Do you prefer staying off site?

[disneysteve]

We greatly prefer offsite for a bunch of reasons. One reason is that we can stay offsite and be CLOSER to some of the Disney attractions than if we were onsite, something many people don't realize. The condo we stayed in the last 2 trips was a 4 minute drive from Animal Kingdom. Lots of Disney onsite hotels are farther than that.

In this case, however, you would be quite far away. I know 12 miles doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I think the farthest we've ever stayed is 3-4 miles away. I don't think I'd be happy being 12 miles offsite.

If the money is important, I would look into a closer offsite place. You can easily rent a condo or timeshare for $100/nite or less and can get a regular hotel room for $50, either way far less than you are paying for onsite.

 

[miamimama]

In my experience (at 50 years old with at least 15 Disney visits and many other travel experiences) , you will not remember the money you saved or spent (you'll make that up ,somehow) ;you will remember whatever unique experiences you have on the trip (it may be, as in my case, the 3 year old gets sick and dad stays up with him all night some unknown offsite, the 5 year old goes on his first water slide at POR, etc. )

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I'd jump at the chance to save the money, but I would miss the onsite experience. Last summer, relatives offered up their Ormond Beach house for free and I enjoyed that immensely, but it just felt weird driving up to the parks and knowing we couldn't hop on a bus at the end of the day. I also felt a little detached from the magic. I'm going back down to the beach house again in April, but not going to WDW - I'll use the money I'm saving to plan an onsite trip in the future.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i have done both, if you are going to restrict yourself to disney only, then offsite may be the way to go, but if you want to enjoy fl go offsite good luck

 

[robinb]

I love to stay on-site, but free is better! Have a great time .

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[MiaSRN62]

I totally agree, that in 98% of the cases, free is better. But the OP has 2 small kids. She mentioned leaving the park for a couple of hours (I'm assuming in the middle of the day) and going back to the mobile home. I think a 24 mile round trip taken twice a day is alot. That's practically driving 50 miles a day if she does this every day. Also, she said she purchased a 7 day pass-----and is spending all their time doing the disney parks. So, while I agree free is good, in this case I take exception & feel onsite is the better option for her. Just my honest opinion. If only her mom's campsite weren't so far.
I do agree with the poster (disneysteve) who said if money is an issue she could look for cheaper offsite (or even the All Stars and POP are cheaper than CSR) resort. I somehow get the feeling that she's already worked the CSR into her budget and is looking forward to having the onsite experience.

 

[robinb]

I just wanted to add something ...

I found a campground right near Hwy 27 & I-4 and mapped it using Microsoft Streets. It is west of WDW and about 13 miles to Epcot (Central WDW). It looks to be less than a mile to I-4 and then a whopping 7 miles to the Disney World Exit (the one with the Mickey Shaped Electric Transmission poles) which is World Drive. The remaining trip is primarily internal WDW high speed roads.

I drive to WDW from Tampa a couple times a year, so I know the route. The bit of I-4 can have some traffic on it, but nothing compared to 192 or other regular streets around WDW. Also, once you get onto WDW property it's usually smooth sailing. Honestly, I would be suprised if it took you 15 minutes to get to the Purple Gates!

I totally agree, that in 98% of the cases, free is better. But the OP has 2 small kids. She mentioned leaving the park for a couple of hours (I'm assuming in the middle of the day) and going back to the mobile home. I think a 24 mile round trip taken twice a day is alot. That's practically driving 50 miles a day if she does this every day.

I fail to see the difference between a 25-30 minute drive back to the campground and a 25-30 minute wait plus bus ride. The only difference is gas and she can buy a lot of extra gas with the $1200 she is saving!

 

[MiaSRN62]

robinb says : I fail to see the difference between a 25-30 minute drive back to the campground and a 25-30 minute wait plus bus ride. The only difference is gas and she can buy a lot of extra gas with the $1200 she is saving!

In the middle of the day, the busses run very efficiently as they are not crowded. I've never waited longer than 10 min (and many times barely any wait at all) and maybe a 10 min drive to the resort. When you drive yourself, you have to factor in the time waiting/catching the tram to the parking lot, then navigating out of the parking lot onto the busy roadways. Doing possibly 50 miles of driving a day yourself, sounds a bit hectic to me with very small children (I really am taking into consideration the distance of her mom's campground). She could be looking at 2+ hours of driving themselves a day if she chooses a midday break from the parks for her kids.
Disney busses use back roads often times & have a much more direct route to the MK particularily. IMHO, disney busses come out way ahead when traveling to and from the MK. Also, when considering the MK it can be a VERY long process getting into and out of that park when driving yourself (we do it when we stay at Vistana). First you drive to the parking lot. Then wait to catch a tram to either the monorail or ferry (additional wait times for them), then you can actually get to ride to the gates of the MK. The entire process of getting into the MK once you've hit the parking lot can be 30-45 min. So getting through the turnstiles of the MK could take the OP conceivably well over an hour from her mom's campsite to the turnstiles of the MK. With small children I'm assuming a good amount of time will be spent in this park. I know when mine were very young, this was the park of choice most of the time.
As for the wdw busses.....I will admit the end of the night is when they are crowded----but I have noticed the wait times are very good. Last summer we stayed at OKW and at the end of every night we had less than a 5 min wait for the busses as they were often lined up assembly line style. They were often standing room only though. So that can be a pain. But time efficiency wise, we gave them a A-/B+.
OTOH, your stance of saving the money is a VERY good one. I cannot argue with saving money. But for me, personally, if I were the OP, I'd opt for onsite. So I feel the OP really does have a tough decision to make. There are pros and cons to both ways.

 

[robinb]

In the middle of the day, the busses run very efficiently as they are not crowded. I've never waited longer than 10 min (and many times barely any wait at all) and maybe a 10 min drive to the resort.

Your experience with mid-day busses is quite different than my own! The mid-afternoon busses do not run as frequently as the morning and evening busses since the demand is not as high. The number of busses servicing a resort is scaled back. I often have to wait 15-25 minutes for a bus and then the ride itself (another 10-15 minutes depending). The morning busses and the evening busses tend to run very frequently, but that can be packed and I have had to either bus surf or wait for the next bus. I did not bus surf when my DD was younger, so wait we did!

When you drive yourself, you have to factor in the time waiting/catching the tram to the parking lot, then navigating out of the parking lot onto the busy roadways.

Yes, you also have to take into account the time spent going to/from your room to the bus stop. She drives right up to her camper, no long trek to the room. In addition, the trams are very, very frequent (more so than the busses) and Disney makes it very easy to get to World Drive from all parks. You *might* have to go through a couple of stop lights from AK and MGM, but Epcot and the MK dump right out onto major WDW arteries.

Doing possibly 50 miles of driving a day yourself, sounds a bit hectic to me with very small children (I really am taking into consideration the distance of her mom's campground). She could be looking at 2+ hours of driving themselves a day if she chooses a midday break from the parks for her kids.

I think 2+ hours is an exaggeration. MS Streets says 17 minutes from Hwy 27 and I-4. And I still think you spend just as much time getting to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, and riding the bus 4 times as driving. FWIW, I drive just about everywhere at WDW except the MK. You're right about the MK ... the TTC is the pits. BUT my DD loves the monorail, so if we do drive we get another little ride in .

But for me, personally, if I were the OP, I'd opt for onsite. So I feel the OP really does have a tough decision to make. There are pros and cons to both ways.

You're so right! Personally, I would save the $$ and deal with the extra driving. Since I drive to all almost all the parks anyway it would not be a big deal for me. Especially when it is 90% "highway" driving.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Well, respectfully, we can agree to disagree robin. I've had quite different experiences with the wdw busses than you for the most part---particularily have seen an improvement in the last few years. Most recently we stayed at POP, BWV and OKW. We felt the busses ran consistantly 5-15 min. And noone can convince me that getting into the MK park, particularily, when driving is easier than by using the wdw resort busses. Not even close there.

As for me exaggerating the driving time ? I don't know. I'm going by my own personal experiences of staying offsite. We own at Vistana which is 1-2 miles from disney property approx. Takes us at least 10 (if not 15-20 with traffic) to get back and forth from the parks when staying at a resort that is 1-2 miles away. So when the OP said her mom's campsite was 12 miles away, I figured that's 10 more miles farther than Vistana and I know what my travel times are there from staying at that resort since '94. I estimated 25-30 min one-way. For argument sake, let's say it's a 25 min one-way drive. That's 50 min round trip. The OP stated she was planning on taking an afternoon break from the parks. So factor in another 50 min round trip drive for that. That comes to about 100 min per day of driving and that's most likely barring any traffic. I had stated about 2+ hours (120 min). So I don't think when one factors in traffic (which many times the wdw busses can avoid by using back roads), I was that far off ? I really don't feel the disney busses would take that long. You have to factor in also, that you don't need to get the tram out to the parking lot either. When you drive, there are wait times for these trams. WDW busses pick you right up at the entrance to the park or close to it. But others may agree or disagree. I would totally expect that.

Just an example. Our stay last August at the Vistana, we went to the Contemporary Resort for dinner. I just mapquested the driving distance from Vistana to the Contemp resort. It states it is 8.5 miles away and would take approx 14 min of drive time. In reality it took us 25 min (one-way) based simply on the amount of traffic we encountered on the roads. I remember this clearly because we underestimated our drive time and I was afraid we'd miss our PS time. So I don't think it's unfair to factor that into the travel time.

But differences of opinion, such as ours, are food-for-thought for the OP. I wish her well in her decision.

 

[Chris]

I'd save the $1200.00 for next years trip! LOL!!!!!
Seriously, we rent a house and I love it!!

 

[MiaSRN62]

Chris says : Seriously, we rent a house and I love it!!

I don't think the OP, or most of us (myself included), would disagree that renting a full house and private pool is a great option.
But the specifics of the OP's dilemma are as such (as stated by her here) :

I do not know the area at all. I looked at mapquest, plugged the address of the campground and the address of the Grand Floridian (I did not know what address to use) and mapquest says it is a 25 min drive and 16 miles.

I'm most definitely not trying to debate that offsite stinks and onsite is the only way to go. I was just concerned with the distance of her mom's campsite----that's all. Haven't heard from the OP in a couple of days....she must be analyzing the pros and cons of her decision. I'm sure she can make it work either way.

 

[lillygator]

I've stayed offsite tons of times lastly during my college years...not that long ago!! My pref is definitely on site...!! Even if its a value resort.

 

[isla bonita]

Try it and if it is not to your liking you never have to do it abain. Where is the home located maybe I can get you to Disney quicker by a different route?

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

We have already made the decision to keep our Coronado Springs reservations. We already had the money put aside for it and we have our hopes set for a Disney vacation, we don't want to spend it driving back and forth for 7 days. We will still go next year or maybe even in the fall and stay in my parents motorhome. We have not gone to Universal so that is always an option for the next time.

isla bonita: My parents tell me they are between I 4 and Route 27. I guess the RV resort is right on Route 27. From the map, it looks like a straight shot up I 4, but I am not sure how much traffic there can be on I 4.

 

[spiceycat]

you were trying from Grand Florida - too far - try it from the Polyn - it would probably be 20 minutes...

the GF is over on the other side of the MK....not close....

the Polyn is right in front of the MK parking lot.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the CSR - make a point to drive by the other place once - so you can see for yourself that it isn't a long, long drive....

 

[MiaSRN62]

Our2Girls ~
Glad you were able to make a decision. I know it had to be a tough one ! I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time and there will be plenty of other opportunities to stay at your mom's motorhome. The Fall is a great time to visit FL. And as spicey suggested, drive over to the campground. Maybe you can figure out a short cut for driving for your next trip.
Have a very nice vacation with your family

 

[robinb]

We have already made the decision to keep our Coronado Springs reservations.

Have a great time! CSR is a wonderful resort .