Anyone go from WDW resort to a house rental?

[BigredNole]

Don't forget about $20/day for parking at the theme parks, unless someone in the vehicle has an annual pass.

Upgrade one of the passes to an AP. You will make out with free MM and free parking (~$300 savings for a 7-day trip). You also get discounts on most things so that adds up too.

 

[mefordis]

You had to have been there when we were there (around June 18th). Vomit boy (that's what I called him) didn't even know how to swim and the family just puts him in there. He goes under, swallows tons of water, and starts up his food. The family didn't do anything other than encourage him to continue tossing everything up in the pool. They were also the ones that put their other non-potty trained kid in the pool to take the "L" out of it.

It was definitely a family group that doesn't fit the mold of normal guests. Took a free 2-night stay if they go to a sales pitch and getting stuck in it all day. We only saw them the one night and people left as they saw them coming up from anywhere.

That does it. No WBC for me. Looking at the houses on VRBO.

 

[CWdreamer]

Now that WDW is going to allow offsite hotels 60 day FP+ access there's not much downside.

http://wdwnt.com/blog/2017/10/disne...pass-booking-guests-select-non-disney-hotels/

The details about which hotels have not been announced yet, but the expectation is that it will include hotels in the Disney Springs area and good neighbor hotels. I don't know if it will include vacation houses.

 

[prprincess]

I've done it before, and no, did not regret it. At the time we had wanted more of a relaxing, low-key vacation so we only did two park days and spent the rest of the week at the house. It was a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom home with a private pool and a game room and we loved it. Driving/parking to/at the parks wasn't as bad as we thought it would be - the house we rented was in Davenport, so it wasn't that far of a drive. It was also nice making breakfast and lunch, and sitting by the pool and eating it. We rented from a great family on VRBO and had no issues. I'd definitely do it again, and was quite affordable.

 

[married2mm]

Just a thought op-why not price okw or ssr 2 bed villas or a value resort suite?

 

[ELSA711]

You had to have been there when we were there (around June 18th). Vomit boy (that's what I called him) didn't even know how to swim and the family just puts him in there. He goes under, swallows tons of water, and starts up his food. The family didn't do anything other than encourage him to continue tossing everything up in the pool. They were also the ones that put their other non-potty trained kid in the pool to take the "L" out of it.

It was definitely a family group that doesn't fit the mold of normal guests. Took a free 2-night stay if they go to a sales pitch and getting stuck in it all day. We only saw them the one night and people left as they saw them coming up from anywhere.

Yep, we were there 6/14-6/21 and it was unreal how many of these situations we saw, with no one around at the pool to report it to.
And no one seemed to care but us.

 

[married2mm]

[QUOTE="mefordis, post: 58378070, member: 118788"

Anyone go from resort to renting a house and not look back? Anyone try it and regret not staying on property?
[/QUOTE]

So, we did it the other way round.
Went from being off site (first trip I didn't even know wdw offered accommodation!?#)
We initially still had offsite house and booked 1 nighters at values for the emh and free parking.

We gradually increased to full trip onsite (2 bed villa at okw) I was concerned about the lack of space; thought it was a step downwards from 4/5/6/7 bed villas-
However-I loved,loved,loved, the whole onsite being in the bubble feeling.
I thought there was no going back!

Unfortunately our budget and wdw pricing are not working together...

Our compromise & it works a treat-is we stay both onsite and offsite during our vacations....it's quite simply -the best of both worlds.

I've tried to just book a villa for our whole trip-in order to save $$$'s-
but the fun with emh,free parking,fastpass+
Quickly remind me it's part of our vacation.

 

[fstone]

I'm also looking into renting a condo or house off-property on our next visit. We really love staying at the Disney resorts but health issues are requiring that we watch our diets pretty closely now and the option to cook our meals is the main reason we would like to make the switch. I appreciate the recommendation to look at WBC - I had started looking on VRBO but its kind of overwhelming - there are LOTS of rentals in the Disney area. And the tip about upgrading to an AP to save parking costs is a great idea! Thanks.

 

[married2mm]

You had to have been there when we were there (around June 18th). Vomit boy (that's what I called him) didn't even know how to swim and the family just puts him in there. He goes under, swallows tons of water, and starts up his food. The family didn't do anything other than encourage him to continue tossing everything up in the pool. They were also the ones that put their other non-potty trained kid in the pool to take the "L" out of it.

It was definitely a family group that doesn't fit the mold of normal guests. Took a free 2-night stay if they go to a sales pitch and getting stuck in it all day. We only saw them the one night and people left as they saw them coming up from anywhere.

We've witnessed this kind of behavior many times unfortunately during our trips to Spain.
I can think of many instances-but the 2main ones were-
Dh had to jump in the pool to save a toddler-parents drinking and I have no more printable words to describe them..

A young girl (4/5) fell down and cut herself.
No-one immediately attended to her..I cleaned up her leg,bandaged her and comforted her & had to carry her to find her family...

I'm never,ever,ever staying such resort's ever again.
Looking after your own children is one thing & not being relaxed poolside kind of defeats the object of being there!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Growing up my XH went to Disney often and always stayed offsite. His parents always did those timeshare presentations and got a cheap or free stay.

My first time going was with him. He made us do the timeshare thing for Silver Lake Resort. We stayed 5 nights in a two bedroom condo. The space was wonderful but I hated the presentation.

Next trip we stayed onsite and I've been onsite every trip. I love being onsite and in the bubble. My next trip is just a mother daughter trip so onsite again.

BUT if we ever go back as a family of 4 (my SO and my kids) I'm sure we will do WBC and do an Orlando vacation by doing Disney, Universal and Sea World. I'm not paying for two rooms with teenagers/young adults. It's just so pricey for what you get now.

 

[BigredNole]

Yep, we were there 6/14-6/21

It had to be the kid at the slide pool. No way it could have been a different family. This was a family we avoided. If we saw them, we went somewhere else.

 

[mefordis]

Just a thought op-why not price okw or ssr 2 bed villas or a value resort suite?

I did and got very excited when I saw the price was $800 less than 2 rooms at BC, however, an entire house would be 2k less!

 

[BigredNole]

$ for $, Disney can't come close to offsite accommodations. It is as simple as that. There is a large group of people that cannot even vacation unless they out do the other person in their social circle. They simply don't care how much financial distress they get in. They will stay GF no matter what. I like my money far more than I like Mickey getting my money. I stay offsite when $ matters.

 

[married2mm]

I did and got very excited when I saw the price was $800 less than 2 rooms at BC, however, an entire house would be 2k less!

I think therein lies your answer...

 

[buzznina]

Where are you guys getting your prices, $4000 difference, $200 at POP??? I could have booked POP for under $100 for our upcoming Thanksgiving week trip. I agree renting offsite is cheaper, especially vs the monorail or Epcot resorts, but we still like to be onsite.

 

[robinb]

Where are you guys getting your prices, $4000 difference, $200 at POP??? I could have booked POP for under $100 for our upcoming Thanksgiving week trip. I agree renting offsite is cheaper, especially vs the monorail or Epcot resorts, but we still like to be onsite.

I don't think the OP was comparing 2 rooms at POP with a house. From her signature it seems that she stays in moderate and deluxe resorts.

 

[ParrotBill]

I think people have covered most of the tradeoffs so far. We have rented houses twice but are usually at DVC resorts. The rental house is a great option to get comfortable housing with many bedrooms and baths and your own heated pool and jacuzzi. Be sure to get the complete cost picture when shopping because there are many add ons... taxes are huge. Heat for pool is extra. Cleaning fee at end or not. And make sure you understand what is included. The hardest thing was having to drive back and forth and when it's hot we like to take a mid day break... harder to do with a house rental.

 

[sbd78]

We are trying our first WDW house rental this May. We stayed in a pool home in Disneyland, CA years ago and loved it. We rented a 3 bed 3 bath Windsor Hills townhome with private splash pool through Vacation Central Florida for our upcoming trip. We paid $869 total with all taxes and fees included for 8 nights. We just can't do 1 room hotels anymore with 3 kids, and our cheapest onsite multi-room option is an All Star Music family suite. Total for the ASMu family suite for the exact same dates is $2,649, and that is with a pin code discount Disney sent me! So 3x as much to be on property at a value resort vs. WH townhome with private pool! Seems like a no brainer. I'm really hoping we love Windsor Hills. We are driving to Orlando so we will have our car anyway.

Wyndham Bonnet Creek is another offsite option I would like to try in the future. There are a lot of tips and suggestions for getting good rates there in the Orlando Hotels forum.

 

[NH-to-FL]

I am pricing out my Aug 2018 vacation and holy moly I cannot believe how pricey resorts have gotten. I am looking into possibly renting a house for our family of 4. I would save $4000 ! How can that be right??

Anyone go from resort to renting a house and not look back? Anyone try it and regret not staying on property?

I can give you some thoughts from our experience. DW and I enjoyed many visits to the BWI over the years. Then we switched to vacations in a 4BR "vacation villa" that we bought as our future retirement home. For a few years we continued our vacations to WDW at the house. These vacations were a bit different from our on site visits. Our home is a bit further from WDW than the one you have identified which made the travel to the parks a bit longer. The only time we really note the difference is the extra time getting to MK via the TTC. Of course we do occasionally remember the convenience of walking from the BWI to Epcot. But overall extra travel from off site isn't an issue for us.

We found our vacations off site to feel a bit less rushed as we had more time and space "at home" to relax.

We did not regret our decision to move our vacations off site. We still enjoyed our times visiting the parks. Of course our situation is a bit different as it was part of our life transition.

And yes, I would believe that you might be able to save $4000, depending on the length of your visit. Before we stopped renting we were getting between $120 to $160 per night depending on the time of year. That is quite a bit less than two deluxe rooms.
Wishing you a off site visit!

 

[i luv the duck]

We went twice in one year and both times we stayed off property. The first time we had a reservation at CBR for five people. I found a 4br/3 bath townhouse for about the same price we would have paid at CBR. We had a ton of space and our own pool. The kids loved not having to share beds and I loved being able to fix a nice breakfast before we headed out to the parks. We also had a washer/dryer which meant no going home with a weeks worth of dirty laundry. There was also a community pool with slide and waterfall so one day we didn't even go to the parks. We drove to Florida so we didn't have to rent a car. We also liked not having to eat every meal in DW. Most days we picked up dinner on the way back to the townhouse. I'd say give it a try, if you don't like it next time you can always stay on property.