Single Mom...did I make the right choice?

Taking my 12 yr old b/g twins as a suprise for their 13th b-day! Booked ASSports with free dining. I chose a value...well for the value. On our previous trips we have never spent much time at the resort. That said we have never experienced the high temps I am sure we will have this time; so I am concerned that the pool and room will have more of an impact. So could I get some opinions...
Push my budget and go to a moderate with a more exciting pool, better room and the upgrade dining?
Stay were I am and travel to the water parks everyday the temps get too high to enjoy the parks?
If I stay with the value is it ridiculous to attempt a major park in the morn then a water park then back to change and eve back to finish the major park?

I would stay where you are...the resort is fine....and fun. If your kids can handle park/waterpark/park then go for it. You also could consider Park/ resort pool - dinner/ Park...... which ever you decide, have a wonderful time with your kids !!!!
 
Taking my 12 yr old b/g twins as a suprise for their 13th b-day! Booked ASSports with free dining. I chose a value...well for the value. On our previous trips we have never spent much time at the resort. That said we have never experienced the high temps I am sure we will have this time; so I am concerned that the pool and room will have more of an impact. So could I get some opinions...
Push my budget and go to a moderate with a more exciting pool, better room and the upgrade dining?
Stay were I am and travel to the water parks everyday the temps get too high to enjoy the parks?
If I stay with the value is it ridiculous to attempt a major park in the morn then a water park then back to change and eve back to finish the major park?

Most kids don't care much about the specifications of the pool, as long as there's a pool. Yeah, a water slide would make your trips to the pool a little more interesting, but maybe not as much as you would think. If you have no other reasons to upgrade to a moderate, then I would stick with the value. With 2 - 13 year olds, I would probably want the queen sized beds at the mods over the doubles at the values. I also prefer the themes of the moderates.
I've never been to a water park, so I can't really comment on that. You probably CAN do main park - water park - main park, but I imagine that would be even more exhausting than staying in the main parks through the heat.

If I was in your position, I would probably stick with the original plan and save the money.
 
While you absolutely can stay at a value and upgrade to the regular dining plan, the cost comes out to the just about the same as a mod with free regular dining plan. Why not just stay at a moderate with fewer people and a feature slide?

As far as a park and water park same day. We did it years ago when we used to go for a full week with hoppers, but not since we go for 5 nights/4 days without hoppers. Too rushed!

Thats not exactly true. When i originally booked pop, i upgraded from the QS to the Regular DP (free dining promo). The upgrade cost about $200 for my DS12 & I. However, for an extra $300 on top of that, I could stay at a moderate resort and have the reg DP! Which is the route i decided to take! Its only an extra $300 (on top of the $200 I already paid) so why not? So technically, there's a $500 price difference to go from Free QSDP@Pop to Moderate (Reg DP). .........Clear as mud? :cool2:
 
I would switch to POR just for the fact that your twins are boy/girl. I have girl twins who turned 13 in Jan, and they hate sharing a bed on vacation. If they were b/g twins I wouldn't be able to get them near the same bed, and I wouldn't want to share with my daughter the entire vacation either. If you switch to POR they have a Murphy bed. Your kids can take turns with that and you'll have your own bed. I have older boys, then the twin girls. When they were younger we stayed at POR, they had trundle beds then, and the kids, except for one son who was tall for his age, were fine with the trundle until they hit high school. If you decide to stay with the value, you can always bring an air mattress and have the kids take turns using that.
 


I think POR is a great resort but most 13 year olds probably won't fit well on the Murphy bed. It's pretty small.

Personally, I would keep what you have and you can decide if you want to upgrade dining. I would also use the price difference between a moderate and a value to get the water parks added to the tickets. My niece and nephew just stayed at all star movies (similar ages as your kids). They had a great time. Didn't want to leave the parks unless it was to go to a water park. They talked more about the water parks and seemed to have more fun there than anything else.

As for you being a single mother, I think one of the all star resorts is perfect for you. They are small and compact, easy to get around, well lit at night, and there are always plenty of people around. We stay all levels of Disney resorts and go at least 3-5 times a year. I can say that I have never experienced what a pp stated at any value resort or any Disney resort for that matter. Not saying it didn't happen but it is certainly not the norm. We have stayed at all the values multiple times and all of our rooms have been immaculate, staff courteous, and the guests no different than any other level of resort (the rudest set we encountered were at our last stay at CBR and prior to that AKL).

Hope you have a great trip!
 
FWIW, we walked to Blizzard Beach from ASSPorts. We do a park and a waterpark quite often. Sports is actually our favorite value. My 10 year loves the surf pool and all the sports icons. For 12 year olds I think the pool at POFQ is too babyish. The waterslide is short and designed for the younger crowd.
 
I have gone as a single mom for a couple years. (Remarried now, so yay!) We stayed at value for a couple reasons. We love the value resorts. The huge icons are fun! We go in the middle of summer and still don't spend that much time in the room. If so, it is to lay down, watch some TV for an hour or so to rest and that is it.

I am a bit torn about the dining. We tend to be more of a counter service family because we don't like to be tied down to a certain place at a certain time for reservations. That being said, we do enjoy the few sit down meals that we have. My boys are now 17 & 15 and would prefer to have the sit down meals now...especially the buffets (endless pits!)

So, if money wasn't an issue, and you enjoy to "get away" for a sit down meal everyday, then by all means upgrade to a moderate. I think I would get a moderate rather than upgrading my dining at a value, only because moderates do have greater offerings. We did enjoy the quiet pools at POR. They were never crowded and never had to worry about losing the kids in the masses. :)

Good luck with your decision!
 


I am a single mom of b/g twins and they are currently 12 also but will not turn 13 until January 2013. We have stayed at mod and value(POR and POP). We had a great vacation at both but my kids really enjoyed the value better. They loved all the big and bright icons at the value, loved the pool activities and loved the bus service. We did have the quick service dining plan and they enjoyed not having to rush to a diner reservation every day. We did plan 2 table service meals which we paid for out of pocket. As my kids are big eaters, it worked out better for us as we were able to have 3 meals on two of the days we were there. It also was cheaper than upgrading to a Mod. Our next trip will probably be another value, we loved POP and would return but I might want to try different resort. We also did water park when we were there and back to resort for nap and then major park in the evening, I think we hit Magic Kingdom that night EMH until 1 or 2am.
 
I also have b/g twins but they just turned 1 on August 1st. It is so nice to see you survived to the teen years lol

Ooooo congrats! LOL I did! It has been a complete joy! But oh so quick... 13 years and there are days when I feel like it was a blink of an eye. So when you have those twins moments.. you know the ones...take a moment to enjoy! :lovestruc
 
Thank you all for your input! This site in gerneral has been so much help each trip.:thumbsup2
I tried to look into the pricing diff between upgrading to mod or upgrade dining and the water park and more option, however its seem since I used a 3rd party I cannot handle myself. BIG mistake on my part, won't ever do it that way again. Oh well.
I sent her an email to see if she can pass the control back over to me. Otherwise she will have to get me the info. But I think I will stay at ASSp because in the end we will not be spending much time there. Get the water park and more add on. And if what I read on here is correct and it cost only 200 to up grade dining plan for 2...three guest should be about 300 which would be worth just considering the cost of our dinner at Cape May. Just have to wait to hear back from 3rd party agent.
 
We LOVE the waterparks. But we also LOVE the mods. Still, the values have never been anything but great for us and we have stayed at all of them. My kids are older now (16 and 17) but when they were 12, the values held a huge appeal to them.

What we do when we do waterpark thing is take our swimsuits in a backpack to the park (dd usually wears hers under her clothes). Then exit the park and either get on the first resort bus we see and then get on a waterpark bus at that resort, or in some cases walk over to a resort from the park and get on a waterpark bus. At MK, we walk over to the Contemporary (takes about ten minutes to walk) and get on a waterpark bus. At Epcot, we do Future World for a couple of hours, head into the World Showcase, have an early lunch then exit through the International Gateway over to Beach Club and get on a waterpark bus. At DHS we usually just get on resort bus and same at AK (although if we are going to Blizzard Beach, we take a cab, its about $10 from AK over to BB).

Also, don't forget you will get to do Disney Quest and on hot days, that can be a great place to hang out and my kids love DQ and always have.

My kids also do love the full serve meals at WDW and if you are planning on doing even one full serve meal, paying to upgrade is the way to go.

Your Travel agent can make the switch if you still want to do it. I must say, I love my TA but whenever I have a change (which is all the time lol), it complicates things. Still, that is what they get paid to do (handle your trip).

I do think Sports is a great resort and I think it has one of the nicest value pools. We took my son there for his 11th birthday and he was in sheer heave as was my then 8 year old daughter. Loved the food court, pool and the room was just fine. While I love the mods, sometimes budget wins over the amenities of a mod. And if you won't be spending much time at the resort, why pay for that? And while I love the mod pools, no way can a resort pool, of any level compare to a waterpark. If your kids love to get wet, waterparks are a great thing!

Have a great trip!
 
You are fine with the All-Star Sports.

I have stayed there at least 40-50 nights in the past few years, if I have stayed 1.

Yes, it is a value in price, but it is not a dump by any means. Every room that I have stayed in has never been dirty, never had stains on the carpets and never had trash left in it.

If you want another bed, you can always pay extra for a roll-away bed, I believe.

I love the food court at the sports, there is plenty of room to find a place to sit and eat. I also love the pool, the main one. I have gone there at night just to swim in it because I like it so much. They also have a nice game room there as well.

As far as the Quick Service Plan goes, you get a lot of food. Aside from all of the food courts in all of the hotels, there are many QS spots all over the property that you can go to.

If you get them to put you in building 10 (Football), then you will be as close as you can be to the food court, without paying for a preferred room.

Also, the rooms now have FREE WiFi. The pool area, food court and lobby do as well. (I hated paying $9.95 a day.) They also have mini refrigerators in all of the rooms, which is a big plus.

Yes, there is a bit of a bus ride to Magic Kingdom and Epcot, but I wouldn't say it is a negative.

Remember, even though you are saving money by staying there, you still get the Disney service that you expect from Disney.

AND....your kids might love the football area in the football section. They removed the icons, so now it is possible to play football out there. I always see kids playing games all times of the day.
 

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