Families with teens onsite... ?

[limmy]

After saying we are going to have a break and only doing Universal parks last visit, we have decided to add Disneyworld onto next years cruise out of Miami.
7 or hopefully 10 days.

Issue is we love onsite and love the dining plan. We want a full Disney experience.
Other issue is kids will be 16 and 11 and are now too old to share and too tall for the pull down beds.

What do you do?
We have looked at the suites at all stars and AOA but even if the dining plan does get added to an offer these will be maybe only breakfast and are around £11k! 😲

What does everyone do? We would rather stay onsite as don't really want a car. We actually like the buses and other transport and want to look around the hotels etc.

Would we be better off renting DVC and buying the ddp?
Or even just paying OOP and getting an uber elsewhere occasionally?

Am I right in thinking all the crossroads places are shutting or now shut?

We just can't decide what would work best.

[nothingless]

I think renting DVC and paying OOP would work best - unless you're planning to do a character meal for most days, in that case buying the DDP may work out cheaper.

Another option I've seen people do, is to bring a blow-up or ask for a roll-away bed in a regular room, and have the kids take turns on that. Never tried this myself as my daughter's only 3, but there's enough floor space to put a blow-up bed down, and during the day you can stand it up against the wall to save space.

If I remember correctly, the suites at AS and AoA are usually not included in the free dining!

[MFras23]

I remember as a teenager all sleeping in one room at portofino bay hotel. We did what the previous poster suggested and had a rollaway bed. I slept in it for two nights and my brother in the normal bed and then switched. The main downside was I was an early sleeper and the rest of the family weren’t! So I can imagine a DVC or normal villa would be ideal. But when I wasn’t footing the bill I couldn’t complain 😂

[sprocket]

Get an inflatable divider for the bed. Beds are large enough to do that.
They are often called bed guard, bed bolster and used to stop young children falling out. Just use it in the middle instead.

Nobody is to old to share, I spent many occasions on party holidays in my late teens/early 20's sharing beds.

In larger resort rooms, you can request an extra bed, but its not guaranteed and will take up a lot of space.

[BevS97]

My girls shared.

Some of the deluxe hotels have a day bed and one of them would sleep on that but for the most part they shared. On our last trip as a 4 they were 13 & 19.

[jdouds]

Buy a blow up bed or stay in a one bed at OKW. We are due to stay this July which probably won’t happen. This year the cost of a one bed was £375 to include DDP , per night.

[Reneejbeatte]

My boys will share at 14 & 19

[limmy]

Its a boy and a girl and they're 5 years apart and apparently worst enemies. I forgot about rollaways, I didn't even think disney rooms would be big enough but its certainly something to consider thanks.
I would rather pay extra to avoid arguing and for everyone to be super comfortable but I couldn't believe the quote of £11k! (Flights and suite for 10 day, didn't even include dining!)

I'll have to see if they do come out with any dining options and work out whats best from there. Will look into hiring DVC we well as thats a whole new world for me.

[Goldia]

Hi there, my kids are 15 and 13, boy and girl. We've always stayed in one room onsite at Disney. When they were younger they didn't mind sharing a bed, as previous posters have said they are huge beds.

To be honest though in order to keep the peace, as they fought about this last year, we ended up with a boys bed and a girls bed. So DH and DS were together and I was with DD. This worked fairly well, although she is a hugger and I just wanted to sleep. I know many want to share a bed with their partner/husband but given we are all in the same room there's nothing nocturnal going on, so doesn't matter about separate beds.

This year I booked up CBR with a 5th bed in it as i thought it would be great to have the extra bed. But, I'm now not so sure. This is just a pull down Murphy bed and is smaller than a normal single bed. I'm thinking this will create more problems than it solves as I reckon DD won't want to sleep in it as it will not be as comfy as the big beds, DS won't be able to sleep in it as he is now 6ft...So possibly it won't be used and we will be back to boys and girls.

Other options for you. AKL has bunk beds in some of their rooms so would work well for your set up. We've never stayed in one, but could be good as they are full size beds.

[Nemesis]

We are a family of 4 and both of our "kids" will be 21 & 29 when we go! We had a long chat with them and they are happier sharing a room on site than they are being off site. Hoping to stay at YC and GF so the sofa beds will suit one of them just fine.