Just curious: Why do you stay OFFsite?

[Kitty 34]

This will be our 6th trip to Disney (in June) and because of the fact that my boys are a lot older (16, 18 and 25) we are thinking offsite will work better for us. The reasons are:

1. First of all we can get a suite for a lot less.
2. We don't need to use early entry priviledges anymore as the boys would rather stay up late.
3. I like being closer to more restaurant options.
4. We have started renting a car and feel more comfortable driving around Orlando now.

We have stayed onsite all the other times so have experienced all the magic. I'm hoping I don't miss it too much!

 

[my4kids]

just curious as to why you said off site would be ok since you don't need early entry privaledges when there are exta magic hours at night as well - there is a park open to 12pm or 1am every day of the week if you are on-site...the greatest thing of our trip was being at MGM at midnight with noone in line for Tower of Terror and we just kept going on with no line.

 

[isla bonita]

We own a rental home in Emerald Island. Love the privacy we have from our kids. We don't just do Disney. We eat breakfast at home and save $$. Our pool/spa is open 24-7. We bring down friends and family and get to play cards, swim and just hang out with people we love.

 

[Kitty 34]

just curious as to why you said off site would be ok since you don't need early entry privaledges when there are exta magic hours at night as well - there is a park open to 12pm or 1am every day of the week if you are on-site...the greatest thing of our trip was being at MGM at midnight with noone in line for Tower of Terror and we just kept going on with no line.

Is this part of E-night? Tell me more!! The last time we were there (at the Dolphin) was 2004 and there were no special late nights at MGM. Hmmm .....I might have to rethink offsite.

 

[BonnieA]

I stay offsite because I get more for my money. Magic is what you make of it. I don't need to stay onsite for a magical experience. Relaxing at night in a multiple bedroom condo or house, getting a good night sleep because you have a seperate bedroom, fixing a quick breakfast, doing a light wash, swimming in a private pool (if in a pool home) is all part of my magic. Driving to the parks is also part of my magical experience. I've been doing it for 30 years and would miss it.

 

[maps]

We've rented a pool home for the last 4 yrs and couldn't imagine doing it any other way. I second what isla bonita said and then some.

The house typically is cheaper than some hotels. Everyone gets their own bedroom and/or bathroom. All the rooms have tv/vcr. The homes we rent have games room so we play pool, foosball, air hockey. The pool/spa is available whenever we want it. We can eat at home, order chinese and have it delievered the the house.

I could go on and on but these are some of the reasons we choose a villa

 

[kilee]

We stay offsite for various reasons. Sometimes it's money-- we need to keep the lodging portion of our budget down. We also tend to travel a lot w/ other friends and family. So, we need to compromise and usually offsite is what is agreed upon. We also like the space of the rental homes-- they can't be beat. Especially when traveling w/ friends/family you can stay w/ and still have a great time.

 

[spiceycat]

offsite is definitely cheaper (most of the time) - I like to stay with Spicey, my cat. He is now 19 year will 18 this May - so I know his time is limited.

Now I still love FW kennel and he does still stay there.

but I am finding offsite is better for him.

Disney combined E-night and early morning - into magical hours - 1 hours on certain morning, 3 hours on certain nights - every park is covered (AK was not being done before)

 

[MossMan]

I thought onsite was great when my kids were little. But I can’t imagine staying onsite now that they are older. You absolutely have to have separate rooms with older kids. Sure, Disney has some of those. But the difference in cost is massive. A great 2 bedroom room offsite costs hundreds – a comparable room at Disney will costs thousands and thousands.

We still spend those thousands, we just spend it on different stuff now. The most important of which is food. When we stayed onsite, we always watched our food budget very closely. But with a few thousand extra dollars in our pocket, we now have a gas going out for great food every night. Sometimes at Disney, sometimes not. But this has become an important part of our vacation experience. I would far rather stay offsite and eat extravagantly than stay onsite and go back to fast food.

I also discovered staying offsite just how much I prefer having my own car. In fact, if I do stay onsite again (which I probably will when I someday visit Disney without any children), I will rent a car. I love the freedom and can’t imagine having to wait for busses again. As good as the Disney busses are, I still would rather drive myself.

Lastly, for me and my wife, holidays means time to fool around. Maybe its just being away from home, or maybe it’s all the excitement. Whatever the reason, I now associate Disney with great and plentiful sex. So to that end, it’s not only important to have our own space, it’s important that the kids too have their own space. The more satisfied they are, the less we are bugged and the more satisfied we are – if you get what I mean.

 

[heart4dis]

I stay off-site because we are a family of six and there isn't a good, reasonably-priced solution for us on-site. An off-site suite is perfect for us.

 

[isla bonita]

MossMan I can totally agree. I of course would not say it first but I sure do agree.

Maps I love the take out Chinese and Giordanos Pizza by the pool. When we get home from a long night we are in the pool for even longer nights. We also don't feel like we have to be in the parks every day for something to do.

 

[pamlet]

We stayed offsite in a 2 bedroom condo this past May. My sons are 21 and 16 - I could NOT imagine staying anywhere that we would all fit in onsite for the money it would cost. Then my sister in law gave us one of her timeshare weeks just for paying the transfer cost... (around 150.00... so it was a REAL DEAL).

We arrived late at the parks - I didn't feel like we HAD to be there at opening. The "boys" are big enough that they could pretty much go where they wanted - it was just a matter of coordinating who was picking up where.

The one thing we did mostly onsite was eat - we found that after not having been there in 5 years - even the counter service was surprisingly good. And thinking about another chain restaurant that we could eat in at home wasn't appealing!

Bottom line for us - the size of the space you get for the money is SO much better offsite. And as someone else said - YOU make the magic! Which we did!!

I will say that we were there for our 25th anniversary - and the boys got us 1 night at the Poly. It was beautiful ... had a wonderful view of the castle! But when I REALLY thought about it I didn't think that one night was worth over twice as much than we spent for the week offsite. I will say even if my sister in law didn't give us such a deal - we still could have found comparable offsite lodging for WELL under 1000.00 for the week.... SkyAuction consistently has great deals at the timeshares.

 

[Trena]

WOW! I think you guys have covered all of the reasons. Maybe even a little too much info here! (wink wink) So true.

 

[ttfn3]

We have stayed both onsite and offsite. We normally stay offsite when we go to Orlando. We love the south end of International Drive - and like renting a 2 BR unit at a resort. On our vacations, we like to relax and we don't go to the Disney parks everyday. We like having nice pools with activities for everyone. I also like having a HUGE unit with separate sleeping areas - and you can't beat the convenience of having a full kitchen (we only cook simple meals) and a washer/dryer. Everyone mentions the price. You can get more affordable, nicer accomodations offsite. We also like to explore other activities in the Orlando area - especially if there's a festival (art!) going on. It's so nice to see some new areas.

I've commented to my husband on past trips that our favorite resort would be a great place to take teenagers. They actually have activities for young adults so you could meet other people your own age. We often see them hanging out at the pools having a great time.

 

[Del]

2 main reasons for us:

we like having extra room. The kids get their own bed and bath and so do we. I don't share at home and don't want to on vacation either.

more variety in restaurants. get so tired of overpriced not so great food in the resort system..


good luck!

Del

 

[magiroux]

Lastly, for me and my wife, holidays means time to fool around. Maybe its just being away from home, or maybe it’s all the excitement. Whatever the reason, I now associate Disney with great and plentiful sex. So to that end, it’s not only important to have our own space, it’s important that the kids too have their own space. The more satisfied they are, the less we are bugged and the more satisfied we are – if you get what I mean.

Now, there's a plug for staying Off-Site that I've never heard before

 

[sammielynn]

With my two DSs it is just nicer to have have room to spread out. They woudld sleep on the floor to keep from sharing a bed. I love having two bedrooms and cannot pay the price for one on-site.

 

[KCMiller]

When we go down to see the kids march at Magic Kingdom during Christmas week this year, we'll stay off site (the kids will stay with the band - we'll be childless this trip!). Unless we win the lottery, we could (and even if we did, would) never pay the premium rates for the resorts we would stay at (either on the monorail or walking distance to Epcot/MGM). Nothing against any of the other resorts, but having experienced it once, we would never rely on the busses to get us back and forth - it's a waste of time for us. And for half the price we'd have to pay to stay even in the value resorts that week, we can Priceline a resort hotel. Last time we were down Christmas week, we stayed at the Marriott Orlando World Resort and paid $60 a night, and it took us all of 10 minutes to get to the MK parking lots.

That being said, I do love to stay at the Boardwalk Inn on DVC points, and at more reasonable times of the year, we would do this. But not Christmas week. And since we're early morning commandos, the benefits of staying at a Disney hotel, while nice, aren't worth the enormous expense. For us.

KC

 

[my4kids]

Yeah it's called Extra Magic Hours - AK has extra magic hours to I think 9pm one night and MK,MGM and EPCOT are open 3 hrs past normal closing once a week, it was great! Go to the WDW website and click on calender and it will tell you what the hours of the parks are for onsite guests and what day each park is open late.....MK is on Wed. so it would be crowded with non park hoppers wanting to take advantage of the hrs....we would do another park on Wed until it closed and then park hop over to the MK until 1am....FUN!!!!!!!!

 

[spiceycat]

mk is no longer Wednesday.

it looks like it might be sunday

I hate it when WDW changes their schedules.....

I really hate it because most of the time I am arriving on SUNDAY.