Offsite or Pop Century with Dining Plan?

[samiandsky]

I'm having a hard time making a decision. We will be traveling Dec 3 to Dec 10th, in the past - we have ALWAYS stayed at Pop Century with the dining plan. To stay at Pop Century for all 7 nights with the Dining Plan this time, it will be 947.18 total.

But we are only planning to use our 3 day park hopper NO EXPIRATION tickets, so we plan on only spending 3 days in Disney.... some at Universal, and one day to take the girls to the ocean.....

So my question is:

What would you do? For you regular Disney visitors?

AND which offsite hotel is the best place to stay for the money. I thought Pop Century was very clean, although the rooms are tiny... and I've always been very happy with them.... but if I could stay offsite for a better price, I'd do that....

Any suggestions for me on where to look offsite???

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[KellyNY]

I'm having a hard time making a decision. We will be traveling Dec 3 to Dec 10th, in the past - we have ALWAYS stayed at Pop Century with the dining plan. To stay at Pop Century for all 7 nights with the Dining Plan this time, it will be 947.18 total.

But we are only planning to use our 3 day park hopper NO EXPIRATION tickets, so we plan on only spending 3 days in Disney.... some at Universal, and one day to take the girls to the ocean.....

So my question is:

What would you do? For you regular Disney visitors?

AND which offsite hotel is the best place to stay for the money. I thought Pop Century was very clean, although the rooms are tiny... and I've always been very happy with them.... but if I could stay offsite for a better price, I'd do that....

Any suggestions for me on where to look offsite???

Thanks in advance for your help!

I would suggest off site hotel. If you do not rent a car you will have to spend a lot of money for cabs to go to Universal and other attractions. Also on your off Disney days you will have to buy food at other attractions anyway.
I stayed at Raddisson resort parkway couple of years ago and loved it. They have 3 pools(1 kids pool), slide, jacuzi, and restaurant. They have buses to Disney, Universal, something else as well but I do not remember. However you will not be able to have midday breaks.

 

[jerseygirl81]

Are you doing the counter service dining plan or did you upgrade to the regular dining plan? 7 days of free dining is a lot of meals so you would have to figure out if you would be staying outside of disney would you have a kitchen and do some cooking or would you be eating out and figure in how much you would spend on meals if eating out. Will you have a car to use, you would at least need to rent one for the day for a trip to the ocean. For all the things you want to do it sounds like it would be easier to have a car no matter if you stay onsite or off. If you stay at the Pop you could always use a counter service for breakfast and buy lunch out of pocket when you go elsewhere and have your dinner back at disney, you could also use your snack credits to take some snacks along with you for the day. I would think the only way you would save money is to do your own cooking. Many people prefer to stay offsite because they want more space. Linda

 

[samiandsky]

As it stands, it would be counter service, so we'd get 2 counter service meals, and 2 snacks. We originally planned to only do 3 days at Disney for our non expiration tickets we still have currently, but to get the "free" dining plan, we have to buy a day ticket for all of us, which is 293.96 plus 7.22 tax - so in all honesty - the meals for 7 days will cost us 293.96.

Pop Century's website saying that the hotel rate is only 59.00 a night for when we would be going, but when you go to book it, it comes up at 89.00 a night, and that is for a standard room - NOT A PREFERRED ROOM - so I dont understand the difference, and why they up their price.....

If we stay at pop - we get free parking, as we always rent a car because I hate Disney Transportation by Buses.... if we stay elsewhere then we have to pay for parking which I have no idea what that even is right now.....

I just dont know which way to go....

Because as my husband says - what do we eat when we aren't at the parks?

 

[Lisa P.]

Are there two Pop prices, one for room-only and one for a MYW package that includes the room, a park ticket and the free dining???

If so, then you could run the prices for three possible arrangements to compare.

1. An offsite room-only price. Add in parking at Disney ($12?) for each of those days. Add offsite food estimates.

2. An onsite Pop room-only price. Add food estimates, probably slightly higher than offsite.

3. An onsite Pop MYW package that includes the extra day park ticket and "free" dining.

Then compare. Don't know if this makes sense or not. BTW, I believe parking at Universal and Sea World is $10/day. HTH.

 

[Brian Noble]

I would never get the dining plan unless I was expecting to spend all of my time "at Disney". You are pre-paying your meals, but won't be able to use them on Universal days or the day you go to the beach.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I ditto what Brian is saying.. why get the dining plan when you won't be there to eat it. If you want to stay at Pop, stay ala cart ... room only! I have stayed on site and done both Disney & Universal. That isn't the big deal, the big money waste are the meals. Then again, if you can get a cheaper hotel off site, which you probably can, try for something that is half way between the two attraction areas. If you really don't mind packing up and changing hotels, why not try to see if you can get a room by the beach over night? Then head back into Orlando. That way you can see the sunset & sunrise at the beach.. you would basically be checking in and out 3 different times.. but might add something special to your trip

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

In your case stay off-site. You will save money and eat healthier getting groceries at the store. Stay at the Doubletree in DTD if you want a close to on-site experience. The Doubletree is more comfortable than POP and you can walk to DTD so more convenent.

 

[jerseygirl81]

Pop Century's website saying that the hotel rate is only 59.00 a night for when we would be going, but when you go to book it, it comes up at 89.00 a night, and that is for a standard room - NOT A PREFERRED ROOM - so I dont understand the difference, and why they up their price...

[/QUOTE]

I would call disney if you are considering staying at the Pop to see if you can get the $59 rate with the discount. May it's coming up as more because there is'nt anymore rooms available for that discount. And use the money you would save from not having to buy a one day park ticket for everyone towards your meals. Unless you can get a rate in the $59 range at a hotel outside of disney that is decent and if it offers continental breakfast that's one less meal to pay for. Linda

 

[HopperFan]

As I am working final pack list for our 10 days down later this month for Free Dining ... when I decided to check out going in Dec to see the holiday decorations. Been years and never seen the castle in ice lights, or new Osbourne location and never been in EPCOT for holidays.

Priced POP with Free Dining but it was Quick Serve Plan, I don't need tickets and it came out to be double what I am paying for an off site hotel suite.

Hit a one day sale at Caribe Royal today and have a newly renovated one bedroom suite with fridge etc, nicer pool and just outside the gates for $350 total, for 4 nights. That is less than half the normal rate. I originally checked it out via Mousesaver but the "food credit" included on that rate bumped the price up. I am thrilled with my deal.

We have gotten good enough at this that we can eat for less than the additional expense, instead of the one day tickets we would have to buy we can go to the Christmas Party and put the rest of money to food, and the EMH weren't enough to balance out the space, pool and brand new decor.

While I will stay onsite every chance I get, this was an easy decision. I am thinking maybe the extension of the Free Dining into December has caused some hotels to offer great deals so keep checking.