Recommendations for Family of 6

[rowjimeye]

Hi!

This will be our first time going down as a family - myself and my wife, and 2 girls and 2 boys, respectively 12, 9, 7,and 5.

I'm trying to find a good resort for the 6 of us, but can't seem to find a specific list of which resorts are the only ones to allow parties of 5 or more. We would like to have a seperate bedroom for the kids with bunkbeds etc, but costs may drive us all to sleep in one room. We also want to be close enough to walk to catch a bus to the monorail, and plan on spending the majority of time at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. I wish we could stay longer, but we may only be able to afford 4 days. We're looking to go at the end of January (24th to 28th)

Has anyone utilized a dining package with 4 kids? I'm trying to see if it's worth it, but it's hard to compare because we've never done something like this with the whole fam...

One more question (sorry so many) - do you have to pay extra to get a park hopper pass? And will that allow us to leave the Magic Kingdom and go to Epcot for dinner and then back to the Magic Kingdom at night if we want?

Thanks ahead of time for the help!

Jim

 

[browniemtb]

Jim,

Good question since Florida is very strict about occupancy. I would suggest renting a Vacation Club unit from an owner. For the time you are looking at....1/24 - 1/28 for a 2 bedroom unit with laundry and full kitchen would run you about $1500, depending on the owner. 2 bedroom units sleep 8 so there would be plenty of room for you and the kids. Both the Beach Club and Boardwalk Villas are wlaking or a boat ride to both Epcot and the Studios while Wilderness Lodge is a boat ride to MK....the other resorts are Saratoga Springs, Animal Kindom, and Old Key West.

The dining plan works for us.......we do a lot of character dining so it pays for itself pretty quick. Basic plan gives each 1 snack, 1 counter service, and 1 sit down meal a day.

If you have any direct questions about renting or the resorts just PM me I would be happy to help. We bought into DVC because of our growing family.

Good Luck

 

[browniemtb]

One more question (sorry so many) - do you have to pay extra to get a park hopper pass? And will that allow us to leave the Magic Kingdom and go to Epcot for dinner and then back to the Magic Kingdom at night if we want?

Park Hopper passes do cost a little more than the regular pass. With the hopper option you can do exactly what you want to.

 

[Cadiewampus]

We were on a trip once with 5 and we stayed at the Caribbean Beach with connecting rooms and just left the door open between the rooms open and it worked well. Others on the boards say the same about the value resorts but not sure if the rooms are smaller there.

 

[mjkacmom]

Yes, you pay extra for hoppers. There are a few onsite options for 6 - renting DVD points, getting 2 adjoining rooms, or fort wilderness cabins. I think that's it. The dining plan is good if you are planning on one table service meal each day, although make sure you make your ADR's well in advance. It also requires you to do a lot of advance planning, based on your ADR's.

 

[Disneyfan2928]

We are staying in a family suite in the All-Stars Music when we go in December. It's my understanding that it is two adjoining rooms that have been turned into a suite. This means that the kids will have a separate room and we will have two bathrooms, as well as a little kitchenette area (with a small fridge and a microwave).

It sounds like it will work out great for us, but we haven't stayed in one before, so we'll see

 

[8disneyfans]

Hi,
we have 6 kiddos and have been there 3 times. All 3 times we have done much research and decided the best for us was 2 rooms at a value. They have buses that go to the parks and Downtown Disney. We have gotten connecting rooms and left the door open. Since we spend most of our time at the parks this works for us. We also use the dining plan, the first time we used it we quit keeping track after the 3rd day, we had already figured it was worth it. The nice thing is that you can go into a nice resturant we normally wouldn't eat at, and not worry about the cost. You do have to pay a tip, but sometimes our bill would be $250, so really worth it.
Hope this helps!

 

[FoundMyPrince]

I would second the suggestion of renting DVC points! We stayed at Saratoga in May 2008 and it was wonderful. The full kitchen is great for eating a quick breakfast in the morning. The washer/dryer came in very handy after our sandy adventure at the beach. We had a two bedroom so our children had one room, and we were "on the other side" with a bedroom of our own. I cannot recommend it enough.

Park hopper passes are great if you want to visit two, or more, parks in one day. We liked taking advantage of the early hours/late hours for park guests. (Our children really liked the extended late hours).

You said you could afford 4 days. Don't forget about the stay 4, get 3 days free promotion. Yes, you would be out 3 more days of food, but the resort would be taken care of, as well as the additional days on the park tickets.

We have done the Dining Plan several times (paid for it, gotten it free, etc). We won't do it again. For the ages of our children, it just doesn't benefit us. On our next trip our DD will be 10. Disney charges a 10 year old as an adult. There is no way she would eat the meals from the adult menu. I cannot justify spending $39/day on food for her. She eats like a bird. A few years ago it was a much better deal (appetizer and tip were included), it's just not a great deal for us any longer. Take a look at the menus and see where you would like to go. Perhaps you can make it work for your family.

 

[DawnM]

Jim,

We just stay in a 2 bedroom condo off-site. It is so much more comfortable for us to spread out than to have hotel type rooms. That saves us on food too as we only eat one meal in the parks per day.

Are you taking the kids out of school or do you homeschool?

Dawn

 

[Disneyforus]

If you do decide to stay onsite, don't forget the buy 4 days get 3 days free deal! Plus you get the $200 gift card! We are a family of 6 and are getting two connecting rooms at a value resort in January. Our rooms total for the week was $2132.28 which includes 7days of base park tickets for each of us....plus we are getting 2~$200 gift cards because I made two separte reservations and had them linked!

 

[scouthawkk]

If you want to stay on resort, there are basically 3 options for you. A cabin at Ft. Wilderness, a family suite at the All Star Music,or two rooms (and hope you can get connecting rooms) ant any of the resorts-value is the cheapest. I haven't ever stayed in a cabin, or gotten connecting rooms, so not much help there. But we stayed in a family suite in August. We really liked it.

DH and I only have one kid, but we brought DH's little sisters, so we had 2 girls (14 and 11) and our DS (5 at the time). As a previous poster mentioned, the family suite has 2 rooms. One for us adults, with a door that closes, and another that has a fold out sofa (double bed). It also has a fold out chair and a fold out ottoman. Both of those make single beds. Each of "our kids" were able to have their own bed, but if your little ones are able to share one, it will work out great. We really liked having the kitchenette. It had a mini fridge and microwave (though, we never used the microwave). As well as the usual small coffee pot. There were shelves to put snacks on, and Mousekeeping did a good job at keeping it stocked with paper plates, bowls and plastic wear. The biggest bonus to us was having two full bathroom areas! And 2 TVs, one in each room.

The walk from the room to where you catch the bus wasn't all that bad, either.

 

[ChrisAlli]

WE love the cabins. The bedroom has a bunk bed and a full size bed. There is a Murphy bed in the living room. Two tvs, a full kitchen and mousekeeping does the dishes for you.

FW offers a lot for families and you take a boat right over to the magic kingdom and you can take the monarail from there to TTC to Epcot or from the Contemporary which also has a boat from FW.

Again we love it, very peaceful after a day in the parks and it's nice not to be connected to anyone, next to, above or below.

 

[trennr]

I recommend staying offsite in a Villa. Sure you have to pay to park...but you'll save that much and more in rent.

Hopper Passes will cost you more...depending on how many days you buy, but would work how you want them to...in-out of as many parks as you want in a day.

For a family of 6 I would say the Dining Plan may not be worth the price.

I was looking at the DP for my family of 4 and the cost went up $1000 for a week...so add about another 400-500 for 6.

 

[java]

Just another option- it isn't cheap- but there are Deluxe concierge rooms at the Wilderness Lodge and the Boardwalk that fit 6- we had a fabulous stay at the Boardwalk.

It couldn't be any more convenient. And they treated us like royalty. Really a great trip.
And yes Park hoppers cost more. You know your time frame falls into that 7 for the price of 4 days. You get the room for a week for the price of it for 4 days- same for the tickets.