Help!! Moderate, Where to stay

[siriusly]

We are going end of Sep-beg of Oct for 8 days with almost 2 yr old & 5 yr old, grandparents & brother (adult) Where is the best place to stay with regard to ease of getting to the parks via disney transp (WDW, MGM & Epcot), we would like to stay at a moderate with a nice pool & not too big hotel since we will have 2 small kids. DH & I have been before but w/o kids so this is a whole different sit. for us. We thought about CSR, but are afraid it may be too big? someone else suggested PO or the Poly but would the Poly be pretty pricey for 8 days considering we will need two rooms?? Any help would be appreciated. Also, should we book now & when codes come out, call back for discount or wait another month or two to book??

Kim

 

[SRyba]

Siriusly,

We recently stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. It is the only moderate I have stayed at, so can only comment on this one. We had a wonderful stay and I was very pleased with the resort. I was also worried about the size of the resort, since I was traveling with my 5 yr DS and 6 yr old DD. I faxed a request 4 days before departure to the room assigner, and explained I would like to be close to a bus stop and the food court. I requested North Trinidad, Jamaica, or one other, (can't remember) and listed a couple of buildings in these villages that I had read were close, but asked that they put me in the village/building they thought would best suit me since I had never been there. She called me an hour later, and gave me N Trinidad, very close to both the food court and a bus stop. You can explain you are traveling with grandparents and small children, its good to tell them exactly why you are requesting a specific building or village.
As far as the bus service, we had great service, only waited once for more than 10 minutes. It only took about 12 minutes (including wait time) to Epcot and MGM, and about 20-25 minutes to AK and MK.
The pool was great, it has a kiddie pool and another area of the pool that is good for children under 4 feet. We didn't use the quiet pool, but there is one located in every village.
If there are any other questions I can answer about CBR, let me know and Happy Planning!

 

[Janet2k]

Siriusly, welcome to the Dis!

I have stayed in all of the moderates now (CSR, CBR, PO). I loved each of them. My most recent stay was in PO last October. That vacation was a Mother/Daughter one and we stayed in the French Quarter. We loved it. We will definitely stay at PO again. I have a few photos posted from my PO-FQ stay, click here to view them. (My photos aren't the greatest.)

For information on each of the WDW resorts, please check out Dreams Unlimited Travel's webpages that are devoted to the WDW resorts: click here to go to DU's main WDW Resort webpage. (Dreams Unlimited Travel is the owner of the Dis website.) Don't forget to check out the streaming video footage that they took in each of the WDW resorts.

Have fun choosing your resort, you really can't go wrong with any of the Disney resorts.

 

[kdibattista]

Our favorite moderate is the French Quarter. The grounds are lovely. It is the smallest resort and everything is within a 2-3 minute walk (much shorter than all the rest). That will come in handy at the end of a loooooong day at the parks and the kids and grandparents (and heck..you) don't feel much like walking.

Here is a great map to show you exactly how close everything is:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/portorleans.jpg

Hope this helps!!

 

[cinmell]

I love the Caribbean Beach Resort. The theming is beautiful and it's a has a nice layout. There are paths where you can walk along and hammocks on the beaches. If the mail pool gets to crowded, there are smaller much quieter pools in each of the islands. The rooms are a good size and they have always been clean. There is also a playground.

 

[Terk-1]

I would have to say Port Orleans French Quarter, hands down. I LOVE this resort!! The resort is compact, so even if you are at the furthest building, it is a very quick walk to everything. I would recommend building #5. This resort is very quaint and beautiful. There is 1 main pool and a kiddie pool next to it. There is a hot tub and it is tucked away amongst some bushes behind the pool bar. The foodcourt is very good and there is only 1 bus stop. The only downside to this resort is, depending on what time of year you go, it shares its buses with POR, but ALWAYS stops at POFQ first, so you know you will get a seat. This is a great resort and is one of my family's favorite.

 

[Sandi]

Poly would be much more expensive.

For your situation, I agree with the other POFQ people. It is a terrific, more compact resort. We really liked it; especially when our DD was your kids' ages. There is a nice, though small, play area for children near the main building (on the way to the pool). Even if you don't have adjoining rooms, you wouldn't be far from the rest of your family.