Rethinking where to stay - CBR or POR

[spk926]

DH, myself, DD (7), DS (4), DS (11mo.) are going Saturday-Wednesday over spring break.

Right now we're set with a Little Mermaid room at AoA. I love the theming of AoA and my daughter has always been obsessed with Ariel which is why I went with it. But knowing the room and beds are super small I'm now rethinking it. We'll have the 5 of us plus the baby's pack 'n play, plus 3 car seats, our single Bob stroller, a double City Mini GT and all our luggage. After Disney we're driving to St. Pete Beach and doing 5 days at MIL's beach condo like we usually do for Spring Break which is why we need the car seats and our single Bob. So that gives a little info there.

Our family friend is our travel agent and she suggested either POR with the 5th sleeper or CBR. I know they have suites at AoA but that jumps us up $$$ and is over a $1,000 more than just switching to POR or CBR. The only rooms left at CBR are the pirate ones though and they're far from everything. One has Skyliner access (and we are doing a day at HS) and the other doesn't. The splash pad at POFQ might be nice for our youngest or maybe he won't even be walking by then and it's a moot point??? I don't know! 

So which would you choose? POR 5th sleeper or CBR pirate room? 

[laurenpetro]

We were 5 in a room with no PnP at POR last summer. I would absolutely not recommend that room if you have to add a PnP. It’s a lovely resort but the rooms can’t handle that.

The size of the room is literally the only reason I won’t be back there with the kids.

I’d check the room size at the other resort to see if they’re similar. If they are then I’d stay where you are.

[spk926]

Jan 10, 2020 10:39:33 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

We were 5 in a room with no PnP at POR last summer. I would absolutely not recommend that room if you have to add a PnP. It’s a lovely resort but the rooms can’t handle that.

The size of the room is literally the only reason I won’t be back there with the kids.

I’d check the room size at the other resort to see if they’re similar. If they are then I’d stay where you are.

AoA room would be even smaller than POR or CBR which is why I want to move.


touringplans.com/blog/2011/09/12/what-you-get-for-the-money-resorts/

DS2 ends up in bed with DH and I every night at home anyway so while we'll have a pack 'n play I don't even know if we'll have it set up and used the whole time. I would hope so but this 3rd kid is a totally different sleeper than the other two were and he just wants me and to nurse allllllllllll night long. That's why I was thinking if we did the POR 5th sleeper DH and DS1 could sleep in one bed, DD on the 5th sleeper, and DS2 and myself in the other bed. Unless he starts sleeping alone and through the night before then because if that happens he'll for sure be in a pack 'n play all night. But I like CBR overall more BUT the pirate rooms are so far. And this is why I waffle and go back and forth, back and forth. 

[spk926]

Jan 10, 2020 10:51:22 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

Sorry, I thought you were in a suite, not the standard room. My bad.

I have to be honest: I don’t know how you’re going to fit the car seats and stroller and PnP in any room, even a deluxe. Will you have a car to store some of those things?

Not until Wednesday. It is what it is and we'll make do. We could keep jumping up to bigger and more expensive rooms but it's just not something we want to keep going up in price for ya know? Our travel agent has given us some tips and that with under bed storage if we do POR and it can be done. Tight, but can be done. A neighbor did it in November and made it work with 2 car seats they brought so we'll just cross our fingers and do the same. 

[laurenpetro]

I totally understand. POR really was nice. Fair warning: our 5 sleeper was far from the main building. Like, as far as you could get. That said, we were a 3 minute walk to the bus and it was the first stop so I loved it. I think it was building #24. And there was a pool right outside our door.

Hopefully the baby will be Disney Sleeping so you won’t need the PnP!

[TamiTaylor]

Jan 10, 2020 10:57:02 GMT -5 spk926 said:

Jan 10, 2020 10:51:22 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

Sorry, I thought you were in a suite, not the standard room. My bad.

I have to be honest: I don’t know how you’re going to fit the car seats and stroller and PnP in any room, even a deluxe. Will you have a car to store some of those things?

Not until Wednesday. It is what it is and we'll make do. We could keep jumping up to bigger and more expensive rooms but it's just not something we want to keep going up in price for ya know? Our travel agent has given us some tips and that with under bed storage if we do POR and it can be done. Tight, but can be done. A neighbor did it in November and made it work with 2 car seats they brought so we'll just cross our fingers and do the same. 

Have you looked into the family suite at All Star? What about getting 2 rooms at a All Stars or Pop. It might be the same price as one room or slightly more but you would have extra space.

[MDmomof2]

My only experience is at POR but we had the pull down bed and it makes very good use of the space. I also thought the closet area in the bathroom had a lot of floor space. We stored our luggage there but you could stack the car seats and still have room for luggage. I will say there isn't a lot of drawer space for clothing so if you need to get to your suitcases it will be inconvenient. There is room around the table to store the strollers and the PNP and if you have to set up the PNP at night you could do so by the door. It will be tight, but honestly it would be tight anywhere at Disney with the amount of people and stuff you have!

I agree that the 5 bed rooms are far from the main area, and at night it felt exhausting to walk down there! but we were close to bus stops.

[taratru]

I'd definitely price out a suite at ASM or two rooms at Pop or one of the all-stars. That is a LOT of stuff in a room, even a room you're not in very much.

[curbsideprophet]

What if you rent a car for the entire trip? That seems like it could help with some of your space issues and potentially cheaper than a bigger room.

[Covergirl82]

We stayed in a 5-sleeper room at CBR, with the twin-size pull-down bed. My DS slept in it. Definitely a great use of space. The one thing we didn't like about CBR is the busing. There are 5 bus stops in the resort, and if the bus fills up before your stop, they'll leave and go to the destination. However, it may be better/less busy now with the Skyliner. It was at least a 5 minute walk to the main building and pool, but it wasn't terrible.

[Deleted]

A moderate room will definitely be bigger but still might be too small for all that. I definitely would not try to fit into a single mermaid room. I’d recommend getting the car rental the entire time and keeping the car seats and strollers in there.

I’d also say you won’t regret leaving the single at home. By the time my kids were 3 they spent very little time in the stroller and could have easily shared a single stroller seat with each other by taking turns in it. My “lazy” 4 year old only spent maybe 20% of our walking time in it when we went.

[was5]

Jan 10, 2020 10:22:42 GMT -5 spk926 said:

DH, myself, DD (7), DS (4), DS (11mo.) are going Saturday-Wednesday over spring break.

Right now we're set with a Little Mermaid room at AoA. I love the theming of AoA and my daughter has always been obsessed with Ariel which is why I went with it. But knowing the room and beds are super small I'm now rethinking it. We'll have the 5 of us plus the baby's pack 'n play, plus 3 car seats, our single Bob stroller, a double City Mini GT and all our luggage. After Disney we're driving to St. Pete Beach and doing 5 days at MIL's beach condo like we usually do for Spring Break which is why we need the car seats and our single Bob. So that gives a little info there.

Our family friend is our travel agent and she suggested either POR with the 5th sleeper or CBR. I know they have suites at AoA but that jumps us up $$$ and is over a $1,000 more than just switching to POR or CBR. The only rooms left at CBR are the pirate ones though and they're far from everything. One has Skyliner access (and we are doing a day at HS) and the other doesn't. The splash pad at POFQ might be nice for our youngest or maybe he won't even be walking by then and it's a moot point??? I don't know! 

So which would you choose? POR 5th sleeper or CBR pirate room? 

We stayed in a LM room with 5 people - 2 adults, DD (7) and twin DSs (15 months) plus 2 pack and plays and a double jogger. It was definitely tight, but we made it work. We were also there for 4 nights (3 park days). We drove so car seats were kept in the car. For our second trip we were going to stay at CBR, but then plans changed (MIL decided to go) and we stayed at AOA in a family suite.

My biggest issue with AOA is the walk to the bus, especially from the LM section. It's not so bad in the morning but after a long day at the park and wrestling with strollers on the bus ride back, it seems twice as long. The cafereria is in the same general location as the busses, so it's a long walk to get coffee in the morning or go back and forth to your room. On the plus side, the theming is really cool for your kids' ages.

When we were planning on CBR, I joined a CBR Facebook group. The people on it are very helpful and it is really well moderated. I reccomend checking there about people's experiences with the amount of stuff you have. The bus situation has mixed reviews but most people say it's not an issue. I assume the skyliner has improved the transportation situation in general. Also, they have self serve drink stations throughout the resort. You need to purchase the refillable mug to use them, but it would make it much easier to get coffee in the morning or a soft drink during the day.

[spk926]

Jan 10, 2020 12:12:13 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

Jan 10, 2020 10:57:02 GMT -5 spk926 said:

Not until Wednesday. It is what it is and we'll make do. We could keep jumping up to bigger and more expensive rooms but it's just not something we want to keep going up in price for ya know? Our travel agent has given us some tips and that with under bed storage if we do POR and it can be done. Tight, but can be done. A neighbor did it in November and made it work with 2 car seats they brought so we'll just cross our fingers and do the same. 

Have you looked into the family suite at All Star? What about getting 2 rooms at a All Stars or Pop. It might be the same price as one room or slightly more but you would have extra space.

They are going to be under construction while we're there and only halfway done. There is no guarantee we'd have an updated renovated one.

Jan 10, 2020 19:39:44 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

What if you rent a car for the entire trip? That seems like it could help with some of your space issues and potentially cheaper than a bigger room.

We're going to do that. I looked into it and it's $30 more to rent it for our whole trip Sa-Su instead of just W-Su. We still have to pay for overnight parking at the Disney resort but parking fees and extending the car reservation only adds like $90 total so that's all reserved. Thanks for the idea!

Jan 11, 2020 11:31:15 GMT -5 @lindy said:

A moderate room will definitely be bigger but still might be too small for all that. I definitely would not try to fit into a single mermaid room. I’d recommend getting the car rental the entire time and keeping the car seats and strollers in there.

I’d also say you won’t regret leaving the single at home. By the time my kids were 3 they spent very little time in the stroller and could have easily shared a single stroller seat with each other by taking turns in it. My “lazy” 4 year old only spent maybe 20% of our walking time in it when we went.

We can't leave the single at home. We need it for the 5 days at the beach following Disney. I'm not not bringing a stroller for the 11 month old.  

[revolution]

We've done POR with a PnP. We had DH, myself, DD (5) and DS (13 months) at the time, so 4 people, not 5 though. We were in a Princess Room. The PnP tucked nicely between the bed and door. You could probably shove the car seats and such between the second bed and wall to the bathroom. I might be able to find a pic of the room. What you are wanting to do will be tight, but doable. And when the baby isn't asleep, you can always easily fold up the PnP out of the way.

[revolution]

Jan 13, 2020 15:28:24 GMT -5 revolution said:

We've done POR with a PnP. We had DH, myself, DD (5) and DS (13 months) at the time, so 4 people, not 5 though. We were in a Princess Room. The PnP tucked nicely between the bed and door. You could probably shove the car seats and such between the second bed and wall to the bathroom. I might be able to find a pic of the room. What you are wanting to do will be tight, but doable. And when the baby isn't asleep, you can always easily fold up the PnP out of the way.

The only one I have of the room is the bathroom.  Which made me remember there is space under the sink - you could store crap in there too!  If I knew how to get pics posted in here I would show you.  

[jd15]

we did POFQ with 2 7 year olds and a 1 year old in a pnp. it was fine. we had a double citi mini and only 1 car seat though. although honestly we could have figured out how to stack things.

all the kids loved the pool area and the splash pad.

dh and I loved that the walk to the buses wasn't crazy and the wait wasn't either. from comparing with a friend of mine who did POR, we had the better deal there.

[spk926]

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions. In the end I just couldn't give up the theming of AoA. POR and CBR seems like nice resorts but I really want that 'THIS IS DISNEY' look at our hotel, pools, etc. and AoA gives that. I also wanted to have easy Skyliner access. So we decided to add on another Little Mermaid standard room at AoA. It will allow for enough space and a separate area/room in case the baby needs a quiet place for a nap or if one kid wakes early we can use one room for quiet cartoons while the others sleep, and stuff like that. The kids still have no idea we're going but this weekend I asked DD who her favorite princess was (even though I know the answer) and immediately she yelled, "ARIEL!" which told me we made the right call.

My TA called to add another room and they said because we have more children than adults they guarantee our rooms will be connecting so that's awesome and one less thing I have to worry about.!

[phdmomma]

We just got back from a Pirate room at CBR. The resort was nice, and we were right by the skyliner, a bus stop, and a small eatery. The room was good, but those pirate beds are really uncomfortable, like rock hard. If they had different beds, I would totally stay there again. We bought our trip through Costco, and it was one of the coupe on site options they had.