AOA or Offsite Villa?

[seasalt81]

Our vacation plans fell through last minute, so we are headed to Disney World in 7 days and we do not have a resort reservation! At this point, we are looking at either a family suite at Art of Animation or a 2-bedroom villa off-site at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Same price either way because there's a discount code for Wyndham and I can get the AP discount at AOA.

We will be spending 2 days at the parks and have the Halloween party on one other day. We have three ADRs, currently. We're doing two days of non-Disney things around Orlando, as well, which we'll rent a car for.

We've never stayed off property and we've also never stayed at a Value (usually stay in DVC villas) -- so I can't decide which way to go. Given the last minute nature of our trip, 60 day FP+ doesn't matter and we probably won't use EMH. We don't typically use Magical Express, either. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth being off property to be in a nicer resort or if it'll be better to be on property in a Value.

Any thoughts??

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you don't need the perks of staying onsite, I would probably opt for Wyndam Bonnet Creek. We were not thrilled with our AoA stay - I found it to be very loud and chaotic. I would go for the nicer accommodations particularly since you aren't spending your whole trip at Disney parks.

 

[firefly_ris]

I'd go for Bonnet Creek. Spacious, you'll have a balcony, they have a lazy river, etc. Since you're going in 7 days, some of the on site perks like 60 day FPs are moot at this point. WBC will probably be closer to the type of accommodations you're used to.

 

[seasalt81]

Thanks so much for the feedback. Bonnet Creek sounds like the winner. I did just see that we could do a split stay between Saratoga Springs (4 nights) and Boulder Ridge (3 nights) but I think we'll just try off-property this time and see how it goes. Seems like less hassle at this point!