Best resort for toddlers? (1-3years)

[Omoreno]

Tell me about your experiences! What are the best resorts for babies/toddlers 1-3 years old. We are DVC, so you don’t need to tell me that is “too young.” We know they won’t remember it yet, but we have the points so we might as well use them! This would be for a family of 3!

I would love to hear experiences with Disney resorts, but also the beach resorts! Did anyone choose to do HHI or Vero when their children were very young?

I have read a lot of forums about best DVC for families, but I know school aged children have different needs than littles! Also with a toddler is there any advantage to choosing a 1 bedroom?

My Initial thoughts were BCV due to proximity to the parks and food, SSR for proximity to Disney Springs and the community amenities, AKL, and Poly to put a crib in the second bathroom.

 

[DduzDis]

We've been taking our girls since before each of them was 1 yo (they are 6 & 9 now). We love the walk to MK or monorail from BLT. But, we also love being able to walk to DHS and EP from BWV. BLT has a splash pad for littles that mine loved for a long time. Ultimately the draw for these with littles (for us) was not having to break down the stroller and get on a bus as much. Any time we could let them sleep and still get back to the room was awesome for us.

We have not yet done the beaches so I can't speak to those.

 

[gorkt]

If you are DVC I would say Poly, GF or BLT. You basically want to be as close as possible to the MK on the monorail. It makes it so much easier with the stroller than navigating buses. When my kids were around that age (2 and 4), we stayed at BWV in a 1 bedroom and that worked out pretty well.

 

[sarah4770]

Ssr will be a lot of walking with 2 in strollers. I would look at the smaller resorts, like brv.

 

[kilik64]

Tell me about your experiences! What are the best resorts for babies/toddlers 1-3 years old. We are DVC, so you don’t need to tell me that is “too young.” We know they won’t remember it yet, but we have the points so we might as well use them! This would be for a family of 3!

I would love to hear experiences with Disney resorts, but also the beach resorts! Did anyone choose to do HHI or Vero when their children were very young?

I have read a lot of forums about best DVC for families, but I know school aged children have different needs than littles! Also with a toddler is there any advantage to choosing a 1 bedroom?

My Initial thoughts were BCV due to proximity to the parks and food, SSR for proximity to Disney Springs and the community amenities, AKL, and Poly to put a crib in the second bathroom.

BLT and BCV.

I am biased, just did a split stay at both and it was AMAZING. That ability to walk to MK from BLT and option to ride monorail cant be beat (yea yea vgf has a walk too but its longer and cost more points). BCV was awesome for the walk to Epcot and the boat ride to HS. You dont have to break down your stroller on the boat, so awesome. Plus SAB is fantastic. Your littles will LOVE playing in the shallow pool with the sand bar, mine sure did.

BLT is indeed pretty small in a studio, but it worked fine for 5 of us, should be a breeze with only 3.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

If you are DVC I would say Poly, GF or BLT. You basically want to be as close as possible to the MK on the monorail.

I know I'm in the minority, but I hate the monorail resorts unless I have a rental car. Yeah they're great to MK, but who spends all of their time at MK?

The awfulness of getting from the monorail resorts to Epcot more than offsets the convenience of taking the monorail to Magic Kingdom IMO.

 

[kilik64]

I know I'm in the minority, but I hate the monorail resorts unless I have a rental car. Yeah they're great to MK, but who spends all of their time at MK?

The awfulness of getting from the monorail resorts to Epcot more than offsets the convenience of taking the monorail to Magic Kingdom IMO.

Two words. Split. Stay.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Two words. Split. Stay.

I've tried, something with the psychology just doesn't click right for me. For some reason, two four night stays feels so much shorter than one eight night stay.

 

[gorkt]

Yep a split stay, one half at a MK resort and one half at an Epcot resort is a decent idea if you are going to spend a lot of time at Epcot/MGM and don't mind packing and unpacking again. BCV has a great pool area.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I know I'm in the minority, but I hate the monorail resorts unless I have a rental car. Yeah they're great to MK, but who spends all of their time at MK?

The awfulness of getting from the monorail resorts to Epcot more than offsets the convenience of taking the monorail to Magic Kingdom IMO.

To add... I feel this way about the Skyliner too. Skyliner from Caribbean Beach? Awesome. Skyliner from Riviera? Slightly less awesome. Skyliner from Pop Century or DAAR? Meh. I'd rather take a bus from Point A to Point B than to take a monorail or skyliner ride that requires a transfer.

 

[Omoreno]

We've been taking our girls since before each of them was 1 yo (they are 6 & 9 now). We love the walk to MK or monorail from BLT. But, we also love being able to walk to DHS and EP from BWV. BLT has a splash pad for littles that mine loved for a long time. Ultimately the draw for these with littles (for us) was not having to break down the stroller and get on a bus as much. Any time we could let them sleep and still get back to the room was awesome for us.

We have not yet done the beaches so I can't speak to those.

Thank you this is helpful! What size room did you usually stay in a BLT? This was one of my first thoughts due to Lake View being fairly easy to get at 7 months and the monorail, but I have heard the studios are very small.

 

[DduzDis]

Two words. Split. Stay.

We've really begun to think about this strategy as well, but it too comes with some issues. Being homeless on the change day could really mess with nap time (unless the child could sleep in their stroller and maybe hang in the baby care center for a bit). ADRs can be an issue as well (but I digress). It really is the homeless day that keeps us from giving a split stay a chance.

 

[hhisc16]

Tell me about your experiences! What are the best resorts for babies/toddlers 1-3 years old. We are DVC, so you don’t need to tell me that is “too young.” We know they won’t remember it yet, but we have the points so we might as well use them! This would be for a family of 3!

I would love to hear experiences with Disney resorts, but also the beach resorts! Did anyone choose to do HHI or Vero when their children were very young?

I have read a lot of forums about best DVC for families, but I know school aged children have different needs than littles! Also with a toddler is there any advantage to choosing a 1 bedroom?

My Initial thoughts were BCV due to proximity to the parks and food, SSR for proximity to Disney Springs and the community amenities, AKL, and Poly to put a crib in the second bathroom.

For a relaxing DVC vacation, the beach resorts are a nice option. (HHI, VB, and AUL)
We tend to stay with our 1 year old near the park we are visiting that day. (MK=MK area resort)
(We stay in studios for our family of 3 and drive to WDW or HHI.)

 

[DduzDis]

Thank you this is helpful! What size room did you usually stay in a BLT? This was one of my first thoughts due to Lake View being fairly easy to get at 7 months and the monorail, but I have heard the studios are very small.

We've done the 1 br to have a quiet place to put them down if we are going to stay up for a while. Studios are on the small side and nearly impossible to be quiet while babies sleep.

 

[DeeBee3]

We own at Copper Creek and we love it there. Kids are just out of toddler age, but they LOVED that boat to MK. They also thought the enormity of the lobby was amazing and entertaining.

We are going to BCV soon, but I've heard it's hard to take the little kids to the big pool because it's hard to keep track of them.

I will say that we stayed in a 1-bedroom at Kidani last year and it was AWESOME! 2 full bathrooms and plenty of room for the crib, etc. Also the atmosphere is great for toddlers. I know it involves a bus everywhere, but really it was not bad and we had a stroller and a scooter with us.

Have fun wherever you decide!

 

[kilik64]

We've really begun to think about this strategy as well, but it too comes with some issues. Being homeless on the change day could really mess with nap time (unless the child could sleep in their stroller and maybe hang in the baby care center for a bit). ADRs can be an issue as well (but I digress). It really is the homeless day that keeps us from giving a split stay a chance.

Worked really well for us. On switch day we did it as down/pool day. Had put in the app that we would be there around 11am. Went to front desk and they found us a room available and we got checked in. However, was prepared to not have a room until later, had stuff to change into to swim with, kids could sleep by the pool if needed a nap, eat at the pool bar for lunch, etc.

A lot of people (most likely with older kids who dont nap now) suggest doing a park day on your swap day too which I could see working as well.

ADR yea you have to do that twice and can have less success on the 2nd half as people doing full stays already had first go at stuff, but wasnt too bad on our recent trip.

Also I dont get these people who unpack on a trip, i live out of my suitcase lol.

 

[kilik64]

We are going to BCV soon, but I've heard it's hard to take the little kids to the big pool because it's hard to keep track of them.

Its not with ONLY little kids. You'll either be at the shallow pool with sandbar or the pirate ship with the awesome little kid slide. No reason to go anywhere else for them. We have a 1 2 and 7 year old. The 7 year old liked going down the big slide, so she would just do that and come back to the ship and go again, while Mom and I were doing the small slide with the littles.

I think that whole thing is a little overblown. Maybe might have a different feeling when they are older, but as young kids you mainly got two places you'll be.

 

[DduzDis]

Its not with ONLY little kids. You'll either be at the shallow pool with sandbar or the pirate ship with the awesome little kid slide. No reason to go anywhere else for them. We have a 1 2 and 7 year old. The 7 year old liked going down the big slide, so she would just do that and come back to the ship and go again, while Mom and I were doing the small slide with the littles.

I think that whole thing is a little overblown. Maybe might have a different feeling when they are older, but as young kids you mainly got two places you'll be.

And sooooo spread out. I never really knew just how big it was until we had to go find mommy to get my DD9 her goggles so she could go down the big slide and we headed different directions with DD9 and DD6 with mom. There is no direct path from that slide to the sandy beach side of the pool...

 

[DduzDis]

A lot of people (most likely with older kids who dont nap now) suggest doing a park day on your swap day too which I could see working as well.

We are getting pretty close to when this will work better for us too.

 

[bumbershoot]

What are the best resorts for babies/toddlers 1-3 years old.

The resort where their parents are staying.


Define your needs. What do you want from a stay? Since you own DVC you likely know what the resorts are like, so what do your kids like to do? My kid liked to be with us, no matter what we were doing and where we were staying (we didn't own DVC and weren't going to WDW when he was that little, but we went to Disneyland). Honestly it was nicer to stay at simple resorts with simple pools because people were less crazy in them as he bobbed around with us.