Yatch club vs AOA for family of 5?!

Hi! We are traveling to Disney at the end of September/beginning of October. We currently have a standard room at the Yacht club booked. However, I just saw that a suite in the Cars section of the Art of Animation opened up, for $275 less than what we’re paying now.

My question is - is it worth the drop in value (dining, location to parks, etc) to stay at the AOA in order to gain more room? We have three boys (8,6,5 at time of travel). We’ve stayed in a single hotel room many times with no issue, but I do like the idea of separate sleeping areas and 2 bathrooms. Not sure how the bus waits at the AOA are? I also think they’d like the theming at the AOA more than the Yacht club, but the pool at the YC is just so awesome. Note - There are no suites available at the YC during the time we will be traveling.

Any input? I’ve never stayed at either of these particular resorts before. Thanks in advance!!! :smiley:

I (myself, DH, and DD5 at the time) stayed in a LM room at AoA in November 2017. The food court is small and not very good, and the buses were the worst I have ever experienced in 5 trips.

The suites have a very good reputation, and it is likely most will say the suites are a good option for a money-save, but if I could stay at YC, I would.

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My personal opinion (and I have a six and eight year old) is that I would always choose a Deluxe resort over a value resort if I could.

And you’re right, the pool at the Yacht Club is known as the best on property. Dining there is very limited, though.

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I really like the YC, but I haven’t stayed at AOA. Our family of 5 had no problem in one room at the YC. The pool at the YC is fabulous. You can walk to Epcot and to HS so no need to rely on Disney transportation (although there is a boat).

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I would definitely pick the Yacht Club. We are a family of 5 also and have stayed there since several times and even now that my kids are all teens, they want to go back there instead of going to a different resort with more space. In my opinion, you simple cannot beat the location and the pool at YC. If you have shared 1 hotel room before and it never caused issues, you will love the YC. You can spend a night at the boardwalk area, have a nice dinner and see the entertainers there and just stroll back to your room. I just cannot stress how nice it is not to have to deal with busses for EP and HS.

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I have stayed at both and would pick YC every time. We’ve done 5 in a room (at CBR) with kids age 16, 11 and 8. Only 2 were siblings, but we found it manageable and I would give up the extra room space for everything that YC has to offer - Stormalong Bay, close proximity to HS and EP plus the Boardwalk.

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Never stayed at AoA or YC (have stayed at BW). As far as buses being horrible at AoA, the gondolas MAY be up and running for your visit, which could ease the bus situation, but I would still pick YC if I could

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Thanks everybody! Going to keep the reservation at the YC :blush:

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I have stayed at BC (in a villa) and AoA family suite. After staying at the AoA family suite, we are only staying in one bedroom villas going forward. The kitchenette was a huge advantage for us at AoA - we made breakfast in the room in the morning and having two bathrooms was very nice. We did not have a problem at all with the buses. And my kids actually liked AoA better - the theming is really fun.

The only disadvantage IMHO and the reason we moved to BCV is, as @bethro23 mentioned, the food court. Many people rave about it but we ended up having dinner 3 times in the food court and I was over it. Moving to BCV meant we had a full kitchen, so we could make dinner a few times (frozen burgers, frozen lasagna, etc.) or walk to Epcot and eat anywhere in the World.

If I had to choose between AoA family suite and a one room, I would choose a family suite, hands down.

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