Tween DS and DD sharing “queen” bed in Disney hotel

[Calelladreaming]

Hello, am hoping to take our kids for a trip of a lifetime to DWF in October 2026. Planning a two week half term trip with 10 days in some sort of self-catering (poss Windsor Hills or The Grove) followed by a 4 day splurge on a Disney hotel, likely Animal Kingdom.

Am completely gobsmacked at how un-family friendly most hotel rooms are with 2 queen beds rather than a queen and 2 singles (FFS, if Premier Inn can get this right….!). I can’t see how this arrangement would suit anyone other than a family group of 2A 1C.

DS will be 12 (nearly 13) and DD will be 11. Would I be nuts to consider getting them to share a queen bed/is it just plain wrong, or would I be nuts not to do this?!

Any views or experiences welcome. The beds look huge so maybe it’s not such an issue to share but I don’t know.

The alternative is to book 2 rooms at double the cost (which would still be cheaper than the “suites” which would have an extra sofa bed or similar).

One option would be to let the kids decide and to offer them, say, £300 spending money each if they’re willing to share which would still be a big saving and would keep them happy/mean they’re not being forced to share.

While we could afford a second room it’s such a lot of money even in the context of the holiday as a whole, and it’s an inheritance that’s funding it so I don’t want to “waste” money IYSWIM.

Thank you!

Yes you are right - I had read DSS. Not got glasses on. Even so, I wouldn't expect them to share at this age.

yeah you're right. I had read that wrong, thought the boy was a DSS

We did Caribbean Beach (moderate resort) last year and DD (10) was in with me and DS (7) was with DH. To be honest you’re all so knackered after the long park days that you fall asleep pretty quickly once your in bed!

We've been to Disney loads - there are different configurations of rooms. You can get a suite at some resorts with separate bedrooms and some resorts have a 5th sleeper - which is a pull down murphy bed with 2 queens. We find the beds a reasonable size - we always end up with our daughter in with us, even if she starts off in her own bed and its fine!

We put dd and ds to same bed when they were younger. The amount of bickering and fighting for the blanket was too much. Nowadays dd sleeps with me and ds with Dh. They would've too old to share anyway. 12 and 14.

Get an adult to share with a child or put pillows down the middle or just let them share without. It is completely standard.

As I understand it a 'Queen' size bed in the USA is only 5' wide? Same as a king size bed in the UK. We have a UK super king (6' ) bed at home. 5' foot beds are not that wide, from our perspective!

Not sure about this hotel specifically but two doubles is normal for the USA. Many families with 3 little ones have them all in together.

I can't really comment on the properness of boy/girl sharing as I have 2 girls and I share with my dd if away despite being adults

DH and I share a 5ft bed quite happily

Yes, they are siblings.

Thanks for the further advice. We'd be in some sort of apartment/villa for most of our stay but but wanted the full 'Disney experience' hence a few days at the end in a Disney hotel - agree we'd struggle with a full two weeks all in a hotel room. Will check out Bahama Bay and Floridays for the first part of our stay.

I'd no idea that some of the rooms may have a bunk or pull-down option, it's not mentioned anywhere on the website but I'll definitely contact the hotel to ask - that would make a big difference. I know Animal Kingdom is further from the parks but we plan to rent a car so I don't think it should matter too much.

Will look at Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach too, but I really liked the look of AKL. It gets good reviews as the cheapest of the 'Luxury' hotels but I need to check whether the 'Luxury' perks you get would be worth it for us - the special late evening opening I read can be 10pm-1am which would be of zero interest!

Either way, I'm glad it looks like we can make it work with just one room, as I'd much rather save the money to splurge on the Premier Lightening Passes for a day or two...

The ones with the pull down as labelled as '5th sleeper' FYI - it is not in all rooms/resorts.

Touring Plans will held you as they have a breakdown of rooms and room types.

I would do as suggested, one chikd with each parent.

Just wanted to say I loved the grove! Going back for a second time over Easter.. so much space. As lovely as disney properties are, we all need our space 🤣

I’d agree with parents sharing with kids, that or someone gets the floor

I wouldn't have done this as a teen but me and my sibling hated each other . Would have rather stayed home. 😂Good solution has already been suggested with mum with daughter and dad with son

Same, I'd rather have slept on the floor 🤣

Here's my take. I have 3 DC.

We stayed twice in a 'fifth sleeper room' at Port Orleans Riverside.

DD (5'0") took the pull down, and 2 boys shared one of the queens.
Second time around, we took a blow up bed for one of the boys and requested extra bedding.

POR is a beautiful moderate BUT this was pre-skyliner, and the buses were fine. Great food court too.

Last summer there were 4 of us.
AKL Kidani Village was beautiful. But our studio room was a queen and a double sofa bed, tricky for 2 DC to share (although they managed with a pillow barrier). So definitely avoid those rooms. Also the (not great) food court is down the road at Jambo Lodge so definitely stay there instead if you want AKL. Personally I wouldn't stay there again.

We also stayed at Pop Century, loved being on the skyliner and great food court. But only two beds. Look at Art of Animation for a family suite. Not sure if Caribbean Beach has a fifth sleeper but that's another option.

i would have them share with the adults.

do be careful, some of the Disney rooms now have the 2nd queen as a Murphy bed/table thing. I’ve only noticed it in the value resorts, but I personally would find it a huge hassle after a long day.

Meant to add, look at renting DVC (Disney Vacation Club) as that opens up more choice. There's a couple of reputable agencies eg David's.

We leave our table beds down permanently!

Be aware that the “5th sleeper” beds are not suitable for adults/teenage children. They really are more of a small child bed.

Have a look at Disney Food Blog and Mammoth Club on YouTube - they do Disney resort reviews so you can see what the rooms are actually like. We loved Caribbean Beach but others hate it - the most common complaint is the “size” of the resort but to be perfectly frank I think a lot of those complaints come from people Americans who are not used to walking much 😜 We walked from one end of the resort to the other in 15 mins, but we were actively choosing to do that to explore, there are bus stops all around the resort as well as 2 Skyliner stations. We were in the Barbados section which meant the bus stop was 2 mins from our room, the Skyliner hub was 5 mins walk and the main food court was 5 mins in the opposite direction - perfect.

Just beware with the Skyliner resorts that your only option to get to Hollywood Studios and Epcot will be the Skyliner - they only run buses to these two resorts if the weather is bad or there is a fault on the Skyliner. So if you think anyone might have an issue with using it, think again about booking a room at one of these resorts.

My brother and I (3 years apart) shared on holiday even as teens, I don't see a problem aged 11/12. Sleeping bag or separate duvets would help. My kids would sleep side by side in a tent at that age and older so not sure why a bed is worse. When my kids were 10, 8 and 6 we put all three in a king size bed on holiday, using it sideways lol.

This is what we always did .

Disney hotel rooms aren’t good value and the basic rooms are small. You might be better exploring a larger room at a cheaper resort, especially if your time in the hotel will be limited and you’ll have little chance to use the facilities you’re paying £££ for. Some options will have the two beds plus a single that folds down from a faux chest of drawers, but these are short mattresses so it really depends on how big you your kids are!

I would caution that AKL is very far out compared to other deluxe options, travel to and from the resort will eat into your park time (aside from Animal Kingdom) and it’ll put you off returning in the middle of the day to refresh yourselves or change. If you’re only doing Disney for four days I would rethink if you’re going to maximise your time there.

Also look at good neighbour options- many of these (particularly the higher end ones) have buses running at similar frequencies to and from individual parks and the standard of accommodation and space available will be much better than what you’ll get at a Disney resort. We’ve stayed at Disney resorts on our last two trips and after the last time with two kids I won’t pay the premium again if I can get a deal on a good neighbour option.

Also re. renting a car, you have to pay for parking per night at the hotel (unless this is a deluxe hotel perk I’m unaware of) plus parking at the actual parks. It’s way more convenient and much quicker to just avail of the free buses/monorail/skyliner.

Parking is free at hotels and parks for Disney Resort guests.

I believe there was a charge a while ago but it's back to being included.

We don't hire a car, prefer to use Disney transportation and Uber/Lyft.