Stay off site or on site? Which do you prefer.

[TnTWalter]

onsite to be immersed in disney magic and if kids are <10 [only 1 of mine is] for dining plan if want to do TS meals....

offsite for space and pools and relaxing....

both are great....

I like value and deluxe onsite [the moderates don't make sense to me personally] and value [WH] and deluxe [BC] offsite

I've not been as often as some

Mix it up....

 

[Macprincess]

We do both.

I use to be a onsite snob. I wouldn't dream of leaving the magic despite the cost. Then I was blessed with "suprise" baby #3. Eventually she turned three. We also became a one income family around that time. I had to face the fact that it was either offsite or no Disney that year. I booked our first offsite trip with tears in my eyes. I was convinced it would be less magical. Ironically it was one of the best trips ever!

Now our economic out look is a bit brighter and we actually have the choice of onsite again. We have revisted this way. However, as our children grow older onsite just isn't working for us. The onsite Disney options are limited and expensive once you're bigger then a party of 4. Don't get me started on the nightmare of two adults, 2 tweens and a 8 year old stuffed in a POR room for a week. Never again! We're not a fan of The All Star Family suites & the fold outbeds. For the price we can stay offsite with far more room and amenities then the value resorts offer. We did two rooms at Pop with FD (Upgraded to reg DP) and found the DP was fine if free but really not the way we typically eat. With a 13 & 11 year old it's doubtful we would pay for the DP anyway as they just don't eat adult size meals yet. Besides with 2 kids in middle school now the days of off seasons vacations are gone for a while for us. We're stuck in the peak seasons when school is out so hitting the Free DP dates again is pretty unlikely for at least the next few years. We always have a car so transportation is a non issue for us. For us offsite is just a better fit right now when traveling as a family.

The other postive is doing family trips offsite allows us to save enough that we can buy AP's. This allows me to take trips with just one child at a time and we often stay onsite for these. Plus hubby and I will often sneak away for a long weekend onsite without the kids.

 

[englishteacha]

I haven't stayed onsite since I was 9 years old, and that was camping in the family pop up at Fort Wilderness. We've been as a couple a few times and stayed off site each time. It has worked out to be hundreds of dollars cheaper each trip, even when renting a car. In 2006 we shared a condo with another couple, and that was our cheapest trip to date. We're stuck traveling during school vacations because I'm a teacher, so we don't get to take advantage of the huge discounts WDW offers off season. We toured a few resorts at WDW in 2010, and found the value and moderate resorts we visited to be very busy and very loud. That didn't seem very relaxing to me. If our budget allowed for a deluxe resort, that would be awesome, but as someone else said, I'm not staying home just because I can't afford to stay onsite!

 

[rusty4]

We have stayed off-site twice and on-site 4 times. We prefer on-site and will only stay on-site if going to Disney. We fly so the ME is a big deal plus for us. The Disney fun starts at the airport. We look forward to boarding the ME. The ride back is bittersweet with the video that is playing for the return trip.

 

[LSchrow]

we tried offsite, but weren't reallly thrilled with WDW until we stayed on.
we normally stay at the BWVs, so there is so much to do: walk to 2 parks on a whim, community hall, grey goose slushies, the ease of a short stroll and no shoulder-to-shoulder exodus after illuminations, tennis, mini-golf, movies by the pool, restaurants, jellyrolls and/or belle vue lounge, BW nighttime entertainment, etc.
feeling safe is important to us, and i feel totally comfortable walking around by myself at night. the staff is exceptional, and everything pristine.
we do rent a car and use it for outlet shopping, etc, but we prefer disney trans for the parks (we have no desire to deal with lines of cars, parking, trams, etc - at least we can relax on the bus, chat with strangers and the busdriver, etc). we love and use DME, package delivery, and nighttime EMHs.
we would probably cancel a trip if off-site was our only option - vacation is an inportant and too short time for us (although we go 2-3x a year, 10-14 dmys each), and one that we would prefer to splurge on. staying onsite feels more like an all-inclusive, where the real world doesn't interrupt our fun

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We're on-site-ers. We love to park the van and not have to use it again until we pack up to leave. We like to use the dining plans. I have no use for a kitchen or laundry on vacation -- I do enough of that day-to-day!

The first trip we took after we had our first son, we stayed on-site and as we rode to a park on a cool, air-conditioned bus, my husband looked at me and said, "we'll never stay off-site again."

When I was a kid, we vacationed in my grandparents' motorhome for a month at a time: 2 grandparents, 2 parents, my brother, my sister and me. 7 of us in a 25-foot motorhome. I can handle a week in one room with my husband and 2 sons - it's roomy by comparison!

 

[Maddies Mama]

Off-site, always. We stayed on-site once and it was a miserable experience being crammed into a little hotel room that cost more per night than a 3-br off-site condo. My daughter needs her own space to sleep. If we all have to sleep in the same room, no one gets a good night of sleep.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I started to rent a vacation rental home because we could get it for $1000 for 10 days as opposed to the $2500 for 10 days we are paying to stay on site, but when we got free dining (worth $1600 for 5 of us for 10 days- all Disney adults) it evened out from staying offsite and paying OOP for food or staying on site and getting free dining. This is the kids first trip so I really want them to have the full Disney experience so we are staying in a family suite.

If it is that much cheaper for you and enables you to stay longer or eat more TS meals, or buy more toys =) then stay offsite. Most of the vacation rental homes are just 3 or 4 miles from Disney so not a far drive. The company we looked at was called Villa Direct and they had 4 bedroom houses with pools and game rooms for less than $100 a night. You really can't beat the price. You get so much more for your money.

If we ever go back we will be staying offsite in a vacation rental home.

 

[mrsklamc]

Offsite. We love Windsor Hills.

 

[torinsmom]

We're on-site-ers. We love to park the van and not have to use it again until we pack up to leave. We like to use the dining plans. I have no use for a kitchen or laundry on vacation -- I do enough of that day-to-day!

The first trip we took after we had our first son, we stayed on-site and as we rode to a park on a cool, air-conditioned bus, my husband looked at me and said, "we'll never stay off-site again."

When I was a kid, we vacationed in my grandparents' motorhome for a month at a time: 2 grandparents, 2 parents, my brother, my sister and me. 7 of us in a 25-foot motorhome. I can handle a week in one room with my husband and 2 sons - it's roomy by comparison!

See, I think of doing laundry on vacation differently. I throw a load in in the middle and the night before we leave and then when I get home, I have a suitcase fill of clean laundry. I detest having to do laundry when we get home. And I don't do full meals or anything, but I found it nice to be able to make grilled cheese sandwiches or cook a frozen pizza. And it was nice to have a full size fridge packed with cold drinks, yogurt, milk, ice cream, etc.

The best part of staying offsite for me was that when I needed to pee or take a shower, I didn't have to wait for anyone else to be done.

I guess it is nice that people have different tastes, because if everyone liked offsite better, our 5 bedroom pool home would have been a lot more than $100/night

 

[dd50]

I like both. For years we stayed off site and I didn't feel like I missed any thing. In 2009 we decided to stay at POP because my daughter was meeting us there from the west coast and wouldn't have to rent a car. It was fun but the rooms were so tiny. I have never seen a hotel room smaller than that. We had fun but we didn't stay in the hotel except for sleeping and showering.

I loved the fact that my teens could stay in the park until 3am and I could go back at 11:00 and didn't have to go and pick them up. I even kind of liked the buses because you met people from all over.

If I was going to go and not be in the park almost every waking minute I would much prefer off site with a little more space.

 

[Jeafl]

Wow!!! If I could stay for $139 I wouldn't EVER stay onsite either .

Didn't you pay for the timeshare and don't you pay yearly maintenance fees?

It is far more than $139 if you did.

Dawn

We did not pay anything for the timeshare. My mother in law is a sucker that cannot say "no" and ended up with 5 timeshares all over the country. After years of paying the payments and fees, she gave one to us if we agree to take over the yearly fees. She never even used the timeshares, just banked the points every year. The one she gave us was totally paid off.

As far as the fees go, we have about a half million points banked at our home resort which is in Branson. The fees are only a few hundred a year, and with all our points we are able to take at least 2-3 weeks a year paying only the $139 exchange fee. Even if you add in a hundred dollars or so per trip to average in the fees that we have to pay it's still an incredibly cheap vacation.

In any case, we really enjoy the Marriott. It's a beautiful resort with great pools and for that price we can't do much better.

 

[hereyago]

I like to stay on site.

 

[Planogirl]

I prefer off site nowadays but I do have a few favorite on site hotels and would love to stay at them again. I adore AKL and PORS and many years ago we really liked the Polynesian but unfortunately it is now way more expensive that what we will pay. Staying at any of those again would be great. Normally, I like to have more space and more amenities and I enjoy driving anyway so off site it is.

 

[MamaJessie]

We just got back from our first off site trip and I want to go back on site again next time. We saved A LOT of money, don't get me wrong - but I am more of a "go,go,go" person on vacation and like the EMH and not having to drive and getting our stuff sent back to the room.. Also DH liked being able to chat with people at the pool that were all on a WDW vacation.

That being said we decided if we are ever lucky enough to go for two weeks we would do a week on and a week off. Windsor Hills was nice and totally affordable and if we used that time to go to Universal and other non WDW parks/attractions, we wouldn't need the on site perks anyway.