Buying for a big family

[Ben E N]

You may as well start looking for an add on now. (BTW, I thought you had multiple kids so you were planning on staying in 1BR at BLT anyway?)

Oh I am! But with Fidelity releasing BLT "deals" at $150 a point, I can just enjoy the studios a little longer.
A 1 BR trip was planned for next summer, but my parents in law moved down to Florida so my wife and I are treating them to a few days in a CVV 2BR to celebrate, then her cousin is getting married down there in the spring so we had to tack on a couple more days at Disney...making the most of our APs, but those points only go so far.

 

[MommaBerd]

Aren't the AoA family suites designed for families of 5+?

Of course -- they seem to be low in inventory and are still relatively expensive for a value resort ($300+ per night?).

1) Yes, but only one of the beds is a true bed. Plus, trying to sleep four boys on those small beds (sofa and pull-down) just doesn’t/wouldn’t work. They probably work well for families with small kids, but not so much once they are about seven or eight years old.

2) Yes, they are expensive for what they are, in my opinion.

Now, the Cabins at Ft. Wilderness sleep six and are an option, but the layout is a bit awkward.

We have stayed in some great “suites” at hotels that were not that big, but made efficient use of space. Our favorite was actually at a Courtyard across from Disneyland...a small-ish bedroom with a queen bed and a separate bedroom with four bunk beds! This particular suite *was* large - the hotel could also have easily fit a sleeper sofa in the kitchen/living area. But, we would have been just fine without the kitchen/living area. They also had rooms with 2 Qu and a set of bunks.

I think the BEST family-friendly rooms are found at Great Wolf Lodge. Seriously, they have so many family-friendly options. When we stayed there the first time, I was like WHY can’t Disney do family rooms like this?

In my opinion, the most well-done, larger family rooms (or other accommodations) for a WDW vacation are off-site. I am really eager to see the rooms that Universal/Loews are building. And, I hope it puts pressure on WDW to create more options for families.

 

[Ben E N]

Now, the Cabins at Ft. Wilderness sleep six and are an option, but the layout is a bit awkward.

I stayed there as one of 4 boys ranging from 8 to 15 years old with my family back in the 90's a couple of times, back when they were trailers. I have some great memories of staying there, such as seeing armadillos walking across the road while playing catch outside. As for the awkward layout, though, the 1 bathroom for 6 people was always a bit of an issue. If we knew the option was available at the time, I'm sure we would have rented a 2 BR at OKW for roughly the same cost.

 

[MommaBerd]

That was immediately what I thought of too. Or 2BR at OKW, SSR or AKV value ...

I was really speaking from a non-DVC point of view. To rent those rooms cash, or even renting points, is still a HUGE expense. I am not the first or only person to feel frustrated at the lack of options.

Both Disney and Comcast are publicly traded corporations. Their only job is to take as much money as possible from people. If Comcast is building those rooms, it is not out of kindness. Universal sits in the middle of a bunch of land that they do not own, so they are competing directly against all of those other hotels. They have used express pass to lure people into their hotels, but the more they do that, the less value it holds for all.
Disney's FP allows them to lock people into their in park systems if they don't want to have to wait hours for a ride. Call it evil if you want, but Disney had to cash to buy Fox while Comcast didn't, so it's working for them.

I am NOT an “evil corporation” person. But sometimes it feels like families’ wallets are penalized at Disney if they don’t fit the two parent/2child Disney family. I think that Disney would do BETTER to provide more options for families of 5+. And maybe part of their strategy is bringing the Disney Springs hotels into the food for on-site perks. I *think* at least one of those hotels sleeps six. We took our resort money off-site for the years we had a family of six. But, at a cost of Disney perks.

Obviously, it didn’t scar us for life! We made it work and are no worse off. As I said, we were recently able to buy into DVC. This just happens to be one of my WDW soap-boxes.

 

[mustinjourney]

my one trip with my family growing up, we stayed at Fort wilderness. We had an RV and we crammed 11 people in that thing. Class C. It was my parents, myself and two sisters, along with another family of five and one of their cousins. that's right, four adults, and 7 kids -- all between the ages of 5 and 11. I have no idea how the adults survived that week.

Every morning we looked like clowns coming out of the clown car. My mom said one morning, the family in the spot next to us just stood there with their mouths open watching everyone pile out of the RV.

 

[Ben E N]

I was really speaking from a non-DVC point of view. To rent those rooms cash, or even renting points, is still a HUGE expense. I am not the first or only person to feel frustrated at the lack of options.



I am NOT an “evil corporation” person. But sometimes it feels like families’ wallets are penalized at Disney if they don’t fit the two parent/2child Disney family. I think that Disney would do BETTER to provide more options for families of 5+. And maybe part of their strategy is bringing the Disney Springs hotels into the food for on-site perks. I *think* at least one of those hotels sleeps six. We took our resort money off-site for the years we had a family of six. But, at a cost of Disney perks.

Obviously, it didn’t scar us for life! We made it work and are no worse off. As I said, we were recently able to buy into DVC. This just happens to be one of my WDW soap-boxes.

As you can see from my comment about sleeping six in a trailer due to no other options at the time, I agree with that frustration. On top of that, all other costs get compounded when the family size is larger. We would drive down from Illinois because 6 plane tickets were more expensive than gas and a hotel room or two on both the drive down and up. One ticket is expensive enough, and they don't give discounts for buying in bulk.
I loved my trips there as a kid and am grateful to my parents from scrimping and saving to get us there. I'm glad that my wife and I will be able to return the favor to them due to DVC ownership in a couple of years. I'm also not surprised that as a family of 4, by the end of this year we will have already taken more trips to Disney, with my children only 3 and 5, then I did as a kid and teen growing up in my house.

 

[kboo]

As you can see from my comment about sleeping six in a trailer due to no other options at the time, I agree with that frustration. On top of that, all other costs get compounded when the family size is larger. We would drive down from Illinois because 6 plane tickets were more expensive than gas and a hotel room or two on both the drive down and up. One ticket is expensive enough, and they don't give discounts for buying in bulk.
I loved my trips there as a kid and am grateful to my parents from scrimping and saving to get us there. I'm glad that my wife and I will be able to return the favor to them due to DVC ownership in a couple of years. I'm also not surprised that as a family of 4, by the end of this year we will have already taken more trips to Disney, with my children only 3 and 5, then I did as a kid and teen growing up in my house.

My parents were teachers and we drove every summer and stayed offsite. We never so much as ate a sit down meal at WDW. The most extravagant meal was sharing hotdogs from Casey’s while watching a parade. The closest I got to an on-site hotel was riding the monorail through the contemporary and gawking with wonder at the space. We are in the same spot as you now; I’m glad that in 2016 we were able to rent points to stay at BLT with my sister and her family, and my parents before my mom’s dementia got too bad.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

We are lucky we only have 3 in our family but my cousin has 5 and it is more of a challenge for sure.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

my one trip with my family growing up, we stayed at Fort wilderness. We had an RV and we crammed 11 people in that thing. Class C. It was my parents, myself and two sisters, along with another family of five and one of their cousins. that's right, four adults, and 7 kids -- all between the ages of 5 and 11. I have no idea how the adults survived that week.

Every morning we looked like clowns coming out of the clown car. My mom said one morning, the family in the spot next to us just stood there with their mouths open watching everyone pile out of the RV.

OH my gosh! I just laughed so hard I was crying visualizing this! clown car LOL!!

 

[lovin'fl]

2BR villas at BLT and AKV are a good fit. They have extra bathrooms and a sleeper chair in the living room (as well as sleeper sofa). Maybe also a Treehouse villa at SSR.

 

[BlueRibbon]

Good news is that we got through ROFR today for BLT!! I sympathize with everyone out there with the cost of going to Disney with a large family. After airline tickets, the single largest expense are the theme park tickets! Buying 7 of those puppies is no small feat!

The last time we went, we though long and hard about the family suites at AoA, but as mentioned above, the layout just seemed weird to us. All the kids thought it'd be nicer to have actual beds than the pull outs and fold downs.

Since airline tickets are so expensive, we plan on going once every 3 years, taking advantage of banking and borrowing to load up on points to get a 2BR. The THREE bathrooms will be Heaven sent!!

 

[Dean]

I was really speaking from a non-DVC point of view. To rent those rooms cash, or even renting points, is still a HUGE expense. I am not the first or only person to feel frustrated at the lack of options.



I am NOT an “evil corporation” person. But sometimes it feels like families’ wallets are penalized at Disney if they don’t fit the two parent/2child Disney family. I think that Disney would do BETTER to provide more options for families of 5+. And maybe part of their strategy is bringing the Disney Springs hotels into the food for on-site perks. I *think* at least one of those hotels sleeps six. We took our resort money off-site for the years we had a family of six. But, at a cost of Disney perks.

Obviously, it didn’t scar us for life! We made it work and are no worse off. As I said, we were recently able to buy into DVC. This just happens to be one of my WDW soap-boxes.

The reality is that the choice to have a larger family does have certain consequences including vacation options, homes and transportation. Timeshare are no exception. While it happens everywhere, Disney seems to be a particularly common place for people to stuff the rooms and/or complain that Disney's options don't fit the family or their financial abilities. They do offer options for groups up to 13 as a single room but they are expensive just like a Suburban costs more than a Corolla. In reality DVC has been very flexible for family situations IMO. Disney is certainly expensive weather it's meals, parks, hotels or DVC and the price does increase with numbers. DVC does give the opportunity to control some of those costs by locking in the price hopefully at a small savings. My personal view is they are often too flexible, esp where they allow families to go over the actual occupancy of the rooms. The proper accommodations for 5-9 are a 1 BR that actually accommodates 5 or a 2 BR that is designed for their party size. I would add it also costs money to be honest, think room stuffing.

We planned an AK trip for 4 when the kids were younger and the cost caused us to delay it until we didn't have them to take on the trip. It would have been $21-25K for the cruise tour we were planning because there are little discounts for the kids for AK and even fewer once you get over 3 due to the usual room setups here. By the time we were where we could go with just the 2 of us we had FF miles for the air and rewards points for the 2 days needed before/after for hotels which cut the cost significantly.

 

[crisi]

Its one of the reasons we stuck with two kids. We could afford to send two to college. We could afford to travel with two. Three would have been too expensive.

 

[lovin'fl]

Its one of the reasons we stuck with two kids. We could afford to send two to college. We could afford to travel with two. Three would have been too expensive.

That was our plan too...but #2 was #2 and #3.

 

[Madame]

That was our plan too...but #2 was #2 and #3.

Same

 

[crisi]

That was our plan too...but #2 was #2 and #3.

Yeah, we left enough room for #2 to be #2 and #3 (twins run rampant in my family and I had been going through infertility treatment - which had shown that even without drugs I'm a double ovulator). As it was - #2 was Baby Surprise - we were expecting to adopt #2.

 

[MommaBerd]

The reality is that the choice to have a larger family does have certain consequences including vacation options, homes and transportation. Timeshare are no exception. While it happens everywhere, Disney seems to be a particularly common place for people to stuff the rooms and/or complain that Disney's options don't fit the family or their financial abilities. They do offer options for groups up to 13 as a single room but they are expensive just like a Suburban costs more than a Corolla. In reality DVC has been very flexible for family situations IMO. Disney is certainly expensive weather it's meals, parks, hotels or DVC and the price does increase with numbers. DVC does give the opportunity to control some of those costs by locking in the price hopefully at a small savings. My personal view is they are often too flexible, esp where they allow families to go over the actual occupancy of the rooms. The proper accommodations for 5-9 are a 1 BR that actually accommodates 5 or a 2 BR that is designed for their party size. I would add it also costs money to be honest, think room stuffing.

We planned an AK trip for 4 when the kids were younger and the cost caused us to delay it until we didn't have them to take on the trip. It would have been $21-25K for the cruise tour we were planning because there are little discounts for the kids for AK and even fewer once you get over 3 due to the usual room setups here. By the time we were where we could go with just the 2 of us we had FF miles for the air and rewards points for the 2 days needed before/after for hotels which cut the cost significantly.

(I want to be clear that I’m not being hostile or defensive, just engaging in a spirited discussion!)

Of course having more kids means spending more money. But the cost isn’t always commensurate with the size of the family. If you have two or *maybe* three children, you are within Disney’s bounds, but three or four and the cost of your accommodations just doubled when the size of your family is only 50% bigger. You make the comparison between a Corolla and a Suburban - a huge price difference. But I think the more appropriate comparison would be between a cross-over (because that’s what most Americans seem to want to drive these days) and a minivan, and there isn’t a huge price difference there. They add some space and configure things differently, and now a family of six up to even eight is accommodated for around the same price as a family of up to four. (Though I will admit, eight would be pushing it!)

Similarly, I believe that there could be better ways to accommodate larger families in a little more affordable and practical fashion than the current choices. In my opinion, Great Wolf Lodge does an amazing job with this, and other hotels are similarly appointed. (I certainly don’t *love* GWL, but they definitely get hotel rooms right.) I wish that Disney would take a look around, ask some larger families what they want or like, and design from there. I think they tried with AoA, and it probably is great when you have littles, as I said before.

Even the DVC rooms are a little crazy to me. You can sleep 5 in some studios, but most 1BRs only sleep 4? So, a family of five (or six) is either crammed together or has to get a 2BR. There is no in-between.

There is always going to be a “tipping point” in terms of numbers. But I don’t think having three or four kids or grandkids in tow is out of the norm. Disney should make it *easier* for such families precisely because they will be spending more - more on tickets, food, experiences, etc. I fully believe they are losing these families to off-site locations, and thus potentially losing their food and other dollars that could be spent in their parks and resorts. They did us until now, and that’s only because we have recently been abundantly blessed financially. And they could very well be losing these vacation dollars altogether - you admitted that was the case with your family.

On another note - You speak of people cramming into rooms AND Disney being aware of it and doing nothing?!)l? I thought this really didn’t/couldn’t happen anymore? I guess I am naive.

 

[crisi]

On the other hand, the space taken up in a hotel room for large family at a discount over two rooms could be used for a second smaller family at a discount - who would also be buying park tickets, food, souvenirs. I would guess that their bottom line would take a hit offering affordable rooms to larger families over just booking two families of four. Unless larger families are correlated with larger household income, there is going to be less disposable income in a larger family - less spending per person on vacation. I'm not buying that this is in Disney's best fiduciary interest.

Larger families even hit their logistics. They are more likely to have strollers - and/or multiple strollers - for smaller families the stroller years are short. Larger groups move around the parks differently than smaller groups - creating traffic bottlenecks.

 

[disneynutz]

No need for Disney to change their offerings for larger families, they make billions in profit as things are now.

Bill

 

[lovin'fl]

Yeah, I think Disney thinks the larger families can get 2 rooms and therefore spend more $$$, either with cash bookings or with DVC when they have to buy more points. So they won't look to change that as they like more $$$.

We, being a family of 5, can do 1BR (I can bring airbed for 5th when needed) or we can do a 2BR...or even 2 studios. We often go to Disney with all the in laws (15 of us in total) as SIL also has DVC and we end up with...two 2BR villas, a studio and a 1BR (basically three 2BRs but 2 groups ask for separation). We could take one in law family with us and book a 3BR thus using more points and needing to buy more. In fact, when we first bought, and our kids were little, we bought enough to stay in 1BR villas....then they hit tween-teen years and we needed to move to 2BR villas and had to add more points. Now they are all in college so I never know who can join us and who can't so I am back to booking 1BR villas and if they ALL can come then DS will get an airbed (or I can book OKW, BLT, AKV if I suspect they will all come).