Solo traveler. Disney hotel vs Outside hotel

Pang

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
4
Hi everyone. I've been to Disney a few times in the past. But I would like some advice. I'm in need of a getaway for a few days (in Nov.) with a low budget. I really want to attend the food and wine festival in Epcot and maybe visit universal (small chance) and perhaps the nearby outlets. I do not intend on renting a car for the few days that I am there for. Do you guys recommend that I stay on Disney property or an outside hotel? I really like the idea of not having to worry about getting to and from the airport by using the Disney shuttle. Does that out weight the convenience of renting a car vs using public/Disney transportation?
 
We drive to WDW (instead of flying) and then only use Disney transportation going to the parks. (Despite having our van in the resort parking lot). I enjoy the “park it and forget it” aspect of WDW.
So if staying onsite is cheaper than offsite + rental + parking fees, then I would stay onsite.
 
I would price out staying onsite and taking cabs/uber/lyft to the outlets and possibly Uni vs. renting a car and staying offsite (you'll need to include theme park parking fees in this). Personally, just for convenience sake, I would stay onsite, use DME and just uber/lyft to the offsite places you want to visit.
 

I always recommend people stay on property if they can swing it. You don't have to worry about transportation to and from the airport or around Disney grounds. Plus, I love constantly being in that Disney bubble. If you were to decide to rent a car, staying on property means that you would have free parking at the parks, but I agree with your decision to not rent a car. It's nice to just be able to rely on Disney transportation. You say that you need to get away. I recommend you do it absolutely right by staying on property. That way, from the moment you board your flight, you are on vacation. Flight attendants will tend to you on your flight, Disney handles everything once you land, and you don't have to worry about anything until you are back in your hometown airport. Off property, you have to either rent a car or rely on taxis/uber/lyft. Just seems to be less stressful to stay on property. When you add in the added benefit of constant Disney magic on property and I think it's a pretty easy decision if you can swing it.
 
I would stay on property for transportation to/from the airport and for WDW park transportation. If you want to go to Universal then take uber (I believe sometimes your first ride is free-but you'll have to research that more). For shopping you could hit disney springs which there is bus transportation to or even a monorail tour of those resort shops. Again for other outlet shopping Uber would work, so it saves the cost of the rental car.

If you stay off property then you deal with the added cost of not only the rental car but also parking at the parks. If you rent a car and drive it just adds an element of stress that isn't needed on a short vacation. Driving in an unfamiliar place is never fun. We love the feeling of arriving at MCO to then know we only need to find the bus and right at that point our vacation begins and you can relax.
 
Crunch the numbers. I have to think that staying offsite and paying for daily transportation would be as expensive as staying at a Value resort.
 





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