We’re a family of four, two daughters in thier early twenties and my wife, plus me. We want to stay fourteen nights in a moderate resort (we think). We have flights booked for September. We want a bit of freedom so will have a car. Our plan is currently two rooms a Port Orleans French Quarter. We been off site thirteen times so know WDW well and will almost certainly spend all of our time at Disney parks. Past experience suggests we would use the car for our rope drop trips to the parks returning either for or after lunch for a rest before using disney transport to park hop in the afternoon / early evening. Dinning is always a bit tricky as we have a vegetarian with us so need a choice of dinning options.
I would be happy to have any thoughts on this plan or further suggestion.
Exception to the car rope drop plan would be your MK days. TTC will slow you down. Therefore best to use buses for MK rope drop; all other parks car makes sense
I hate the moderate buses and drive to all parks. A liner here (I think it was @Dreamer) taught me years ago that driving to the TTC early morning can be a great plan. I generally hop the resort monorail.
If you guys are late nighters, that deluxe perk might be worth a look in Swan/Dolphin’s direction, compared to the price for a moderate, and also the ease of getting to Epcot and Hollyweird - just in case you haven’t looked. You’ll also have easy walking access to all of the Epcot Area resort’s restaurants. And if you have hoppers, Epcot and Hollywood, but Epcot especially, is a quick walk, or boat ride for meals, too. I think POFQ has a similar “perk” in being a quick trip to the Springs, but I’m a Swolphin fanboy.
In July my rental was the only car in that category and it had 60k mikes on it. This month, I had a choice of cars and my rental had less than 700 miles on it.
We generally always drive to WDW so almost always have a car. We almost always (17 out of 20) stay on property. We almost always use Disney transport to and from parks, almost always rope dropping and heading back to our resort after lunch.
Our vehicle is chiefly used for off property food obtaining.
We like being able to split up and head here or there on Disney transport.
We do like having one sit down meal together most days. Usually we have a person with food allergies. I usually make a list of restaurants we’re interested in and then look at menus on line to narrow down our list. Our December 2020 trip was awful as pretty much every restaurant had the same few choices for dairy free. Might have been ok for a long weekend trip but for a week long trip the menu got thin quickly.
Our list of restaurants might include some trendy ones like Yak and Yeti which was a one and done for us as our dairy free person began to be sick before we’d gotten out of Asia. We also have some family favorites like Cape May. We did not eat at Cape May in December, tho. We also might chose a restaurant based on the theme - Irish - or a particular menu item. Or because it’s a resort restaurant close to a park.
Whichever, our final choices are based on actual menu items. And hope the menu doesn’t change before we get there.
I’d check out Coronado Springs as a moderate that feels more deluxe and with far more food options and ones that are open pretty late. They have a Beyond burger that I still think about!
Saratoga Springs might also be a good option for proximity to Disney Springs for additional dining options that are close. You may also be able to get a two-bedroom with a kitchen here for around the same as two separate rooms.
I found https://vegandisneyworld.com super helpful (both the lists and the reviews) when planning a trip during a time I wasn’t eating meat.
We just got back from a trip where we used the Disney buses for everything. At Port Orleans French Quarter the buses worked very well- we never had to split it with Riverside. We are rope droppers, so we got there way early and caught the first bus. (Example- if the early entry was at 830A, we’d get out there by 7A to get the bus.).
We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge also and used the bus there too. It was great for us bc we were park hopping almost every day so not having to worry about a car was so nice. We only went back to the resort (FQ) mid-day once, and it worked great too/ didn’t have a long wait to catch the bus back to POFQ. My husband loved not having a car- not having to drive was a vacation in and of itself for him.
Anyway, my moderate resorts rank… 1) Coronado 2) VERY close Riverside 3) French Quarter 4)… everything else. I don’t count the cabins as a moderate bc they are a destination, and I’d 100% choose that if I was having an outdoorsy type trip.
I have a policy to not stay in moderate resorts during hurricane season. I have ridden out 3 big storms in WDW- the first 2 were in Coronado and Caribbean . Take @seebee’s advice and stay at Swan and Dolphin. Much better in a storm hits. Also check out @disneyfoodblog for research on food options. I have a food allergy and Disney goes above and beyond for me.
I would pick Swan/Dolphin over the moderates if price is the same, but for the moderates, I love Gran Destino. I prefer the rooms at Gran Destino, but love being able to walk to 2 parks with Swan/Dolphin.
Thanks for the replies all thought-provoking. The Swan or Dolphin option are much more expensive than the current UK offer for Disney resorts. Disney are discounting each room by more than £1000 for the stay at POFQ. Nearly all the reviews I’ve seen (including TP) puts POFQ as the top moderate to stay at.
The Swan and Dolphin would certainly be an option when not taking our daughters, however even thought they are both around 20, boyfriends still get left behind for a Disney trip so that’s not happening any time soon.
I still think we would miss a car for 14 days maybe I look at only renting for part of it there’s still time to consider that.
@janamelia Gran Destino looks good for hurricane season as it is a tower . The strategy for hurricane season is to be in a self contained building. The Caribbean and Coronado are sprawling.
so that’s not happening any time soon.