Which Resort Fits Our Needs?

[bigeyedfish]

We are a party of 5 (1 adult and 4 kids - 11/10/7/5). We will be staying 5 nights in a Pool View Room at POR in March 2018 for the first part of our trip when we are planning on spending most of our time in the parks. For the last 2 nights we are hoping to switch resorts to a Deluxe and spend the majority of our time at the resort enjoying the amenities. Which Resort would you recommend that best fits our criteria?

Relaxing (or at least not chaotic/super busy)
Good Pool with water slide
Activities for the kids to participate in
Good on-site restaurants (or within walking distance - not in a park)
Prefer to sleep in beds rather than pullouts (can bring an air mattress to avoid this for 1-2 children)

TY so much!

 

[ForMyBoys]

I recommend our favorite, the beach club

There is a comfortable day bed, two queens in each room. We have a family of 5 and it’s great for us. Great pool, great location and walkable to the boardwalk.

 

[megs1313]

BC for sure, but honestly, I don't think you necessarily have to move from POR. POR is great.

 

[Lalabubbles]

I would say Beach Club also. Best pool, lots of activities at the Boardwalk ( in the evening), and lots of restaurants within walking distance.

 

[Capang]

Animal Kingdom. Tons of stuff for kids to do all day long. Good dining and a great pool.

 

[Deb & Bill]

What are the ages of your children. Stormalong Bay can be a mess if you have smaller younger children who are not excellent swimmers. You really need to keep your eyes on the younger kids there at all times.

 

[allsaintsatx]

Polynesian. Good sized rooms with 2 queens and a comfortable day bed, lots of activities and things to enjoy (when they light all the torches and hula dancing lessons in the lobby) amazing pooling great slide and maybe one of the best splash zone thingies on property. Also, character dining, good QS, amazing grounds to explore. Also walking distance to GF if you want to check that out too. Also just fun to take round trip on the monorail.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I would not recommend BC for a single adult supervising 4 children. The pool is incredibly spread out and you actually have to cross a walking path to get to the entrance of the big slide. In the EP area, I would recommend BWI instead. You can see everything that's happening in the pool from the pool deck including the stairs up to the slide and the entrance to the slide. My DS actually prefers the BWI slide to BC - he says it's faster. The Boardwalk also has really fun entertainment and carnival games at night. You will also be within walking distance of all of the restaurants in the EP resort area.

I would also consider Poly. The theming is a lot of fun, they have a really fun pool and great resort activities. You will also have monorail access to all of the restaurants at CR and GF. You could also take a boat to Ft. W or WL from MK and eat over there.

Both resorts will offer you two queen beds and a day bed.

 

[Octoberbaby]

The YC/BC and the Polynesian are my favorites. And my son's. How old are the kiddos? I don't see an issue with the BC and you being the only adult IMO. I went with two kiddos a couple of weeks ago, and had a wonderful time. We were at SAB for about 6 hours straight .....we had room service delivered pool side, and had a wonderful day.

 

[heidijanesmith]

The Poly!! The pool area can be loud and crowded, but the rest of the resort is amazing. We really enjoy just taking some time to explore the resort, especially at night.

The Poly is great for getting on the monorail and going to the other monorail resorts to explore and eat. My kids when they were younger thought the monorail was a ride and loved going on it, over and over.

The Poly rooms all have a daybed, which is very comfy. All of us have slept on it at one time or the other and had no issues at all. There is plenty of room for an single air mattress for one child, if they don't want to sleep together.

I like the BC, but the rooms are all configured differently and the balcony issue is a no go for us. Plus the BC to me is much louder and more chaos then the YC. The YC is much quieter and relaxed and you still have access to SAB and the other EPCOT resorts to walk to. As other's have mentioned SAB is not the easiest to keep track of kids who are not able to swim alone.

 

[Spencer Wright]

AKL, there some amazing views of animals all throughout the resort. The pool is large and nice, and the resort is relatively low key. Also, all three restaurants (Jiko, Sanaa, and Boma) are amazing.

There is a water slide, and there are ample act ivies for children.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Our kids will be 11/10/7/5, but I’m taking them alone because DH has zero tolerance for large crowds/amusement parks. TY!

 

[DG25]

I am one of the few who does not like BC and I would never recommend it, especially for a single parent with four young children.

My thoughts is

POLY, I hear that they open the lilo play club during the day now for movies and arts and crafts but you must stay with the kids, it is not daycare or babysitting during the day.

My second and favorite place would be WL, as a deluxe, but also maybe FW cabins, the reason I would use this is for all the extra activities you can find here, but the cabins are moderate not deluxe. You would be able to fix meals, the pool has a slide. You can go to petting zoo, for money they have pony rides, archery, carriage rides, horseback riding, hay rides. You can rent little boats, row boats, fishing poles, and such. They have bikes, last time we were at WL the bikes were free, just take one and go, it was great, not sure they still have that. You can walk between WL and FW for nature walks. You can grab a boat between the two or back over to contemporary and from there take the monorail, in 30 minutes you could be at the GF or POLY for dinner. Both WL and FW have great sit down restaraunts. There are movies and s'mores at night which is much better than the other resorts, more like camp grounds, I think chip and dale do sing alongside still. I love the pools at WL and the new geyser restaraunt. So to me with that many kids and wanting activities, I would say either WL or FW, and spend a day at each since the bus goes between them and so does the boats. The cabins your kids will like since they the have a bunk, there is a pull out, so one could sleep without pulling it out or you can bring an air mattress, WL you would have to get a deluxe room since they only have two queen beds.

Hope that helps.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

AKL, there some amazing views of animals all throughout the resort. The pool is large and nice, and the resort is relatively low key. Also, all three restaurants (Jiko, Sanaa, and Boma) are amazing.

There is a water slide, and there are ample act ivies for children.

Just as an FYI, if you want to consider AKL, you would need to look at the villas as no standard rooms hold 5 (unless you have a child under 3). It is a GREAT resort and definitely quiet, though you would not be within walking, boat or monorail distance to any other resort's restaurants.

WL is also a GORGEOUS resort, but you would need to either book a villa at Copper Creek (within the WL resort building) or at Boulder Ridge (right next door to WL) or, you can book a deluxe, club level room which can hold up to 6 people (CL at WL is fantastic!). With WL, you can boat to Ft. W to see the stables, go to dinner, etc. and you can also boat to CR and eat there or take the monorail from there to Poly and GF.

I would definitely recommend considering a villa at AKV or a villa or deluxe, CL room at WL, CC and BRV

 

[bigeyedfish]

We were looking at:

Standard Room at Poly
CL Standard at Beach Club or YC
CL Deluxe Room at WL
(2) Standard Rooms at AKL (no Savannah rooms available)

GF is out due to pool renovations. The view from our room matters little to me as I don’t anticipate spending much time there!

 

[DG25]

Just so you know, it list AKL CL with 2 queen and a day bed, that would give you CL and 5 bed spaces for less than two rooms, but you would need to make sure you ask for it and I assume they save them for people with 5 persons.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for the tip! I’ll see if it is available during our dates

 

[DG25]

We stayed at a deluxe room at WL a few months ago, in may, it was great. People say that the walk to the CL is long but I did not think so, it only took a few minutes to get to the lounge and it was one of the best we ever been at. There are lots of things to see and do at WL, go for a walk over to BRV it is so nice and has a room about trains. They also have a room in WL about trains I think. You can use both pools at WL so one day use the main pool the next use the BRV pool. Your kids will live whispering canyon. After a long afternoon at the pool or early in am, walk or bus or boat over to FW, go for a hey ride, do the sing along and watch a movie. If you have a little extra our granddaughter loved the archery lesson, I think it was $20 for an hour lesson, we did horse back riding, $40 for an hour. We did the hey ride, $8 or the carriage ride $45 a half hour. All so much fun. Fast bus ride home to WL and you can see the water parade and the fire works, at least some of them.

 

[LSUmiss]

My vote is for Poly too. Poly & CR have the biggest non DVC rooms on property & I think Poly would be better for what you described.

 

[JackOliva07013]

Assuming you can change: I would do a split stay between Beach Club and Poly. and reasoning is pretty simple:

a) Beach Club - walking distance to 2 parks - HS and Epcot
b) Poly - closest to MK (CR wins by distance but not appeal factor)

so during the first part of the stay you focus on parks closer to the hotel you stay in. second part - same logic.

by doing this you give yourself most time to enjoy parks and resorts at any time. One may argue that transportation is not a big thing (technically with Uber/Lyft its not if you play it smart) but accessibility is. During our stay in August we went to Epcot 3 times in one day and still got 2-3 hrs in the pool at the beach club. its the convenience factor.