Stay on or Off w/o car????

[Tinkerbellah]

I need advice. We are staying a week @ The Caribbean Beach Resort and then moving for 2 extra nights. Does anyone think The Best Western, The Royal Plaza or The Wyndham, near DTD are nicer than Pop! It says on hotels.com they get higher stars.I would save a little $ on the room but have to pay extra since there will be no Magical Express.Am I best to stick w/ POP! or Are there nicer off site properties?DOes anyone think the shuttle service is just as good as WDW?? I'm also looking @ The Radisson in Celebration. Any thoughts??

 

[KeroKero]

Nothing beats staying on property when you visit the world, as you already know, to get get full Disney Magic feeling. We love POP and we recommend it. The hotel decor is kitchy and fun and the food court has lots of options to please everyone. Rooms are clean and cozy. The rooms are on the small side, but how much time do you really spend in there anyway?

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Don't forget to factor in the cost of a taxi to the new hotel if you go offsite the last 2 days.

IMO since it's only 2 days, I think time wise you should just go with POP. It's a very fun clean resort. You can check out of CBR and have Bell services send your luggage over to POP. Hop on a bus to a park, then hop on a bus to POP later.

 

[JimMIA]

If you are ABSOLUTELY not going to have a car, it's hard to beat the convenience of Disney transportation. I don't think I would stay offsite for those two nights just to save a few bucks.

However, if I wanted to save money I would look at the cost differential between doing the entire stay offsite and renting a car. You'd have to add back in the cost of a rental car, as well as the $14 per day for parking at WDW, but even doing that you might have a substantial savings.

There are a TON of options offsite, and a hotel would be my last choice. There are a lot of beautiful timeshares, condos, and homes for rent pretty inexpensively offsite. If you just sift through some of the threads on this forum, you'll see a bunch of options.

And not all of the offsite places are that far offsite. Wyndham Bonnet Creek, for example, is closer to all of the theme parks than Pop, I believe. And two bedroom villas at WBC -- with full kitchen and washer/dryer -- usually rent for well under $1,000 for the entire week.

 

[queendisney]

I need advice. We are staying a week @ The Caribbean Beach Resort and then moving for 2 extra nights. Does anyone think The Best Western, The Royal Plaza or The Wyndham, near DTD are nicer than Pop! It says on hotels.com they get higher stars.I would save a little $ on the room but have to pay extra since there will be no Magical Express.Am I best to stick w/ POP! or Are there nicer off site properties?DOes anyone think the shuttle service is just as good as WDW?? I'm also looking @ The Radisson in Celebration. Any thoughts??

We stayed at the Wyndham LBV in March without a car. The hotel is OK as long as you are in the Tower not the sides BUT..transport wise it was a pain. The buses to the parks do not go straight to all of them they go via another resort and also normally pick up for several parks ie MK and then on to Animal Kingdom! They don't drop you right in front of the parks like the WDW buses do either. It is very close to DTD so you could go and use the WDW buses there but you are always going to have to go via a resort hotel to catch another one to a park. I personally would not stay off resort again without a car and IMO would def choice the POP over off resort.

 

[Tinkerbellah]

Well, as I suspected it seems best to book @ POP! I really wanted to try something else outside of the World. But if POP is nicer than the others too, than it hardly seems worth it. I def. don't want to rent a car b/c the food & wine festival will be going on. My husband & I plan on having 1 or 2 drinks @ Epcot. Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[Brian Noble]

If you won't have a car, stay onsite.

Nothing beats staying on property when you visit the world, as you already know, to get get full Disney Magic feeling.

In my experience, this is not so. However, I *still* would not stay offsite without a car. Period.

 

[Tinkerbellah]

Well I did all the math & the only thing that made sense was POP! Even Hotels on Hotels Blvd ended up being the same as POP when they added in the hidden Resort fees & air trans. I'm happy w/ POP since we will be @ CBR for 7 nights those 2 nights @ POP my baby will most likely really love all the big icons @ POP. I think he'd enjoy that more then any other hotel. Thanks for helping me w/ this guys!! You were def. right!

 

[bop28]

We just returned from 4 nights at PoP and 1 night at Best Western in DTD. OMG! POP is so much better. NO comparison. We had a dirty/stained/grimy room with towels that were so dingy they were actually gray. The resort fee is $8 per night w/tax. It was so unappealing that we refused to eat there, so we can't review the restaurants. PoP is the way to go in my opinion.