staying off site to save money!

[agmmbolam426]

Well my wife and I have four children and we have always stayed on site. We have always thought we would be losing the "magic" if we stayed off site. So we went and priced out our 2013 trip. My parents will also be coming along with us this trip. We have always stayed in a value and have always taken advantage of free dining in september. So our trip have always been around $2,000. Expensive but doable. SO our 2013 trip we decided we needed to go in June so our kids would not miss any school. So we decided on June. Well we priced out our 7 day trip at the pop with 6 day passes (base) and the dining package. It came out to $3,000!!! My parents total came out to $2100!! We started to freak out and almost decided we could no longer go to disney. But....I started searching vrbo.com and found a lot of vacation homes next to disney. We were able to book a week long trip in a 4 bedroom house with a pool for $800.00. So split that in two and we are paying $400.00 for each couple. We are excited to be able to go again and we are even more excited to be saving money and having more room to walk around!

So to break it down

My family:
$400.00 for room
$998.00 for tickets
budget $800 for meals
=$2198

Parents:
$400.00 for room
$518.00
budget $350.00 for food
=$1268

So there you have, we are saving money by staying off site! Thanks

Chris

 

[gillenkl]

Have you checked out the YES program to save on tickets?

 

[Chelley00]

Make sure and budget parking per day and gas money to get back and forth. We love offsite for bigger family trips and it definitely is cheaper plus you get more space. Enjoy!

 

[cmwade77]

Well my wife and I have four children and we have always stayed on site. We have always thought we would be losing the "magic" if we stayed off site. So we went and priced out our 2013 trip. My parents will also be coming along with us this trip. We have always stayed in a value and have always taken advantage of free dining in september. So our trip have always been around $2,000. Expensive but doable. SO our 2013 trip we decided we needed to go in June so our kids would not miss any school. So we decided on June. Well we priced out our 7 day trip at the pop with 6 day passes (base) and the dining package. It came out to $3,000!!! My parents total came out to $2100!! We started to freak out and almost decided we could no longer go to disney. But....I started searching vrbo.com and found a lot of vacation homes next to disney. We were able to book a week long trip in a 4 bedroom house with a pool for $800.00. So split that in two and we are paying $400.00 for each couple. We are excited to be able to go again and we are even more excited to be saving money and having more room to walk around!

So to break it down

My family:
$400.00 for room
$998.00 for tickets
budget $800 for meals
=$2198

Parents:
$400.00 for room
$518.00
budget $350.00 for food
=$1268

So there you have, we are saving money by staying off site! Thanks

Chris

Don't forget the rental car, parking and Gas in your calculations. Given the size of the group, you will either need a van or two cars. Also, remember the toll costs as well.

Now, if you were to go in early August, chances are the kids wouldn't miss any school and there is a good chance for free dining if staying onsite, which would reduce some costs. (We are DVC members, so I have not been following the free dining trends as of late, I do not know if it has already been announced or not, sorry). By staying onsite, you get free transportation to and from the hotel/airport.

Another way that you could stay onsite for less is to rent points from a DVC member on the rental boards.

You can buy tickets through Mousesavers at a discount as well, this works if you are staying onsite and not getting the free dining.

Also, call Disney and ask if you have any pin codes associated with your name and phone number (check all phone numbers and adult names in both households), you may have one and not know about it that might make it cheaper.

Also, there is the fact that you can pay for onsite with Disney gift cards and many stores that also sell gas offer discounts on gas purchases with the purchase of gift cards. For example, Vons here quite often offers $0.10/gallon discount for every $100 spent (sometimes for every $50). At $5,100, this would mean at least 51 discounts, at an average of 15 gallons per fill ups, which equals about another $75 off. In addition, Vons lets you buy gift cards with credit/debit cards, use one that offers rewards and you can save even more.

Just trying to show ways that you can still stay onsite and save money, possibly come out at the same price, or less. In my opinion, it is not worth the hassles of driving, etc. to stay off site. Of course, as I said, we are DVC members, so I may be a little biased.

 

[sissy_ib]

Were you going to get two rooms at Pop for your family and one for your parents? If everyone agreed you could get just two rooms and put two kids in your parents room. That would bring down the cost a lot. You could also drop the dining plan and probably save some money. If off-site works for you that is great but there are alternatives to save money.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Sounds like you got a nice deal let us know how the house was

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I'm curious how you are going to be able to feed 6 ppl for 7 days for $800? If you buy groceries and eat breakfast and supper back at the vacation rental home and only eat counter service for lunch you may be able to pull off spending only $800 for 7 days feeding 6 ppl. But for every counter service meal you are looking at between $45 and $70 depending on if you buy your kids kids meals or adult meals.

And also how can you get tickets for 6 ppl for less than 1k? Just for the 5 of us to have 3 day tickets is almost $1200 and that's with no park hopper or added features to the ticket.

You might be able to get YES tickets for less than a thousand dollars for 6 ppl but you didn't mention if you were using the YES classes to get your tickets. Unless 2 of your kids are under 3 and you don't have to pay for them.

 

[agmmbolam426]

We live in Georgia it is an 8 hour drive. My wife and I drive a Toyota sequoia so we can fit all the kids. We will be picking up my parents at the airport. Two of my kids are under 3 so no tickets needed for them. And trust me we can do 800 for a weeks worth of food. I will answer more when I get home.

 

[houseful of boys]

As another family of 6, I totally hear you OP!! We have also chosen to stay off site numerous times due to budget. (have also stayed at ASMu, POR, POLY, Dolphin, and tent camped at Ft. Wilderness) The reality is for a family of 6 or more your choices are extremely limited on site and not truly budget friendly, if that's your number 1 priority. I would love to always be able to afford to stay on site preferably at a Deluxe but my family's income doesn't allow it normally. And we like to go every year, so it's worth it to spend less and go more often, instead of saving for a couple of years between visits and being able to spend more. But that's a personal preference.

And there is are actually a lot of benefits that you'll discover about staying off site. Your food budget will go much farther by having a full size fridge and being able to stock your kitchen with snacks even if you don't plan on cooking anything. Not to mention the extra space for a large family, my whole family loves being able to spread out a bit.

This year, I didn't think we'd be able to go. But we have arranged to rent a 2BR condo at Windsor Hills through VRBO for $75/night (have stayed at WH before in houses). We bought 6 day hopper WP&M tickets through the YES program for $1255. You just can't beat the price and we will still experience the intangible "magic."

Our favorite way to visit Disney is with Free Dining. With growing boys in my family, this is our best deal. However, we need to go during the summer because of school schedules and even in August, FD doesn't start until after our schools are in session. So this is our second best budget way to go.

And for those DVC owners who suggest to rent points.....This is never truly an option for a family of 6 that is used to staying at a Value. I would LOVE to be able to stay at a DVC resort. But to rent points for a 2BR in June at the cheapest value (AKV/value view) would still be 243 points. Renting at $13 per point would equal $3159 for a week's accomodation. I'm staying in a 2BR off site for $585 and OP is staying in a 4BR pool house for $400. We talking apples and oranges here as far as a budget goes. If I'm wrong and there is a cheaper way to rent DVC points, I will not be offended if you let me know!

 

[Marionnette]

Well my wife and I have four children and we have always stayed on site. We have always thought we would be losing the "magic" if we stayed off site. So we went and priced out our 2013 trip. My parents will also be coming along with us this trip. We have always stayed in a value and have always taken advantage of free dining in september. So our trip have always been around $2,000. Expensive but doable. SO our 2013 trip we decided we needed to go in June so our kids would not miss any school. So we decided on June. Well we priced out our 7 day trip at the pop with 6 day passes (base) and the dining package. It came out to $3,000!!! My parents total came out to $2100!! We started to freak out and almost decided we could no longer go to disney. But....I started searching vrbo.com and found a lot of vacation homes next to disney. We were able to book a week long trip in a 4 bedroom house with a pool for $800.00. So split that in two and we are paying $400.00 for each couple. We are excited to be able to go again and we are even more excited to be saving money and having more room to walk around!

So to break it down

My family:
$400.00 for room
$998.00 for tickets
budget $800 for meals
=$2198

Parents:
$400.00 for room
$518.00
budget $350.00 for food
=$1268

So there you have, we are saving money by staying off site! Thanks

Chris

How did you get pricing for 2013 Disney packages? Those numbers aren't available yet.

I can see where you will save money by staying offsite. You may not be comparing apples to apples but let's face it, if you're staying in a hotel room, the way that you eat during your vacation is a lot different than the way you would eat when you have have a vacation home. You're saving about $130 by paying OOP vs getting the dining plan.

It sounds like a nice compromise and having the extra space for the adults to sit and talk when the kids go to bed will be a nice perk. I hope that you enjoy it. If not, at least you will have tried an offsite stay and you will know that it's not for you.

 

[brymolmom]

Great deal! And welcome to loving the $$ savings offsite. I LOVE staying onsite - but I also LOVE staying offsite. The part about offsite I love the most are having more ROOM and also being able to 'decompress' more easily. I love grabbing some food to-go on the way back to the hotel or condo and then just vegging - letting the kids hang out and eat while watching TV or other. Lots more difficult to do when in a Value room.

I understand pp's suggesting renting points, but I HIGHLY doubt you'd get a room for 6 of you for a week for $800. I always wonder if people have other ways of renting for cheaper than I see when I look at the points amounts for a week. I'm always baffled when people say you can 'save' money this way. Don't get me wrong - you do save money over paying rack rate...but it's no where near $800 for a week - esp. for more than 4 people.

OP - thanks for the update on two kids under 3...I was having a very difficult time figuring out how you did a Value during free dining for around $2000 for 6 of you and for 2 rooms. NOW it makes more sense - one room and only 4 of you to pay for.

One other offsite thing I love to do is stay at a place with free breakfast. It feels more 'vacationy' than a condo to me - because someone else is doing all the work for breakfast - although it is usually a bit more than renting a condo. We stayed a year ago at Staybridge Suites LBV - got an AWESOME deal at $75 a night. Had a 2 bedroom suite with living room and kitchen. AND had a full, hot breakfast with eggs, waffles, donuts, cereals, fruit, etc. all included. It was one of the best deals I've ever gotten and we loved it. Paid very little for food that trip - ate in our room for one lunch and one dinner...brought sandwiches one day to the park...at a few CS meals and then splurged on one table service meal. We just weren't hungry since we would get such a full stomach first thing in the morning. And we were just as close to most of the parks as some of the onsite resorts are too! LOVE finding offsite deals! My kids are really getting into Harry Potter right now so I think I'm going to plan my next offsite trip - stay somewhere in the middle and hit WDW for a couple days and US for a couple days.

One offsite tip - grab the phone numbers of a couple places between WDW and your condo BEFORE you head into the park (pizza place, chinese, pasta, etc.) and then call and order to-go on your way out to your car in the evening. That way the food will be ready when you get there and it's a quick 2 minute stop to grab your food and head home.

ENJOY your trip!

 

[Mom23Disneybelievers]

Enjoy your trip...and your savings!

We are constantly toying with the idea of staying off site. Although we are already booked for POR for November I would really like to save the $$ and try off site. Having the space of a rental home or condo would be nice, too Decisions decisions decisions!!!

One thing that I notice is that many times after someone stays off site, they seem to love it so much that they continue to do so.

 

[Macprincess]

One offsite tip - grab the phone numbers of a couple places between WDW and your condo BEFORE you head into the park (pizza place, chinese, pasta, etc.) and then call and order to-go on your way out to your car in the evening. That way the food will be ready when you get there and it's a quick 2 minute stop to grab your food and head home.

This is a great tip and we do this as well. I also bring coupons from home for national chains and keep them in the car.

We also always bring a crock pot from home. It's very nice to take just a few minutes before we leave in the am while the rest of the family is getting ready to put a simple meal in and it's ready when we return.

We're a family of 5 and we do both off and onsite trips. We love both.

 

[agmmbolam426]

I priced it for June of this year. I figure it would be roughly the same but add roughly 10% lol Disney loves bumping up those prices

 

[pigletto]

I understand pp's suggesting renting points, but I HIGHLY doubt you'd get a room for 6 of you for a week for $800.

Totally agree. I see that as a suggestion quite a bit around here and always feel the need to point out that it's way cheaper than going through Disney for the same accommodations, but it's not "cheap" like 800 for the week for 6 people.
We rent points often. We do it through a service at 13 dollars per point, but even at 10 dollars a point it would be more than 800 for four of us in a studio for our week. It's a great way to stay Deluxe for much much cheaper, but during the times we go, it still works out to approximately what a mod would cost us. It's not the cheapest option, especially when compared to offsite accommodations and certainly not for 6 people.

 

[2disneyboys]

Enjoy your trip and savings. We have stayed on and offsite several times.. There are benefits to both choices and we love them both equally.
I was just getting read to recommend the tip about having phone numbers for local take out places so u can phone ahead an order for pickup. Much better food selection off propery then even the best on property restaurant, but that's jmo..usually when we stay on property, we go off property to eat unless we are staying with the free dining plan.

We are a family of 4 so we dont need a lot of space, but last april we rented at Windsor hills and were in a 12 person pool home... We shared with my sister and her family and split the cost. We had ap's last year so no parking costs. We spent less than $600 for the 4 of us, and this included 1 character meal, all snacks, drinks, basically, if we ate it or drank it, it can out of the food costs...we had budgeted $1000 and came home with a little more than $400. This was mainly because we ate In Restaurants off property. We only cooked 2 meals at the house ... 1 breakfast and 1 dinner. We ate a few counter service meals in the parks, but avoided all of the table service and did offsite instead. It was great.

 

[Jenny-momof3]

Glad you found a place that suits your needs and your budget!

I wanted to chime in on the food budget. We are a family of 6 as well. 2 adults, 2 teenage girls 17 and 13 and 2 boys 7 and 2. We stay onsite in DVC villas.

We just returned from a 7 day trip yesterday. Our Disney food total was $491...all counter service meals with the exception of prime time cafe for dessert. We also had one lunch at ChickFilA offsite for $25. So total for 7 days was $516. We ate breakfast in the room...poptarts, cereal,etc. that I brought from home. DH always got his own adult counter service meal and the kids and I either got kids meals, shared a few adult meals,etc. We bought snacks everyday...ice cream bars, popcorn, churros...we can't resist those Disney snacks!

This was the very first trip that we didn't do the DDP. We usually do the quick service plan. But it just doesn't make sense for us anymore. My girls and I aren't big eaters and paying for adult plans for us just isn't worth it.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

Have you checked out the YES program to save on tickets?

I was going to suggest that also. Our kids are doing their third YES class this June. The classes are great and we are getting (5) 8-day park hoppers with water parks and more option for a total of $1100. Can't beat that!

 

[englishteacha]

We're a family of 2 (at the moment) and it's still cheaper for us to stay offsite. Enjoy your trip!!!

 

[ccgirl]

I'm curious how you are going to be able to feed 6 ppl for 7 days for $800? If you buy groceries and eat breakfast and supper back at the vacation rental home and only eat counter service for lunch you may be able to pull off spending only $800 for 7 days feeding 6 ppl. But for every counter service meal you are looking at between $45 and $70 depending on if you buy your kids kids meals or adult meals.

And also how can you get tickets for 6 ppl for less than 1k? Just for the 5 of us to have 3 day tickets is almost $1200 and that's with no park hopper or added features to the ticket.

You might be able to get YES tickets for less than a thousand dollars for 6 ppl but you didn't mention if you were using the YES classes to get your tickets. Unless 2 of your kids are under 3 and you don't have to pay for them.

6 people for 7 days at $800 is extremely doable. We usually stay off site. When comparing price I like to compare apples to apples. For example, the OP is getting a 4BR place so how much would a 4BR place at WDW cost? You can't really compare a 4BR to a hotel room. Not the same thing at all!

As far as food....here is my families "typical" budget:

Gallon of milk $4
Box of cereal $4
Fruit salad $8
Dozen eggs $3
Bagels $3
2 loaves of bread $4
Pound of cheese $5
Pound of lunch meat $8
Case of water $5
12 pack of soda $4
Potato chips $2
Salad fixings $6
chicken and beef to grill $10
Frozen veggies $4
Total: $70 for all breakfasts, most lunches and some dinners.

We will do a few meals in the park.
For example, Columbia Harbour House at MK:
2 anchors aweigh sandwiches $18
2 kids meals $11
Tap water to drink
Total: $29

In AK:
Donald's Safari Breakfast $78 plus tip = total $92

Total meals = $191
I could double that for 8 people and it is under $400.

Well my wife and I have four children and we have always stayed on site. We have always thought we would be losing the "magic" if we stayed off site. So we went and priced out our 2013 trip. My parents will also be coming along with us this trip. We have always stayed in a value and have always taken advantage of free dining in september. So our trip have always been around $2,000. Expensive but doable. SO our 2013 trip we decided we needed to go in June so our kids would not miss any school. So we decided on June. Well we priced out our 7 day trip at the pop with 6 day passes (base) and the dining package. It came out to $3,000!!! My parents total came out to $2100!! We started to freak out and almost decided we could no longer go to disney. But....I started searching vrbo.com and found a lot of vacation homes next to disney. We were able to book a week long trip in a 4 bedroom house with a pool for $800.00. So split that in two and we are paying $400.00 for each couple. We are excited to be able to go again and we are even more excited to be saving money and having more room to walk around!

So to break it down

My family:
$400.00 for room
$998.00 for tickets
budget $800 for meals
=$2198

Parents:
$400.00 for room
$518.00
budget $350.00 for food
=$1268

So there you have, we are saving money by staying off site! Thanks

Chris

We usually stay off site and have never felt like we missed any of the magic. Sorry, to us it is just not very magical to be squished in one room when we can spread out in 2BR accommodations and put our children to bed in their own bedroom while we stay up.

Glad you found a place that suits your needs and your budget!

I wanted to chime in on the food budget. We are a family of 6 as well. 2 adults, 2 teenage girls 17 and 13 and 2 boys 7 and 2. We stay onsite in DVC villas.

We just returned from a 7 day trip yesterday. Our Disney food total was $491...all counter service meals with the exception of prime time cafe for dessert. We also had one lunch at ChickFilA offsite for $25. So total for 7 days was $516. We ate breakfast in the room...poptarts, cereal,etc. that I brought from home. DH always got his own adult counter service meal and the kids and I either got kids meals, shared a few adult meals,etc. We bought snacks everyday...ice cream bars, popcorn, churros...we can't resist those Disney snacks!

This was the very first trip that we didn't do the DDP. We usually do the quick service plan. But it just doesn't make sense for us anymore. My girls and I aren't big eaters and paying for adult plans for us just isn't worth it.

Yes, I agree. I no longer feel the DDP makes sense for us anymore. We can eat much less expensively OOP. To me, there is no "convenience" of paying for the food ahead of time when it acually ends up costing us more.