How much longer will you stay on-site?

[Santa]

I will when WDW stops offering discounts. I have never paid rack rate at any hotel. I have never been a fan of the free dining.... but that's another lengthy thread.

 

[larryz]

It's highly unlikely we'll ever stay on site at rack rate again. Either we'll find a deep discount or look for a package including at least tickets and maybe dining at "rack" rate.

 

[DisneyGuy]

My only issue with Swan and Dolphin is the resort fee, which I see has gone up to $12 per night for services we wouldn't use and a parking fee, another reason I really didn't want to stay at Shades of Green.

True, but a drop in the bucket compared to the rack rate, or even a discount rate at some of the Disney deluxe resorts.

 

[sndral]

I have no interest in staying offsite - unless it's onsite @ universal to give them a try. We travel cross country to visit, so I'm not one who is interesting in a shorter trip to reduce price, and I'm not crazy about renting a car.
That said, Disney's deluxe prices have gone up every year, despite the recession and failure of the overall economy to grow and their ticket and food prices have increased as well. If I am unable to get a discount, I will simply take that $6,000 or $7,000 and spend it elsewhere (or a couple of else wheres) - I've been thinking about Atlantis resort, mom wants to go to China, it's been a couple of years since I've been to Hawaii, etc.. So to answer the question I'll stay onsite whenever I go, but if I feel they are price gouging, I'll go less often.

 

[Kim1964]

We tried offsite this past summer and it had its pros and cons. Overall, though, I missed the onsite experience. It may be longer between trips so I can save up for what I want (YC), but I'll still stay onsite.

 

[TDC Nala]

When I am not using DVC points (I do run out), I generally stay at Pop Century or the Dolphin. I'll do a moderate if there is a good deal on one. I don't see paying for Disney deluxes, not when I can get the Dolphin much of the time for the price of a Disney moderate, including adding in the resort fee (add in the cost of transportation from the airport and it's more, but still less than a Disney deluxe), but I don't go offsite.

I don't know what the prices are for the family suites at the values (AS Music and the new upcoming Art of Animation) but it's got to be less than a deluxe and is a viable option for a family of 5.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

When I am not using DVC points (I do run out), I generally stay at Pop Century or the Dolphin. I'll do a moderate if there is a good deal on one. I don't see paying for Disney deluxes, not when I can get the Dolphin much of the time for the price of a Disney moderate, including adding in the resort fee (add in the cost of transportation from the airport and it's more, but still less than a Disney deluxe), but I don't go offsite.

I don't know what the prices are for the family suites at the values (AS Music and the new upcoming Art of Animation) but it's got to be less than a deluxe and is a viable option for a family of 5.

I am not sure about AS Music, but the prices I have seen for AoA were around $480 a night rack rate, which I refuse to pay anywhere I stay. I am staying at BWI for about $250 a night with the military discount.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

True, but a drop in the bucket compared to the rack rate, or even a discount rate at some of the Disney deluxe resorts.

True, but we don't normally stay in a Deluxe resort either. We normally stay at Pop, because we are there for a quick, short trip.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

I just priced out a family of five trip for the last week of August 2012. I was pretty shocked at what I found.

AllStar Music Suite was $3,051.35
AOA was $3,437.79
2 rooms at ASSp were $2,853.57
2 rooms at POP were $2,932.67
The cabins at FW was $3,687.63
POR was $2,734.69
BC was $4,103.83
The CR was $3,946.33

This week is just with 8 day passes, no park hoppers and no dining plan (as I hope to get it for free when it gets closer!)

 

[Tinkerkell007]

I stay all over the place! When I go with my sister and her family it is easier for us to stay off-site at a condo. We all stayed at the ft. wilderness cabins one year and while it was a lot of fun it was also a lot of people for 1 bathroom and our dad slept on the bottom bunk. We got an amazing deal on the cabins that year so it wasn't a big deal, but now it makes more sense to pay around 1/3 the price of a cabin for a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom condo. When I go with my BF we have stay at the Values and sometimes off site, it really just depends on our budget at the time.

I really wish it was more affordable to stay at the deluxe resorts but I guess that is just up to me to make the money to do so.

As long as the value resorts don't shoot up to $300 a night, I will continue to stay on-site when I can.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I haven't paid rack rates in years. Yes, they are crazy high!
That said, even with discounts Disney prices are getting alittle out of hand.

But it's the policy changes that are going to kill us.

I REALLY resent fees for nothing. Without hopefully getting into a big tangent on the new dining fees -they are likely a deal breaker for me.

I've just had too many visits where someone unexpectedly did not feel up for trekking 90 minutes across WDW property to get to dinner. I can't plan for when somebody gets their foot run over by a wheelchair, gets ill, etc. We often go to WDW ina group of ten or more- so even if we relocate our dinner to our home resort - we're going to be out over $100 for NOTHING in return. No way! DIsney has kept us cooped us on too many broken monrails, waiting for buses that don't show, etc.

I'm just not going to chance it. I've cancelled bank accounts over MUCH smaller fees than that!

We'll see, but I like the Swan. Dining is a big part of what has kept us onsite, but it's no longer a deal.

Last trip, twice we waited over an hour past our ADR time for a table. Dining onsite is no longer the treat it once was.

Maybe we'll go someplace else. Maybe well stay offsite and dine offsite. Many big resort companies have very NICE resorts in Orlando, and NORMAL, REASONABLE travel policies.

 

[suemom2kay]

Since our DVC points don't expire for another 45-ish years I can tell you that we will be staying on-site for at least that long. At that point I will be in my mid-late 70's so I can just retire and work part time at WDW

For those that aren't DVC members and don't want to commit to membership, I highly suggest you consider renting points... much better deals than paying rack rates for rooms

I've rented several times and also highly recommend it. We've now bought a Wyndham timeshare and traded into DVC for next September. Another way to pay less for more. We will be staying in a 1 bedroom at the Beach Club for less than the cost of a deluxe hotel room.

Hopefully, we'll be able to buy into DVC but not as long as my daughter is a gymnast $$$.

 

[KikiFan]

I've been going to Disney for 14 years and I've never paid rack rate and I don't intend to either! That said I also don't intend to stay off site either. We love the resorts and look forward to being at the the resort as much as at the parks. If it means waiting a while longer to go or sticking with Values I'm game. We love Pop anyway.

 

[21hearts]

We are a family of five (with 2 under 3) and we are pretty much priced out. We went on a trip to Tampa and got 1 bedroom with 2 beds and a pull out sofa for $100 per night and this hotel was way better then Disney hotel we've stayed in. We've recently looked into staying off site for our upcoming trip and we can get a 2 bedroom hotel room with full kitchen for about $150 per night. We can save about $700 if we stay off site.

 

[TheRatPack]

We are a family of 7 and always go during the free dining promotion. We spent around 3500-4000 for our hotel rooms, plus the free QSDP and 5 day base tickets. We don't buy preferred rooms, we don't upgrade the dining plan and we don't even get extras on our tickets or pay for hoppers. If it goes up much more than that....we'll stay off site as we did in the past and eat 1 or 2 meals on property instead of all of them, plus we'll probably hit the outlets for souvenirs instead of spending 1000.00 at the parks and DTD! We could probably afford to take 2 trips a year if we stayed off site, not sure why we haven't made that move yet. Especially since if you'd asked me 10 years ago if I'd pay that much for hotel rooms I would have thought you were crazy....I guess we kind of changed along with Disney.

 

[Kelblum]

Hopefully forever!

 

[catne]

We'll continue staying on-site, probably forever.

Have never paid full-rates for a Disney room, and we do not visit WDW during high season, either, so the discounts are off lower season rates anyway.

We did travel to Disney and stayed off-site once when all 4 kids were young. Then a couple of years later, we traveled as a family of 5 (oldest had moved out by then and he couldn't get off work to go with us) We stayed on-site at Ft Wilderness cabins with a 10 or 15% AAA discount (don't remember exactly what the discount was but it wasn't a huge discount.)

While we didn't care much for the cabins, we sure enjoyed staying on site and getting the extra magic hours advantage. Have been about 12 times since then, staying at all levels of resort (POP, CSR, Ft Wilderness, POFQ, Poly, Boardwalk, Contemporary, Beach Club Villa.) That AAA discount was the lowest value discount we've ever gotten. Usually we're getting 30-40% off the hotel or free dining (which usually works out to a similar discount value on our whole package.)

Would we stay deluxe and pay $500 a night...no way. But we do stay for one or two nights and pay $200 a night at deluxe levels. Doing it next weekend

 

[AJA]

I would never pay rack rate for Disney. Thankfully I've always gotten some kind of discount. If the discounts stop we will stop going. There are plenty of other fun family destinations out there.

Don't get me wrong I love Disney and hope to go every year, but, IMO Disney's mod and deluxe resorts are over priced by at least 20%, Even a 20-30% off discount is only bringing the price down to where it should have been all along.

 

[bedogged]

I checked out a 10 day trip for 3 at Disney in May. The rack rates were ridiculously high. If no deep discount appears, I will be booking offsite. I will also rent a car and do most of our meals offsite instead of doing deluxe dinning. In addition, I will increase the days we will stay at Universal Studios. I hope you are listening DISNEY!

 

[hushupu]

Our last trip in Mid July I messed up our reservations and had a night with out a room between our US and WDW ressies. We drove around looking at the different off site venues close to the world and ended up getting a room at the Hyatt Grand Cyprus. We had Magic Kingdom and Epcot views. The amenities were amazing pitch and putt golf, water sports(canoes, kayaks and paddle boats), climbing wall, bicycles, surrey bikes, a 24hr multi-slide grotto type pool shuttle service to all the parks, free full breakfast buffet and a great location all included for $150 a night AAA rate plus a $15 resort fee.
Shaq was a guest there when we were there. We always need our time on site but I think next trip we might schedule a couple of nights here to help extend the trip and still have fun interesting activities for the whole family.
BTW I checked the price of the surrey bikes at the Boardwalk when we got to Disney and they were $19/half hour