Cheap but close place to stay near by?

[Donald Ducks wife]

hello, well im in a pickle just now, never been to WDW always to DLP. But looking at trying to do WDW as cheap as possible, as was just wondering is there any hotels near to WDW 1 adult and 1 child can stay for 2 weeks for £500-ish??

Would love to stay at art of animation but I don't think we will manage to stretch that far

 

[chmurf]

the first question is "when" ?

this can greatly affect the price of those 2 weeks

the next question is "Are you driving ?"

If you are, then renting a car might be as expensive as staying onsite.
If you are not, then bear in mind that it's going to be a very long trip on a bus to even get inside the property

for perspective, Disneyworld is the size of the city of Paris

you can find cheap hotels like the Clarion Inn on Palm Parkway (for example) but this will mean roughly one hour on foot to get to Disney Springs, then take a disney bus to a disney hotel (or walk to ssr), then take another disney bus to a park, same thing to get back to the hotel

or take a Lynx bus (#50 runs by palm parkway/crossroads, and goes to DS or TTC)

another question is "£500-ish with tickets, or only for accomodation ?"
what about food ?

 

[Donald Ducks wife]

the first question is "when" ?

this can greatly affect the price of those 2 weeks

the next question is "Are you driving ?"

If you are, then renting a car might be as expensive as staying onsite.
If you are not, then bear in mind that it's going to be a very long trip on a bus to even get inside the property

for perspective, Disneyworld is the size of the city of Paris

you can find cheap hotels like the Clarion Inn on Palm Parkway (for example) but this will mean roughly one hour on foot to get to Disney Springs, then take a disney bus to a disney hotel (or walk to ssr), then take another disney bus to a park, same thing to get back to the hotel

or take a Lynx bus (#50 runs by palm parkway/crossroads, and goes to DS or TTC)

another question is "£500-ish with tickets, or only for accomodation ?"
what about food ?

Hello, sorry I should have said

October 2015, not driving, and it was £500-ish for only the accomodation

 

[mrsmomo]

Hello, sorry I should have said

October 2015, not driving, and it was £500-ish for only the accomodation

There are many places for $40-60/night. Are they beautiful absolutely not! Do we stay there on occasion yes, do some if my customers ask me to book these rooms sure! But those ppl usually have a car to get around.

My recommendation is to stay at a value unless you only plan on doing a few park days

 

[chmurf]

October 2015, not driving, and it was £500-ish for only the accomodation

£500 for 14 nights is doable.
standard rate for the clarion (one of the cheapest in the area) is at £580 for 14 nights in october 2015

you can find $50 a night around international drive, but those will require a car if you plan on going to the parks often.

basically, if you stay onsite, you can do without a car and use disney transportation, but if you stay offsite, you need a car.

so you can get £500 accomodations, but you need a car, or you need to accept spending a couple of hours on buses everyday, and this will get old quite fast.

 

[NatalieMT]

I'd also suggest you opt to stay at a value if your budget can stretch that far, depending on your exact dates it may not be too much more. You'll have a better experience and it'll be far less hassle. We stayed a few days at AS Sports April 2013 and then moved offsite, we'd have been a lot better off staying the whole time at AS Sports because it was so much more convenient and probably would have worked out cheaper. Staying offsite we had no choice but to rent a car, which was pretty expensive but also meant parking charges at parks etc and generally a lot of time wasted (the trip was pretty terrible all round for other unrelated reasons but I think that contributed somewhat, I felt trapped offsite!). I have since vowed staying offsite is just not for me, even if it means I have to save a bit longer for the next trip.

If you're looking for the 'Disney experience' staying onsite it just feels a lot more like you're immersed in it, especially for a first WDW trip and it was easy for us to do a few hours in the park, go back to the hotel, have some pool time and then return to the parks again in the evening. For us it was just more relaxed and you'll get more park time/time spent doing what you want and won't be spending additional time trying to get everywhere.

Yeah I'm sure you can find somewhere that comes in around £500 for the 14 nights and a lot of people don't want to spend money on just a place to sleep but perhaps worth considering onsite on this occasion or stay offsite but get the car!

 

[wayneg]

Personally I am not a fan of Disney value resorts plus I would not goto Orlando without a car but we all do different things on holiday. Where we want to explore and get away from the parks I am sure you will want a park based holiday being your 1st trip.
So with what you have said so far I would recommend staying onsite and using their transport, if you fly into MCO they even transport you to your resort free.
Just had a quick look at prices, Expedia have the values at £51/nt less 12% Quidco = £45/nt = £630 for 14 nts.

 

[dixonsontour]

We've stayed twice at all star movies and once at art of animation and would stay at any again no hesitation.

One adult and a child would be absolutely fine in a value room. My DD loved the pools and the value resorts have a fun atmosphere.

The convenience of being onsite with included transport is well worth it.

There is also a chance US disney may offer free dining for October 2015 dates. Offers are usually released May. Value resorts include free QSDP but can be upgraded to full dining plan.

We stayed 2 weeks at all star movies Oct 2013 including half term with free qsdp upgraded to ddp.

 

[disneyholic family]

when my kids were young, i took them by myself (without DH).
We stayed at the All Star Music resort (one of the disney values) and used disney transportation.
It was WONDERFUL!!!!

if traveling alone with a child, i would highly recommend staying onsite and using disney transportation. Much easier.

 

[PudseyChancer]

Another recommending an online stay - I stayed at All Star Sports a few years ago, we didn't drive and the benefit of the resort buses made it all straightforward. Have also stayed off site on International Drive and if you don't have a car, you're tied to whatever time the transfer buses pick you up, so it can feel a bit like being on a timer.

I have to say, I found All Star Sports to be quite fun, and we made a point of going round the other value resorts to have a look at the theming.

 

[disneyholic family]

i've stayed at Art of Animation, Pop Century, All Star Sports and All Star Music and enjoyed all of them equally.
They are all fun and nice and clean and have lots and lots of disney pixie dust.
I wouldn't hesitate to stay at any of the value resorts.

and by the way, i've stayed at almost every disney resort (value, moderate and deluxe) and enjoyed all of them.
The values may not have quite as many amenities as the deluxe, but you still know that you're at disney.
It's lovely and i enjoy myself just as much at the values as i do at the moderates and deluxes.

and again, if i were traveling alone with a child, i would only stay onsite and use disney transportation.

 

[susan1]

The Clarion has shuttle buses from the hotel to the Parks. It is ideal for off-park non-drive stays. Directly on a bus route and several eateries in the vicinity. Go to The Dibb Website and search Clarion hotel there are pages on it.

 

[queendisney]

I am not a fan of staying off site. I'd rather spend just a tad more to stay on site and that's even if we rented a car. In your case, without a car, I wouldn't even consider staying off site.(I include the good neighbour hotels in this) Yes the hotels off site often have their own bus service to Disney (some charge you), but they don't all run really late and are not that frequent. When we stayed off site once we never got to see MK fireworks because we had to get the last bus back! The WDW transportation bus stops are also undercover. Now that may sound a bit weird but believe me if you have to wait out on the tarmac in the heat/sun/thunder storm (we had them all) its not fun. It also makes it more difficult to 'pop' back to your hotel should you want a break/nap/swim..We ended up knackered as we felt we had to stay out all day.

So that's my reasons to stay on site as this is your first visit.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

There are quite a lot of budget hotels in the Kissimmee area, some of which have free breakfast and some also provide a daily shuttle to the parks. obviously these shuttles will run up in the morning (between 8 and 9am) and back in the evenings (usually around 6pm) and that's it. If you need anything else you either need to drive, take a taxi, or work out some sort of bus route.

We usually stay in a condo at Sweetwater Circle just behind Lake Cecil and that's only £40 a night all in BUT we do hire a car.

OH is staying at a Travelodge near Siera Lago Drive (opposite SuperTarget) for just over £300 plus $4 a night compulsory local admin fee.

Unfortunately we could never afford to stay on site until this year, and it's always going to be cheaper to stay offsite than it is to even stay in a so-called Value resort. The only reason we've done it this year and will be doing it again in March is because we had free dining (stayed in a mod hotel) and we did it as a very special treat.