POR or 2 value rooms for family of 5?

5fordisney

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Feb 18, 2006
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Hi! We aren't traveling until next year but I'm already in full planning mode! We are a family of 5, my husband, myself, and 3 kids ages next year 5, 6, 8 (almost 6, 7 and 9 by then). We stayed last summer at POR with the trundle bed. I'm trying to decide if we should repeat this or get 2 rooms at a value instead. The price difference is somewhere around $200 for the week so cost is almost the same. Has anyone stayed at both and have any advice for me? We LOVED POR and it is the slightly cheaper of the 2 options. But I keep thinking it would be nice to have more room to sleep. What would you choose? Thanks for any advice!
 
It depends. If you book POR, you KNOW you will all sleep together. If you get 2 value rooms, they will tell you Connecting Rooms are Guaranteed for Families, but there is definitely the chance your 2 value rooms will NOT be connecting. If you are not ok with splitting up the family into 2 separate rooms, then the value resorts aren't even an option. (UNless you want the Family Suite at ASMu).

It is nice having extra room that connecting rooms provides, but your kids are pretty young still. POR is lovely!

Also, how much time to you spend as a family in the hotel room?
 
Hi! We aren't traveling until next year but I'm already in full planning mode! We are a family of 5, my husband, myself, and 3 kids ages next year 5, 6, 8 (almost 6, 7 and 9 by then). We stayed last summer at POR with the trundle bed. I'm trying to decide if we should repeat this or get 2 rooms at a value instead. The price difference is somewhere around $200 for the week so cost is almost the same. Has anyone stayed at both and have any advice for me? We LOVED POR and it is the slightly cheaper of the 2 options. But I keep thinking it would be nice to have more room to sleep. What would you choose? Thanks for any advice!

Just an FYI:
Disney does guarentee connecting rooms. They do not book connecting rooms as a seperate catagory.

The Family Suites at All Star Music might be a good option for your family.

DH and I stayed in a Family Suite at All Star Music ( a value resort) last Sept. (2006)

We really enjoyed the Queen size bed, the kitchenette with the microwave, having a sofa and cushioned chair to sit on and relax after a day at the parks before retiring for the evening.

I thought the pullouts very comfortable.

They are designed so the back cushion and seat cushion of the pullout support the pullout. There is no meatle bar to hurt the sleepers back.

Info thread--Pullouts in Family Suites at ASMU with photos of how the pullout is supported.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=18100990#post18100990

Here is the layout of the Family Suites:

ASMusic_FamSuite_layout.jpg



Here is my review of the Suites:

www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=17640774&postcount=7

For more photos and info please see this info thread:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1392879

Here is a an info I wrote comparing the Family Suites with POR:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1392857

Have fun at Disney wherever you choose to stay!:wizard:

.
 
2 values are nice because of 2 bathrooms, 2 sinks, and 4 beds. You and your DH could have your "own" room too once the kids go to sleep. It might be worth the extra $200!!
 

I love the atmosphere at POR, but I think your age kids would just love all the huge icons at any of the value resorts. I'd go with two rooms, for the extra space.
 
i pers. would go with the 2 rooms. like everyone said, 2 bathrooms, 2 tvs. then if someone wants to stay up later or watch tv you dont bother the younger ones. thats what we have done also
 
Just an FYI:
Disney does guarentee connecting rooms. They do not book connecting rooms as a seperate catagory.


.

Correct...they DO Guarantee them but they may still not have any to give you upon arrival. We now know to ONLY book 2 connecting rooms instead of a cabin/suite if we are willing to split up if they ran out of connecting rooms. That's why I say, if you are NOT willing to split up (if all connecting rooms are already taken), don't count on connecting rooms.

Beth
 
Correct...they DO Guarantee them but they may still not have any to give you upon arrival. We now know to ONLY book 2 connecting rooms instead of a cabin/suite if we are willing to split up if they ran out of connecting rooms. That's why I say, if you are NOT willing to split up (if all connecting rooms are already taken), don't count on connecting rooms.

Beth

Thanks for the correction taximomfor 4. I ment to say even though Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.
You and I both know from personal experience that Disney fails far too often even when the ressies say guarantee connecting rooms.

As a mother of 4 (All grown now. My oldest is in her 30's and my youngest is 22) I often wished Disney had more options for larger families.
When the children were younger and we would go to Disney they did not have DVC or the family suites. In fact Disney did not have a Moderate until CBR opened in the late 1980's so if we wanted to stay onsite we either rented 2 rooms at a deluxe or stayed in the cabins.

I wrote to Disney many times over the years asking for more options for families so when I heard they were building the New Family Suites at All Star Music it just made me so happy!

In the late 80's I booked 2 connecting rooms at CBR for my family.
When we checked in there were no connecting rooms left but we were able to get rooms next to each other on the second floor.
Our two oldest were teens so I put them in one room and the 2 little ones who were 5 and 7 stayed with us. It worked for us because our older children were able to stay in a room without us but if they were younger DH and I would have had to split up.

Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.

If there are 2 adults Disney can split the adults and children into two rooms that are not connecting. They try hard not to do this but it can and does happen sometimes. If however it is one adult with 5 children Disney should try harder to find connecting rooms since some of the children cannot be left in a room without an adult. But if you look at the threads posted below you will see that sometimes even Disney mixes up.


It does happen. Far too often IMHO.

From this thread;

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1145289

mydogisbo said:
Just wanted to re-iterate what others have said:

We requesting connecting rooms at CBR in January--not really a busy time & we were early for check-in. They did not have us in connecting rooms. They said they could accommodate us, but it would be smoking rooms--which was our #1 request non-smoking.

We were side-by-side, so we just went outside to go next door, so it wasn't a huge deal for us. But if you definitely want to be together--I would go with a suite. You could also look into renting DVC points for a villa.



Here are a couple more threads about guests not getting connecting rooms:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1095679

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=785797&page=1&pp=15

From this thread:

http://disboards.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=13528958

taximomfor4 said:
One of the threads that Linda posted a link to was my experience last March. I had many conversations with the higher-ups at Guest Services and was told that even if it says "guaranteed" it is not truly "guaranteed." It just has higher priority over the "requests." Because on a given day, there might only be 25 connecting room sets opening up, but 27 "guaranteed connecting rooms for families" ressies checking in. 2 of those families are not going to get their "guarantee."

I know, I was shocked that we had to fight so hard to get put in rooms that had just been fumigated for lice (they were taken out of the inventory, but re-opened because we insisted we needed rooms.) I sort of assumed that if they didn't have the rooms for us, they'd find rooms elsewhere on Disney property. For that stay, we were sometimes 2 adults and sometimes only 1. Now we will book offsite if we need to do that again. If there are 2 of us adults, we book connecting and hope for the best. Otherwise, we'll split the kids.

My point is to make backup plans if you are depending on connecting rooms.

That is one of the main reasons if my family were young I would choose a Suite over 2 connecting rooms or I would be prepared that I may need to split the family up and sleep in a different room than DH.
 
Thank you, everyone, for your replies! I hadn't even thought about the possibility of not getting connecting rooms when I arrived and it's a chance I don't want to take. So I think for one more visit we will stay at POR again. Thanks again! :)
 
I would go for two connecting rooms at a value. It is so much nicer to have the extra space, two bathrooms, two tv's, etc. If you are going at a less crowded time of the year, you should have no problems with getting connecting rooms. We have never had a problem getting connecting rooms, but we also travel during the low crowd season. Have a wonderful time. :)
 
My 5-member family (dh, 15 yo ds, 7 yo ds, 4 yo dd, and myself) just returned from a 1-room, 9-day stay at POR. Since dd turned 3, we have been booking 2 rooms when all 3 kids were along with us. This can be quite expensive. It can also be quite irritating when the guaranteed connecting rooms are NOT that. (This has happened to us 3 times now -- at CBR, Sports, and AKL). Back to our POR experience. We had plenty of room! Since the beds are tall, we were able to shove all of our empty luggage under the beds. Drawer space was at a premium, but I learned long ago to bring most of our clothing on hangers (much faster to unpack in your resort and when you return home). The trundle was extremely easy to push under the bed each morning. 7 yo ds LOVED sleeping on it. Dh stretched out on it with ds one night and reported that it was surprisingly comfortable (didn't look as if it would be).
 


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