HELP! My Large Family wants to do DISNEY

[MomofEIGHT]

I'm SO OVERWHELMED by all the HELP!!! I'm not sure how you copy the quotes so I can answer specific questions raised in this thread. We definitely won't rent a 15 passenger. We may have a 12 passenger by then, or take two cars. I would LOVE the magic of staying on site, but my husband will be dragging his feet to come on this trip so I really need a place where he can NOT go to Disney every day, rest and relax. Our kids are 18, 16, 14, 10, 8, 5, and 2. My oldest is 20 and getting married in a WEEK. She and her new hubby most likely would not come, but maybe if we had a large home she could come for a shorter time. I should be planning a wedding, but this is my therapy, planning a vacation.
We actually have some flexibility in dates, if my oldest son could miss some classes at college. Our family homeschools and I was toying with the thought of going around Labor day. Is it really a big savings to go off peak times? We could also go right after Christmas or after the new year. I don't know the peak times exactly yet.
I like the idea of cooking, we have lots of chefs in the family and the family EATS like CRAZY. I can see the eating out bill KILLING our budget. BUT I also am intrigued with whoever said something about a dining plan and paying that ahead of time so dad doesn't fret about how much it's costing. How do I do that? I'm SUCH a newbie. THANKS!!!!

 

[Lilliputian]

I would absolutely go after New Year's before college starts back again. The weather will be perfect, and the crowds will be low. You'll be able to get a house for a lot cheaper, too. You'll love it. We tell people that one of the reasons we homeschool is because we want to go to WDW in the off-season.

The dining plan is only available to people staying onsite with a package. You probably do not want to go that way. Staying offsite in a pool home will come with a lot more advantages and a lot more space. You can find ways to save on Disney gift cards (5% off if you have a Target red card) and use those to pay for your meals.

Your own 12 passenger van will be the perfect way to go if you have one by then. We love ours on long trips, and there are only 7 of us so far. It gives us extra space. You may actually not be able to get everything in it and need to rent a small Uhaul trailer, but you can see as it gets closer. The good thing about staying in a vacation home is that you can park right outside your home, so you can pack more unconventionally. In other words, you can cram stuff wherever it fits in the van to make use of all the space. You don't have to have nice suitcases you don't mind carrying in front of people. We take 1/2 of the back row out of our NV so that the van seats 10 and pack everything in big Totes containers. You can get a lot of them back there. Then a few other things go in smaller bags under the seats. You can't take half a row out, though, if you get an Express or Econoline, which you probably will if you buy used.

 

[MomofEIGHT]

Also, my husband wondered if we should just rent a smaller vehicle once we get there to have two cars while we are there if the older crew wanted to stay more at the parks while the younger ones went back to the house for naps. Is there a good deal for smaller car rentals in the area?

 

[MomofEIGHT]

I'm so sorry for all the questions. If we left December 30th and stayed till Jan. 11th, and bought 7 day park hopper passes and has break days in between, would that be a good time for vacation home rental and park days? We do have a family member with cerebral palsy which in the past has meant that long lines don't effect us quite as much. Is this still the case?

 

[Marionnette]

I'm SO OVERWHELMED by all the HELP!!! I'm not sure how you copy the quotes so I can answer specific questions raised in this thread. We definitely won't rent a 15 passenger. We may have a 12 passenger by then, or take two cars. I would LOVE the magic of staying on site, but my husband will be dragging his feet to come on this trip so I really need a place where he can NOT go to Disney every day, rest and relax. Our kids are 18, 16, 14, 10, 8, 5, and 2. My oldest is 20 and getting married in a WEEK. She and her new hubby most likely would not come, but maybe if we had a large home she could come for a shorter time. I should be planning a wedding, but this is my therapy, planning a vacation.
We actually have some flexibility in dates, if my oldest son could miss some classes at college. Our family homeschools and I was toying with the thought of going around Labor day. Is it really a big savings to go off peak times?

The main savings would be the lower rental rate on your vacation home. Tickets, food, transportation (because you're driving and gas prices generally rise around holidays), etc. would cost the same.

Even though Labor Day is less crowded than Christmas, I would NEVER recommend that a college freshman skip classes, especially at the beginning of a term and certainly not for a vacation. It's tough enough to adapt to college without disrupting the orientation to college life.

We could also go right after Christmas or after the new year. I don't know the peak times exactly yet.
I like the idea of cooking, we have lots of chefs in the family and the family EATS like CRAZY. I can see the eating out bill KILLING our budget. BUT I also am intrigued with whoever said something about a dining plan and paying that ahead of time so dad doesn't fret about how much it's costing. How do I do that? I'm SUCH a newbie. THANKS!!!!

You would need to stay onsite in order to get the dining plan. It would not be free during peak times like Christmas/New Years. Your reservation would have to begin at a time that free dining is offered in order to take advantage of it, you would pay rack rates for your rooms and you would have to buy your tickets from Disney. If you have to pay for it, the dining plan (in my opinion) is not a moneysaver.

Also, my husband wondered if we should just rent a smaller vehicle once we get there to have two cars while we are there if the older crew wanted to stay more at the parks while the younger ones went back to the house for naps. Is there a good deal for smaller car rentals in the area?

You could rent a second vehicle but keep in mind that they charge a HUGE upcharge for drivers under the age of 25. It might be more cost effective to have part of the family take a cab back to your rental on the days when the family wants to split up.

I'm so sorry for all the questions. If we left December 30th and stayed till Jan. 11th, and bought 7 day park hopper passes and has break days in between, would that be a good time for vacation home rental and park days? We do have a family member with cerebral palsy which in the past has meant that long lines don't effect us quite as much. Is this still the case?

Dec. 30 is still peak time and crazy crowded. Since New Year's Day is on a Wednesday in 2014, you can expect the crowd levels to stay high through Sunday 1/5/14. After that, they should taper off until the following weekend when the marathon is run (1/8-1/12/14).

You will also pay a premium for a rental home during that time period. Most rentals begin on Saturday or Sunday, so a Monday arrival may be difficult to book.

Many of the queue lines have been mainstreamed for wheelchairs. If your family member uses one, they should have no difficulty waiting in the regular queue lines. If a transfer is needed, the CMs will move the wheelchair so it is at the ride exit when you are finished. If your family member has other needs that require a GAC, then you can pick one up at Guest Relations but they really are not a "super FastPass" for skipping the waits. They are meant to provide guests who have a special need a more comfortable means of accessing the attractions. There are many times when that translates to a longer wait time.

 

[Shmily1]

OP, if you could go around Labor Day, that would be your cheapest way to go. I would get two adjoining family suites at a WDW resort (All Star Music would be cheaper than AoA). The free dining is offered for September so your food would be basically free. You wouldn't be paying for parking at the parks because parking is free when you stay on-site or you could take the buses.

Your DH could always start off the day with you and the children but leave and take the bus back to the resort when ever he felt like it. If you are staying for two weeks, you could get 10 day water park and more tickets. That would give you 10 visits to the water parks, golf, Disney Quest, or miniature golf also. Does your DH golf? If he gets bored, he could do that or he could go fishing, site seeing, etc. There is much more available than just theme parks!

Have a great time!!

 

[Marionnette]

OP, if you could go around Labor Day, that would be your cheapest way to go. I would get two adjoining family suites at a WDW resort (All Star Music would be cheaper than AoA). The free dining is offered for September so your food would be basically free. You wouldn't be paying for parking at the parks because parking is free when you stay on-site or you could take the buses.

Free Dining begins on 9/2/13 (Labor Day itself). The OP would not be able to check in prior to that and still take advantage of Free Dining for her entire stay. She would either have to do a split stay (and pay OOP for her meals until she checks in on 9/2) or choose another discount. If she does a split stay, there is no guarantee that she would not have to pack up and move from the rooms that they occupy. That could be quite a hassle when you have that many people. If she were to begin her visit on Labor Day, that college kid is going to miss a heck of a lot of classes! Most schools begin mid- to late-August and they don't take a break for any days surrounding Labor Day, just the holiday itself.

 

[eliza61]

1) Off site. NO DOUBT about it. Believe me the "magic" is just as nice. NO way would I try and squeeze all those folks into 2 hotel rooms. Even renting dvc points is going to be pricey.

2) skip the dining plan. If you want to "pre pay" simply purchase gift cards. Next 1/2 of your party is going to be adults. the price for the adult ddp is a ridiculous 54 bucks a person. plus add that to the fact that it locks you into eating a table service every night. You guys haven't been in a while some of your smaller guys have never been (am I correct). Are you going to want to stop and eat a sitdown every night? I know when my kids where little and bouncing off hte walls many nights we simply didn't want that.

3) Now if you want to rent a smaller car, look around but if you do that, one parent should hang out with the older kids to prevent the extra charge for underage drivers. You can get good deals on smaller cars. Do you have AAA or credit cards? many times they offer discounts.

 

[chimilady]

I would absolutely NOT ask your son to miss any college classes. Missing a week of college in December is basically screwing him over on his finals. This isn't elementary school where you can just make it up later. College is serious business, and if you want him to do well, you can't tempt him with a Disney trip when he needs to buckle down the most.

I would be looking at renting a house offsite like a lot of others mentioned. It would be great for space, and for your husband. Staying offsite will be cheaper than staying onsite. AOA suites runs about $300/night, and even values can be $100/night, and you'd need 2 suites, or 3 values per night for your family.

I would be looking to go the last week of August and leave on Labor Day, assuming your son's college starts the day after Labor Day. The crowds are lower that week, and it is value season as far as prices go. With a house and cars, you can pack lunches and make dinners and can save a lot of money.

Edited to add: January 5th - 11th would be ideal. I missed that part in your post. It won't be hot, it will be a ghost town as far as crowds go, and you should easily be able to find a rental. I would absolutely do that time of year in a heartbeat! One of the benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility, and that would be great.

 

[Shmily1]

Free Dining begins on 9/2/13 (Labor Day itself). The OP would not be able to check in prior to that and still take advantage of Free Dining for her entire stay. She would either have to do a split stay (and pay OOP for her meals until she checks in on 9/2) or choose another discount. If she does a split stay, there is no guarantee that she would not have to pack up and move from the rooms that they occupy. That could be quite a hassle when you have that many people. If she were to begin her visit on Labor Day, that college kid is going to miss a heck of a lot of classes! Most schools begin mid- to late-August and they don't take a break for any days surrounding Labor Day, just the holiday itself.

I totally understand that it starts on 9/2 and all the ramifications of how it would work, but since the OP said "around Labor Day", I thought I would throw that out there as an option, since it hadn't been mentioned. I do deal with that often, but since I am not in Texas as the OP is, I have no knowledge of when college starts there.

 

[rigs32]

Free dining doesn't apply to the family suites

 

[Marionnette]

I totally understand that it starts on 9/2 and all the ramifications of how it would work, but since the OP said "around Labor Day", I thought I would throw that out there as an option, since it hadn't been mentioned. I do deal with that often, but since I am not in Texas as the OP is, I have no knowledge of when college starts there.

And my response was for the benefit of the OP, who may not be aware of when the promotion begins or the ramifications of splits stays.

 

[leebee]

. If she were to begin her visit on Labor Day, that college kid is going to miss a heck of a lot of classes! Most schools begin mid- to late-August and they don't take a break for any days surrounding Labor Day, just the holiday itself.

(but since it was brought up...) Actually, many colleges in the northeast start AFTER Labor Day... some right after, some MUCH after. Most of DD's friends start school on the Tuesday or Wednesday after Labor Day, but several of them don't go back to school until mid-month; their summer lasts forever! It really does vary. Also, we have no idea of how many online classes "that college kid" might be taking, or if he's doing independent studies, research, etc. It's really up to the student to decide if s/he can take the time off.

I have a husband who isn't the world's biggest Disney fan. Experience has shown that when he accompanies us, THAT's the trip to stay offsite! With a large family, I think you will find that everyone will have a better vacation if you take advantage of the space that a rental home offers (to say nothing of the money you'll save in both rental and food costs). I've stayed both on and off site, and really don't get all the "magic" hoopla that people refer to with regards to staying onsite, but that's just me. I find much more magic in having my own kitchen, pool, laundry, coffee maker, room, bathroom, etc., than cramming value and moderate resort rooms to capacity. Also, it doesn't take forever to get to the parks. From windsor Hills, you can pretty much be in the parking lot of any Disney park in about 20 mins; onsite, it usually takes at LEAST that long to walk from your room to the bus stop and then wait for a bus! I can't remember a single time at Disney that it didn't take a minimum of 30 mins from leaving our room to putting our tickets into the turnstyle at the park... and sometimes MUCH longer. Regarding parking, it's $15 a day, but that parking permit is good all day, at every park. With 4 drivers, you could come and go without paying for additional parking. Take the little ones in the early morning, letting the teens sleep in (NOT during christmas week, during an off-peak time). Bring the littles home at lunch and send the olders back on their own for the afternoon. If you are eating in the condo, they have to come home for a meal anyhow, then you can all go back together for the evening. Sure, it's a bit more hassle, but it can be done with one vehicle, especially with multiple drivers!

Sign up for the Mousesavers Newsletter at mousesavers.com. There's a link every month to discounted tickets through Undercover Tourist. Sometimes it's a huge savings, with free days available and such. I'd also suggest not doing park hoppers to save some money. It's nice to think you'll do the day at one park and the evening at another, but the only time I really find them valuable is if you are doing a dining plan, as it gives you flexibility by not having to pick a restaurant in the park you might be in. Regarding number of days for a ticket, it gets appreciably cheaper to add on days after about 5, but don't buy more than you reasonably think you might use. We find that after two or three days of theme park attendance, we need a day off. There is still free Disney stuff to do on your off days (Downtown Disney, Boardwalk/Friendships, visiting different resort hotels, electric water pageant and watching the fireworks from a monorail resort, riding boats and monorails, browsing outlet malls, enjoying your vacation home pool/game room, visiting Celebration, etc.) that give you the taste of Disney, but you'll have a chance to wind down and relax a bit. Many find that a Disney vacation requires a vacation once you return home unless you have paced yourself! Mousesavers.com also has great hotel deals, and will show you how to stack codes and coupons to get better rates on rental cars, if you should choose to go that route (didn't your DH mention renting a vehicle while in FL?).

 

[khaoskat]

One thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned, or really a couple:

1) Check out Disney Homeschool days. You might be able to get discounted tickets through Homeschool days.

2) Since you do Homeschool considering looking at the YES: Individual Enrollment.

3) For the college student - I think they have Disney YES College programs.

4) If you want to still have things to do on your down days, consider purchasing the Water Park Fun N More -- on your off days you could use those extra visits to do things like going to the Water Parks, Disney Quest, etc.

5) Just because someone on here says all the availability is gone for renting DVC for a Villa that would fit you all, still consider contacting someone who you can rent points through. It may surprise you. You may have to resort hop, which gives you a taste of what the different resorts are like. You may also have to consider going into say two two bedroom (or even a two bedroom and a One bedroom unit) rather than a villa.

6) GAC cards are available, and you can find information on those all over the place for your child with medical/special needs.

7) Also, I would avoid Labor Day Weekend. That week tends to be a bit more crowded, but in general, September has the lowest rates for DVC points needed for most of the resorts (a few have that as a more expensive season/time, but not all).

 

[kjetjl]

We have 8 children as well! 18,16,14,13,9,7,3,1!

We have done free dining and that by far is the best deal financially for us! We have looked into condos and 4 bedroom houses and after tallying up food costs (cooking) and parking, etc., free dining was the way to go for us! Plus, I didn't have to cook on vacation!! YEA!! We have done free dining 5 times, 4 times with 2 rooms in the value hotels and one time we splurged and stayed at Port Orleans (2 rooms). Yes, it is tight but it worked for our family and the older kids could catch the bus and go into the parks if we were taking a little longer with the littles in the morning. Also, they stayed later if we needed to head back to the room with the littles. If your dates would work with free dining, I say seriously consider it.

Concerning Sept. vs. Dec. Christmas time. It definitely makes a huge difference financially and with wait times. Sept. has very low wait times in our experience. Everything is so much more expensive over Christmas time and it ADDS up quickly with a big family.

That being said, our oldest just graduated high school so we have not had to work around college (we homeschool also!)
We had friends who rented a house in late April/early May to work around their oldest 2 in college and they said that was a very nice time to go with reasonable wait times.

We went in Nov. 29-Dec. 10 in 2010 (got free dining but this is not always the case!) And it was cold, cold, cold!! Not always the case but my kids told me they prefer the hot and humid Sept. because at least they knew they could swim- we LOVE the waterparks and get that option if we can stay 10 days or longer.

I could go on and on...feel free to pm me with any questions.

Happy planning and have a great trip whatever you decide!!

 

[kjetjl]

I have 8 kids and a hubby who want to finally try and go. I'm not pregnant or nursing so it's the YEAR for us, .

LOL! With 8 kids too, and 10 trips to Disney, my family jokes that each year they try to predict, are they having a baby this year or going to Disney?

I have never gone to Disney while pregnant but we have taken the babies as young as 3 months!

 

[leebee]

kjetjl is right, free dining saves a BUNDLE and we have done it, but right now it's only available from 9/2/13-9/25/13. It means staying onsite, paying rack rate, and buying tickets from DIsney BUT you usually only have to buy a minimal number of days on the ticket (not sure if it'd be cheaper to do 2 days tickets through the room and 7 through UT). I have noticed that when passes are bundled into a Disney room rate, the passes appear to be cheaper than buying from UT. Free dining is NOT available if you are staying in family suites at All Stars or Art of Animation, usually. Also, if you stay at a value resort "free dining" means two counter service meals and one snack per day, per person, plus a resort mug per person. Staying at a moderate and above gets you one counter service, one table service, and one snack per person, per day, plus a resort mug. Resort mugs are valuable as you can get "free" unlimited coffee, tea, iced tea, hot chocolate, and soda at your resort hotel food court (NOT in the parks). Kids under two can eat off your plate for free. Technically kids 9 and under have to order from the kids menu, regardless of dining plan. (I say technically because apparently there is some wiggle room here on cs meals, depending on location/cm.) Remember that you can pay for a Disney package over time (6 months? I think?) but within a certain window (45 days? 30?), you have to pay in full when you make the reservation. If you don't have the available cash to do that, it would let out going in september for free dining. However, you can roll the dice and make the reservation for early January, and hope they offer free dining! I am not sure what Disney's cancellation policies are. If you go in September, would your college student miss school for your entire vacation, or just a couple of days (i.e. come down for a long weekend?) If he's doing a long weekend, I'd suggest he take off either Thurs/Fri or Mon/Tues, rather than Fri/Mon, so he only misses one day of each kind of class (assuming his college classes follow the MWF or TTh schedule).

These are just random thoughts I have had; if I cannot plan my own Disney vacation, I like to live vicariously by planning vacation for others!! I think you need to do a pros/cons sheet for several different travel dates and see how they measure up.

 

[MickeyManiac]

Does your college student have a fall break? My DS has a week long break mid October. He's planning to head to WDW to visit a friend in the College Program that week.

 

[MomofEIGHT]

No fall break for my college son. BUT, he's a soph at a community college and has a 4.0. We may be able to swing turning in work online. I'm confused as to what exactly the free dining means. How does that work?

 

[torinsmom]

Do you mind me asking where you are renting. We need a five bedroom house and I have looked at so many my head is spinning!!!

I know you didn't ask me, but we are staying at a 5 bedroom pool home in Indian Creek for around that price. We stayed here in 2011 and it was amazing. We will be there again July 14-21. The owner is really nice and we didn't have to pay the security deposit; she just held our credit card info until we checked out.

OP, something like this may work for you too. It's a great savings over staying online, and cooking even simple meals will save a lot of money. It was nice having a washer/dryer too, as we like to change clothes midday after being in the sticky heat.

http://www.vrbo.com/229838