Really no benefit to stay "on Property" anymore

[Mickfarland4]

Yummy, yummy,yummy!

I torture my poor dh with her, but I have to hear her say that and "pretzels und beer!"

Who is Stacey and why is she a perk??

 

[siskaren]

Who is Stacey and why is she a perk??

Who she is:

http://www.staceyjaswad.com/

I guess she's a perk because you can only see her on your resort TV.

 

[Mickfarland4]

Dude, put your dining plan money on a Disney gift card instead and then pay for food oop. You're still pre-paying but will save a lot of money.. Everyone is happy

Thanks for the Great idea!! I will do this! DDP(unless free) won't be worth it for us as we are beer drinkers and DS is a very picky eater and usually will just want french fries or wings(which I doubt is on kids menus)and our other son doesn't qualify yet because of age! I can have them split a meal and save!! Thanks!

 

[disney-akj]

We have stayed "off site" at Bonnett Creek, but it really didn't feel like it being next door to CBR and passing through the WDW signs. We even got to watch Stacey on out TVs like our on-site stays (so it isn't just resort TV). When we went to one of our ADRs and the host asked if we are staying on Disney property and I replied no, my DD asked me later why I lied because she didn't even realize we were off property this trip! I asked did she not notice the buses were different this trip?? lol (BTW bus service was the same as on site from our experience). I do see the benefits to both. So for shorter trips we will stay on property and for longer trips we will stay at Bonnet Creek (unless free fining was a choice ???). That is what works for us. We also do the Disney gift card prepaid instead of dining plan. DDP is not a deal for our family since our kids are now adult prices. It works great and we don't have to worry about blowing unused credits on the last day and always end up with left over money for whatever we choose to get or save til next trip.

 

[eliza61]

Anyone that follows your advice when you give absolutely NOTHING to back it up, means nothing!

We have stayed on site, went off site on one trip and will never go off site again. And I'll actually tell people WHY WE LOVE on site.

1. Magical express
2. Disney transportation. We have had some minor issues in the multitude times we used Disney transportation, but still well worth it. Read below why
3. Theming
4. Cast Members
5. Dining - something for everyone
6. Landscaping: absolutely gorgeous, from the beaches, to fountains, to trees and shrubs, camping depending on your many choices that you choose from.
7. NO traffic back-ups to and from the parks from road construction to back-ups at lights to accidents.
8. Not having to deal with parking, and using the panic button to find your car
9. The only noise you hear outside your room/building is the sound of nature or the Disney carts, NOT road traffic.
10. Pool selection is very important to some guests. From best pool for small children, to zero entry, to water slides, and best pool bar to drink at. And the clown that scares some people away from that resort.

And more, but I'll stop now!

LOL I had to laugh Minnesota because every thing you mentioned are the reasons I do off site unless staying at my dvc

2) Disney Transportation. Advantage: off site. disney transportation sucks imo. we just returned from Saratoga springs. average wait time for a bus ANYWHERE 20-25 minutes then the actual time to the park. It NEVER takes me that long when staying at the Waldorf to drive. unless you are on a monorail line or can walk to epcot, I can expect to wait.

3) theming. advantage Disney. this is where disney kicks bootie, no question. just do I want to pay 200 extra per night for it.

5) Dining. Advantage: off site. any restaurant is open to any guest whether on site or off. Plus the fact that right down the block from dtd is a plethora of restaurants at 1/3 the price. Saratoga springs has absolutely no options for a decent breakfast.
9)noise: No advantage not sure where you have stayed offsite but I mainly stay at the waldorf astoria (for almost 1/2 of a disney deluxe) and Bonnet Creek. Never have I heard "road traffic"?
7) No traffic backups? are you kidding me? you must have never ever left a theme park at the end of the night? Sorry kiddo, but fighting to get onto the monorail is what my dh and I call the "mad-cattle car rush" Disney is good but they do not magically make traffic disappear and the buses get stuck in any traffic jam.
10) pools. unless you are staying at the BC which has the best pool onsite, no advantage. once again, not sure where you have stayed but OKW,SS Contemporary have very basic pools. no better or worst than where we stay off site.


I don't do the ddp so no advantage for me. the main thing I like is the EMH. If I did not own a dvc member ship no way no how would I pay disney for the deluxes.

 

[RainK]

I have to disagree with this. My DH and I fly into MCO so it's very convenient for us to use DME from airport to resort and resort to airport. We rarely take advantage of EMH but we do like the convenience of going back to the resort in the afternoon without finding the car and driving to where ever we are staying. So our biggest reason for staying onsite is convenience.

Sent from my GalaxyS II

I agree with this. We fly into MCO use Magical Express and do not rent a car. This is HUGE for us. We hardly use EMH but love that we can come and go when we please.

 

[Sue M]

I seriously doubt the OP was even remotely interested in starting a conversation since he gave no supporting evidence to support his claim. That being said, I know that there are more than a few people who would agree with him, but not me!

Exactly. OP just wanted to throw out a possibly inflammatory remark just because, and has really no interest in a conversation!! So I'm not responding!

 

[jade1]

LOL I had to laugh Minnesota because every thing you mentioned are the reasons I do off site unless staying at my dvc

2) Disney Transportation. Advantage: off site. disney transportation sucks imo. we just returned from Saratoga springs. average wait time for a bus ANYWHERE 20-25 minutes then the actual time to the park. It NEVER takes me that long when staying at the Waldorf to drive. unless you are on a monorail line or can walk to epcot, I can expect to wait.

3) theming. advantage Disney. this is where disney kicks bootie, no question. just do I want to pay 200 extra per night for it.

5) Dining. Advantage: off site. any restaurant is open to any guest whether on site or off. Plus the fact that right down the block from dtd is a plethora of restaurants at 1/3 the price. Saratoga springs has absolutely no options for a decent breakfast.
9)noise: No advantage not sure where you have stayed offsite but I mainly stay at the waldorf astoria (for almost 1/2 of a disney deluxe) and Bonnet Creek. Never have I heard "road traffic"?
7) No traffic backups? are you kidding me? you must have never ever left a theme park at the end of the night? Sorry kiddo, but fighting to get onto the monorail is what my dh and I call the "mad-cattle car rush" Disney is good but they do not magically make traffic disappear and the buses get stuck in any traffic jam.
10) pools. unless you are staying at the BC which has the best pool onsite, no advantage. once again, not sure where you have stayed but OKW,SS Contemporary have very basic pools. no better or worst than where we stay off site.


I don't do the ddp so no advantage for me. the main thing I like is the EMH. If I did not own a dvc member ship no way no how would I pay disney for the deluxes.

I can agree with some of this-but not most because we do splits stays with BLT and BCV. Walking to 3 parks does remove the stampedes-no parking, driving, buses or monorails. We do AK one 1/2 day so that is about the only bus ride that week, and no night show so we quietly leave around lunch. Taking breaks to swim/rest are just as easy.

We do SAB so agree with you there.

We don't do Orlando for dining as midwest food is hard to beat anyway. That said-we dine at EPCOT a lot and can leave our room 10 minutes before an ADR. If off site I would leave 30 minutes to an hour before arrival-maybe more. Same goes for if we want to open a park-why not sleep and extra hour before and after.

As for ME-sending our bags from the MPLS airport is awesome. On check out we send them back to MPLS from our resort, get our boarding passes-then enjoy the last day stress free, as we always fly back late.

 

[World Showcaser]

L5) Dining. Advantage: off site. any restaurant is open to any guest whether on site or off.

I have no idea what you mean. You don't have to be staying onsite to eat at restaurants in WDW. Anyone can eat at any restaurant.

 

[meggiebeth]

LOL I had to laugh Minnesota because every thing you mentioned are the reasons I do off site unless staying at my dvc

2) Disney Transportation. Advantage: off site. disney transportation sucks imo. we just returned from Saratoga springs. average wait time for a bus ANYWHERE 20-25 minutes then the actual time to the park. It NEVER takes me that long when staying at the Waldorf to drive. unless you are on a monorail line or can walk to epcot, I can expect to wait.

3) theming. advantage Disney. this is where disney kicks bootie, no question. just do I want to pay 200 extra per night for it.

5) Dining. Advantage: off site. any restaurant is open to any guest whether on site or off. Plus the fact that right down the block from dtd is a plethora of restaurants at 1/3 the price. Saratoga springs has absolutely no options for a decent breakfast.
9)noise: No advantage not sure where you have stayed offsite but I mainly stay at the waldorf astoria (for almost 1/2 of a disney deluxe) and Bonnet Creek. Never have I heard "road traffic"?
7) No traffic backups? are you kidding me? you must have never ever left a theme park at the end of the night? Sorry kiddo, but fighting to get onto the monorail is what my dh and I call the "mad-cattle car rush" Disney is good but they do not magically make traffic disappear and the buses get stuck in any traffic jam.
10) pools. unless you are staying at the BC which has the best pool onsite, no advantage. once again, not sure where you have stayed but OKW,SS Contemporary have very basic pools. no better or worst than where we stay off site.

I don't do the ddp so no advantage for me. the main thing I like is the EMH. If I did not own a dvc member ship no way no how would I pay disney for the deluxes.

I think Disney transportation is really good for the circumstances. You can't compare it to transportation offsite, because a car is a variable. Some stay offsite and rely on hotel buses. You can rent a car onsite or offsite. An offsite hotel doesn't include car hire so you can't compare that.

Onsite dining seems to have more options. Offsite, if you rent a villa you often are not walking distance to any restaurants. Hotels also usually have limited options nearby. Onsite the options are not cheap, but they are still plentiful. SSR is next to DTD and there are plenty of options for a good breakfast there.

We loved the pools at SSR- the main two are far from basic although the others are quite simple. I'd love to try SAB someday but I'd never pay full price for a deluxe resort.

I agree that the deluxe resorts are overpriced, primarily the CR, GF and Poly. BC, WL and AKL are far more reasonably priced, but we'd still not go without free dining to get the best value out of our trip.

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[angierae]

EMH is a huge perk, and something we used heavily during our 2012 Easter Week trip - Magic Kingdom had EMH almost every night, so we'd do a park in the morning, relax in the afternoon, go to dinner, and then head into MK around 10pm while the crowds were streaming out. I believe it was either Good Friday or the day before that we stayed at MK until 3am, then had 11am breakfast with Mary Poppins at 1900 Park Fare. Having older kids makes night EMH a wonderful benefit.

Now, I also hate driving, especially in unfamiliar areas, and having the bus system is a huge perk. We stayed mod during our last trip because we got free dining for three adults, and no resort discount was going to top that, but for our next trip we'll probably end up staying value since it will only be the two of us. But I'm definitely not staying off-site. Being "in the bubble" is as much a part of our vacation as going to the parks, and I want to be surrounded by disney for 8 or 9 days and not have to think about the outside world at all. And that's worth paying for, to me.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

The last time I stayed offsite was 1986, maybe, when I was a little kid. I don't see any advantage to it. I like not having to deal with parking or driving, and I like all of the bonus things you get for staying onsite. Not to mention the fact that staying onsite is so much more magical.

 

[DVCMikey]

The fact that you don't have to drive and can use disney transportation is a perk that outweighs any other.

 

[DianaPrince]

The fact that you don't have to drive and can use disney transportation is a perk that outweighs any other.

Agree 100%

 

[4kids4karen]

The fact that you don't have to drive and can use disney transportation is a perk that outweighs any other.

Except for families like mine that are use to be spontaneous. I find relying on transportation (other than my own vehicle) to be bothersome. I hate being stuck to someone else's schedule. So if we wanted to leave a park and drive somewhere for ice cream, we have to wait for the bus, then go back to the resort to get our car. Our very first trip we used disney transportation and didn't like it. DD had her stroller then and all six of us trying to get on the bus and people cutting off DH trying to get on with the stroller was really a pain. DH would rather wait for the next bus thinking he would be first on, but again people would cut him off when he was trying to be polite. It's a mad rush, free-for-all to get on the bus. No one follows a line.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Except for families like mine that are use to be spontaneous. I find relying on transportation (other than my own vehicle) to be bothersome. I hate being stuck to someone else's schedule. So if we wanted to leave a park and drive somewhere for ice cream, we have to wait for the bus, then go back to the resort to get our car. Our very first trip we used disney transportation and didn't like it. DD had her stroller then and all six of us trying to get on the bus and people cutting off DH trying to get on with the stroller was really a pain. DH would rather wait for the next bus thinking he would be first on, but again people would cut him off when he was trying to be polite. It's a mad rush, free-for-all to get on the bus. No one follows a line.

In my experience at WDW and DLR, getting on a bus/boat/monorail is always faster than walking through the parking lot.

 

[Disneylover99]

Our very first trip we used disney transportation and didn't like it. DD had her stroller then and all six of us trying to get on the bus and people cutting off DH trying to get on with the stroller was really a pain. DH would rather wait for the next bus thinking he would be first on, but again people would cut him off when he was trying to be polite. It's a mad rush, free-for-all to get on the bus. No one follows a line.

Wow, that's unfortunate that you had that kind of experience on a Disney bus!
Was this going to the resort or going to a park?

We have been to Disney three times for weeks at a time and have always relied on Disney transportation. We have two strollers and have never had a problem getting on or off a bus. I have never experienced a mad rush or free for all. It's always been an orderly line.

 

[4kids4karen]

Wow, that's unfortunate that you had that kind of experience on a Disney bus!
Was this going to the resort or going to a park?

We have been to Disney three times for weeks at a time and have always relied on Disney transportation. We have two strollers and have never had a problem getting on or off a bus. I have never experienced a mad rush or free for all. It's always been an orderly line.

It was going back to the resort. There were lines until the bus pulls up and the doors open. We waiting for the next bus so we were first but everyone just rushes right past DH trying to get on with the stroller.

 

[4kids4karen]

In my experience at WDW and DLR, getting on a bus/boat/monorail is always faster than walking through the parking lot.

Mine is the opposite. I am a speed walker. Plus we can go directly to our next destination.

 

[RedfromNL]

In my experience at WDW and DLR, getting on a bus/boat/monorail is always faster than walking through the parking lot.

Mine is the opposite. I am a speed walker. Plus we can go directly to our next destination.

And that's why some will stay on-site and some off-site. We all view things differently. Have different wants and desires and put different values on things.

As long as we are all happy with our own choice...