Anyone ever stay outside the parks and decided to switch midstream?

[minijeanie]

My very first trip to WDW DS was 4 and DD 5...we were newbies and decided to stay outside the park. got okay place but we went in October and pool was cold and quite honestly caliber of people was not what I anticipated.
4 days into trip we were leaving MK and there was a booth outside gate for reservations... On a whim I went up to the CM and started to speak to him.
by the end of our conversation, I had moved out of the hotel where I was,
booked in Port Orleans(which it was called at the time) for one nite and then moved on to the WL.. WL was newer hotel and we got a great rate of $119 per nite for std room ..of course the year was 1995.

well, when we checked into PO with all the ambience and people greeting you we thought we died and went to heaven. Of course, the first thing the kids wanted to do was go in the pool. We stayed in that wonderful, glorious pool for 2 hours..was so warm to boot.

then on to WL...what can I say but we were in awe...
had the most awesome vacation. even called airlines, stayed an extra 2 days.
will never ever forget that special time....
and will never stay outside the park for whole vacation again

with or without kids

 

[mhingher]

I went on many WDW vacations as a child, and my parents could never afford to stay onsite- of course this was way before the moderate and value resorts were added. We usually stayed at a Days inn or HoJo. DUring one vacation, we had to change rooms like 3 times... first there was a bug, then a flood, then the AC didn't work... we went through 3 rental cars... my parents always called it the "Wally World vacation"...my dad got so fed up, we stayed our last 3 nights in one of the wings in the COntemporary. They couldn't really afford it, but we did it anyway!