For those of you who stay off site

[mom2brats]

Is the driving and parking a big deal???? Just decided to make the trip!! So excited. This will be our second trip as a family and my dd 5 first trip. We are weighing the pros and cons of staying on site or renting a condo. Would love some opinions.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

Honestly, I couldn't be bothered dealing with all that on vacation. Parking, then standing in line for a tram to get to the front gate, then having to take the monorail or boat (if you are going to MK), and then all that again at the end of the day.
I would say stay on site. The value hotels are super (see my recent Pop review in my signature). Hop on and off the bus to all the parks and not worry about driving and parking charges too!

 

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

We have never stayed onsite so I can not compare. But we have loved staying where we have. In 2005 we stayed at two different timeshares. In May 2007 we stayed in a house in Windsor Hills and at Christmas 2007 we stayed in a condo at Grand Palms. We love having the extra room. We will never go without a car. We stayed in a hotel in 1995 and had no car. We hated it. The parking is easy, the driving is easy if you stay somewhere close. The above two that I mentioned were only 10-12 minutes from Door to parking gate of any park. We have to pay a fare bit for flights and that eats up alot of the budget. So for what I can get in a house or a condo offsite is crazy for what you get onsite for the price. We are talking about going back at Christmas again this year and will again stay offsite. The house we had was 3000 sq. Ft. and 6 bedrooms, but we shared it with inlaws it was $1600 for two weeks for all of us. The condo was about 1000 sq ft and three bedrooms, but was it was only the four of us. But the price was only $700 for a week at Christmas. Great on the budget. Hope this helps.

 

[Northstar]

Pros of offsite condo with car:
Better access to food choices, takeout, and groceries. No ADRs? No problem...head offsite.
You control how crowded your car is and what people can do in it. Your car is your castle.
You control where your car goes and when it goes there. No waiting and wondering where the bus is, why it has to stop all over the place.
A condo provides more privacy and room than a hotel.

Cons of offsite condo with car:
If you have a big group, it's harder to split up and go do your own thing if you're all depending on one car instead of using buses.
You might end up parking pretty far from the entrance and hiking/tramming across vast expanses of non-magical parking lot

My family has always rented a car, on or off site. Driving in the Disney area has never struck me as very stressful (but we go during less crowded times, so no traffic jams to worry about). For us, the biggie is being able to get out of Disney for meals.

 

[gmark2000]

I just got a 10-day rental with Alamo that was just over US$200 for an SUV. This was cheaper that return shuttle fares for a family of four to and from the airport and to Port Canaveral. The convenience of knowing your car is nearby outweighs the waits and travel time to the on-site resorts that are a bit further.

 

[FayeW]

Is the driving and parking a big deal????

Not in the least!

We have travelled to Orlando 3 times, and will go again in Dec. Have never stayed onsite because I can't stand the thought of living in a hotel room for a week. Trust me when I tell you that there is no magic to be had with 4 people crammed into one room, 2 of whom snore, and 2 who are light sleepers (and guess what, they aren't the snorers!).

We always go to Universal as well as WDW parks, and we have never had any trouble driving where we need to go, except when my husband missed the turn for the I4, and wouldn't believe me when I told him we were now driving UNDER it, (but that is just men and directions.) That was our FIRST trip. I insisted on driving for the last 2 trips and had no problems (because I will actually ask for directions!)

We love having a car and being able to do what we want and eat where we want. We took the WDW bus one day because we were at DTD and wanted to take the ferry to OKW to look around, and then we went to the Poly for dinner. I did NOT enjoy taking the bus from OKW to Poly, and then Poly back to DTD. I didn't enjoy waiting for the bus, and on the way back it was cold outside but the a/c was on in the bus. People were standing and I felt the bus driver was travelling too fast for all those people standing to be safe. Anyway, that experience certainly cured me of any desire to stay onsite for the free transportation!

 

[iluvflorida]

I can't agree more with FAYEW, even when it now is only my wife and I. We rent timeshares or condo homes for about or less than the POP and other value motels and remember it is only a motel room. With timeshares and condo you have full kitchen, living room, TV in every room, choice of pools in most cases, and seperate bedrooms for kids or guest. Driving is no problem and lots of parking. Leaving again in two weeks for our annual winter vacation. This will be close to 50 times to Florida as went as kid with parents before I-75 was even finished. When I took kids, we found after a day or two at Disney or other parks they just wanted to stay at the resort and participate in all the kid activities (mostly free) and swim, swim, swim.

 

[SandraC]

We haven't stayed in a condo in Florida....but we have stayed in vacation condos for other destination. Although we like the extra space of a condo, when we are in Florida we are mostly outside, so space isn't too much of an issue. We've been doing hotels with the kids for so long, we actually like hanging out together [although dd14 would likely agrue that....heeheehee].

In Florida, we always rent a car and stay on-site. Then we are park hopping, we sometimes use Disney buses, boats and monorails because it can be faster. IE: Bus to MK, monorail to Epcot, then boat to DHS [aka MGM/DS].

Parking is fine when we do take the car.....we don't pay for parking [I think it's $11 now] since we stay on-site.

I like on-site because we are TOTALLY DISNEYFIED! However, I see lots of pros staying in a condo too!

Ask these three questions:

[1] What does your head say?
[2] What does your heart say?
[3] What does your gut say?

2 out of 3 will guide you! Blessings, Sandra

 

[Camilo]

I always stay offsite (planning my next vacation to stay onsite) and always rent a car.

It's so easy to drive in Kissimmee. In 2006, we went on a budget trip and stayed at Best Western Lakeside (very cheap and nice hotel, recommended). From the parking lot of the hotel to MGM, Epcot and TTC parking lots, it didn't take us more than 10 minutes. To Animal Kingdom, it was 5 minutes !!!

I'm thinking I'll rent a car even when I stay onsite. There are great restaurants (so much cheaper than the Disney ones) offsite, there are the other parks (Sea World, US/IOA, etc), not to mention the outlets, including the Disney ones.

 

[imtheonlyone]

The kids and I have done it both ways, the car can be a blessing if you have other things besides the parks to do...we love going and watching the lightning play in tampa...great rink, reasonable tickets...we've seen a bunch of canadian teams over the years, sens, leafs and habs included. On the other hand if you want to avoid any semblance of the rat race the fly in combined with the disney magical express can't be beat.

A tip, you can always park at downtown disney and travel almost anywhere on the resort from there.

 

[tone.def]

Is the driving and parking a big deal????

Yes if you intend on staying to watch fireworks at parks. Everyone then tries to leave at the same time as you creating congestion like what you see on the DVP!

First of all, you have to pay for parking. It's $11 per day.

Secondly, you might end up parking way at the back in no man's land and at the end of the day you don't want to walk it or wait for a tram that everyone else is waiting for to take you when you can just line up for a resort bus or another park bus.

Third, you have to pay for gas.


I'll never stay off site again, that's just me and others obviously differ.

 

[calgarygary]

I have stayed both onsite and offsite and find that you have to decide which of the pro's and con's of each is most important to you. Generally speaking the following will hold true most of the time:

$ - offsite, you will always get more bang for the buck offsite
space - offsite unless $ have no impact in your decision, then it's a toss up
transportation - with no car, definitely onsite, with a car, can be a toss up
meals - if ddp is important to you, then onsite, if $ rule then offsite
touring hours - onsite, although many avoid emh, it is still a good benefit
independance - if your group may break up, then onsite

Some of the supposed benefits of staying onsite can be smoke and mirrors such as charging to your room or package delivery. There is no difference in charging with a room key and then a charge card vs. a charge card other than a couple of days before it appears on your statement. If shopping in the parks, you can always have your package picked up as you leave the park.

 

[ChisJo]

Stayed onsite once and will never do it again!

I found the busses ALWAYS crowded and sometimes were not able to get onboard due to the crowdedness. I found the monorail system and the ferry system to be just as time consuming as driving and dealing with the parking lots. The cost of paying for parking is WAY better to me than having to stay in Disney and not have the convenience of the outside world. For one, I save $$$$ by not staying onsite, and for two, I can eat anywhere in the entire city and surrounding areas and I don't have to worry about having advanced dinner reservations to eat there. I like the shows in Orlando and I like shopping in their outlet malls and I like the other theme parks....can't do all that without a car (well, I guess you could cab it, but that would be pointless - can end up renting a car for the same price!).

Anyways, I know opinions differ, but what do you feel is more appropriate for your familiy?

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Our first 2 trips were offsite and was good. The last 3 times we stayed onsite. First one of which was Fort wilderness. That was awesome. The last 2 were Allstar movies in 2004 and Pop Century in 2007. We had the dining plan for the last 2 stays.

The cons of staying onsite.

-up front money seems to be alot


The pros of staying onsite.

-if you got the dining plan once your there all you need is spending money.
-you can use there transportation. We didn't use it we drove as parking was free and I dont like being packed in like sardines. Also the parking is free if your staying onsite.
-yes you can charge to your room key who cares about that. Whats nice is you can have all your purchases sent back to your hotel so you don't have to carry it around all day.
-extra magic hours. You can get into a selected park early by 1 hour before the people staying offsite, and selected parks up to 3 hours after the fireworks, when people staying offsite have to leave. It is busier but you get more for your money and you are out of the heat. It is great doing the park at night.
-the food package is great. Yes you can eat cheaper off property but we went down for disney not crocker barrel. Not knocking crocker barrel.
-last time we went 10 days cost us $1000 for the food package. Thats for 2 adults one 9 year old and one 6 year old. $100 a day for food. That includes 1 table service meal one counter service meal and 1 snack er day. We figured out the numbers and if we paid for what we got on the dining plan it would cost on average $130 per day for food as we did caracter meals everyday.
-disney 24 hours a day. Gotta love that.

We figured for hotel alone we paid double of that off site. $40 offsite for a hotel $80 onsite

Extra cost of staying offsite.
-$10 per day parking. ( it's more like 12 but I rounded it off)
-loss of extra hours. Time is money and when were on vacation we want more time in the parks.
-convenance of shopping and not having to carry your stuff around.
-saving time wasted shopping for food for condo or hotel offsite and loss of time cooking. Vacation who wants to cook not I.

I could go on but I think you get the idea i'm for staying onsite. For the extra cost in hotel price I think the benifets outweight the extra cost. Saving $30 a nite to stay offsite just not worth it. To us anyway. Good luck on your decision and no matter what have a great time.

 

[marli]

We have done, both- onsite and off.

My family will never go back to onsite, however, this is our preference, it really depends on each family.
If you have very young kids, I would recommend staying onsite for convenience reasons. Also, if you are only in disney for a short time (7 days or under), and you are expecting to do all Disney all the time then there really is no need for the stress of having your own car and having to find your way around (not that is difficult, for the most part the signage is terrific there). If you plan on doing shopping ( of a non disney nature) and or Seaworld or IOA or any dinner shows or mini golf, .... you may want the flexibility of coming and going on your own schedule.
There is a trade off to each and you have to evaluate HOW your family will be doing disney to see whether offsite or onsite would work better for you. If you are going to be there for an extended period of time, I would highly recommend staying offsite for the breathing space, and the "break" it gives your family.
Just my .2 cents, Enjoy your trip planning

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

Book your trip through CAA and they'll give you a special parking pass for the Diamond lot - it is right next to the wheelchair parking!

 

[Drivercan]

We have stayed 3 times offsite in condos at Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills. Wouldn't do it any other way with a family. The drive is close enough that timing is not a problem. With your own vehicle, you don't have to rely on bus schedules - you are your own "boss". If you buy your tickets through CAA you get a special parking pass closer to the parks - but I think you have to go early in the day to make use of the special parking.

We get sick of restaurant food all the time so love the option of being able to make a bowl of pasta or something simple for dinner. Hubby makes our lunches and we bring them to the parks. When our stomachs start to rumble, we can immediately sit anywhere in the park, even in line for rides/shows, and eat while the "onsiters" are deciding what to eat and waiting in line at the restaurants.

One thing to note, we go to the parks in the morning, stay all day and don't come back until the evening. Not sure if you want to go back "home" during the day if staying offsite would be right for you.

Another positive note about offsite - although we love the magic at Disney, we like to retreat to a quiet place at the end of the day where it is not busy and relax. I would assume that onsite hotels would be busy - depending on the time of year, I suppose.

Enjoy!

 

[iluvflorida]

All die hard Disney people please do not flame me but there is many other things in Florida and Orlando than Disney. Off site is the only way to go for me and is much cheaper even with the parking fee? I guess it is all what you want. If you are only doing Disney (what a shame) then probably on site is the way to go and if you can afford it. I figure I can go twice as long or twice as often offsite. Just my thinking. Please no fire.

 

[Copper Queen]

For this trip, we looked at staying onsite because we had never done it before and thought it would be great for the kids to experience the magic. However, when I looked at the cost compared to staying in a condo, my tune changed. We now have a 3 bedroom townhouse booked at Windsor Hills with a private splash pool for less than the cost of staying onsite in a value hotel. Cost was definitely a factor for us. If we do onsite another year, I would like to stay in a deluxe Disney hotel and experience the magic with all the trimmings.

On our last trip several years ago, we stayed at Liki Tiki and rented a vehicle. I was the only driver, so of course I was responsible for making sure we got to our destinations. With some great maps and careful planning, driving was never an issue. It was easy to get around and I found that since most of the drivers were tourists as well, everyone was pretty courteous - not like driving here in T.O. - LOL! We went all over the place - Disney, Universal, International Drive, and shopping outlets. I would definitely have no problems driving around again.

 

[B&B Mom]

I think another thing to consider is the time of year for your trip.
We have stayed onsite in Feb twice and found the buses no problem. That being said I can imagine that during the busy times the line ups for transportation would be significant.

OUr last trip we decided to try offsite and we all really enjoyed it. I did miss the buzz of excitement that a Disney resort atmosphere provides.

We've decided to alternate our stays....so I guess the next one is onsite.

Good Luck with your descision...let us know what you decide.