and for the price you can get two rooms at a moderate..the pools at csr and cbr have slides and are really nice ...good luck and have fun

 

[Disney5Mom]

We have stayed with 8 in 2 rooms at POR and with 12 in 3 rooms at all stars ( a long time ago!) We were a bit crowded at ALL Stars but still had a fabulous time.We were very,very comfortable at POR and at CSR where we stayed with 7 of us.The moderates are perfect for us. We love the pools and quiet pools plus the hot tubs.the landscaping and themeing is very nice at POR. I do not want to pay for kitchen facilities as I don't cook on vacation. DVC seems more expensive to me and we also enjoy the daily maid service at the moderate resorts!! My choice would be stick with POR.

 

[Merriwind]

Looking at your sig, I see that your kids are all still pretty young. Without hulking teenagers, I really think a family of five will be fine at PO. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Lauralee131]

We had almost the same issues when booking our trip for this coming Jan/Feb. My DH, DS (4) and myself are going with my BIL & SIL. One of the things we beat ourselves up over was wanting connecting rooms. Main reason being so we could put our DS to bed and still stay awake in a room - stay up late, have coffee, play cards, etc.

We really, really liked the looks of the junior suites at WL (if I remember right it was WL that is!) as they had french doors separating the bedroom from the rest of the room, but there were no junior suites available.

We looked at the cost of villas - but not knowing about renting points, which I will admit is still a mystery to me, etc. - and it was a bit expensive (but worth it in my opinion), but then there was my issue of wanting to be close to MK. DS has a very small "meltdown window" when he gets tired so the last thing I wanted to worry about was sitting on a bus while it stopped at a half dozen places on our way back to try and get a nap in, etc. PLUS, and here's my other reason (shallow, I know, but I can't help it) I wanted to be able to see the electrical water pagent! So that left the Poly, the CR and GF as our other choices. CR doesn't have availability and the Poly and GF are a bit up there in $.

I guess what's different for us is that we'll all be there at the same times so we won't have the same kind of ressie you will, but I'd love to hear what you end up doing.

We booked the WL - tried standard view rooms, but our AAA TA said that only connecting rooms were courtyard view (if we could get them at all, which still doesn't seem like 100% guarantee till we arrive). And yesterday I found that the Roaring Forks will be closed during our stay, which is really eating me up. We are doing the dining plan and with a 4 year old and being on the go a lot, I'd have imagined we'd get a lot of use out of the RF, but who knows. So the last 24 hours or so I'm now toying with the idea of moving hotels and having to suck up being stuck on buses, etc.

So...long story short, I've been looking into Coronado Springs. I really like the look of the pepper market...something for everyone and fast!

So the closer we get to our trip, though we put our deposit down in July, the less I feel that we've got everything worked out!

Good luck!

Lauralee131

 

[lovewdwdvc]

Renting a DVC is a wonderful option. We are DVC owners but do not have points available to rent at this time. If you PM me I can give you details. You cannot go wrong with a DVC<

Also, check the rent/tradeboard on this site.

 

[lyncruiser]

You can always book DVC through Disney CRO. We don't rent points. We just book a 1-bedroom BWV through CRO. We got an AP rate for our recent stay last month. There was also availability with a public code.

That way I assume you can get the dining plan if you want it (unlike if you rent DVC points). Also, since we always stay two weekends and weekends are sooooo expensive on DVC points, we found that booking through CRO wasn't much more expensive overall than renting points -- especially when you consider the other advantages that are included with a CRO reservation (but not DVC points) -- daily maid service and nightly turndown (we'd have to pay extra for these services if we rented points. Add to that the fact that we have greater flexibility on cancellations with CRO and we don't have to deal in thousands of dollars with a perfect stranger, and --- works for us!

 

[JerJan]

I just checked the DVC points chart for next year and this is the points needed:

12/10/2006 through 12/20/2006 (10 nights)
Old Key West 2 bedroom - 294 points

12/10/2006 through 12/20/2006 (10 nights)
Old Key West 1 bedroom - 216 points
12/13/2006 through 12/20/2006 (7 nights)
Old Key West studio - 82 points

Total this way (split) 298 points

You would be better off just getting a 2 bedroom instead of a studio adn the one bedroom and in some of the DVC resorts like Saratoga Springs they have dedicated or lock-off 2 bedrooms. The lock-off would be ideal for you because it's a one bedroom with a studio attached!

Renting points from a DVC owner ($10.00 per point would be $2940.00 at Old Key West NO TAXES are added to that cost!) could actually save you money in the long run. You can cook in your full-size kitchen and not have to spend money dining out and you can have your groceries delivered directly to your room by a local shopping service like WEGOShop for about $20.00!

If you want more onformation about how this works send me a PM and I will be glad to explain details!

 

[dgaston]

This is a hard choice. We love FW -- have camped there and love the cabinsas well. If you choose FW, ask for loop 2100 which backs up to the 1100 camping loop and will offer you the comfort station as an extra bathroom facility. We also love POR. I think the POR pool is especially nice, have never understood the attraction of the sea serpent pool at POFQ, but my children when younger loved the ability to swim there staying at POR. We now own DVC, and I have got to say that the washer and dryer and jacuzzi tub in 1 br and larger are so seductive. Check out that option of staying through CRO to get the dining plan, perhaps otherwise weigh the cabins and POR.

I would probably choose the cabin.