Disney Hotel Vs I-Drive

[Julia Ann]

We have never stayed on site at disney or Universal, friends of ours have just stayed at disney - i always thought it would be a lot more expensive however, having talked about the 12 dollar drinks cup and free parking it made me think there wasn't a lot of difference (they stayed at All Star). However, we dont have kids so understand the attraction for disney site there - if you need to retire early, plenty to do on site. What does everybody do for dinner on the evening? As we have stayed at I-Drive we can walk to many restaurants without using the car, and drive to DDDisney occasionally where we have found the eating options limited or had to wait a long time (unless in McDonalds).

What does everybody else think?

 

[maggs]

Why not do a split and get the best of both worlds. I go for 17 days and do a 7/10 split. We like to stay at the southern end of the Drive as it is quieter, nicer and has a great selection of restaurants. We get to do everything that we want to in that area and then move to Disney to get our Disney fix. For us it is ideal and now I wouldnt do it any other way.

Maggs

 

[Goofyish]

We have also done an Idrive / WDW spilt stay in the past too

You will love staying on-site. The convenience, atmosphere and service cannot be beaten

There are loads of places onsite to eat, at all times of day. You can eat in the parks up until closing, and at any of the WDW resorts.

Check out the WDW menus here on the DIS:

MENUS

 

[redz]

I would deffo stay on site,
we have done the I drive hotel, (quality inn plaza) and have done on site hotels, (pop century, all star movies, caribbean beach in 2 weeks. ) and on site wins hands down,
purely for the ease of getting about the place, disney transport is fantastic, as many trips as you can squeeze into a day as you want, and non of the stress of driving!
The only down side of staying on site for me is the food, we tended to have our evening meal at the hotel after a full day at the parks, the menu never changes, and does get "boring" towards the end off your 2 weeks! where as I drive has a world of choices on that front!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Depends on which hotel you are thinking of staying at and how much time you are spending around the parks perhaps?

Some of the hotels on the southern side of I-drive, such as the Rosen Centre are very nice and possibly cheaper than staying on-site.

I agree a split stay is a good compromise and personally I wouldn't want to stay on-site for the whole holiday.

 

[Tony Bush]

We have done both I Drive and Disney All Stars. On site Disney was great as the kids were young but as mentioned previously the food court at these 'budget' hotels does get very 'samey' (is that a proper word??? )

We are back to on site again next year even though the kids are now too old for the twee disney bit but what we also found invaluable was the fact that any purchases in the park are delivered direct to your hotel,so you don't have to carry them around all day. You can also use your room keycard to charge anything when on Disney property (we didn't do this but I can see the advantages)

Again as mentioned previously I Drive is great for restaurants especially if you want to take a stroll for dinner and have a few beers without worrying about driving back. You can't beat the variety of I-Drive.

A split stay sounds ideal

Tony

 

[signtalker]

Ive stayed in the values/moderates and deluxes onsite, and personally I would prefer these to Idrive anyday(sorry JMHO).

there are lots of places to eat onsite, which suit all budgets, and its not as expensive as people think. personally if you have a car, there are some excellent restaurants in the LBV area and kissimmee area, so you are not beholden to staying on site.

Onsite wins hands down for me,its not just geared for families, Ive stayed with friends and my brother and daughter (19 and 25 years old!).

Each person is different, but i like the magic!

jules

 

[Lizzybear]

I think if you don't have a car it can be a bit inconvenient to eat in a variety of places at Disney (since some of the better restaurants are in the resorts which involve 2 buses from hotels usually) and it will probably be pricier unless you get free dining. There are some off-site restaurants like those on I-drive in the Crossroads area but I think you need to drive there, or it's a walk from DTD.
We were considering a split-stay before we were hiring a car but decided to just stick to POFQ (originally booked for Pop but changed it) largely because we found the Disney/Disney area restaurants were far better for bf Steve as a vegetarian than a lot of the I-drive places. Also I quite like the idea of 'dipping in and out of Disney' which we'd be more limited with if we split the stay 7/7 (we can only stay for 2 weeks as neither of us get masses of paid holidays and don't want to use it all for one hol) I wouldn't rule out a split in future and would recommend it to others especially if you don't have a car (wish we'd done it on previous trips when we stayed on I-drive!) I'm looking forward to being totally immersed in the 'Disney experience' this trip, we will be going offsite some days to Universal and such but will always go 'home' to Disney

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Have stayed both off & on site - but always have a car. We normally eat off site on 192 if we don't want to eat at WDW & it works out fine.

 

[Soprano]

The deciding factor could be how much time do you want to spend in Disney itself. And if you have a car.

We stay in I-Drive usually as I am not 'into' Disney as much as others are on here. I always felt staying onsite could be overwhelming and put me off the mouse.

We spent 7 days in the parks out of 17 this year and split it, not doing Disney more than two days in a row.

If we split the stay, half I Drive, half Disney it would dictate what we do. For example: Spending the first week onsite, we would be going to the Dis theme parks every day (we're not AP holders) which for us would be overkill. (YEARS ago we went there for 1 week, just doing WDW and was a bit fed up with it all by then!) Then when we stayed off site, it would be mainly Universal and Sea World over and over. Then theres the packing, checking out/checking in unpacking midway through your holiday.

Saying that, I do want to spend some time at the Animal Kingdom Lodge next time we go. It does look great.

 

[Julia Ann]

Thanks for all your advise - i kind of agree with soprano (are you are real soprano or do you just model yourself on Big T?) I like to mix up the universal and disney (even though i do luv the Mouse!) and packing up again after a week would feel like a chore, think i may stay with the I-Drive option, good to hear your opinions though - not long to go now

 

[Deedee]

We have always stayed on i drive and loved it but we are here now and although the hotel is fine QIP we are disappointed with the way i drive has gone down hill so much so we are going to stay at a disney hotel next time we come.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I-drive in some ways 'used' to be THE place to stay but while the southern side has prospered with many nice places to stay, in my opinion the rest (ie the busier/tackier Northern side) as Deedee says has lost a lot of the appeal.