Sorry, but the new Disney Deal isn't that great, and here's why......

[dlbbwu]

We are only staying 6 nights - it can be done. You do not have to stay 4 to get 3 free. If you go to the WDW website and go to the specials page, you can work the numbers there to see what it would be for 5 nights, 6 nights, etc.

Thanks Mommy for the quick response. I will do just that. I just firgured everyone was jumping on this new deal and i didn't want to miss the ship..

 

[ADisneyQueen]

What about including car rental prices for those of us who would be flying? That would add another $300 to the off site plan.
We are thinking of staying at WH for a few nights after Disney to go to SW and Kennedy. We would really like to have more space and separate bedrooms. But, we like the Disney magic, the food court nearby, and not having to drive, so we will probably keep our reservation for CBR for the first 7 nights.

 

[Jennygt]

To each his own, I also have done both and I by far like staying on property for all the reasons already stated. However if I had a large family and it was somehow the only way I would make due. Cooking on my vacation is not apealing at all, nuf said.

 

[Cdnmom2001]

This is my first trip to disney with my 7 year old and 4 year old and I haven't been since 1984. We defintely wanted to stay on the property and therefore for us this was an awesome deal.When we do return to florida, we will only be doing disney for a few days and then other attractions within the area and further so we will most defintely being staying off property. We wanted our children to fully experience the magic of disney for their first nad only main trip. I do agree you can find cheaper, but this was our choice for this time and we saved 500.00 from what we were expecting to pay, so bonus for us.

 

[maverick61]

Oh for crying out loud if I really wanted to save money I'd book the Howard Johnson Maingate East. $35 a night and closer to the parks than some of the resorts on property.
But that isn't the point! I want to stay on site and be immersed in the magic 24/7. If you don't, then by all means stay off site, but its kinda silly to act like those of us on this board don't know about this stuff. You aren't telling us anything we don't already know!

Well said. And the OP's financial analysis is incorrect. She left out the cost of renting a car (since the majority of visitors will fly to Orlando). Thats $250 to $300 more to her costs. No need to rent a car when you stay onsite

As you can see from my sig, we have stayed offsite a number of times but now only stay onsite. IMO, there is no comparison between the two in terms of having the overall Disney experience

 

[CDizney]

Dear TraderNeal,

I only had to read your first paragraph before I stopped paying attention. Not because your research isn't awesome...it is. The effort you put into posting the info is very nice of you and helpful I'm sure to alot of folks.

However, there are some of us that just prefer to stay on property compared to off property. If you are a on-property fan, then this new Disney deal is really a good deal. This is my 28th trip to Disney in 11 years so I have a great grasp at Disney pricing history. I have admittedly stayed off property many many times depending upon my budget. I think that most Disney repeat guests know that you can almost always save money staying off-property. However, over the years, I just find that the "Disney" magic for me is just not the same if I stay off-site and I also enjoy the perks I get as an on-site guest.

Basically, everyone's travel plans are unique and different so each travel party will have to make up their own minds as to what is most important to them and their needs.

 

[Meg_Herc]

Even if it is cheaper to stay offsite, I will always stay onsite. Not only to be surrounded by the magic, but because my bf and I don't drive so we need the buses to get around!

 

[ols386]

Oh for crying out loud if I really wanted to save money I'd book the Howard Johnson Maingate East. $35 a night and closer to the parks than some of the resorts on property.
But that isn't the point! I want to stay on site and be immersed in the magic 24/7. If you don't, then by all means stay off site, but its kinda silly to act like those of us on this board don't know about this stuff. You aren't telling us anything we don't already know!

I agree, if we wanted to save some money we would stay off-site also. But it is worth it to us to pay what we pay to stay on-site. I'm not sure why you are being so cranky about this towards the OP. Thank you to the OP for taking the time to put this information together. I have no idea if it is accurate or not, but I think it's an interesting analysis.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Oh for crying out loud if I really wanted to save money I'd book the Howard Johnson Maingate East. $35 a night and closer to the parks than some of the resorts on property.
But that isn't the point! I want to stay on site and be immersed in the magic 24/7. If you don't, then by all means stay off site, but its kinda silly to act like those of us on this board don't know about this stuff. You aren't telling us anything we don't already know!

I totally agree! If it was $10 a nite offsite it still wouldn't be a good deal for our family.

 

[meggybear17]

Even if it is cheaper to stay offsite, I will always stay onsite. Not only to be surrounded by the magic, but because my bf and I don't drive so we need the buses to get around!

Staying on site is not only good if you don't drive, but who wants to worry about a designated driver after a night drinking around Epcot or the *former* pleasure island?! I prefer to hop on a nice Disney bus and listen to the music on the way back to my hotel- and let Disney do the driving!

 

[wdwmaw]

I agree with the person above that even if I could stay for $10 / night, I would not stay offsite again. Staying on properety makes Disney more like an all inclusive resort and we feel like we have left the world behind. When our children were smaller it was so helpful to just split up as one parent went back to the room with the smaller child, or meet up as we went our seperate ways for a bit. Now, as my children are in there late teens we feel comfortable in letting them choose to seperate from us and have there independance ( wihich they love ). They have there room key with there dining plan for CS and money on there card if they need anything. The best part is our spending money can not be lost or stolen if its on our room key. That worry alone is worth the room rate.My DH and I on our last trip left them in a park several times as they were not ready to return to the resort. Staying off property would have made this impossible without the safety factor. For us, we choose Disney because of the all inclusive factor and you can not get that off property. Walt himself built WDW in Florida for this exact reason.

As a side note, I helped about 6 families this past fall break and everyone that went loved there trip. The 2 families that chose to stay off property (one family had a 3 bedroom condo for $140 for the week ),came back wishing they had taken my advice and said they would never stay off property again. They both said it was just to much of a hassle to go back and forth. Both families had children with age differences and they either all left or they had little ones crying. Both families said that by the time they got back to there resort they did not feel like getting back in the car to do this again, both got lost several times which did not help.

Sorry for the long post

 

[Westiefan]

I think it is a fantastic deal. I am staying at GF with tickets and food for less than what I would have paid for just the room. Plus, all the waiting and agonizing over whether a deal will come out is gone (I won't go without a discount and have always done code, pin or AP). I go there because I want to escape reality and not sweep my floor 5 times a day with my hands in the sink washing dishes all day! However, if I was taking more than one vacation a year and going many times a year, I would consider the condo route for cost only.

 

[mom2princessj]

We actually have an offsite room booked. It is alot cheaper but with the economy as it is who knows when we'll be able to get back to WDW so we decided that the 700 savings (that's including tickets, food, car, etc) wasn't worth the convenience we'll have by staying onsite. This is our first trip and hopefully not our last but we wanted it to be as magical as possible for our two small children and we felt all things disney would make that happen for them. We didn't get a stellar deal as we added two days to GF and the dining plan but had we had this in the beginning we would have saved over 800 from the AAA discount price. Right now with the gift card we ended up saving about 400 because we had two nights reserved offsite. All and all its a personal preference and ofcourse what you can afford. I'd never stay home just because I couldn't be onsite but as long as we can afford it, I'd rather have the convenience.

 

[marsrunner]

I agree, if we wanted to save some money we would stay off-site also. But it is worth it to us to pay what we pay to stay on-site. I'm not sure why you are being so cranky about this towards the OP. Thank you to the OP for taking the time to put this information together. I have no idea if it is accurate or not, but I think it's an interesting analysis.

I wasn't trying to be "cranky" I was just kind of surprised that he put so much effort into a post that especially in the Disney Resorts board is not going to really inform anyone. It just seemed like a lot of superfluous information to post on this forum. And seriously, don't we have posts all the time where someone will ask if its worth to stay on site or not? They get all the information when they ask as far as I've seen. Usually both sides of the argument but for probably 75% (or higher?) of us, it could practically be free offsite and we wouldn't do it. I for one know that I don't travel all that way to stay offsite to save a few hundred dollars. If I was desperate to save money, I'd stay at an All Star or Pop for less than $100 a night. Cramped, maybe, but you still get most of the benefits of the nicer resorts like room charges, transportation, etc.
Especially with the advent of the mods and the value resorts I just don't think staying offsite even makes sense anymore, unless your vacation is going to include at least an even split between WDW and Universal/Sea World/Tampa/Cape Canaveral.

 

[SereneOne]

I wasn't trying to be "cranky" I was just kind of surprised that he put so much effort into a post that especially in the Disney Resorts board is not going to really inform anyone. It just seemed like a lot of superfluous information to post on this forum. And seriously, don't we have posts all the time where someone will ask if its worth to stay on site or not? They get all the information when they ask as far as I've seen. Usually both sides of the argument but for probably 75% (or higher?) of us, it could practically be free offsite and we wouldn't do it. I for one know that I don't travel all that way to stay offsite to save a few hundred dollars. If I was desperate to save money, I'd stay at an All Star or Pop for less than $100 a night. Cramped, maybe, but you still get most of the benefits of the nicer resorts like room charges, transportation, etc.
Especially with the advent of the mods and the value resorts I just don't think staying offsite even makes sense anymore, unless your vacation is going to include at least an even split between WDW and Universal/Sea World/Tampa/Cape Canaveral.

Our family could have stayed off site for free and we still booked onsite for our next trip! My DH travels a lot because of his job and we could have stayed for 10 days at the Comfort Suites Royal Park (the one newly renovated to look like NOLA, I can't remember the exact name but the points are 25,000 a night) or at a Holiday Inn or Hampton Inn for free because he has so many points. However, when the 4/3 deal came out, I went ahead and booked at POFQ.

It actually comes out the same though. The hotel being free would have saved about $1500, food at WDW would have been 1400 including tax and tips, and the tickets would have been about $675, parking would have been 120. The 4/3 deal is for $2178 for eight nights at the POFQ, 10 days of tickets, and the DDP. We are also still staying two nights offsite, the day we arrive and the day we leave.

My point is, which I think I lost in all that, lol, is that even staying free off site, I was trying to figure out how to get onsite, because we enjoyed it so much more when we stayed at POR last year.

 

[Luvamouse]

I'd like to mention that I did NOT need to know how cheap it was to stay offsite. Not that I would do it. Ever. We accidentally headed out of DTD last fall onto 4 (?). At night. Had nightmares for a week. I like the feeling of being in a huge private resort. I could be in another country...

 

[Teacher03]

I wasn't trying to be "cranky" I was just kind of surprised that he put so much effort into a post that especially in the Disney Resorts board is not going to really inform anyone. It just seemed like a lot of superfluous information to post on this forum. And seriously, don't we have posts all the time where someone will ask if its worth to stay on site or not? They get all the information when they ask as far as I've seen. Usually both sides of the argument but for probably 75% (or higher?) of us, it could practically be free offsite and we wouldn't do it. I for one know that I don't travel all that way to stay offsite to save a few hundred dollars. If I was desperate to save money, I'd stay at an All Star or Pop for less than $100 a night. Cramped, maybe, but you still get most of the benefits of the nicer resorts like room charges, transportation, etc.
Especially with the advent of the mods and the value resorts I just don't think staying offsite even makes sense anymore, unless your vacation is going to include at least an even split between WDW and Universal/Sea World/Tampa/Cape Canaveral.

Staying offsite gives you more room for your money. We are a family of five adults (my daughter always takes a friend, so that would be six), and it just makes more sense to stay offsite. We saved more than several hundred because we would have to get more than one room. But it's not just about the money. I do enjoy staying onsite, but staying offsite doesn't make it any less magical (for us.) The impression I am getting from some on this thread is that unless you stay onsite, you are not truly a Disney fan! That is simply not true (just ask my husband, I drive him crazy !)

 

[traderneal]

Staying offsite gives you more room for your money. We are a family of five adults (my daughter always takes a friend, so that would be six), and it just makes more sense to stay offsite. We saved more than several hundred because we would have to get more than one room. But it's not just about the money. I do enjoy staying onsite, but staying offsite doesn't make it any less magical (for us.) The impression I am getting from some on this thread is that unless you stay onsite, you are not truly a Disney fan! That is simply not true (just ask my husband, I drive him crazy !)

My thoughts exactly. And ther first sentence of my post was if you are first timer or must stay on Disney property, nothing I am going to say is going to convince you.


I dunno, maybe it's me, but overpaying for a small room, long lines at the hotels and buses, is not worth the magic and piped in music. And like the previous post said, I don't feel like I am missing anything from the experience.

 

[SereneOne]

I guess I need to go back and read the whole thread again because I never took it that anyone was saying that people who preferred to stay off-site where less than the people who did.

My family does not need a big room, nor where there long lines at the hotel when we stayed, nor was it the piped in music that drew us. It was the beautiful grounds of the hotels and theme of them, the incredible service we received, etc. Also, we are only in it to sleep, shower, etc. I spend as much time at the parks as possible, that is what I am there for! I would stay off-site or on-site, as long as I was able to go to Disney! However, as a person who stayed on-site for the first time last year and has stayed off-site at families, in other hotels, in a townhouse and in a condo, I like staying on-site.

How great is it that we all get to have our preferences and go to a place as incredible as Disney?

 

[TDC Nala]

Agreed. If you are just looking for a place to stay at Orlando and to visit Disney World plus other area attractions, offsite is what you want.

If you're looking to stay at Disney World and not do anything else, the prices and the space are not going to sway you unless Disney prices itself out of your reach (not much chance of that happening with discounts being offered)