Why must I reserve two rooms for a family of 5?

[jcmechem]

Please don't flame me, but I think my question is valid. With the price of Disney being so outrageous it would make it way more economical for families of five to be able to rent a cot or bring an air mattress.

My youngest children, 6 and 7 could easily sleep together on one of the beds and my oldest, 12, could sleep on the cot/mattress.

Would I be able to reserve one room and then purchase tickets separately without being caught by Disney SWAT?

 

[MAYNARDS99]

It depends on which resort you are interested in. Only some resort rooms can legally hold five guests. The family suites at Art of Animation, and most rooms at Port Orleans for instance can hold five guests. Call Disney and let them know you would like a room that can hold five.

 

[smitch425]

Please don't flame me, but I think my question is valid. With the price of Disney being so outrageous it would make it way more economical for families of five to be able to rent a cot or bring an air mattress.

My youngest children, 6 and 7 could easily sleep together on one of the beds and my oldest, 12, could sleep on the cot/mattress.

Would I be able to reserve one room and then purchase tickets separately without being caught by Disney SWAT?

There are rooms that will hold 5. I suggest looking at the All-Star Music suites. Everyone in the room MUST be a registered guest. If you are caught (and it has happened to others) with extra people in your room, you will be evicted. Also, you would not be able to have all of your party participate in the extra magic hours. Each person must show their room key in order to ride the rides during EMH. If you aren't registered, you have no room key to show. Not worth the risk.

The biggest issue has to do with the fire codes. The maximum occupancy is set by the fire marshall, not Disney. Rooms that state they are for 4 + a child under 3 is because it is assumed that one of the 4 would be carrying the toddler in case of an emergency. The stairwells are built to accomodate only a certain number of people during an emergency. When you go to the booking site, just put your party size in and it will tell you what rooms will hold 5 people legally.

ETA: Another option would be renting points from a DVC member. Good luck in your planning.

 

[JessB320]

I feel your pain, we are a family of seven. We are very happy staying offsite and feel we get much more value and animeties for our money this way than staying onsite. Maybe you could look into some offsite options

 

[havinfun]

Have you looked into the Fort Wilderness Cabins? We had 5 in our family. FWC was less expensive than 2rooms. Port orleans has many rooms for 5. They offer rooms with a small Murphy bed.

 

[Sammie]

Please don't flame me, but I think my question is valid. With the price of Disney being so outrageous it would make it way more economical for families of five to be able to rent a cot or bring an air mattress.

My youngest children, 6 and 7 could easily sleep together on one of the beds and my oldest, 12, could sleep on the cot/mattress.

Would I be able to reserve one room and then purchase tickets separately without being caught by Disney SWAT?

No, because your entrance into the park is tied to your resort ID, especially for early entry and Extra Magic Hours, each person has to have the ID.

You will have to look at the options for 5.

Port Orleans Riverside with the Murphy bed would work for you.

 

[maxiesmom]

Please don't do it. Every day of your vacation you would have to worry, Is this the day they catch me? Is today the day I will be forced to either pay rack rate for another room or leave WDW?

Disney can't afford to turn a blind eye to extra guests. If word got out they were letting people exceed the room occupancy set by the fire code, they would pay a massive fine. You would have to hide your extra person at check in, and hope housekeeping never caught on.

Your extra person wouldn't be able to use Magical Express. They wouldn't be able to go to Extra Magic Hours. They wouldn't be able to use the Dining Plan.

If you truly want to stay on-site the cheapest way for you to do so is to stay at POR. They allow families of 5 in one room. Or if you don't mind camping you can always camp at Fort Wilderness. Othwerwise yes, you must either upgrade to a deluxe room or get 2 rooms.

 

[hsmamainva]

You could stay off-site.

We're a family of 6 and stay off-site at Windsor Hills. We have a 3 bedroom townhouse with a full kitchen and private splash pool on the patio for $105 per night in May.

It's less than 2 miles from Disney and, while you don't get Extra Magic Hours and you have to pay $14 to park, but it's the most affordable way for our entire family to go to Disney.

Here's who we rent from:

http://storytimeorlandorental.com/

 

[sabrinadv1]

We are a family of five. We have found the best solution for us is to.book two value rooms. Other than POR its the cheapest route. That gives us plenty of room without breaking us. I would love to stay at AOA but the suites are much more expensive than two rooms.

 

[Southern Bell]

We had the same problem in 2011 and two connecting rooms(at value resorts) were cheaper for us than the suites or cabins at Fort Wilderness.

 

[Dis703]

We are traveling as a family of 6 but with two toddlers and found Port Orleans Riverside to be the most affordable option for on site. We are also staying at the Beach Club. There are rooms that accommodate 5. Unfortunately the value suites I found to be too pricey. If I'm going to spend that much I'd prefer a nicer location.

 

[sabrinadv1]

I agree for the price of the suites I want more aminities.

 

[Missytara]

Please don't flame me, but I think my question is valid. With the price of Disney being so outrageous it would make it way more economical for families of five to be able to rent a cot or bring an air mattress.

My youngest children, 6 and 7 could easily sleep together on one of the beds and my oldest, 12, could sleep on the cot/mattress.

Would I be able to reserve one room and then purchase tickets separately without being caught by Disney SWAT?

Occupany of the room is not just set by how well your family could fit more people into the room.

Occupancy is based on fire codes and exiting requirements from the resort buildings. It is based on how many people can be handled in the corridors and the exits to grade, in case of a fire, since elevators cannot be used (they are considered shafts that could potentially carry the fire from floor to floor and are therefore shut down when a fire occurs).

If you have more people in the room than is allowed by code, and an event does occur where not all people were able to obtain access to grade because there were too many people in the rooms - you could potentially be held liable for that.

 

[rsleleux]

Try Port Orleans Riverside, we are a family of 6 staying in AB rooms, with 2 queen beds and 1 Murphy bed for DS6 and playpen DS1! We will be packed but they do not require 2 rooms for a family of 5!

 

[CanadianGuy]

There are a lot of answers to this but ultimately.. these threads go nowhere and are prohibited on this board because they just result in fighting.

There are plenty of choices in the value and other categories for groups of 5 and 6.

If you wish, I'd recommend writing this question to Disney. All anyone here can do is either advocate you break Disney stated policies (which we strongly don't recommend and is also against DIS rules) or try to defend their policies.

Neither of which is helpful to you, the OP of this post.

This thread is closed.