a la carte option staying off site-
I just did a brief comparison
Not too sure about this comparison, though...
It's very, very easy to get a weekly rental at one of the many top notch timeshare resorts in the area. A
1BR deluxe is easy to find well
under $700 for the week including taxes/fees. At this time of year, I'd look for something around
$400/week. While you'd give up the extra hours, you'd gain a LOT in your room: the privacy of a king bed Master suite w/jacuzzi, the conveniences of a kitchen and living room, 2 tvs and a DVD player for evenings when not everyone is ready for bed at the same time, an inroom washer/dryer so you can pack less, a resort pool area that includes a nice hot tub spa and possibly many, many other resort activities and amenities too.
Add the quoted
$80 for the parking fees.
Add the quoted
$912 for the Disney park passes.
Offsite lodging, parking and passes could actually easily total = $1392-$1692.
Meals
If you stayed offsite, you would find that 3 people (is one a child?) would likely spend much less on food than $952, IMO.
Our family of 5 includes 2 adults, DD 19 and twin bottomless DSs 17. That's 5 good appetites. On a fun vacation week, we
typically spend only $500-$900 on food, depending on how much we eat in the parks vs. out of the parks. Offsite buffets are less than half the price of onsites and offsite sitdowns are usually about 20%-40% less than onsites. We usually have breakfast in the condo in our PJs as everyone gets up, very relaxed, cheap, easy - and lots of fridge food for the teenagers' late evening kitchen raids. Anyway, I think
$500-$700 for the week, for the 3 of you, if you were staying offsite, would be a generous estimate.
So this would mean offsite costs for lodging, parking, Disney passes and meals could total = $1892-$2392.
Costs could be the same (for both onsite and offsite in your examples)
for the rental car and airfare, so I would not even consider those. The discounts available to you as a CAA member would also be the same, and BTW, there are tons of discount deals out there for non-Disney restaurants and places like Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe and others - these are not just for folks who book onsite vacations.
From your post, your onsite package deal for lodging with free parking, passes and meal plan total = $2065. This is
comparable to the cost of an offsite stay. There are cheaper options offsite, btw, and more expensive ones too. So, when looking at the cheapest onsite options and comparing to reasonable offsite options, the difference in price may be small enough to just go with one's
preferences.
Bottom line is, are you excited to stay at the All Stars? Do the extra hours or other onsite perks have real value to you? Do you prefer the Disney transportation, the feel of the hotel, the amenities offered? Then it's good that you're staying there.
Or...
Would you prefer to have 2 rooms or more for sleeping or couple privacy? Would you like to have a kitchen, a washer/dryer, 2 tvs and a jacuzzi tub in your room and other amenities onsite at your resort, like tennis, golf, a pool slide, a poolside hot tub, floating river, boating, fishing or organized activities for rainy days? These things are not available onsite at these prices. So for people with these preferences, it would be good to consider offsite if cost is an issue. And if your family or travel group is larger than 4 people over age 3, even a single hotel room is not available onsite at these prices.
When comparing the moderate onsite hotels or the deluxe hotels or suites, the offsite savings start to mount up. Still, comparing onsite to offsite is more complicated than just the money. It's about preferences, too, of course. Everyone values their money differently. We've found that the closest offsite timeshares are a shorter, quicker drive to the parks than some of the onsite hotels, using Disney transport. So the "gotta get a nap/swim onsite" argument doesn't hold.
But what's important to a particular family in their vacation experience has to be weighed against the cost difference.
I really think that the only people who can stay onsite and honestly SAVE MONEY on a direct comparison of onsite/offsite options that have a reasonable trade-off in features, are a select category of vacationers:
- Group of 4 or fewer.
- Happy to stay at a Disney value hotel or offseason DVC studio w/points rental from member.
- Comparing to full freight offsite hotel prices (which are actually easy to avoid offsite).
- Would eat at Disney restaurants for nearly all meals regardless.
- Possibly would get free dining plan in Aug/Sept.
- Might not rent a car if staying onsite but would if staying offsite.
- Don't have an AP for free parking as an offsiter.
Our family is larger so just the cost of a single Disney deluxe hotel room, a 1BR DVC AKL villa rental (they sleep 5) or 2 value hotel rooms would blow our entire vacation budget!
And we'd all have to trip over each other to get changed for a swim... and our sons would likely spend their college tuition on Disney food... yikes!
We don't care much for the themes or noise of the Disney value hotels (too many youth groups, miss the absent hot tub, get tired of the buses w/Disney announcer voices and the mega-merchandising Disney machine 24/7). We appreciate the subtropical atmosphere and wonderful amenities of some offsite non-Disney resorts to decompress. We always drive our own car and don't need a rental. So we're clearly not in the category of people who would ever spend
less on an onsite Disney vacation.
And we are hard-pressed to find value in spending more for onsite.
For us, the exception is when we are able to exchange an offsite timeshare into a DVC 2BR for a week... nearly "offsite cheap" while "onsite deluxe theme" but then, that's another topic... and a whole other forum, actually.
Even the food in the food courts are Disney shaped on Mickey shaped plates. It really adds to the experience. I loved the fact that we never worried about carrying cash or visa's with us. We used our room keys for everything. 
