off site or on site!

[PrincessTiffany]

I love staying-offsite. We did price our last trip to stay on-site and wouldve cost us $2000 more (flying in from UK for 14 nights). We are a family of five too. Just think of the magic you could create with your savings. Disney want me to pay more, for less space!! They might throw in a Mickey wake up call, or an extra couple of hours in the park, so I am paying $2000 more for that! I've heard more horror stories about transportation and ME than good. If they weren't free, I'm sure most people wouldn't pay for them.

There seems to some kind of Disney snobberty about staying on-site, not particularly on this board but in general. I can't understand why, everyone has different ideas of a great vacation. Mine isn't being squashed into a small space for two weeks with four other people, on top of each other, whats magical about that?

The rooms at Disney are small, even the suites. Off-site you have more space, cooking and laundry facilties, most hotels offer a free breakfast and free internet access. We aren't Disney blinkered, we visit lots of other places, KSC, Universal, Seaworld etc, as well as lots of shopping with the $2000 I saved. It is not a money issue about staying onsite for me, I still spend the money I save, Its purely a space issue.

The magic only stops when you let it The magic is not just Disney, the magic should be spending quality time with your family. Disney is just a setting for this, some of our most magical moments from our vacation have occured in the strangest of places, walking along I-Drive, Eating at Ponderosa, sat outside our hotel waiting for a cab etc,.

Do you know what I find magical? Not cooking or cleaning or doing the laundry for 9 days while I'm at Disney. I despise doing those chores when I'm at home, why on earth would I shell out a few thousand dollars to go to Orlando and cook, clean and do the laundry? We went to Disney last September for about $2800.00 stayed on-site at Pop for 8 nights, had park hoppers for 8 nights, had free transporation (bus and ME), and had the dining plan for 8 nights. And the very best part - a maid cleaned my room everyday, lovely restaurant staff cooked and brought meals to me everyday and I didn't do one load of laundry. Now that's magical!

 

[emmsmama]

Do you know what I find magical? Not cooking or cleaning or doing the laundry for 9 days while I'm at Disney. I despise doing those chores when I'm at home, why on earth would I shell out a few thousand dollars to go to Orlando and cook, clean and do the laundry? We went to Disney last September for about $2800.00 stayed on-site at Pop for 8 nights, had park hoppers for 8 nights, had free transporation (bus and ME), and had the dining plan for 8 nights. And the very best part - a maid cleaned my room everyday, lovely restaurant staff cooked and brought meals to me everyday and I didn't do one load of laundry. Now that's magical!

Cooking and cleaning I agree with you on, but laundry is one area where offsite wins imo. We are planning on going for 2 weeks and if we stay offsite I like the fact that I can pack lighter with a washer and dryer in my condo or townhouse and I can also do a quick load of laundry before leaving so that when I get home I don't have two weeks of laundry to catch up on. Yes the resorts do have laundry, but it is shared laundry so you have to wait your turn and you also can't just put a load in the washer or dryer in the morning or before bed and forget about it while you do other things.

 

[FayeW]

You know what guys? There is no right or wrong answer to this. What I find stupid, ridiculous, over priced and over hyped is somebody else's magic.

What makes my vacation "magical" is barbaric to someone else.

I know why I do what I do, and it's what works for us. I won't pretend to understand the choices other people make because ultimately, for me, I have to know I am getting value for my dollar. I don't understand the mentality of "why worry about money, it's your vacation" when the reality for me and a lot of other people is that if we didn't worry about money, there wouldn't be a vacation! All I do know is, for my family, if the first trip back in '03 had been an onsite stay, we would have doubled our costs, and it truly would have been a once in a lifetime trip. Thank God I found these boards and found out about other more affordable options (like flying out of the US instead of Canada, and skyauction, and ticketmania for discount tickets). Being able to keep the price and budget within reason for us allowed us to say "hey, that wasn't so expensive. We can afford to go back." And we did. Twice. With a 4th trip planned for Dec.

So, OP. I hope this helps. For some people money is no object and they see value in "perks" that have no value to me (and frankly, seem rather inconvenient). They may also see no value in amenities that are important to me. For us, it isn't about the money so much as it "what else could I do with that money". I can only spend each dollar once, no matter how hard I try to do otherwise. If I spend more of our budget in one area, I have to cut out something else so I have to think with my wallet, and see where the most value and enjoyment lies for my family. We get more value staying offsite, having a proper night's sleep in our own rooms, and relaxing over our coffee in the morning, and those savings allow us to buy our tickets to Universal.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Well, I think I going to un-subscribe to this thread now. Seems it's turned a little bit nasty and all of the self-important, I'm better than you posts are getting irritating.

OP, hope ya'll have a great time, no matter where you stay.

 

[Princess_Michelle]

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[MiaSRN62]

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[maxiesmom]

Why are so many people being so insulting? We all have our own ideas of what makes a Disney vacation magical. Can we not share those views without being so rude?

Btw: I am not made of money, but I do find on-site to be worth the extra money. You have to decide for yourself if this is true or not. But insulting other people point of view is NOT the way to win them over to your way of thinking.

 

[MiaSRN62]

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[MiaSRN62]

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[ortegah]

Why are so many people being so insulting? We all have our own ideas of what makes a Disney vacation magical. Can we not share those views without being so rude?

Btw: I am not made of money, but I do find on-site to be worth the extra money. You have to decide for yourself if this is true or not. But insulting other people point of view is NOT the way to win them over to your way of thinking.

I agree. I mean if you like making your own food and you think it's better than Disney's food then good for you, but there's no need to call it craptastic and other nasties like that. Good grief.

I did Off-site last June and for me, after paying for groceries and a rental car(and an off-site car rental place to boot) it cost me the same amount of money to stay on-site. And like others have said, I don't have to clean my place up before I leave or do dishes or cook. Who cares if the counter service food is fast food. That's more time in the parks for me

15 days baby!

 

[Princess_Michelle]

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[Dreamer04]

My two cents!

My DD and I have had two lovely Mommy and me trips to WDW. The first was in 8/04 and we stayed at All Star Movies. We had a blast! Next, November '07 at Coronado Springs Resort-beautiful resort. We loved the whole thing.

The only time I had a problem with the bus system was when we were leaving MK at closing. The line for All Star bus took forever! But there was plenty of magic, for sure. Our trip in November, we rented a car and used Disney transportation. The buses were great for getting to MK. The car we used for Epcot.


We have a trip planned for next Friday, Feb 15th. It will be myself, DD 10, Dsis 54, Dsis 55 and Dmom 81. We are driving down. We have opted to stay off-site at Windsor Hills in a 3 bed, 2 bath condo. The resort looks beautiful, and we are very excited.

Frankly, if it were just my DD and me, I would stay onsite. But with several different needs/issues, WH addressed them all.

We need to be on the ground floor, flexible dining and sleeping arrangments.

Onsite just doesn't give me that in an affordable way. We are paying $984 for 7 nights (including taxes, cleaning fees and cancellation insurance).

The four adults are splitting that, so that's $284 each for a deluxe resort experience.

So, I vote for both!

 

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

For the OP: I have never stayed onsite and probably never will. For us flying from Western Canada that eats up alot of our budget. So we stay offsite so we can see the mouse. I agree I like having the extra room. I don't cook that much when we are there, as I agree it is my vacation too. But it is nice to have snacks, drinks and breakfast stuff. This does cut down on time for getting to the parks, instead of eating breakfast in a restaurant and money. I also enjoy having the laundry right there in our house or condo, as I do not have to pack as much and it is easy to throw a load in before going to the park and putting in the dryer when we come back. I think it is a personal choice for everyone. Everyone has their own budget, ideas and expectations. I am sure you will enjoy your trip no matter what you decide. Go with your heart, head and wallet. Enjoy!!!!

 

[maxiesmom]

Transport... frankly Disney sucks as far as I'm concerned. I'll never forget the scramble for the monorail after the fireworks at MK or the hour long wait trying to get back to the Swan from Epcot. The buses actually take longer to reach their destination than driving from outside the area to Disney. We actually timed it once.. and we managed to get to both MK and AK quicker in our car than when we did it staying onsite.

I have to ask, why did it take you an hour to get to the Swan from Epcot? It is only a 10 minute walk from the World Showcase. Why didn't you walk?

 

[rosiejo]

I'm a big fan of off-site as I like to save money on our trips - and prefer to have some kind of kitchen facilities so we can fix cereal and toast for breakfast instead of wasting valuable park time in a restaurant (or getting up at the crack of dawn to hit the restaurant and still make park opening).

That said we just bought into DVC - so I get the best of both worlds - the kitchen and the Disney magic!

I'm interested in this thread as it's a topic I happen to be discussing the pros and cons of staying on property over at my website right now :0)

 

[Dreamer04]

Oh and for what its worth, one of the things we are looking forward to is cooking our own meals. Spaghetti and meatballs, roasted chicken, baked potatoes, pancakes, eggs-all the way we like it.

I know that some people don't think of this as a vacation, but it is for me.

 

[ortegah]

Yes, mystery meat. If you really knew what went on in the process of making the "food" that they serve you, then I'm guessing you wouldn't want to eat it either.

I hate to break this to you, but there's feces in your meats too. Unless you're killing the cow yourself, even YOU don't know what's in your food. As for non-apologetic nastiness, if you really wanted to educate people about what goes into their food and not just blast off at the mouth(fingers), you'd deliver the message a lot nicer. All people see is the nastiness of the post, not the nastiness of the food. It's that bees/honey/vinegar thing

 

[Chellymouse]

We stayed off site and as you can see, once was enough. Does is cost more to stay at Disney? Not really by the time you add everything else in. You only save if you do as planned. You may want to look at the rent/trade boards from DVC members as you may be able to get a good deal on a 2BR villa on site. What is cost us in gas, parking, food (yeah right...we were going to leave and come back or head out to the car for lunch) the headache of who was awake enough at night to drive back or who's turn it was to have an adult beverage because the other person had to drive, if we wanted to take a break midday, really couldn't. If the only driving force behind the decision is cost, yes, usually it does cost a little less if you stay offsite, but you also don't get all of the benefits of being onsite as a trade off. And remember...off site is only cost effective if you DO eat offsite, pack snacks, food, water (although we always bring our own water). We recently bought into DVC for these reasons. We can't fathom staying offsite, but that's us and that is what works for us. There are many pros to staying onsite which is why this works for us!

 

[Princess_Michelle]

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[ortegah]

I buy all my meat from my local butcher, who gets most of his meat from local and regional sources (farms and such). He doesn't kill it, but he's the only person involved in the "processing", he's a nice guy and I know & trust him, so I'm pretty confident in the stuff I get from him.

I'm not being nasty. I use the word crap all the time. I mean, it is what it is, you can sugar coat it if it makes you feel better.

First of all, you're missing the point. Or are you? Obviously you're a person that doesn't eat processed foods. Well for you, but that's not the norm. Once again you don't change anyone's mind yelling, "fast food is of the devil" and you and I both know this has nothing to do with Disney's food, but more to do with your disdain for non-organic, pure, straight off the farm, food. But you're using the thread about staying onsite vs offsite to tell your little public service announcement to the world.

There's a big difference between sugar coating and crapping(there I used your word ) all over a thread because you think it's your duty in life to inform us of the evil that is feces filled food.

Speaking of crapping all over a thread, I'm done here.