Disney with Large Families

808momof4

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 19, 2017
Aloha! My name is Mary and I'm mom to four girls who will be 10, 8, 7, and 2 on our upcoming trip next April. We live in Hawaii, and are planning our very first trip to Disney World. I'm looking for advice and recommendations for families with lots of kids. What hotels are open to us? Are there rooms with connecting doors, or do we need to reserve suites? How quickly will the rooms that'll fit our family fill up? I'm just at the start of planning, and feeling extremely overwhelmed and behind the curve. I don't even know all the hotel names yet.
 
P.S. My husband and I hope to participate in the Dark Side Challenge while we are there. My husband is an avid runner. I just like Half Marathons in general.
 
Depends on how much space you want. Port Orleans Riverside will allow that many as long as the 6th person is under 3. All Stars Music Suites. Keep in mind you aren't guaranteed connecting rooms.
 
I can't be guaranteed connecting rooms if I book two rooms on the same reservation? Oh man. I guess we'll have to reserve a suite.
 
Which level of hotel is your family considering?

As long as an adult is on each room of the reservation (if connecting rooms) you can do this -- however you want to call and talk with them directly to see if they can accommodate your request (since it's just that, a request). Over the marathon weekend earlier this year, we had a connecting room with some friends we were traveling with at Port Orleans Riverside. It wasn't guaranteed, but it was a request we had made.

But it honestly may be more affordable to go with a family suite at Art of Animation so you have additional rooms and square footage. Have you thought about renting points and getting a villa through the Disney Vacation Club?
 
We're a family of 6, it will be myself, my DH, DD16, DD14, DD6 and DS3 staying in a family suite at All Star Music. You can check it out in the Resort forum. It has 2 bathrooms and 2 closets and a kitchenette! The only other resort that I have looked at with a Family suite is Art of Animation but it only has 1 bathroom. I would look on the Disney website and play around there and see what options it shows.
 
Which level of hotel is your family considering?

As long as an adult is on each room of the reservation (if connecting rooms) you can do this -- however you want to call and talk with them directly to see if they can accommodate your request (since it's just that, a request). Over the marathon weekend earlier this year, we had a connecting room with some friends we were traveling with at Port Orleans Riverside. It wasn't guaranteed, but it was a request we had made.

But it honestly may be more affordable to go with a family suite at Art of Animation so you have additional rooms and square footage. Have you thought about renting points and getting a villa through the Disney Vacation Club?

I was looking at the thread about the different resorts last night. Because my youngest is only 2 at the time, I can book one of the rooms that sleeps 5 correct? My list of resorts we'd be interested in is: Art of Animation, Disney Beach Club, Boardwalk Inn, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Port Orleans Riverside, and The Yacht Club. Honestly, this is all so new to me (I've never been) that I still have no idea where we should stay.
 


I think I've narrowed it down to POR or Old Key West.

We were at POR in January and had a wonderful experience. While we were in the Royal Rooms that slept 4, they do offer a 5-person room in the Alligator Bayou section! It has two beds and then a smaller Murphy bed that comes out (I think that one is a twin). The property is pretty big, so you may want to study the map and request a building that you'll be happy with (same for OKW).

What we loved about POR was the boat we could take to disney springs and that you can walk over to POFQ and use their pool (which has an awesome kids splash pad ... though the pool at POR is pretty great, too). The kids loved to visit the horse st the horse drawn carriage station (even though we never actually took a ride) and we felt the CS restaurant on site was really good. Our biggest issue was the buses being full by the time they got to our depot so we started walking to the front of the resort to catch the bus. One thing we didn't do that I wish we had was hit up Yeehaw Bob's show.

I've never stayed at OKW, but I imagine the themeing would be right on par with other Property resorts.
 
Oh! And one thing I saw that may interest you was that they offered grab and go breakfasts for runners ... it had a bagel, small thing of peanut butter, a banana, bottle of water and I think something else that escapes me. I would assume this is offered across all resort properties. But as a distance runner I noticed the little details done for the racers.
 
Are you set with onsite? We have 4 kids also but no one is under 3. We are looking at renting points, getting two rooms at POP or going offsite. We stayed offsite last time and we loved it but hoping to work the numbers for onsite if possible to avoid renting a car.
 
Yes, I would definitely consider staying offsite. We're a family of 5, and would never consider staying on property. There's nothing wrong with staying on property, don't get me wrong. But we can get a 3 or 4 bedroom condo or townhouse for far, far less than what we'd pay for a suite on Disney property. Tons of choices within 10 minutes drive. Plus it gives you all kinds of flexibility that staying in a hotel room doesn't.
 
Yes, I would definitely consider staying offsite. We're a family of 5, and would never consider staying on property. There's nothing wrong with staying on property, don't get me wrong. But we can get a 3 or 4 bedroom condo or townhouse for far, far less than what we'd pay for a suite on Disney property. Tons of choices within 10 minutes drive. Plus it gives you all kinds of flexibility that staying in a hotel room doesn't.

What do you do for meals?
 
What do you do for meals?

We pack almost all of our own food. WDW is wonderful that way. You can't bring in glass bottles, but you can bring in pretty much any food you want. DW and I are very into fitness and nutrition (we're weightlifters much more than we are runners), and her nutrition needs for it are incredibly specific. I eat very healthy too. For the kids, we do a mix...they'll eat a healthy breakfast in the condo, and a relatively healthy lunch (peanut butter or deli meat sandwich) and then maybe we'll pack chicken nuggets for their dinner. That's one of the big advantages for us to having a condo. We have a full kitchen. People think we do a lot of cooking on vacation, but honestly, we really don't. It's actually very minimal, and very easy. Throw something in the oven while we're getting showered or just sitting and relaxing. Doing this also saves us an incredible fortune over eating out. For a two week trip, our grocery bill is about $500 (give or take a little) for our entire family. We will eat out with the kids a few times during the trip, but probably no more than 3 or 4 times. If anything, we'll buy them dessert...lots of great places off property to get a cup of coffee for DW and I and ice cream for the kids.
 
Oooh! If off property interests you, you may want to take a look at the Dolphin and the Swan. They're Starwood properties, however they're practically on property and come with a lot of really great amenities.

Not sure about kitchenette situation there, but there are grocery delivery options like Garden grocer and if you have Prime, Amazon Now delivers basic groceries too.
 
We're a family of 6, it will be myself, my DH, DD16, DD14, DD6 and DS3 staying in a family suite at All Star Music. You can check it out in the Resort forum. It has 2 bathrooms and 2 closets and a kitchenette! The only other resort that I have looked at with a Family suite is Art of Animation but it only has 1 bathroom. I would look on the Disney website and play around there and see what options it shows.
Art of Animation family suites have 2 bathrooms. They are very nice, we stayed in Lion King suites twice now.
 
The first two things I would consider in your family situation is your budget and how much space do you honestly think you need. Some families can mange all 6 (with one of them as an infant) in one hotel room and others would go insane. You know your families needs better then we do. Once that is determined I would look at both onsite and off site options to figure out what will work best for your family. Consider the pros and cons of each and make an informed decision.

We have done both on and off site stays (family of 5, three teens) and depending on our needs for each trip. The only thing I do recommend if you stay off site is a rental car and don't forget to factor parking at the parks in your budget. No matter what the off site places say their shuttles are not going to run as often as onsite Disney transportation does. However, even with rental car and parking fees odds are an offsite condo with several bedrooms and bathrooms, full kitchen, and in unit washer and dryer is going to be less expensive and offer tons more space the anything Disney has to offer onsite for a family of 5 or more. We found once we hit that 5th person off site just worked better and was often much more affordable.

That said we just stayed onsite for a week this spring at AKL in two connecting rooms. We requests them and lucked out and received them but would have been fine if they were not connecting. We have three teens and wanted them to be able to come and go from the parks to the resort without us and for this particular trip choose to pay onsite prices.

My point is once you do your research and have a decent budget to work with choose what works for your family. Sure the onsite and offsite experiences are different but they both offer the opportunity for a pleasant vacation.
 
We usually just stay in one room with our girls. They are pretty small, still. We also typically take cruises, so we are used to smaller than average rooms. I really wanted to get two rooms, but without guaranteeing connecting rooms that's off the table. I was looking at Port Orleans Riverside or Old Key West. Art of Animation is also on my list. But we aren't huge Lion King fans. Too bad The Little Mermaid is only in the regular rooms. Can anyone tell me more about the pool at AOA?

I do not want to cook or clean on this vacation, so the idea of having a kitchen depresses me. LOL I'm a homeschooling mom and basically spend my days teaching, cooking, and cleaning. I'd like to knock 2 of those three daily tasks off my list.
 
We usually just stay in one room with our girls. They are pretty small, still. We also typically take cruises, so we are used to smaller than average rooms. I really wanted to get two rooms, but without guaranteeing connecting rooms that's off the table. I was looking at Port Orleans Riverside or Old Key West. Art of Animation is also on my list. But we aren't huge Lion King fans. Too bad The Little Mermaid is only in the regular rooms. Can anyone tell me more about the pool at AOA?

I do not want to cook or clean on this vacation, so the idea of having a kitchen depresses me. LOL I'm a homeschooling mom and basically spend my days teaching, cooking, and cleaning. I'd like to knock 2 of those three daily tasks off my list.
At AoA, don't forget that they have Finding Nemo and Cars theming as well. Not just Lion King and Little Mermaid.

There are 3 pools at AoA. The main one is the Big Blue Pool. It's the biggest pool at Disney World and has the gimmick of having speakers under the water. Other than that it's just a basic pool. No slide or anything, but there is a splash pad area. There are also 2 quiet pools, 1 in Little Mermaid and 1 in Cars section. The Cars section has little traffic cone "cabanas" that are cute.
 
One other thing to consider is...what are you planning on doing with the kids if you and your husband do the race? Hire a sitter? You'll need to factor childcare into your budget if you're both going to run.

Also...I think it would be awfully tight to have 6 people in 1 moderate room (and all sharing 1 bathroom to boot). Personally, I'd pick an AoA suite if you can afford it. I think you'd appreciate the space and extra bathroom. If you're not into Lion King, you could choose the Nemo or Cars suites instead.
 

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!





Latest posts

Top