Christmas to New Years, on or off property? (parking availability vs bus crowds)

holyrita

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Hello! Been planning our Christmas 2020 trip (12/24-1/1) for a while now and can't decide on whether to stay on or off property. There'll be two of us and I currently have two options booked:

1. Off property and rental car for $980
- Have stayed here before and it's < 10 minutes to all parks, not the nicest hotel but is clean and convenient!
- Have an annual pass so won't have to pay to park at the parks
2. All Star Movies without a rental car for $1,953

I'm leaning more towards staying off property for the cost savings, but am concerned about being able to park during this busy time. We will avoid MK on Christmas Day and will likely go to parks in the morning, take a break mid day, and then return at night. We have park hopper tickets and can/will likely visit more than one park per day. Don't mind the walking in a busy parking lot but do have concerns about being turned away. We could always uber/lyft on the busiest of days/times and still come out very much ahead from a cost/savings perspective. Does anyone have experience parking during this time?

On the other hand, if we stay on property, I'm concerned about buses being overly crowded and lines being very long. What is Disney transportation like at value resorts during this time?

Also, not sure if this is the correct forum/subforum for this question, let me know if I'd be better posting elsewhere!

Thanks everyone!
 
I've stayed at this time of year twice and once was offsite and the other onsite. We didn't have issues with parking when staying offsite; however, it's time consuming to drive, park, take the tram etc. so you need to keep that in mind, esp if you plan to go back to your hotel mid-day. While we enjoyed both trips, if I had the choice, I'd stay onsite.
 
I've stayed at this time of year twice and once was offsite and the other onsite. We didn't have issues with parking when staying offsite; however, it's time consuming to drive, park, take the tram etc. so you need to keep that in mind, esp if you plan to go back to your hotel mid-day. While we enjoyed both trips, if I had the choice, I'd stay onsite.

Thank you so much for your reply! 🙏 I've stayed offsite before so I get what you're saying with the time it takes to drive/park/tram. How would you say that compares to waiting for a bus? What were the bus crowds like that time of year?
 
Thank you so much for your reply! 🙏 I've stayed offsite before so I get what you're saying with the time it takes to drive/park/tram. How would you say that compares to waiting for a bus? What were the bus crowds like that time of year?
we found the buses (while crowded at times) to run often, so we never waited too long. Also, you can look at the app to see what time the next bus is coming so you don't have to wait the whole time at the bus stop. I've not stayed in the value resorts so I can't speak for those specifically but we were at Beach Club our last Christmas trip and we could walk or take boat to Epcot and Hollywood Studios so we only took the bus to Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom. I never felt we waited really long getting back from the parks either although a few nights buses were standing room only
 


We stayed at Music this past Christmas and Sports the Christmas before that. We drove to the parks when we stayed at Sports and it did take a long time. The line to just enter the parking lot to pay to park for always huge. If you can bypass that line in an uber or Lyft, I would most definitely go that route. We were never at any point turned away from parking, but it isn't that fast. We did the bus at Music. We found the buses to be plentiful and despite the enormous crowds, there was always bus after bus to accommodate. We never waited very long. Another thing to think about is the 60 day FP advantage you get staying on property. Unless you are going just for the atmosphere, be prepared for everything and anything that could possibly form a line to have a line. Fastpasses are exceedingly important.
 

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