Ever stayed offsite and missed Disney?

[pktbMouse]

For the first time in ten years we are considering staying offsite at possibly Liki Tiki instead or our usual CBR. Has anyone ever done this and regretted it? Have you missed anything or were you glad you did and wished you had done it sooner?? I would welcome comments please...Im terrified incase we do the wrong thing. ty

 

[pinoke]

I'm right there with you….

 

[Ametista]

No. For me Disney can be overwhelming and exhausting. Going back to tiny rooms with no way of relaxing or getting time away from each other is too much for me. So I always stay offsite, in a condo, townhome, or house depending on what we get a good deal on.

 

[rdona24]

I have owned 3 weeks at Liki Tiki for over 20 years, and have never felt like I'm missing out by not sleeping at Disney. It's a quick ride, and there are so many things to do there that we never get bored. I have stayed with all different friends and family, and they are always surprised by how nice it is. I have even let co workers who were die hard on site people use it, and they came back saying their kids wanted to stay at the water park there instead of going to the parks!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

For the first time in ten years we are considering staying offsite at possibly Liki Tiki instead or our usual CBR. Has anyone ever done this and regretted it? Have you missed anything or were you glad you did and wished you had done it sooner?? I would welcome comments please...Im terrified incase we do the wrong thing. ty

Definitely wish we had done it sooner .

We love the space....all 1200 feet of it.

We love having separate bedrooms.

We love having two bathrooms.

We love having multiple pools and a wide assortment of recreational activities (basketball, sand volleyball, bingo, etc.).

We love the in-room washer and dryer.

We love our private, screened in balcony.

We love the full kitchen.

We love not having to eat out every single meal.

And we LOVE the fact that our money goes soooo much further. We get nicer accommodations for a fraction of Disney prices. So we get to go to Orlando more often, and add more extras to our trips.

We love staying offsite .

 

[tcherjen]

We always stayed offsite until 2011. Now that we have stayed onsite, we can't imagine staying anywhere else. Our trips were not horrible offsite though. Have a great time.

 

[sympatico]

Don't go expecting the same vibe and comparing it to onsite. Go expecting a completely new and different vacation. Do other things besides Disney. You'll be close to the Showcase of Citrus. Go pick a few oranges or take a swamp buggy ride. We stay offsite all the time and love getting away from Disney after a day at the parks. Hope you have a great vacation.

 

[TheNovice]

Back in 06 we stayed in a condo in Kissimmee, and while it was an enjoyable trip, it was not the same overall experience as when we have stayed onsite. There is a certain atmosphere created at the Disney resorts that gives the vacation a more fuller, magical feel in my opinion.

 

[OldSpiceGuy]

I've done both. I enjoyed both trips but there are definitely differences. I found staying off site to be more laid back. You have a lot more space in comparison to Disney accommodations. When staying on site I liked the feeling of being totally immersed in Disney. If that's something you enjoy you will definitely miss it. However when on site we stayed at AKV and I dropped 5k on the room. I can stay at Bonnet Creek and get tickets and pay for the flight for that price. It was a no brainer.

 

[hjgaus]

We just did this (Sheraton Vistana Villas) last holiday and it was better than expected but would rather NOT have to do this ALL the time! The space was a little better than most of the DVC properties but sometimes you just miss the Disney magic!

 

[nilseks]

Our last trip in Dec. '12 was our first time staying offsite. I really, REALLY thought I would miss the Disney vibe. I didn't miss it a single bit. We still had the Disney magic feeling in the parks, but we didn't have a tiny room to contend with after the parks. We could go back and spread out. It was SO much more relaxed, it was our best Disney trip ever. Now I can't imagine staying ON Disney property. Back to Wyndham Bonnet Creek, we go!

 

[Rosebud123]

Stayed at WBC last trip and can't believe I was so afraid of offsite for so long! That being said, I really didn't feel like WBC was offsite at all since it's surrounded by WDW property. Also, we never liked EMH and always rented a car so we don't miss those "perks" by staying offsite.

 

[haPevraftr]

For the first time in ten years we are considering staying offsite at possibly Liki Tiki instead or our usual CBR. Has anyone ever done this and regretted it? Have you missed anything or were you glad you did and wished you had done it sooner?? I would welcome comments please...Im terrified incase we do the wrong thing. ty

I have never stayed at Liki Tiki so I can't speak of that resort. I will say that we have tried a few offsite resorts. I enjoyed each of them, but didn't find one that I wanted to return to again until I found WBC. It is a great resort to do all of the things my family loves, but the greatest selling point for me (which made it a no brainer when discussing a return trip) was that it is on WDW property. You never have to go out of the WDW resort if you do not want to. It makes the room more affordable than WDW resorts, but I still have the illusion of being onsite.

FWIW- My DH always makes a loud popping sound when we leave WDW property and head toward Intl Drive. He jokes that it is my Disney bubble popping. For most offsiters, this isn't a big deal. But, I found that for me it made the difference in choosing to make a return visit to an offsite resort.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

When we stayed at the Swan, we felt like we were missing "Disney" and even attempted to move to a Disney resort mid-trip.

That being said, we stay off-site for a few days each year. Recently, we have stayed at:

Sheraton Vistana Resort
Marriott World Grand Orlando
Holiday Inn Express Resort - Lake Buena Vista
Buena Vista Suites
Caribe Royale

We enjoyed our visits on each of those occasions, too.

In the past, we have found that the greatest detriment to staying off-site was the lack of extra magic hours.

 

[Lorrained]

We always stay offsite. The first time we stayed at Holiday Inn on international drive and I absolutely hated the place, it literally was a place to sleep but didn't like the place at all. The following year we booked Fairfield inn at lake buena vista and have been there every year ever since.

The hotel has shuttles laid on and it's literally about 10 or 15 minutes ride to the parks.

There are a few different food places within walking distance of the hotel, offering us a variety of options and I would assume quite a bit cheaper than on site.

We are a short taxi ride from DTD where we can go if we want an evening disney fix.

We are a short walk to the premium outlets which allows us to get to the other parks as well as shopping!!!

We have the use of her 3 different hotel pools, and with it being a non disney hotel some days, well most days it can literally be us lay around the pool on a DOWN day, sooooo relaxing. Nice now as our kids are older, b was also nice when the kids were younger because the pool was quiet for them, and it felt safer.

I love Disney, but I like that we can access it as and when.

 

[Ksquared]

I have stayed both onsite and offsite. We try to go every other year and our last trip was over New Year's and we were offsite.

Each time we go we try to make it a different experience, maybe we go to a new restaurant or stay someplace we never stayed before. We love all of our trips equally and honestly I don't prefer one over the other.

This past trip we rented a pool house for the first time. I loved it, I really did.

I'm researching and planning for our next trip which we decided will be over Christmas in 2015. And while I love our offsite trips, it's been awhile since we've stayed onsite so I am planning to try and stay onsite. We are also going to stay onsite a few days at Universal. It will make the trip different for us and I can't wait.

If this is a once in a lifetime or once every 5 or more year kind of trip then I'd say to try and stay onsite, immerse yourself etc. But if you know you are going back within the next few years, then I say try offsite. You might find you love it, you might not. It's not going to ruin your trip, after all, you are going to be in Disney.

 

[Pembo]

After 8 trips onsite, we stayed at WH in a condo. I was very hesitant about not being onsite but in the end it was the cost that finally convinced us to try offsite. It was definitely a different experience but I liked it.

It was nice to be out of the Disney Bubble. I loved all the extra space, with 3 kids, having multiple rooms and tvs and bathrooms was wonderful. I liked having the washer and dryer. We always have food with us but it was nice to eat breakfast at a table instead of on the bed and to have access to a full fridge and oven. A late night frozen pizza was wonderfully received by all.

We did WH twice and then I stayed onsite again. There is something special about staying onsite. But staying offsite is special in a different way. Offsite seemed more relaxing. We still did the parks from rope-drop to close and took an afternoon break but we didn't feel as tired when we got home. I think having more space for each person helped that. 5 people in a hotel room gets old real fast.

One thing to consider - our last time onsite as a family, dh and the 2 older ones were able to go to the parks later while I came back to the room with the youngest. That was not an option offsite as we only had one car. But for us, the youngest was older so it wasn't an issue.

If you choose offsite, know that the experience will be different but still great.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Trust me, I know exactly how you feel. It took us a while to pull the trigger on staying off site. And once we did, we loved it...but we had a nagging feeling that we were still missing something. So after staying off site a couple times we did a split stay with WBC (where we always stay offsite) and AoA in a Cars Suite.

Eye opener for this family...we realized it wasn't just the space that we loved about WBC (and that's a huge thing with two tween girls), but it's the relaxed vibe. The laundry, kitchen, two bathrooms, separate bedrooms are all pluses for sure, but we really enjoy the atmosphere of WBC. Some people consider driving while on their Disney trips to be the worst, but we find it to be more relaxing actually. We can be at Epcot in 5 minutes from WBC...no waiting and cramming onto a bus for us anymore.

But, all that said, we were doubting ourselves AGAIN this past Oct...so we did a split stay again, this time starting at POR in Royal Rooms...beautiful, with free dining for 3 nights and then we moved to WBC for the next 6 nights. Wow, I can't even begin to describe the feeling when we drove down the road that leads into the Bonnet Creek resort area...it was like I finally could breathe and was on vacation.

So, I guess we are definitely off site folks, and that means WBC for us since we bought a resale Wyndham contract!

 

[Portugal1000]

Definitely wish we had done it sooner .

We love the space....all 1200 feet of it.

We love having separate bedrooms.

We love having two bathrooms.

We love having multiple pools and a wide assortment of recreational activities (basketball, sand volleyball, bingo, etc.).

We love the in-room washer and dryer.

We love our private, screened in balcony.

We love the full kitchen.

We love not having to eat out every single meal.

And we LOVE the fact that our money goes soooo much further. We get nicer accommodations for a fraction of Disney prices. So we get to go to Orlando more often, and add more extras to our trips.

We love staying offsite .

We stay Bonnet Creek and absolutely everything in this post applies to us to. We use to stay in a one bed villa in SSR and even that us way too small.

 

[hjgaus]

I believe I may be the minority here due to being a DVC member @ Disney's Beach Club Villas. We only did and will do the split stay one more time due to not enough points. Although everyone's reasons for OFF site is spot on I still LOVE being ON site !! We live 20 minutes away from Disneyland & are DVC owners @ the Villas at Grand Californian as well staying sometimes for weekend staycations & try really hard not to drive in/out of the DLR property cuz then we're out of the bubble & that is why we decided to PAY for the magic!!