Disney World Vacation for Family of 6 - Dallas,TX

I agree with art of animation, very nice and affordable. Oh and don't waste $$ on the fun spot! It can't even keep my 6 year old entertained! We have been there many times cause we used to live in Orlando. I would maybe look into a day at universal for the older ones.

I would also suggest renting a house or a condo, especially if you are thinking for going for a week or more. When we went 2 years ago, we were able to rent a 4-bedroom condo with our own full kitchen, laundry, swimming pool, hot tub and game room for $75 a day. And we were a family of 5. You can grocery shop at Walmart or Publix and cook your own meals, so you are not spending tons of money just eating in the parks. You will have to consider renting a car if you don't drive, and the cost of parking each day (usually around $15 but it's good for the whole day, even if you leave and come back later). It only took us about 15 to 20 minutes to drive to the parks from where we were staying. You can pack snacks, sandwhiches, bottled water, etc. to bring into the parks.

We had my stepsons with us on that trip and they were 16 and 17 at the time. They still enjoyed going to Disney and being able to do some things on their own within the park. They also got to go to the Universal parks with their dad a couple of days while DD (then 3) and myself took a day off and stayed "home" by the pool.

mousesavers.com

Will give you TONS of great information! Have a wonderful time!

whatever you do, lift the mattresses to check for bed bugs!!!!!

There is the new Art of Animation Resort on Disney property that has family suites that I think would be cheaper than adjoining rooms. I definitely second looking for a condo or place with a kitchen so you can cook breakfast in the morning. Sometimes Reunion Resort has good deals. It is close to Disney and they have townhouses and houses to rent and a condo/hotel in the main tower. The property is awesome with pool/slides/golf, etc. There are several hotels on 192 close to Disney that would be inexpensive. My Sis-in-law stayed at a Holiday Inn there that was nice. It was two towers with a big pool, restaurant, etc. but in the very touristy area with souvenir shops and putt putt golf all around you. There is also the Funspot nearby with thrill rides that the older kids would like(think Skycoaster and bungee swing).

We just got back from Disney and stayed at the Pop Century Value resort. It is nice, but to my knowledge, no adjoining rooms. They are the "outside" entrance style. Maybe look at the Disney website for hotels with adjoining rooms, and definitely check their page that says "special offers". Sometimes they do a package that if you book a 5 day vacation, you get a free meal plan which would be fantastic!

Benefits of staying on site are the free transportation to and from the parks and if you get the park hopper pass, you don't have to worry about going to your car to load up and drive to a different park. Shuttles run every 20 minutes to all parks and hotels. Most hotels have food courts or restaurants inside of them, and we found the one at Pop Century better than the food in the parks. Makes it easy when you are too tired to leave the resort to go to a restaurant or cook for yourself.

The benefits of staying off resort are usually cheaper prices for accommodations, the benefit of a kitchen or free continental breakfast, and more room. Disney hotel rooms are notoriously small unless you're forking out big bucks for the luxury resorts.

Tips from my recent trip are: Take and eat your own breakfast items - granola bars, apples, bananas, pop tarts, etc..., pack your own snacks and water bottles (unless you get a meal plan). Bring a rain poncho purchased from Walmart - they're like $1 or less. The ones in the park cost $8 apiece. Go to touringplans.com and join the site for $11. It is worth it's weight in gold to get a plan of what to do, when, and have the app for your phone that tells wait time for rides.

Have fun!

I would call the Disney reservation line. Yes there are adjoining rooms, the only way you will be booked into two of them is if you list minors alone in one room, then you can be guaranteed adjoining rooms (this is what I was told last year when booking ours--my parents wound up not going so we didn't need the adjoining rooms after all. I personally have been to Disney 9 times and this last time was the first time we stayed on property...I will NEVER stay off-site again. We had the quick service meal plan, made ordering very easy, it was prepaid so there was no worries on who could order what or concerns over the price of the item ordered...all but your 8 year old will be considered an adult at Disney for both tickets and meal plans. You can book a long way out and pay it off as you please with no interest as long as you are paid off at 45 days from arrival. Create an account and play with their website, they do have cabins that will accomodate six and the family suites and the value resorts I think will as well...I'd have to look to make sure though. We are a family of 5 and we can do the alligator bayou rooms at POR (Port Orleans Riverside), but at 6 you can't do that, otherwise we have to go up to the cabins, suites or higher priced resorts.

join the disboards.com, disneyfoodblog.com, touringplans.com (they have a book called the UnOfficial Guide to WDW 2103), allears.net, easywdw.com, wdwmagic.com and any other forums or info sites you can find, they all differ a little, but my faves were touringplans.com, disneyfoodblog.com and the boards on babycenter and cafemom

There are rental homes in the area that would be a great choice for your family if you want to cook some meals at home and take breaks, but it will be at least a 30 minute drive to the entrance of any park, plus parking (which isn't overly cheap), and since the parks (other than animal kingdom) don't close until late, since your kids aren't small you might not want to go back to your accomodations mid-day for a break like some with younger kids might.

my suggestion is to plan everything as much as possible and make sure you get a disney lines app from somewhere (I prefer the touringplans app to others, but I just like their info and find it more reliable than others) on your smart phone if you have one, it'll make staying on schedule and seeing what lines are like post meals or post shows more easy than walking all over the park (the parks are very large with the exception of the studios).

send me a message if you'd like more info, I'll share all day long if I sit here and type.

If you're worried about money I would look at staying off Disney Property. There's some resort areas only 10-15 min drive from the disney parks that have houses (up to 7 or 8 bedrooms) you can rent for way cheaper than staying on site at Disney. I usually use Booking.com to find places. It will also save you money on food as you can prepare meals at the house (there is a grocery store in the area) or go to one of the restaurants around that will be way cheaper than eating at Disney.

Try to get a package deal with free dining. That saves a fortune and believe me there is more than enough food. Until we bought into the Hilton Grand Vacations, we always stayed on property.so it really depends on your budget. The cabins at Fort Wilderness are awesome, sleeps six or more and there are lots of things for the kids. Big rocking chairs on the porche of the restaurant, cold beer In hand. Aaah. So your down time is wonderful. Now Pop Century is my favorite Value price hotel. The kids are at a good age for them to,all enjoy the same things. We never packed snacks because I would always end up like a pack rat carrying everything. We are now retired and go child free but soon grand kids will go,with us. ,oh the circle of life. Go and have fun. Just have some kind of a daily plan so you do not waste time. Get the unofficial Guide to Disney or go onto Allears.net. Everything you always wanted to know about Disney can be found in these two places.

If your driving, I'd stop at the food market and get sandwhich meats, breads, cheeses for lunch and snacks for the park and cereals and fruits for breakfast. Bottled Water as well. I try to stay on site for convenience. Pop Century is usually the cheapest. I like the Carribean Beach Resort the best because its quieter. We see which park is open late or early. We usually go in the morning to the park of choice and leave before the parade starts. Go to the room for lunch, break, and pool time. Then we go to the park we are going to be at for the night festivities. Like if Magic Kingdom is open to 11p. I usually do splurge and make dinning reservations. There are some nice buffets that are cheap for Disney. Trail's End on the camp ground. I usually make that an evening we go to Animal Kingdom because that park closes at 5. Then take the boat to the campgrounds for dinner at trails end then stay at the park for the campground movie. Animal kingdom Mt. Everest the teens love. They go round and round on that place. They have meal deals that seems to be decent as well but I find it is still cheaper to just stop at the food Market for lunch and breakfast items. Save's a ton of money. But if you can't then the meal deals do help.

We went last summer and stayed at the Fort Wilderness Cabins. It sleeps 6 (4 in the bedroom: a set of bunk beds and a full, and there's a Murphy bed in the living room). It comes with servingware, some pots and pans, cups, etc. We typically ate 2 meals at the cabin (breakfast and then lunch or dinner) and then 1 at the parks. I would definitely pay for the extra hours. We scheduled our days on which park had early admission (we have little ones so the late hours were out of the question!). Have fun!

My friend (also a family of 6)!stays at one of Disney's "value resorts" and books 2 adjoining rooms. Have fun!!

My neighbor is a Disney travel agent and she helps people with these sorts of things. It doesn't cost anything to use her services. Here is a link to her Facebook page. http://m.facebook.com/FairyDustVacations?id=3659580834735...

We took our 13 and 17 year old boys last summer. I recommend you stay in condos outside of Disney. They are much cheaper and give you more room. We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Resort in Lake Buena Vista and loved it. Only a 10 minute drive to Disney or Universal. Being in a condo gives you the opportunity to fix some of your own meals. Eating at Disney is very expensive and I didn't think the dining dollars was a good deal. You can take food into Disney parks. We ate a big breakfast in the condo, took sandwiches into the parks and ate dinner outside the parks.

I think your older kids will likely enjoy Universal better than Disney, but it depends on their interests. My 13 year old loved Disney Quest which is in Downtown Disney. It is a video arcade. He especially enjoyed designing his own roller coaster, then riding it in a simulator! Both my kids enjoyed The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At Disney, they have fast passes for the popular rides. The catch is you have to go to each ride to get a fast pass and they are all spread out. At Universal, you can pay extra for a fast pass, but it is expensive. At Universal they have single rider lines. We did this a lot and were able to ride quite a few rides with hardly any wait. Usually we ended up sitting together anyway or at least close together. Your kids are all old enough to do this.

Buy the book, "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World." They usually have them at Half Price Books. It is very helpful. Read it and make a plan. In fact, all the tips I am giving you, I found in this book! Check out mousesavers.com and sign up for their newsletter. They have lots of tips. Also undercover tourist.com sells slightly discounted tickets. There are no big discounts for tickets. The more days you buy the cheaper the tickets. I did the math and to me it made more sense to buy more days of single park entrance, than the park hopper. Get to the parks before they open! This was very difficult for us to do, but if your kids will cooperate, it really pays off. The lines are better early in the day and also later at night.

If you have a smart phone, check out the undercover tourist apps with maps and wait times. It was very helpful. Look at the crowd calendars to plan which parks to go to on which days. Also helps you decide when to plan your vacation. It worked out great for us!