16 people- 4 families- 8 adults, 8 kids- where would YOU stay? On or off property?

Eli's 1st trip

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
I have FINALLY convinced my parents to come to Disney World with us! Yay! Now the entire family is coming. We are not planning to do everthing together because we know that is unrealistic. BUT we would like to stay at the same place. My family has never stayed off property so I dont know much about off property options. As of now we are getting 4 rooms at Pop, with the Dining Plan. We are not opposed to staying off property if it saves money, we were doing onsite because this is some of the families first trip and wanted to be IN the magic.

Thanks in advance for all the help!
 
Without knowing the breakdown of ages in your family, I would suggest several units at WBC or a home at Windsor Hills. You can google Windsorhillrentals and get offers and quotes from home owners. There is also Reunion but it's not as close.
 
Unless it's a HUGE amount of money saved, I vote for privacy (each family their own room, no sharing of condo/houses) and ease of travel around property since you don't plan to do all together.

Keep POP! Hopefully all the rooms will be renovated by then. Even if not right together the resort is not that big (we travel there with others who end up in other buildings).
 
Unless it's a HUGE amount of money saved, I vote for privacy (each family their own room, no sharing of condo/houses) and ease of travel around property since you don't plan to do all together.

Keep POP! Hopefully all the rooms will be renovated by then. Even if not right together the resort is not that big (we travel there with others who end up in other buildings).


I should have said this we are going October 2018 and all the renovations will be completed by then. We have asked out TA about that, so that is a plus. I agree with you on that as well. We will be going on a beach vacation in July with a lot of TOGETHERNESS that is at a 4 bedroom condo...so the seperate rooms maybe the best bet LOL
 


I should have said this we are going October 2018 and all the renovations will be completed by then. We have asked out TA about that, so that is a plus. I agree with you on that as well. We will be going on a beach vacation in July with a lot of TOGETHERNESS that is at a 4 bedroom condo...so the seperate rooms maybe the best bet LOL

I saw your date so based on "the plan" yes all should be done. Based on actual progress they are way behind. So I tossed hopefully you will be good ........ or at least the odds in your favor. ;)
 
I agree with Hopper - I would never stay in one house with that many people - plus you will need multiple vehicles, booster seats, etc.

I vote for staying on property with each family in their own room!
 
I was just there with my brother and his family along with my father. We opted for a 2 bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs for the 8 of us (yes, we like the togetherness). While we would have gotten much more space off property, it was REALLY nice to be on property.

The DDP made it easy to figure out food (no need to worry about who paid for what) and the transportation made a massive difference. We were able to split up and form smaller groups and change the people in each group soooo easily. And individuals could go off by themselves whenever they pleased. Not trapped to rental cars and drivers. I took each of my kids out for date nights, my father and I often went off to Disney Springs after the parks closed while everyone else went back to the room, my SIL could wander around solo whenever she wanted, my teen son could go back to the room to play on his phone when he needed some downtime....it made such a huge difference to our vacation that I'm so very glad we stayed onsite.
 


I would try to rent someone's DVC points and stay at the Beach club. It may be a little more money but the kids could play in the pools and two theme parks are within walking distance of the resort. Beach club has a great pool! I would try and get a one bedroom unit for at least one couple this way you can have a full kitchen to work with.
 
We are doing 7 Adults 6 Kids in early 2019, I was thinking of doing a 2BDR BCV + One Studio
 
Even if you don't want two villa-style units or one mega-house, you can still stay off-site. You can still get 4 rooms at an off-site hotel and save money, if you want.

Really, this boils down to the usual on-site/off-site discussion you see on here almost daily. Some people will insist it's not worth going to Disney World unless you're staying at a Disney Resort. Other people will disagree.

In my view, the larger the group, the more important transportation becomes for an off-site hotel/motel. (You also have to consider transportation from/to the airport.)
 
In my view, the larger the group, the more important transportation becomes for an off-site hotel/motel. (You also have to consider transportation from/to the airport.)

As much as I'm pretty much an off-site convert (unless I'm in my RV at Fort Wilderness), I kind of think the transportation thing would drive me to choose onsite in this case. I'm with the folks recommending renting DVC points, though. 4 people per room at Pop just isn't my cup of tea for a week. I really value space to unwind with a beverage of choice at the end of the day that does not involve sitting on a hotel bed. I like having both indoor and outdoor space to chillax in - especially valuable when you have little ones that are crashed out at the end of the day. Much cheaper to achieve if you stay offsite, but I'd want to be sure that the group had a few rental cars for folks that wanted to go different directions. Yes, hotels have shuttles, but a car is soooo much easier. Uber/Lyft would also be a great option at times for this size group. I guess it comes down to how open to different modes of transportation everyone is.
 
Depends on the ages of the group. We find we do more onsite now than when all the kids in our group were younger. The kids go to the parks on their own and Disney transport is important for us now. I would just keep POP.
 
How many days is your trip? If a week or longer, I would go off site to a large home where you have a private pool, can grill outside, etc. Value rooms are so small, it would be better to have a family room that everyone can gather in.
 
I cannot recommend staying at a value resort (once was more than enough for me), so I'd either rent a large house, or stay at one of the nicer offsite hotels that are within the WDW gates. There are a lot of good options besides the Disney resorts.
 
Another vote for you to keep POP. In my case to keep peace I pay for my daughters mother and stepfather and a great aunt and uncle. It makes traveling to Florida a lot easier (just expensive) but I would NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER rent any kind of rooms DVC or otherwise with them, you are traveling together but trust me if you had one place together all it takes is one fight among your group to ruin everyone's vacation.
 
We just had 8 adults and 4 kids (all under 3) stay in a big house in emerald island. It was $1500 for the week. We had our own pool, several bathrooms, a game room with pool table. We never felt like we were too close to each other and loved having a common area to just relax with each other or separate to our rooms if we wanted time apart. And a full kitchen and washer/dryer were a huge plus!

I doubt we'll ever do a hotel again if we do another big trip like that.
 
We would stay on site.

With that many people on site all the way. It makes it so much easier for everyone. If someone wants to sleep in, or stay out later. If someone forgets something its easy to get back to the resort, if your mom and dad want to take a break its easy for them to get back to the resort on their own on the bus... I would not want my mom or dad trying to navigate around Orlando, with all the tourist, and all the construction its very easy to get turned around, and the local traffic... its crazy town....

While I think POP is cute, I would check out maybe moving to a moderate, for some more space so that you can move around more easily, and you know your other family members will be in and out and in and out of each others room. Plus the pools have slides, and hot tubs and some neat little kid areas.

When staying at a Value Resort you get the QSDP, again you might want to think about upgrading to the regular DDP so that TS meals are available to you. Character meals are a must when you have a group this large, the pictures alone would be priceless...just think pictures of your mom and dad with Mickey and Minnie, Winnie the Pooh and gang or Princess...

I would run all the numbers, backwards and forwards to see what's the best option for your group...


We have done big groups like this... We had talked about everyone doing their own thing but when it came down to it... We really spent most of our time together, especially at meal times and sitting down at a TS for a meal was great...honestly those moments and memories are what we still all talk about today...or when whoever put on the sombreros in Mexico, or the Viking horns in Norway... When we ate Mickey bars and watched the fireworks over the castle... These moments are what its all about.

I also have another idea... As a family you might want to talk about giving Disney GC for presents this year, starting with Christmas... Starbuck or Landry's gift cards to spend in the parks... We did this when my DD got married and they honeymoon at WDW... We started giving them Disney GCs when we had a small engagement party then the whole family got in on it... all in all they had around 600.00 in gift cards of extra money for their Honeymoon...
 
LOVE the resorts but have stayed in a house and staying in house again in 2 weeks. My family loved the down time and hanging with the others in our house with a private pool. Very reasonable $
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top