Need some input

[camnhan]

Friends of ours have DCV points that he had booked last year and tragedy in the family caused them to cancell their trip. The trip they had booked they had to split stay between a DVC studio and Moderate to get the time they wanted. They are giving us this trip now as a thank-you but am struggling with how to do this. They were a family of 4 so a DVC studio and Moderate would work for them...we are a family of 5.
never having stayed at a DVC I am wondering about what suggestions you would have for us as a family of 5 and the off to a Mod...we have stayed at POR and it was way to small for us.

Not even sure where to begin with this...any help would be greatly appreciated. He has asked us for our top lists of resorts to stay...

 

[CarolynMink]

What are the ages of you children? To my knowledge, the DVC studios sleep 4 + plus sm child in port a crib. Some of the 1 BR's do sleep 5. We will have 5 in a 1 BR at AK this summer on a split stay with THV's.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Depending on the moderate, only one, POR, will sleep five, unless one of your children is under the age of three. Same as the studio.

 

[camnhan]

14, 13 and 11
14 yr old is almost 6 ft tall so things get tight fast

This will potentially be our 5th trip...our first we were off site, our second we had a very nice tax return and dumbed it all into 10 days at the wilderness in a 1 bedroom club level for 6 (we had my husbands son with us then)...3rd we stayed for 10 days at POR and we found ourselves tripping over each other and luggage all week long! Last year we did a split stay since my entire family was coming down (17 of us) to see my nephews perform with the HS music program...we did 4 days at Poly then offsite with family.

Poly was perfect in many ways but the sleeping arrangments were ideal. DS slept on the daybed and DH and I each took one of the other kids in the beds. Not as concerned about overall space just comfortable sleeping arragements.
We have tried to look all the info on DIS and just get ourselves more and more confused!

 

[Deb & Bill]

14, 13 and 11
14 yr old is almost 6 ft tall so things get tight fast

This will potentially be our 5th trip...our first we were off site, our second we had a very nice tax return and dumbed it all into 10 days at the wilderness in a 1 bedroom club level for 6 (we had my husbands son with us then)...3rd we stayed for 10 days at POR and we found ourselves tripping over each other and luggage all week long! Last year we did a split stay since my entire family was coming down (17 of us) to see my nephews perform with the HS music program...we did 4 days at Poly then offsite with family.

Poly was perfect in many ways but the sleeping arrangments were ideal. DS slept on the daybed and DH and I each took one of the other kids in the beds. Not as concerned about overall space just comfortable sleeping arragements.
We have tried to look all the info on DIS and just get ourselves more and more confused!

Your family is too big for a studio. You'd need a one bedroom villa that sleeps five - OKW, BLT or AKV (not the value villa). And if the moderate if POR, that's the only moderate you will fit in (and you've already said it was too small). Once points are used for a non-DVC Disney hotel, they can't be swapped back to a DVC resort. All your friends can do is book a different non-DVC hotel that sleeps five, use more points and pay the $95 fee again because of the change. Or just lose the points and $95 they have already paid for the moderate hotel. Those points are reservation points and cannot be used for DVC at all.

 

[CarolynMink]

Here are how the 1 BR's that sleep 5 stack up:
OK 1 BR's at 942 sq ft is the largest but has only one Bath rm.
BLT 1 BR at 803 sq ft has 2 bath rooms.
AKV will depend on room category.
Jambo House: 629 - 710 sq. ft. (value will not sleep 5)
Kidani Village: 807 sq. ft & a second bath room

I have heard of 5 in a studio but I do not think CM is suppose to allow that. I am not sure how that works.

We find 4 in a studio cramp. We will be traveling with DS 14 (6 ft tall), DD 17 & exchange D 18. We have done 4 in a studio plenty of times. With a DD & DS now teens, we put up an air mattress for one of them and will be doing so at AK.

With that said, a gift is a nice thing. Plan on not spending a lot of time in your room and you will be fine.

Good luck.