"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

[deedeew80]

Hi everyone! We are going to WDW 11/30/24. We are driving from NJ and will arrive in the evening of 11/29/24, so we need a one night stay somewhere. We are just sleeping, so I don’t want anything crazy expensive, but it needs to be clean. I was looking on the Disney World site and nothing seems to be available unless I want to spend like $250-$300. Does anyone know of any offsite hotels or any other sites to book onsite hotels that are cheaper? Thank you!

 

[justreading]

Search in the Flamingo Crossings area.several hotel brands. I usually stay in the Home2 Suites (which is a hilton property) the night before checking in. I do some food shopping at Target right in the same parking lot and I'm ready to go in the morning! It's about a 10 min drive to WDW. Hope this helps!

 

[Mikey15]

Hi everyone! We are going to WDW 11/30/24. We are driving from NJ and will arrive in the evening of 11/29/24, so we need a one night stay somewhere. We are just sleeping, so I don’t want anything crazy expensive, but it needs to be clean. I was looking on the Disney World site and nothing seems to be available unless I want to spend like $250-$300. Does anyone know of any offsite hotels or any other sites to book onsite hotels that are cheaper? Thank you!

We’re booked for Nov 29th at a Holiday Inn Express in Savannah and it’s about $200 for the night. It’s the Friday night of one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, and everywhere seems to be a little more expensive than an ordinary hotel night.

One thing the area around WDW has no shortage of is hotel rooms though. And, personally, if I’m having to move hotels one way or another to start the “stay”on the 30th, it’s not that much different to be at a Disney Springs hotel vs. a hotel an hour away in Deltona.

The perk of paying for an onsite one (you can look for a deal on UndercoverTourist or TripAdvisor or something like that) is I think bell services could transfer your bags from your one night stay to wherever you’re checking in on the 30th? I’ve never done that myself, just heard about it.

 

[bluezy]

We’re booked for Nov 29th at a Holiday Inn Express in Savannah and it’s about $200 for the night. It’s the Friday night of one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, and everywhere seems to be a little more expensive than an ordinary hotel night.

One thing the area around WDW has no shortage of is hotel rooms though. And, personally, if I’m having to move hotels one way or another to start the “stay”on the 30th, it’s not that much different to be at a Disney Springs hotel vs. a hotel an hour away in Deltona.

The perk of paying for an onsite one (you can look for a deal on UndercoverTourist or TripAdvisor or something like that) is I think bell services could transfer your bags from your one night stay to wherever you’re checking in on the 30th? I’ve never done that myself, just heard about it.

Yes, they would be able to move the bags to the new room. I agree that sometimes the extra cost of the Disney room is worth it just because it's so much easier to move to your booked resort the next morning. We drive to Disney over 2 days and we typically spend the second night in a hotel about an hour or so before Disney. This year (in June) we made really good time on the second day of our drive so if we had stuck with our original plan of spending the night about an hour away from Disney, we would have stopped driving at about 4:30 in the afternoon. That just seemed silly to us so I quickly booked a room at Disney for that night (I was lazy and just booked directly with Disney because I didn't want there to be any issues when we arrived). Our week-long reservation was for a suite at AoA, so I booked a room at Pop Century (there were only 3 of us that night) for the night. With tax and the "additional adult" fee, it cost us $301. We paid $255 for a room the night before in Fayetteville, so this wasn't really a big deal. The nice thing about being on property that night was that it allowed us to ease in to our vacation -- we had dinner at the resort, bought our refillable mugs, and then headed to DS to see the drone show. We only took our overnight bags into the PC room, so the next morning we slept in a bit (we didn't get back to the room until after midnight because we went to the 10:45 drone show), had some breakfast at the resort, and then threw our overnight bags back in the car (that was parked just steps from the building we were in) and drove across the parking lot to AoA and went to our room there. We were in our room and unpacked before lunch. The ease of everything that morning and the bonus of getting something checked off our "to do" list the night before made it totally worth the extra cost (for us) to stay at Disney that night rather than an offsite hotel. YMMV.

 

[bluezy]

Yes, they would be able to move the bags to the new room. I agree that sometimes the extra cost of the Disney room is worth it just because it's so much easier to move to your booked resort the next morning. We drive to Disney over 2 days and we typically spend the second night in a hotel about an hour or so before Disney. This year (in June) we made really good time on the second day of our drive so if we had stuck with our original plan of spending the night about an hour away from Disney, we would have stopped driving at about 4:30 in the afternoon. That just seemed silly to us so I quickly booked a room at Disney for that night (I was lazy and just booked directly with Disney because I didn't want there to be any issues when we arrived). Our week-long reservation was for a suite at AoA, so I booked a room at Pop Century (there were only 3 of us that night) for the night. With tax and the "additional adult" fee, it cost us $301. We paid $255 for a room the night before in Fayetteville, so this wasn't really a big deal. The nice thing about being on property that night was that it allowed us to ease in to our vacation -- we had dinner at the resort, bought our refillable mugs, and then headed to DS to see the drone show. We only took our overnight bags into the PC room, so the next morning we slept in a bit (we didn't get back to the room until after midnight because we went to the 10:45 drone show), had some breakfast at the resort, and then threw our overnight bags back in the car (that was parked just steps from the building we were in) and drove across the parking lot to AoA and went to our room there. We were in our room and unpacked before lunch. The ease of everything that morning and the bonus of getting something checked off our "to do" list the night before made it totally worth the extra cost (for us) to stay at Disney that night rather than an offsite hotel. YMMV.

I forgot to mention that we could have gotten a room at ASSports or Movies for about $50 cheaper but chose Pop Century because we would be close to AoA and our son and his family were staying at PC for that trip and had checked in the day before, so we got to surprise the grandkids (ages 2 & 7) when they got off the Skyliner that evening. Totally worth the extra $50 to see the look on their faces and hear them scream "G-Ma & G-Pa are here already!!!" We had told our son that we arrived early but were hoping to surprise the kids. He and his wife made sure to remind the kids that we would be there the next day and they'd be meeting up with us at EP so that really helped with the surprise.

 

[dvczerfs]

Search in the Flamingo Crossings area.several hotel brands. I usually stay in the Home2 Suites (which is a hilton property) the night before checking in. I do some food shopping at Target right in the same parking lot and I'm ready to go in the morning! It's about a 10 min drive to WDW. Hope this helps!

Very nice area. It is where all the college program kids live. They keep adding more and more to that area including condos and housing. If I were looking for a house, that is the area I would be looking in.
Just a reminder, the road that takes you onto property is Westernway. A lot of people who work on property use that road and it is requested that tourist stay in the right lane. We’re not all on vacation, some people have to get to work. lol.
( speed limit signs are just a suggestion in Florida. lol )
I’m just kidding by the way.

 

[Stratman50th]

Speed limit signs are just a suggestion in Florida. lol
I’m just kidding by the way.

No, you really aren't!

 

[OKW Lover]

( speed limit signs are just a suggestion in Florida. lol )

If you go the speed limit we will know you're a tourist.

 

[Mikey15]

The number of places I’ve been where “55 mph” highways are actually 80mph zones (*cough* Chicago) means I’m surprised why people presume the speed “limit” is actually a limit.

And if you must do the speed limit in FL please stay out of the middle lane… on I-4 the right lane ends up being the passing lane

 

[dvczerfs]

The number of places I’ve been where “55 mph” highways are actually 80mph zones (*cough* Chicago) means I’m surprised why people presume the speed “limit” is actually a limit.

And if you must do the speed limit in FL please stay out of the middle lane… on I-4 the right lane ends up being the passing lane

Thank goodness for those wide shoulders on I4 or I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere. lol.

 

[dvczerfs]

If you go the speed limit we will know you're a tourist.

Or using a turn signal. Floridians don’t like blinky lights. Turn signals, police, hazard lights. You’re lucky they have their headlights on at night. lol.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Heading out 4am to start from Cleveland Ohio area. Do it twice a year. Stop in GA then just a short leg the next day. Then can still get checked in and hit parks with plenty of the day left.

 

[dvczerfs]

Heading out 4am to start from Cleveland Ohio area. Do it twice a year. Stop in GA then just a short leg the next day. Then can still get checked in and hit parks with plenty of the day left.

Have a safe trip! Traffic don’t start building in Orlando on a Sunday morning till about 9:30.

 

[dvczerfs]

Heading out 4am to start from Cleveland Ohio area. Do it twice a year. Stop in GA then just a short leg the next day. Then can still get checked in and hit parks with plenty of the day left.

Hope you stayed dry this afternoon, it was real nasty at Epcot.
If you’re going to be in Epcot the next few days after 3, stop in and see me !

 

[wdw4rfam]

Hope you stayed dry this afternoon, it was real nasty at Epcot.
If you’re going to be in Epcot the next few days after 3, stop in and see me !

We just got to Polynesian and got all of our stuff unloaded in our room and it started. We waited a bit and then put ponchos on and headed to magic kingdom. It stopped shortly after. We were at Epcot today but left at 3

 

[bluecastle]

* also posted this in the Folks Driving thread:

Has anyone ever stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Florence, SC? This is for or trip home. I was originally going to stay in the Best Western in Smithfield, (a bit longer in the car than I wanted). It’s hotel we’ve stayed in before, but they are about to start major renovations. I’ve already decided on the Fairfield Inn in Santee for our trip down, but I know not all Fairfield Inns are comparable. TIA!

 

[Mikey15]

* also posted this in the Folks Driving thread:

Has anyone ever stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Florence, SC? This is for or trip home. I was originally going to stay in the Best Western in Smithfield, (a bit longer in the car than I wanted). It’s hotel we’ve stayed in before, but they are about to start major renovations. I’ve already decided on the Fairfield Inn in Santee for our trip down, but I know not all Fairfield Inns are comparable. TIA!

Can't really help with the Fairfield Inn but we did stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Florence, and it was very nice. Location is good, highway noise not apparent. Very good / friendly customer service in Florence! I'm sure the Fairfield would be similar.

 

[dvczerfs]

* also posted this in the Folks Driving thread:

Has anyone ever stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Florence, SC? This is for or trip home. I was originally going to stay in the Best Western in Smithfield, (a bit longer in the car than I wanted). It’s hotel we’ve stayed in before, but they are about to start major renovations. I’ve already decided on the Fairfield Inn in Santee for our trip down, but I know not all Fairfield Inns are comparable. TIA!

I never tried Fairfield. The few times we stayed over on the road, we always hit Hampton Inn. Never hit a bad one. When I retired and moved to Florida, I didn’t want to pay $15k to have the little bit we took with us, broken to move it to Florida. We use to live in the Lehigh Valley area of Pa. At the time we sold our home in Pa, we were renting a condo in Davenport Fl. till our house was ready. I would make a reservation at the same Hampton Inn in the hills of Virginia for two nights, about five hours away from our home in Pa. I would leave Davenport, drive to Virginia, stay overnight and the next day drive to our home in Pa, load our van and drive back to Virginia. Next morning drive back to Davenport, by myself. 2200 miles round trip. I did that three times.
To be fair, I was in sales most of my life and have driven close to three million miles alone, so I was use to driving.
Almost four years later, I get tired driving to the airport in Sanford an hour up the road. lol.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hi everyone! We are going to WDW 11/30/24. We are driving from NJ and will arrive in the evening of 11/29/24, so we need a one night stay somewhere. We are just sleeping, so I don’t want anything crazy expensive, but it needs to be clean. I was looking on the Disney World site and nothing seems to be available unless I want to spend like $250-$300. Does anyone know of any offsite hotels or any other sites to book onsite hotels that are cheaper? Thank you!

Give me a week or so heads up before you come down. Shot me a private message if you want, I’ll let you know when I’ll be working, where and ask for David. They don’t know me by dvczerfs. lol. . If you know what day you’ll be in Epcot it will be real easy.

 

[pwdebbie]

Give me a week or so heads up before you come down. Shot me a private message if you want, I’ll let you know when I’ll be working, where and ask for David. They don’t know me by dvczerfs. lol. . If you know what day you’ll be in Epcot it will be real easy.

Just curious -- Have you kept your DVC membership?