Insisting on staying a hotel when we go to Disney World. Sister wants a holiday rental

[Moru]

My sister and I are best friends. We have young children who are similar ages. We are taking them to Disney World as a very special holiday next year. But we are sort of at an impasse. I do t want to stay in a holiday let as I can’t be arsed to sort out meals and don’t want to tidy up. Our husbands are hands on but it just seems too much. Sister thinks it would be more fun and easier to stay in a holiday let. She doesn’t want to eat out for every meal. I also know I will miss simpler, home cooked meals on day 7 but we can find work arounds ie making salads/sandwiches. I prefer the idea of hotel which is so much less hassle. Sister says she will find it claustrophobic. The hotels are family rooms with suites. We would get separate rooms. We could also play socialising in the evenings by ear. Spend time together and have a drink when we felt like it. Spend time away from each other if we are exhausted for e.g.

Who has the right idea?

I want a break too. I don’t want to even have to think about meals after 8 hours in the park.

Have you been before? Genuine question in order to try and aid your decision.

You stay in a hotel with your family, she stays in a holiday let with her family, meet up during the day. Simple solution!

I’ve been as a child. My kids are 5,4 and 2.

Go to somewhere next to a strip of huge restaurants. Like I drive and then you can eat out all the time if you want without being tied to Disney dining which is extortionate if you're not on the plan and the plans are much much worse than they used to be. It'll also be near Walmart etc if you want to buy food in. It can get very expensive eating out in the US now so having choice is better.

Neither of you are wrong but if you can't agree on this, it's a sign you may have different holiday plans in mind...

How old are your children? That also makes a difference.

Personally I would go for the villa option. A pool for down time, you can eat out or order in as much as you like, you can make simple meals, and a bit more space to spread out and get away from each other. I have done Disney with two pre-schoolers in a hotel room - they needed to sleep, and we took it in turns for one of us to go back to the parks as a single rider, and one of us drinking a beer in the bath because they were asleep in the dark room. Fine, but I wouldn't have wanted that to be our whole holiday (we travelled around a bit including renting a condo).

A condo apartment could be your solution if it had pool, restaurants etc on site. I would seriously consider getting two so your two families have time apart and can do your own thing, especially as there are clues now you might not have the same ideas!

You've got to consider how you will get to the restaurants with DC that age. You could be spending a lot of time on the resort buses with whingey hungry children. I'd opt for villa and car. You can have a car in the hotels but they charge you a lot to park them now.

I'm with your sister. Compromise and stay in an aparthotel. That gives you cooking facilities if you want them, but has all the other benefits of a hotel such as cleaning and restaurants when you want them.

I don’t see why you have to stay together?
if she wants a holiday let, great. If you want the hotel, book it for your family.
You guys will be spending so much time together (and perhaps could add a few days either side of Disney at a separate location together) that it might be nice to have some separate space in the evenings/first thing.
Too many people, especially when combining families, in a small space is a recipe for disaster.

OK, my personal preference is a Disney hotel as I couldn’t be bothered with travelling in each day & parking and like the early opening hours benefits of staying on site. However, I wouldn’t say the eating options are any easier as you often have to make reservations at Disney restaurants and they are, as to be expected, very overpriced. Also, with kids that young, I don’t think you’ll be at the parks all day. My 2 older children couldn’t last all day and were happy to play by the pool in the afternoons.

The hotel rooms are cramped & noisy too 😬

The dream is to have a villa on site, but those are few and far between!

Are you looking at an on-site Disney hotel or an off-site one?
Is your sister planning to rent a cars to travel to the parks?

My choice would be an onsite hotel with the benefits of Disney transport and a dining package if there's an offer on at the time of booking.

Second choice would be a villa with car rental for the extra space and freedom although driving and parking at the parks can be more time consuming than expected.

I wouldn't want to stay in an off-site hotel as resort transport links can be limited or if you rent a car, you've got the driving and parking hassle with less space plus the issue of having no space to relax once the children are in bed.

Have you priced up staying on site with the dining plan? If you are only doing Disney then there’s little point being off site and travelling in and out?

Just seen you answered with the ages of your children. Mine were 4 and 2.

At 5, 4 and 2, taking them on holiday to Disney (you don't say when you are going but I hope it's not the summer as will be very hot and humid?) is not a break for you. You will have fantastic moments, and I hope you have a wonderful time, but a break - no. Same shit, different place. Slapping a bowl of cereal in front of them, or not, is not the hard part!

I’d do with the an onsite Disney hotel. It makes so many things much easier. Transport, early hours, meal plans. You can always get a hotel room that has a little kitchenette for when you want to eat in.

An on site Disney hotel is my preferred option, less faffing re transportation

I would much prefer to stay at the same place. I don’t want to have to thing about the logistics of meeting up. If we are miles apart we won’t be able to switch in and out with looking after kids. The plan is to give each other some time off when possible. Even if that’s one couple just going for a supermarket run and a coffee.

Hotel all the way for me. The main reason is I would hate to share accommodation with another family, even if we are close and friendly. The closeness and "getting on well together" for most people is usually in smaller doses than a stint at Disney World for a week or so. Then clashes can happen. Bathrooms all occupied, tick, someone's idea of cleaning up is another person's nightmare, can't discipline kids other than your own, different food likes and dislikes, and timings for eats. Can't have an argument with the other half in peace ha ha. And so on.

You get the drift. Meeting up during the day is great, but privacy and kicking the shoes off without having to be "on" all the time with others is even better.

You go to hotel. Sis goes to villa or whatever. Sorted.

I'm at Disneyworld at the moment. We've only ever stayed in a villa, we're about 15 minutes drive from the parks. Other than breakfast and a few basic meals like scrambled egg on toast for the kids, we don't really cook meals here. We've been to a couple of restaurants outside Disney but other than that we just eat at the parks. Yes its expensive but so is the food in Walmart! We factor the cost in to our planning and saving.

If both families rent a villa you would need 2 cars, so you could do your own thing. I've never done Disney with a toddler, but we're taking it a bit slower this year and still averaging 15000 steps a day. Only you know how your DC would cope and how much rest they might need.

We did a villa. It was perfect. We did the parks in the morning and then went back ' home' in the afternoon. The kids played in the pool, we re ad our books, chilled, Had a nap etc
Then we went back for the evening when it was a little cooler and less crowded and stayed for yhe parades and fireworks etc
Having a car meant we could explore too and we did Kennedy space centre and clearwater beach

On site Disney hotels are great but expensive and quite claustrophobic with a toddler and young children. You do spend quite a lot of time stuck in a hotel room with sleeping children as opposed to sitting outside by the pool while the kids slept in the holiday let.

We did half and half when they were that age and the holiday let was more relaxed. We ate out for most main meals, had cereal for breakfast and could pop home from the parks for the youngest to have a sleep while the others played.

However, the Disney hotel was great fun, amazing service (anything you buy at the park is whisked to your hotel room for you, they made reservations for us everywhere and we're so helpful) and the extra time before the parks open to the public are great.

Our trip coincided with two birthdays and Disney mad such a lovely fuss of them. Amazing memories.

The worst option imo would be a non-Disney hotel. Claustrophobic without any of the benefits.

Im assuming a Disney hotel would be significantly more expensive than a villa. Is money an issue for your Dsis? She may not want to say they can't afford the same holiday as you, and thought they could afford if splitting rental house cost.

As pp have said, on-site Disney hotels offer the huge bonus of not needing a car, early opening hours at the parks and easy transportation there. On the other hand you're going with another family and you have young children so the ability to drive back to a villa with more space, a living room and pool will probably be a life saver. Beware the cost of food in the USA - supermarket food (even miles from the resorts) is extortionate (at least double), as is eating out. A single drink plus pastry/muffin at Starbucks is about $12 each including tax so the best part of $60 for a family of five. Eating dinner out (no alcohol) will be pushing $200 even if you're careful

For me the perfect world is to have your holiday, plan to eat out etc, but also have the facilities of a holiday let, so you can make drinks and snacks.

But if you can't agree at this stage, it's probably best you either don't holiday together of book seperate accomodation I bet you end up enjoying the convenience of her base if you do though

Is budget a big factor? Maybe price both up and factor in food costs?

Also, my tip is, if you can get a free dining package, it may be worth upgrading your hotel to get a bigger dinning package. The most basic hotels often it's one meal a day that's included but mid-range it's 2 and a snack. Id calculate roughly what you would spend per day on food without a dining package and see what option is best from there.

@Moru if you are budgeting for onsite Disney look into renting DVC points - Disney do have villas and we are staying at one ourselves at Christmas - the 2 bed villas for us and my parents basically have a bedroom each plus a living room and kitchen area in the middle. They aren’t cheap but are cheaper for us than two separate rooms.

A cheaper option is Universal Surfside they have 2 bedroom suites and a kitchenette but is Unoversal not Disney which may not suit for your age

Art of Animation also do Family Suites but again pricey

the Marriott Towne Place Suites have some Disney benefits and also a kitchenette (make sure choose Lake Burma Vista ones there are a few) this is actually quite reasonably priced and walking distance to Disney Village

basically there are options to compromise with a kitchenette just need to pick price point!

important though Art of Animation would include food potentially with the Disney dining deal!

You don’t have to stay together, she can stay offsite and you can stay at a hotel. We’ve just come back from a wonderful stay at an onsite Disney hotel and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. It was so easy to navigate around and it meant we could come back in the middle of the day for a swim/sleep etc, before going back to the parks in the evening when it’s slightly cooler.