Renting house Offsite...Pros/Cons???

[bscott6471]

We are renting house next trip 3 mil snfrom Disney. We have only stayed onsite every other trip. House was cheaper and we will have pool/kitchen/gameroom. Anyone else ever done this? What are your experiences?

 

[KimBean]

We've done it every trip but the last one. It is nicer to stay on-site but you can still have a good trip off site as well. Now that I have done it though I will have a hard time going back. I do all the cooking so the only way I truly get a vacation is not to have a kitchen. LOL!

 

[ZellyB]

We stay offsite most of the time and rent a condo or house. Pros are some things you mentioned already, the biggest being cost. We also love having the extra space and bathrooms. Like having a kitchen particularly for breakfast and laundry. Pool also a plus.

Cons are the added cost of rental car and having to drive, paying for parking and being a bit further away from the action. Many people don't like leaving the "bubble" of Disney although that's never bothered me. You don't get EMH either, but we typically avoid EMH parks anyway. I find having a car to be more convenient frankly than Disney transportation, but I do know a lot of people don't want to worry about driving.

Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[srauseo]

We did it when we went with a big group in 2011. Personally, I like being onsite but with a big group it was nice to all be together and have plenty of space and it was wayyy less expensive. We had multiple cars, which is important. If you only have one car and half the group wants to leave and half wants to stay you can get a little stuck. With the buses it's easy for part of your group to go back to the room if they want/need. I didn't have to drive but some folks always end up being designated drivers which may or may not be an issue.

 

[Alesia]

I used to swear that I would never stay offsite, and then I tried it. Honestly, it's so much better. Just being able to do laundry while you're sleeping is a godsend!

 

[rwdavis2]

We rented one in Windsor Hills in 2008 and really liked it. All that space, a laundry, a bunch of bathrooms. It only took about 10-15 minutes to get inside WDW. The only downside is FP+ at only 30 days. But since you been before you know how to make the best use of your time.

 

[kay1864]

Cons are the added cost of rental car and having to drive, paying for parking and being a bit further away from the action.

This. You have to add $20/day (parking) to the offsite cost to have a meaningful comparison. And the cost of the rental car if you normally rely only on Disney transportation.

 

[starjazz]

Windsor Hills is really nice. 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhome with all amenities (laundry, living room, dining room, full kitchen, etc.) plus the pool. For our group of 6-9 people (depending on which siblings come), this works great. And you can almost always get these for a hundred bucks a night. We use a shuttle service - round trip for up to 8 people is $50. We also used to stay on site - we'd get a couple of cabins at FW, but it would be five times as much money. To me, this is just the no-brainer way to do it if you have big groups, and you're not filthy rich. With our personal shuttle, I'm back to my townhome quicker than most people who stay on site that use Disney transportation. And I have an extra $500/day in my pocket which means more nice meals, fun extras, etc.

 

[bscott6471]

Windsor Hills is really nice. 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhome with all amenities (laundry, living room, dining room, full kitchen, etc.) plus the pool. For our group of 6-9 people (depending on which siblings come), this works great. And you can almost always get these for a hundred bucks a night. We use a shuttle service - round trip for up to 8 people is $50. We also used to stay on site - we'd get a couple of cabins at FW, but it would be five times as much money. To me, this is just the no-brainer way to do it if you have big groups, and you're not filthy rich. With our personal shuttle, I'm back to my townhome quicker than most people who stay on site that use Disney transportation. And I have an extra $500/day in my pocket which means more nice meals, fun extras, etc.

Our house is in Windsor Hills I believe. Is it Close to the parks?

 

[kj2mom]

We stayed off site last summer and it was a bit of an interesting situation because the family we traveled with decided they wanted to be on site after I booked the place so we ended up with a 3 bedroom timeshare for 3 of us (myself and my two 13 year olds). We saw first hand in that one experience the differences. Needing a car turned out to be a plus, they had trouble with the buses and after the first day when they decided not to wait 5 minutes for us to meet them at an exit of a ride, we decided not to wait for them in the morning when touring time is sooo key (this was the week of 4th of July).

I was extremely concerned about the FP thing because we were trying to match theirs and they had gotten the key ones 60 days out. No problem, we got everything we wanted and were able to overlap with them with no issue at all.

Ironically, my children fell in love with Steak N Shake which was right near where we stayed. We would not have experienced this (and I say experience because we were there several times and it was truly an experience) had we been onsite.

Honestly, the thing I was the most afraid of was the renting the car and driving since it was my first time doing that and I was the only adult with my children. I wasn't as fearful when I thought the other family was going to be with us. I worried for nothing. It was soo easy! I had looked over maps many times to try to get comfortable with the area and it really helped. Driving was a breeze for me!

Getting ready in the morning was also a breeze! We each had our own bedroom and our own bathroom so it took next to no time to get ready in the morning. The family we were with were 5 people in one room with one bathroom and they paid more for the 'luxury'.

The only thing we missed out on was one night they were at their hotel they went down and saw Pluto in their lobby I believe. We did not experience that but we were RD to close people so with the exception of one night when we had some locals over to swim in the pool, we were getting back around midnight or so and leaving at 8am each morning so not a ton of time for the extras.


I honestly don't think we will stay on property again unless we encounter some kind of huge deal that would make it worth it.

 

[starjazz]

Our house is in Windsor Hills I believe. Is it Close to the parks?

Its VERY close to the entrance to WDW propery. Each park is a bit different, but we typically allow 30 minutes to get to our drop spot. It ranges from 15-30 typically, depending on time of day, and traffic flow, and which park. So, we have the shuttle show up about 40 minutes in advance of when we want to be there, we load up, and we're off.

 

[Chelley00]

We've rented a house offsite twice (Sunset Lakes which is pretty much next door to Windsor Hills area and stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek 3 times. I'm a HUGE fan of offsite (but I'm not going to complain about our onsite trips either!)

Pros:
Cheaper if you compare comparable square footage
Private pools are nice. Nothing like a drink in the pool on a floatie after a long day of walking around the park
Quieter - I am a really light sleeper and I always hear the people above me in hotels.
Laundry - we throw a load in the washer in the morning and dry it when we get back in the evening
Space - especially if we take all 4 kids - everyone has their own bedroom and bathroom.
Kitchen - we eat breakfast in the morning, sometimes come back and grill out or sometimes even start a crockpot to be ready in the evening


and for a just in case scenario - one year we all came down with Norovirus. It was so much better being in a house with 4 bathrooms and laundry available than to try and puke in one bathroom

Con:
No bus/walk to parks (although we are perfectly happy to drive instead of being smashed in a bus with 1,000 sweaty people)
Pay for parking
No dining plan

Not sure if this is a con or not but when we stay offsite we tend to spend less time in the parks. It's a more relaxing vacation when we are offsite. Less crowded, more space to spread out and relax, no fighting food court lines for breakfast.

 

[kj2mom]

I should also add that the family we were with had the dining plan and when my children were younger we loved the dining plan but this year even if we stayed on site I am not sure if we would have gotten it because they would have been adults. Anyway, we planned sit down meals for our park days but they were going to Universal two of the days so in order to use their TS credits there were a couple of days that they ate two TS meals (we only ever did one together, if they did two then we did not go with them) which really cut into touring time. I loved our TS meals, it was a great break from the heat, hustle and bustle but doing one for breakfast then another for lunch was a time eater. So, while initially I was sad when they were staying on site and got to get the plan while we didn't....it actually turned into a plus that we didn't because it would have cost us more money than what we spent (I did the math when we returned) and we would have felt required to use credit which meant 'wasting' (not really, but you know what I mean) time.

Just wanted to end with a disclaimer, I am just sharing our personal experience. There are definitely positives and negatives for both and honestly I was quite sad when they decided to stay on site. I wasn't sure if I would be able to overcome that in my mind during the trip because I would have stayed on site with them if I had known before we agreed to book the place (and we did agree, they even sent their money which I paid them back for when they changed their minds) but in the end I was very, very happy where we were and with the whole experience.

 

[MrKnight]

As stated by PP, it is not the same as staying on-site at a Disney Resort.. IMHO the cons outweigh the pros.. Staying off-site means no EMH, no WDW transportation, no DME, no DDP, no early access to FP+, no MagicBands, and extra time spent doing household shores (ex. cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.) which IMO can defeat the purpose of being on vacation..

 

[Mark P.]

After 20 or so on-site trips, last Summer we stayed 2 weeks in a 3 bedroom house w/pool at Wyndham Palms Way in Kissimmee, and we loved it! Only took 10 mins. or so to WDW, which was very nice, too. Most of the pros and the few cons have already been posted.
We drove our car from NJ, and the house was pet friendly, so Winston (see my avatar), settled right in he made out just fine.
Would we do it again? You bet.
Happy Planning
-Mark

 

[Alesia]

As stated by PP, it is not the same as staying on-site at a Disney Resort.. IMHO the cons outweigh the pros.. Staying off-site means no EMH, no WDW transportation, no DME, no DDP, no early access to FP+, no MagicBands, and extra time spent doing household shores (ex. cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.) which IMO can defeat the purpose of being on vacation..

I never cook or clean on vacation - just because you have a full kitchen doesn't mean you have to use it. And being able to throw a load of laundry in at night is much better than having to take time out of the parks to do your laundry at an onsite resort.

 

[kj2mom]

I either have to do everyone's laundry for the entire week when I get home or I can toss a load in on my way to the parks, dry it while we sleep and have almost everything clean when we arrive home. I much prefer not lugging home everyone's dirty clothes (I don't do laundry when staying onsite).

I initially thought we couldn't get MagicBands and that made me sad. We hadn't been for 9 years so it took me some time to realize I could get them, I just couldn't get them free. We had family that went down before us so I asked them to get some bands for us and I gave them to my kids in their Easter suitcases (yes, I gave them suitcases for the trip instead of baskets last year). It worked out well for us because we got character bands and ended up having the characters autograph the bands as a bit of a keepsake/souvenir.

 

[californiamomofboys]

Our big pro: the money you save means double the trips to WDW. Many of the things people enjoy about staying on-site, you can still do if not staying there, i.e.. Campfire Sing a Long at Ft. Wilderness, plus all the movies they show at the various on-site properties. We've enjoyed the pools/slides at our off site condos more than on site (check out Holiday Inn Vacation Villas at Orange Lake Resort).

 

[HopperFan]

CONS:
- Pay for parking unless you have AP
- No 60 Day FP+ booking, but really only impacts a few
- Loss of EMH, if you used them
- Since you obviously will have a car the loss of ME is not an impact

Most other "perks" are not really exclusive perks. I'm typing this on a very rainy day as we rest in our huge 2 bedroom condo where each of us have our own bed, our own TV, I'm doing laundry and we have food in the kitchen.

 

[Julylady]

We stayed in a large home in Emerald Islands three times with large groups that included teen cousins (boys and girls). The biggest pro was the large number of bedrooms that afforded privacy and space to spread out. We also loved the private pool and the fact that we could all be together.

The biggest con was that everyone had to be ready at the same time in the morning. This was really difficult. It's hard to motivate a 15 year old girl to be ready to leave by 7:45am when her body is craving sleep. There was a lot of screaming and hard feelings. It's not a nice way to start the day. If we had been on site, I would have left her in the room and told her to meet us when she was ready. We had the same problem at night. Our 14 year old boy wanted to stay for Fantasmic but was outvoted by those who wanted to return to the house. It's been 10 + years and he still talks about missing it.

We have done large group trips since, but we now stay in a large beach house rather than WDW.