So how much of a benefit is it to stay on a Dis Property?

[benji2012]

A couple of perks we love; that haven't been mentioned:

1. Resort pick up for souvenirs bought in the parks. We like to shop and it's so nice to have it delivered to the resort and not have to lug it around.

2. Room charges on room key.

Not huge deals but when we occasionally stay offsite those are things we miss. (We rent a car either way usually.

 

[darkwing818]

there nothing quite like the feeling driving onto property and knowing your staying on property...........its like a bubble passes over the family!

Yes its worth it!

AKK

Skipper; as always you are right on the money.

Not sure if it's a bubble, but there is a feeling (almost like goose bumps w/o the bumps) that passes over our family as well.

 

[jaykorf001]

Ok, I know there magic hours are a big plus. Aside from that do you get a much warmer and Disney like feel staying on a Disney property? I am just wondering if it is truly worth it...I also like the free transportation from the airport- but dont other hotels offer this?

Not trying to get flamed, just point you to an alternative view point. If you had posted this under the Orlando Resort section, I bet you'd obtain a very different perspective. From reading this board, I can tell you there is the on-site camp and the off-site camp (and some that see pros and cons both ways). Good luck!

 

[mariapicardikenyon]

Ok, I know there magic hours are a big plus. Aside from that do you get a much warmer and Disney like feel staying on a Disney property? I am just wondering if it is truly worth it...I also like the free transportation from the airport- but dont other hotels offer this?

If I can't stay on Disney property I'd just stay home. I'd rather vacation less and when I go stay where I want. I've traveled many places, here, Caribbean, Europe, and can honestly say there's nothing like the Disney touch. It's second to none.

 

[Granny square]

The buses are nice if you like to ride them rather than driving. We've found driving to be better for us most days. Even when we stay onsite we avoid emh, because of the crowds.

Diane resorts are my favorite because they feel disneyish. but some trips offsite works better for us due to party size and length of stay. Last year was three weeks in the Orlando area. Wonderful wonderful trip.

 

[lmhall2000]

We never use EMH! Seems those parks are busier on those days than others We plan around them But boy is it EVER convenient to be able to be back to your room in 15-20 minutes (if you're Epcot or Monorail) or hop by boat over to DTD (POR)...it is just sooo convenient!! You become spoiled by the immaculate conditions (landscaping) friendly CM faces (most the time, in 5 trips with our family we've had just one stinker)...the convenience of using your resort key for EVERYTHING! We only go during Free Dining deals...that alone is worth the stay for our family of five...if not we'd be staying off site and here would be the breakdown...

Tickets: $1400
Hotel: Best Deal at Bonnet Creek $700
Food: Minimum $1000 (if we only ate out one night at a restaurant!)

We have everything for under $3100 for 7 nights by using their deals...is it worth full rack rate to stay at Disney, for us never.

 

[chasgoose]

I think it depends what price level you are looking at. The values are going to be as good/better than anything you can get for that price point. You can definitely get nicer hotels for the money than the moderates/deluxes (the Waldorf Astoria is basically in the same area as CBR/Pop and you can often get it for the price of a moderate or free if you have Hilton points).

That said room quality isn't everything... I personally think that staying on site is worth it for a lot of the reasons mentioned above since we don't go all that often, but I would definitely consider staying offsite if I could only afford a moderate.

 

[gillenkl]

I think "free dining" is a great perk.

If I can't stay onsite I won't go at all. I love onsite and the whole disney atmosphere!

 

[Tink3rbell86]

i agree with pp, i wouldn't go if i couldn't stay on property! we love it, you get this magical feeling as soon as you pass through the Disney world sign! it feels more relaxed and you have the whole World at your finger tips!

 

[CuteAndFluffy]

We don't stay on property every visit, but we always have a great time!

For us, staying on property is a great choice when we want a plug and play, all inclusive style vacation. We book everything through Disney, including dining, and it is stress free fun. EMH are great, Magical Express is great, and never needing to drive is great.

But...if we wanted a different style of vacation, where we did Disney and some other things--maybe a vacation with a house and pool or to check out Harry Potter stuff or to hit the beach, we would be very happy off property. More space for less money is great, being able to travel when and where you want on your timetable is great, moving beyond the bubble is great.

Bottom line: you can have a great time just about anywhere if you decide to have a great time.

 

[mickeynut1]

Ok, I know there magic hours are a big plus. Aside from that do you get a much warmer and Disney like feel staying on a Disney property? I am just wondering if it is truly worth it...I also like the free transportation from the airport- but dont other hotels offer this?

We stayed offsite our first trip and then we tried onsite the following year and will only stay onsite now. We love being immersed in the Disney magic 24/7. We always use Disney transportation (except DME, as we usually get a car service from the airport), but we love having Disney do the driving for going back and forth to the parks. With all of that said, it is totally worth it for us to stay onsite.

 

[winnieatepooh]

My guy and my first trip together we stayed off property. It had a lot of benefits, but it also had a lot of downsides!

Benefits:
It was CHEAP
The hotel was very nice, clean
Free hot breakfast every morning
Free Disney and Universal transportation

The downside of it was that you could only choose a certain time you wanted to go in the morning, and could only come back at 7PM or 10PM at night. Many days we were just so tired and hot that we wanted to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day or at 5PM or so, but we had no way back and didn't want to pay for a Taxi. We ended up just sitting outside of Epcot for hours one afternoon I remember, waiting for the first pickup.

This past trip we stayed at CSR and will never stay off property again. You absolutely get a more "disney magic feeling" when you're staying on property! And the fact that you can come and go to the parks as you please really made it all worth it. Now if you're renting a car, this may not be as big of a benefit for you, but it's really what makes it worth it for us.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

When I have stayed non Disney at the doubletree , Hilton , and Homewood Suites the service and attention by staff was excellent.

The big difference for me is when I go to these off site hotels it is more a Florida vacation in that we get a rental car and go to the beach , outlets and other places besides the Disney parks.

Onsite I may or may not get a rental car and pretty much do Disney parks and recreation.

Both are fantastic vacations just different.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[goofy4tink]

There is no way I would stay offsite..unless I was driving and was only going to be spending a day or two at WDW as well as going to other area attractions.

What do I love about being onsite?? I hate to admit it but there is a certain 'magic' when staying at a WDW resort. It just feels magical.
I don't always take advantage of EMHs but they are available if I do feel like it.
I love being able to easily get back to the resort midday and then back to the parks a few hours later. That's hard to do when staying offsite and not driving.
I love having my stuff sent back to my resort from the parks.

But generally speaking? It's more about the intangibles vs that stuff you can see. It's just a feeling you get. I always just feel better when I arrive at my WDW resort.

 

[ElizabethB]

For us, the convenience of staying on site is worth the price (although as Disney keeps pushing up the rack rate, we may rethink that). As for the other things, well there is some magic in being surrounded by Disney -- but I think that doesn't happen at all the hotels. At Saratoga Springs, for example, there isn't much theming to speak of and it is easy to see plenty of downtown Orlando from most everywhere on property, which takes away from the immersive aspect of staying on site. We like the Epcot area resorts, which provide a lot of beautiful theming, a lot of convenience and very much an immersive resort area where the magic of a world apart can be maintained somewhat.

As for bus transportation, we always rent a car as we think the buses are miserable with noisy, awful kids and their even noisier and more awful parents. Our nightmare would be starting a vacation with "Magical" Express.

We don't bother with the dining plan as we like to go over to Universal and enjoy restaurants there such as Bice and Emeril's. The DDP would just make us unwilling captives of Disney. Thus, DDP is not an advantage to staying on property for us.

Being able to charge things to one's room is just using one credit card instead of another. No big deal there.

And, extra magic hours have lost any appeal for us now that Disney does not hand out wristbands and lets everybody stay in the parks to shop and eat. Definitely not worth the bother. Years ago, there was something called "E-Ride Night". It was only for Disney hotel guests, and it required an additional ticket purchase. Now, that was a fun evening. EMH does not begin to compare.

 

[luvmy3]

We have only been to WDW one time, but have a trip booked for this summer. We choose to stay onsite for all the reasons mentioned, but for us its really because it's a WDW vacation and we want to do all things Disney.
Last spring break we went to Orlando, did everything except WDW and I found I spent a lot of time at DTD wishing I had just done a WDW vacation (Not that we didn't have a great time, but I know if we stayed off site when coming to WDW it just wouldn't feel like a Disney vacation for us). And the cost of our Orlando vacation is equivalent to what we will be spending this summer, so it isn't a savings thing for us.

 

[cheer25mom]

We did our first offsite trip in March, and I would not choose to do it again if there is any way around it. We were down for a cheer competition at the convention center so we stayed in a hotel in that area and drove to Disney. It just wasn;t the same and i hated dealing with driving, parking ect. particularly at MK. Big hassle.

 

[DisneyBliss7]

We've stayed on and off property. For us, it's better to stay on property We love it, having the transportation and just being there on Disney is a great feeling

 

[Patience]

We almost stayed in a condo at Windsor Hills on our October, 2011 trip but changed our minds when free dining was offered. I don't really know for sure that free dining saved us money (although I think it did) but we decided that we loved the dining plan and would stay on site with a dining plan, particularly if it's free, from then on. Why? Because my frugal husband was so relaxed about meals during that trip. He loved being able to say "yes" to snacks for the kids without a thought to cost. He loved being able to order anything off the menu without thinking/worrying about how much it cost. He loved doing a lot of character meals for our kids with no feelings of sticker shock. If we had not had the dining plan, he would have been ordering water and the cheapest thing on the menu and we probably would have only done one character meal. He also loved not having to drive to the parks since we both do a lot of driving and dealing with crowded parking lots in our day to day lives. So it's onsite for us, even though we don't really take advantage of EMH and we don't use Magical Express. We are staying at POR in a royal room with free dining this September and we are all excited!

 

[Tissa]

We used to stay onsite and I loved it until I booked a house with a pool one year. Now with the family we only stay offsite.

He is why:
We drive to every park- hate waiting in line for a bus
We avoid EMH- less crowded at the other parks (in our opinion)
Charging on a room card is no different than pulling out my credit card so no added benefit to us
We always pay out of pocket for meals. Dining plan does not appeal to us.

The biggest plus- the 4 of us are not crammed into one tiny room with one bathroom. Yes I could pay the $$$ for two rooms but why?

In a house we each have our own room and bathroom. We can step outside the door and be at the pool without having to drag our stuff there or deal with anyone else in the hot tub. We are more relaxed when we stay at the rental house.

That is what works for us, it does not work for everyone and that is why there are onsite options for others.

Just enjoy your vacation the way you want to.