Reality of five in a studio

[Robbie Cottam]

I almost always go the two bedroom even if it just four of us….

Grumpy teens, are bad juju on vacation!

We tried a studio once for myself and my two teens……. Train wreck!!!

No matter what we did someone didn’t get a good night sleep, and when both of them woke up on the wrong side of the couch we knew this was a never again.

 

[CarolynFH]

We purchased DVC so our family of 4 could have more space on vacation. Not the same amount as the Disney hotel rooms we were staying in. When our boys got out of elementary school, regular hotel rooms were out for us. A studio with 5 grown people in it does not seem like a vacation for us.

That’s us exactly! And it’s the reason we bought enough points for a 2BR.

 

[bobbiwoz]

A forth adult decided to join us in an SSR one bedroom, and immediately we decided we needed a two bedroom. We only have one more night to fill out, then we have the whole stay in the two bedroom. 5 in a studio? Never for me.

 

[Sandisw]

I have done 4 and honestly would not want to do it again. I think if one can make the larger units work, then I would try!

How I am up to 900 points! Lol

 

[Sammie]

It's personal choice. We bought DVC to have enough beds so that no one sleeps on the sofa. We always book a 2 bedroom.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

As you can see, there are some very different perspectives on rooms/space!!

In my family- we’re a bit of a mix. We’ve got 6 kids (12-22yo), and if I’m traveling with any of the 4 oldest I’m happy to squeeze into smaller accommodations to save points. I’ve maxed out the Poly studios several times & was fine… however, I’ll splurge for larger rooms when traveling with just the younger 2 bc #5 (bless her heart) is a serious teeth grinder & #6 has a significant SN that makes me much happier if we don’t have to all share 1 bathroom. So, it’s much more a Q of what can we -as parents- handle?

We’ve had all 8 of us in the RIV 2-bedrooms a few times, and that pushes my limits… it’s super tight. So, in a few weeks we’ll be at BCV & 5 of us will be in a 2-bed + 3 in a studio, then we’re all moving into a grand villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We’re really looking forward to spreading out, while still being under one roof! People always say once you stay in a 1-bed you’ll never go back to studios & that just hasn’t been true for me… but 2-bed to GV? I know it’s going to be a game-changer & I won’t be able to go back

 

[Unclelude]

"Sleeping surfaces" ... I think that's a big consideration. We have 3 kids 2 boys 1 girl ... all in college. The boys really don't like to share a bed with each other...hehe.

In both studios and 1BR you have only 3 sleeping surfaces.

Someone mentioned air mattresses ... in our experience they make a world of difference. A decent blow up mattress is pretty cheap. If you are driving it's easy to bring a mattress, if you are flying that might be more challenging. if you can handle the square footage (and lack of kitchen and probably bath).. an air mattress can really help in a studio....( and a 1BR too)

I would also suggest you *can* more easily justify/take advantage of the full kitchen. A few 'eating in' meals can save a decent amount of $$! We are really good at microwave and hotplate cooking, but its a way better experience with a full kitchen. I think it also makes the dining out a little more appreciated.

So much fun! Good luck!

 

[matt and beth]

We’ve done 5 in a pinch. With young adult children 16,18, and 21. It’s doable

 

[CarlyMur09]

With a count of 5 or 6 adults (parents in 50s, kids in 30s), we normally go for a 1 or 2 bedroom depending on who all is going, mainly for the laundry aspect. We’ve done studios with just 5 of us for very short stints (mostly one night, but we’ve done 3 nights at poly)

We’ve grown up in close quarters (all of us kids grew up sharing a room), and growing up, we did a lot of travel by car and stayed in hotel rooms that were less spacious than studios, so it doesn’t bother us as much to be in the room.

That being said, one/two bedrooms are our preference mainly for the laundry. DM has always said that if they had studios that had a washer/dryer unit in the room, she would consider studios more often.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

We’ve grown up in close quarters (all of us kids grew up sharing a room), and growing up, we did a lot of travel by car and stayed in hotel rooms that were less spacious than studios, so it doesn’t bother us as much to be in the room.

That being said, one/two bedrooms are our preference mainly for the laundry. DM has always said that if they had studios that had a washer/dryer unit in the room, she would consider studios more often.

I totally understand the first part & agree with the 2nd! Now that our trips are getting longer (1-2 weeks), I’m less and less thrilled with the laundry quandary in the studios

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

If it were me, I'd keep the points I have and stretch the days with studios while the kids are young for a few years and see how it goes. You may find once a year is actually best as they age. I know a lot of my friends find traveling more difficult in the teen years as sports and other activities put demands on time.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

You need a 2 bedroom

 

[TinkB278]

Thanks everyone for your insight! Your replies made me curious as to how things work for a family of five at other destinations and it seems most hotel studios only fit four and not many hotels offer 1 bedroom/2 bedroom options. Curious how that all works out or if most of you with larger families just kind of stick to Disney for vacations.

 

[bakerworld]

When the kids were little we always pushed 5 people into a hotel room. Once we joined DVC, which we did when the 'kids' were adults in their 20's, anytime we went with more than one we book 1 or 2 bedrooms. The first time we traveled with all three, with partners, the 2 bedroom in Bay Lake with 3 bathrooms was wonderful.

About 6 years ago we had a girls weekend, composed of 4 women, in a Beach Club studio. It was a lot of fun but we were all adults with similar personalities. Only one person used the pull out sofa with another on the murphy single under the TV and two people shared the queen. We were surprised at the walking room with all the beds pulled out.

 

[drusba]

As shown by the replies to the original post, whether one can tolerate 5 in a studio is mostly a personal issue. Some can easily do so, some cannot (I am among the "cannots"). TinkB278 (the original poster) mentions that they could easily do it while the kids are little, which, if true, likely indicates they can do it when the kids are older (e.g., I could not do it even if the kids are little), but the issue TinkB278 could face then would be whether those older kids would rather not do it.

Mentioned above is the possibility that changing the studios to have bedding for 5, such as at AKV, which currently allows four, could have an issue with local codes applicable to room capacity. Such codes actually do not create capacity per room for hotels or timeshares. Instead they create capacity per floor, with the principal consideration followed in creating them being how easily all those in the rooms could exit the floor via the number, width and location on the floor of exit stairways in the event of a fire.

The changing of the studios to allow 5 (six actually since you can also have an infant under 3), is most likely not an issue since the change has already been done for some of the DVC resorts (BWV, BCV and BRV) , which would not have been done unless the change complied with the codes.

Nevertheless, no one should purchase AKV based on the assumption that studio room capacity will be changed to 5. They changed the studio capacity for BWV, BRV, and BCV when doing refurbs started in 2016, but did not change it for SSR in its recent refurb done after those three refurbs, did not do it for OKW whose last refurb started in late 2017 after those three were done, and did not do it for AKV whose last refurb started in 2016 during the same time as the refurbs were being done for the three. SSR recently added the extra pull-out-from-a-cabinet bed in the living room of the 1BR but that is something that simply makes its 1BRs have the same capacity that AKV and OKW 1BRs already had. Thus, it appears likely a decision was made previously to change studio capacity for those three near-.park resorts but not change studio capacity for the much larger resorts which had bus-only transportation to any park. The addition to the studios at BWV, BCV, and BRV may have been a decision made by DVD to aid sales of points it got for those resorts via foreclosures and ROFR of resales, but did not do it for OKW, AKV or SSR because of the lower prices per point and the need to spend larger amounts to make the change for a lot more rooms per resort.

 

[lorimt]

Thanks everyone for your insight! Your replies made me curious as to how things work for a family of five at other destinations and it seems most hotel studios only fit four and not many hotels offer 1 bedroom/2 bedroom options. Curious how that all works out or if most of you with larger families just kind of stick to Disney for vacations.

We do Airbnb most of the time.

 

[Lorana]

Our boys are now 18 and 16. We have certainly done many trips with them in studios / hotel rooms when they were younger, and not had an issue, mostly because we didn't spend much time in the room. However, as they got further into their teens, we started spending more time in the resorts, studios started to feel CROWDED, especially as my DH and my DSs can push each other's buttons when they are cranky/hangry. ;-)

We won't stay in Studios that sleep 4, though, as our boys won't share a bed. However, our 18 year old still prefers the single pull-downs and says they are comfy. He's only 5'5" as a note.

One of our big reasons for buying DVC is that we first tried a 1BR with the boys when they were 10/8 and that felt like such a game changer for us... full kitchen allowing us to save on meals, washer/dryer, and PLENTY of space for us. I confess I particularly liked having a jacuzzi tub at the end of a day in the parks!

Of course, now that we own DVC, we've started booking 2 BRs so that the kids can sleep in and have their own space (and not all 1BRs have two beds in the living room), without being woken by their early-rising mom (and I can make coffee/move around/open curtains without worrying about waking people). My oldest still tells me "it's unnecessary" but he is the most budget minded / doesn't want to spend money out of all of us, lol. I imagine if he ever has kids and does Disney, he'll squeeze into a studio.

 

[Lorana]

Thanks everyone for your insight! Your replies made me curious as to how things work for a family of five at other destinations and it seems most hotel studios only fit four and not many hotels offer 1 bedroom/2 bedroom options. Curious how that all works out or if most of you with larger families just kind of stick to Disney for vacations.

We don't have a family of 5, but my boys will NOT share a bed, so we've run into a lot of the same challenges a family of 5 has when traveling abroad, as we need 3 beds in a room.

In Japan, it wasn't as much a problem as we feared, as many rooms have multiple single beds (even if tight), but we also used VRBO in Tokyo to rent a Ghibli-themed house, and booked a villa-style accommodation in Kyoto. Only in one city did we need to book 2 hotel rooms, and as we couldn't get connecting rooms, we just split parents between rooms.

We are traveling to Italy for a Mediterranean Cruise this upcoming summer, and are staying 4 days in Rome ahead of time. We opted to use AirBnB to rent an apartment, as it was 1/3 the cost of booking 2 hotel rooms.

In the US, we often stay in Hyatt Places and Hyatt Houses, as they include breakfast and have bedding for 6 (2 queens and a queen pull-out coach), and we have found their quality consistent. We've done Homewood Suites and Embassy Suites, but the quality isn't always consistent; Marriot and Hilton also have vacation villas that allow for more sleeping arrangements/multiple bedrooms.

 

[Dtw002]

The next question will be whether you need a 1bd or 2bd. Studio with three kids + spouse is like camping. If that’s your thing and you are just trying to survive, than fine. But beyond that teens need space.