Stay on site or offsite? Can you cook in your rooms in Disney?

[nelson84]

Can I get a kitchenette inside the park hotels? Or just stay offsite and pay the $20 parking fee? It's tuff decision. Deciding where to stay.

 

[Pesky]

If you stay DVC, yes, you can have a kitchen(ette). Renting points is oftentimes a cheaper way to do deluxe. For a studio, you'll have a kitchenette area with a sink, microwave, fridge and I forget what else. But no cooking surface or oven. If you go for the 1 bedroom or more villas, those have a full kitchen. I think the AOA family suites and family suites over at All Star Music also have a kitchenette as well. Cabins at FW have a kitchen area as well.

 

[jtopp]

Full kitchens at DVC properties with a one bedroom suite or larger. Well worth it if you are planning on cooking a few meals while on vacation.

 

[mom+3girls]

I have done both. I stayed offsite at a close hotel that had a suite with a full kitchen, we spent a lot of time in the park and didn't really feel like cooking a big meal when I got back and we ended up eating sandwiches and stopping for fast food. It was okay to do that but I prefer to stay on site. I am single parent and just felt safer. That said I usually take a cooler, I drive to WDW, with sandwich meats and fixin' in the cooler, milk for cereal and a bag of snacks and bread and we are good to go. We do eat at WDW for several meals but those are kept on the low budget side and if you can go when it's free dining well that's just awesome on the budget.

 

[powellrj]

Off site in a condo is usually your best budget saver if you want a kitchen. Bonnet Creek is a favorite. Depending on how many are in your party, Cypress Point had a studio for under $50 a night last week.

 

[daughtersrus]

There's a full kitchen in the cabins at Ft Wilderness

 

[ldo]

offsite, cooking simple meals will almost always save $ (even with $20 parking) over onsite. Onsites with kitchenettes, FT W cains, or 1BR will be A LOT more than offsite kitchenette and A LOT more than value or even moderate rooms. What can work onsite in value or moderate rooms is buying a hot meal at grocery, then fridge left over meals, such as rotissiere chicken with hot sides from grocery store, then cold chicken over bagged salad, pita, hummus the next night for dinner, pizza delivery with cold pizza. There is also a Steak and Shake right over the street from Hotel Blvd with many entrees for $4. Sometimes, we zip over there and eat. There is a Winn Dixie a bit down the road from Hotel Blvd with good prices where you could get hot food. I just did the hot chicken, then left over chicken a few weeks ago. If you stay over towards POP, there is a super Target and Publix where you can do the same. You can also make sandwiches, heavy snacks like cheese sticks, PBJ, etc. We usually do that and eat 1 counter service meal a day and think that work just fine. A big budget buster is drinks. We always buy a case of water and gatoraides, juice boxes and take them 1PP in a small soft cooler into the parks, which saves a lot of $ over a week. A frozen juice box keeps other stuff cool.

 

[JoseeM]

We are going in December and staying offsite for the first time. My plan is to eat breakfast at the condo, make sandwiches for one meal at the park, bring lots of snacks and then do one sit down character meal most days since our daughter is character crazy. I know the character meals will be expensive, but our other meals should be pretty cheap and it will also save time since we can eat more on the go.

 

[Accident]

If you asked me this at the start of the year I would say stay on site if you can afford it. Now that I live here and learning whats nearby (miles away, really close by) i'm kicking myself I never took staying offsite more serious especially when I was trying to save money to get longer and more trips in..

you didn't mention what your goal of this choice was but if it's saving money and you want to cook at the resort then you can't beat the price offsite even with parking.