Staying Off Site Worth It?

[BigredNole]

it's awfully nice to be able to just hop on a bus and not have to think.

This assumes you are not waiting 90 minutes for the first bus to show up and more people in line than 1 bus. Then the next bus shows up 30-45 minutes after that. Staying offsite, I hop on the first monorail or ferry, tram or walk to the car, and at my room within 45 minutes. I am more than willing to bet by the time you Exit the park and get to room, it is far more than 45 minutes unless you are on the monorail loop.

 

[WaterLinds]

This assumes you are not waiting 90 minutes for the first bus to show up and more people in line than 1 bus. Then the next bus shows up 30-45 minutes after that. Staying offsite, I hop on the first monorail or ferry, tram or walk to the car, and at my room within 45 minutes. I am more than willing to bet by the time you Exit the park and get to room, it is far more than 45 minutes unless you are on the monorail loop.

Yeah, like I said, we had great return bus service. maybe we got extra lucky--we were at POFQ and in general they get decent reviews for bus service, although obviously there are good and bad days for anything. When we exited after fireworks there was more than one bus load waiting, but they had two buses there, loaded us up, and we were on the road within 10 minutes of walking out the park gates. POFQ has only one bus stop and it's a shot walk from anywhere at the resort, so we were at our room about 30 minutes from exiting the park.

Is that small savings in time and stress worth the price difference, especially when it's not guaranteed to always go that smoothly? Probably not.

 

[Monykalyn]

If we return to Disney while my kids are all teenagers, I might think about doing an on-site splurge for the convenience of being able to let them split up and do their own thing and return to the room when they want, but that is still several years away.

THis is really nice, however my teens like their own space at night. We own a timeshare so we often travel that way, or stay at a suite hotel.

but while I'm still living in reality

OMG this cracked me up! So true (and I'd do the same thing if I ever won lottery)

DS1 met a gator and got to hold it from Gatorland.

Our resort at Thanksgiving (Marriott Cypress Harbour) had Gatorland come out-so cool to hold the baby gator. In fact it makes us want to visit gatorland (and do zip line)

thanksgiving week, Dec 20 to Jan 2.(a little before Christmas to after NY).

We stayed offsite Thanksgiving-traffic really wasn't an issue-even getting into lots. But we were either there before rope drop, or didn't go until later in afternoon...
We were onsite/Disney springs over New years but went offsite often-my DD was finishing her college program so we were back and forth to her apartment (and shopping as I froze despite of packing heavier clothes!) Never did I think traffic was terrible. However (and this is big) we avoid I-4 at all costs. Even taking toll roads (have a sunpass) makes a huge difference!

still had enough in the difference to do a dessert party and EMM

And this really needs to be factored in-FEA dessert party-no need for frozen FP
EMM-welp-there's SDMT ride. So sacrifice one am of sleeping in to get on FoP without insane wait-and all other FP are available at 30 days (or less).

-access to Disney perks (EMH, 60 day FP)
-room cost plus extra charges (parking, resort fees, etc)
-amount of space available (sq ft, number of bed/bathrooms, kitchen, etc)
-pools (slide, lazy river, zero depth entry,splash pad, heated, etc.)
-dining (any meals included? Quality/price of restaurants on site? Access to grills, off site food, etc.)
-travel time to parks (shuttles/buses, driving--how variable is Drive depending on traffic?)
-any resort activities
-standard hotel ratings/reviews--cleanliness, helpfulness of staff, in room amenities, etc.
-any extras offered at specific hotels
-laundry (in room? Free?)

This is a great summary and might be a nice rubric to compare offsite resorts when people do a review!! Would be awesome to also have timing to parks. I do know DHS is <10 minutes from Marriott Sabal Palms (forgot my MB one am during Star Wars Weekends and I was really wanting to get there pre rope drop to get a spot for the storm Trooper show to open the park)
Also-maybe how you booked your offsite place, and any places to find discounts. For example- Disney Springs Doubletree booked through mousesavers right now has a free continental breakfast, or if booked through Disney springs sight-the parking fee is waived.


We often do a split stay on/off if all of us are going, or onsite or DS if just 2 of us.
Split stay for longer stays is best of both for us: FP at 60 for those really hard to get attractions, able to do parks as we like and split up, but we are done being surrounded by Disney and trapped into one room by about day 5 (well I think DH reaches that point about day 2-3 LOL).

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I will say the only way I will stay offsite is if I'm in a condo at WBC or Sheraton or someplace I don't know about that's equally as close. Windsor Hills would never work for us as I want to avoid 192 at all costs.