I'm Done!!! Too Many Changes We Don't Like

[awilliams4]

Of course I realize that...but then what would be the purpose. Would it be to spend an exorbitant amount of money just for lodging? The food at the food courts in my experience makes McDonalds look like a 5 star restaurant, so eating there isn't exactly worth the effort, in my opinion. Even if it is something good, it's ice cold before you get to your table.

Yes, you can come and go as you please, IF YOU HAVE A VEHICLE, however, most people do the onsite thing to avoid driving and having to rent a car or thinking that because they are onsite they can get to their hotel or restaurant quicker then if offsite. I have proven that, more then once, to be a fallacy.

It is also my opinion that if you do have a vehicle, and you don't make ADR's then the whole reason for staying onsite is just to spend the extra money to sleep. I personally sleep better when I have saved money.

Maybe you are doing it wrong. Try say a 2 Bedroom Villa with a small family of 4 at BCV for a week and see if that changes your mind. If you haven't tried that or something similar to that, then maybe you don't have enough information just yet to suggest that staying on site is a waste.

 

[tjevans]

Maybe you are doing it wrong. Try say a 2 Bedroom Villa with a small family of 4 at BCV for a week and see if that changes your mind. If you haven't tried that or something similar to that, then maybe you don't have enough information just yet to suggest that staying on site is a waste.

While I disagree somewhat with Peter on the quality of food, there are definitely deals to be found in off-site lodging. My last visit, in December of 2012, my family of 5 stayed off-site in a 2-BR condo for less than the cost of a value resort. When we left in the morning, we were at the parks in less time than it took waiting on a bus and taking the bus on my previous three visits.

 

[awilliams4]

While I disagree somewhat with Peter on the quality of food, there are definitely deals to be found in off-site lodging. My last visit, in December of 2012, my family of 5 stayed off-site in a 2-BR condo for less than the cost of a value resort. When we left in the morning, we were at the parks in less time than it took waiting on a bus and taking the bus on my previous three visits.

Sounds like a good deal but I suspect you are describing taking busses from a 'Value' Resort.

I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc.

Sure, staying at the All Stars in 2 queen beds sneaking in a family of 8 on a $2k budget and doing rope drop to sundown for 7 straight days sounds pretty painful to me. But that doesn't mean staying on site sucks, that just means if you vacation that way and are complaining about it, you are just doing it wrong.

 

[robpa]

Sounds like a good deal but I suspect you are describing taking busses from a 'Value' Resort.

I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc.

Sure, staying at the All Stars in 2 queen beds sneaking in a family of 8 on a $2k budget and doing rope drop to sundown for 7 straight days sounds pretty painful to me. But that doesn't mean staying on site sucks, that just means if you vacation that way and are complaining about it, you are just doing it wrong.

But to some staying offsite may help stretch their budget. I stayed onsite my first 2 trips and offsite my last. I had a 2 br at vistana resort and it cost me less for 2 weeks than 1 week at a moderate would have cost. This enabled my family and I to stay 2 weeks in Orlando as opposed to just 1. I think the cost was like $980 as opposed to $1500 for a moderate.

Our family is commando at theme parks for the most part, we go to ride rides. If we want a relaxing vacation we head to the beach. I know everyone is different, which is why its hard to tell someone they are touring wrong when that may be their way of touring. It is my experience that most vacation decisions come down to cost.

 

[Granny square]

Sounds like a good deal but I suspect you are describing taking busses from a 'Value' Resort. I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc. Sure, staying at the All Stars in 2 queen beds sneaking in a family of 8 on a $2k budget and doing rope drop to sundown for 7 straight days sounds pretty painful to me. But that doesn't mean staying on site sucks, that just means if you vacation that way and are complaining about it, you are just doing it wrong.

Silver lake is about a mile further from the ak than he akv. Staying next week in a 2 bedroom, $249 for the week.

For you, table service once or twice a day on property is a privilege but the food is average at best. Even if we stay on property in a villa we cook. I'm far better a cook than Disney since the free dining took away the decent food.

Rope drop is good for is because we are morning people and the parks close at 7ish. No biggie. not tol excruciating.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I adore the animal kingdom villas. Do I wish I were staying there this trip? Sure. It is my favorite. I'd live there happily. Am I heartbroken for not staying there? He'll no. I'm spending a whole week with my sister and our 80 year old mom. That is the big picture.

 

[lugnut33]

We have had great vacations whether staying on-site or off-site. They both have their positive and negative aspects.

Gonna admit, staying in a 3 bedroom townhouse for $170 per night was pretty sweet last Christmas.

 

[Aunt Michelle]

We have had great vacations whether staying on-site or off-site. They both have their positive and negative aspects. Gonna admit, staying in a 3 bedroom townhouse for $170 per night was pretty sweet last Christmas.

Hey! That's not allowed! You can't like/dislike both options.

 

[lugnut33]

Hey! That's not allowed! You can't like/dislike both options.

Actually, in the 30 or so visits to WDW in my lifetime I've never had a bad vacation. That's a pretty good record if you ask me.

 

[Aunt Michelle]

Actually, in the 30 or so visits to WDW in my lifetime I've never had a bad vacation. That's a pretty good record if you ask me.

I agree, both with the "pretty good record part" and the sentiment. You know I was kidding you right?

 

[Colleen27]

I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc.

Or they have (or at least considered it long enough to price it out), and then looked at the cost and realized they could have traveled around Europe or laid on a beach in Hawaii or explored the rainforests of Costa Rica for the same money. I would never do Disney that way - there are other, more valuable travel experience that can be had for what we'd spend on that kind of trip. We enjoy WDW, obviously, but we're there for the parks. If I want to drop $400+/might for a relaxing resort experience there are a hundred other destinations that would be higher on my list.

 

[Planogirl]

You're assuming it will be pleasant planning because it's new and different. It might end up being a big ol' headache.

You again.

Of course it might be a headache but I don't think so. I LOVE to plan for new places - always have.

 

[Planogirl]

Sounds like a good deal but I suspect you are describing taking busses from a 'Value' Resort.

I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc.

Sure, staying at the All Stars in 2 queen beds sneaking in a family of 8 on a $2k budget and doing rope drop to sundown for 7 straight days sounds pretty painful to me. But that doesn't mean staying on site sucks, that just means if you vacation that way and are complaining about it, you are just doing it wrong.

There's normally only 2 or 3 of us but I still enjoy staying offsite. I like to experience new places and we always have a car for at least most of the trip so the buses mean nothing to us.

I do agree that staying at many of the nicer Disney resorts is amazing (I personally love AKL and while not deluxe, PO) but I wouldn't want to spend a ton of money while having to deal with a balky monorail. I say that after staying at and enjoying the Polynesian resort several times many years ago. It just costs too much now.

But to each their own. I totally understand those who don't want to drive and want to stay in the "bubble". We have no desire to have the same type of vacation and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[larryz]

Welcome to the "new" Disney.....hand over your wallet , oh yeah and Have a Magical Day

And the fatter your wallet, the more magical your day will be.

 

[missesdisney]

Sounds like a good deal but I suspect you are describing taking busses from a 'Value' Resort.

I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc.

Sure, staying at the All Stars in 2 queen beds sneaking in a family of 8 on a $2k budget and doing rope drop to sundown for 7 straight days sounds pretty painful to me. But that doesn't mean staying on site sucks, that just means if you vacation that way and are complaining about it, you are just doing it wrong.

I was just going to comment on the newer things but can't leave this. There is no right or wrong way to vacation. Each person makes choices on what is most important to them. I am in the world now. At the moment I am sitting in a 2BR Marriott Vacation club villa on Marriott hotel points from weekly work travel. We checked in here yesterday....after leaving a 2BR with a lake view at Bay Lake Tower on DVC points (we are owners homed at Saratoga).

We choose to take lunch with us and eat breakfast in our room. Tonight we had dinner in the room as well.

I REFUSE to take Disney busses. We did monorail from BLT to MK and to/from Epcot (only on the nights I wanted to drink at F&W). The Disney transportation is so much slower than driving in most cases. I don't like to waste time just for the sake of wasting time and for ME that is what the Disney busses are. But people love them - when I give Disney advice I ask people what is important to them and I give advice based on that.

Now, to the reason I was going to post. I thought I would hate the magic bands and fastpass+. So much so that I considered opting out of the test. SO HAPPY I did it. I know it's 'testing' still and there were some bugs but the one thing I thought I would hate was what I loved the most - the planning of fastpasses. It made things so easy - we've been on all the headliners - twice on TSMM, twice on Test track, twice on RNR and TOT. Got the kid on the stupid cars at MK I can't think of the name of. We have annuals and could double dip but haven't. No need. I kind of like the minor attractions too for FP+. We do longer trips so it's easy to move things around. I moved safari three times the other day while we were there. No running for tix.

If I understand correctly - it will eventually be Magicbands for everyone isn't it? Not just on site - this is the 'test' which I think is a rollout myself.

Hate to rant but it annoys me to no end when people judge how others vacation. Maybe I missed a post but I didn't see anything about lying to get 8 people into a value resort. And not everyone is as fortunate to be able to do things on a large scale - and many who are don't feel it worth the money. To each his own.

 

[larryz]

 

[Angel Ariel]

I suspect that those who have been highly critical of staying onsite on this thread probably never really treated themselves to a WDW vacation. Staying Onsite, sleeping in, doing a larger Villa at a Deluxe, Table Service at least 1-2 a day, etc.

In my case, you'd be wrong. The last two times I stayed onsite I stayed at the grand.Floridian (honeymoon) with a castle view and the contemporary with an mk view(before I was married). We always do 1 TS/day, regardless of if we are onsite or off, usually making ca grill a must do adr.

We stay at shades of green now, as dh is eligible, which is technically offsite though it is across the street from the Polynesian. The rooms are huge (I believe bigger than either gf or contemporary), the location is great (we frequently walk to poly to use the monorail), we have access to emh, and we have found shades' buses to work well for us. Amenity wise, it is fairly on par with the Disney deluxes as it used to be owned by Disney. The lack of dining plan doesn't bother us, nor has the lack of free park parking on the last two trips as we relied on sog transport and monorail.

If Disney had a room as big as we get at shades, for the price we pay at shades (1/4 the cost of gf easily), I'd be more likely to stay onsite. Shades has many of the deluxe perks (esp location) with 1/4 the cost...so shades is a better value

 

[larryz]

In my case, you'd be wrong. The last two times I stayed onsite I stayed at the grand.Floridian (honeymoon) with a castle view and the contemporary with an mk view(before I was married). We always do 1 TS/day, regardless of if we are onsite or off, usually making ca grill a must do adr.

We stay at shades of green now, as dh is eligible, which is technically offsite though it is across the street from the Polynesian. The rooms are huge (I believe bigger than either gf or contemporary), the location is great (we frequently walk to poly to use the monorail), we have access to emh, and we have found shades' buses to work well for us. Amenity wise, it is fairly on par with the Disney deluxes as it used to be owned by Disney. The lack of dining plan doesn't bother us, nor has the lack of free park parking on the last two trips as we relied on sog transport and monorail.

If Disney had a room as big as we get at shades, for the price we pay at shades (1/4 the cost of gf easily), I'd be more likely to stay onsite. Shades has many of the deluxe perks (esp location) with 1/4 the cost...so shades is a better value

Shhhhh!

 

[Mother Gothel]

Be careful! You are a part of that High School/Grammar School group you are placing others into. It has been a trend with your posting to "put people in their place" and argue your point to death. So I guess if we are going to label, that makes you a Dis bullly? How silly!!!!

Most people in this thread and others have been passionate, yet friendly about their feelings and concerns on the topic. Other than you (and possibly a few others), nobody is categorizing people as cool/nerdy/uncool. There are people who are "Disney Apologists" and feel that Disney can do no wrong. They are a corporation. You would rather attack people instead of calling out potential bad business moves. I don't like a lot of things Disney is doing lately, but I am still going to be there in 3.5 weeks. If all of us are bashing and hated Disney over changes, we would cancel our trips, expensive dinners, tours, hard-ticket events, etc. Please be mature about this and realize that everybody is not going to share your OPINIONS. Everybody has the same entitlement to their OPINIONS and feelings about things. You mistake passion for bashing.

True dat!!!

We are going and unhappy about FP and MB. The trip is paid for. I am not too fond of what they are doing to Walt's Disney, but only time will tell if it is going to be good. However, I realize I have choices.

Too bad that voicing my opinions results in 40 virtual lashes and Disboard Police Brutality. I'll be sure not to post back if the issues are like the previous 2 trips.

 

[Radiorox]

I enjoyed FP+ the two trips I used it. I am an RD person anyway so, I tend to ride what I want as many times as I want in the AM. FP+ was great for attractions that are busy later in the day.

Charging CC for ADRs, I've done Character dining where it's the norm. It's too easy for people to make an ADR on MDE and then not show.

 

[DPCummerbund]

I like ham.