how would you handle Disney hotels for this group?
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Anonymous
OP, I'm the rental home PP again. My 2 girls are just like your DD. Because of this, I will only stay in a Residence Inn/Embassy Suites type place or condo/rental home. People just don't understand - my kids falling asleep alone in the dark takes 5 minutes. If I lay there silently in the dark with them, it takes 2 hours. I am not exaggerating. |
Anonymous
Exactly this. When she was younger, we'd stick her pack n play in hotel bathrooms and put a white noise machine on outside the door. She fell asleep in 5 min and stayed asleep b/c the machine blocked out outside noise. Now she won't really tolerate a bathroom anymore, but she still falls asleep like a charm in her own space. If she's with us, all she wants to do is hang out and mess around. |
Anonymous
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What is your budget, OP?
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Anonymous
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and when will you be going?
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Anonymous
Exactly. This is a big question mark. You mention that the one bedroom villas are expensive so I don't know if you would go for it, but we've had a party of your size at the grand villa at Animal Kingdom (it's a three bedroom plus has a sleeper sofa in the living room) that could easily accommodate your group plus one more person. But it is pricey (although less so once you split it up among all the families). |
Anonymous
Shooting for the first week of October (to coincide with the boys' fall break -- they're in a school system that does the year-round schedule, so they get breaks at unusual times). We'd like to cap the cost of hotel + park tickets at $6,000 for our contribution (that likely will include subsidizing a portion of MIL/FIL's hotel stay, since they're on a stricter budget). Money is not really an issue for BIL or my parents. We're planning on going for 7 nights, and we'll likely do 5 days in the parks. Sorry -- with so many people going, the financing gets complicated :/ |
Anonymous
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ok....well, it looks like you can get a 2 bedroom villa in Old Key West or Saratoga Springs for $800/night. I did a search for September 30-October 7. That is the full price rate--sometimes Disney will run specials, but they won't release those until later this year. With the number of people in your party, you'd have to get two of the 2 bedroom villas.
The cost of park tickets will depend on a lot of factors--are you planning on visiting a park every day, or will you have some non park days to hang at the pool, Disney Springs, etc? Will you be park hopping? And since you said you'd be partially subsidizing your inlaws--will your BIL's family also be pitching in for that? Are you completely covering the cost, or will your MIL and FIL still be providing some? It's kind of hard to determine if $6000 will cover lodging + tickets, without hammering out those details too. |
Anonymous
I'm a pp (I'm the one suggesting 2 of the Two bedroom villas), but I was just thinking...even though the 3 bedroom villa could accommodate the party in pure number, it could be awkward depending on how comfortable they all are with sleeping spaces. OP's party will have 4 couples, but only 3 bedrooms--which could mean that one couple is sharing a bedroom with another couple, OR a couple would end up on the sleeper sofa. |
Anonymous
Thanks! I was looking at the 2-bedroom villas, too, and am thinking that might be a good option. BIL might cover some of MIL/FIL's costs (he's sort of a cheapass, but we might be able to guilt him into it). MIL/FIL can cover the cost of 1 room at a budget Disney hotel; we'll be covering the rest of the cost, so that they can stay with everyone else. We want to have a couple of non-park days -- we'll arrive on a Saturday and hang out at the pool and whatnot, have 5 park days and one hotel day, then leave the following Saturday. |
Anonymous
| On property has its benefits but it isn’t absolutely amazing / immersive. We just stayed at the Animal Kingdom lodge - and it was greatly themed. But the restaurants were extremely expensive, with long wait times without reservations (and this is off peak season!). They have a lot planned each night, but a lot of it won’t interest people. For instance s’mores were 5:30-6:30 - which we wanted to do. We were still at the park (plus it’s still light out). The later activities were movies for younger kids like little mermaid. |
Anonymous
yeah, that's part of the consideration. Disney does those villas in weird ways, sort of cobbling together the bed options. if there's only one king bed, who gets it? we would want one of the grandparent couples to get it, but since there are two, one older couple is stuck in a queen bed. seems like a recipe for awkwardness. |
Anonymous
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I know your 3 yr old is the main concern b/c she can't fall asleep with you in the room. That makes for a tough limiting factor.
First, do you think she'll outgrow this - the trip isn't for several more months. She'll be 3.5/4 yrs old by then, no? Second, get adjoining rooms. Put her to bed like normal, then go hang out in the adjoining room (BIL, MIL, or parents' rooms). OR with magic hours have MIL put your 3 yr old to bed which the rest of the group stays out (and thus leaving the adjacent hotel rooms quiet) and then MIL goes to her room (which is adjoining). MIL can leave the connecting door open a crack for peace of mind. Third, your 3 yr old might so tuckered out at the end of the day that she won't have the energy to be pumped up and difficult to put to bed. |
Anonymous
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Stay off property in a rental house, rent a large 15 passenger van (if you're all doing the same activities each day)
You can get a huge house for a week for $2500, rent a car for $500, pay for Disney parking for 5 days at $100 total, and tickets are $5442.15 for 5 day hoppers for everyone. That's just shy of $8600 for everyone's ticket and lodging, call it $781 per person, so $2345 for your family plus whatever you decide to subsidize for in laws. You could even cover their whole portion and still be well below $6000. Having the ability to easily purchase regular priced breakfast food and snacks makes a huge difference in the food budget. My wife is obsessed with Disney and we go to either World or Land at least once a year, and we both wholeheartedly agree that staying off property is no different than staying on property, other than the price. Our most recent trip was last month, and we stayed at the Yacht Club, and it further solidified our preference to stay off-site. We even have a child below age 1, so the "convenience" that Disney likes to market just doesn't outweigh how much more it costs. |
Anonymous
Also, I wanted to add to my comment, Disney now has a horrible room entry policy. When we travel (and we travel a ton), we're they type of people to forego housekeeping and just keep the DND sign up for the entire duration of our stay. On-site at WDW, either you accept that housekeeping is going to come in every day, or someone from security will do a "room check" at a random time during the day. That didn't make us comfortable at all. Your opinion may be different, but that's just how it lands for us. |
Anonymous
Staying off property and renting one vehicle can work well for one nuclear family, but I think with OP's more varied family, and just the size of the group, it will be a hassle. With a younger child, OP's nuclear family might want to head back to the resort for a nap, or the grandparents might want to go back early, etc. Meanwhile the BIL with his older kids, will probably want to stay at the park much longer. Staying on site, with the Disney transportation, will give them a lot more flexibility to start out as a group, split off into smaller groups as the day goes on, then re-group later at night, etc. |