Last time in a deluxe as family of 5 + infant

[TwistGrl101]

Thanks Syndrome. I will look into those CL rooms. I've stayed BC CL once in high school when my family was upgraded for free!!! Otherwise, I never found it worth the cost since we've always gotten free dining (last year we upgraded to DDXP) so we would never have the room in our bellies to enjoy it!

 

[ElizabethB]

Yes, you'll have more space in a BC deluxe room. We've stayed in them twice. They are great and can be nabbed on a discount if you watch carefully and act quickly. Be aware though, that they have the same sleeping arrangements as the regular rooms -- two queen beds and the day bed with a limit of 5 plus one under three. So, they won't work for you once you have 6 over age three.

I agree that the dining plan plus club level food is too much food.

When you are six, there are deluxe rooms at BWI that sleep six. They, too, are club level. They have two queen beds plus a queen sofa bed. The look out on the Boardwalk.

 

[jaykorf001]

2 more questions:

Does AKL have a kids club and daily poolside activities and regarding a pmt plan for renting points, how do most renters work this out?

I'm still not sold on renting points as it is still cheaper to get a regular deluxe resort room, but I am looking into it and weighing my options.

AKL does have a kids club, Simbas Club. I met someone whose child chose to go there over the parks every day. There were poolside activities every day at the main Jambo House pool. I'm not sure about the Kidani pool.

 

[khaoskat]

Family of 6 (5+infant).

When doing the math, we found that renting DVC was only $150 more than staying in ASMu, and about the same as staying in AoA in their family suites.

We are going for 6 nights in a 1 bedroom, for a total of 131 points. We got our rental for $10/pt through a private individual. That made our total room $1.310.

ASMu is $259/night ($1554) and AOA is $309/night ($1854).

Also, the Cabins at Wilderness Lodge were like $327/night (and are set to fit six people) at a Moderate Resort level.

We are saving about $600 using YES for 3 of our children and our adult tickets -- huge savings on the kids tickets, especially the 10 year olds.

So, w/o the dining plan (free or paying for it), for just room and tickets we are spending apx. $3165

Now, if they are offering FD, you need to go through and check your figures..But we wanted the comfort of the King bed (as our two youngest usually end up joining us in bed at some point in the night), and the more spacious room, plus full kitchen. If you end up with a rainy day and not wanting to go out in the rain and hungry kids/family --- you can make something simple.

 

[bear74]

we are a family of 6 as well. youngest 2 will be 3 when we go in April 2014. Wish I didn't have to get 2 rooms at a value but they are cheaper then the family suites. Good lock on your last Delux stay

 

[richmo]

I guess what I'm going to propose is blasphemy, so please don't flame me, but it worked for our family.

I think you'll be ok this time, but your family is getting big. Especially as kids get older, any kind of hotel room seems to shrink somehow. What we finally did was rent a house behind Splendid China (anyone remember that?). Travel time to AK was about 5 minutes and all you had to do was cross US-192. It had a private pool, 4 bedrooms, etc. Especially when you have kids at napping age, it was nice to hang out in one part of the house (or even the pool) and let them sleep without worrying about interrupting them. Once the kids got a little older, we stopped renting the full house and have done condos/townhouses at Windsor Hills...also convenient to WDW. Not saying you should do this now, but something like it might make sense for you in the future....especially on longer trips (anything above 5 nights or so), and it can save a ton over Disney resorts, even adding in a car.

 

[bear74]

I guess what I'm going to propose is blasphemy, so please don't flame me, but it worked for our family.

I think you'll be ok this time, but your family is getting big. Especially as kids get older, any kind of hotel room seems to shrink somehow. What we finally did was rent a house behind Splendid China (anyone remember that?). Travel time to AK was about 5 minutes and all you had to do was cross US-192. It had a private pool, 4 bedrooms, etc. Especially when you have kids at napping age, it was nice to hang out in one part of the house (or even the pool) and let them sleep without worrying about interrupting them. Once the kids got a little older, we stopped renting the full house and have done condos/townhouses at Windsor Hills...also convenient to WDW. Not saying you should do this now, but something like it might make sense for you in the future....especially on longer trips (anything above 5 nights or so), and it can save a ton over Disney resorts, even adding in a car.

I'm considering this the main draw back is not having access to the extra magic hrs

 

[flamark]

So just as a roundabout, how much would we be looking to pay for a villa for 5+infant at BCV? Could we stay for 10 nights, or can you only stay a week?

I am more leaning towards booking a standard deluxe room through Disney though, because I have a chance of getting a discount...

Using the point calculator on David's DVC Rentals page and using August 1-11 as the dates, it would cost $7112 for a 2 BR Villa. Others have mentioned the POLY and I would whole-heartedly second their suggestion. The POLY rooms are bigger than BC and I would think a crib or pack n play would be much more manageable there or CR than BC. I definitely feel your pain as we are 7 when all my kids go. and need 2 rooms no matter where we stay.
I would think that if you gave the POLY a try you would wonder why you ever had any hesitation. The proximity to MK is great with both boat and monorail choices and the access to the TTC is better and easier than CR or GF for the trip to EPCOT. The pool isn't SAB but then nothing on WDW property is. PP who mentioned being able to see the entire pool from your seat is absolutely correct and I think that's a good thing. Good luck in your decision and I HTH!

 

[TwistGrl101]

Oh boy, back to square one...Poly or BC lol.

For the poster who suggested renting a home, my problem is: do I fly down with 4 carseats??

 

[flamark]

Forget the carseats! NONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!! If $ isn't the big issue I would stay on property! Offsite is NOT the bee's knee's to say the least. Yes, offsite you can get a 4 BR house for $150 a day, probably less but then the driving, parking, no EMH(if you're into that), no DDP if you want it. The minuses are too many. BC or POLY seems like a good set of choices to have. It's been our choices before. We have stayed at both. Stayed at POLY in early June and BC just last weekend. For us, POLY is slightly better, especially if your vacation is more MK oriented.

 

[Maus]

Oh boy, back to square one...Poly or BC lol.

For the poster who suggested renting a home, my problem is: do I fly down with 4 carseats??

That is definitely a lot to schlepp but I would only take the car seats for the two smallest ones on the plane and would check in the others. You will not be charged for that. I would rather have space on my vacation, but we take a one bedroom with only two kids. I like the toddler to be able to take an uninterrupted nap without me having to lay down as well. Renting points or staying off property would be the only option for me with that many people.

 

[richmo]

I'm considering this the main draw back is not having access to the extra magic hrs

Good point...you'd also lose access to any dining plans, etc. My only comeback to that is if you've got exhausted kids, EMH isn't going to be much of a benefit.

Of course, there are advantages to staying onsite. However, the simple fact is that Disney resorts generally don't cater to family sizes greater than 4. I don't really need it myself anymore, but I'd love to see them develop a resort that can handle larger families without having to double up rooms or spending $500 a night, or its equivalent. Adding some family suites to an All-Star seems like an afterthought.

My main point was that being crammed into a hotel room for an extended period can be difficult with a large family, which could negate most of the advantages of staying onsite. Rather than one of the other options of not going, there are some attractive options off-property.

 

[Minniesgal]

This exactly why we ended up buying .dVC so we could have enough space for our family of 5