Rethinking staying on property, wondering if this will save us money?

[JenDisFan02]

Hi All,

I'm rethinking our AoA reservations. Would we be able to get a hotel under $100, and still have transportation to the park? I know we can't get free dining and that stuff, but what do you do when you want to make the most of your money while still having a blast?

DH wants to go to Universal, and I'm thinking we'll hit Sea World for a day. I'm also concerned about transportation, do any of the hotels have bus service to the various parks?

Do you feel like you miss the magic by not staying 'on property'?

Thanks so much in advance!!

Jen

 

[njmom47]

Hi All,

I'm rethinking our AoA reservations. Would we be able to get a hotel under $100, and still have transportation to the park? I know we can't get free dining and that stuff, but what do you do when you want to make the most of your money while still having a blast?

DH wants to go to Universal, and I'm thinking we'll hit Sea World for a day. I'm also concerned about transportation, do any of the hotels have bus service to the various parks?

Do you feel like you miss the magic by not staying 'on property'?

Thanks so much in advance!!

Jen

There are a couple of threads on here about this topic.
If you go to the "search" button and enter "shuttle" you should find them.
You can also search Lynx (which is the Orlando bus system); it seems some people have mastered the bus routes including those to Universal.

 

[Kristina4109]

While I often stay off-property at DL when I need to save money, I haven't stayed off-property at WDW since I was a teenager. Staying off definitely makes me feel like I'm missing out on the magic. Mind you, for some people, that is not a big deal and the desire to save money outweighs any intangible "magic" you might miss!

Transportation should be researched carefully. If you're looking at an off-property hotel, find out 1) if the transportation is free 2) how often the transportation runs and 3) where does it drop you off in Disney property. When I'm at Disney I want to be sure I can make rope drop every single day. Also, if you want to break up your day with a swim or a nap, you need to figure that out.

If you haven't hit your 180 mark for dining, you'll miss out on the 180 plus 10, but if you're not planning on hitting any majorly popular restaurants you might not care.

Of course, that brings us to the oh-so-controversial-on-these-boards topic of FP+. If you keep AoA you can pick Fast Pass + assignments 60 days before your trip. If you stay off, you make them the day of each park visit. Haven't done this myself, but my parents have. They didn't have any trouble getting what they wanted in the end of January. And it's not like you can't get on rides without FP+. But again, this might matter to you, or it might not.

Like I said, I'm a die-hard on site gal. But there are PLENTY of people who stay off-site and have a great time. It just depends on what your priorities are. Either way, enjoy your trip!

 

[*disgal*]

Hi All,

I'm rethinking our AoA reservations. Would we be able to get a hotel under $100, and still have transportation to the park? I know we can't get free dining and that stuff, but what do you do when you want to make the most of your money while still having a blast?

DH wants to go to Universal, and I'm thinking we'll hit Sea World for a day. I'm also concerned about transportation, do any of the hotels have bus service to the various parks?

Do you feel like you miss the magic by not staying 'on property'?

Thanks so much in advance!!

Jen

Not going to lie to you. There is some "magic" that you miss. I love the resorts. Really love them. But for my family of 5, truly having no magic is not being able to go at all because I can't afford a Disney hotel. And for us, magic is being able to spread out, have my king bed, not have my kids in my room....ya know what I mean? haha

Every family has to make that decision for themselves. Great help I am, right? haha But ya know, there's that invisible line and you are willing to pay for that extra magic UP TO that line and not after. Well, that's if you're not independently wealthy or don't mind spending the amount you'd use to buy a used car for a vacation.

Transportation should be researched carefully. If you're looking at an off-property hotel, find out 1) if the transportation is free 2) how often the transportation runs and 3) where does it drop you off in Disney property. When I'm at Disney I want to be sure I can make rope drop every single day. Also, if you want to break up your day with a swim or a nap, you need to figure that out.

Of course, that brings us to the oh-so-controversial-on-these-boards topic of FP+. If you keep AoA you can pick Fast Pass + assignments 60 days before your trip. If you stay off, you make them the day of each park visit. Haven't done this myself, but my parents have. They didn't have any trouble getting what they wanted in the end of January. And it's not like you can't get on rides without FP+. But again, this might matter to you, or it might not.

Like I said, I'm a die-hard on site gal. But there are PLENTY of people who stay off-site and have a great time. It just depends on what your priorities are. Either way, enjoy your trip!

The above is good advice. We drive so we have a car but our family would rent one if we flew. That's just us though. I understand people not wanting to drive in Orlando (I don't think they've figured out the turn signal thing yet ). We even drive to parks when we stay onsite.

On the second part,.....now I'm a rule follower for the most part. Really. lol But I have read on these boards that if you make a reservation and then get your MBs(scheduling the fps then), then cancel your ressie to go somewhere else, your MBs are still good. I read it on the Theme parks board. Can't remember where. NOw, if this is true, this is a loophole in the system and who's to say if they will close that one or not. Keep a WDW ressie while making another ressie elsewhere? Then cancelling the one you don't want when you've decided? Totally legal. Done all the time. Something to think about.

 

[Ksquared]

From someone who has stayed both onsite and offsite, I can tell you that each of our trips we love for different reasons. I think both trips are magical because for us just being there is magical but you do have a different feeling when staying onsite and maybe it comes from the whole experience of dining/transportation/theming, etc.

I will say right away that we've never stayed offsite and not had a car, whether it's a rental or our own (we've driven down the past 3 times we went).

Our most recent trip was offsite this past Christmas. We rented a pool house and we loved it. We also visited Sea World and even drove to Busch Gardens in Tampa. And while it was an extremely busy time, I felt we really did well being offsite.

Looks like you are thinking about Sea World and Universal too. Not so sure I"d stay offsite with no transportation and then plan on going to those parks. But that's just me.

Did you consider staying onsite one night at Universal and then offsite for the Disney portion of the trip? This way you could take advantage of the FOTL passes at Universal, you would still be onsite someplace, but being offsite the bulk of your trip would help make the most of your money.

I'm not sure if Bonnet Creek has transportation to Universal/Sea World but they do have shuttles to Disney parks and the resort is beautiful and one of my fav. offsite locations.

 

[mevelandry]

I've done a lot of research, tried a few things and to be honest, if you don't rent a car, you got three choices:

1) Pay an extra to stay onsite, get Magical Express to and from the airport and transportation everywhere + get the Extra Magic Hours in the Disney Parks. You pay for shuttles on the day you want to go to non-disney parks.

2) Get a Downtown Disney Hotel which is a bit less expensive and offers shuttles to every Disney park. But you have to pay for a shuttle or a cab to get to your hotel from the airport (and you cannot take advantage of EMH nor offers) You will also have to book shuttles to go to the non-disney parks.

3) Get a hotel somewhere else. Some have shuttles for many different theme parks (Disney or Non-Disney) once in while and some don't. You still get to pay the cab to go to the airport. In the end, you may spend more money paying for shuttles than you thought you would have saved by staying outside of Disney.


I would not suggest the Lynx busses since they take an awful long time to get from point A to point B (like 1 hour and 45 minutes between Disney and Universal...) ... :/

 

[HopperFan]

I've done a lot of research, tried a few things and to be honest, if you don't rent a car, you got three choices:

1) Pay an extra to stay onsite, get Magical Express to and from the airport and transportation everywhere + get the Extra Magic Hours in the Disney Parks. You pay for shuttles on the day you want to go to non-disney parks.

2) Get a Downtown Disney Hotel which is a bit less expensive and offers shuttles to every Disney park. But you have to pay for a shuttle or a cab to get to your hotel from the airport (and you cannot take advantage of EMH nor offers) You will also have to book shuttles to go to the non-disney parks.

3) Get a hotel somewhere else. Some have shuttles for many different theme parks (Disney or Non-Disney) once in while and some don't. You still get to pay the cab to go to the airport. In the end, you may spend more money paying for shuttles than you thought you would have saved by staying outside of Disney.


I would not suggest the Lynx busses since they take an awful long time to get from point A to point B (like 1 hour and 45 minutes between Disney and Universal...) ... :/

Agree with all of the above. Orlando has some of the highest transportation costs anywhere. They catch you coming and going which is one reason Magical Express is such a huge bonus. If I am going to stay off-property the only way I will do it is with a car eliminating aggravation and much lost time. Price out a rental vs taxi to/from airport, shuttles and cabs to parks plus the above stuff.