Driving from CT, planning on a vacation home rental

[rachy710310]

Hello everyone, it has been 4 years since I have been to Disney, my husband and I went there for our honeymoon and since then, we rescued a chihuahua mix dog and purchased a home. Our dog is like our kid right now and we are preliminary planning on driving down to Disney and staying offsite so we are looking into vacation rental as close to Disney as possible.....bottom line, has anyone does this and what has their experience been? Good or bad? More expensive or less expensive? Just looking for some opinions and experiences from anyone who is or has done something similar to me.

Any feedback would be great! Thanks

 

[bcinohio]

We had always stayed onsite until July 2010. There are 5 in our immediate family so we would always need 2 rooms at the value resorts. I read on these boards about people renting houses and started looking into it for our 2010 trip. I found a great house, 4 bed, 3 bath, game room and pool for less than 1 room at a value resort. It is in Sunset Lakes and took about 10min to get to the parks. It is very close. We got there faster than taking a resort bus. I was a little scared to do it but it worked out great. We have the same house rented for this June. When I found a house that I liked and had the owners name or address of the house, I checked their tax records and to see if there were any leans on the house. I also purchased insurance from Homeaway where I found the house and that was very cheap.

We ended up taking extra family members who picked up part of the house cost and it was even cheaper for us.

Try to find a place that has reviews with it, check their tax records and make sure they have been paid and see if there are any leans on the property. If you put in what your looking for (say condo with 1 bedroom, etc) you may get people on here who have stayed in a place that they would recommend. I also saw how fast the owner replied to my e-mails. that mattered to me.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[kidd_freeper]

We drove from South Windsor, CT to Orlando in July 2011. We stayed at a Windsor Hills condo and stayed there for 12 nites. There were six of us (me, DW, DD18, DS11, DS10, DS9).

I estimated that we saved $2000 by staying at Windsor Hills vs staying onsite at a Value resort.

I estimated that we saved $2100 by driving vs flying/renting a car

I estimated that we saved $335 by having our own full kitchen

= = =
The drive down wasn't too bad. Drove 19 hours straight to Jacksonville. Left at midnight and got there at 7pm. From there it was an easy hop to Orlando.

Driving back was tough because one of the kids got sick, and the vacation was essentially over (no anticipation).

Windsor Hills is 5 minutes from Animal Kingdom and maybe 10 minutes to the Magic Kingdom. We had a rather luxurious 3BR/2BA condo for just under $100/nite. A truly awesome place to stay.

 

[rachy710310]

We drove from South Windsor, CT to Orlando in July 2011. We stayed at a Windsor Hills condo and stayed there for 12 nites. There were six of us (me, DW, DD18, DS11, DS10, DS9).

I estimated that we saved $2000 by staying at Windsor Hills vs staying onsite at a Value resort.

I estimated that we saved $2100 by driving vs flying/renting a car

I estimated that we saved $335 by having our own full kitchen

= = =
The drive down wasn't too bad. Drove 19 hours straight to Jacksonville. Left at midnight and got there at 7pm. From there it was an easy hop to Orlando.

Driving back was tough because one of the kids got sick, and the vacation was essentially over (no anticipation).

Windsor Hills is 5 minutes from Animal Kingdom and maybe 10 minutes to the Magic Kingdom. We had a rather luxurious 3BR/2BA condo for just under $100/nite. A truly awesome place to stay.

Wow, that sounds awesome that you saved so much money!! Good for you and it it is nice to know that people from our neck of the woods drives down to Florida. lol We drove down there 5 years ago but made a bunch of stops on the way and didn't make it to Disney, this time we are. Was this Windsor Hills a pet friendly rental?

We need to find a place that is pet friendly as we are bringing our chihuahua mix doggie. Which to be honest is a little hard to find the perfect place that is not too far away from the parks and will feel safe leaving our doggie while we go to the parks for a bit.

Anyone know of a pet friendly home rental that is around a 10 minute drive to Disney???

thanks again!

 

[kidd_freeper]

We rented through www.magicalvacationhomes.com

I took a quick look. None of their Windsor Hills properties allows pets.