Staying offsite - how much cheaper?

[m1ckeymouse]

Hi Everyone

We know you guys will be able to help. We would love to go back to Disney next year, prob early Decmber for 2 weeks, but really the budget won't streach until about 2013!

We usually fly Virgin and would need a good reason to change, (I know I couldn't do indirect flights)stay onsite at one of the values, without dining and take advantage of ME, so don't have a car.

We have been looking at staying off site, poss Windsor Hills? with car hire and sat nav and car seat. (2 adults and a 5yo - hopefully school won't be a problem as his teachers remarked on the huge difference in him last time we went. He has ASD) Basically we are just confusing ourselves and not managing to make it much cheaper (would rather have a villa than a condo). Although we are feeling brave enough to book it all seperately.

Any thoughts?

Sorry very waffley as usual!!

 

[Clare D]

Firstly I would say take the plunge and book independently as this should save you a few £££.
Secondly consider a different airline as Virgin are not the cheapest. I notice that you are in Bedfordshire so flying from Gatwick can work out cheaper than Manchester.
I know you have mentioned December but would you consider maybe going in November instead and taking advantage of the free dining as this could save you a considerable amount of money and mean that you don't need car hire.
Otherwise if you do opt for a villa do you need a car with sat nav and could you take your own booster seat to save you the hire costs?

 

[Beep]

Hiya,

We are 4 adults and looked at staying onsite and offsite.

We have a 4-bed villa booked for 2 weeks in October at Rolling Hills (right by Windsor Hills) and it is £450 per week. We stayed in a villa in December last year for part of our trip and it was around £400 per week. Obviously the more people that stay in the villa the cheaper it works out.

We have a 7-seater minivan booked for £280 for the 2 weeks and would have hired a car if we were staying onsite too. Rolling Hills is around 10 minutes away from Disney so the travelling time/distance is minimal.

Weighing up the pros and cons the villa definitely worked out better for us. Last time we had a few meals at the villa rather than eating out which helped with costs too.

If you would like details of the villas pm me and I'll send them to you

Edited - sorry, forgot to add. We have a tomtom and downloaded the USA maps and although it was useful we could have easily done without it. The Windsor Hills/Rolling Hills area is dead easy to get to from the airports and heading into Disney couldn't be easier. It was really easy to get back to from the parks and I-Drive, SeaWorld, Universal etc.

If you had something like the mapman map you would be fine.

I went onto Mapquest and put the main routes in and took them with us incase the satnav didn't work and we would have been fine with the directions. Basically, wherever you are, you head towards the 192 which is really well signposted, go East or West depending on which direction you need and voila - done!

 

[Kath2003]

We stay in a nice 3* hotel off-site, sleeps 4 to a room, £42/night this year

 

[Lizzim]

Don't forget though - if you stay off site you have to pay parking at the parks, which can add up

 

[2Tiggies]

Don't forget though - if you stay off site you have to pay parking at the parks, which can add up

Currently $14 per day - expect that to go up $2-3 in the next couple of years.