Should we stay off-site?

[gigicnm]

We are three women and a 7 year old traveling in mid November 2021. Currently we are booked at CBR, but they only have pirate rooms with double beds available. Double beds are a deal breaker. Queen beds are a must (unless there is an option for a pullout bed). With most of the perks of staying on-site not available right now, I started looking at off-site options.

I was looking at HBVP. We could save a ton of money on a regular room there, but a queen suite is also in our budget. I like the idea of having a separate bedroom for the little guy to sleep while us ladies have a glass of wine and the pool area is nice. Does anyone have any experience with the queen suite at HBVP?

We could also stay at the Swan or Dolphin. I’m open to other suggestions too, but would like to stay around $350/night.

My main question is- how do we get from the hotel to the parks (we will not have a car)? I haven’t stayed off-site in 25 years so I’m not sure how transportation works. I know we will have to find transportation from the airport to the hotel. Will I miss being in the Disney bubble? More space in the hotel room and a nice pool seems like a good trade off to me, but if transportation to and from the parks is a nightmare then it may not be worth it. Our plan is for four park days (no hopping) and one pool/DS day. Being at rope drop is not important to me. Does anyone have estimates of the cost of Uber/Lyft to each park?

Thank you.

 

[SPSRAS]

We stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek our last trip and will find it very hard to go back to onsite. The room was great (2 seperate bedrooms, large living/dining, full kitchen and balcony) the pool was great, the food at the pool was great. It is so close (you drive under the Disney sign to get to it) we really didn't feel that we were off site. With most of the perks of onsite missing now it's really hard to justify the cost. We used a combo of rental car and uber - the ubers were very efficient and cost about $10-12 per trip. We had groceries delivered and had breakfast in the room and a few dinners. We booked it on expedia and got a great rate but there are lots of ways to book with varying prices so do check a few sites. Check out the We Love Bonnet Creek thread on here.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Do ADRs and getting in parks early matter at all? By this fall, they'll be starting their early magic time for on-site only guests to be able to enter parks early. And many TS ADRs are filling up before 60 days. If either of those matter, I'd stay onsite or in one of the select hotels that offer those advantages. If it were me, I'd do swan or dolphin, just for the ability to walk to Epcot and HS and not worry about transportation to half the parks.

 

[Shughart]

I will never stay on site again until my bucket list trip of staying at a monorail resort. We stay in 3 bedroom townhomes with full kitchens and sectionals for less than what we paid to stay in a value.

 

[starry_solo]

If you plan to stay off site, look at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. You can get a two bedroom for $200 (or less) per night

 

[DL1WDW2]

Hilton and Marriott have new locations off Western Way , behind AK.

It might be the Marriott Residence Inn , a Hampton Inn and Suites, and Hilton Garden Inn... The location is called Flamingo Crossing . Pretty sure they will offer shuttle service

Be sure to check Hilton for senior rates and AAA discounts if any in group eligible...
Post trip report if you choose one of these newer locations. I keep meaning to drive over to check out the amenities, etc.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Please remember this is advice for group that have not visited recently... planning for mid November probably very busy due to holidays and WDW Anniversary and opening of new attractions,.
Hopefully they will be safe and comfortable with their decision beyond the price of a discounted room.
They are arriving in time to still benefit from round trip Magic Express perk for example.

But best advice would be to not delay with planning for your hotel and your ticketing and your daily park pass entry for each theme park., which is a new requirement and 60 day window for dining reservations.
It truly is a lot to organize and budget for.

Thats why Disney makes it easier to just stay on property for a little more cost.

Good luck

 

[DL1WDW2]

We are three women and a 7 year old traveling in mid November 2021. Currently we are booked at CBR, but they only have pirate rooms with double beds available. Double beds are a deal breaker. Queen beds are a must (unless there is an option for a pullout bed). With most of the perks of staying on-site not available right now, I started looking at off-site options.

I was looking at HBVP. We could save a ton of money on a regular room there, but a queen suite is also in our budget. I like the idea of having a separate bedroom for the little guy to sleep while us ladies have a glass of wine and the pool area is nice. Does anyone have any experience with the queen suite at HBVP?

We could also stay at the Swan or Dolphin. I’m open to other suggestions too, but would like to stay around $350/night.

My main question is- how do we get from the hotel to the parks (we will not have a car)? I haven’t stayed off-site in 25 years so I’m not sure how transportation works. I know we will have to find transportation from the airport to the hotel. Will I miss being in the Disney bubble? More space in the hotel room and a nice pool seems like a good trade off to me, but if transportation to and from the parks is a nightmare then it may not be worth it. Our plan is for four park days (no hopping) and one pool/DS day. Being at rope drop is not important to me. Does anyone have estimates of the cost of Uber/Lyft to each park?

Thank you.

sorry not familiar with Uber lyftt.
I wanted to mention the POP Centrury has recently updated their resort rooms and they offer Queen bedding for both beds in room now.

What is HBVP ?

 

[gigicnm]

sorry not familiar with Uber lyftt.
I wanted to mention the POP Centrury has recently updated their resort rooms and they offer Queen bedding for both beds in room now.

What is HBVP ?

Hilton Buena Vista Palace in the Disney Springs area.

I wish Pop was available. Right now there are no value resorts available, just pirate rooms, Coronado or S/D. I’m just really torn if we should book the Swan or try to wait to see if a value or different room at CBR opens up.

 

[Tigerlulu]

I always stay on site and I’m over it for now. We are staying off site on our next trip and we stayed swan on our last trip which we would totally do again over Disney prices for what you get right now.

 

[GoingSince1990]

We have ALWAYS stayed onsite every trip since 1994, but our last stay was for our daughter going to a cheer competition, and the team hotel was Wyndham Bonnet Creek. We stayed at a 2 BR condo in Club Wyndham and I was absolutely blown away by how good, how close, and how cheap it was, compared to onsite (and a great wifi signal for successfully getting a BG for RotR). You can Uber XL everywhere and still save an absolute ton of money. With no 60 day FP I can absolutely see why onsite is a very tough sell currently.

 

[Scalemaster34]

Swan / Dolphin is priced in Nov as a moderate.... Foe now. Swan has double Queens.

Get "most" the benefits of onsite...

 

[loves to dive]

It is really subjective, there are pros and cons to both onsite and off site. Personally, we always stay on site, we love the bubble and actually enjoy having Disney transportation. We rarely took advantage of any of the now "missing" perks - we rarely used FP (which is not available right now) we don't book ADRs any more in advance than night before usually day of, we rarely used EMH and sometimes used the extra night hours but it wasn't a big deal. For us, it's all about the bubble and the transportation. Uber helps and some hotels have shuttles that run but not on the schedule of the Disney buses and they can not enter the park where the Disney buses do, they have to use the car lanes and drop you off in a different location in the parking lots.

We are big fans of Swan/Dolphin, one of them has queen beds but I'm not sure which. They don't have the over top Disney theming, which is a plus for us and you won't get it off site anyway. They are almost on the par of the Disney deluxe but the price is much less. You can't beat being able to walk to two parks. Cons - right now they are using Mears buses which means they drop you off and pick you up where Uber and other hotel shuttles would and use the car lanes. No one knows if that is going to continue. They do run as often as the Disney buses. For MK that means you are dropped off at TTC. You can not charge back to the room from the parks (same as with any other off-site). Like any other off site hotel, you will have a room key to get in your room not Magic Band.

Pros - if they ever get back to delivering packages to your room from the park you can do that at Swan/Dolphin. They have a nice pool area. They have a number of restaurants. Swan and Dolphin are sister hotels so they share all their amenities. They do use the Disney boats between HS and Epcot. Walking distance to BW and YC/BC and all their food. Less than Disney resorts, price wise about the same as a Disney moderate but are more than other off site resorts. They are sort of off site but on site hybrid.

 

[Lilsia]

3 adults and 1 child in a room seems like a lot. I would go with 2 rooms at value and have a bit of privacy over everyone in one room/one bath. If staying off site, I would rent a car.

 

[Grumpy92]

We stayed at the Dolphin and it is great. You get the benefits of staying on site, great location. The only downside is the resort fee. Planning an upcoming trip to Orlando and we are staying at a Universal Hotel as we get more bang for our buck at better resorts than Disney. But we are fortunate we never pay for parking due to AP when we go over to WDW.

 

[jimmymc]

Hilton is a great resort with a nice pool area and location, and there's no way I would put 3 adults and a child in the pirate rooms.

Swan and Dolphin are probably the best hidden values on property, being within walking distance to two parks and having Disney bus transportation everywhere else. You are right at the edge of the Disney bubble, and they have great dining options and a big pool. If you want to not worry about transportation and be close to the parks, these are the best option IMO.

The Disney Springs area hotels are a short Uber ride away from the parks if you don't have a car.

 

[disneyseniors]

OP, I just checked with a disney TA, and the ONLY room open at a moderate for November was a pirate room at CS. That's it. We did not take it, as we don't want a pirate room. Our TA advised against a pirate room as it is a long way away from everything and the beds are double and not comfortable, IHO.
I figured that if there was that much of a crowd coming, I didn't want to go at that time. I told her to take the hold off that one room and let someone else have it. I don't know what's going on for November, but we decided to pass this year. Just wanted to let you know. They did have some value rooms, and the deluxes are out of our price range. Also her take on pirate rooms was not what swayed us. We checked them out before and they were not for us for several reasons.

 

[Lilsia]

OP, I just checked with a disney TA, and the ONLY room open at a moderate for November was a pirate room at CS. That's it. We did not take it, as we don't want a pirate room. Our TA advised against a pirate room as it is a long way away from everything and the beds are double and not comfortable, IHO.
I figured that if there was that much of a crowd coming, I didn't want to go at that time. I told her to take the hold off that one room and let someone else have it. I don't know what's going on for November, but we decided to pass this year. Just wanted to let you know. They did have some value rooms, and the deluxes are out of our price range. Also her take on pirate rooms was not what swayed us. We checked them out before and they were not for us for several reasons.

I would look into renting DVC points for your trip. It will be about the same price as a moderate and depending on your dates, there might still be availability. I would also look into confirmed DVC reservations that people are selling.

 

[Spunky946]

OP, I just checked with a disney TA, and the ONLY room open at a moderate for November was a pirate room at CS. That's it. We did not take it, as we don't want a pirate room. Our TA advised against a pirate room as it is a long way away from everything and the beds are double and not comfortable, IHO.
I figured that if there was that much of a crowd coming, I didn't want to go at that time. I told her to take the hold off that one room and let someone else have it. I don't know what's going on for November, but we decided to pass this year. Just wanted to let you know. They did have some value rooms, and the deluxes are out of our price range. Also her take on pirate rooms was not what swayed us. We checked them out before and they were not for us for several reasons.

Part of it is that there are still two moderates not open, plus other resorts not open, plus the 50th anniversar. I don’t think it will be any busier just because of the lack of rooms. If you want to go, don’t let that stop you. There are plenty of great off site properties that offer the space and amenities, s I’d just rent a car.