Which of these would you go with?

[Masonmj84]

Assume you can afford all three but, at the same time, like to get good value for your money on vacation.

1. Poly at 20% off fall rates for 8 nights.

2. BC at 30% off fall rates for 8 nights.

3. POR at fall rack rate with free dining for 6 of 8 nights and room only for the other 2 (and, no, you can't move your vacation back 2 days to get FD the whole time).

A few other notes:

1. You have a couple of young kids (one preschool and one early grade school) and plan to attend MVMCP, Illuminations, and Fantasmic (on a dinner package).

2. You plan to spend 2 days at each of MK and EP, and 1 day at each of HS and AK (plus 1 day for DTD/rest/MVMCP).

3. You have 8 am character breakfasts scheduled at CRT, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Cape May, and Tusker House and are traveling with parents who only take about 15 minutes to get ready, but would prefer sleeping until at least 7 every day.

4. You have dinners scheduled for 'Ohana, Citricos, Artist Point, Cali Grill, Yachtsman, Flying Fish, Hollywood Brown Derby (Fantasmic dinner package), and Jiko (and, yes, you've previously eaten signature with kids and know what you're getting into here).

5. You have lunches scheduled for Via Napoli, 50's Prime Time, and Les Chefs de France.

6. You and your parents tend to be light packers who are open to doing a split stay (as long as you're not changing resorts more than once).

 

[boscov]

Wow, you have laid out quite the options here. Of all these options, I would go with BC. It seems like you have some dinner reservations here, at Epcot and HS, so these would be easy to manuver for you. Also, it would be easy to get on the monorail and go up to MK for your early reservations up there. Plus, your kids will LOVE SAB for swimming. Enjoy!

 

[GovieMom]

I'd also go with BC, for the reasons stated above. Not to mention it's a less expensive resort than Poly, with a better discount to boot.

 

[CSchex]

If I am reading your post correctly, you are planning on doing 5 breakfasts, 3 lunches and 7 dinners, all Table Service on your 8 day vacation.

Well, starting with that info, I would recommend staying at POR with the free dining. This is why:

The POR rooms at rack rate will still be cheaper than the discounted BC or Poly rooms, plus you will be getting some of your food free.

You mention that it will be you, your children and your parents, so that is 3 adults and 2 children. You will get 1 table service meal and 1 counter service meal for each day (6 on the free promotion).

Based on your meal schedule, it looks like you prefer table service meals and not counter service. I would consider paying to upgrade to the deluxe plan, which is about an extra $30 per day per adult. This is why -

You have 15 table service meals scheduled. I am assuming that everyone is attending every meal. Of these 15 meals scheduled, 6 of them are signature dining, which would cost you 2 table service credits.

So, if you are paying with dining plan credits you would need a total of 22 per person. On the regular dining plan you would only get 6 table service credits, but on the deluxe, you get 3 meals per day and they can ALL be table service. This still equals out to 18 credits per person for the first part of the trip.

So you would use all of those credits and still have to pay out of pocket for some meals (probably on the 2 days you are booked seperate).

The POR is a beautiful resort and very relaxed. You could stay there for the 6days on the free dining and then your other 2 days move to the BC or the Poly with the discount. Your dining meals are good until midnight on the day you check out.

Keep in mind also that table service meals generally take at least 90 minutes to complete, so you don't want to spend all day running from reservation to reservation!

 

[MMS1125]

Going on the assumption that your 2 room only days at POR are before your FD pkg I'd do a split stay

I'd do BC 30% off for 2 days then move to POR for 6 days of FD. I know some will say end with the deluxe last (i would) but in this case I think it's ok to do it first since it's how the discount works out. You will still be paying a lot of $$ for some meals unless you upgrade to Deluxe Dining but with 5 people going I think Free Dining would be a better value.

6 days of dining for 3 adults and 2 kids is a little over 1100 so see what the savings off BC would be and compare. To upgrade to Deluxe dining it would be about $700 for 3 adults and 2 kids

 

[POOHsie]

I have some thoughts. You have scheduled meals that would add up to 23 table service credits. If you stayed at POR, you would get 6 TS credits on Free Dining (plus 6 CS credits and 6 Snack credits + Mug). If you upgraded POR FD to DxDP, you would have 18 TS credits with paid appetizer (plus 12 Snack credits + Mug). Cost to upgrade is: Adult non-peak - $33.98 per night, Child non-peak - $8.77 per night. That would leave you 5 TS credits short. (Dining Plan costs to upgrade http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2772063)

You don't say if you have APs. If so, you would save $$ using a TIW card.

You don't say how you are travelling to the parks - by Disney bus or your own car. That makes a difference in planning travel time.

Overall, I would go with Beach Club at 30%. Add DxDP for everyone at a cost of: Adult non-peak - $85.52 per night, Child non-peak - $23.79 per night. (DxDP cost http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2769703). DxDP would include appetizer with your meal, and 8 nights at BC would add up to 24 DxDP Credits, one more than you need. Paid DxDP requires purchase of one-day base ticket for everyone, but if you need to purchase tickets anyway, that takes care of it. I chose BC because of the proximate location to many of your meals. The central location of BC can't be topped, or the SAB pool. The BC 30% discount and overall lower rate than Poly are more reasons why I chose this resort.

PP suggested taking the monorail to MK for some of your early breakfasts, but that's not feasible b/c you would have to enter Epcot to get to the monorail, and Epcot doesn't open 'til 9am. (Plus, I don't think the Epcot monorail runs as early as you need to go.) IMO, 5 character breakfasts is too much, and at 8am, it's very early for everyone. I would keep Cape May and Tusker House, then choose only ONE from your remaining breakfasts: CRT, Chef Mickeys, or Crystal Palace.

Your folks couldn't wake at 7, get ready, and be at breakfast at 8am. It's not allowing enough travel/walking time. Cape May would be OK, Tusker House is a long walk into AK, and AK is a long ride from BC. At MK, there's also a walk to CRT and Crystal Palace. For MK breakfast, I would take the bus so you arrive at the gate. If you drove, your car would be across the lake (wastes lots of time).

Good luck with your decision.

 

[laceemouse]

That sounds like way too much food! You really need deluxe dining to cover that, mega bucks! Free food is usually better than a room discount when you have a lot of people to feed, but I would never want more than one sit down meal per day, you are going to spend half of your day eating!!

 

[spiceycat]

That sounds like way too much food! You really need deluxe dining to cover that, mega bucks! Free food is usually better than a room discount when you have a lot of people to feed, but I would never want more than one sit down meal per day, you are going to spend half of your day eating!!

I agree either do breakfast or dinner not both - you could be using 3 to 4 hours (maybe more) at meals - when you could be in the parks.

would go with the Polyn - your parents would probably appreciate it more.
easy transport to both Mk and epcot on the monorails.

POR only has bus transportation. with the new queen beds this place would be small for 3 adults and 2 kids - my opinion

bc is lovely - but getting to the Mk is bus only.

looks like only 2 or 3 meals at DHS - the rest is epcot and mk - plus a couple at Ak.

would also look at CR - standard wing rooms - this should be less than bc and poly.

would generally suggest a 1-bedroom villa at BLT - but pretty sure it is not available thru points (DVC) - now it may be available (and probably is) thru cash - but it is expensive using cash thru Disney. You can rent a reservation thru a DVC member and save you alot of money. but really think these are gone.

1-bedroom has king bed in the master,queen sleeper sofa and chair bed in the living room, full kitchen, washer/dryer. 2 bathrooms - one master bath with walk in shower and whirlpool tub - the other combination bath.

so instead of eating out so much - you can also enjoy eating in your own villa.

if you do a split stay would pick bc and polyn.

 

[baler31]

Would stay at any of the MK area monorail resorts. The situations you describe involve more travel to the MK area than Epcot or other areas. The transportation at those resorts will be much easier especially with small children.

Will it be the least expensive ? Be the absolute best value ? Most likely not, but it will be the most convenient . We also rent a car. We also prefer club level but don't do as much dining as you have listed. Parents could stay club level and not have to attend breakfast (just eat in the club lounge) and just meet you at the park you are going to. Just some thoughts.

Edited to add: I did not mention much about dining as I find that a personal preference.

 

[DisneyKidds]

We've taken to splitting stays, and do it almost every trip now. Given the ever increasing prices of the dining plans, after 20+ years of trips to WDW (we are proud owners of DVC) with one plan or another, we are officially done with the DDP. The value is gone, and it forces most people to eat in a way they wouldn't if left to their own devices.

So, if it were me, I'd go half Poly and half BC with the discounts, and food out of pocket with the Tables in Wonderland card. It's like two vacations in one. A MK vacation and an Epcot vacation. Why decide between the two if you don't have to!

 

[hgeisler]

I'd go with the Poly. 3 out of 5 of your early breakfasts are closer,O'hana is right there,Citrico's is next door,Artist's Point is a boat ride away,and the fact that you are spending 4 days between the MK and EP: you can hop on the Epcot monorail at the transportation center.

 

[ladyandthetramp2]

Poly!!!

 

[TheRatPack]

I'd go with the cheapest bottom line LOL. We don't do anything in the room except shower, sleep and store our stuff.

Sounds like you got some excellent break downs from the other posters though....wow, you guys are on the ball with these figures!

 

[buzznina]

I would go with free dining and up it to the deluxe plan, I rather save money then be closer to the restuarants, I can always get there, of course your parents may have to get up 15 minutes earlier. But I will say that you will be spending most of your trip going to and inside restuarants.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

That's a tricky one! I would personally stay at the Poly because that's my favorite. Staying at a monorail resort also tends to be more convienent, especially if you spend most of your time at MK. For you, it sounds like the best value would be to stay at POR and upgrade to deluxe dining. However, if you stay at POR and keep all of your 8 am ADR's, you may not make it on time to all of them. That being said, it would be better for you to rent a car. From my understanding, Disney transportation does not start running until 7 am. Are you all staying in one room? The other thing to consider is the Poly has the biggest rooms of the other resorts.

 

[hfuellgraf]

If your looking for convenience, POLY. Hop on the monorail and be at MK for your CRT;Crystal palace and Chef Mickeys in 15 minutes. The other resorts are pretty big and could take 15 minutes to get a bus + 15 ride to the where you are going.

 

[mickeynut1]

My choice would be the Poly . We love the Poly not only for the close proximity to MK, but also for the larger rooms, the pool, the beach for watching the fireworks, and the beautiful tropical atmosphere . We had a nice stay at the BC, but the Poly is our favorite resort and we would choose that over a larger discount. Plus with alot of your meals in the MK area, it would be easier/faster to get to them. Good luck deciding .

 

[shannonstar]

I would stay at POR for free dining and upgrade to the Deluxe.

Or, I would choose the Beach Club for its proximity to EP/HS. Plus, knowing you have an early Cape May breakfast, I will tell you, it is the hardest one to get to if you are staying anywhere else on property. All of the MK Resort ones you can get the bus to MK and then hit the monorail. For Cape May it's hit the bus to HS and then walk or boat over to Beach Club.

 

[scrapper2k]

Beach Club but think you should look at the math carefully.

 

[meredith1]

What would I do? BC...I've never stayed there but, it has absolutely been on my radar for when we decide we have outgrown the need for a MK resort.