Compating $$ - Onsite vs Offsite Budgeting Questions!

[TheMightyOb]

Hi again! I am hoping to head back to Disney just after Xmas this year and started comparing On vs Offsite stays.

Here is where I am at, and where I need help.

Obviously staying off site means no DDP, so I have budgeted 150.00 per day for food (buffet breakfast each morning at the hotel is free), so this is for lunch and dinner for four people. Is this enough do you think?

If it is, it looks like I can save almost 2k by doing this...that doesnt seem right, but maybe?

THoughts?

 

[LaDonna]

Hi again! I am hoping to head back to Disney just after Xmas this year and started comparing On vs Offsite stays.

Here is where I am at, and where I need help.

Obviously staying off site means no DDP, so I have budgeted 150.00 per day for food (buffet breakfast each morning at the hotel is free), so this is for lunch and dinner for four people. Is this enough do you think?

If it is, it looks like I can save almost 2k by doing this...that doesnt seem right, but maybe?

THoughts?

How old is everyone? How many days and when are you staying? We have 5, 4 "adults" 1 "child" When I was looking at both offsite an on, with getting YES tickets and possibly staying at one of Dave Robinson's $299 condos with park parking I was coming up with about $1400 for Sat-Sat stay during non peak time, that is before food, with staying onsite we are looking at around $2850 after tipping, which is quite a bit of difference. Of course after deciding I really didn't want to cook on my vacation and that we'd probably end up eating possibly 2 meals in the park each day, and then looking at the menu prices( I was really surprised how much more they seem to be than a few years back) we really weren't going to save but a few hundred which wasn't worth it to me, I'd rather have disney drive us everywhere and be able to just order what we want without having to worry if we are going over our budget or not, plus we get to do a lot of character dinners that way which we wouldn't have done if staying offiste.

 

[hrslvr142]

I think part of what I look at is "how much is my time worth?" Since I own a timeshare offsite I could stay "free" but have chosen to split a stay in Orlando. The part of the stay we are going to Disney is when we will stay onsite, the rest we will use my timeshare offsite My SO told me he preferred to drive as little as possible on vacation and while I could easily drive...didn't want to either. Will we wait for transportation from time to time, yep, but that is okay, we love people watching and just enjoying each other's company-neither of us is commando type people when it comes to vacation. I think staying onsite, for me, is more of a vacation and relaxing. Does it come with a price, yep, but something we can afford. With all of this said, this is his first time to Disney so we will see what he thinks after this trip, lol.

 

[disykat]

If you've added it up, you're probably right that it will save you quite a bit of money to be offsite.

We stayed on-site on our recent trip because it was cheaper, but that was because we stayed in a budget, didn't need a rental car, and had free dining.
Other times we've gone, it was more expensive to stay in Disney hotels. We sort of split the difference and stayed shades of green and downtown disney area for convenience. My cheapest trip we got a deal on a rental car and stayed off-site at a budget chain hotel.

 

[brymolmom]

We love Disney and love both on and offsite for different reasons.

Generally speaking, unless I have a very good code/discount for onsite (like free dining), it works out way better for offsite. In my family, the amount you budget for food is very high.

We went last Xmastime, for 5 nights, and our spending was as follows:
Hotel ($50 x 5) = $250
Car (including gas) = $130
MVMCP tickets = About $210
2 days of 10 day non-expire tickets (about $26 per day but paid for 2 years ago, I'll still add this in): 26 x 2 x 4 = $208
Food for room (drinks, snacks, frozen pizza first day): About $40
BIG Breakfast buffet every morning: FREE at hotel (STaybridge Suites)
Offsite meals (one takeout from Giordano's, 1 day fast food): About $100
One nice onsite meal (Cape May Clam Bake): About $100
Various snacks or CS at parks: About $100
Miscellaneous (tips, meals at airports, etc.): $50

Total for 5 nights, I'll estimate about $1250.

We loved it. It was even during free dining, but with a quick trip I did not want to spend that much time in restaurants, so opted this route. And I'm guessing we ended up saving at least $500.

 

[sam_gordon]

You can go to allears.net and look at the menu's for pricing. But a very GENERAL idea...

$10 for CS Meals/person
$25 for TS Meals/person

Assuming 1 CS and 1 TS meal/person/day, that would be $35/day/person * 4 people = $140. So your $150 budget should be pretty close. Some buffets will be more (I think some reach $40/person) so you can plan accordingly.

 

[EMHDad]

We are staying offsite. I have no problem cooking. We dont do elaborate meals, but have really good food. This also helps, because my kids dont eat that much I am not buying them a meal they will take 3 bites of and be done.

If you are cooking, it is going to be A LOT less thatn $150 a day for food. You can get a week's work of food for $150. If you are going to eat out a lot, or eat at the park a lot, then you might need $150 in food. One Disney table service alone will cost $30-$50 a person. That could destroy your food budget if done a lot.

Good luck

 

[LaDonna]

and don't forget the tip, with high bills those will be high also

I actually found for dinner most of the restaurants we really wanted to try the average price was $30+ per person.....again though I have a 12 and 13 yr old who are not happy with Disney's kids meals

 

[TheMightyOb]

and don't forget the tip, with high bills those will be high also

I actually found for dinner most of the restaurants we really wanted to try the average price was $30+ per person.....again though I have a 12 and 13 yr old who are not happy with Disney's kids meals

True enough, my kids are 7 and 10 and the 10yr old eats the same as an adult so, probably closer to the 175 mark per day methinks

 

[adventure_woman]

Don't forget to add in snacks - ice cream bars, popcorn, etc. add up!!

 

[MinnieForMe]

Hi:
In an off-site condo, I budget $100 a day for a family of 5. Somedays, we are very much under and some days we go over. It seems to balance out perfectly. We always eat breakfast in our timeshare and now that the kids are older, we tend to have a combined lunch/supper around 3-4 pm with a healthy snack between breakfast and lunch. It works out perfectly for our family!

 

[HeatherC]

We are a family of five and save a ton by staying offsite.

I do a grocery run when we get there and pick up snacks, fruit, drinks, and a couple quick meals like rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, etc.. We budget about a $100 a day and it is plenty since some days we just want to relax and not go to a restaurant.


I also redeem credit card points for restaurant gift cards for vacations. If you can do this, it is great. We are going in April and I already have about $400 in gift cards for places like Longhorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc..

This way, I don't have to cook and we have our meals prepaid in a way. Kind of like my own dining plan.

 

[MinnieForMe]

We are a family of five and save a ton by staying offsite.

I do a grocery run when we get there and pick up snacks, fruit, drinks, and a couple quick meals like rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, etc.. We budget about a $100 a day and it is plenty since some days we just want to relax and not go to a restaurant.


I also redeem credit card points for restaurant gift cards for vacations. If you can do this, it is great. We are going in April and I already have about $400 in gift cards for places like Longhorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc..

This way, I don't have to cook and we have our meals prepaid in a way. Kind of like my own dining plan.

I could have written this post. It's exactly what we do. Can I ask if it's your Discover Card that gets you the restaurant giftcards? I'm always looking for another way to make money for my Disney budget (swagbucks etc.).

 

[mrsklamc]

We usually do a grocery run too, but I've decided that next time our vacation time is valuable enough that I'm going to do a grocery delivery service.

 

[HeatherC]

MinnieforMe...I actually get the rewards points on my American Express card.

Hope this helps!

 

[Planogirl]

We stay offsite for many reasons. It does save us money particularly since there's only 2 or occasionally 3 of us. Disney dining is not worth it for us. We have to have a car because of what we like to do while we're in the area so that's already a given. Luckily, I don't mind and actually prefer to drive.

Only you can measure certain things such as whether to drive or whether you want to cook at all and so on. I never cook but still like to have a kitchen or at least a fridge if possible.

 

[EMHDad]

when we go on vacation, to like disney, we budget $250 for the 7 days, for food. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it is almost double normal spending, and we cook our meals. When it comes to resturants and eating out on vacation, I factor that into the fun/misc budget. We then have the money to eat out, but must way that between activities and souvineers. It helps us stay within budget, keep the cost low, and have wiggle room.

 

[TheMightyOb]

We are a family of five and save a ton by staying offsite.

I do a grocery run when we get there and pick up snacks, fruit, drinks, and a couple quick meals like rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, etc.. We budget about a $100 a day and it is plenty since some days we just want to relax and not go to a restaurant.

Cool beans, this was kind of my plan. Looking at it, even with extending my disney passes for the full 10 days, staying off site is much MUCH cheaper.

 

[MrsPete]

We've stayed on-site, and we've stayed off-site. They're different trips.

When we stay on-site, we park the car on our arrival day and never go back to it. We don't even think about anything outside the boundaries of The World. We tend to get up early to head to the parks, come back to the room for a mid-day rest when the crowds grow heavy, and head back out in the evening. We ride everything and are exhausted (but happy). We eat only at Disney restaurants, which are fun and unique but expensive. We spend more on-site, but we do much more.

On the other hand, when we stay off-site, we tend to look at all of Orlando as an option. Since we're already in the car, we consider all our choices for meals -- we tend to spend less, but our meals aren't as unique; I mean, we can eat at Olive Garden at home. We tend to go to the parks early in the morning, and we stay 'til around dinnertime. Once we're worn out, we leave. This means we don't ride nearly as much, but we know we'd never get back in the car a second time after we're back at the hotel. I hate going out to the parking lot and getting into a hot car after being at the parks. We don't spend as much when we stay off-site, but we also don't do as much.

So the question is, which trip do you want?

 

[budafam]

We're staying at Bonnet Creek this time. It will only be our second trip to Disney. Our first time was at Pop. We only did 4 ADR's for 6 days... the rest was CS or eating in our room (we brought our own mini fridge along).

This time we're bringing along my MIL which will make our group 5 people. Sooo it's actually a LOT cheaper to stay at Bonnet Creek even though we plan on eating like we're on free dining (and paying for it). We're going to have 11 ADR's and plenty of CS's planned out. It is still SO much cheaper than if we were to get free dining.

If it was just us 4 though, I would probably stay on property again. But who knows, maybe Bonnet Creek will swing me