Staying on property; doesn't seem worth it?

We've done both on and off site trips also, and have shifted to only onsite now. While the space and affordabiliy of staying offsite is really nice, going to WDW seems like a day trip each day, not a destination in itself.

For sure though- I am not one of those who would say they would rather not go to WDW than to stay offsite. Any WDW vacation is better than no WDW vacation. :duck:
 
we've done both on and off site.
for us, onsite feels like a carefree Disney vacation, offsite felt like we were just sleeping at a motel/hotel somewhere, anywhere. onsite, there is so much to do right at your fingertips (or the option to just "veg" in a quiet nook), we had to drive to find anything other than swimming or tv (yuk) when offsite.
we found our time was too valuable to spend driving (then parking, taking trams) to all the parks. we still rent a car for some offsite jaunts (shopping, flippers), but find WDW trans much faster than the door-to-entry time required with driving. btw, we take DME to our resort, then rent a car at the dolphin so we can drop a day or two as wanted (also, one does not need as large a vehicle when renting there or at the CCC, as using DME takes care of your luggage getting to/fro the resort).
we love having the interesting architecture, music, shopping, eateries, performers (BW), activities, and CMs at WDW resorts.

we don't carry purchases back to our resort- they are delivered. we love the ease of DME and airline check-in - i despise dragging luggage around. i can decide to go to a park alone, or one of us can easily leave a park if tired or ill while staying onsite. if your only way to get back is a car, everyone has to leave, even if the others are having a great time.

offsite is just too inconvenient and time-consuming for us. onsite is true relaxation and enjoyment, from the moment of check-in to that heart-breaking check-out day.:)
 
hi. I too agree about it being an emotional choice.

My parents have 2 timeshares in orlando and i have stayed in them many times. They are great. However, i dont like to cook or do laundry on vacation so, its not a perk. When my daughter was smaller, it was a benefit to have more room to play when we were hanging out. The rooms in the value resorts are small to me.

Now she's 7. We spend less time in the hotel and more in the parks, so space doesnt matter. We frequently travel alone and it is very convenient to not have a transportation worry. We rarely go off site, this year will be her first trip to univeral and the first she can remember to sea world.

I love taking the buses late at night and not waiting in the parking lot for an hour to get "home."

I always get the dining plan, so i love only having to bring spending money and the worry about running out is gone because my trip is completely paid for before i get there. I only need to think about souvenirs.

I have MEGA food allergies and other than home, disney is the only place where i can eat and feel safe that i am not eating some forbidden food that is hidden in my food. You can pick restaurants from the menus on line and the chef will come out and walk you through the buffets to let you know where your allergens lie.

I love having the packages sent to my room. There's no stroller now, so no where to put them down.

I love having something to do when relaxing before going to the parks. There is an arcade, many pools, lots to walk around to see for kids (especially at value resorts) We often save an evening just for walking around the site and taking pictures.

if funds are not an issue, i say try it. if you have kids stay somewhere fun. Though we like the beach club, it was not as appealing to a then 5 year old as pop and ASMo. If you do it once and hate it, at least you'll know. But you wont!!
 
I just dont like staying off property. Too me it feels like taking seven individual day trips instead of being on vacation.


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The Art of Animation rooms sound like they could be just what you are looking for! I haven't stayed there yet so I can't quite recommend it.

I used to always suggest the value resorts based on the memory of staying there as a child but in recent years I don't recommend them so freely. Through the eyes of 6 year old me they were magical and the larger than life themes were incredible, through the eyes of a married woman in her 20s I was more irritated my rolling luggage wouldn't fit between the edge of the bed and the TV stand after a long day of travel.

My DH always compares Disney hotel prices to Vegas hotel prices (we typically stay at the Wynn) and I have to explain you are paying for very different things. To me, the experience of a deluxe resort in Disney is such an elevated experience to even a value resort. I love the increased park transit options- you aren't always standing on a dark and crowded bus post fireworks, indoor room entrances, grand lobbies, elevated shopping options, and nearby high quality restaurants and entertainment. To me, you are paying a higher rate for some privacy and convenience which Disney can charge a very high premium for. I think its worth it.

Maybe try somewhere like Coronado Springs for your first on-property experience. To me, Coronado is the most "upscale" of the moderate level resorts. They also have sliding doors between the sleeping area and bathroom to provide some privacy. You will get immersed in the Disney experience and have a decent comparison to staying off property without totally breaking the bank.
 
I disagree.

I have stayed at Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Marriott's, Fairfield Inn's, Courtyard Inn's, Hampton Inn's, Hilton's, etc many times and only once have I ever had a room as small as the value resort room (and that was in Timmins Ontario at a tiny little hotel).

Even the room at the Marriott in Times Square was bigger than my value resort room (and hotel rooms in NYC are renouned for their tiny size).

Compared to a chain hotel, I find the value resort rooms small.
I agree. The value resort rooms are the tiniest I've seen and I include HI Express and those types of places too. The rooms at a decent Marriott or Hyatt are much bigger!
 
Before we had kids, we staying off property in 40$ hotels, and that worked great for us.

But now, I've got 3 young kids. If I want to stay off property, I will have to rent a car. And not anything, but a minivan and rent 3 car seats. It would probably cost us more than staying on property, where we'll have no worries.

If we go when the kids are older (do not need car seats), we might go back off-site, as we'll probably want to do Universal (they are too young for that right now anyway). But at their young age, a disney resort will be a must.
 
For me, it's a bit more about not having to worry about other stuff.

I do realize in doing so, I end up paying far more than I would if I split everything up. We also travel in one of the off-seasons, so the resort price jump doesn't hit as much. I also acknowledge that a lot of that 'worry-saving' stuff is just Disney making sure I don't spend my money at not-Disney so :/.

The only one I take issue with is number 1. The rate of increase may have caught up but disney is so much more expensive that it some times would take a 50% increase for a offsite hote to be as much. Not gonna happen.

Case in point. the third week in february we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria for 129 bucks a night. For disney that is peak season, we checked out the Yacht club, Beach club and the Broadwalk which supposedly are comparable (although we all know they are not). The cheapest rate we could get and this was for supposedly the rooftop room (lowest category) and including a 30% room rate was 335.00 per night!!:sad2:

During the season we're going, the Waldorf Astora would be 660$/night, which comes out to the same cost of our entire Disney vacation [6 night stay, park hoppers, plane tickets, sans food].

Something to realize when you are looking at the price points at the Astoria, their seasons are different than Disney's :). And while I do remember some really nice price points at the Astoria in the past, it's jumped a bit.
 
For me, it's a bit more about not having to worry about other stuff.I do realize in doing so, I end up paying far more than I would if I split everything up. We also travel in one of the off-seasons, so the resort price jump doesn't hit as much. I also acknowledge that a lot of that 'worry-saving' stuff is just Disney making sure I don't spend my money at not-Disney so :/.



During the season we're going, the Waldorf Astora would be 660$/night, which comes out to the same cost of our entire Disney vacation [6 night stay, park hoppers, plane tickets, sans food].

Something to realize when you are looking at the price points at the Astoria, their seasons are different than Disney's :). And while I do remember some really nice price points at the Astoria in the past, it's jumped a bit.


LOL, Oy vey do I know about that. I remember when my kids where small, of course I gave birth to small tazmanian devils, I would pay 3X's the price for a gallon of milk simply not to have to go inside the grocery store.


I think I always post about our great offsite trips because I always think of the new person on a budget. Our boards can some times be a scary place if your planning a first trip. You can walk away with the feeling of doom if you don't

  • stay onsite
  • do rope drop
  • use disney transportation
  • have adr's 8 months in advance

So many people use the word "magical" and a poor newbie mom is sitting home thinking, jeez, my poor kids are not going to have a great time because we can't afford to stay onsite. which imo is so not true. Like I said, my Waldorf astoria trip was just as magical. Look at all the responses. how many people have used the word "worry". as if staying offsite is all of a sudden mean horrific problems. which is funny because I've had great customer service off site and some very un disney like cm's.

I know everyone should plan what works for their family. I just like to let the "offsite" crowd know, Yes Virginia you can have a "magical, worry free" disney vacation at an off site hotel.
 
I haven't read the whole thread, but here's my take....

I've stayed on and off property...many times each. I recently stayed at my sisters time share (Star Island) and while I loved the resort, I still had to rent a car, drive to the parks, find a parking spot, pay for parking, couldn't use EMH or the dining plan.

For us, we like the whole vacation feel. When staying on property, we fly into MCO....Disney gets our luggage and delivers it our room. Disney drives us (on a very comfortable bus) to the resort......

We like being totally in the "Disney Bubble"....no driving, no parking fees....it's so much more like a vacation to me this way. Plus, I like EMH and the dining plan...we also like the Value Resorts....I think they are fun.......if you are concerned about a suite, the ASMusic resort has suites...I stayed in one a few years ago (there were 4 of us)...we had plenty of room...plus it had a fridge, microwave and coffee pot.

Whatever you decide, it's your vacation, so do what feels right to you. I agree with others that it's more of an emotional decision.....
 
Cherinva said:
I haven't read the whole thread, but here's my take....

I've stayed on and off property...many times each. I recently stayed at my sisters time share (Star Island) and while I loved the resort, I still had to rent a car, drive to the parks, find a parking spot, pay for parking, couldn't use EMH or the dining plan.

For us, we like the whole vacation feel. When staying on property, we fly into MCO....Disney gets our luggage and delivers it our room. Disney drives us (on a very comfortable bus) to the resort......

We like being totally in the "Disney Bubble"....no driving, no parking fees....it's so much more like a vacation to me this way. Plus, I like EMH and the dining plan...we also like the Value Resorts....I think they are fun.......if you are concerned about a suite, the ASMusic resort has suites...I stayed in one a few years ago (there were 4 of us)...we had plenty of room...plus it had a fridge, microwave and coffee pot.

Whatever you decide, it's your vacation, so do what feels right to you. I agree with others that it's more of an emotional decision.....

You put it right do not want to get bags do not want to drive or get rental car do not want to leave the property period
 
dlhvac said:
You put it right do not want to get bags do not want to drive or get rental car do not want to leave the property period

Now I'm thinking about January 9 2013 need a permanent vacation lol
 
Everyone is different...for us, we did buses for the first trip, I can say this for my entire family, NEVER EVER AGAIN! We always rent cars. I can't imagine any more than 2 adults in one room, I don't care what resort your at, I have stayed all levels of Disney, the rooms are not that much bigger at the deluxes or mods and $300-$500 per night for a "Deluxe" Disney hotel is almost funny! I know location and amenities play a factor in the price but haven't seen too many included amenities @ the deluxes that stand out. Location does play a factor but $300-$500 per night????????:scared1: We love our dining, and we like Disney....There are 5 of us going for 13 days. We did get free dining for September and the only deluxe hotel that seems worth it to us is BC, YC, because of the location and proximity of restaurants via boat/epcot/boardwalk. SOOOOOOO, I priced it out with the FD at the BC and YC for 5 adults, 3 rooms would b very expensive so I priced out 2 rooms with just the required 2 day base ticket for each ( in the past we have gotten burned by buying hoppers and more days than we ever used so we like to
upgrade tickets as we go so we don't spend wasted money on tickets that we don't use). We priced upgrading from FD to DLX dining due to signature dining nightly, breakfast in am and snacks for lunch....we all expected the cost to be "higher" due to our choice of hotel and
upgrading to DLX dining. The cost for the 2 rooms was absolutely astonishing so for fun I priced
all 5 of us in one YC room, $9000.00+. Are you freaking kidding me, 5 of us in one room for
$9000.00? The GF was $11,000:laughing: come on people!!!!!!

We calculated paying OOP as if we were on the DLX dining plan, 5 adults, California Grill, Yaghtsman Steakhouse, Narcoosees, Artist Point, Fultons etc....$100 per person per night just for
dinner...beverage, app, entree, dessert=$6,000 and this does not include 2 snacks per person a
day and a full breakfast per person per day, that's an additional $8 per day per person for snacks and $25-$30 per person per day for breakfast x12 days=$8000 NOT INCLUDING TICKETS OR HOTEL!!!!!!
So, we booked FD @ ASSp for 4 adults upgrading to DLX dining, a
3 day park passes for 13 days AND booked hubby @ the campsite on the PREMIUM PACKAGE getting he and my father 12 days private bass fishing excursions in Disney for 6 hours a day plus hubby gets 3 meals a day and 2 snacks a day plus park tickets. We rented a 6 bedroom/5.5 bath home 2 miles from Disney with our own private hot tub and covered heated in ground pool and 7flat screen TV's and 3 bathrooms have corner jacuzzi tubs!!!! The total price for everything including full size rental car and 5 free round trip flights ( thanks to SW Visa 50,000 points offer)
Total is $7300!!!!!!!!! ( we did get $881 in free gas from purchasing $6890 in Disney gift cards from our Giant Eagle grocery store to pay for Disney so I did deduct that from the total, we are already on our 7th free tank of gas thanks to this promotion from Giant Eagle!!). Yes, we won't b using the campsite or the Allstar Sports hotel but we paid for it and it's our choice.
 
Everyone is different...for us, we did buses for the first trip, I can say this for my entire family, NEVER EVER AGAIN! We always rent cars. I can't imagine any more than 2 adults in one room, I don't care what resort your at, I have stayed all levels of Disney, the rooms are not that much bigger at the deluxes or mods and $300-$500 per night for a "Deluxe" Disney hotel is almost funny! I know location and amenities play a factor in the price but haven't seen too many included amenities @ the deluxes that stand out. Location does play a factor but $300-$500 per night????????:scared1: We love our dining, and we like Disney....There are 5 of us going for 13 days. We did get free dining for September and the only deluxe hotel that seems worth it to us is BC, YC, because of the location and proximity of restaurants via boat/epcot/boardwalk. SOOOOOOO, I priced it out with the FD at the BC and YC for 5 adults, 3 rooms would b very expensive so I priced out 2 rooms with just the required 2 day base ticket for each ( in the past we have gotten burned by buying hoppers and more days than we ever used so we like to
upgrade tickets as we go so we don't spend wasted money on tickets that we don't use). We priced upgrading from FD to DLX dining due to signature dining nightly, breakfast in am and snacks for lunch....we all expected the cost to be "higher" due to our choice of hotel and
upgrading to DLX dining. The cost for the 2 rooms was absolutely astonishing so for fun I priced
all 5 of us in one YC room, $9000.00+. Are you freaking kidding me, 5 of us in one room for
$9000.00? The GF was $11,000:laughing: come on people!!!!!!

We calculated paying OOP as if we were on the DLX dining plan, 5 adults, California Grill, Yaghtsman Steakhouse, Narcoosees, Artist Point, Fultons etc....$100 per person per night just for
dinner...beverage, app, entree, dessert=$6,000 and this does not include 2 snacks per person a
day and a full breakfast per person per day, that's an additional $8 per day per person for snacks and $25-$30 per person per day for breakfast x12 days=$8000 NOT INCLUDING TICKETS OR HOTEL!!!!!!
So, we booked FD @ ASSp for 4 adults upgrading to DLX dining, a
3 day park passes for 13 days AND booked hubby @ the campsite on the PREMIUM PACKAGE getting he and my father 12 days private bass fishing excursions in Disney for 6 hours a day plus hubby gets 3 meals a day and 2 snacks a day plus park tickets. We rented a 6 bedroom/5.5 bath home 2 miles from Disney with our own private hot tub and covered heated in ground pool and 7flat screen TV's and 3 bathrooms have corner jacuzzi tubs!!!! The total price for everything including full size rental car and 5 free round trip flights ( thanks to SW Visa 50,000 points offer)
Total is $7300!!!!!!!!! ( we did get $881 in free gas from purchasing $6890 in Disney gift cards from our Giant Eagle grocery store to pay for Disney so I did deduct that from the total, we are already on our 7th free tank of gas thanks to this promotion from Giant Eagle!!). Yes, we won't b using the campsite or the Allstar Sports hotel but we paid for it and it's our choice.

So Disney isn't going to care that you're booking just for the free dining? Not arguing, just wondering.
 
We have stayed on and off and the last time we stayed off property at the Lake Buena Vista Best Western, it is and isnt cheaper , watch out for the hidden hotel fees they will charge you like a daily resort fee almost all of them have it and it is anywhere between $9.00 to $10.00 a day , and the only other thing we were not really fond of was the fact that the buses stop there last bus off the Disney property anywhere between 10:30 to 11:00 pm depending on what hotel your at for Downtown Disney it is a little later, but the reason this stinks is this , if your the type of person like myself and DD we like to go into the parks at our leisure anywhere between 10 and 11am and the thing we found was that we had to base our days on reminding ourselves that the last bus was leaving the park at 10:30pm when we went which stunk , we like to hang in the parks til they are almost empty we love to see it all cleared out and be able to take our time getting to the buses, with staying off property you dont have this benefit unless you have a rental car, and if you are there for special ticket events such as MNSSHP OR MVMC you are a slave to their bus schedule which they could care less if you have tickets to the events and want to stay til the end of them. So this may be an issue you should be aware of. We like on and off property but if we stay off property again we will rent a car but then you have the added expense of 14.00 a day for parking and some of the off property resorts charge a parking fee also. So if those things are a factor for you then consider them and I highly recommend doing the research on the hidden charges and just be very aware of the bus schedules ,nothing can ruin a vacation more than an expensive cab ride back to your hotel because you missed your bus. Atleast if your on Disney property and missed the last bus you have a better chance of getting back to the resort with the help of the CM's. Hope this helps you!:thumbsup2
 
I would like to know how people know Disney's policy on paying for a hotel room and not using it? Quite a few people seem sure Disney would cancel the reservation but have no experience of it personally. I still don't think they care.
 
ben1993 said:
I would like to know how people know Disney's policy on paying for a hotel room and not using it? Quite a few people seem sure Disney would cancel the reservation but have no experience of it personally. I still don't think they care.

Because those people who got caught would not come back to post their room was shut down and given to someone else.

Would you knowingly cheat the system, boast about it, ask for advice how to do it, and then crawl back and admit you were wrong. It's a no-brainer.
 





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