In a way I like the
idea of staying onsite, I mean, yes, sure you get great theming and you don't have to drive anywhere, there's perks for sure. But in our opinion, the perks are not worth the cost.
We saved a TONNE (and I mean huge amount) of money, by staying off site. We found a beautiful rental home in Glenbrook Resort that is owned by a Canadian who a) not only took $20 a night off her listed price but then b) gave it to us in Canadian dollars. So that right there was a huge savings. We got our house for $100 CDN a night. The cheapest hotel room Disney had at that time (end of June) was $135 US + tax (and that was with a discount), so with tax and exchange was $190 CDN a night. 11 nights x a savings of $90 a night = $990 (and we saved even more than that because we traveled with in-laws who shared the cost of the rental home, so we only paid $50 a night, bringing our savings to $1540). Take off $120 in parking for the 6 days that we spent at WDW, we still saved $870/1420. Now, we drove, so we did not have to rent a car. But we did price flying and car rentals. A rental would have cost us $350 for our time frame, so we
still would have saved $520/1070.
But the really big savings of off-site is the meals: make your own meals. For 6 people, we spent a total of $325 CDN on groceries for our 11 days. Seeing as how just the cheapest
DDP would have been $1500 CDN... the savings speaks for itself. Even trying to eat off-site out of pocket would not have been any cheaper if we wanted to eat anything other than burgers and fries all week. So... that brought our savings to $2000/2500ish.
I know some people talk about off-site being less magic, but I really don't buy it. I'm sorry, I see nothing magical about sharing one single room with my children for 11 nights, no matter how great it's decorated. Plus, even the most beautiful hotel room, or even suite, is not as convenient as having your own house to yourself. The place we rented was in a great neighborhood, was beautiful and immaculate. It had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a games room with air hockey and pool table, laundry and best of all - our very own private 24' pool. So...let's see.... open up your back door and jump in your private pool ANY time you want, or... have to bundle up towels, walk 5-10 minutes, or in some cases, drive to the public pool, try and find a lounge chair, be stuck to their hours etc... Have a family of 4 crammed into one open hotel room for a week or more, or a place where everyone can have their own bedroom, which allows us more R&R time because we can go out to the living room, watch tv, play a game of pool or air hockey, or... heck... go swimming while the kids sleep!
As far as the commuting convenience, oh sure, some resorts are definitely closer and the monorail is convenient. But some resorts really aren't any quicker to get to/from when you factor in having to wait for the bus, the drive there, the other stops it may make etc... We just walked out whenever we wanted and hopped in our car, no waiting for a monorail or bus to show up. The house we stayed at was a very easy, straight-forward drive to the parks, which took us only 15-25 minutes tops (depending on which park we went to), and that was in morning rush hour traffic. For us, again, the "inconvenience" of driving didn't begin to compare to the savings.
Some say they don't want to stay off site because they shouldn't have to cook while on vacation. And hey, that's their choice, I mean who doesn't want to NOT have to cook sometimes?! But for us - meh. I really don't see the big deal about popping a bagel in a toaster in the morning, or eating yogurt and granola with fresh fruit. I don't see the big deal about making some sandwiches or spaghetti for lunch or making a big chili one night and eating leftovers the next night. I would far rather eat my own healthy cooking, than eat out meal after meal, day after day. That said - with all the money we saved, we did splurge and eat a few meals out
So.... my two cents is (to any Canadian), if you really want to see Disney that bad, then start looking at all your options. Stay off-site. Find someone to go with you and share the lodging/food costs. Cook your own meals. Pack lunches to take to the parks. And depending on where you live and how long you have for time off, consider driving instead of flying. We are in NB, and saved roughly $900 CDN by driving instead of flying - which includes tolls, gas, 4 nights lodging and 6 days of meals on the road (we spent 2 nights/3 days driving there/back). We used hotelcoupons.com and paid on average $65 a night for nice hotels with pool and full hot continental breakfasts. We used a plug in cooler and packed all our snacks/drinks for the drive. We made sandwhiches for lunch and picnicked at the rest stops, and then ate out for supper each night.
) My next trip, which will almost certainly be my last, will likely be solo, so I won't have anyone to share the cost with. It will be tough to move from my beloved POR to a value but I suppose if I must, then I must. Hopefully, our dollar will be looking better in a year but I am not too hopeful. 
