does anyone stay off site anymore?

[Magalex]

Since 1994(when the value resorts started to be built on property) we have stayed on WDW property. But I am always interested and willing to try a Downtown Disney Hotel. I think the Doubletree Guest Suites would be nice. They always have fair solid reviews even from die hard onsite visitors. I think the suite would be great with our 7 yr old DS. But he does love those Disney resort food courts which are so convenient.

 

[selmuir]

Quality inn plaza!!!

 

[rosiep]

I see no reason to stay in a regular hotel when we can get a timeshare or condo for the same price but with far greater amenities. For $40/night through SkyAuction, we can get a 2-bedroom, 2-bath timeshare unit with a full kitchen, living room/dining room, screened patio and washer/dryer. Why would we stay anywhere else?

Here's why I stay somewhere else:
1)I don't want to do my own housekeeping on vacation
2)I don't like driving
3)but mostly...I love ROOM SERVICE I've stayed off site, I've stayed onsite at Disney Resorts and I've stayed onsite at the DTD properties....Cheapest off site..but I don't like driving. The DTD hotels end up costing as much as a Disney Moderate when you factor in "resort fees" and airport transportation. So, from now on it's the CSR for me!!!!

 

[disneysteve]

[/I][/B]Here's why I stay somewhere else:1)I don't want to do my own housekeeping on vacation2)I don't like driving3)but mostly...I love ROOM SERVICE

That's the great thing about the Disney area. Lots of choices.

Us - We hate having a maid come into our room everyday and mess with stuff. How much cleaning really needs to be done? We aren't trashing the place - just sleeping and showering.

We love driving. We drive to Disney from NJ and do our own driving while there. Can't stand dealing with buses. Even when we've stayed onsite, we still drove everywhere we went.

 

[rosiep]

You're exactly right Steve! That is the wonderful thing about Disney. I never question why anyone would choose to stay someplace different..I'm just glad the options exist!

 

[davinakb]

We still stay off site; get the big condo/timeshare/villa for a great deal, have all the room we need, are close to property; save $. FWIW.

 

[disneysteve]

We still stay off site; get the big condo/timeshare/villa for a great deal, have all the room we need, are close to property; save $. FWIW.

In fact, offsite we can be even CLOSER to the parks than if we stayed onsite. The timeshare we've stayed in 3 of our last 4 trips was a 4-minute drive to Animal Kingdom and a 7-minute drive to MGM. There is no way you'd get there that quickly if you were on property. You'd spend more time than that waiting for a bus or, in one of the large resorts, just walking from your room to the bus stop.

 

[FayeW]

Steve, I've read your trip and budgeting reports in the past, but I've never seen you mention a visit to the Universal parks. Has your family ever visited US/IOA? Mere idle curiosity, that's all...

 

[disneysteve]

Steve, I've read your trip and budgeting reports in the past, but I've never seen you mention a visit to the Universal parks. Has your family ever visited US/IOA? Mere idle curiosity, that's all...

Universal? What's that?

Just kidding. Inside joke around our house. No, we have never visited US/IOA. We would like to sometime but since we only get to go to Disney for 1 week each year, we just never want to take the time away from Disney. As it is, we feel so strapped and don't get to do half of what we'd like to at Disney.

I think sometime soon, maybe in 2009, we will do a 2-week visit in late summer. If so, we might possibly spare a day to see Universal on that trip, though we might not.

 

[Grog]

Our last trip to WDW we rented a house in Kissimmee and liked it so much we're going to do it again for our next trip. We were only about ten minutes from the parks and parking was no problem. The only thing we missed was package delivery, but with a little bit of planning and careful shopping we made do.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I see no reason to stay in a regular hotel when we can get a timeshare or condo for the same price but with far greater amenities. For $40/night through SkyAuction, we can get a 2-bedroom, 2-bath timeshare unit with a full kitchen, living room/dining room, screened patio and washer/dryer. Why would we stay anywhere else?

I absolutely agree here. Driving 10 minutes to a park and not having maid service more than offsets the $200+ per night that I am saving by staying offsite. In most cases, by the time your Disney resort bus shows up at the stop, I can be back at my car and in my resort parking lot, even if it is 2 miles offsite.

 

[FayeW]

Universal? What's that?

Just kidding. Inside joke around our house. No, we have never visited US/IOA. We would like to sometime but since we only get to go to Disney for 1 week each year, we just never want to take the time away from Disney. As it is, we feel so strapped and don't get to do half of what we'd like to at Disney.

I think sometime soon, maybe in 2009, we will do a 2-week visit in late summer. If so, we might possibly spare a day to see Universal on that trip, though we might not.

I don't know what types of rides or shows your family enjoys at WDW, but I can tell you that my family prefers US/IOA. Most of the rides and attractions are top notch, but just like WDW, some of the older rides are showing their age. Not in terms of the condition and upkeep, but the relevance and technology is a little dated (I am sure if they were to build JAWS now, the shark would be a lot more realistic, etc). I feel the same about star tours and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. When you compare them to Mickey's Philharmagic, well, there's no comparison.

I hope you can fit in a trip over to the wild side sooner rather than later. You will have a great time (unless WDW is all about the nostalga for your family).

 

[mlbudach]

We've been staying offsite. Can't afford to stay onsite. Its cheaper plus the rooms at a lot of the hotels are very nice. We like to go to restaurants and other attractions so we've been staying offsite. My parents always stayed offsite too. I would however like to try staying at a Disney resort just to see how it is. To see if it is that much better. I just can get myself to pay the extra.

 

[TotoToo]

To OP - the real question should be "Does anyone still pay to stay on site?" The value is clearly with off Disney stays and adds easier access to the many other attractions of Orlando not tied to the Mouse. We outgrew our desire to be 100% mouse 10 years ago. Now 1-5% on any trip is enough. And if we plan to do movies, after hours stuff we'll always pick the far superior City Walk to the overpriced Pleasure Island. No comparison between those two. Universal got it right & Disney got the leftovers like Planet Hollywood.

 

[Gillian]

i'm not sure how much the comfort inn was for us because we booked through a travel agent with both airfare and hotel. we got both airfare and hotel for 2 people the last week in april for 1150(oh yes and including transfers to hotel/airport). Through the travel agent i saw even if we went with a value resort it was still a couple hundred dollars more. i'd rather spend that on souvenirs

Agreed that for the difference from your TA you're better off where you are.

Airfare can vary a lot, but next time you might be able to do better booking on your own. Although sometimes packages are a good deal, shopping around separately for deals on airfare and hotels is usually worth the effort.

For example, if you're comparing to the Value resorts, and if we figure that you're going in Regular season and are an AAA member (which many people are not, but it's a readily available discount) a room at Pop Century would be $85 per night, or ~$96 with tax for 7 nights the total is $673. It includes transfers. Using your $1150 price, that gives you $477 for two plane tickets, which is probably enough (a little over $200 each plus tax). But you won't get breakfast, and you'll have to buy what you eat at Disney unless you bring stuff with you. You'll spend more on food but will have an easier time getting around.

You'll have a great time, no matter what! It's just that there are so many of us here who like to search for great deals, that we want everyone else to do the same thing. Crazy overplanners.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My family last stayed onsite at WDW in '05--a 1 bdrm at OKW. The past two years, and for this year, we're offsite again, although, for this year, I may opt for two nights onsite if an AP rate is available during our dates.

I prefer space to stretch out and you can get great deals on extremely nice offsite villas/condos. Our visits to Orlando always include Universal and IOA, and we always stay onsite there. The front-of-line-access is the kind of magic I like!:thumbsup2

yeah baby!!
Now that's some onsite perk worth paying for. I love being able to walk to the parks from the hotels and they're all 4* deluxe. Their annual pass rates are awesome too. We love it so much now, our last Orlando visit was exclusively US/IOA. It really is a whole different flavor when you stay onsite whereas I don't really feel that way with WDW. jmho. We were so spoiled after our 1st time, my ds7 complained at MK over a 20 min. wait.
You feel like a VIP!

 

[MiaSRN62]

What on earth are you renting, to get quotes that high?

I got a deal for my friend at Alamo for less than $100. for a week, and I am always under $200 for 10 days.

I was suprised by the car rental rates this summer too ! Last year it was much cheaper.

I am staying in FL from Aug 3-19 this year. That is 16 nights. I wish I had more DVC points left in my bank to stay onsite so I could save the $579 cost of a car. I tried Alamo, Dollar, Budget, National, Avis----used every code I could find. Then tried reserving through Southwest....Orbits....other car rental places.
I'm getting anywhere from $590--$787. I need a full size car because of amount of people and luggage we have. I am using my Vistana timeshare week for part of the stay---so this is a whole week I need to rent a car (and pay for parking at the theme parks daily). Now the remainder of the stay I need the car because we'll be at Disney's Vero Beach---no disney transportation there and we need to get back and forth to my dd's college campus that week for orientation. So I need the car for that. But I so wished I could stay onsite for the first week in wdw so as to not need a rental among the other perks.

its just going to be DH and I and we'll be spending all our time at the parks anyway. I just don't see the need to spend all the extra money on a resort i'll never be at.

And that's just it Jenfrog....you know what works best for you and what your personal preferences are in a vacation.
Even though we've been to WDW well over 30 times (I stopped counting), we prefer onsite. I like the onsite perks....the free transportation.....Magical Express......and the wonderful themeing of the resorts. Last year, we didn't stay in the parks all day---we don't do commando anymore. Got there early in the am, then went back in the PM after dinner. We're AP holders and sometimes we're just content to pop into a park for a few hours a day.

During the entire middle of the day we have lounged around at the Wilderness Lodge. Sat around the pool........on the beach....looking out over Bay Lake. I could just stay there at that resort and never step foot into the parks. It's so beautiful to us. In the past, we've also enjoyed OKW, BWV and this year we are trying AKV. Many of the offsite places, while very nice, seem so cookie-cutter to me ? I know many love having a rental home....but, personally, that's not for us. We prefer a resort-like setting. Staying in a home is just too much like not ever leaving home. And I know many would disagree....but that's fine. I'm just offering our reasons for our preference for staying onsite.

So everyone knows what works for their specific needs and tastes. To us, the resort we stay at (after so many trips there), is just as important as everything else. Sure we still do the theme parks, but not as commando style as we used to (and by that I mean staying in the parks the majority of the day). It's nice Orlando has something to offer everyone. Have a great stay at the Comfort Suites.

 

[englishteacha]

We've rented a condo on our last 2 stays for less than most offsite hotels, and definitely less than onsite at a value resort. For us, as long as it's comfy and clean and not too far a drive, we're happy offsite. Someday we might stay onsite, but it's quite nice to have a kitchen and the options available for food offsite. We can only travel if we're careful with our money. Part of the fun is the bargain hunt!

 

[skmommy]

I totally agree with the previous poster that part of the fun is the bargain hunt-- in fact it may be most of the fun in the planning stage of the vacation. I love to see how nice a place we can get for the best price- the townhouse we had at Winsdor Hills this January was so nice that we are going back next January and renting a 5 bedroom home (my parents are joining us). We really don't need all that space, but we wanted a private pool and spa and love the idea of a game room. The house really looks nicer than our house so we still feel pampered and "on vacation" and at ~$152/night it is amazing when compared to the prices of the onsite resorts ($192/night for WL) for just a small hotel room.

The on vs off site debate all really seems to come down to personal preferences, but I think more people would try offsite if they knew how easy it is to rent from owners -- the Disney marketing division is genius about promoting onsite so I think that gets a lot of people who don't obsessively research all the details like some of us on the boards (me for one).

 

[Disneygirl26]

Universal? What's that?

Just kidding. Inside joke around our house. No, we have never visited US/IOA. We would like to sometime but since we only get to go to Disney for 1 week each year, we just never want to take the time away from Disney. As it is, we feel so strapped and don't get to do half of what we'd like to at Disney.

I think sometime soon, maybe in 2009, we will do a 2-week visit in late summer. If so, we might possibly spare a day to see Universal on that trip, though we might not.

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but the family and I went Oct 07 for 8 days did universal/Ioh 4days (you know they have the 85.00 special) 7days both parks, we had so much fun I wish we would have went sooner.