New hours for on-site guests

[Disneycrazymom]

I have been working on choosing an off site hotel for the first time for our upcoming trip. (June) After the new tickets and hours have been released I am not sure what I want to do. DH and I were excited to stay in a condo with more room but kiddos never really liked the idea of not being "at Disney". Will the new hours offered to on site guests cause anyone to stay on site instead of off? Help me talk this out please!

I'll start: On site - We get 3 extra evening hours that the older kids (12, 18) would really enjoy. They can travel back to the hotel on the bus and I would not worry about their safety, even if we take DD5 back earlier. They would have cell phones to reach us if necessary, and we would have a car to get to them if neccessary.

Off site - We get SPACE!!!! for the $99 (with a code) x 2 = $198+ per night we would pay for the value teeny tiny room we can have a full kitchen and living room. Please add more pros and cons to help me decide!

 

[GoofyJoofy]

This is a tough choice. On the one hand staying on-site keeps the magic going, but there is no way to put a price on that.
The extra evening hours and the extra morning hour are definitely a great perk, but only if you would use them. Sounds like with older kids you would.

On the other hand, for the same hotel $ you do get more, so much more room off-site. What it comes down to, is can you deal with the smaller space and make up for any lack of comfort by taking advantage of the extra hours?

I agree that the extra hours are really great. And if you go to the Parks early, but leave by noon, and go hang out at the resort pool. Then plan to go back in the evening and stay for the extended hours. You avoid the most crowded time of day and you would have enough time to do everything, plus find time to relax. This is why we love staying on-site so much, for that easy afternoon break, during the hottest time of day. And that was before the extended evening hours.

 

[Local_Girl]

Well, I think you should list the things important to your family, in priority order. For us, budget is a HUGE consideration. There is no way, no how my DH would pay $198 per night for hotel accomodations (family of 4), especially if a 2 or 3 bdrm condo were available for less than half that. We utilize the kitchen facilities daily (mostly for breakfast, but sometimes for dinners too), and look for a place with a washer/dryer as well. We also like to stay for 10 days+ because we drive from Michigan. In 2002, we got a great deal ($249 for the week) for a 2 bdrm at Hilton Grand Vacation Club. Deals like that are almost impossible to find there now, but we got spoiled! Anyway, my plan is to stay offsite and attend the parks on days when they don't have their EMH, hoping for lower crowds on those days. Also, we prefer to drive at WDW vs. taking the bus, so the bus service is not a perk to us.

If the extra hours and the bus service are really important to your family, and the budget isn't as much of a concern, then by all means consider staying onsite. You would be sacrificing the space, kitchen, maybe laundry, and budget. One more thing to think about...some resorts are really close to Disney property, such as Silver Lake and Cypress Pointe (incl. CP Grand Villas). If you consider driving to pick up your older kids, the drive wouldn't be much further (maybe even closer!) from these offsite resorts to the parks. Good luck with your decision.

 

[TSirgey]

I would think about how much time you are actually going to spend at the hotel. If you plan to spend time relaxing at the hotel, then you might want to consider offsite as you will have more room.

We stayed offsite earlier in the year and we regretted not being able to stay for the extra magic hours. Now, they are making those hours even more appealing. Also, if you do not choose the expiration feature of the new MYW tickets, you will probably save a considerable amount on your tickets.

Again, after staying offsite and onsite myself, we felt that we missed out on a lot to try to save a few bucks. This time we are staying onsite and looking forward to every minute.

It might be nice to let the kids stay at the park and get some time to yourselves. I would certainly appreciate that!!

 

[spiceycat]

you can do both for one night - decide when park the boys can't live without - stay for one night (one room at a value resort - should be between $55 and $79 with out taxes but with a discount code) - the night of that park ONLY.

stay at your off-site for the entire week - only let the teenagers stay at a WDW resort that one night - remember the room ticket allows you access to everything again the next night.

my best of both worlds.

You only need to be 18 years old to check in to any WDW resort.

 

[mbb]

rent points from a DVCer...

Onsite
Full kitchen
Livingroom
Washer/dryer- in your room - not down the hall
DVD player
at least 2 TV's - if you get a two bedroom, 3
SPACE
Did I mention, onsite?
no tax
Points generally rent in the $10-12 range /point
Check out the DVC Rent/Trade Board right here on the DIS...

Have Fun!
HTH!!

 

[Sandyincanada]

I have to admit, those extra evening hours finally made me go "hmmm" again to staying onsite. We find that we enjoy and relax alot more offsite in a condo...away from all the little kids and "the magic". Our kids are older too. We love the space, having a non-rushed breakfast at a kitchen table, the balcony where its peaceful and choices of eating onsite or offsite. We tend to do other things besides WDW in Orlando as well. Since we go offseason, we tend to "park" all day, leave and find supper offsite and then relax in the condo or hottub for the rest of the evening...I'm not sure if we would want to change this schedule for the evening hours.

We've already booked with Cypress Pointe for Feb and we are going to stay with that this trip, maybe in the future we might look into renting points from a DVcer...I can't imagine all 4 of us sharing a hotel room and one bathroom again, lol.

Good luck on your decision...I'm sure whatever you decide will be great.

 

[HappyLawyer]

yes, you can put a price on that, the magic is the time with the family, it does not matter where you stay, it is a matter of convience, we stayed on property, now we are staying off and we are just excited about disney, their prices are bad enough on the hoppers but the hotels are not reasonable, when you have hotels for 40 or 50 bucks a night, -you still get the magic no matter where you are because you are in florida and at disney-just my thoughts

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Thanks for all your thoughts. Mine are the same. What it will come down to is deciding what type of vacation this will be. More parks or more relaxing time. I will watch for codes and see what kind of deals they offer I guess. I could do 2 value rooms and at least have an extra bathroom. I also looked at the DVC board, maybe something will come up there. Ft W is an option if we bring our trailer but I don't like to pull it that far. The rest of the family would love it though! I will also try to follow the boards to see how useful those 3 hours really are to everyone. For my little one they won't work at all but the 2 older ones would really like having shorter lines and staying up late! We'll all know more as they release hours too. My fear is that MK will close to day guests pretty early to allow for the 3 "extra hours". In summer that could really hurt trying to do everything. We have always taken the afternoon break too, my crew needs to get away from the heat for awhile or they get cranky!!!! Thanks for the help. I still don't know what we'll do but at least I have some bases to decide!

 

[Sandyincanada]

I just wanted to let you know that the Feb hours are out and they are not closing the parks any earlier than usual to allow for those extra evening hours. Park hours are much the same as they were in prior years.

 

[awatt]

I am confused. If Feb hours have not changed,then when and how will the exra evening hours work?

 

[spiceycat]

like in May - after the normal time of park closing - only WDW resorts guest (you get a band) will be allowed on the rides.