If you had a choice....

[Rosemickey68]

You are a party of 8 (everyone 16 yrs old and up), going for 6 nights/7 days in Aug 2010.......... which would you do and why:

Stay at a 2 bedroom Villa and cook almost all of your meals with purchasing just those few specials meals

OR

Stay at a Pop Century (we would have to book 2 rooms) and get one of the dining plans (which one and why?)

Thanks!

[SBETigg]

That's a tough one. The 2 br villa would be nice, but I never cook on vacation. So, I guess I would choose Pop with the regular dining plan (because unless you're eating at a lot of Signature places, the Deluxe plan is way too much food, and I like a mix of quick serve and table service, so that rules out the quick serve plan).

[Emme&TeddysMommy]

That's a tough one. The 2 br villa would be nice, but I never cook on vacation. So, I guess I would choose Pop with the regular dining plan (because unless you're eating at a lot of Signature places, the Deluxe plan is way too much food, and I like a mix of quick serve and table service, so that rules out the quick serve plan).

Ditto it's not a vacation if I have to cook and wash dishes. All I want to do is relax and have some Disney fun!

[buzznwoodysmom]

I don't even know when I'd find the time to cook. Having to go back to the room to cook in order to have a meal doesn't seem like a vacation to me. I'd rather eat Counter Service for the entire week than have to go back to the villa and cook everynight. Ask yourself a few questions...Who will be doing the cooking? Are you going to take turns or will one person end up doing all the cooking and cleaning for the group? Will you want to leave the parks around dinner time to go back and eat, or are you willing to wait until late in the night when the parks close to eat dinner? These are all questions that would make up my mind for sure. Good luck and I hope you have a great trip no matter what you choose.

[Rosemickey68]

That's what I am thinking ( I hate doing dishes when I'm not on vacation! LOL!)...however my DH (he's the cook!) says it would save us money by having groceries delivered to the villa & cooking our own meals...of course that means cleaning on vacation too! UGH!

DH says we could get out of the park for awhile, he can make lunch, we can swim at the resort or head to one of the water parks (which sadly we have never done), shower and get refreshed, he can make dinner and then we can head back to the parks for evening activities/rides.
Our family has always been the die hard get up at the crack of dawn and head to the park before it opens and go until we can't go anymore.
This time we want to try something different and actually feel like we vacationed and take it easy. We have always gone to WDW feeling like we didn't know if we would ever make it back and that is part of the reason we went in "army mode" before.
Of course we want to do it in an affordable way too!

[Tippy]

If you husband loves to cook and is offering to provide the meals than I think you should take him up on it. People who love to cook find it to be relaxing and enjoyable. So it would be part of his vacation relaxation as well. You have enough people around to take care of the clean up that you can take tursn - don't the villas have dishwashers as well?
I say stay at the Villas if he is willing to cook.

[sisterdisco]

I don't know if you are sold on "on property" or not, but we just returned from Disney and we stayed off property at Marriott's Royal Palms....a 2 BR, 2Bathroom 1300sq ft villa.
We spent less than 200 on groceries for a week and ate really good. They have gas grills there. The housekeepers load and run the diswasher for you. The property is about 1 mile from Disney. Almost every day, we were back by 1-2pm to eat lunch, and then went back to the parks after dinner, or caught the water parks from 5pm-7:30 then ate dinner. I found it to be very relaxing.
If you are sold on "on property", then I would make sure to plan it for the end of August and hope for "FREE DINING". 8 people x $30 per day is $240 per day. For $1600, you can buy lobster and steak every day and still have $$ left over---by shopping at Publix or Walmart.

[Sam&Alex&Josh'sMOM]

If you are going in August, Try to wait till the end of August, and stay at the villa and hope for free dining! That way it is all solved!

[Tinkerbella16]

Free Dining "may" be available for August 2010 again like its been the past few years, so keep that in mind!

I would definately go with 2 rooms at Pop w/ the dining plan regardless if its free or not, but if they come out with the free dining plan again then you should just take it!

Plus staying on property just makes the trip even more magical!

[lyle21]

i vote for villas. btw, which villas?

[Marceline]

We have done a 2 br villa with 8 people and the accommodations were pretty great. It was nice having everyone in one big "apartment". However every time we cooked it made me grumpy as I wanted to be "out there" seeing what The World had to offer. Plus it seemed like so much time and effort was wasted driving to get the groceries....which were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Great memories, but I love the food at WDW so much I am not sure if I would want to repeat that experience.

One thought.....in a 2br villa not all things are equal. If you are traveling in couple as we did, one couple gets a King suite to themselves, two couples get a reg. 2 Queen room and the 4th couple gets sorta shafted and stuck on a fold-out couch. In two rooms at a value...or a moderate....everything is even steven.

I would save the money spent on a rental car "grocery-getter" or grocery delivery and instead take the ME and stay in a Moderate resort.

OR.....I am also with the above poster.....go later in Aug. , stay in a villa and hope for the free dining offer.

[dinahvixen]

Gosh, the Villas with lunch and dinner there sounds very relaxing. It would force you out of army mode - which is what we tend to do as well. A swim in mid-august heat sounds very nice while hubby is cooking! I vote villas!

[Mousemates]

eight folks in a two bedroom villa for 6 nights would be abit claustrophobic to me...unless you are the lucky couple in the king bed with a room to yourself....think about it from the couple stuck with the fold out sofa...you would never have anywhere to go during the day to get away and decompress on your whole vacation.

I'd vote for the value (actually I'd go for the queen beds at CSR) and food. Then everyone in the group has their own real bed and everyone in the group has the same lodging experience.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I don't cook if I can avoid it, never mind just on vacation! I'd vote for the value and the dining plan. I'd go with the basis plan because that's enough food. You can have breakfast stuff in the room to save some money there.

[Tigger&Stitch]

I'm on the "villa" team. My husband and I are healthy eaters, and we found it quite difficult to eat well in the parks (partly because I'm not good with temptation, but also because of the sodium).

Last year, we had a few nights in a one bedroom villa, and it was great - we bought breakfast foods and found that making breakfast didn't cut into our time in the morning, as we didn't have to go to a restaurant - or even the resort quick service - and could go straight to the bus/boat for the parks.

If you are ambitious, you can even pack some sandwiches for the parks and get a locker for the day to keep them in - still cheaper than buying lunch.

While you are checking out the 2 bedroom villas, also look into the new Saratoga Springs Treehouses and the cabins at Fort Wilderness. The latter is a good deal for the money, and close to Magic Kingdom.


Just a note on the free dining - if you stay in one of the Pop resorts, you'll only get the cheapest dining plan for free, which doesn't cover sit-down restaurants (and none of the plans include appetizers or tips anymore).

Grocery delivery is easy and you have a choice of two places - one with a specific list, and another that will buy exactly what you want, no matter how many places they have to go to get it.

[jonahbear2006]

pop and get dining. it has become our favorite part about disney world; the food. We love planning our dining restaurants and deciding on menus on google. I dont see us returning to disney world without the dining plan.

[diz_girl]

I'm on the "if you have to cook for yourself (and clean up afterwards) on vacation, then it's not a vacation team". Vacation for who? Vacation for the ones not cooking or cleaning.

Last year we rented a house in Cape Cod. Cooked most meals and cleaned up after ourselves. This year I went to Mackinac Island, MI and had someone else do all that.

[Maryln8]

We just returned from a 7 night stay at the Beach Club Villa. There were eight of us too. My youngest is twelve,oldest 20. The 2BR was perfect. My girls had their own BR. My boys shared the pull out in the LR. We had the king suite! There were laundry facilities in the unit. We purchased the dining plan. The kitchenette would have been too small to cook for eight. although you could make it happen. We absolutely needed the space and the resort. If this is a dream vacation, splurge. You only have one lifetime. Enjoy every memory making moment. don't toil over the stove etc....

[ransam]

I'd vote for the pop.
first of all who wants to cook on their vacation.
second of all, by the time you got everything together, cooked, cleaned up, you're losing valuable DISNEY time.

[Belster]

I would not want to cook all week and miss out on the WDW meals and special treats...lol. So I would stay at Pop.

Pop is also a fav of mine!