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!

Why can't they just share? I don't get it? I'm sure we shared beds as siblings on holidays. Like if you go camping and you're all in one tent. Just share. What's gunna happen??

I'm shocked at how many mumsnetters are concerned about room 😳 we did 20 days travelling the west coast of America with 5 or us in one room. 2 teens. It's character building in my opinion 😂
OP, if you do stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge make sure you book breakfast there at least one day. We still go there for breakfast at least twice,even though we rent a villa. They have the best breakfast buffet.

This exactly. They can't be expected to share.

A "family of four" can vary quite a lot though.

There's a big difference between 2 adults and 2 DC of 4 and 6, or 6 and 8, with siblings the same sex and where the kids are still quite small and happy to change in front of each other, and 2 adults and 2 pre-teens, though. Most 12 year olds today are taller than me!

At 11/12 I wouldn't have wanted to get changed in front of any of my family members and wouldn't have wanted to see my dad get changed either. So that means all 4 family members changing separately in the bathroom at least twice a day, which isn't ideal, and also means queen sized beds aren't really big enough to share comfortably.

Surely the best thing is to actually ask them, OP? If they don't mind, go with it, if they react with absolute horror then you'd be better off missing the animal kingdom hotel and just staying somewhere cheaper with 2 rooms and enough beds.

I know when I was nearly 13 I wouldn't have been bothered about going to Disney at all. If it had meant sharing a bed with a sibling, even my sister, or my mum, I'd have hated the idea and would have been begging to stay home or with grandparents instead.

Will it be "the trip of a lifetime" if everyone is hanging around waiting for their turn to a) use the toilet b) use the shower c) get dressed in the one bathroom, and grumpy from lack of sleep due to being squeezed into a small bed with their sibling or parent? Not to mention lack of privacy spending every minute of 14 days together? Sounds like hell to me, tbh.

Thanks for the tips and recommendations various, I will look into all of them. I've posted a few queries on Facebook Disney forums but have had much more useful answers here!

I need to price up hiring a car plus parking (I know it's expensive...) versus ubers and airport transfers.

We like the independence of having a car and as pp pointed out, parking would be free for the days we stayed at a Disney hotel), plus we really want to go to Cape Canaveral so not sure of the options/cost of doing that without a hire car.

At the moment the kids wouldn't mind sharing beds with me and DH (though would object on principle to sharing with each other as they do like to squabble!). Hard to know if that might change come October next year, but yes it's worth asking them so even if they do change their mind I can tell them they agreed...! If the bed sharing is such an issue then we can always buy an airbed. My DD is quite small for her age so if there is an option for a fold-down bed then she'd be fine with that.

They probably would want to get changed in the bathroom but we're used to doing a couple of nights in a Premier Inn and that's not been a problem. And it would be for a maximum of 3 or 4 nights as we'd be in a 2 bed apartment for the rest of the stay.

Again, I can't be sure about 20 months' time but we did Paris Disney in 2023 and they LOVED it (and both cried when we left!). They both love theme parks and roller coasters generally and are very excited about the prospect of going so I'm confident it will be a trip they'll enjoy.

Can they be trusted not to squabble at ridiculous hours of the night? I'd ask them but if either is uncomfortable with it then I'd just have to fork out.

Many Disney hotel rooms are designed with privacy in mind.
The basins are often off the bedroom with a curtain or door, and then the bath/shower and loo are in a separate room off the bathroom.

So 3 spaces for changing, and brushing teeth / hair dying can happen whilst someone else is showering. I've never found it to be an issue.

Touring Plans website is a good resource for weighing up the pros and cons of different hotels and room types. touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/hotels

Buy a cheap lilo out there. And a cheap camping blanket off Amazon or eBay or temu (I have a king-camp, fold up super-small, very lightweight, easy to pop in hand luggage, and handy on a night flight). You can use the pillows from the queen bed. Offer who ever sleeps on the lilo an extra £5 spending money....we've done this a few times😆. In the UK we just take a lightweight camp bed.

Mine always shared - still do and they’re all in their 20’s.
they could go head to toe, or buy a cheap sleeping bag when you get out there so they’re not under the same covers.

Look at Sheraton Villa instead of Floridays. It was cheaper for us, had two large bedrooms with beds for everyone plus a washer dryer so we could travel light!

Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas, Lake Buena Vista Orlando, Orlando (updated prices 2025)

I also second/third rethinking your Disney stay. People tend to stay at AKL because they love AKL. They like watching the animals and the decor. It is not convenient for Disney!
If you’re wanting to feel part of the Disney bubble and transportation and will be spending a lot of time at the parks then go for something much closer to Disney. Pop Century a good shout for transportation. Beach Club/yacht club and even Swan and dolphin are walking distance to two parks. Skyliner/crescent lake resorts are great for magic kingdom (wilderness lodge might be worth a look).

I love Tom Bricker and he’s really great at comprehensive reviews of everything
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-hotel-reviews/
Beware too they tend to reserve the rooms with extra beds for those with a party of 5

If I car is in the budget, I'd definitely recommend getting one. There's loads to see if you want to explore a bit further out than disney. Cape canaveral is quite far, we saw a rocket launch when we went which was amazing

@Linens I guess I wanted to have the full Disney experience by staying in a Disney hotel but also one of the more upmarket ones, because it would be a real treat for us and not something we usually do. I loved the look of AKL, and can see it being a great place to chill for a day before hitting a park in the evening. And if we rent a car then I'm not sure it matters that much if we're not staying so close by.

But I'm quite undecided now!

When we went to DLP it worked really well to go back to our accommodation to have a rest in the afternoon before going back to the park late pm but I'd heard that's just not viable with any of the WDW accommodation as nothing is sufficiently on or close to the site. Do you disagree/do you think it might be possible for one of the 'walkable' hotels?

The other thing you have to remember about Disney is how vast the car parks are (famously, the whole of Disneyland can fit in the car park of WDW). You’ll be parking so far from the gates that they lay on trams to get you from the car park to the actual theme park. You’ll save no time with a car.
I don’t think it’s true at all that you won’t be able to go home? That’s not my experience at all. We have been happily doing just that! Especially the skyliner resorts or monorail. We walk from Epcot back to Beach Club in ten minutes. We’ve done split days at tbe parks from POR and Caribbean Beach as well without even thinking about it. It’s completely normal.
For you guys I would guess you are wanting to go to all the parks and won’t be focussing on one (which is the other benefit of AKL is that it’s near AK!).
AKL Is a Deluxe resort. Rooms are broadly the same across all types of hotel and they are mainly differentiated on decor, theming, transportation, a few perks and sometimes dining.
If you want lovely pool and decor as you would get at AKL then you need to look at another Deluxe - Beach/Yacht club (my favourite), The Polynesian, Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge etc.
Having said all of that Disney makes it very easy to have a lovely time so if you did choose AKL then you’d still have a fab time but it’s just not the ideal choice for someone spending just 4 days at Disney and presumably really wanting to spend a lot of time at the parks.

Ask the kids how they feel ?
I would not pay them to share bed. £300 spending money is such a lot !

Thanks @Linens that's really helpful.

We'd be in Orlando for 13/14 days in total and would probably do a total of 6 or 7 'days' in Disney - maybe 5 full days plus a couple of half days or evenings combined with some downtime, so we wouldn't be trying to cram it all in to the 4 days when we are staying in a Disney hotel. We'd then want a full day at Cape Canaveral and 3-4 days at Universal (4 if we do the water park). I wasn't originally going to do Universal but my kids would love Epic Universe and it's unlikely we'll have another trip there.

But what you say about insanely big car parks/staying nearer and being able to walk to the parks and go back for a rest makes total sense so I will look at those options as that would work better for us. We may be able to ditch the car for the last few days of our stay.

We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and had a break every day bar one - the busses are great. Even just having an hour to chill and re-set really helped!

I'd either share with my DD and have DH share with my DS, get the hotel to bring in a trunk bed (most do them and they're normally free) or go to Walmart and buy an airbed and get the hotel to give you extra bedding. If you do the latter, I'd get the kids to take it in turns to get the "real" bed.

Fwiw, I live in the US and have never seen a hotel room with a twin bed in.

Just a thought, if the hotel doesn't offer a zbed buy a cheap blow up bed from walmart , they can take it in turns to sleep on the floor.

We've done that before.

Sorry @EconomyClassRockstar cross post. Great minds and all that.

We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and they had bunk beds. Unforgettable view of giraffes grazing on the green behind.

We stayed at the Swan Reserve which I'd recommend. All the Disney perks but not an official Disney hotel. I took a blow up mattress for the whole stay as often we had a king size and a sofa bed and would put one DC in the sofa bed and one on the mattress. Both tweens but one very tall and tricky to share a bed.
We had a car but was much easier to walk to the resorts where we could.

They're siblings...unless reason to suspect something untoward why would thuis even be an issue. The more likely thing than inappropriateness is they'll annoy and irritate each other....

And also just the fact that I don’t know many 13 year old boys who’d want to share a bed with their 11 year old sister, and vice versa.