What DVC Resort Works Best?

Kman

Well-Known Member
We are planning a 12 night stay at WDW next November. We have already rented points for the first 5 nights at Poly for the four of us (me, wife & 2 late teen boys). I have a 2nd request into Dave's for the other 7 nights at Poly but I have a feeling that might be tough to come by. I am starting to think we might split our stay by going to another resort for the other 7 nights. We were thinking BLT or WL but there are key differences. We are staying in a studio to control costs and the reason we chose Poly was because they have the fold down bunk which means the boys don't have to sleep together (understandable in my eyes). WL has the same thing. BLT would be great but it doesn't have that- only a queen bed and queen pull out sofa. I have suggested that we could go to BLT if one of the boys would sleep on the floor if they refuse to be in the same bed. It just seems to me that even by doing that that the room might feel VERY small at BLT.

Any comments or suggestions?
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
I'd give your kids the choice. Share the bed, or sleep on the floor. It's not like you will be moving around all that much while they are asleep, so the room shouldn't feel that much smaller. Heck, keep the sofa the sofa, and then it takes up really no extra room at all.
 
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Kman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'd give your kids the choice. Share the bed, or sleep on the floor. It's not like you will be moving around all that much while they are asleep, so the room shouldn't feel that much smaller. Heck, keep the sofa the sofa, and then it takes up really no extra room at all.

I like that and feel the same way...you're getting a free trip to WDW- stop complaining!
 
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Jess G

Well-Known Member
I would do WL in your case. It will be a nice switch as far as theming goes. And its very nice there in November. I was in WDW last month (November) from the 7-20th and by the end of my stay most resort Christmas trees were up and park decor was done. WL is so nice towards the holidays... Also I think if you choose WL you will be in a newly renovated room.
 
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LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
I would do WL in your case. It will be a nice switch as far as theming goes. And its very nice there in November. I was in WDW last month (November) from the 7-20th and by the end of my stay most resort Christmas trees were up and park decor was done. WL is so nice towards the holidays... Also I think if you choose WL you will be in a newly renovated room.

If the converted studios at WL have the same square footage as their former standard room, those will be small studios; I found the standard rooms at WL to be the smallest of the deluxe resorts. A standard room at WL is 340 sf; a deluxe studio is 356 sf. So unless Disney expands the foot print on the converted rooms, they are going to have to shoe horn everything the studio over at the DVC building has into 16 less square feet. Given that the studios at Poly are the largest on property, I'd keep my fingers crossed that the reminding days of your trip are at Poly. Otherwise, ask for a studio in the DVC building at WL. Will the converted studios be part of the Boulder Ridge or Copper Creek inventory?
 
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mouse_luv

Well-Known Member
WL or Boardwalk for the layout of the studio, or even AKV. Otherwise, youre likely to feel really cramped esp in BLT, which I'd never do in your case. Another option is OKW which has the most room in a studio at 390 sq ft. and still has 2 beds. There's VGF, and the studio has the layout you'd need but it's not easy to score a room there.
 
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LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
WL or Boardwalk for the layout of the studio, or even AKV. Otherwise, youre likely to feel really cramped esp in BLT, which I'd never do in your case. Another option is OKW which has the most room in a studio at 390 sq ft. and still has 2 beds. There's VGF, and the studio has the layout you'd need but it's not easy to score a room there.

Square footage in a studio at OKW is 376, not 390. The OKW studio is basically a standard deluxe resort room with two beds, no pullout sofa like standard rooms at GF, with a closet and kitchenette, in addition to the full bath.

A studio at Poly is 465 and a studio at GF is 374. Both Poly and GF studios have the Murphy bed. Poly, thus, has no dresser, but there are two large drawers under the bed and under bed storage for suitcases, along with storage drawers in the vanities in both bathrooms.

Personally, with two boys, I'd go with a cabin at Ft. Wilderness. Moderate resort in pricing, but full kitchen, separate bedroom (hope the renovations switched the bed on the bedroom from full to queen) and the boys can sleep in the sleeper sofa in the living room.

@Kman, how old are your sons? If they really don't want to sleep together, there may be room on the floor of the living room for one to sleep in a sleeping bag in the cabin. Or the smallest could take one of the bunks in the bedroom.

The allears.net channel on YouTube has videos of just about every room, both standard and DVC, at WDW. Helpful for those resorts you're not familiar with.

Good luck!
 
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mouse_luv

Well-Known Member
Square footage in a studio at OKW is 376, not 390. The OKW studio is basically a standard deluxe resort room with two beds, no pullout sofa like standard rooms at GF, with a closet and kitchenette, in addition to the full bath.

A studio at Poly is 465 and a studio at GF is 374. Both Poly and GF studios have the Murphy bed. Poly, thus, has no dresser, but there are two large drawers under the bed and under bed storage for suitcases, along with storage drawers in the vanities in both bathrooms.

Personally, with two boys, I'd go with a cabin at Ft. Wilderness. Moderate resort in pricing, but full kitchen, separate bedroom (hope the renovations switched the bed on the bedroom from full to queen) and the boys can sleep in the sleeper sofa in the living room.

@Kman, how old are your sons? If they really don't want to sleep together, there may be room on the floor of the living room for one to sleep in a sleeping bag in the cabin. Or the smallest could take one of the bunks in the bedroom.

The allears.net channel on YouTube has videos of just about every room, both standard and DVC, at WDW. Helpful for those resorts you're not familiar with.

Good luck!


The part that is bolded..You might want to talk to Disney's official site as well as David's DVC and many others about that, since they have it listed at 390 sqft and so I stand by what I said previously. https://www.dvcrequest.com/old-key-west.asp
 
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Kman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Square footage in a studio at OKW is 376, not 390. The OKW studio is basically a standard deluxe resort room with two beds, no pullout sofa like standard rooms at GF, with a closet and kitchenette, in addition to the full bath.

A studio at Poly is 465 and a studio at GF is 374. Both Poly and GF studios have the Murphy bed. Poly, thus, has no dresser, but there are two large drawers under the bed and under bed storage for suitcases, along with storage drawers in the vanities in both bathrooms.

Personally, with two boys, I'd go with a cabin at Ft. Wilderness. Moderate resort in pricing, but full kitchen, separate bedroom (hope the renovations switched the bed on the bedroom from full to queen) and the boys can sleep in the sleeper sofa in the living room.

@Kman, how old are your sons? If they really don't want to sleep together, there may be room on the floor of the living room for one to sleep in a sleeping bag in the cabin. Or the smallest could take one of the bunks in the bedroom.

The allears.net channel on YouTube has videos of just about every room, both standard and DVC, at WDW. Helpful for those resorts you're not familiar with.

Good luck!

We are very familiar with the cabins- have stayed in them many times. The 'boys' are 18 & 20 so they are all grown up (physically) and need the room and. My wife and I would love to stay in the cabins but this is part of the promise to stay in a monorail resort for once. Reading all of these great posts it really sounds like BLT is not a good option and I am not willing to spend more for a 1 bedroom suite. If we can't get the other 7 nights at Poly then I might have to look at something else. WL is a family favourite although we have never stayed so we might consider that. The other option I was thinking about was breaking down the 7 nights into two smaller stays of 4 & 3 nights at Poly and see if that smaller number of points is easier to get or at least I might be able to get one of those. Might be worth a try

Thanks everyone for all of the info.
 
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mouse_luv

Well-Known Member
We are very familiar with the cabins- have stayed in them many times. The 'boys' are 18 & 20 so they are all grown up (physically) and need the room and. My wife and I would love to stay in the cabins but this is part of the promise to stay in a monorail resort for once. Reading all of these great posts it really sounds like BLT is not a good option and I am not willing to spend more for a 1 bedroom suite. If we can't get the other 7 nights at Poly then I might have to look at something else. WL is a family favourite although we have never stayed so we might consider that. The other option I was thinking about was breaking down the 7 nights into two smaller stays of 4 & 3 nights at Poly and see if that smaller number of points is easier to get or at least I might be able to get one of those. Might be worth a try

Thanks everyone for all of the info.
If you already have Poly booked for part of the trip then you fulfilled your promise to stay in a monorail resort. As far as what else you want to do, I would def not try BLT b/c of size and instead try another resort like VWL or another suggested in previous posts here on the thread. Good luck!
 
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Kman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
If you already have Poly booked for part of the trip then you fulfilled your promise to stay in a monorail resort. As far as what else you want to do, I would def not try BLT b/c of size and instead try another resort like VWL or another suggested in previous posts here on the thread. Good luck!

I think you might be right. I have to admit that if we could do the whole stay at Poly I would be really happy...I love that resort and would LOVE to stay there the whole time. That being said I would be happy anywhere frankly....as long as we are at WDW IMO.
 
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LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
We are very familiar with the cabins- have stayed in them many times. The 'boys' are 18 & 20 so they are all grown up (physically) and need the room and. My wife and I would love to stay in the cabins but this is part of the promise to stay in a monorail resort for once. Reading all of these great posts it really sounds like BLT is not a good option and I am not willing to spend more for a 1 bedroom suite. If we can't get the other 7 nights at Poly then I might have to look at something else. WL is a family favourite although we have never stayed so we might consider that. The other option I was thinking about was breaking down the 7 nights into two smaller stays of 4 & 3 nights at Poly and see if that smaller number of points is easier to get or at least I might be able to get one of those. Might be worth a try

Thanks everyone for all of the info.

Yes, I can see why they'd not want to share a bed! And they wouldn't fit in the bunk beds, either.

I like the renovated cabins, except for the lack of a stove (sorry, Disney, a two burner cook top and convection microwave is not an adequate substitute for a stove). I kinda liked the Murphy bed, too.

Hopefully, you will be able to get all the nights at Poly. That split bath will be a godsend with two adult sons....

I just purchased additional points at Poly. DVC was running a special for existing members, so I took advantage. Those new points for 2016 were combined with 2017 points to cover my stay next April for the SW Dark Side Half Marathon.

Good luck!
 
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LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
The part that is bolded..You might want to talk to Disney's official site as well as David's DVC and many others about that, since they have it listed at 390 sqft and so I stand by what I said previously. https://www.dvcrequest.com/old-key-west.asp

Interesting. I got the room size from a friend's GF who works for DVC - and it's his home resort. I never stayed there until my trip in 2014, so I asked the "expert". He hates it because it's less like a DVC room and more like a standard hotel room. Maybe that explains the discrepancy in room sizes, lol.
 
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TXDisney

Well-Known Member
Depends what you're doing if I want to go in the pool I always look for Beach Club Villas. I also look there if I'm going during the F&W festival. It's our favorite but we do like to mix it up. If money isn't an option GFV is great
 
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brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Interesting. I got the room size from a friend's GF who works for DVC - and it's his home resort. I never stayed there until my trip in 2014, so I asked the "expert". He hates it because it's less like a DVC room and more like a standard hotel room. Maybe that explains the discrepancy in room sizes, lol.

Hmmm...that's interesting to me. I find that the OKW studio is the least like a hotel room and most unique studio accomodations on property. Every other resort has DVC studios that are standard hotel room shaped with a layout almost exactly like many hotels that I have been to - walk in and there are the bathroom area/kitchenette, and closet on the two sides; then a little bit of 'hallway' and then the 'bedroom' area. While many hotels have a reversed version of that, you are still looking at a basic rectangle with the bath and closet cut out of one end. The OKW studios, by contrast are shaped quite uniquely and about the only rooms where you don't see into the kitchenette and bathroom area when you walk into the room. And since they were the very first DVC, wouldn't they be the standard for what a DVC room is like? I was sad when the other DVC additions started coming along and they were all basically hotel rectangles.
 
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