In my family we have four people. Two of them are under ten and don’t take up that much room. They’re past the age where they need five-hundred supplies just to survive, so as long as I stick to my PERFECT PACKING LIST our family unit meets the requirements to stay in just about any room at Walt Disney World. However, I always seem to feel crowded in my resort room!!

If I had baby #3 (which is NOT in the plan for me by the way) that means my options would become much more limited. You see, once you hit Five in your party your resort room possibilities are fewer, and usually end in you dropping SIGNIFICANTLY more money to stay “on-property” in places like the new Art of Animation Suites, Deluxe Villa, or a Cabin at Fort Wilderness. As blended families have become more common, this becomes an issue for parents and step-parents who want to bring ALL of the children to Disney at one time inexpensively. And even more commonly we bring grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, family friends on our trips. Which requires many more rooms. More rooms = more money.

Have you considered renting a house off property?

What I have learned is that at WDW what you don’t pay for in money, you pay for in time. So the more convenient something is the more it is likely to be expensive (the resorts on the monorail are a prime example). However, as long as you plan ahead being off property is not that bad. If a house is 9 miles away from Animal Kingdom Parking lot (which you can determine by using Google maps) once you add in the tram-ride from the parking lot you’re pretty close to the same amount of time (15-20 minutes) you would spend riding a bus from All Star Music Resort to that park (THAT’S ASSUMING YOU CATCH THE FIRST BUS!).

The second week in March I rented “Disney Villa” from Disney Sunshine Villas. We were bringing two families with us for a grand total of 6 adults and 5 children. So we rented a 6 bedroom, four bath house with a pool and a hot tub. During the time of the year we rented (mid – March) the house cost us $1,1195.00 (including taxes). You can check the price for the house when you might want to go by clicking HERE. So if you divide that by 3 families then each family would only pay $398.00!! You wont find anything on property for that! They do have smaller houses if you’re not needing that much space.

The house sleeps 15 people, and has two master suites (a king-size, and a queen-size), another queen size bedroom (with a bathroom across the hall), and three bedrooms with two twin beds a piece (which share a bathroom). The living room has three leather sofas, a 52″ television, a dining room that will seat eight people. It also has an air-conditioned game room with a pool table, sofa and tv, lets not forget the laundry room which saves on packing!

If we would have stayed at a Moderate resort , like Port Orleans- Riverside, it would run just my family $1,651.00 before we got a single park ticket or eat any food. That’s 1,253.00 MORE than what we actually paid to stay a week and $532.00 more than the whole 6 bedroom house for the week!!!

We loved the house. It really felt like home for us and when we went home for our mid-day break the kids loved swimming in their own heated pool and the adults loved soaking their tired legs at night in the hot tub.

We cooked many meals and even grilled out one night which saved us a A LOT of money on meals. The owner is so nice and really willing to accommodate any need or request you might have. He and his parents, who help tend to the house, both came around to check in on us while we were there. We also had a request and they went out of their way to fix it and fix it quickly. They actually own multiple houses in that same neighborhood so if you needed more people together for a family reunion they could still have you all very close together. They were great and I’m happy to recommend them to you.

If you are interested in potentially renting Disney Villa or another villa from them please contact their owner Lee by going HERE and PLEASE always tell him that Disney Diva from Chip and Co sent you!!! He might just cut you a deal