zookeeper said:
Hey DisneyMom5,
We're not far off from your family...DS8,DS7,DD5,DS3,DS8months...I laughed when I read your little comment in signature, "Yes, they're all ours". I get that question all the time. We will be at POP in 2 weeks
and I was wondering how crowded you found the rooms with the pack 'n play? We will have connecting rooms, but I've heard it's pretty small even without the playpen. We're not used to luxury accommodations so I figure it won't be any smaller than our usual kind of hotel. Also, OT, how did you find the dining plan with your family? Did your kids share meals at all? I have a hard time believing people when they say they left with unused credits. Thanks for any info!!!
Oooh...very good questions, and a family I can relate to! LOL
1) We put 5 kids in the connecting room (shh, don't tell, but the boys sleep better together than apart.)
We had the pack and play between the table and the window. (Do a search for a Pop Century floor plan to see what I mean. The connecting door was between the tv stand and the closet.
No problem fitting both pack and play and the small fridge into the same space. Only thing that we could not do is get the dbl stroller out of that room, we had to go out the other rooms door. But the stroller fit between the bed and the bathroom wall overnight, so that was good.
We don't travel much and we thought the rooms were much bigger than we expected based on everyone's complaints. It was about the same as the quality inn and comfort inn that we stayed at on our trip down and back.
Request near EVerything Pop, and if you drive, request near a parking lot, as that makes dragging all the luggage in much easier. I wish I would have packed less, and done more laundry, as the kids wore out in the heat and we didn't spend as many evenings in parks as I thought we would and did a lot of laundry, so could have brought less clothes.
Loved having 2 bathrooms!
2) Believe me when I say Waaaaaaaaaay too much food. You will be shocked and appalled. We ordered CS meals at Pop the first night and got a meal for the six that had credits and ended up throwing about a 1/4 of it away, and saving the cookies for later. The kid's mac and cheese is about three scoops, two small children could share, especially if they are drinking a big ftn drink. Take along small cups to split a drink. I always forgot to take them in there. There are little plates at the bakery goods (cookies, etc.) but the cookies are also on bakery paper, so I started taking those little plates to put a split serving on.
They will divide the credits between your 2 cards, but as I mentioned before, All of the places we ate just used one card at a time, no matter how many people were listed on the card, or what ages.
We started getting 1 adult or 1 kid meal per 2 kids at Everything Pop. Sometimes I ate the kid's meal and split an adult meal. The first night we were all paranoid about making sure we had kid's meals for kids, etc., but the checkout person just cares how many meals you are purchasing total, not for whom.
You will LOVE the dining plan. I loved not having to worry about prices. I loved trying restaurants I could only dream about before. It was sooo great. And those that say it actually costs you more, are not taking into consideration that families like ours have 3-4 persons per room, vs. 2, which just multiplies your food costs, or savings in this case.
We plan on purchasing it if necessary next time, and will save up towards this goal.
We left around 5 CS credits and 8 snacks, and I would have gotten snacks for the ride home, but we got up late and EV. Pop was very busy that am and baby was cranky/running a temp, so we just left. Should have used up the snacks the night before.
Hope this helps. Any other questions?
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