Which is better CBR or PO?

Sparklin

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
125
Well it seems we just can't afford Wilderness so we are doing a step down. Now I'm trying to decide Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans (either Riverside or FQ)

Background~ Me, DH, DS (5 1/2) and DD (2) at the time of trip.

Please say why you like the resort best, as detailed as you can. If you can post about food, traveling time to parks, room quality, pools, etc. We would be getting a preferred location with double beds most likely.

If you like PO please state which one and why. (even if you can say why you like one PO's over the other)

Thank you SO much, this will really help us.
 
I recently wrote a review of our ten day June, 2007 stay and posted it here on the boards. It may answer other questions that you don't have posted. I have pictures posted below! Here goes my review:

We have stayed at the CBR two years in a row and have enjoyed both stays. The minute we drove onto the CBR grounds we fell in love. The tropical theming is carried out throughout the resort. The buildings are all painted bright colors. The grounds were well maintained with fruit trees and lush foliage everywhere.

You will need to check in at the Custom House. Unless you have major problems during your stay (which we never did during either of our 10 day stays), you will probably not go back to the Custom House until you are ready to check out. That being said, it is not necessary to request a room near the Custom House.

The Concierge Desk is where you will pick up your dinner show tickets. They can also provide you with a printout of all your ADRs.

Bell Services is located at the Custom House too. If you arrive via Magical Express, you can request that Bell Services take you to your assigned building. You can also use Bell Services at check out to help get your luggage (and yourself) to the Custom House.

The CBR is a large resort but this means that the guests are distributed evenly throughout the resort and you won't feel crowded.

During our June, 2006 stay, we were assigned to Jamaica Building 41. Our upstairs room faced a beautiful lush courtyard. The walk to any destination was not long at all. I especially liked crossing over the bridge and through the island to reach the main pool and food court. Tropical music is piped in for your enjoyment.

During our June, 2007 stay, we were upgraded to a room in Martinique. In my honest opinion, the walk from our preferred location seemed just as far as the walk from Jamaica. I really don't think I would have paid the extra money to stay in Martinique. That's not to say that we didn't like it because we certainly did. Our room faced a very pretty courtyard with bright umbrella tables.

The rooms at the CBR are 340 square feet whereas the rooms at the value resorts are much smaller. Believe me, when you start getting all your people and all their luggage into the room, you'll be glad you have the extra space. We are a family of four (ages 41,41,20 and 10) and we have plenty of room at the CBR.

The beds at the CBR are raised off the floor providing you with a great space to store your empty luggage. There is a nightstand, a table with two chairs, a large mirror, an armoire with television and lots of drawers, a refrigerator, a bench with large storage drawer and a peg type shelf in the bedroom area.

A privacy curtain can be pulled to separate the sink/closet area from the bedroom area. This comes in real handy when you've got several in your party.

There are two sinks in the sink/closet area. They are enclosed is a wooden vanity with storage area beneath. The closet has a long closet rod and our room had about a dozen wooden hangers already there. I brought along two dozen more and we still had plenty of room to hang all of our shirts.

A small safe is located in the closet wall. It's pretty slim and you can't store much more than a camera, a wallet, etc.

A hairdryer, iron, ironing board, refrigerator and coffeemaker are standard in the CBR rooms.

The bathroom was the typical hotel/motel bathroom size but our's was extremely clean. There were no loose tiles, mold or mildew. I checked!

Mousekeeping was great. During both stays, we received five towel animals. Our trash was taken out and our floor was vacuumed daily. We had four people in our party and we were given six large towels every day. They also replinished our coffee supply each morning. I tipped our mousekeeper each day.

I was really surprised at how quiet the rooms are at the CBR. We hardly ever heard our neighbors. If they were walking by, we would hear them if they were talking loudly. Most times, it was just quiet.

Each village has their own quiet pool and neither the Jamaica nor the Martinique quiet pools were busy at any time of the day. Some times, we had the pool all to ourselves. Laundries are located near each village quiet pool. You can swim and do laundry at the same time!

The white sandy beaches in each village are swept clean each night. It was so nice to just sit in a beach chair or laze around in the hammocks.

The walk around the promenade is very pretty. You can get a real feel of the resort by taking this 1.4 mile walk. At one point, you will walk on wooden walkways through a wooded area. The flowering trees and bushes are everywhere. Plenty of picture taking opportunities along the way.

The main pool was pretty crowded during both of our stays but we expected that since the temps were in the high 80's/low 90's. The hot tub and hair wrap station are near the pool. Order a tropical drink at the pool bar and sip it at any of the numerous umbrella tables.

At the marina, you can rent pontoon boats, sailboats, canoes, watermice, bicycles or surrey bikes. Fishing excursions are now at the CBR too.

Each village also has their own bus stop. The bus stops are covered (I hear they are not at the value resorts). We never waited long for a bus. As a matter of fact, at times, there were two and three buses at the bus stop at the same time. Because the CBR is so centrally located, it never took us long to get to any Disney destination.

I was pleasantly surprised by the food court/store/arcade area. The store is divided in two with one side selling Pirates of the Caribbean, Caribbean Beach Resort and tropical merchandise. They even sell coconut postcards that you can mail home to friends and family. The other side of the store sells the more traditional Disney merchandise such as snowglobes, t-shirts, purses, watches, hats, scrapbooking items, etc.

The arcade is not super large but it had plenty room to keep up with the June crowds. You purchase a refillable playing card that you just swipe at each game. No keeping up with tokens or change.

We really enjoyed the food selection that the food court had to offer. You go to each of the food stations, order and get your food and then go to a central cashier. Simple to do.

The grab-n-go section serves fresh made sandwiches, salads, yogurt, fresh fruit, pies, cakes, veggies and dip, along with lots of other fresh items. At the pizza station, you will find pizza, pastas and salads. Burgers and chicken strips are served at another station. The kids chicken strip meal is served in a plastic sand pail with shovel. Yet another station has rotissiere chicken, roasted turkey, vegetables and hot sandwiches.

At breakfast, an assortment of breakfast meats, Mickey waffles, fresh fruit, pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns and omelets are served.

Shutters is a full service restaurant and the food was good. Even our picky 10 year old son found something he liked on the menu.

The food court seating area is large and we never had a problem finding a table. The self serve drink area has several drink stations. On the condiments bar, there was hot tea bags, honey, assorted jellies, parmesean cheese, hot pepper sauce, etc. There are also a couple of microwaves and toasters.

If you want to take your items to go, just tell the CMs who are plating your meals. They will provide you with tops for the dishes. At the register, ask the CM for a bag. They give you large brown bags with handles making it easy to carry your items out.

I don't think I forgot anything but if I did, just ask away! Lisa

Caribbean Beach Resort sign:
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View of landscaping from parking lot:
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Old Port Royale from parking lot:
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Disney castmembers doing the limbo with guests at food court in Old Port Royale:
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Views from our Martinique building:
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One of the many towels animals we received:
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Hope this helps, Lisa
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Thank you Lisa that is helpful! I've been to WDW one time when I was in Jr. High and we stayed there. I remember liking it, but it was the only real family vacation we ever did and that was a very long time ago so I don't remember very much about it. I like your review very much! It actually made me feel much better about losing Wilderness as my top choice.:) The view from the room look just like the views from our room in Cancun on our honeymoon. :)
 

Thank you Lisa that is helpful! I've been to WDW one time when I was in Jr. High and we stayed there. I remember liking it, but it was the only real family vacation we ever did and that was a very long time ago so I don't remember very much about it. I like your review very much! It actually made me feel much better about losing Wilderness as my top choice.:) The view from the room look just like the views from our room in Cancun on our honeymoon. :)

You are very welcome! When I was planning our June, 2006 stay at the CBR, I looked everywhere for a super detailed description. I wanted to know everything! What kind of furniture did the resort have? Which building do I need to request? What kind of food do they serve at the food court? What was the pool(s) like? Was there any place to purchase t-shirts, hats, pins, etc.? How is the transportation? Etc. etc. etc.

So, after staying at the CBR for the first time, I decided I would post a review like I wanted to read when I was planning.

We are upgrading to the Wilderness Lodge for our June, 2008 stay and, while we are excited, we are also kind of sad to not be staying at the CBR again!

I am glad I could help you out. Like I said before, let me know if you have more questions!

Lisa
 
We like CBR. check out the pictures below.
 
Can't speak of CBR because we've never stayed there but would like to one day. That being said, WE LOVE POR!!! We didn't want to stay there this past May, but because our TA screwed up, we didn't get our original ressie at POFQ. Would never admit it to her because we were really upset, but we absolutely fell in love with it & we just booked a May 08 trip to POR this evening.:woohoo: The grounds are absolutely beautiful & quiet. I mean quiet. It is such a nice way to relax after a day in the parks. It's almost like you get 3 resorts because you have the lush bayou area, fancier mansion area, & then right down the river you have POFQ too. The resort is spread out enough that it never felt crowded, but it honestly isn't too big. I loved walking the resort just for the enjoyment of it. The marina is great & don't forget the boat that takes you right to Downtown Disney. Loved the benches all around the river & listening ( or going yourself) to the horse drawn carriage at night is wonderful. The foodcourt & restaurant are plenty big enough & I can't wait to go back to Boatwrights to have sweet potato pancakes with honey pecan butter!!!:cloud9: The resort itself is minutes to MK by going out the back way & Epcot is even closer. MGM is practically across the street. The rooms are big enough with double beds & a frig- like all mods. There is entertainment at both POR/POFQ at night which is pretty neat. I liked POFQ better myself. Buildings #14 & 18 are really good locations to ask for if you want to be close to everything. I wouldn't pay for a waterview room. The resort is too pretty to look at from a window-get out there!! Don't feel bad about no Wilderness Lodge. We've stayed there & oh yeah, it's great. I think you'de loved POR. There are 5 quiet pools & of course the big themed pool too. I don't know what else to add besides WE LOVE POR!! If you want to know anything else, feel free to PM me. Good luck with your decision. I haven't looked into how to post my pictures yet, but if you want to see great pictures go to brownfamilyvacations.com. She is a poster here that takes the best pictures of everything! If you read this Seaspray, hope you don't mind me sharing the wealth.
 
Can't speak of CBR because we've never stayed there but would like to one day. That being said, WE LOVE POR!!! We didn't want to stay there this past May, but because our TA screwed up, we didn't get our original ressie at POFQ. Would never admit it to her because we were really upset, but we absolutely fell in love with it & we just booked a May 08 trip to POR this evening.:woohoo: The grounds are absolutely beautiful & quiet. I mean quiet. It is such a nice way to relax after a day in the parks. It's almost like you get 3 resorts because you have the lush bayou area, fancier mansion area, & then right down the river you have POFQ too. The resort is spread out enough that it never felt crowded, but it honestly isn't too big. I loved walking the resort just for the enjoyment of it. The marina is great & don't forget the boat that takes you right to Downtown Disney. Loved the benches all around the river & listening ( or going yourself) to the horse drawn carriage at night is wonderful. The foodcourt & restaurant are plenty big enough & I can't wait to go back to Boatwrights to have sweet potato pancakes with honey pecan butter!!!:cloud9: The resort itself is minutes to MK by going out the back way & Epcot is even closer. MGM is practically across the street. The rooms are big enough with double beds & a frig- like all mods. There is entertainment at both POR/POFQ at night which is pretty neat. I liked POFQ better myself. Buildings #14 & 18 are really good locations to ask for if you want to be close to everything. I wouldn't pay for a waterview room. The resort is too pretty to look at from a window-get out there!! Don't feel bad about no Wilderness Lodge. We've stayed there & oh yeah, it's great. I think you'de loved POR. There are 5 quiet pools & of course the big themed pool too. I don't know what else to add besides WE LOVE POR!! If you want to know anything else, feel free to PM me. Good luck with your decision. I haven't looked into how to post my pictures yet, but if you want to see great pictures go to brownfamilyvacations.com. She is a poster here that takes the best pictures of everything! If you read this Seaspray, hope you don't mind me sharing the wealth.

Thank you so much for that! I was really wondering which is better POR or POFQ. I wouldn't pay extra for a water view room, just for a preferred location since we have small kids and will be walking enough at the parks. I know they won't have the patience or ability to walk a ton when they are hungry. For food, is it mostly southern style or is there a lot of "american" style too? We're kinda plain eaters, nothing spicey or too unique. LOL.

You are very welcome! When I was planning our June, 2006 stay at the CBR, I looked everywhere for a super detailed description. I wanted to know everything! What kind of furniture did the resort have? Which building do I need to request? What kind of food do they serve at the food court? What was the pool(s) like? Was there any place to purchase t-shirts, hats, pins, etc.? How is the transportation? Etc. etc. etc.

So, after staying at the CBR for the first time, I decided I would post a review like I wanted to read when I was planning.

We are upgrading to the Wilderness Lodge for our June, 2008 stay and, while we are excited, we are also kind of sad to not be staying at the CBR again!

I am glad I could help you out. Like I said before, let me know if you have more questions!

Lisa

You are right, a very detailed review is so helpful!!

So for everyone who stayed at a Mod or below, how is it sleeping in a double bed? I've had a queen bed since high school and I swear there are times DH and I need a kind. :lmao: The idea of sleeping in a double bed for a week after walking like crazy in the heat just doesn't sound appealing to me AT ALL. In fact it was the main reason I was looking at Wilderness. I know it sounds odd but I know my body will be sore at the end of the night and I want a good nights sleep. So honestly, how was it in a double with your DH? And I'm hoping our 2 will be able to sleep nicely together. Otherwise Brenna will need to sleep in a PNP and those suck for comfort. She might as well sleep on the floor.:sad2: She'll be 2 by then so hopefully her and Riley can get along well enough to sleep in the bed together. I think they will, or I hope anyway.:rotfl:
 
Well it seems we just can't afford Wilderness so we are doing a step down. Now I'm trying to decide Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans (either Riverside or FQ)

Background~ Me, DH, DS (5 1/2) and DD (2) at the time of trip.

Please say why you like the resort best, as detailed as you can. If you can post about food, traveling time to parks, room quality, pools, etc. We would be getting a preferred location with double beds most likely.

If you like PO please state which one and why. (even if you can say why you like one PO's over the other)

Thank you SO much, this will really help us.
For Port Orleans, I'd pick Riverside. French Quarter is very New Orleansy and I don't like New Orleans. Riverside is more old-south mansiony. The rooms in both are themed to the resort and look like they do online. They do almost nothing for me and I really didn't care for the one at POFQ at all. POR was relaxing but just blah.

The Orleans resorts (esp. POR) are beautifully landscaped. Lush, green stuff everywhere. And the pools were less crowded than others I've visited at the same time of year. I prefer the quiet pools at CBR - maybe because they seemed less in the middle of everything, I don't really know. But if I had kids with me, the big pools at any resort would be fine.

I prefer CBR to either of the Orleans resorts because it is bright and cutey with lots of palm trees and palmy/Floriday landscaping. When I go to Florida, I want Florida stuff around me. :)

The rooms at CBR have palmy leaves in the carpet and a cute, bright fish wallpaper border. It sounds hideous and garish, but isn't. Very relaxing and cute at the same time.

Of all the food courts, I liked the theme at POR the best...if it isn't bigger, it certainly seems like it is...but enjoy the one at CBR as well. The food was fine at all of them - I don't remember what I ate anywhere (I think POR had a pasta bar), but if it had sucked I'd remember that. :) I think the food court at CBR is a lot more fun - certainly brighter with all those colors - than the others.

All that said, I think you should pick the one with the theme you like best and go with that.

I don't take the bus - can't help there. I dunno if any of this helped. Explaining why I like CBR more than the Orleans resorts is like explaining why I like yellow more than green.

Have a great trip!
 
I'd be happy with CBR, POR or POFQ and can't pick a favorite, all have great themes, are beautiful and peaceful, and have nice rooms. There are a few things I like better about each. CBR is tropical! CBR and POR have more things to do, boats & bikes, and both have great food courts. POFQ is small and nothing is a far walk. IMHO POFQ has the nicest hot tub area. POR and POFQ have a boat to DD. You can view all of the menus (if I knew how to put a link I would), but for the most part the food is pretty much the same with each place having a few specialties. I like the gift shops at CBR and POR best cause they are bigger.

A few things to consider - I'm pretty sure only CBR has preferred locations, so if being close to resort center is important, POR might not be a good choice because you can't pay for a guaranteed close location and some of the rooms can be a hike to some. I don't like CBR hot tub, its just too tiny and poorly placed for adults, so I don't stay there when I might want to use a hot tub. I also don't like POFQ food court that much, but I can't say exactly why :) the masks hanging from the ceiling kind of seem creepy to me I think! Travel time to all the parks is good with POR maybe being the best (but buses are shared with POFQ so sometimes a seat is hard to find - this doesn't bother me).

I try to visit CBR or POR for lunch and boat or bike ride no matter where we stay if I have a car because I find it a relaxing few hours in beautiful surroundings.

Hope this helps! Have fun planning :)
 
We have stayed at all 3 and prefer POR. We enjoy the boat ride to DTD and the kids like the pool much better. We also enjoy the food court at POR. The kids like to do the boat rentals at POR and we enjoy the bike rides. They also have the horse buggy rides. Hope you have a great stay where ever you choose.:thumbsup2
 
Double beds stink but we can make do for vacation!! We don't HAVE to have a queen or king on vacation :) And we have a king at home :) Take Aleve or Motrin a few hours before bed to help an achy body. It works wonders! Look at it this way - you can have an achy body on a queen or king too!
 
Well it seems we just can't afford Wilderness so we are doing a step down. Now I'm trying to decide Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans (either Riverside or FQ)

Background~ Me, DH, DS (5 1/2) and DD (2) at the time of trip.

Please say why you like the resort best, as detailed as you can. If you can post about food, traveling time to parks, room quality, pools, etc. We would be getting a preferred location with double beds most likely.

If you like PO please state which one and why. (even if you can say why you like one PO's over the other)

Thank you SO much, this will really help us.

I haven't stayed at CBR yet, so I can't comment on that. You don't say when you're going, but you might want to check your dates against the scheduled rehab of CBR's main pool, which is scheduled to be closed for the first half of next year.

We stayed at POR on our last trip and are booked for POFQ for January. My kids, 7 and 4 on the lat trip, liked the pool better on the FQ side and really wanted to stay there next time. I wanted to try CSR, but it isn't available so we booked POFQ.

Boatwrights at POR is really good. We had a great dinner there, and wished we had made time to try breakfast too. The food court was, well, a food court - the food was pretty good, it was never overly busy (we were there end of Sept '05, for free dining), and it was kept clean and well maintained.

The bus service is shared between the two PO resorts and picks up at FQ first, so when the bus got to us at POR, it was sometimes pretty full. We only had one long (longer than 10-15 minutes) wait for a bus, going to Typhoon Lagoon on our last day. Aside from those things, the transportation was fine.

The landscaping and theme at POR were absolutely stunning. We were on the mansion side, and it was really romantic at night. DH & I left the kids with my mom a couple nights just to enjoy the quiet pool or walk the grounds. The rooms were nice as well, very pretty and relaxing, The privacy curtain was great for when we were getting ready in the morning, and the fridge was cold and big enough to keep a half gallon of milk, 2 liter bottle of soda, and a couple beers cold and waiting for us have hot days in the parks.

The boat to DTD was cool, and that's really what sold me on PO over CBR this time. The kids are a little older and we're going in the winter, so instead of spending our evenings at the pool, we'll probably spend some at DisneyQuest.

The main pool at POR was nice enough, but the hot tub and pool bar were being rehabbed so we spent a couple evenings at the POFQ pool instead. Even DD, then 4 and fairly cautious, enjoyed the dragon slide and it was that pool that really impressed the kids. I think the theming of POR's pool was too subtle for them - who cares about a rustic swimming hole when compared to larger-than-life sea serpents and jazz alligators? :rotfl:

POR is also pretty spread out. No big deal if you're in one of the closer buildings, but if you aren't, the walk to the main building is enough to discourage making good use out of the refillable mugs. POFQ is much more compact - no need for a preferred room means more souvenier money! ;) And since POFQ is the first bus stop, you'd always have a seat on the bus to the parks.

In case it wasn't obvious, I really liked POR/FQ. As much as I'd like to try CSR for the awesome looking pool, I'm very happy that we're booked at PO again and I'm looking forward to trying the other side of the resort we enjoyed so much two years ago.
 
:cheer2: C B R :cheer2:

:banana: C B R :banana:

:cheer2: C B R :cheer2:

I'm sorry which do you like better?:rotfl:


We are going in September of 08.:) Probably for 6n, 7d.

Thank you all for those reviews they really are helpful! I'm getting more and more excited! How on earth am I going to make it another year?:lmao: I'm going to make a big list of all the things you've all listed here to help us make our decision.

I love the idea of using boats, the kids would LOVE that. Plus it just gives one more cool thing to do.

I really don't think we make use of rentals such as bikes and such. I say this mainly because we probably won't do that many things that we can do at home. Since we wont be able to afford to come back to WDW for a very long time, we want to stick to doing things that are unique to WDW so we can soak up as much of that as we can. with 2 small kids I'm not sure how many days each park will take us to get thru and I don't want to rush that part at all. So we might do a rental but probably not.

I'm mostly interested in food(since we have some picky eaters), rooms, and transportation since we won't have a car. I so envy the families that go often. Seriously I'm like a kid at Christmas. I want to go RIGHT NOW! :lmao: And I'm not much of a park person. But just thinking about how my kids would react to seeing WDW would just be amazing. They flip over going to the Dells. They are going to freak going on a plane and then seeing all we'll see in FL. Man this is going to rock.:cloud9:
 
I guess the only thing about staying at a resort that offers the extra activities is that sometimes you just need a break from the parks. We are die-hard park go-ers, but to have a resort as nice as POR to come back to at the end of the day was just heaven. It actually felt like we had two vacations in one. If being really close to the center of everything is important to you, then maybe CBR is better because you can pay for a preferred location. The other mods you can't. If all the extra stuff isn't important to you, why not try a value resort instead. Kids really love those places & you can pay for a preferred location there too. We have stayed at all 3 all-stars & they were fine. A little noisier & busier than the mods feel, but still fun. Dsister stayed at POP & loved that. I would stay there too. Actually, we were all going to stay at POP May 08, but she saw all my stuff on POR & now that is where we are booked!:banana: I would like to try CBR but there big pool is closed when we will be there, but we are going to visit it on this trip in Sept to see if it would be a place we would like to stay. The food is what it is at almost any place you stay. Sometimes one place might have a little more than another based on the theme of the resort, but they never have less. It is pretty much standard. You will get all kinds of helpful opinions on where to stay. I think you really have to go with what kind of theme you like the best. :)
 
I guess the only thing about staying at a resort that offers the extra activities is that sometimes you just need a break from the parks. We are die-hard park go-ers, but to have a resort as nice as POR to come back to at the end of the day was just heaven. It actually felt like we had two vacations in one. If being really close to the center of everything is important to you, then maybe CBR is better because you can pay for a preferred location. The other mods you can't. If all the extra stuff isn't important to you, why not try a value resort instead. Kids really love those places & you can pay for a preferred location there too. We have stayed at all 3 all-stars & they were fine. A little noisier & busier than the mods feel, but still fun. Dsister stayed at POP & loved that. I would stay there too. Actually, we were all going to stay at POP May 08, but she saw all my stuff on POR & now that is where we are booked!:banana: I would like to try CBR but there big pool is closed when we will be there, but we are going to visit it on this trip in Sept to see if it would be a place we would like to stay. The food is what it is at almost any place you stay. Sometimes one place might have a little more than another based on the theme of the resort, but they never have less. It is pretty much standard. You will get all kinds of helpful opinions on where to stay. I think you really have to go with what kind of theme you like the best. :)


I totally see what you are saying about the other activities. The thing is that we will already have to come back to the room for a good 2-3 hours for my daughter to nap. So we will have some other down time. Plus I really like nice dinners(vacation to me LOL) so I know we will take time out for that. This is how I see how we'd spend our days~

get up early for breakfast and get to what ever early opening park is that day. make our way thru what we can

Lunch around 11 or so.

more park fun

get back to resort around 3 for nap

Dinner around 5:30ish

Then pool time in the evening or whatever else we want to do. (would like to catch some nighttime fun at a park at some point)

So I want a decent pool for the kids, but they are small so that doesn't mean much.

I personally like the feel of the mod resorts. I like the overall look and feel of them more than the value. If this wasn't our first trip then I'd stay at a value but since it is I want it to be a bit more special. Sure the kids could care less where we stay but I personally like the mods more.
 
I totally understand liking the mods better. You will have a very busy trip no matter what. One thing you really need to know is that you will never see & do everything in that week. Especially being your first trip. Go to Disney's site & look up the rides & attractions & make a list of your must-dos. I can help you with that if you want. Go with whatever theme speaks to you! I'm excited for you & hope you have a great time.:cutie:
 
Awe thank you, you are so sweet! I hope you have a wonderful trip too!!

I do plan to make a list and be as organized as possible to save time. With the kids being small there are several things right off the bat we can get rid of. My DH is the only person who rides rollercoaster type things but he isn't even sure he wants to then so that is some we can pass on. I will by 6 days of park tickets, so the 7th(day we leave) we will spend around the resort relaxing, swimming, etc.

I'm figuring we'll do MK for 2-3 days, AK 1 day, Epcot 1 day and MGM 1 day. But that might change if the kids like one park enough to stay extra. We'll have to see. I went once when I was in jr high and my dad was terrible. Go go go! He didn't want to stop for rest at all. To his credit it was the only real family vacation we ever had and to us that was a ton of money for that trip. While I certainly like to see as much as we can, I will not tourture our kids like that. My sis and I were not happy on that trip. 1/2 way thru we just decided to sit down and our parents kept walking. Eventually they realized we weren't with them. My dad got the clue and slowed down.:) I want this to be a fun trip for us all. We won't be able to do it for a very long time after this so what we do get to see I want them to have a good time.

I will let the kids be the guide, but we can swim anywhere so that isn't top on my list. Sure we will all need down time just to recover but I don't want to spend a lot of time swimming unless they really want to. We get up early normally so I figure we can take advantage of the early hours, maybe do a quick breakfast and go.

Oh question, does anyone know where I can find a list of what park opens early for which days? I'm sure they don't have this for next fall yet but it would be good to see where to look when they do come out. That would help with our ADR's when that time comes.
 
Awe thank you, you are so sweet! I hope you have a wonderful trip too!!

I do plan to make a list and be as organized as possible to save time. With the kids being small there are several things right off the bat we can get rid of. My DH is the only person who rides rollercoaster type things but he isn't even sure he wants to then so that is some we can pass on. I will by 6 days of park tickets, so the 7th(day we leave) we will spend around the resort relaxing, swimming, etc.

I'm figuring we'll do MK for 2-3 days, AK 1 day, Epcot 1 day and MGM 1 day. But that might change if the kids like one park enough to stay extra. We'll have to see. I went once when I was in jr high and my dad was terrible. Go go go! He didn't want to stop for rest at all. To his credit it was the only real family vacation we ever had and to us that was a ton of money for that trip. While I certainly like to see as much as we can, I will not tourture our kids like that. My sis and I were not happy on that trip. 1/2 way thru we just decided to sit down and our parents kept walking. Eventually they realized we weren't with them. My dad got the clue and slowed down.:) I want this to be a fun trip for us all. We won't be able to do it for a very long time after this so what we do get to see I want them to have a good time.

I will let the kids be the guide, but we can swim anywhere so that isn't top on my list. Sure we will all need down time just to recover but I don't want to spend a lot of time swimming unless they really want to. We get up early normally so I figure we can take advantage of the early hours, maybe do a quick breakfast and go.

Oh question, does anyone know where I can find a list of what park opens early for which days? I'm sure they don't have this for next fall yet but it would be good to see where to look when they do come out. That would help with our ADR's when that time comes.

If you go to WDW web site click on calender then click on EMH you will find the hours from each month. Alot of times they will stay the same from year to year. Also if you do get a chance to do the parks at night the kids will love spectro magic and wishes are awsome. Spectro is around 8 and wishes about 9. I am excited for you. you are going to have so much fun, fun, fun.:wizard:
 

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