Okay Touring Plans family, I need your advice about extending our stay. We are currently staying 12/29 - 1/3 at the Contemporary with park hopper and dining plan. We have an opportunity to extend our trip by two days and move to the Port Orleans - Riverside. Total cost for room, meals, and park hopper for 5 would be about $900. Couple of questions…first, is this a good deal? Second, as newbies to WDW, we don’t know whether we will want more time in the parks or if we will be done after 4 1/2 days (we arrive at 11:00am and currently aren’t planning to go into the park on our departure day of 1/3), and I’m wondering if this will be overkill. We have three kiddos ages 10, 7, and 5. I would love to hear your thoughts and advice on this. THANK YOU as always!!!
My initial thought is YES!! And here’s why. If you know going into the trip that you can extend your stay, it becomes a game changer and you have more time to spread out what you do. Suddenly if you want a non park day or an early afternoon to go back to the hotel, you can totally “afford” to take that break without sacrificing park time to enjoy it. It can become a more relaxed pace trip during a busy time of year to be there.
Absolutely you should extend if you can. We go for 6-8 days plus 2-3 at Universal, and it is never enough!
I would! I agree that feeling you have the freedom to take an afternoon off, or the ability to revisit favourite attractions, will feel great. And even if you’re all “parked” out, a couple of days chilling at the pool isn’t exactly the worst thing I can think of. 
natalie.lawy…will the pools be usable in January?
I find 4 days of hard park touring in a row is hard to do at the best of times. Having the extra days allows you to take a break in the middle, if you like, or at least take and ‘easy’ day in the middle. Also, even if you’re ‘done’ the parks in 4 days, you can use the time to shop or play mini golf or regular golf, water park, if warm enough, or, as others have said, take in an off-site park, like Universal. But really, just the ability to have a morning off or not feel guilty about skipping an afternoon is worth it.
As for the price, only you can decide on that. For some people it’s crazy, for others, it’s a deal.
They’re heated… so if you luck out with weather, or don’t mind the cold dash for your towel when you get out, then sure! There’s always the lounge chair & cocktail version of “going to the pool” as well…
Plus there’s other stuff to do. Visit fort wilderness, go mini golfing, stroll around Disney springs, go resort hopping… if you’ve got the $900 to spend, it seems like a no brainer to me to turn a fairly quick trip into one with a bit of time to slow down.
OMG! We have decided to do it! We are going to extend our trip. I think we might be a bit on the crazy side, but we have caught the spirit!!!
YAY! You will love POR! We were just there in November and loved every bit of that resort. Have fun!!!
Good choice! I think more days gives you a chance to slow down. You might do a few more things, but it’s more useful as a chance to do the things you already had planned in a less rushed manner and to repeat some favorites. It’s very nice to be able to tell an exhausted child that they can come back another day. Have a great trip!
Congratulations! We stayed at POR our last two trips and absolutely loved it. And for us, we were there 7 days with kids almost exactly your kids’ ages and still could have used an extra 3 or 4 days. And we didn’t even take any rest days!
I’ll add to what others have said… we spend 3 days in MK alone!! There is SO much to do at every park, especially MK. Having the extra days gives you the chance to both slow down AND take in more of each park. You’ll be thankful!
Having said that, after you leave your extended-stay trip you’ll still be saying “we didn’t even get to see everything!” 
Have fun!
The support and encouragement from this community is just fabulous! Thank you all so very much for all your insight. For those of you that have stayed at POR, any heads up specific to POR? Should I fax in a room request (We have a garden view room) for a certain building?
Its a VERY spread out campus. If you care to be close to the main building, where the restaurant is, then try for a room close to there. If you don’t care about that, then I think you’re good with any Garden View.
I was near the west bus stop and I really liked that. It’s the first to be picked up so you get a seat and it’s the first to be dropped back off. 
Absolutely agree with you. DH and I are going next year (my 2nd trip, his first) and we will be spending a solid 4 days at MK. It’s just the BEST thing ever. 
I think to see and do everything there is to do at MK would probably take 7 days. Doing ALL attractions, looking in every shop. Eating at every place to eat. (And that is not including the extra tours and other additional cost add-ons.)
Congrats on adding the time! I can’t wait to read your trip report- my DD and I are going in August for six nights and then again in November for three- the second trip we’ll be staying at POR as well!