A few questions from a born-again newbie

[moopdog]

I feel like a newbie since we haven't been to WDW since 2008, so I'll be asking some newbie-like questions for the next few months! LOL. We're planning a trip in either March or April, depending on if/when FD is offered. My dilemma is if FD won't work for us, we 're considering staying off-site and renting a car. We did this once before and it was great but that's partially because we got the rental car for like $13 per day. I was wondering...

1) are car rentals still that cheap... we had a promo code at the time? And if we decided to rent a car for just one day while on-site, are there places on WDW property to do that?

2) is Westgate Lake & Spa resort a decent place and close to everything?

3) what are my chances for Free dining in mid-April and if the chances aren't good, how crowded are the parks in March. About March, I have been told everything to "you can walk right on the rides" to "it was insanely crowded". So???

Thanks!

 

[DawnM]

I would stay as far away from Westgate as you possibly can. Our stay at Westgate was the worst stay we have EVER had and we do Disney a lot.

You cannot get dining with staying off-site. YOu will need to stay on site and pay full room price to get the "free" dining.

You can find out crowd calendar info by going to EasyWDW.com and clicking on the March calendar. Typically mid March to late April is VERY crowded.

Dawn

I feel like a newbie since we haven't been to WDW since 2008, so I'll be asking some newbie-like questions for the next few months! LOL. We're planning a trip in either March or April, depending on if/when FD is offered. My dilemma is if FD won't work for us, we 're considering staying off-site and renting a car. We did this once before and it was great but that's partially because we got the rental car for like $13 per day. I was wondering...

1) are car rentals still that cheap... we had a promo code at the time? And if we decided to rent a car for just one day while on-site, are there places on WDW property to do that?

2) is Westgate Lake & Spa resort a decent place and close to everything?

3) what are my chances for Free dining in mid-April and if the chances aren't good, how crowded are the parks in March. About March, I have been told everything to "you can walk right on the rides" to "it was insanely crowded". So???

Thanks!

 

[disneyfan123]

If you're thinking of staying off-site, look at Bonnet Creek. There's a huge thread in the non-Disney hotels section. We're booked there for our trip in September and we're paying $89/night for a 2 bedroom suite. The nice thing about it is that it's a non-Disney hotel on Disney property, so you get the convenience of the location without paying the Disney prices.

And free dining isn't necessarily the best deal; you have to pay rack rates for the rooms, which are pretty high, so I suggest you do a bit of research into how much you want to spend on food/what you want to eat, and then decide if it's a good deal for you because you can get some really good hotel deals that may save you more than the free dining.