please end this debate

[lizziewhan]

my family went to disney in Nov last year and stayed at CBR for 6 days and 6 nights with free dining..we had an absolute blast! we are currently planning our next trip for april...this time we wanna try POP bc we are going with more family and can all get our own rooms at a great price. im hoping to score free dining as well.

anyways..my brother and sister in law have a time share and can get a condo to hold all of us for just $100 for the entire week. my sister in law thinks this is a great idea..thinks itll be a lot cheaper and the way to go..stay at the time share and just purchase tickets and drive to the parks. i keep saying no no....ive priced pop for my family and for 5 nights and 6 day tix its only $1600. and tickets for 6 days for us alone is just over $900!! if we get free dining there is no way the time share would be the cheaper way to go.

am i right or wrong? i told her id put this as a question and get everyones advice. i just think with the extra magic hours and the dining..staying on resort would definately be the way to go! plus we would have the free disney transportation. please end this debate!!!

 

[Miss Ang]

I agree with you. And even if it is $100 more to stay on Disney property, the convenience of transportation can not be beat!

 

[Big Kid in Alabama]

If you are going in April you will not get free dining and for sure not at POP. I think they only offer that in the fall. And, they only offer it if you stay at a moderate resort or higher. POP is great. We have stayed there 3 times and are staying there again in 21 days. Staying on property does have advantages like EMH. And you don't have to pay $18 a day to park at the theme parks.

 

[Disneyliscious]

If I read it right...

Onsite - $1600, incusive (assuming free dining, which isn't likely)

Off-site - $100 for condo, $$950'ish for tickets = $1050. The difference is $550 to be left over for eating.

There are many condo's that offer free shuttle service. If her's offers that then the parking fee is a moot point. If not, it will need to be factored in, plus the price of a rental if you are renting. People have different habits but I have never, ever seen a time when free dining made it less expensive for us. Nothing is free. You are paying for it somewhere. So....

How many days are you going to the parks?
How many adults, children (under 9)?
Are you driving or flying? If driving, will it be one vehicle for the entire group?
Do you plan on doing any signature restaurants?

The more we know, the more we can give you an educated answer to your debate

For me, I would go with the condo in a heartbeat, BUT Im one of those who loves staying off site. However, give us a little more info and I will gladly give you an unbiased answer.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

I would go with the condo because the discounts during that time of the year are normally minimal. There will not be free dining and depending on the week there may actually be no discount. This year in April there were a couple of weeks were there was only rack rate pricing available.

We also never use EMH because those parks tend to be more crowded on those days. So for us that is not a draw at all.

Edit: this is also probably an unfair board to ask this type of question on Most people are disney nuts on here and if money were not an issue most would rather stay at disney regardless if it meant they had to lose a limb!! No matter what you decide enjoy your trip!

 

[Disney Geek1]

Sometimes it's not just about the money. Disney transportation, extra magic hours, no driving/traffic problems, etc. cannot be dismissed lightly. They all add to the Disney experience.

I would not trade our time in the onsite resorts for anything. I love being able to forget about everything and letting Disney take care of me.

But that's just my opinion.

Good luck and enjoy your family vacation no matter which way you end up going!

 

[dzorn]

I'd still go with Pop only because then everyone will have space from eachother at the end of the day. But free dining is April is not going to happen.

Denise in MI

 

[carebee21]

My opinion is the same as others. If free dining is offered, I think it's the better deal to stay at Pop than at the Condo. However, since Easter is in April this year, I doubt you'll see any April free dining or heavy room discount, except for maybe the very end of the month....

Also, when Free Dining is offered at a value, it's only the quick service plan. You have to pay to upgrade it to the regular dining plan, but still the cost is minimal.

After travelling a lot with family/friends, I've found the best thing you can do is let each family make it's own decisions and then meet up. If you really want to stay on property, do it regardless of what the other family does. If they really want to stay off property, let them. Ultimately, if either family is already going into this feeling like they had to stay where they didn't want to, it's not going to be a good vacation and may start out pretty tense....There's no reason you can't meet up at the parks each morning or dine together.

 

[The Hendies]

We have done both, and the condo vacation vs on-site vacation are equally wonderful, but just different! For us, the condo vacation is more relaxed and the on-site vacation gives us total dependence on Disney, since we don't rent a car. I would have to save at least $400 - $500 to make a selection one way or another. However if the price is the same, or just a few hundred more to stay on-site, I would always stay on-site.

 

[pyrxtc]

I say you stay at pop and let the rest of them stay at the condo. You'll still have all day together but get some privacy at night.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Don't forget about paying for parking each day unless someone has an AP.

 

[Jynxed]

I liked staying at a house offsite at Windsor hills with family. I thought it was convenient to have 3 showers where most of us could shower at the same time. Eat breakfast at "home" while others were getting ready (we had bagels, frozen pancakes and waffles and fresh fruit - so it was not like we cooked)

A place for all of us to congregate at night while the kids slept. AND for me, bus transportation was not missed at all, in fact I do not deem waiting in a sea of people to squeeze on a crowded bus to be a perk. I liked being able to jump in my car and drive 5 minutes and be "home" drinking my beer and enjoying my private pool...

There were 3 separate families I traveled with, we got a 4 bedroom home, so the cost of 3 rooms at POP and the 4 bedroom condo equaled out to be slightly cheaper (this was 4 years ago), but the above made the trip more enjoyable for us.

I know I am going against the grain of what most Disers would say. I kind of didn't want to stay offsite either when we were planning it all, but after I did it, there is no other way I would travel with a larger group.

 

[lizziewhan]

ok i went back and looked over the deals in the history on mousesavers..and i do see where theres not been free dining in april..but the last two years they have done kids stay and play for free....

anyways we will be driving as we are coming from different states..so we will have our vehicles and no need to rent. there will be 5 adults and 3 kids ages 1, 4, and 6. even if we are unable to get free dining id love the dining deal bc it just seems like a cheaper way to eat onsite...i saw what it would have cost us last trip for all the character dinings and it wasnt cheap! we definately plan on doing several more character meals this time around. the kids LOVED them

 

[laliwalden]

I guess for me part of the fun/awesomeness of going is staying onsite. I have stayed offsite and still had a good time. But there is something magical about staying at Disney.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

Eh. No matter what I wouldn't stay off-site so my vote is that you stay Pop.

 

[Disneyliscious]

There are 8 people going.

Cost of staying on-site - $1600

Cost of staying off-site - $100, plus tickets, plus parking, plus food

Cost of everyone having their own room, multiple bathrooms, getting to the parks quicker in an air conditioned vehicle, being 2 miles from the parks, saving money by eating quick meals at the condo? Priceless

You both sound pretty solid on where you want to stay. You and yours stay on-site and let them stay at the condo. Everyone will be much happier.

 

[dlhvac]

do what you want its your vacation

 

[SoonerSarah]

We stayed off site for our trip, and even if we had stayed onsite, we would not have used the transportation.

I agree that you are unlikely to get free dining, so how much would that add to your costs? Do you care about the costs?

We ate breakfast in our house. We returned for naps and packed our own dinner. Overall, we saved a ton of money, not just us, but our entire group. We preferred staying offsite I think.

 

[foltzy]

My sister proposed something similar for our big family trip in October of 2013. She can get a condo for $100 a week but DH and I want to stay on property at a moderate.

Here's are things. We like Disney transportation. We love not having to drive while we're on vacation. Not cooking our own food (my husband's a cook so he especially loves it). We love the feel of the resort. We can go back to our room during the day at any time (we take 2 smallish kids with us and we all like the break).

Now she says the condo has transportation but from what I've read, they only really offer them during certain times. Otherwise all 13 of us would have to drive. Not doing that. I get frazzled way to easily if I don't know where I'm suppose to go.



Told her if she wanted to stay in the condo and just meet us at the park that we all agree on (That should be fun) than she's more than welcome to but we're staying on site.

She also wants to go spend a few days doing other things around Orlando. Told her see you have a great trip. We're planning on a meet up at the restaurant for dinner with all of us.

To each their own. If she wants to stay off site great.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

If you are going in April you will not get free dining and for sure not at POP. I think they only offer that in the fall. And, they only offer it if you stay at a moderate resort or higher. POP is great. We have stayed there 3 times and are staying there again in 21 days. Staying on property does have advantages like EMH. And you don't have to pay $18 a day to park at the theme parks.

I'm sorry, but most of this post is incorrect. Though the Free Dining Promo isn't historically offered in April, it is offered at other times of year other than the fall. So far, these are the dates that free dining has been offered for 2011:

2011: Jan 1 - 5 • Jan 9 - 13 • Jan 21 - Feb 3 • Feb 11 - 17 • Feb 25 - Mar 3 • May 27 - Jun 2 • Aug 19 - Sept 29

Also, since 2005 when the free dining promo was introduced, it has always been offered at all level of resorts, including the Value Resorts. We have done free dining at least 7 times at a value resort, including Pop. With the introduction of the Quick Service DDP about 2 years ago, they do now offer the Quick Service DDP to Value Resorts with the free dining promo. But, you can pay the minimal cost to upgrade to the Basic/Plus DDP, which we do now.