My husband and I have always stayed at moderates during the off-seasons, but only as a couple. We always avoided high season. Never went to the pools since we were so park focused and it was too cold. Fast forward to the adoption of our little man, who is 5, and we are looking at WDW in a totally new light and through his eyes. We tried out WDW this past June with him for the first time, short trip, 4 nights only, in a value resort. We did 1 day exclusively at the resort to spend time at the pool and he loved it. We did not have as much fun as we could have, the hassle of the stroller, packing lots of stuff into it, and really want to change that moving forward!!!!
I don't really like spending a lot of money on food and drinks, so being close to the room to eat and take a quick break during park days are my big reasons for wanting to get into
DVC.
We are older parents to an 8yo and almost 4yo who have been coming regularly to WDW since 2013. We finally bought DVC (resale at first, but we've added on at an alarming rate) in 2017. Congratulations on becoming a family of 3!
We've seen our preferences change even as our kids have gone from babies to a medium sized kid. Once school age, I generally agree with the idea that I prefer not to pull my kid for vacations as I believe that sends the wrong message, even if my kid is doing fine in school. Indeed, that was a bit of a driver for buying DVC because there is no way we'd pay rack rates (and they never discount over the holidays) over Easter or Christmas breaks. So for us it was a way to prepay some part of our vacation costs. One thing that remains a constant, though, is with younger kids (but even now, with DH and me), we REALLY REALLY value convenience. In the old days it was so we could take the kids back to the room for a nap. Now it's just convenience. My kids are perfectly fine waiting for transportation, but we all prefer being close to the parks and having great pools.
You might want to rent an owner's points to try a stay in a DVC resort. But if you go for a one bedroom, you'll never go back to a studio with three of you. It's nice for Mom & Dad to have a room to themselves and children get the living room.
I can't "like" this enough - we rented at BLT and had stayed at AKL, Contemporary and a 1-bed at BWV before we bought DVC. And we rented points at VGF and BCV before adding on our 2nd resort. Having a laundry and full kitchen was an amazing help when the kids were babies, and while now I know it's a splurge, even having a small fridge was a tremendous help for leftovers, snacks, milk, fruit, etc. Though - our Contemporary room had a dorm sized fridge in it, as well as a toaster, I think. It did not have a microwave.
But if your finances will allow it, consider renting points for the next 1-2 trips to see how you like being in a villa - it is different from being in a hotel room - the resale market isn't going anywhere, and if the gloom and doom about the Disney wanting to "kill" the resale market is true (I don't think so), then all that means is that you may get a better price in a year than you might now. For example: some studios have pull down murphy beds, which would be great since you wouldn't have to pull out/down the sofa for your son to sleep in. That makes studios feel very large. BLT has great 1-2 br (an extra bath in those units), but the studios are small. We've put our family of 4 in studios plenty of times, and when we are traveling outside of DVC, we usually book hotel rooms with 2 beds, and we still have a great time on vacation. Still ... whether there's nookie or not (
@crisi 's term, I think?) there is something to be said for being able to have a normal tone conversation or watch tv with your spouse while the kid(s) are asleep.
Having a young child he will love the Beach Club pool.
uh. Beg to differ. The sand bottom area is great for little kids, but the big slide is pretty challenging (it's in the dark, and the entrance is across the way from the rest of the pool) and the other slide is in a separate area from the rest of the pool. The lazy river area is 8 feet deep and has a strongish current, so you need to be a strong swimmer and/or your child needs to be a strong swimmer. If you're going to spend the whole time playing in the sandy bottom shallow area, then yes, a young child might love that. But if they want to try out other parts of the pool, you will need to be close to them at all times until they get quite a bit older and are strong swimmers. I used to lifeguard when I was younger, and my 8yo is a stronger swimmer than many adults, and I am only now feeling like she could be in various parts of that pool without my being in the water with her. As a parent, being at Stormalong Bay requires a higher level of vigilance than any of the other pools. It's not relaxing. My 3yo knows how to swim and we still aren't going back there until she's 5 or older, and by then she will probably be on a swim team.
