staying off site

[wendy_uk]

We are off to Florida next Febuary, and we have everything booked ie flight, car and accomodation. I was wondering if we could book into an on site hotel just for the 1 night, thought the experience would be great, unfortunately we just can't afford a 2 week holiday on site, we did enquire about it but it was 3 times the price of staying off site, ok you get the passes, but NO we couldn't justify it. (sad).
We visited Florida for the first time Feb 02 and stayed off site and had a wonderful time, but didn,t realise you could eat at the restaurants on site even if you stayed off site. So we will definately try a couple of these restaurants this time.
Going to try and book CRT for breakfast this time, and of course we will go back to chef mickeys.

 

[vernon]

While it's possible to book for just a night, I'm not sure the time wasted in moving hotels, checking in and out make it a worthwhile exercise. IMHO you really need to make it a minimum of 2 nights and preferably three to make it a desirable option. I probably wouldn't do this for one of the All Star resorts, nothing wrong with them but if you're going to use this option you might as well book into one of the nicer hotels and really use the hotels facilities. I'm not sure many people will share my view on this aspect, but in this situation, I would do the Disney parks while off site then relax and enjoy the Disney resort to the maximum. IMHO if you're shelling out the extra for the hotel, there's not much benefit if you're not there . I think this would be a great way to finish off a holiday and give you a chance to return home slightly relaxed LOL. If you book the hotels direct I don't think you have to take/pay for the ticket options that the travel agencies seem to tie you in to.

 

[SpottyDog]

Wendy, if you go this route it might be worthwhile taking Early Entry into account as you'll be able to take advantage of that as your room card/key allows you early entry the next day.

 

[martina857]

I agree with Vernon, it would be a waste to do just 1 night, in at 4pm out at 11am. Do 2 nights if you can, if it is to be special I would not do any of the All star resorts, they are fairly low budget and it would not be any different to staying in a cheapy hotel off site. Yes you can get early entry but its not worth the trade off.

 

[WDWfan uk]

....what dates are you going? Bear in mind that the rates jump mid February from Value Season to Peak Season - if you could book Value rates, then perhaps you could stay for two nights instead of one?

 

[KayleeUK]

I agree a couple of nights would be better. Pick a resort with a nice pool and spend some thime there. We love resort hopping - an attraction in itself

Kaylee

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

As an alternative, instead of staying in an on-site hotel for one or two nights why don't you put that money towards a couple of blow-out meals in the best restaurants such as Victoria & Albert's or Jiko. You can visit the public areas of the hotels (although you aren't allowed to use the pools) and take in the ambiance, without going to the expense of checking in. We did this a couple of years ago at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and had a very pleasant evening.

Regards

Rob

 

[BevS97]

We did this last year - we spent most of our trip off site and then moved onsite for the last 3 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We where going to do 2 nights but at the last minute I decided what the heck it's only money and booked an extra night.

If you look on www.mousesavers.com you can often get a good deal, and you don't have to book a package with tickets if you book direct with disney. I think we paid $150/night for Animal Kingdom Lodge, and it was worth every penny - yes you can visit the resort, but you don't get the same feeling as when you are staying there.

I would suggest staying onsite as a finale to your holiday, a) so that there is less packing and moving to be done, and b) once you've been onsite you won't want to go back to your off-site hotel, so it's nice to finish on a 'high'

Bev

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

While I could never be accused of "sitting on the fence" , I really do agree with everything that's been written.

We were in exactly this situation last year - already booked to stay offsite when I heard I was being made redundant and had a little bit more money to spend. However, we were only in Orlando for a week as we spent the other two weeks down on Marco Island and then the Keys. I had already booked one night at the Hard Rock Hotel since we wanted to have two days at Universal - we'd not done Islands of Adventure before. Our nights stay at the HRH was the best £97 I've ever spent - worth every penny in so many ways, but specially for the front of line access.

But then with this little extra money burning a hole in my pocket, blow all the other uses it could be put towards, instead I booked AKL for 2 nights. We wish we could have stayed all week!

My personal opinion is go for it - if you really would like the opportunity to stay onsite then do it, you'll feel very glad you did. We (mostly me ) thought about it and then some more - half the time deciding it was a waste of money, but in the end we just decided it would be a great experience. We didn't spent that much time at AKL, but the pool was great to come back to in the evening and just looking out of our savannah view room to see the animals day and night was worth every penny, cent, sleepless night worrying if I'd done the right thing.... and then some more. It's a totally unique experience.

I would suggest researching your resorts to find out which one you will get most value from - ie are you likely to go to the parks that day, if so which park and which hotel is nearest to that park, what the transportation system is like - just so you feel you're really getting the benefit of staying onsite.

I started off looking at one of the hotels like the Swan/Dolphin, Yacht Club as they're all on the Boardwalk - so walking distance to Epcot, loads of restaurants nearby. In the end of the AKL came so highly recommended we went for that and don't regret it at all.

We ate at two of the three restaurants at AKL - Mara the foodcourt for a burger one evening before we headed back to Epcot and then Boma for breakfast - outstanding. What made one night special was we went to MK for Mickey's Not So Scary Hallowe'en Party and it was really nice driving back after midnight to AKL so we could continue the Disney Magic.

Happy planning

 

[SpottyDog]

Annie, you put it so well.

We're stayin off-site for the first time this year and you've made me remember all the things we stay on-site for

Wendy, I hope you do stay on-site and take Annie's advice to research what you want to get out of the experience. It WILL be worth it for the Magic alone.

 

[BevS97]

I don't think you need to worry Dave, by the time you come back you will be raving about the villa lifestyle and how you can never go back to staying in one room again.

I love to stay onsite, don't get me wrong, but there is very little that you can't do it you are off site, all the restaurants are still available to you, you can visit the resorts, use the buses if you want to (although I personally prefer to use the car as it's easier), park hop etc,

plus you've got 2 bathrooms, kitchen with nice big fridge freezer which we found brilliant for freezing drinks to take round the parks, 2 tellys so the kids can watch something irritating on one, and you can watch grownup telly on another, I'm telling you, you will never go back....

Bev

 

[wendy_uk]

Thank you so much for all your helpful advice, my DH has said we will not stayy on site, but go to the restaurants and have a nice meal etc. I really wanna stay on site but he says NO and we can do so much more with the money that we save, as we have already paid for our off site accomadation.
Thanks once again Wendy x