Need hotel help please!

[champagne27]

Hello -

I am happily booking our May 06 vacation for self, DH, DD age 5 and DS age 3 (at travel time). We are going to book the 7 night land/sea and will stay at the Poly for the 3 nights of the package.

We will be there for 2 additional nights before that though and
I thought we might try another hotel - thinking yacht and beach or AKL and wanted suggestions. Anyone have any recommendations?

Also, do you think the Poly will be a good choice? I thought that the monorail made sense but would love to hear other feedback. DH thinks we are crazy to go with kids so young but my parents are going to and I want to do it as my dad is getting older..

Thanks for any thoughts and help. Love these boards for all the helpful people!


~Karolyn

 

[F1Julie]

I'd say go for it! I don't think your kids will be too young at all. I would choose AKL as your second hotel. It's like another vacation within Disney. Viewing the animals is great, the pool is fun, and the restaurants are fabulous. I think the Poly will be great as well. I haven't stayed there since I was a kid (I was way too young to remember), but it would be my first choice if I wanted to stay on the monorail. The only thing I'd advise is possibly booking your resort stay separately from your cruise rather than doing the land and sea. You may be able to save money that way, especially if room only codes come out for the dates of your resort stay. From what I've seen, if you book everything separately (resort, tickets, etc.) it works out to be less than the package. Just a suggestion.

 

[kldmom2000]

I'm biased on the hotel... our favorite is the Yacht/Beach Club. I can't even get my DH to try a different hotel!LOL! Good luck in your decision and your planning!!!!

 

[HopperFan]

I ditto on the AKL - it's an adventure in itself, the kids will love the animals.

My sis did Y&B with 3 and 5 year olds and said it was a tremendous amount of work due to the size of the hotel and just felt they were way to young to appreciate it.

I think their age is perfect ! A magical age for Disney !

 

[2dogmom]

The Poly was a great hotel for kids. We just returned with a 4yo and 17mo. The monorail access was wonderful. AKL is a great hotel (we stayed there when DD was 2), but if you are going to be traveling with 2 strollers, it is much more difficult to depend solely on bus transporation because you have to keep collapsing the strollers to get on the bus.

BTW, I don't think your kids ages will be too young. They will LOVE it.

 

[lovethattink]

There is no such thing as being too old or too young for Disney. Disney really does have something for everyone! As for the hotel, that will depend on your personal preference. AKL is great. It has wonderful restaurants, animals, etc. The only possible drawback I see to staying at AKL with small children is this...Before the resort opened, they had a preview time for people to go and check out the resort. The thing that stayed most vivid in my mind were the bunk beds. They only had a few rooms open to view, but I remembered thinking that I wouldn't want a small child up on the top bunk. I'm not sure if every room has bunk beds or not. The Yaht/Beach Club are great too! The pool there is THE BEST on property!!! Nice sandy area for kids to play at the pool too. Only drawback, no food court/snack bar for late night snacks.

 

[champagne27]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback - much appreciated! It's a good thing I don't have to book it right now since I can't decide...

And just in case anyone is interested, the deal on the 3 night land/4 night sea really surprised me. The cruise alone was $3000 - it only cost another $600 total for the 3 nights at the Poly and tickets for all four of us which sounded really good to me. Granted it's only 3 days time in the parks and not 4 but I thought still was a good deal. I fully expected to book both pieces seperately.

Interesting though - the reason I am looking for a 2nd hotel is because to add 1 more night to this plan was $700 - hello - 3 nights for $600 and 1 night for $700 - how do they do math!!

Thanks again!

 

[TerriBelle]

We haved stayed at the Y&B club with kids your age and they LOVED Stormalong Bay! They wanted to get back to the pool every day. They loved the beach area and the slides. There is a great small slide on the back of the pirate ship that the 3 yr old twins loved!

The Epcot area is great because there are so many restaurants and fun things to do. Our kids like watching the magicians and performers on the Boardwalk. We also like being able to walk or take the boat to MGM & EPCOT. Our kids enjoyed these parks along with the MK.