New to DIS forum. need big family planning help please

[ehstrojette]

We will be traveling to Disney the end of May 2008 so we have some time to plan. I have many questions and do not know which forums to address them in.
1)Where to stay?? We will have 14 people going. 8 (1 will be 18 yrs old) adults and 6 kids, the kids will 8,6,5,4,and two 3rd olds. We are looking into Villas or other housing we can all stay togther in.. any ideas or past places you have stayed?????

2) Tickets???? Where is the best place to buy our tickets from. We are talking about a 3 or 4 day pass and being able to go to seaworld, the beach, or Busch Gardens too. What are the best places to take the little ones? What are the ones to avoid?

3) Shopping. Where is the best places to shop??

 

[Tricia1972]

Welcome to the Dis!

I am pretty new here too, and have only been to Disney once. However, I can help you with where to shop. IMO DTD (Downtown Disney) is the best! It has the most wonderful shops, amazing Disney art gallery, toy stores, the best Disney Store ever, confection shops, pretty much whatever you want you can get. There are some great restaurants too. The location is beautiful (right on the waterfront), your little ones will love to run through the fountain that comes right up out of the sidewalk. It is attached to PI (Pleasure Island), but I must admit that all of the times that we went there we didn't go over to PI.

With that many people going, you may want to look into Magical Gatherings.

As far as tickets go I know that there are several ticket outlets that I have seen people post about here. First time we used a TA for everything who just booked right from Disney. I have read good posts about mapleleaftickets.com, undercovertourist.com, and undercovertourist.com. If you are planning this all on your own you probably just want to check your dates with as many of the reputable discount places as you can.

Lodging, I can be of little help. I believe that your party is too large for any single room on-site. I believe that Beach Club Resort, Bord Walk Villas, Saratoga Springs, and the Villas at Wilderness Lodge will all allow a maximum of 8 people per room. If you are staying onsite, and if you have to break up your group I can tell you that as a party of 4 and an infant last time we stayed at CBR. We did NOT like it and do not advise staying there. For us service was poor, mouskeeping was only adequate and Disney transportation seemed to take forever.

Good luck and happy planning!

 

[ehstrojette]

We were looking into a orlando villa. maybe a 5-6 bedroom place. Figured we would need at least 3-4 big beds for the 3 couples, my sister isn't married yet so she could sleep in a smaller bed then single beds for the kids but we would bring some single air mattresses for then smallest ones to sleep in the room with mom and dad

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

There are lots of wonderful pool homes and villas for rent. A couple of years ago we took our entire family plus a few extras. There were 13 of us. We rented a 6 bedroom pool home. It was fully equiped, had a washer and dryer (no cost to use this), a private covered pool. It was fantastic. For the cost of $14 per person per day we were able to each have our own bedroom, there were 4 bathrooms, we were able to fix many of our own meals and do our laundry. We had 3 TV's even (not that I spend much time watching TV when I am at Disney World...I may just check on the weather!). We were about 10 minutes from Disney World property (in Kissimmee). When we first got to our "house" we went to Sam's club and bought the food we wanted for the week. We had planned menus in advance and had a shopping list. We usually ate breakfast at the house and then fixed dinner's there. It was also easy to pack lunches to take to the parks (we did a couple of times). This option is not the best for everybody, and we love to stay on property when we can, but with this size of a group it was much more cost effective to rent the house. There are many places to rent the houses...just do a search on vacation rentals etc. and you will find lots of information. Also there are links on the Orlando websites. If you have not yet signed up for Mousesavers.com newsletters, you should....I find the best deals on tickets through their links. Good luck.

 

[byoung]

You will learn a lot on these bds. Welcome to the DIS!!

 

[Minniespal]

Welcome to the Dis

 

[Dreamer04]

Welcome to the DIS!!

 

[HappyLawyer]

tickets, use ticketmania.com or undercovertourist.com

if staying offsite look into sky auction.com

and if renting a car, look for codes and coupons on the mousesavers.com website,

there is also a site that provides in depth photos of onsite resorts, everything i think it is the all ears website but not sure

good luck have fun

 

[CapeCod53]

We're going to wdw for Thanksgiving with 13 people, grandparents, 1 couple, myself, my sister & 7 "kids" 16,20,21,21,22,24,25 (only 1 is a girl). We are staying at the Ft Wilderness cabins. We chose this options because regular hotel room with 2 queens don't work for us,all the "kids" need their own bed. With the combo of bunks & a double in the bedroom we'll get up to 3 kids in each bedroom & adults will have the murphy beds in living room. Each family will have their own cabin so we will have privacy. We do get along well as a family, but still for a whole week too much togetherness is not good.(altho we are actually thinking of a kids cabin & having some of the adults share a cabin to coordinate sleeping schedules, we'll need to leave a huge mousekeeping tip for that boys cabin!) yet we can still be onsite & take advantage of all the Disney benefits. With young kids, easily being able to return to your room for a nap & break is a necessitiy in our experience. We are going to have 2 rental minivans & 3 rental golf carts for ease of transportation. FtW has loads of things for families to do, my kids loved the campfire program when they were younger.

 

[Aalore]

Welcome and reading through the message boards can give you so much information! I learned a lot like that!

 

[1stWDWtrip]

WELCOME!! You will certainly learn a lot on these boards... I have become somewhat addicted.

Good luck with all of your planning!

 

[spiceycat]

even the grand villa OKW, BWV and SSR - only hold 12 people.

if you want to stay together then it will have to be an offsite home.

www.vrbo.com

now if you don't mind being parted.

you would need two 2-bedroom . or 4 studios...

both will sleep 16 (8 in each 2-bedroom, 4 in each studio)

studio have a kitchennett, 2-bedroom have a full kitchen. the 2-bedroom has 3 TV one in each bedroom and one in the livingroom.

you can also go with the FW cabins - this sleeps 6 - so again you will need 3 of them.

also and probably your best bid would be a bunch of rooms at Pop century.

every 2 of them can be connecting - but I would think they could all be adjoining.... You would need 4 of them.

these only have 2 double beds (full size).

fw cabins has full bed, 2 bunk beds (a little smaller than twins), a murphy bed.

2-bedroom OKW - has king bed, queen sleeper sofa in the livingroom, and 2 queen beds in the other bedroom.

studio has 2 queen beds.

 

[karla63]

where would you suggest a group of 9 stay? There would be 4 adults, 4 older teens(16yrs old-girls) and a 10 yr boy

 

[ehstrojette]

Karla we are looking into either orlandovillas or floridasunvacationhomes they are big houses and have pools and game rooms. alot have ps2's and games to go with them. That would be good for your teens. You would need a 5 bedroom house since there is 9 people. Florida housing laws say something about only 2 people per room

 

[karla63]

Yeh, I have thought about the homes, but really want to stay on property and take advantage of the transportation + most of our group has never been to DW and I want them to experience the MAGIC

 

[dzorn]

http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com/


Saw a review of these on I think the Passporter site. Never been but they look impressive and seem to come in all size homes.


Denise