My family of four will be traveling to Disney in March 2022 with a family of 5 who have never been and I am doing the planning.
Things are so easy with a family of 4 and I never thought about the added headache that a family of 5 causes
In Feb 2020 we had a lovely stay at POFQ and I was hoping to return. We loved the small size and the bus system was great at this resort. I figured you could just get a cot for a 5th person but apparently not!
To confirm : our options to fit a family of five (we can not afford deluxe) would be POR, Carribean Beach?? And Coronado Springs (not interested).
What what you choose - POR or Carribean Beach? Hubby and I stayed at POR before and found it big and didn’t have great experience with the buses but this was back in 2008.
I know Art of Animation is an option too but I had priced that for our recent trip and it was more $ then POFQ.
The only choice at CSR would be a suite or 1 bedrooms so I agree that would not be an option for me. Other choices could be a DVC rental on a studio that sleeps 5.
I will always say POR- I love that resort and the rooms were just renovated.
We are a family of 5 and have done POR and CBR (before they were refurbished). We didn’t have issues with buses at either resort. CBR was in Sept 2016 and POR was May 2018. We preferred POR. We liked the vibe better and I didn’t feel like the main area was as far away from our room. I felt like CBR was bigger than POR. AoA was more expensive and I didn’t like the bed set up. I also didn’t want to do the cabins, as you can be pretty far away from the action.
We are taking a 6th person with us in Nov 2021 and doing 2 rooms at ASMo. But my DH plan on going back to POR at some point, even if it was just us.
Thank you! We are also not interested in the cabins and I think doing DVC would be more $ then CBR or POR. I think those would be our max budget.
One plus of CBR is the sky train which would be neat to try and I’m sure convenient. I love the vibe of POR too.
What week in March 2022 are you thinking? I can tell you about what dvc resorts would cost if you want to consider a rental. Generally, the cost is about the same as a moderate but you generally cannot change dates or cancel. It does not work for everyone.
We would be arriving Saturday March 20 for 7 nights. We would want to be able to cancel as we are coming from Canada and are still unsure if things will actually open up by then for us to go! I would love to get an idea of the cost though!
I didn’t read all the responses so forgive me if it’s a repeat. I have a family of 5 and we’ve done 2 things: 1) get 2 rooms at a value resort with an adjoining door. They guarantee this if there are only 2 adults in the group (at least they did before); 2) get a family suite at the AOA. I liked the family suite better b/c I didn’t have the anxiety of worrying if we’d get the adjoining rooms. We were traveling with a friend who needed his one room and wanted to be next to us. That wasn’t possible at the AOA so we were far away from each other, but it still worked out ok.
Do you rent a car or just use Magical Express? When renting DVC, you don’t have to pay for parking. Something to consider for future trips when traveling is less volatile.
Will you have a car? Both resorts are spread out. We always have a car so I have never been concerned about the resort size, but if you are only using Disney transportation then CBR gives you easy access to the Skyliner which is a big plus.
We will not have a car so the Skyliner is definitely appealing at first glance although I haven’t read much about it and don’t even know how wait times are etc!
We experienced some wait times in the morning for HS (but nothing outrageous). At other times of the day there was minimal to no wait. And we didn’t wait for Epcot.
If you plan to eat at the resort I would check out some menus for each resort too. We pick resorts based on the food options, even if we only plan to eat a few meals at the resort during the trip.
And with CBR you can can count Riviera too if you select Jamaica or Aruba (which I think is where the 5 person rooms are) plus with the skyliner you have access to BW, BC&YC and swandolphin restaurants with a quick skyliner hop over.
