Newbie Needs Resort Advice

[jktgkansas]

I am planning a trip for The first week of Jan in 2008. Cost is a concern. There will be 4 adults, and two kids (9 and 7).

What would be our best bet, considering cost is a concern. Also, do the lower cost resorts have family suites.

I would love to stay at the Polynesian, but its pretty pricey isnt it?

Kelly

 

[JennyMominRI]

I am planning a trip for The first week of Jan in 2008. Cost is a concern. There will be 4 adults, and two kids (9 and 7).

What would be our best bet, considering cost is a concern. Also, do the lower cost resorts have family suites.

I would love to stay at the Polynesian, but its pretty pricey isnt it?

Kelly

How long will you go for and what park do you plan to spend the most time at?

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

ASMusic has the family suite they accomodate 6 w/ a kitchenette and two bathrooms. POR sleeps 5 in a room. According to disney's website the family suite is 179 per night during value season and a standard room there during the same season is only 82 per night. You cn also request adjoining rooms if need be. Best of luck on all of your decisions and enjoy every minute of trip including the planning.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

We are a family of 6 and love staying at a DVC resort. We have had good luck renting points and staying in a 2 bedroom. It is adventure season so points for a 2 bedroom would be 22pts per night at OKW or 30pts per night at BCV. With the average points selling between $10-$12,that is a great deal in the off season. Then you get the 2 bedrooms, kitchen, washer and dryer and 2 bathrooms. You still get to use magical express and some renters will even let you add on dining plan. We love the villas. Hoping to purchase ourselves someday!!

 

[FayeW]

With a group of that size, and cost a concern, I recommend staying offsite. You can rent gorgeous 2 & 3 bdrm townhouses and condos directly from the owners for less than the cost of 2 rooms at a value. Yes, you would have to have a vehicle, and pay for parking, but it will STILL be cheaper and much more comfortable. Website for that is www.vrbo.com.

You can also bid on ready, set, go auctions at skyauction. You can choose from 1, 2 or 3 bdrm units, and the cost for all is the same (when you win an auction, you can choose from whatever size unit is available for your time frame). Website for that is www.skyauction.com. Many of us have used skyauction successfully (I've used it 3 times, each time for a 2bdrm condo. Most I've paid is $266. including all fees fot he the entire week!)

You could check out renting timeshares from the owners at www.redweek.com. Bonnet Creek, although not a Disney resort, is adjacent to the Caribbean Beach Resort, and very close to OKW. The Marriot resorts (Marriot Grand Vista and Horizon's by Marriot) get fabulous reviews from families.

If this is your first trip to WDW, don't get sucked in to thinking that you MUST stay onsite to experience "the magic". There is no magic in stressing over how much the accomodations cost! We have had 3 trips, none onsite, and they have all been "magical" in their own way. While at some point I will most likely give onsite a shot for a few days (that's all we could handle with 4 of us in one room!), if I had insisted on onsite for our first trip we could never have afforded to make 2 more trips! When we saw how inexpensively it could be done it made it easier to budget for the other trips. Personally, I would love to be at the Poly too, but I am not willing to pay $400. (or even $250) for the priviledge. What I would spend on hotel alone would pay for our entire trip offsite!

Have a great holiday, whatever you decide to do.

 

[connorsmom911]

When we stayed with 5 adults, 1 child, we were at Coronado Springs, a moderate resort, with 2 connecting rooms. This was nice because we had 2 full bathrooms and we could hang out in one room while the little one napped in the other room with the door between the rooms left open a crack. We still had our privacy at night, and a double sized room during the day. This is also an option at the value resorts I'm pretty sure. You just need to request "connecting" rooms (connected with an inside door), not "adjoining" (just side by side, no joining door). It is only a request, not a guarantee, but in off-season, you shouldn't have any problems. This is also a little cheaper than going with a suite.

But I do also agree with renting points from a DVC member and staying in a two bedroom villa. We rented points for our October stay in a studio and loved it!

I really like staying on-site, even though there are cheaper options off-site. You get to use Disney transportation and you get that whole "Disney" feel from morning till night. I've only stayed off-site once, my first trip, and I won't do it again, but then I'm a Disneyholic!

 

[buccikulju]

We have a similar situation coming up for our trip at the end of February....4 adults and 2 kids. We booked adjoining rooms at POFQ. With that many adults, I think even a family suite would feel crowded! Two rooms is best, IMHO, and then you can go Value, Moderate, or Deluxe. Personally, we always stayed Deluxe (or camped), did stay off-site once, but have found that we enjoyed POR on our last visit VERY much and are looking forward to POFQ this time. (I liked POR better than the Poly, BTW!)

We were able to get quite good deals through AAA and by watching this site and Mousesavers.com. You can book you room and then if there is a discount package you can call Disney and add it to your existing registration. I did that and saved even more money when Disney came out with a special package for the dates we were staying there. I would think that Disney will offer some discount or package for early January...even if they don't announce it until next fall.

Two rooms, my opinion

Have fun
Patty

 

[buccikulju]

There are probably MANY threads on DIS addressing the pros/cons of staying on-site versus off-site. We did have a very nice time staying off-site a few years ago (Holiday Inn Family Suites...a good deal and lots of fun), but I found that I felt the need to be on-site at Disney to feel the Disney magic 24-7...especially with a shorter trip. To each his own.

Patty

 

[Joy4Ron]

How long are you planning on staying? Are you planning on being at Disney every day?
If you are planning on flying in and renting a car, you may end up spending more offsite. With DME,(Magical express) and Disney Transprotation you could skip the car altogether.

We have stayed at ASMo with a fridge. We went to Wal-Mart - it's just a couple miles away - and got milk and some minor breakfast and snack foods. It saved us breakfast money, which we then used on nice sit-down dinners.

Keep looking on these boards, there is a ton of great information. I signed on several months before my last trip, and it was a God-send.