Party of 6...where to stay?

[Upatnoon]

We are taking our daughter for her Sweet 16 and she is bringing a friend. I plan on using the dining plan. During our last 2 trips, we have stayed at Beach Club and Boardwalk, so we are a little spoiled. Prior to that we favored POR but have stayed at CSR, ASMu, Pop, and ASMo. Normally we are a party of 5 but this trip we will be a group of 6. I am looking at options and I believe I am limited to ASMo x2, POR x2, or WLC. Am I missing anything? I do not believe there are any affordable DVC options and I want to stay onsite. One year we stayed at Bonnet Creek. I did my best to enjoy it but when I had to leave the parks before the end of the parade because we HAD to catch the stupid bus, that was the end of the line for me. We love the Disney bubble and have skipped the last 2 years so we are really ready for a trip, hence me planning so early.

Thank you for all of your help.

You are not missing anything. It is costly to stay onsite with a group of 6.

You will either have to pay a hefty premium to stay at a Disney property or suffer through a 15-minute car ride to stay offsite.

You could always stay at Bonnet Creek and rent a car so can leave anytime that you want.

 

[SwanVT2]

I would stay at swan and dolphin. The girls will love the grotto pool. Picabu cafeteria in the dolphin has good meals at fairly reasonable prices. They have a AAA discount here and at other restaurants at these hotels. There are nice gift shops in each resorts. The girls will love walking on the boardwalk at night plus you can walk to 2 parks! It is the closest to Disney you can get without the outrageous prices. I have a noticed that swan and dolphin's room rates have gone up since finishing their renovations. But some times of the year the rates are still manageable.

 

[Dis Dragon]

Is BWV DVC out of the budget? We’re going with 6, 2 bedroom villa, thought it was very reasonable for the space we are getting.

 

[shellyj]

I am not feeling the value resorts and when I priced out the suites for AoA for next August it is $495 per night. That is just insane to me. I feel the same, I would rather have two rooms at a moderate. S&D is still pricing out very fairly I only fear that everyone will miss the Disney bubble. It does look beautiful though.

Did you mention what time of year you are traveling?
I know you said DVC was out of your budget but I wonder if your travel time is impacting prices and how flexible you can be. We rent DVC points for 2 bedrooms and it usually works out about the same, sometimes actually cheaper, than 2 rooms at a moderate. We usually travel in January or October because the weather and the prices are more mild
This coming January we've got a 2 bedroom at Kidani AKL that averages $552 a night and our trip covers two weekends which drives the average up a bit. OKW and SSR are usually in the same price range. Kidani has a 3rd bathroom which is nice. I think a couple other DVC resorts have the extra bathroom, but I don't recall which ones.
I think if you have 6 people 16 and over, you're going to be miserable with one bathroom! Even two is difficult when everyone is getting ready or lining up for showers.

I think I'd rent a house before squeezing into a too-small room. Especially since you're looking forward to this trip so much after a long Disney break. Being in the bubble is awesome, but home sharing can make or break relationships! For our January trip my sister's group is renting a house pretty close and she's paying something like $135 a night. Private glassed in pool, game rooms, gorgeous. I have a special needs child and staying on property for the all day transportation is still a big deal for us right now, but as soon as I think we can manage to stay in the park for longer stretches, I will definitely consider renting a house. Not sure I'd go off site for a hotel with similar room size and amenities, though.

 

[tripplanner2]

We are going in August. I priced out buying points at $16 per point and I figured we would need around 300 points. That left me spending $5k on housing without food or tickets. Maybe I should rethink it. She would love AKL.

 

[LovesTimone]

My first thought is AOA in a family suite,
pro's - the bedroom has a door for some privacy, con the bed is only a queen size... -
pro's- 2 bathrooms - con's none -
pro's- small kitchenette which is really nice to have some where to store your snacks and warm up something if needed - Con's none
pro's - the pull down bed and pull out couch are very comfortable... Con's - who's gonna sleep where is always something that come into play,
pro's -only one bus stop - con's only one bus stop - it depends on how you look at it...

My other thought is 2 rooms at any of the value resort options... - the biggest pro here is the 4 bed's you get... I would want rooms that you could walk in between... we did this on a family trip at POR and it worked out great.... especially when you have teenage DD's who hog the bathroom...

This was a after thought I know that you were wanting the dinning plan, even with that said, you might want to look at the Double tree suites on hotel blvd.... I think that they offer a 2 bedroom and the cost would be alot less... if you were in the parks late, you could get a bus to Disney Springs, and Uber from there to the hotel.... or just straight from the park.....

As well the last thought was - did you check David's DVC - to see if something might work out there... Our friends rented a 2 bedroom at Saratoga Springs and add on the dinning plan through David's last year... and she said it was the best trip they ever had.... having the room to separate out and give everyone their space was super important... she said it was it was about the same as renting 2 moderate rooms... Now with all that said... I don't know what she paid... they went with the regular dinning plan, 1 QS and 1 TS... instead of the deluxe dinning plan that they normally get, they planned for breakfast in the room, as well as a few lunches by the pool... so for them it worked out... she loved having a whole fridge, and a place to sing happy birthday to her son, and have cake...

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I wouldn't do the AoA suite with that many adults. Personally I would do 2 rooms at POFQ. You could even get the deluxe DP on one room and share the credits.

 

[tripplanner2]

I wouldn't do the AoA suite with that many adults. Personally I would do 2 rooms at POFQ. You could even get the deluxe DP on one room and share the credits.

Hmmm....I have to price that out! We are not big eaters.

 

[mco65]

We just got back from the Cabins at FW.. nice and roomy. Probably our favorite room of any WDW resort that we have stayed at so far...
Still, the Fort is so isolated that its easy to forget your even at Disney when you there... for some that's great and for some, its not.