As one of the top travel destinations in the world, Disney World offers a lot of choices on and off property to get the most out of your vacation. When you’re traveling with a large group a Disney resort may not be the best place to stay. Shocker, I know. Taking a vacation near Disney World in style and comfort is possible so let’s talk about how!

Vacation Near Disney World In Style and Comfort

We’ve stayed at many Disney World resorts and absolutely love them for different reasons but it does get a little hard to vacation when you are traveling with a lot of friends and family. Everyone is either crammed together in a small room, spread out over multiple rooms, and not to mention expensive especially when you’ve already dropped over $1,000 for park tickets alone. A vacation home brings all of the comforts of home, you can split the cost among family members, and the best part is that everyone can stay together under one roof.

Whether you’re a family of 2 or a group of 20, Magical Vacation Homes has something for you. 

We recently spent 5 nights staying in a home managed by Magical Vacation Homes and let me tell you, I never want to vacation any other way ever again. I invited some family up from South Florida and it made the vacation extra special and fulfilling for the entire family.

MAGICAL VACATION HOMES

This family-owned company has been helping create life-long memories for families for more than 12 years. They have an inventory of more than 300 homes to choose from in some of the most elite areas of Central Florida. Whether you’re a family of 2 or group of 20, Magical Vacation Homes has something for you. From 2-bedroom condos to private homes with 15 bedrooms, you’ll never get bored browsing their website. Good luck narrowing down to your favorite home, I certainly can’t.

WHY A VACATION HOME VS DISNEY WORLD?

Vacation Homes offer so much more than just a roof over your head. They provide comfort, privacy, space to spread out, fun amenities, and cost savings. For bigger groups vacationing together, all of this should give you reason enough to book a vacation home over a hotel or resort.

COST SAVINGS

Let’s talk money. Yes, when booking a vacation home, it may raise a few eyebrows. I totally get it but when you are booking 3, 4, or 5 small 400sq. foot resort rooms, the cost adds up too. If you vacation with a group of multiple friends and/or family members everyone can split the cost of the home which makes it insanely affordable and in most cases it’s cheaper than a resort.

With a full kitchen you can cook all your meals to save money. We had an oversized refrigerator, 6 burner gas range with built-in griddle and two ovens, two microwaves, two dishwashers, two outdoor gas grills. All of the dishes & silverware you could possibly ask for, cookware, appliances, etc. The list goes on and on.

Upon arrival we went to Publix Supermarket (conveniently located across the street from Reunion Resort) and spent only $300. Yes total! That’s shopping for 11 people for 5 days. That includes spices, essentials like milk, bread, eggs, meats for grilling out, paper towels, trash bags, tin foil, and more! We went out for dinner one night and breakfast another and guess what, both meals were over $300. EACH.MEAL! If we stayed at a resort, we’d have to eat out 3x/day for 5 days. That would have been over $4,500+ on meals alone! That blows my mind! You can put that savings into a gorgeous home instead and vacation better.

LIVING SPACE

Who wants to live in a tiny space for a week? It would makes anyone go crazy. No wonder everyone needs a vacation after their vacation. With the 11 people staying in our vacation home, we were able to spread out over the 12,000+sq. foot home. We were never on top of each other. We could come together to play a board game, watch a movie together, or go to the other side of the home for privacy.

The adults didn’t have to worry about waking up the kids late at night because the God forbid the TV was too loud. And as parents, I think we all deal with the worst part of being in a hotel room: Kids have to sleep by 9 so you have to either be extremely quiet or go to bed too… that didn’t exist for us!

AMENITIES

Have you ever experienced your kids saying they’re bored while on vacation? There’s only so many trips to the theme parks one person can make. There’s only so many trips down to the pool, lugging everything down, circling the pool deck hoping to find a shady spot where you can still see your kids. The struggle is real. When you stay in a vacation home the possibilities are endless and most come with kid-friendly amenities to keep everyone busy and content. Plus, private pool? Yes, please!

our reunion resort home

The home we stayed in is called “Reunion Castle” and yes, we lived like Kings & Queens while we were there. It is property ID: RVH_385M when you’re searching the Magical Vacation Homes website. Complete with 10 bedrooms, 12.5 bathrooms, an arcade, 2 living spaces, 3rd floor bar (aka the Man Cave as we called it), a game simulation room, movie theater with 120″ projection screen, 2 secret hidden kid’s play rooms, custom pool & spa, and so much more. All spread out over 12,181 sq. feet of space. There were times where we didn’t hear the kids for hours and instead of being worried, we knew they were happily playing in the arcade or hanging out in the movie theater. The 4 adults were able to sit back, relax, and slow down. We didn’t even visit the parks during our vacation and not one time over 5 nights did we hear “I’m bored!” Can I tell you how much of a miracle that is when you have 7 kids, ages 14-4, running around?

Our home away from home was gorgeously decorated with a medieval vibe, beautiful marble, wood floors throughout (except the bedrooms) and incredible tile in almost every other room. Each of the rooms had their own “theme” but stuck true to the main design of the home. The only exception to this was the two kid’s bedrooms (one being Marvel, and the other being Beauty & The Beast), and two kid’s “hidden” playrooms.

Almost every bedroom had their own private balcony space which led to lots of great mornings spent drinking coffee with the birds. In addition, there was a main balcony overlooking the front courtyard and two large balcony spaces (located on the 2nd and 3rd floor, respectfully) overlooking the pool and golf course behind the home.

Reunion Resort & Golf Club

Reunion sits on 2,300 acres and is located just about 6 miles from Walt Disney World Resort. While we didn’t need to use any of Reunion Resort’s amenities, we had access to everything! From water parks to 3 PGA Signature golf courses, 6 Reunion restaurants to a full spa and fitness center! We had it all right there without ever having to leave the property which was a nice plus.

RELATED: 5 SECRETS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT DISNEY’S TOY STORY LAND

NOTE-WORTHY

• Basic Needs – Your Magical Vacation Home Welcome Kit does include toilet paper in every bathroom, a small dish soap, 1 dishwasher soap pod, 1 roll of paper towels but anything beyond that is your responsibility to supply. As I mentioned before, the kitchens do have the things you need for cooking and eating but you will need to make a trip to the grocery store for even salt & pepper.
• Extra Charges – Our home had built-in BBQ grills outside but if your home doesn’t, there is a daily charge for the use of a rollaway grill. Also, if you’d like the pool heated there is a pool heat charge.
• Check-out – There is a 10 AM check-out time. You’re required to strip the beds you’ve slept in before leaving.
• Cancellation Policy – To receive your deposit back you have to cancel 45 days or more from your check-in date.
• Contract – You will have to sign a pretty in-depth contract. It’s standard to protect all parties involved. Pretty much, don’t break stuff. It’s not cool.
• No pets or parties – Unfortunately, you cannot have pets in the home. This is to keep the house as sanitary and clean as possible.

Convinced yet? As I said, with 300 homes, it doesn’t matter how big or small your party is, they have a home for you. Magical Vacation Homes was very easy to work with and I’m happy to say that we didn’t have a single problem during our vacation. We’ll be staying at one of their homes again.

Disclosure: This post is NOT sponsored. We did not receive monetary compensation or incentive from Magical Vacation Homes.