staying offsite - driving in Florida

[hdrolfe]

With all the changes and extra costs with less benefits for an onsite stay, plus our desire for a bit of a less hectic trip, I'm considering staying offsite. From what I understand it would be best to rent a car in that case. I'm a nervous type driver and one thing I do like about staying on site is the buses/transportation hotel to park. So driving... can someone from Canada perhaps compare to driving in ?? Ottawa? Toronto? a smaller city? I imagine I'd get a phone/GB package so I can use my google maps or that other driving app I can never remember the name of I'm not keen on driving while on vacation, but I also wouldn't mind saving some money on the hotel!

 

[von Monster]

It's no where near as awful as the GTA during rush hour. Roads are nicer, and I find there are less complete morons behind the well doing 50% over the speed limit in bumper to bumper traffic. YMMMV obviously. Definitely get a data plan to use Google Maps or Waze, whatever you feel comfortable with.

Also either get or pay you rental company to include the E-PASS/CFX toll transponder unless you like being stuck in traffic a lot more than I do. It sucks paying to use roads until you realise it's way less expensive than the 407, and the reason fuel is so inexpensive.

 

[CanucksRock]

I don’t find it any different than driving in any city in Canada. Easier than Toronto. Your rarely on the freeway (depending on where you stay)

If renting from the airport you can get the Visitor Toll Pass. You don’t pay any extra fees and get a discount on your tolls (which once again, depending on where you stay, you’ll likely only have Tolls going to/from airport)

I have only ever stayed on-site once, all other trips have been off site with a rental.

 

[ottawamom]

Depending on where you are planning on staying, some of the hotels have buses to shuttle you to the parks. They are at set times during the day but they can work out as well. That way you would just need a car service from the airport.

On a recent trip to Orlando we rented a car as we were doing Universal and another hotel stay. Picking up the car etc at the airport was easy. It was similar to driving on the 417 in my opinion. A GPS definitely helps to know where you are going and avoiding the tolls (if that's what you want to do).

Factor in the fees you'll have to pay for parking at the parks and possibly the hotel. It was nice to be able to eat offsite in restaurants and go to some of the outlet malls to do some shopping etc.

 

[Dznefn]

If you stay in the Disney vicinity it should be very easy as long as you have maps or a gps. The only problem we had was missing a turn off once when we were going to a dinner reservation and having to drive for miles (so it seemed) in order to get to a turn off to get back lol. We've driven from the airport/Disney/Universal and had no problems- we're from Alberta (Calgary/Edmonton). I think the busiest we encountered was driving from Universal to Disney and that was during the day, but still better than rush hour traffic here. Plus if you drive to the parks in the mornings with everyone else, you can park your rental fast and the furious-car show style.

 

[bababear_50]

Just my two cents worth
I am an experienced driver but hate driving,, not being familiar with the areas would be too much for me.


I have done a triple split stay using just Uber /cabs between a 2 days Disney Spring resort (Hilton) ,, 4 days Art Of Animation resort and Royal Pacific resort 3 days. Yeah busy but actually turned out fun.
Ok and there was a trip to the shops for fun souvenir shopping too. lol

Best wishes planning
Hugs
Mel

 

[hdrolfe]

Thanks all, I do feel a bit better about the prospect. I considered uber/shuttles/cabs as well, but thought it would cost as much or be less convenient.

 

[von Monster]

Just my two cents worth
I am an experienced driver but hate driving,, not being familiar with the areas would be too much for me.


I have done a triple split stay using just Uber /cabs between a 2 days Disney Spring resort (Hilton) ,, 4 days Art Of Animation resort and Royal Pacific resort 3 days. Yeah busy but actually turned out fun.
Ok and there was a trip to the shops for fun souvenir shopping too. lol

Best wishes planning
Hugs
Mel

If the distance isn't far Uber/Lyft is definitely the way to go; you have to remember pretty much everywhere you're going to go (Disney/Universal/etc) you're going to be paying a not small parking charge.

You'll only save money renting if you are driving more (Hey lets day trip to Tampa or whatever) or if you're not visiting the parks frequently enough to wind up paying parking often.

 

[TommyJK]

If the distance isn't far Uber/Lyft is definitely the way to go; you have to remember pretty much everywhere you're going to go (Disney/Universal/etc) you're going to be paying a not small parking charge.

You'll only save money renting if you are driving more (Hey lets day trip to Tampa or whatever) or if you're not visiting the parks frequently enough to wind up paying parking often.

All of this! If you're completely staying "local" in the Orlando area, it will likely be much cheaper to just Uber/Lyft vs Having a car rented for the entire trip. You can even budget it to get an idea of the costs. If you have a decent idea of the different places you would plan on going to, you can do trip estimates on both Uber and Lyft sites to see what your overall costs will be in general and it will most likely be a good amount cheaper than the cost of car rental, tolls, and parking costs at the various theme parks.

 

[pigletto]

I agree with the above.
You might want to consider Sheraton Vistana or Wyndham Bonnet Creek. You’d be so close to on property with both of them that you aren’t doing much driving and they both have great pools and condo type rooms to spread out in. We’ve stayed at both . Wyndham Bonnet Creek is right beside Caribbean Beach. Sheraton Vistana is maybe 5 minutes from being on property. Maybe. Its super close.
One place we haven’t tried but have heard great things about is Orange Lake Resort. It has an awesome looking water park if your son is in to that.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

Depending on where you are planning on staying, some of the hotels have buses to shuttle you to the parks. .

It's odd to me how many people don't realize this.

I've never stayed at a hotel in Orlando that didn't provide some sort of shuttle to most of the parks.

 

[Sue M]

Just my opinion I live in the burbs outside of Vancouver. I think driving in Orlando, theme park area is crazy. Bad mix of tourist drivers, elderly and young locals too.

If I stayed off site, I would look at the hotels in the Disney Springs Hotel area. There are Hiltons, Doubletree, Holiday Inn, B Resort, Best Western and Wyndham hotels. Many are walking distance to DS, and the hotels run their own shuttle that runs continuously every 30 min. You wouldn’t need a car. Also you can often find discounts on Mousesavers.com for these hotels. Sign up for their emails to get special discount codes in addition to their web site codes. I once got room discount and free breakfast for Doubletree.
They are on WDW property but not Disney owned.

Other off site hotels do have shuttles but times are limited, and aren’t meant for coming back for afternoon breaks then returning. And sometimes last shuttle leaves before fireworks.
I‘d look at car rental rates, right now they’re crazy. Last I looked it was $1000 for a week. There’s a rental shortage.

 

[Chickinvic]

With all the changes and extra costs with less benefits for an onsite stay, plus our desire for a bit of a less hectic trip, I'm considering staying offsite. From what I understand it would be best to rent a car in that case. I'm a nervous type driver and one thing I do like about staying on site is the buses/transportation hotel to park. So driving... can someone from Canada perhaps compare to driving in ?? Ottawa? Toronto? a smaller city? I imagine I'd get a phone/GB package so I can use my google maps or that other driving app I can never remember the name of I'm not keen on driving while on vacation, but I also wouldn't mind saving some money on the hotel!

Driving around the resort (and elsewhere near Orlando) is pretty easy. Polite drivers for the most part. I disagree about the terrible tourist driving. For the most part it is way better than the big cities in Canada. It is way better than Ottawa, and a million miles less stressful than Toronto (which even I wouldn't want to do). I also find it better by far than Vancouver. Where I now live (Victoria, which has always been my hometown) is laid back for the most part, and maybe a bit similar to driving there. Trust me, compared to Ottawa driving (and I lived in Ottawa from 2013-2020) it is 100% less stressful. I hated the aggressive drivers there. And if you've ever survived the nightmare of driving in Montreal (shudders) then it is 1000 times less stressful than that.

I stay at a 4 bed, 3 bath villa in Emerald Island Resort (about a 10 minute drive from the parks) with its own private pool and hot tub, etc, for $100US/night (including pool heating). It is November when I usually go, so the pool heating is required IMO (unless you aren't a swimmer in which case it wouldn't be necessary). The owner only charges me 10/night for the pool heating and I'm an avid swimmer so I pay it. Without that she would only be charging me $90/night (which is an absolute steal). This is in a gated community that also has a larger pool, tennis, etc. I strictly use the private pool in the yard though It is so nice that we sometimes just spend a day there chilling out.

In short, I would never stay on site. And the thing I HATED about WDW was the damned FP+ which was a completely unfair system towards anyone not staying on site. I found it completely useless for the most part. I don't mind them giving perks to people on site such as extra hours and things like that, but this FP+ thing was complete ********. I have paid just as much for my day at the park (during normal park hours) and I deserve equal treatment/opportunity to ride popular rides.

Oh, also to add - even though I rent a car down there, I normally just used Uber to get to and from the parks unless I'm with someone who has the annual pass with parking included.

 

[Donald - my hero]

put us firmly in the "don't do it" category and this is from someone who rents 8/10 times. Nervous driver + nervous child (from all of your posts) = more than one freak-out when you miss a turn, get stuck between buses at multi-lane corners that have confusing markings, end up circling endlessly because signs aren't always intuitive or suddenly find yourself on an interstate. The signage is 100% better than even 5 years ago but we've had some of our worst fights in a rental car while at Disney

More cars on the road driven by people who are also unsure of where they're going than you experience at home and most of them are as confused as you! Is it doable? Sure, but personally i think you'd come out ahead cost wise with Uber/taxi now that parking is $25/day at the theme parks. PLUS some of the off-site hotels charge for parking and have nebulous resort fees. Saving money is great and I think you'd be fine at any of the gazillion to chose from but I'd lean towards other transportation methods.

 

[Chickinvic]

My experience is completely the opposite of that. Everything is very well marked IMO. Honestly, I think you will be surprised how easy driving is around there. It didn't stress me out at all, and I don't like driving in unfamiliar places. I would have had a heart failure trying to drive in Toronto. Oh, and I am "directionally challenged" to say the least - and it was still very doable lol.

 

[starvenger]

If you're on I-4 during rush hour it's about as bad as any freeway during rush hour. Overall? Maybe similar to Niagara Falls when it's busy. Nothing like Toronto traffic, unless you're trying to go through the downtown.

But If your plan is to stay near Disney and only go around International Drive it's really not that bad. Get Waze to get you around and you should be fine.

My last visit we stayed near W Osceola and Vineland, which was an easy drive to WDW (we made a left, then a left, and straight into WDW) and Universal. Should be plenty of AirBnBs in the area if you go that route.

 

[Chickinvic]

If you want to avoid VRBO and AirBnB BS "booking fees" or whatever they called their charges, you can find a place on floridarentalsbyowner.com - no fees. You can actually contact the owners directly. Much more like VRBO used to be before they introduced all their ridiculous charges.

 

[samsteele]

some of the hotels have buses to shuttle you to the parks

This. There are some nice decently priced hotels within walking distance to Dis Springs. Consider using the hotel shuttle to the parks or if near enough to Dis Springs, maybe use the internal bus service to the Springs and then walk to the hotel. Also decide if renting a car is worth it. If hesitant to use Uber, see if the hotel has an airport shuttle. Sure if you search youtube for WDW vloggers, lots of Dis Spring area hotels will pop up in their reviews. Many of them have some WDW park perks as well. Best of both worlds at a better price point.

Edited to add: just read @Sue M post above. She had this suggestion first!

 

[badiggio]

If its only the 2 of you,rent points and rent a deluxe studio.There's always people renting out points on the boards here and good deals to be had.No stress and good transportation all around.

 

[Benchedguy]

We've stayed at Windsor Hills area when off-site. But do prefer onsite and would suggest the same as above in renting points. But for the most part the roads were not bad in that area except for 192 and I-4. Those 2 highways at peak times can be nightmares, like the 401 around the Airport at rush hour with alot of traffic. But if you avoid those 2, the rest of the roads are not bad. But I agree with some others that its do-able and we are going to be driving it the next time.