Cannot decide first family trip on or off site!!

[WDisneyMom]

HELP!! There will be 5 of us... Me, hubby, son 10, son 7, mother-in-law.

I keep reading and reading and reading these boards and can't get away from the "magic" everyone talks about from staying on-site!

So...the choices:

On Site:
CBR Pirate Room w/free dining 1827
CBR Pirate Room w/free dining 1115 (mother-in-law)

Off-Site:
Marriott Village SpringHill Suites 175.00 for the 4 nights (will sleep 5)
WDW Tickets for 5: 1092
Car for the week: 182.00
Parking: 110.00

I know it seems to make more sense staying off site but will I regret not being in the "magic?"

 

[spiceycat]

to my knowledge - it was only POR AB section that allows 5 people.


So that might be a bigger problem.

if just you and the kids might go with outsite - but MIL might need to rest more often - so staying onsite might help with that.

where is your parking price coming from?

disney is only $12 a day to park - if your hotel is charging for parking - then go find another one.

 

[gracie1]

I know exaclty what you mean!! I keep wondering whether or not we should've stayed offsite. We are going October 26th for 11 nights and I have booked pop century. Part of me has no idea when we are going to get back so we should stay on site and experience the magic.

What would be easier for you and cheaper? When I figured out staying off site it was a $600 savings. Then when I added the car rental for 12 days as well as the parking it came to just about breaking even. So that was another reason we decided to stay on site. Mainly for the convenience and the magic. Good luck in your decision! It was the hardest part for me!

 

[WDisneyMom]

Thank you! My parking is coming from the park fees and the parking charge at the ritz carlton for the last part of our stay. And at CBR, we would have a room and my mother-in-law would have a room.

 

[WDisneyMom]

Gracie...it would pretty much break even for us too if it were just the 4 of us but with MIL...it seems to be an extra 1000 at least.

 

[PurpleSurfer]

I would need to see dining in your off site scenario to make up my mind?

 

[WDisneyMom]

Purple...we like to eat...alot. And not just counter service, fast food type places so we are looking at chef mickey for breakfast one day, 50's PTC for lunch/dinner one day, dinner at raglan one night and one night at Tony Romas...the rest can be whatever....CS would be fine.

 

[spiceycat]

Thank you! My parking is coming from the park fees and the parking charge at the ritz carlton for the last part of our stay. And at CBR, we would have a room and my mother-in-law would have a room.

if you are going for 2 rooms - then might go with Pop century and save a few dollars.

now Pop Century does Not have a slide with the pool, and no hot tub.


pluses - it has a lake, you can see the epcot fireworks, the food court is nice (just get up EARLY for breakfast or go to the parks and eat), game room for your child, it is a fun place.

 

[WDisneyMom]

Pop is out for us...couple of reasons. One being we need to upgrade to regular dining so then it's basically the same as CBR.

 

[spiceycat]

okay warning - CBR is very, very spread out - probably the most spread out of all the WDW resorts.

so unless you got preferred rooms you will be walking alot.

unless MIL is used to walking - this might not work.

would go with POFQ - it has the less walking of any of the moderates

the rooms you got - Pirates are the furthest from the food court. so long, long walk daily - before you get to the parks and really start walking

 

[Zeebs]

Just wanted to say, our first trip we stayed offsite as we were travelling with the inlaws and it was more economical to stay offsite. We loved it. I think one of the advantages to never having gone before is that you don't have any idea of what it is all like.

Now we were travelling from outside America so a lot of the excitement for us was also seeing the supermarkets, shopping etc.

We stayed at Windsor Hills and found getting to the parks easy.

We picked a few places we really wanted to eat and made reservations for those. But we also got to try some off site places too.

I think you will have fun either way, as long as you don't spend the whole time regretting your decision what ever it was.

I certainly don't regret a single thing about our trip, would others do it the same way, NO most certainly not but it worked for us and we had the very best time.

Now the next trip will be harder, trying thinking about giving on site ago but questioning this decision as we had such a good time offsite, will I regret the lack of space etc etc etc. I know once we are there though I don't think I will care.

Good luck and have a great trip

Kirsten

 

[dioxide45]

Thank you! My parking is coming from the park fees and the parking charge at the ritz carlton for the last part of our stay. And at CBR, we would have a room and my mother-in-law would have a room.

You shouldn't be using all of the parking for the entire trip for the comparison. You will be paying the parking at the Ritz no matter what as well as the Disney parking fees for that time also. Only compare the parking fees while staying at Spring Hill Suites to the no parking fees while at Disney. Adding in the parking fees that are unavoidable and separate from the comparison isn't accurate.

 

[WDisneyMom]

spicey...CBR does seem to be quite huge...POR worries me a little due to the very mixed reviews I have read and some of the bed bug reports on AB rooms which is where we would have to stay.
zeebs...I totally agree that we will have a great time off or onsite as long as we don't spend time regretting...glad your family had a nice time off site for the first visit!
dioxide...I included the RC parking because if we stay off site, we will have to rent a car and that is included package wise in my planning.

 

[spiceycat]

suggesting POFQ not POR - POFQ gets pretty nice reviews.

with POR it like CBR if you get near or close to the food court/main pool - you are pretty happy - otherwise you wonder why you stayed onsite.

POFQ is very small compared to the other moderates - only 7 small building.

it is the first bus stop for pO

 

[PurpleSurfer]

I'm not sure someone help me if I'm wrong I don't mind.

When I run the numbers assuming 5 days at the parks?

I come up with $276.60 per day difference. If that was assumed to be for food as it does look like you will be eating table service meals. (We paid $150 5 years ago for Akershus for 4 adults) I think it will come out very close to even with money.

Here's what I figured for meals.
One table service= 5*40 = 200
One quick service= 5*9 = 40
One snack = 5*3 = 15

The big plus that I see with on site having traveled with my in laws who are older and have various leg problems is that they can use disney transportation to join you later or leave earlier if they need to. With a rental car that is just not possible and you would have to leave the off site when they needed to as well as returning when they needed to.

And then the not financial at all which was your original question...there's the magic that you will have onsite. It doesn't enter into the money side of it but it is a big factor for us.

 

[Brian Noble]

We've done about half-and-half onsite/offsite. For us, there isn't a huge difference in "magic" in either case, but that's us. Others feel differently.

 

[sersee05]

I have a fam of 5 also and know how hard it is..I just asked the same question a couple weeks ago! I have been to Disney before..I have stayed on site . It looks like we are going to stay off site this year because of the prices and the room we need. I was going back and forth about the magic also. But I figure "the magic" is at the parks and you will feel that when you are there. It seems most of the offsite areas still have great pools..which for me, makes it feel a little more magical since I am used to the chlorinated stuffy small indoor pools at hotels. Plus when I thought about it..how much time am I spending at the hotel anyway? It's more about coming back and relaxing and unwinding before another big day....Now since I am picky ..I am definitely looking at nicer offsite hotels..but the prices on some ..are 100 dollars cheaper a day than what I can get onsite.
I hope you figure it out! It will be magical no matter what though!

 

[WDisneyMom]

thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who posted! Just spoke with my MIL tonight and it looks like she will not be able to make the trip with us....so we have decided to stay on-site seeing as it pretty much breaks even with 4 of us on the FD plan! Thank you for all of the advice and suggestions!! Now...off to research some of the mods! Looking at POFQ as was suggested...maybe CBR isn't such a great idea with my hubby's back...he had major back surgery last year and I think walking around at the parks will be enough for him...nervermind the long hauls at the resort!

 

[tinkerbellmichelle]

We went back and forth last year - First it was off site at a hotel, then at Windsor Hills, and the 2 rooms at Pop and finally ended up with a deal and stayed at the Poly. We LOVED the poly but just can't justify the cost - mind you we did not get Free dining either

What we decided was this. We would only stay onsite again if

1) we could afford a monorail hotel again - we waited a lot for busses. We didn't MIND but we loved the convenience of all the transportation options at the Poly. And were doing DDP.

OR

2) we were coming to Florida ONLY for a disney vacation and weren't renting a car. Then we'd probably stay at Pop or something.

We'll be in Orlando in Jan. and staying off site in a suite at a great deal. Original plan was to just do Sea World as time and $$ is limited but we've decided to add a day at MK. I THOUGHT about staying onsite again but there are 5 of us and the $$$. eeek. So we'll drive to the MK and experience it as off-site visitors. In the end - we stil get the magic at MK.

 

[Lisa0620]

I think onsite is really good for a first trip. There's so much "cramming" you do before that first trip - figuring out which restaurants to make ADR's for, learning all the names (and acronyms... ) of everything. For us it was really nice to just let Disney do the driving. All we had to do was make it to Orlando and then Magical Express and the buses did the rest.

Plus, I think you kind of have to do onsite once to get it out of your system, otherwise you're always worried that you might be missing something. Next time we're going to try offsite and see how that goes. Since I feel like we know what we're doing in the parks, we're ready to deal with finding our way around.

Good luck and have fun!