Hotel suggestions for a 5 & 3 year old?

[skelley12]

Thinking of taking our kids to Disney World (maybe in October?) and staying at one of their resorts. Does anyone have any hotel suggestions for families with kids ages 5 & 3? They have both been before, but have never stayed in a hotel before.

Also, how crowded is it in October? We've been in August and it's still pretty hot, so we were hoping to shoot for a cooler month. The other month we were considering was April, but that might be too close to get a good deal.

Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

 

[goofy4tink]

Oct is a great time to go. A resort is a very personal thing.....different families have different needs and budgets. If you don't want to spend a boatload of money, you might want to look at the value resorts. AllStar Movies might be fun. I love Pop...lots of larger than life characters all over the place.
If you want a bit more room, you can get a suite at AllStar Music or AoA.
If you tell us what kind of budget you have, and if its just the three of you, and what your kids like, we can give you some better suggestions.

 

[minnie mum]

I agree that without some more info, it would be hard to make recommendations, but I'll take a stab at a few observations from personal experience.

1. Kids, especially little ones, don't care which hotel they are at. Give them a TV and fridge in the bedroom, plus a decent pool and food court, and they are in heaven. And once they've been into the parks, they'll be either too excited about that, or they'll be too tired to care about the esthetics.
2. Disney resorts are expensive. Set your budget and then select your resort within the level you can reasonably afford. It is possible to have just as a great vacation at a value resort as at a deluxe. Again, see #1.
3. Unless you have very knowledgeable kids, they aren't going to know or care about the bells and whistles that might be found at the deluxes.
4. Given all of the above, pick the resort that YOU find the most appealing that is also within your budget. Time enough to upscale in a few years when the kids start demanding a stay at xyz resort because that's where their bff stayed. JMHO.

As for the time of year, I think Oct. is great, as its not as hot or humid, and the crowds are moderate or lower. Except for the Columbus day weekend

 

[wysteria]

Any of the All Stars. My son was just turning 4 and we stayed at the All Star sports and he was mezmerized by the big statues and lifesize fooseball guys etc.

I would recommend Sports or Movies All Star for kids that small as the larger than life statues would be awesome.

If they are little girls, the little mermaid rooms over at Art of Animation would be cool too, but they are usually excluded from most discounts.

Pop Century is fun, but I just don't see it as big of a wow for a 3-5 year old as Sports and Movies would be (totally my opinion).

 

[ElizabethB]

October is often still quite hot -- but not as bad as August. If you can stay at a deluxe, I think the best choice by far with two small children is the Contemporary Resort. You can walk to Magic Kingdom with the kids in their strollers. Walk back for a rest or a swim. Then, return in the evening -- again via a short walk with the kids in their strollers.

The other good choices are the other two resorts on the monorail -- Grand Floridian and Polynesian. Any place else, you will be folding up strollers and climbing with kids and strollers onto a bus in order to go to Magic Kingdom.

 

[Rich C]

Thinking of taking our kids to Disney World (maybe in October?) and staying at one of their resorts. Does anyone have any hotel suggestions for families with kids ages 5 & 3? They have both been before, but have never stayed in a hotel before.

Also, how crowded is it in October? We've been in August and it's still pretty hot, so we were hoping to shoot for a cooler month. The other month we were considering was April, but that might be too close to get a good deal.

Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

Let me second the comment on the Contemporary - it is certainly expensive, but the advantage of being able to walk 10-15 minutes out the door to the Magic Kingdom is huge, especially when traveling with little ones. They'll also love watching the monorail come through the hotel lobby.

 

[cheesemouse]

We have been several times when our kids were about the ages of your kids. By far, THEIR favorite resorts are POP and Contemporary. They just LOVED the oversized decorations at POP and were all about the monorails.

We as parents, loved the Contemporary as well. The location just can't be beat for proximity to MK. We spent most a lot of our time at MK when the kids were that age. Being able to walk to MK and then have a super quick monorail ride home was awesome.

As mentioned above, kids just love the pools, no matter which resort you pick. The pool at POP was very large and fun. They had fun games and music in the afternoon.