Getting ready to book for the first week of March 2020!
Current struggle – where to stay?!
It will be me, my husband, DS 8 and DD 5 and this will be our 3rd trip to DW and probably the last big one for quite awhile.
Originally, I planned to stay at Pop Century. We’ve done All Star Movies and AoA previously.
But as I’ve researched more I’m wondering if we should do Caribbean, POFQ, POR or even CSR…
We will be there Saturday - Saturday with 4 park days, 1 day at Universal and 1 off day (I think) and will be driving our own car. Help my indecisive self make a decision!
Then you might want to consider staying somewhere else. I’m not sure if anyone knows what is going to happen to bus service to epcot and HS once it’s running. I think @Nicky_S is the one who always knows what’s happening with the skyliner.
I’ve stayed at both POFQ and Pop Century. I haven’t stayed at the others yet. If those were my options, I’d choose POFQ every time. If you’re looking to save money, then stay at Pop Century, but since this may be your last big trip for a while, stay at POFQ. It has more to offer and the resort is beautiful.
Frequent Pop person here, but if DH, DS5 and I can swing it, we go for POR. Doing POFQ for the first time this July, so looking forward to that experience.
We chose a moderate resort for our July trip, as we love having a nice pool with a waterslide, especially for midday breaks. However, the Pop pools are just fine, too. Skyliner transportation will be interesting to use eventually, but we are bus/car people.
I would go for a moderate, if the budget allows, but Pop is great, too!
For me, the benefits of a moderate do not equal the price difference from a value. Here’s why. As I typically travel alone or just with DW, the extra bit of square footage isn’t that important. Mods typically have a TS restaurant, but as I almost never eat at my resort, this is not really an issue for me. Mods have nicer pools, but I virtually never swim when at WDW. Perhaps the biggest factor is that I can rent DVC points at a deluxe for the same or less per night than a moderate would cost, and deluxes are an order of magnitude nicer than moderates…
I looked into renting DVC points but I would rather have two queen beds than one bed and some kind of pull out couch situation between us and the kids. We used the pool a good bit last trip, so I thinking one at the moderates would be appealing for the kids.
It’s so hard to give advice on where to stay as every family is so different. My own criteria is now “must be a true one bedroom”. For a night or two I can deal with us all in one room (two boys 6 & 8) but beyond that, no way.
Last year we stayed at POR and my kids loved it. DS6 is itching to stay at Yacht Club but no way am I paying those prices. If you don’t want to use the Skyliner, I just watched a review of CSR and will probably add on a night there for our arrival day and then do a resort transfer to AoA. I thought about CBR but decided against it as we’re moving to a Skyliner resort.
Are you all day park people? Where does your resort day fall in your week?
This is part of why I’m so indecisive lol Trying to also decide how I want this trip to look.
Our first ever trip we only had DS and he was just shy of 3. We stayed at the parks ALL day with him napping in the stroller. Last trip we had both kids and my mom and it was a million degrees and crowded so we took afternoon breaks.
I’m thinking/hoping this time around we do more park time. I could see us staying late and possibly getting semi-late starts because my kids Need sleep lol
Haven’t decided when our resort day will be. I’m thinking probably Wednesday. My birthday is that Thursday so I’m also considering how I want to spend that day
Here’s what I would do. I would semi plan out my days and then see how much time I plan to be at the parks vs at the resort. If it’s heavy on parks, I’d go value and save the $. However, my kids were similar in age to your kids on our trip last year, and they couldn’t handle all day in the parks. We rope dropped our first two days and they were done by 1pm. Probably earlier but I pushed it.
However, if you’re not RDing, spending some morning time in a nicer room / at the pools with slides could be well worth it.
I’m a huge fan of the split stay. You could do Saturday to Wednesday in a Value and save some $ and then hop to a Mod - or even a Deluxe for the next three nights.
If you’re going to spend any time at the resort, then I’d go with a moderate. My girls LOVE the pool at CSR and the new rooms there are so nice. That’s one of our favorites and we always stay there if we have a chance.
I have been thinking about this . If you are looking for resort activities for me it is choice between POR and CSR. I have stayed at both recently. Unless you are sure you can get a refurbed room at POR, I would hesitate to book it.
Great advice
I like the idea of looking into a split stay too! Especially since we have our car.
I think our trip will probably be a mix of early mornings and late nights. I love a RD and uncrowded morning in the parks! But my kids aren’t huge early risers any more (thankfully lol!) especially if they are up late the night before.
Has anyone stayed in the Royal Rooms at POR? Are they worth the extra cost? Thinking my daughter would love the theming. The opportunity to go between POR and POFQ for restaurants and pools is pretty appealing.
We stayed at a Royal Room with my 2 daughters who were at the time almost 3 & 5-we were hardly in the room so paying the extra wasn’t really worth it in the end. Just my personal opinion though!
@PrincipalTinker what’d you think of those new rooms at POR? We’re staying there next month in a garden view 5th sleeper, so I figure we have a good shot at getting one. I’ve seen them online and I’m not totally sure what to think!
i have not seen- have they started Magnolia Bend yet? I had the feeling that all the rooms would be about the same, regardless of the side of the resort.
I like it, but it might be because of my stay in a non renovated room. The refurbishment is greatly needed!
I don’t think they’ve started Magnolia Bend yet – they’re still finishing up the 20’s buildings in Alligator Bayou from what I understand, then on to MB.
Truthfully, I like that they’ve gotten rid of the carpet and I like the Princess and the Frog touches, but painting all the wood trim blue? That’s where they lost me.I guess I’ll find out in person in about 3 weeks!
