Best Disney Owned Resort for a Four-Year-Old?

We're going to be taking our four-year-old to Disney World for the first time in the late spring and we want to stay at a Disney Resort. We REALLY want to stay at Disney's Wilderness Lodge because it's the highest rated Disney resort and we know our son will love the animals. However, we haven't been able to find the timeframe we're looking for at this resort yet.

Does anyone have recommendations for the best Disney Resort for our family to stay at in the Orlando area?

The late spring 2011? You are almost (if not entirely) too late for a DVC exchange, unless you catch a cancellation. At this point, I would list them all and take what you can get, unless you are willing to change your intended visit dates.

As an aside: Animal Kingdom Lodge is the resort with the animal viewing areas. Wilderness Lodge is highly rated by families, but does not feature animal viewing areas.

Thanks for the information. I'm actually using RCI to exchange into DVC in Orlando. We have a couple of options at DVC with dates that will work for us, but I'm not sure if some if some DVC resorts are better than others for families with young children because I am not really familiar with the DVC resorts.

I would want a resort with a zero entry pool - like Animal Kingdom villas or Saratoga. Both of those resorts also have water play features that are nice for that age.

Any of the resorts would likely work well.

My personal favorite is the Animal Kingdom Lodge- it is lovely, with a quiet ambience and great (but a little unusual) dining options. AKL is however a bit far from all parks except for the AK park and Blizzard Beach water park. If you will have a car rental, AKL is a snap.

The Beach Club Villas are popular with families with kids because there is a great zero entry pool. This resort is walking distance to EPCOT and you can travel by boat to the Hollywood Studios park. I personally find BCV to be a little too frenetic and have no real interest in staying there. The Boardwalk Villas is very close to the Beach Club (walking distance). It has a nice ambience but the pool area is a little tight in my opinion.

The Wilderness Lodge is a boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom and would be pretty swell for a 4 year old. Great Western theme, a fun casual restaurant & I believe the water pageant goes right past. The Wilderness Lodge is next to Fort Wilderness campground and there are some fun character meals there and the always fun Hoop de Doo Revue. There also used to be free outdoor Disney movies at FW, but I am not sure if they are still doing that.

Bay Lake Towers is at the Contemporary Resort and is walking distance to the MK. Because of park proximity, this would be a good choice for you IMHO.

Saratoga Springs and Old Key West are nice enough, in the Downtown Disney vicinity. Neither resort has ever wowed me very much, but they would still be great places to stay and being close to DTD is a plus.

Overall, if you plan on renting a car (which I think you should), I would suggest in the following order: AKL, WL, BLT, BCV, BWV, SS, OKW. If you will nor rent a car I would change my rank list to be BLT, WL, BCV, BWV, AKL, SS and OKW.

H

My two cents:

For small children, I would recommend Bay Lake Towers. It has direct Monorail access to the Magic Kingdom. There is also a short walking path from BLT to the Magic Kingdom if you decided to walk. Because of your small children the Magic Kingdom most likely will be your most popular park.
Chef Mickey's is also close by in the Contemporary Resort. Contempo Café, Cove Bar, Sand Bar are counter service restaurants. There is also The Wave and California Grill (signature.)

Animal Kingdom Villas is a great resort too. It is the most themed resort, and the animals, activities, pools, water play areas are wonderful; it is a vacation within a vacation. It is an experience waking up to giraffes outside your balcony. The only draw back is it is further than the other resorts and transportation is the Disney Bus System, which sometimes people complain on the wait. If you are driving your own car or do not mind the inconvenience, you should be fine. We personally have not had a problem with the bus, but I have read complaints.

If you are staying at Kadani ( Animal Kingdom Villas), eating choices are very limited, however "Sanaa" is a very good restaurant with views of the animals. There is also transportation between Kadani and Jambo House (Animal Kingdom Lodge)where there is Mara (counter service) Boma(buffet) and Jiko restaurants, a signature restaurant.

Wilderness Lodge is a popular among many families. It is a beautiful resort, has a great theme, plus uses boats or buses to the Magic Kingdom. The bus system is used for all other parks. There are also nice family choices to dine, Whispering Canyon, Roaring Fork(counter service) and Artist Point (a signature).

There are other Disney Resorts: Saratoga Springs, Boardwalk Villas, and Beach Club Villas.

However, if it were me I would choose 1. BLT 2. Wilderness Lodge 3. Animal Kingdom (only 3 because of distance, but a toss up depending what you want) the theming and animals are very cool, plus the rooms are very nice and also themed.

What ever you choose I am sure you will have a great time! Good luck!

She said she's exchanging in through RCI, so Bay Lake really isn't an option. I would suggest Wilderness Club, because you can take the boat directly to Magic Kingdom. With any other DVC (or off site location) besides Bay Lake, it's a bit of a pain to get to MK.

But with no more advance planning than they have, they'll probably have to settle for whatever they can get and they might have to stay off site or rent from an owner.

There was a big bulk deposit of DVC this morning, and there are currently DVC units for April. They're all Studios, except for a 1BR at Saratoga Springs on 4/24. There are a couple 1BR units (Saratoga Springs and Old Key West) in late May, too.

Unless a 1BR (and one of those dates) works for you, I would suggest locking in something off site. (You could always get Vacation Protection on it, just in case something opened up at DVC that you would rather get.)

When I'm traveling with the little ones, I prefer DVC resorts with zero entry pools, playground area and counter service restaurants with kid meals.

Why can't you exchange into Bay Lake Towers thru RCI? How do you exhange into it?

Donna

dms1709 said:

Why can't you exchange into Bay Lake Towers thru RCI? How do you exhange into it?

Donna

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DVC hasn't started depositing BLT into RCI yet, it takes them about 1.5-2yrs on new resorts before they start depositing them. Animal Kingdom was open for quite awhile before deposits started to show up.

For fellow DVC'ers, had no problem booking a 2br MK view for Thurs-Mon of MLK weekend at the 7 month mark.

Thanks to everyone for the EXTREMELY helpful and informative information. I am hoping to get a one-bedroom DVC unit at the end of April or the first three weeks in May, but there isn't anything available on RCI right now. I'll keep looking and hope for another good DVC bulk spacebank soon.

If you really want it, you better set up an ongoing search. You missed several that would have met your criteria with the most recent deposit.

With a child that age proximity to the monorail (and Magic Kingdom) is key so that you can get back from the parks and take breaks and naps without too much disruption to your day. Bay Lake would be best but you won't get it with an exchange so I would vote for Wilderness Lodge. You don't want to deal with the bus system with a small child and a stroller- the buses are so erratic and crowded. The boat from Wilderness is easy and comes very frequently and at four years old it will be great fun to ride on the boat and very memorable.

We just got back from a week at Wilderness and loved it- the restaurant in the Lobby (Whispering Canyon) is great fun for a child that age. Lots of silliness with the wait people and a relatively healthy kids menu to choose from. Make sure to get your reservations for dining 6 months ahead otherwise there will be slim pickings.

We've stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge also and it is nice but soooo far from everything. It is very quiet and peaceful and we loved seeing the animals outside the window and also the overall theme of the resort but it was very awkward to get to other resorts using Disney transportation (we got stranded at the Polynesian with two small and very tired children melting down- ended up using a taxi to speed up the ride home and save the other riders from our misery).

tlwmkw

Beach Club Villas would be my pick, sand beach, zero entry pool, boat ride to Hollywood studios, walk to epcot, boardwalk, and monorail can be picked up in epcot.

you should put in a ongoing search for all DVC

you need to put in an ongoing search and I would include all DVC in Orlando. You have a decent shot for May---but not if you are picky. All DVC are fine for young kids. I have stayed at most and there are no DVCs that I would not stay at with young kids. People started getting confirmed for May last June and there is not a lot of supply.

I had an ongoing search with RCI and I got EXACTLY what I wanted today! I have a reservation for a one-bedroom unit for the dates of April 23-30 at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I'm really excited, and I know our son will LOVE this place because he adores animals (what kid doesn't, right)?

I do have one more question for the TUG DVC experts. I found information about the Disney Dining Plan on the Disney World website. However, I couldn't find any pricing information. Also, we only want a dining plan for 2-3 days of our week, is that allowed?

Thanks again to everyone for you awesome input!

lizfox said:

I had an ongoing search with RCI and I got EXACTLY what I wanted today! I have a reservation for a one-bedroom unit for the dates of April 23-30 at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I'm really excited, and I know our son will LOVE this place because he adores animals (what kid doesn't, right)?

I do have one more question for the TUG DVC experts. I found information about the Disney Dining Plan on the Disney World website. However, I couldn't find any pricing information. Also, we only want a dining plan for 2-3 days of our week, is that allowed?

Thanks again to everyone for you awesome input!

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Congrats! It is a lovely resort and you will have a great time.

When you are there, make sure you spend a little time to talk to the employees you see by the animal viewing areas. They are all in the states for a few years and at home they work with the animals on exhibit. We spent a little time one evening talking with an interesting guy who is an ornithologist. We learned all kinds of interesting things about flamingos and how one goes about conducting flamingo research on wild birds. Who knew flamingos live to be 60 years old?!

My other piece of advice is don't overschedule yourselves. The resort is so lovely that you should just plan on spending a good bit of quiet downtime there.

We ate at Jiko, Boma, Saana, and the Mara. Jiko was hands down the best meal of our trip. It is definitely fine dining and we were surprised to see a number of youngsters eating there when we went- every one of them behaved like a real little lady or gentleman- we were impressed (not so for Saana, which was very loud & chaotic but with very good food).

You cannot get the dining plan for just a few days- must be purchased for every person on the reservation for every day of the stay.

h

You will like Animal Kingdom- congrats on getting the trade.

I would plan to have a car if you are staying there- that way you can avoid the hassles of the buses on the Disney tranport system with a tired four year old. You can go to the other parks and don't have to pay to park there because you will be staying on property- also you can enter during the extra magic hours too.

We've never done the dining plan- if you look at the costs you would have to be a big eater to really get your money out of it, plus we like to use the kitchen in our unit and save some $$ that way (another reason to have a car). We did eat at all the restaurants at AKL and they were all good.

I agree with the above idea to not try to do everything- you will have a better time and not as many melt downs. If you go to the parks early in the morning and then leave at lunchtime when it starts to get crowded then you can go for a swim and relax/nap a little and then go back later. We've done this and it makes the trip sooooo much more enjoyable.

tlwmkw

lizfox said:

I had an ongoing search with RCI and I got EXACTLY what I wanted today! I have a reservation for a one-bedroom unit for the dates of April 23-30 at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I'm really excited, and I know our son will LOVE this place because he adores animals (what kid doesn't, right)?

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Very nice! Check out the unit number on your reservation. If it is 1BSAVSA, you'll have a Savannah view. If it's 1BSTDSA you'll have a Standard (non-Savannah) view room.

great job--how many trading units?

would you mind posting how many trading units that took under the "new" system? I want to see if the Easter time to trade in is the same as the deposit calculator as we will be trading in for next Easter. thanks. Also, there is a super Community Hall (kids club--adult has to stay) at AKV on the Kidani side--lots of free or low cost things to do--coloring, little crafts, etc. HAve fun! Elaine

I used 25 trading units for this exchange. Also, I feel a little sick writing this, but I cancelled this reservation last night. I did not plan well and I had no idea this was an Easter week timeshare! Since I'd rather have hot needles stuck in my eyes than go to Disney World or even Florida for that matter during a major holiday, I had to cancel this week and now I have an ongoing search for DVC for less crowded times in March, beginning of April, May, and the beginning of June.

I'm really disappointed about this because this was the exact resort I wanted. However, I also know I made the right decision because we wouldn't have been able to enjoy our vacation very much during Easter week.

I'll do a BB posting when I reserve a different DVC week. I have received so much helpful information from people on TUG and I really appreciate the help!

The middle and end of March and beginning of April will be packed because of school spring break weeks.

Easter falls pretty late in 2011. We're heading to Orlando the first week of May - that's a nice time to go as far as crowds and weather.

Here's a Tug thread about spring break in 2011. Our elementary schools in the state of Indiana are either the 3rd week of March or the last week of March into early April:

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115932&highlight=spring+breaks+2011

I think you made a great decision to wait a little. I agree with the poster who likes the first week of May. I like it because all schools, including colleges are in session so it will be far less crowded. It can be very warm, though.

We always took breaks during the day and at least one day totally off a week when we took our three kids to Disney. I thought it was best for the kids, but now when I go with just adults, we do the same thing- so maybe it was always for me!

I'd rather have hot needles stuck in my eyes than go to Disney World or even Florida for that matter during a major holiday

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A little off topic, but for those who do have to visit during peak periods, I highly recommend either www.tourguidemike.com or a copy of the Unofficial Guide to WDW plus an online subscription to touringplans.com Either of these resources will tell you how to avoid the crowds and still see what you want to see. I've been during President's Week and peak summer in July, and have had great trips.

lizfox said:

I'll do a BB posting when I reserve a different DVC week. I have received so much helpful information from people on TUG and I really appreciate the help!

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while AKV is nice - it is also the furthest away from the MK - where with a 4 yr old you will be spending alot of time.

think your first choice was the best - VWL. It does have animals - they are just local Floridian animals. You can see squirrels, chipmunks, ducks, birds of all kinds, foxes, deers, and some others that I forgot the names of.

with AKV it can be a long bus ride to the MK.

with VWL it is a 5 minute bus ride or 15 minutes boat ride to the MK.

now Bay Lake Towers the newest one would be the best - it has some great views as well as a 5 to 15 minutes WALK to the MK. You have the monrail for Epcot plus the other MK resorts. (if it works....)