Which WDW resort to stay at?

[SandyC]

I am taking my 12 year old and 15 year old to WDW in January for 12 nights. We will not have a car and will probably want to eat breakfast in and dinner out most days. We are struggling to decide whether to stay in a deluxe hotel or rent DVC points and stay in a studio, if available or possibly a 1 bedroom unit. The one bedroom unit is quite a lot more expensive than a studio and the studio appears cheaper than the deluxe resort. I like the idea of a kitchen and laundry but not sure the cost is justified.

We will spend about 6 days in WDW and the rest at Universal, Seaworld, shopping & Kennedy.

Any comments anyone can give me to help me decide would be very much appreciated. As my buying power is in Australian $, the unit cost for me is 30% more than the unit cost for US $.

 

[Al and Kate's Mom]

Hi SandyC - Welcome to the DIS! My kids are all little, but I remember traveling with my sibs as a teen, and if I could have had my own space, I would have been a MUCH nicer person to be around on the family outings - don't know if that's an issue for your family, but if so, it might be worth the extra money to be able to spread out. With that said, Disney is so magical, that whatever you choose will surely work out just fine!

 

[JillU-DVC]

SandyC

I wanted to make sure you knew that some of the parks you're talking about going to (Universal, Seaworld, shopping & Kennedy) you will NEED a car to get to - the Disney transportation will only take you to the Disney parks, and any place else (like SeaWorld, shopping except for Downtown Disney, and Kennedy Space Center) you'll need to either drive to, or make some other kind of transportation arrangements.

I'm a DVC member, so I stay on points regularly (almost always in a 1 bedroom) - you will have SO much more space if you're in a 1 bedroom, but a studio would be fine as well - the studios do have a small fridge and a microwave, along with a few paper plates and plastic silverware (at least, they used to, you'd have to check the DVC message board to see if they still include that). That would help with the costs of meals, as you could eat in your room, and/or bring left overs back to the room to reheat with the microwave.

But the 1 bedroom means you'll get a full kitchen, which means you could cook a meal if you wanted to (or just have some frozen dinners in oven or microwave). You may save some money this way. The laundry is great so you can wash your clothes in the middle of the trip (and that way bring 1/2 the clothes you need for 12 days).

But I wanted to make sure you knew that some of the parks you want to go to you'll need to either rent a car, or pay for some kind of transporatation (taxi?). Also, Kennedy is more than an hour away from Disney, so not sure what kind of transportation you'd find for that - I really think the cheapest way to go would be to rent a car, for at least part of your stay, as the taxi costs to and from the non-Disney parks, combined with transportation to Kennedy would likely cost more.

Just my 2 cents!!