which resort would you choose for your family?

[renae3]

Hey everyone. I am having much difficulty deciding where to stay for our upcoming disney trip! I am hoping to get some suggestions to help me. We are a family of 5, myself, husband, 2 boys ages 6 and 3, and an infant 8 months old. We can stay in one room at the poly or get 2 rooms at Por. I was thinking 2 rooms might be nice for when the baby naps. Anyway, the price is about $300.00 cheaper to stay at port orleans. What does everyone think, what would you do? Then of course the other opion is to stay offsite in a house with a private pool for about the same price as the poly. I am having so much difficulty with this decision, I want to make the best choice. Please help! Thanks so much in advance!

 

[miceli20]

If you are doing 2 rooms why not stay at the Carribbean beach resort in the pirate themed rooms. Or you could do 2 rooms at the pop century and really save. The advantage to pop is their buses only run to that resort no where else. Plus it has great pools. Hope this helps. We stayed at the poly in september, it was great we had 5 adults. My kids are teens and they are considered adults. If your kids are small the whole poly experience will probably be wasted on them. My kids told me it was nice but they missed the cool stuff at the value resorts, go figure

Hope this helps

 

[summermac]

We chose Caribbean Beach Resort - the pirate pool got me, for my kids, of course.

Are you going when you can take advantage of the 4/3 deal? Because that's about to end. We actually first booked an offsite villa for our party but after running numbers, I've come up with it only being about $200 more to stay onsite with the 4/3 deal. And the value resort was actually just about the same price.

 

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

With littles, we absolutely hate staying anywhere unless its on the monorail LOL - we learned this after our most recent overnight stay. We absolutely LOVE the Poly. By far my most favorite hotel at Disney

 

[Perditamarie]

Not sure if you know that the infant does not "count" against room occupancy maximums, so you can consider any resort w/4 person occupancy maximums.

If it fits your budget, the Poly is a great choice as it is on the monorail (you just push your stroller on and go!) and very, very close to the MK.

With little ones, it is especially convenient to stay on-site so your whole day is not commuting back and forth in traffic. If you stay on-site, you can let Disney do the driving and be able to easily split up.

 

[Rylee]

Hi,

First, I would stay on-site. With the ages of your children, it will be so much more convenient, plus there's so many perks!

Secondly, your infant doesn't count towards room occupancy, so you could stay in any room for 4, (which is basically all rooms at any resort, with the exception of rooms with a king bed.)

The Poly is a top deluxe resort at Disney. It's beautiful. Being on the monorail makes it super convenient to MK and Epcot. You can wheel the stroller right on, without removing the baby.

Port Orleans Riverside is a beautiful resort, too. You could all stay in 1 room at this resort, too, (actually, any resort) but it's up to you. As well as a table service restaurant, this resort offers a food court, which can be very convenient when you have small children and need to grab something quick. It also offers a boat ride to Downtown Disney. This is a very large resort, so if you choose to stay here, you may want to request a certain building to be closer to the main building.

You can view pictures at this site or at the allears site.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

The convenience of being on the monorail can not be beat. The rooms at the Poly are very spacious as well. However, it is really a financial decision. if you can afford, I would go Poly!

 

[Ariel8676]

Have you considered renting points from a DVC member and staying at a DVC resort?? Staying in a one or two bedroom villa with full kitchen and washer and dryer is the way to go..lol

 

[lulugirl]

We are in the same boat! We are going to WDW early December our party will be Me,DH, DD 10, DS 5 and 8 month old baby.
I know we can get one room at any of the resorts since the baby doesn't count towards occupancy but we opted to get two rooms art POR.
We just really need room to spread out, plus we all have different sleep habits.
I know many people love the monorail but I've always found the convenience factor overrated.
The Poly is a lovely resort w/ spacious rooms, I think it really depends on how you think your family will do in one hotel room.
Also, you may get more feedback if you post your question on the resort board!

 

[tam626]

We personally love the cabins at FW. There is a bedroom with bunk beds & a full size bed & in the living room, there's a murphy bed.

 

[DWFan4Life]

I'm glad I found this thread, we better go at Poly in our next trip. We haven't tried it there. Hopefully in our next trip with my family, we will enjoy the place.

Have a nice day everyone.

 

[Steve's Girl]

I'd want two rooms. Staying in one hotel room with 3 little kids is a challenge. It's nice to be able to put the kids to bed, shut the door, watch TV, enjoy an adult beverage, enjoy each other, etc. I always feel a little too crowded when I am in one hotel room with my 3 kids. I need a little privacy every now and then.

We have stayed at the AKL and the rooms are not any bigger than the moderate rooms. Deluxe rooms are at the nicer resorts, but I didn't find the rooms themselves to be any nicer than Port Orleans.

 

[hopefor4]

Hi there!

I am a family of 6. We just had Christmas and New years there. My older boys are 13 and 11. SO we opted for POR with connecting rooms, and It was GREAT! I LOVED having 4 sinks, and two showers/toilets! The two older boys had their own beds, and my 6 year old had the trundle which he loved! DH had a bed, and I slept with DD because she is just 2 and I didn't want her on the trundle in our room. (we bolted the door, and kept the connecting door open at all times) They have GREAT bed rails as well. It also meant 2 fridges, 2 TV's, 2 tables, 4 chairs. And in my opinion the best food area for families. I haven't stayed at Poly, but we stayed at GF and AK previous, and this was MUCH better for us! We were there for 12 days, and the extra space was luxurious!

I do LOVE the monorail, but the bus was not a problem for us, if it was to crowded at the end of the day, we just waited for the next one. Besides, some of the drives are hilarious!

OH and I forgot, we LOVED the boat ride to Downtown Disney! You have to take the boys to the T-Rex restaurant...

Hope these thoughts help! Plus, I always think, any money I save this trip, makes it easier to convince DH to go back sooner! hehe!

 

[disneygal2007]

We choose POP. This will be our 3rd trip going to Disney and our second at POP. I love this resort. I am sooo into music for the 80's and 90's. I always plan what the family wants. And the only thing I want on the trips is to pick where we are staying.

 

[liznboys]

If you can swing the Poly financially and you think you'd be fine in one room, I'd stay there. It is sooooooo nice being on the Monorail and the Poly is just wonderful!

We stayed in the Poly in one room three times with our family of 6!! And we had gotten used to 2 bedroom DVC villas when we stayed there...and yet we were totally fine. Our last trip was 8 nights there last June, it was wonderful! Once our youngest turns 3 (this spring) we can no longer stay in one room there so that bums us out. 2 rooms there would be too much for us, so no more Poly indefinitely! boohoo I want everyone else to stay there so I can live vicariously through them. lol

Anyway, good luck deciding!

 

[ScrapperBelle]

With your kids being so young, I'd say one room at the Poly. Ask for a ground floor room and your older ones can play outside while the baby naps. You can sit on the patio and keep an eye on both!

We have stayed at the YC (once!) and POR/POFQ (2 rooms) twice with a party of 5. The deluxes are nice when your kids are small...but having 2 teens and a tween in a room with 1 bathroom can be challenging! I LOVE the POLY and YC...but my sanity comes 1st...so the 2 bathrooms at POR/POFQ won me over!

We have even chosen to stay offsite in a suite for more room and privacy. We have never rented a house, but I am seriously considering it for a large family vacation in a couple of years.

Good luck in deciding and I hope you all have a wonderful trip!

 

[renae3]

THANKS everyone for such great advice! We were going to book 2 rooms at port orleans, but now I hear they can't gaurantee connecting rooms, so thats not an option now! I am still thinking 2 rooms woud be nicer than 1. As much as I hear the Poly is amazing, I am thinking of doing that in the future when the kids are a bit older. Anyway, now I am considering a 1 bedroom villa. Any thoughts on those with 3 kids? Anyone stay at a villa? Again, I need your advice, thanks so much!

 

[LilGMom]

Hey everyone. I am having much difficulty deciding where to stay for our upcoming disney trip! I am hoping to get some suggestions to help me. We are a family of 5, myself, husband, 2 boys ages 6 and 3, and an infant 8 months old. We can stay in one room at the poly or get 2 rooms at Por. I was thinking 2 rooms might be nice for when the baby naps. Anyway, the price is about $300.00 cheaper to stay at port orleans. What does everyone think, what would you do? Then of course the other opion is to stay offsite in a house with a private pool for about the same price as the poly. I am having so much difficulty with this decision, I want to make the best choice. Please help! Thanks so much in advance!

Technically you can stay pretty much anywhere since the fifth member of your family is under 3 yr. old. Having said that will you be thinking about the $300 nonstop if you stay at the Poly? That $300 can buy a lot of souvies or nice meals. If you are going to have your own vehicle and not relying on WDW transportation I'd say that POR would be fine just make sure that you let them know when you make the ressie that you have young children and have to have two connecting rooms. Having a house offsite would be nice for the room but being on property is so nice. We never went back to the room for naps (our boys luckily napped in their stroller or in the backpack carrier) but staying offsite would be a pain for naptime imho.

Good luck with your decision and regardless of where you stay your kids will have a great time in the parks.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Hey everyone. I am having much difficulty deciding where to stay for our upcoming disney trip! I am hoping to get some suggestions to help me. We are a family of 5, myself, husband, 2 boys ages 6 and 3, and an infant 8 months old. We can stay in one room at the poly or get 2 rooms at Por. I was thinking 2 rooms might be nice for when the baby naps. Anyway, the price is about $300.00 cheaper to stay at port orleans. What does everyone think, what would you do? Then of course the other opion is to stay offsite in a house with a private pool for about the same price as the poly. I am having so much difficulty with this decision, I want to make the best choice. Please help! Thanks so much in advance!

Hi!! We visited WDW in May with our then 9mth old baby and 4 yo son, we also had my mom with us, so there were five of us also. We actually stayed at both the poly (in one room) and in a villa with our own pool - and we much preferred the poly.

The room size was great, and we had no problem with baby napping, as we could go on the balcony or one of us take DS to the pool. It was also fantastic for the MK (which is the park we spent most time at with small children).

I would also say that we really didn't like the villa, the pool wasn't as 'exciting' as the resort pools and one thing we didn't consider was the flooring. The baby was crawling and pulling himself up on the furniture, and because of the tiled floor, we could never be more than an inch behind him, ready to catch him if he fell - not relaxing!!! (made us really appreciate the luxury carpeting in the poly and the ample 'safe' floor space for both of our boys).

Oh and having stayed on-site first, when we moved off-site we didn't feel like we were part of the magic anymore, and it was quite isolating.

Hope that helps a little!!

 

[NMW]

We are a family of 5 and when our youngest was a baby we did our first trip with her at the BC. The hotel is wonderful with babies and toddlers. All the deluxes have fridges in the rooms, the values & mods charge for them per night. A fridge helps with bottles or sippy cups.

The BC brought us a really nice full size crib with crib sheets, not a pack and play. The room was big enough that the crib fit and we all still had room. Two nights into the trip my DD wanted to lay in the bed with me. I called for bed rails and within minutes someone was there with them. We have never not had awesome service there.

You also have interior hallways unlike the buildings of the values and mods. Very nice if it rains and you have the stroller. You don't even have to get wet for food. You can also wheel the stroller right onto the Freindship boats to DHS and Epcot-very relaxing and nice. My kids like riding those boats as much as some of the rides!

We had the POLY booked for May and called and changed it to the YC (just for a little change of pace from the BC side). In our opinion the YC/BC is the best location anywhere at WDW.