Major pain to drive from off site hotel?

[dahess]

We have 3 free night at an off site hotel 1 1/2 miles away from MK, is it a really big pain to drive to the parks? We already have 8 nights booked at BC, but I am thinking of doing 3 off site and 5 at the BC to save some bucks. We will not lose any money to change reses.

I know that you have to pay for parking, if you leave or switch parks do you have to pay for parking again? Thanks!

 

[Debbie]

if you leave or switch parks do you have to pay for parking again?

No, you just keep the receipt from one to the other. While I love being onsite, it is not a horrendous experience to drive from an off-site hotel. When we were at HIFS, we were so close you could spit! And last year, we stayed offsite of Universal, and drove there in less than 20 minutes. We stayed at DTD! So, to save some money, I'd stay offsite a bit, too. And yours is FREE?? I'd say, " Go for it!"

 

[morrow4]

I sure wouldn't let driving from offsite be the one thing to keep me from taking advantage of 3 FREE nights. When we got a good rate on an offsite hotel in Nov. 2002 I was concerned about the same thing. I honestly didn't find it to be a problem at all. I guess the only time I'd choose to pay for onsite rather than take FREE offsite at a good hotel is if there was an age difference in children in the group so that one would really need to go back for a nap, but another one wouldn't.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

We've spent over half our visits off site. We ALWAYS rent a car, if we dont' drive down. To each his own, some love the Disney transportation, but unless I'm staying right by the park of the day (e.g. Epcot and MGM are great from the BC), we drive. We've never had traffic problems. Go for it!

 

[robinb]

It's not a major pain, but I do think it's a pain. I still stay off-site for park of almost every trip, though. Since you will be at WDW for 11 days you may want to look into getting annual passes. AP holders get free parking as well as other special discounts.

Check out this page to compare prices to the passes you are planning on: Deb Will's AP Breakeven Page

The only downside is that I guarante that your APs will burn a whole in your pocket and you will arrange for at least one more trip before they expire . Of course, the most cost effective is a trip right before they expire ... I used mine on the last day it was valid .

 

[disneysteve]

Driving to the parks is no problem at all. Many people don't realize how large Disney property is. You can be staying onsite at a Disney hotel and be more than 1-1/2 miles from your destination park. I've stayed offsite many times at a variety of places and have never had a problem getting to and from property.

Steve

 

[cinlee3]

We stayed offsite during Christmas and had no problems getting to the Disney parks. The worst traffic was going toward Universal.

 

[Gillian]

We've never had a problem driving from offsite. Taking Disney transportation from your onsite resort is just as much of a pain, and you have much less control.

BTW, when staying at the Beach Club we had a car and found ourselves driving to some of the parks. For MGM it was actually more convenient to drive than to take the boat, although we enjoyed the boat ride. This was from the BCV, which is very close to the self parking area.