Hoping on the Disney question train. Hotels?

[badgergrl]

So I am starting to plan our dec 2016 trip (I haven't had a vacation in awhile !!). We have been to Disney twice- once for a week when we were child free, once for two days with dd. both times we stayed at POR.

In trying to figure out our best option for the hotel portion of the trip. Our older child will be 6 our younger will be a few weeks shy of his 3rd birthday. We have resources for the trip but hate "wasting" money and want to feel like we are getting a good value.

Options:

1. Just book through a Disney travel agent. Let them deal wih the details. Maybe a free dining plan discount will come out? Gives us option to do a moderate if we are feeling tight or a deluxe if we are not
2. Book points and stay at bay lake towers
3. Use spg points and stay at the dolphin/ swan for free.

I don't have a ton of Disney knowledge - what are the pros/cons to each plan. Wwyd??

[curbsideprophet]

I have not been in years and we are going in Oct. we are staying at BLT. With that in mind, I would go with option 2 or 3.

[stephm0188]

Stay at the Swan for free. We did one year because we had a ton of points. The downside is that you can't use Magical Express from the airport. Still, we saved so much money that renting a car was NBD. It's a great location. We really enjoyed walking to Epcot in the evenings for a snack and entertainment in World Showcase.

[ssmjlm]

If I could stay at the swan/dolphin for free I would do that.

[countthestars]

Well I kind of hate the swan/dolphin so it's hard for me to vote for it, but since it's free it would be hard for me to pass up. If not there, I would go through a TA so they could do everything for me.

Note: I dislike the S&D only because I don't consider them real disney hotels and I am a snob. They also lack theming that makes disney resorts what they are.

[badgergrl]

My DH travels a ton for work so we can stay free almost anytime we travel. So Disney would likely be the only vacation we would potentially ever pay for hotels.

So If paying to stay is better we have that ability too.

I really want to stay at a monorail resort but I am not sure its worth the money.

[ribollita]

I stayed at the Dolphin earlier this year. The pool is great, the restaurants are fantastic. They have an amazing kids club for 4+ that is free when you are dining at one of their restaurants. It's a very easy walk to the Boardwalk restaurants and to Epcot. The walk to HS is a bit long but faster than the free boat most of the time.

All that said, I would wait until your next trip (assuming you go again) because your younger child isn't old enough for the Disney or Swolphin kids clubs, so you couldn't fully enjoy the restaurants. Most importantly, the bus to the MK from the Swan/Dolphin makes a lot of stops IIRC (we didn't go to MK when I stayed at the Dolphin).

Given your kids' ages I would stay on the monorail.