Staying off-site questions

[Jennifer in MI]

Hi! My family and I are planning a trip next January. We've always stayed on site with the meal plan, but this year we're considering staying off site 1/7 - 1/13 (I'm running the 1/2 marathon) and taking a cruise on the 14th. I'm not sure about the logistics of a few things and wondered if you could help me!

1. Driving - how much does it cost to park at Disney each day? Can I leave and come back on property for that price?

2. Food - How have you worked this? Do you take food with you to the parks for lunch? Or just plan one meal out at the park each day? Are we allowed to bring food to the parks?

3. Anyone have marathon info? Does my family need park passes that day to see me finish? Do I need a ticket that day? I may need to ask on the marathon board!

4. Any other hints? I'm still trying to figure out how to work this out logistically. I mean, if my 3 yo wants to go back to the house for a nap, how do I do that while leaving the rest of my family at the parks? Or if she's done for the night at 7 and the family wants to stay until 10, how does that work out? How have other families worked this out?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[mareed]

1. Driving - how much does it cost to park at Disney each day? Can I leave and come back on property for that price?

It's $12 now, but may increase again before next Jan. Yes, your parking pass will be good for all day at any of the 4 parks - just keep the pass.

2. Food - How have you worked this? Do you take food with you to the parks for lunch? Or just plan one meal out at the park each day? Are we allowed to bring food to the parks?

We eat a quick breakfast at our condo/villa/townhome. We then eat a table-service lunch at Disney most days and dinner is either counter service or somewhere outside of the parks on the way home if we're leaving the parks around 5-6 for the day.

3. Anyone have marathon info? Does my family need park passes that day to see me finish? Do I need a ticket that day? I may need to ask on the marathon board!

No clue about marathon stuff.

4. Any other hints? I'm still trying to figure out how to work this out logistically. I mean, if my 3 yo wants to go back to the house for a nap, how do I do that while leaving the rest of my family at the parks? Or if she's done for the night at 7 and the family wants to stay until 10, how does that work out? How have other families worked this out?

Mine just napped in the stroller at 3 years old, and we rarely leave the parks for a break anyway. Our sit-down lunch is our mid-day break. When we've traveled with another family, then we make sure to have 2 rental vehicles so that the group can split and leave at 2 different times. I don't think we ever had a situation when we were just there with our family of 4 that we split and left at different times. We decided as an entire family when we were done for the day. I suppose if part of the group wanted to leave early, then you could take a cab. If you wanted to save a bit of money on cab far, you could take Disney transportation to the Disney resort closest to where you're staying and then catch a cab from there. Spend more time to save a small amount of money.

Hope some of this helps! We stay offsite almost every trip in my signature, so have lots of experience starting with kids ages 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 (and are now almost 10 & 13).

 

[Brian Noble]

1: $12, only once per day. Keep your receipt to park at any of the four parks that day.

2: Kevin Yee recently reported the following:

as of December 2008, WDW officially allows outside food -- anything that doesn’t have to be heated up. Glass and coolers are still banned, as is alcohol, but anything else goes.

Whether we stay onsite or off, our daily routines are similar. We either go morning/break/evening, or a "3/4 day". For morning/break/evening, we have breakfast in the villa, lunch in the park, and dinner is either in the villa before returning, or in the park when we get there, depending. A 3/4 day is either morning through mid/late-afternoon (lunch in the park) or mid-day through after-dinner with brunch before arriving, and dinner in the park.

3: I'm not sure about this.

4: This is the one area where being offsite can be a real pain. Either you stick together, or some of you take cabs. We normally stick together, but our kids are close in age---we normally stick together onsite as well.