I had been excited to take our first family trip to Disney and had gotten set with the idea of a family suite at the Beach Club for our family of six. Unfortunately it seems like for the week we want to travel in late September that all the family suites are booked. The cost of booking 2 separate rooms at the Beach Club seems out of our budget but I’m still waffling a bit.
Does it make sense to do the value resort that can fit all six of us ( Art of Animation), pay for 2 connecting rooms at the Beach Club, or consider another option? ( I stayed at Port Orleans as a teenager and loved it). Thinking about trying two rooms at Port Orleans. I was really hoping for The Beach Club to be able to walk to Epcot and heard the pool would be great. Our family has 4 children ages 11,11,9, and 7. Thank you for any advice.
Have you considered renting DVC points? Your family would fit comfortably in a 2 bedroom Villa. Saratoga Springs, Old Key West and Animal Kingdom Villas may still have availability in late Septmeber at this point. AKV has a really good pool (not in the same league as Beach Club, but no other pool is). DVC availability in the EPCOT area (Beach Club/Boardwalk Villas) will be very limited, but it never hurts to check.
I’m not sure what the price of 2 Port Orleans rooms is in late September so I don’t know if this would save money over that option.
Here is a forum post with resources on renting DVC points: Renting DVC
Have you priced out the Swan or Dolphin. It’s usually the cheapest walk to Epcot option depending on whatever convention they have. No idea if anything else sleeps six besides AOA or dvc.
I’ve seen some reasonable rates for the boardwalk villas I think. Still walking distance to Epcot. We have five in our group and ended up at the poly standard rooms because they take five. AOA family suites have two bathrooms which is nice.
The AoA family suites are a good choice. They may cost a little more than 2 value rooms but definitely cheaper than 2 deluxe rooms. 2 bathrooms is a big advantage. The 2nd and third beds are surprisingly comfortable. They would be crowded for 2 adults but if your kids are willing to share they should be fine.
We are a family of 6 and usually get 2 connecting rooms. We’ve done this at POR, AKL, CBR. We find that the extra space and door to close off the room along with 2 bathrooms is enough space. We also prefer 4 real beds as opposed to sofa beds and fold-out chairs. We looked at renting DVC and the suites at AoA but found 2 rooms at the moderates to be cheaper, although then we aren’t at deluxe but that’s ok at this stage of life. This next trip, we are staying in 2 rooms at Pop as we lengthened our trip a bit to 10 days so saving a bit on lodging for 2 rooms was good.
Late September is Food and Wine at Epcot, so rooms at the Epcot resorts will be few and far between.
For that reason, renting DVC points for Beach Club or Boardwalk is unlikely to be possible. And rooms at those resorts will already be filling up.
I would consider two rooms elsewhere, whether Port Orleans or one of the values, depending on budget. Be aware though that connecting rooms are a request and are never guaranteed.
If you did decide to look at renting DVC points for a 2BR at the Beach Club Villas, there is full availability from 5 September until 10 October at the moment - I just checked.
Our family of 6 got 2 connecting rooms at POFQ in 2015, and loved it! For us, the 2 connecting rooms at a moderate are the best option as far as price and amenities. We stayed in the cabins at Ft. Wilderness previously, and still prefer the 2 connecting rooms option. The cabins only have 1 bathroom, and the transportation is quite a bit more hectic there if you are relying on the bus system.
Glad you made a decision. Just be aware that the connecting rooms aren’t guaranteed. Make sure you add a request to the reservation and hopefully they can accommodate it.
As long as there are more children than adults, you will be guaranteed connecting rooms. I have checked and double checked this over the years (as recently as 2 months ago) to be sure when I have booked connecting rooms. We are a family of 2 adults and 4 children, they have always told me the connecting rooms were guaranteed.
And yet we have people on here and other forums who had to split up the adults because they did not get connecting rooms, and were even in different buildings.
Clearly they will try to accommodate it but they can’t guarantee it.
Yeah, more kids than adults really doesn’t make sense anyway. So what? Now, if you have more rooms than adults, then I’m betting they’ll guarantee connecting rooms. 1 adult and 5 kids, yeah, probably shouldn’t split them up.
I may be doing this next year with 2 adults and 3 kids so I’m hopeful that it works for us.
I booked 2 rooms for 3 kids and 3 adults. We had to have at least one adult for each room. We requested connecting and was advised they would put it on the reservation, but it was not guaranteed.
