Disney hotels - worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you family size is such that you need to rent a minivan, it may be cheaper to stay on site and use magical express. It was when I priced it out. Minivan rentals are soooo expensive.

If the family size is such that they need to rent a minivan, they also might not fit in one standard room--2 rooms or a large suite can get pretty expensive. Plus all the food costs, staying at the Residence Inn allows for a free breakfast, plus keeping some snacks and maybe even late dinners in the room after the park.

I know my family has 4 kids, and we have stayed at the Residence Inn (there are a few in the Orlando area, we stayed at Marbella Court which is pretty close to Disney Springs.)
We stayed there because we had enough rewards points that our stay was free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're going the last week of April (24-29) and staying offsite at the Residence Inn Marriott. Thinking of taking Lyfts back and forth instead of renting a car. Thoughts?

Id price it out. It may actually be cheaper to rent a car depending on if you are going with children that need a car seat.

I have a 7 yr old and would have a booster or go without honestly for a short ride. 1-2 adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:am I the only one who thinks its sad a family of four can't even manage to stay in the same hotel room on a vacation?

OP here. It is fine if you think it's sad.

My dh snores (which doesn't bother me but it keeps one of our kids up), my kids have very different personalities (my 8 yr old needs alone time at the end of the day to read, etc. while my 5 yr old is a Chatty Cathy) and pick at each other while spending long durations of time together, and said 5 year old needs looots of sleep, but is a very light sleeper and won't be able to sleep if we're moving around the room, talking, watching TV.

Vacation is about being comfortable, is it not? Sorry, but I don't want to go to bed at 8:30 every night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:am I the only one who thinks its sad a family of four can't even manage to stay in the same hotel room on a vacation?

OP here. It is fine if you think it's sad.

My dh snores (which doesn't bother me but it keeps one of our kids up), my kids have very different personalities (my 8 yr old needs alone time at the end of the day to read, etc. while my 5 yr old is a Chatty Cathy) and pick at each other while spending long durations of time together, and said 5 year old needs looots of sleep, but is a very light sleeper and won't be able to sleep if we're moving around the room, talking, watching TV.

Vacation is about being comfortable, is it not? Sorry, but I don't want to go to bed at 8:30 every night.

We are a family of four and I love going to bed at 8:30! Good night!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you family size is such that you need to rent a minivan, it may be cheaper to stay on site and use magical express. It was when I priced it out. Minivan rentals are soooo expensive.

If the family size is such that they need to rent a minivan, they also might not fit in one standard room--2 rooms or a large suite can get pretty expensive. Plus all the food costs, staying at the Residence Inn allows for a free breakfast, plus keeping some snacks and maybe even late dinners in the room after the park.

I know my family has 4 kids, and we have stayed at the Residence Inn (there are a few in the Orlando area, we stayed at Marbella Court which is pretty close to Disney Springs.)
We stayed there because we had enough rewards points that our stay was free.

That's exactly why we're using the Residence Inn. 5 nights free thanks to points, free breakfast, apartment style, and full fridge and microwave. I plan to bring some meals and snacks into the parks to save both money and time. We'll do a few character meals and probably eat in restaurants closer to the hotel sometimes. DD and I are the only confirmed people going and she's a trooper. She's really low maintenance traveler like I am. We will probably stay in the parks until dark or we're tired and then head back to the hotel.

PP is probably right about pricing it out. The car just sounds like a liability, particularly at the parks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:am I the only one who thinks its sad a family of four can't even manage to stay in the same hotel room on a vacation?

OP here. It is fine if you think it's sad.

My dh snores (which doesn't bother me but it keeps one of our kids up), my kids have very different personalities (my 8 yr old needs alone time at the end of the day to read, etc. while my 5 yr old is a Chatty Cathy) and pick at each other while spending long durations of time together, and said 5 year old needs looots of sleep, but is a very light sleeper and won't be able to sleep if we're moving around the room, talking, watching TV.

Vacation is about being comfortable, is it not? Sorry, but I don't want to go to bed at 8:30 every night.

+1. Doesn't sound strange to me at all. A light sleeper and someone who snores is a bad combination in one room. A well rested kid is worth the extra room. I'm a light sleeper and irritable when my sleep is interrupted. Kudos to you for factoring that in.

[Anonymous]

You have to do what works best for your family. If it is a suite or 2 rooms so be it. I would still look into staying at Disney. It is so much easier. You don't have to worry about getting to and from the airport, you don't have to worry about renting a car, paying for parking, car seats, bus schedules. It just all happens. If you want to save money you can still eat breakfast in your room. We often bring some bars or other breakfast on the go items. Eating in the parks doesn't have to be an arm and a leg.it is more time efficient and frankly more fun to eat there than a place you can eat all the time at at home. And cook on vacation? Is that a vacation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you family size is such that you need to rent a minivan, it may be cheaper to stay on site and use magical express. It was when I priced it out. Minivan rentals are soooo expensive.

If the family size is such that they need to rent a minivan, they also might not fit in one standard room--2 rooms or a large suite can get pretty expensive. Plus all the food costs, staying at the Residence Inn allows for a free breakfast, plus keeping some snacks and maybe even late dinners in the room after the park.

I know my family has 4 kids, and we have stayed at the Residence Inn (there are a few in the Orlando area, we stayed at Marbella Court which is pretty close to Disney Springs.)
We stayed there because we had enough rewards points that our stay was free.

I'm that PP. We do have 5 and did get two rooms at disney. We got a 5 person suite at disney (with one of their 30% off promos). I think another time we did get two rooms (again with the discount promo, which they run all the time) and it was still cheaper than staying off site and renting the minivan. I can't recall specifically if we looked at the residence inn but I know from previous research into this problem that the majority of Residence Inns do not have suites that can accommodate 5 people. Unfortunately most hotels that advertise "suites" 'mean that they have a queen in one room and a pull out ouch in the other. One of my biggest wishes for a travel search site is one that would let you search specifically for suites that will accommodate 5--with most of them, even when you put that into the search, it comes up with a bunch of options that will not allow 5 people in a room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you family size is such that you need to rent a minivan, it may be cheaper to stay on site and use magical express. It was when I priced it out. Minivan rentals are soooo expensive.

If the family size is such that they need to rent a minivan, they also might not fit in one standard room--2 rooms or a large suite can get pretty expensive. Plus all the food costs, staying at the Residence Inn allows for a free breakfast, plus keeping some snacks and maybe even late dinners in the room after the park.

I know my family has 4 kids, and we have stayed at the Residence Inn (there are a few in the Orlando area, we stayed at Marbella Court which is pretty close to Disney Springs.)
We stayed there because we had enough rewards points that our stay was free.

I'm that PP. We do have 5 and did get two rooms at disney. We got a 5 person suite at disney (with one of their 30% off promos). I think another time we did get two rooms (again with the discount promo, which they run all the time) and it was still cheaper than staying off site and renting the minivan. I can't recall specifically if we looked at the residence inn but I know from previous research into this problem that the majority of Residence Inns do not have suites that can accommodate 5 people. Unfortunately most hotels that advertise "suites" 'mean that they have a queen in one room and a pull out ouch in the other. One of my biggest wishes for a travel search site is one that would let you search specifically for suites that will accommodate 5--with most of them, even when you put that into the search, it comes up with a bunch of options that will not allow 5 people in a room.

+1 on the wishing to be able to search for suites! Both sets of grandparents like to do vacations where willaml stay together in a suite (which is helpful with a child) but it is so hard to find. You have to look at each hotel individually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is not really correct. We were just there, on what was supposedly a "low" crowd weekend. 7 dwarves and other popular fast passes (peter Pan) were sold out very quickly after the on-site fastpass booking opens. Within minutes after rope drop, the wait at 7 dwarves is up to 30 minutes. By 9:15, the wait was an hour. This was consistent with our last visit, a year ago, also on a low load day in the winter.

True! I was just there for a low crowd time and fast passes were 100% necessary for those rides.

YMMV. Just back and utilized this strategy to ride both Frozen (no real wait) and Soarin (8 minute wait) by 9:20ish. Then worked the app to snag a Test Track FP around 10:15 after hitting Nemo. 7 Dwarves was posted 30 minutes at 9:07 but wait was only 10-11 minutes. Don't use the kiosks. The app is critical to keep looking for high demand FPs. SM and BTMRR popup with regular frequency after 10:30 on even moderately crowded days.

Don't overlook the Dining Plan as an option for onsite stays if used strategically at high value restaurants and snacks. Also, any counter service with soda fountain will happily give you cups of ice water gratis. The new Express transportation option for park hopping is a terrific convenience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you family size is such that you need to rent a minivan, it may be cheaper to stay on site and use magical express. It was when I priced it out. Minivan rentals are soooo expensive.

If the family size is such that they need to rent a minivan, they also might not fit in one standard room--2 rooms or a large suite can get pretty expensive. Plus all the food costs, staying at the Residence Inn allows for a free breakfast, plus keeping some snacks and maybe even late dinners in the room after the park.

I know my family has 4 kids, and we have stayed at the Residence Inn (there are a few in the Orlando area, we stayed at Marbella Court which is pretty close to Disney Springs.)
We stayed there because we had enough rewards points that our stay was free.

I'm that PP. We do have 5 and did get two rooms at disney. We got a 5 person suite at disney (with one of their 30% off promos). I think another time we did get two rooms (again with the discount promo, which they run all the time) and it was still cheaper than staying off site and renting the minivan. I can't recall specifically if we looked at the residence inn but I know from previous research into this problem that the majority of Residence Inns do not have suites that can accommodate 5 people. Unfortunately most hotels that advertise "suites" 'mean that they have a queen in one room and a pull out ouch in the other. One of my biggest wishes for a travel search site is one that would let you search specifically for suites that will accommodate 5--with most of them, even when you put that into the search, it comes up with a bunch of options that will not allow 5 people in a room.

PP you quoted here.
I'm very surprised that you have found the majority of Residence Inns do not accommodate 5 people, as that has not been my experience at all. Like I said, there are several Residence Inn's in the Orlando area and we stayed at the Marbella Court one. It had 2 bedrooms; one had a King bed and the other had 2 queens. There was also a pull out sofa in the living room. We have stayed in rooms like this all over the country.

I don't know what a "5 person suite" at Disney is. There are standard rooms at many of the deluxe resorts and some of the moderates that will accommodate 5 people (2 Queen beds and a Murphy bed style pull down.)
There are also suites at all of the deluxe resorts with multiple bedrooms that can accommodate 5 or more people. But I have never heard of a bookable room category of "5 person suite." Which Disney resort has them?

[Anonymous]

Art of Animation

[Anonymous]

The 5 person suite we stayed in was at the contemporary. I was also surprised to find it--I don't think they have many of those. The 5th bed was like a day bed type thing. We also stayed at a 5 person villa at animal kingdom (one queen, one double pullout couch, and one single pullout chair).

I have stayed at those 2 bedroom residence inns before and they are great. I think we stayed in one in north Florida but I haven't had a lot of luck finding them in other cities. I was just looking this week for a summer vacation and in both citifies we are traveling to, the residence inn only has 1 bedroom suites--I may have misstated because maybe theh do sleep 5 with pullout couches in those rooms but I really wanted the 2 bedroom suite and haven't had luck. ??

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure you can find them at the Polynesian and the Boardwalk. Expensive but there. Fort Wilderness may also be an option if that is your thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:am I the only one who thinks its sad a family of four can't even manage to stay in the same hotel room on a vacation?

OP here. It is fine if you think it's sad.

My dh snores (which doesn't bother me but it keeps one of our kids up), my kids have very different personalities (my 8 yr old needs alone time at the end of the day to read, etc. while my 5 yr old is a Chatty Cathy) and pick at each other while spending long durations of time together, and said 5 year old needs looots of sleep, but is a very light sleeper and won't be able to sleep if we're moving around the room, talking, watching TV.

Vacation is about being comfortable, is it not? Sorry, but I don't want to go to bed at 8:30 every night.

Hi OP. I've posted several times in this thread--so now I'm curious because of the above information.

How many different sleeping spaces do you need then? Each of your two kids needs their own room? So a minimum 3 bedroom? Or are you ok with one of them on a sleeper sofa in the living room so 2 bedroom minimum? OR, since you said your husband's snoring only bothers one of the kids, are you and your husband agreeable to sleeping separate so your Dh and one kid in the bedroom, and you and other kid on the sleeper sofa in the living room--so just a 1 bedroom suite works?

I'm just wondering exactly what your needs/expectations were. It's pretty tough to find 3 bedroom units on Disney property--even if you are willing to spend that much--because there are so few of those 3 bedroom vacation club villas.