Need Help-Best hotel for 6-7

[ihave4kids]

Looking for some help.I am hoping to make it to Disney the last week of JUly.At this point,there will be me and 5,possibly 6,kids.What does everybody recommend for hotels for value,pools,transportation.ANy help would be appreciated.I wanted to stay onsite,but my budget has takem a few setbacks.Thanks

 

[deejay-55]

For value, pools, transportation you could check out a nearby resort community of private homes - Windsor Hills, Windsor Palms, Emerald Island for instance.

 

[CoralCayTownhome]

For 6 or 7 your best value will probably be a private rental. In a hotel you are going to need either a couple of rooms or a 2/3 bed suite which will probably cost a good bit more than a rental home. Remember to add in the cost of car hire when staying off-site but this could be balanced out with eating at the home or off-site restaurants on some occasions.

Good luck with your search

 

[dougsmom98]

If there are only 6 of you and you don't want to go the route of a private rental home (which I also highly recommend) I would try Comfort Suites Main Gate East. They sleep six and you will get free deluxe continental breakfast with a make your own waffle station. The pool it really nice too. You can get a rate of $85 by going to hotelmartusa.com. I also saw that they were advertising Venetian Bay Villages for $95 including taxes which is a 4 bedroom townhouse but they have a 7 night minimum. We used hotelmartusa.com for a couple of our trip and have always been pleased.

As for off site transportation, I personally wouldn't trust it especially traveling with children. Most shuttle services are for set sporadic times which will limit your access to the parks. If someone is sick or over heated, you won't be able to get back to the hotel. You never know what could happen when traveling with so many people.

 

[Lisa BC]

I also agree with the previous posters - for the best value rent either a condo or a pool home.

The only place offsite that I would even consider staying without a rental car is at the Downtown Disney hotels, and you'd need two rooms, maybe with the exception of the Doubletree Suites (but only if you have 5 kids, instead of 6). Several years ago I stayed offsite with a friend and used the "complimentary" transportation. It took us over an hour to get from the Magic Kingdom to our hotel 2 miles away.

There are lots of properties in the "Formosa Gardens" area that are literally a 5 -7 minute drive to the Animal Kingdom
(Windsor Hills, Emerald Island, Indian Creek & many others) If you don't mind adding 10 minutes to the drive you can find some very economical pool homes out in the Davenport area. I was helping a friend look for a place to rent, and in that area you can get a nice 4 bedroom home with its own pool for about $700 - $800 for the week. There are advantages of the pool home: it is much easier to keep track of your kids in your private pool - rather than at a resort pool, and you'll have 3 bathrooms; if some kids don't want to swim, no problem you can all be at the saem location, some swim, some watch TV, others play video games - and you can have your eye on all them pretty easily. Here's just one example:

http://www.vrbo.com/129167

If you want specific suggestions for rental communities or a specific home, just post what your needs are, and your budget, you'll get some responses.

I would suggest that you reserve your minivan now if you'll be needing to rent one in Orlando. July is a busy time. You can always cancel the ressie if things change.

Good Luck!

Lisa

 

[Cruz91]

Off-site is the way to go. You should be able to get a 2 or 3 BR condo for $90 - $100 or so through VRBO.com. We have rented from one guy twice now (actually - our 2nd one is coming up in October, but already booked it). His condo can be seen at http://www.vrbo.com/83238, if you're interested. You can email me for more details if you'd like. No matter who you choose to rent from - windsor hills is the place to go.

When you're working out final costs - consider the following if staying off-site. You'll have to rent a large vehicle for that many folks (probably an SUV). You'll also have to pay for parking ($10 per day). If you stayed on-site, you wouldn't have those two costs. On the flip side, by staying off-site you can make a really good breakfast and pack a great lunch, so you can save TONS of money that way. You could even go back to the condo for dinner and save that cost too, though we usually eat at least one meal out a day.

Bottom line - HAVE FUN!