Staying on site VERSES off site.

[kiwitravel]

If money was no consideration then I would probably stay onsite, however as it is we prefer to stay at one of the offsite hotels directly across the road. Its about a 2 minute walk to shuttle area and once there you are in the atmosphere of Disney. Coming from the other side of the world we usually stay at least two weeks so $$$ of onsite really adds up.

If money was no barrier then I would stay at one of the DLH suites, the pirate suite looks awesome!!!

 

[LucyDingo]

I've never stayed on site at Disneyland. But I imagine it would be a must as far as "magic" goes. It's just too darn expensive for me.

We stay on-site at moderate or value resorts at WDW. But offsite at Disneyland.

 

[pouncingpluto]

For a quick, cheap trip by myself, I choose HoJo. For a longer trip that is more of a vacation with my husband, on-site.

WDW- on-site ALWAYS.

 

[bumbershoot]

I wanted to comment on the magic thing.

As obvious from my earlier post, going through the commercial Hades of DTD reduces the "magic" significantly for me.

But when you walk along the disneyland side of Harbor, b/c you're staying at HoJo and will cross over at Manchester, and as you walk through the parking lot near Disneyland, you can *hear the music* from Disneyland. And that's lovely!

 

[kerickson]

I chose On Site, but was a tough choice. We stayed offsite 2 years ago at a Residence Inn and were upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite which was amazing with 2 young kids. The shuttle really was very convenient, but we stayed in the parks all day, littlest one napped in the stroller luckily but we all had a few meltdowns with the long hours. Don't know if we would have napped at the hotel if it had been onsite. If it had been summer would have been fun to hop in an onsite pool during the day...

Last year my husband and I stayed at the Grand Cal with another couple and it was great. Lots of magic and loved being in DDD and between the parks. No kids that trip so it was hard to compare. We later purchased DVC and plan to purchase Grand California DVC when it is offered, so we plan to stay on site more in the future, but my husband has lots of hotel points, so in between trips will probably be offsite...

 

[pouncingpluto]

Speaking of which... when are the DVC Grand Cal rooms supposed to be available? We won't buy more points (300 are PLENTY for us), but I'd love to try to get a room at 7-months at GC from time to time. Maybe we could finally make that Christmas trip to California.

 

[kerickson]

Speaking of which... when are the DVC Grand Cal rooms supposed to be available? We won't buy more points (300 are PLENTY for us), but I'd love to try to get a room at 7-months at GC from time to time. Maybe we could finally make that Christmas trip to California.

It's supposed to be open by the end of '09. They are only building 80 2BR units (which convert to studios and 1 bedrooms too), which is very small compared to any other DVC property. The expectation is that it will sell out prior to being available to the public (existing DVC members will get first option to purchase) and booking at 7mo will be tough, at least the first few years and especially at in Dec. Dec and Jan are typically busy DVC times due to the lower point values and Christmas decorations. If you want Christmas best option will be to purchase or try to trade points or vacations with an owner. But time will tell whether any of the above is accurate. We plan to buy enough pts for a 4 or 5 night trip every 3 years...

 

[Inkmahm]

I'm really glad we reserved the Grand Californian for our trip next August! We used Vacation club points for our reservation. We always stay onsite at WDW at either Boardwalk Villas, Wilderness Villas or Animal Kingdom Villas. I'm sure we'll love the GCH!

 

[DizMe]

One note about sending packages back to the hotel from DL: be sure you have your receipts, as they won't send back anything that isn't on a receipt. I was going to send a few items back that were in my purse (poncho, brush) and my extra sweatshirt (purchased the day before but receipt-less), but those couldn't go in the bag of new purchases and had to stay with me (tip: if they ask you if everything in the shopping bag is on the receipt, say yes). The locations I know of where you can drop off your packages are the News Stand (near the DL entrance/exit on Main St), Pioneer Mercantile in Frontierland, and EngineEars in CA.

I voted for staying on site. It really is nice to be off the "real" streets. If I could save $1000 staying off site, I would likely have a different opinion, but rarely have I had enough of a cost difference (thanks to AP rates and good timing) to tempt me to stay outside the resort. Last month my sister and I walked all up and down Harbor and over to the mall (Garden-something). Honestly, I found it depressing and was glad to enter the resort and exit reality . I'll be staying at Hojo's in January because it's a low budget birthday trip and not my main DL vacation, but I'm trying hard to think of some way I can squeeze out the extra money for DLH. I need about $125 more for it. 2 nights at DLH @ $149/night + tax and resort fee = ~$380; 2 nights at Hojos @ Ent. rate of $59/night + tax = $135, and split between 2 people the difference is $122 or thereabouts. Doesn't sound like much, but I have to come up with airfare etc and I've already been in Oct and Nov and am going again in Feb

It's interesting to see all the different opinions. I personally don't like GCH that well. I love the lobby, but much of the hotel is just weird and inconvenient. I do like the CA entrance, but it sure seems like they could've come up with a better hotel layout. I don't find it worth the money unless I'm splitting the cost and/or on an adult trip. I like Whitewater Snacks but the regular full service restaurants are way too pricey for families, IMO. OTOH, I wouldn't normally stay at PP when for slightly more I can stay at my favorite, DLH. I like staying in the Dreams tower, which makes it convenient to get to DL either by walking or riding the monorail. I like the restaurants on site and I like the bookstore & RFC steps away. I won't say I'm wild about DTD but I do like it much, much better than walking down the sidewalk outside the resort, although I can't stand the kettle corn smell after about a day.

 

[tracer]

After taking several trips in the past and staying off site, this last week we decided to stay on site...only because they were offering some huge discounts plus a gift card.

My thoughts are:
If you go during the holidays, stay ONsite. There is so much going on in each hotel; decorations, characters and Santa. DTD is decorated beautifully as well. You never loose the magical feel. If you go during any other time, I would say either ON or OFF is fine. If you can save a huge amount of money stay off site.

After staying on site I don't think we will ever go back to off site unless it is a hotel that is not within walking distance. The ones on Harbor are close but that is just about the only thing good about them. They isn't anything "special" about them. We have 3 little ones so we go back for nap and usually turn in early. If we were only in our rooms for sleeping then it wouldn't matter much. We also aren't into the ART thing right now because we take 2 strollers, a single and a double. It's a PITA to empty them and load eveything on to the ART.

Sooo, eventhough we stayed at the DLH we still had a walk to the main gates. We tried the monorail once and it was a PITA with the kids and strollers. But the walk through DTD was so much fun and beautiful! The magic is there and just preps you for what is about to come as soon as you walk into DL.

Staying at the DLH, we never left the magic, we were in a Disney bubble and it was as if nothing else mattered. We didn't think about anything else except where we were and what we were doing. We also has a theme park view so when we got in our room, we still were apart of DL. We plan to try the PPH for a diff experience in the future and one day if we can get the nerve up for it, the GCH. I just have a hard time paying that much for a small room.

Do your research before you go, check the deals and the diff packages out there and you may be able to get an ONsite hotel for a great price!

 

[cymbaldiva]

Only been to DLR once ( just recently - loved it, btw! ) - we stayed off site and it was great. We were in easy walking distance, could see the parks from our room, and saved a ton of $$. Also the very affordable lockers were located conveniently between the parks for our stuff - too easy! The only way I can see staying onsite is on someone else's dime

At WDW, on the other hand, I've only stayed onsite - the property is too big to be off site. Last time we rented a car though, the bus transportation has gotten a bit spotty.