Staying on-site vs off-site: Are the benefits worth it?

[blahblah18]

Here's our situation:

First visit to Disney World is coming up in July (but we're frequent visitors to Disneyland, and one time visitor to DLP).

We like the "Big" rides: Rise of the Resistance, Remy's Ratatouille, hopefully the new Guardians coaster. (And we're ok with paying for the Individual Lightning Lane access.) We don't like Standby lines. Not my thing. I prefer not to do a long standby line, no matter what the ride at the end!

We currently have our 5 day WDW ticket purchased, with reservations made across all four of the parks. And we're booked to stay the week at a nice timeshare property not too far away.

But... with benefits like early access to Lightning Lane purchases... we're wondering if we should stay one night at an on-site property (like Swan or Dolphin)? (Maybe check in on our Epcot day, and check out the following day ... where we have Hollywood Studios reserved.) Just for the 'on-site hotel benefits'!

It adds a bit of time and complexity, but we can get those hotels on points ... so the cost would be negligible.

• Are the benefits worth it?
• Is there any risk that we might not get our 'BIG rides' with Lightning Lane at any of the parks if we don't stay on-site ... and therefore don't have early access to Individual Lightning Lane purchases and early entry?
• If we stay at an on-site hotel one night, do we get full 'on-site' park benefits on both days (i.e. our arrival day and our departure day)? Or do we only get the on-site benefits once we've checked in in the afternoon ... meaning we wouldn't get the early morning benefits on that arrival day?

 

[vanderbar]

Just back from 2 weeks at WDW (1 week on-site and 1 off-site).

My experience: many ILL (Rise, etc) will sell out before 9am when off-site have the chance to access. Whilst there may be drops later in the day, you can't bank on getting them.

On-site get 30mins early entry into the parks, so off-site can't really rope drop any more as will be at the back of the queue from early entry. One night as you suggest should get early entry to Remy and then Rise - there will still be a queue but at you'll be nearer the front. Or at least have access to the paid LL.

 

[DebLovesPooh]

Yes, those ILL are likely to be sold out by the time offsite can purchase. Yes, you do get on-site benefits for check in and check out day. Sounds like those benefits will be worth it to you. If you end up doing that, you should check out the swan and dolphin thread. I think I’ve read some posts about their reservations getting dropped from MDE, so they had to add it back in last minute to get those ILL.

 

[scrappinginontario]

If those ILL$ Purchases are important then yes I would highly recommend staying onsite one night.

 

[PalmettoPath]

Plus the proximity of less travel time being onsite is a great benefit as well (assuming WDW is your sole destination).

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

I agree with PPs about the value to you, esp for DHS. My caution I would tell anyone is that the benefits don't matter if you don't use them. So, while on vacation, at least one person has to be dedicated to being up and phone armed ready for the 7am hustle AND the whole party has to be committed to getting up and out in time for Early Entry.
I'm going soon, and park hours changed so that DHS EE is now at 7:30am. I'm struggling to convince my travel partner of the importance of getting up at 5:30, 6am to get up and out and to the line outside the park because she is not a morning person. Well, not a pre-dawn person. So that's something to consider. Of course, this is just two days for you, so should be fine, but I do think some people get excited forEE and don't think about hustling an entire family to it. On vacation.

 

[WALTSAGOD]

On-site is much more enjoyable, vegging out and just relaxing on the transportation is the main benefit!

 

[_19disnA]

Since the OP indicated this will be their first time at Disneyworld, important to understand how BIG each of the 4 parks are and how crowded they will likely be. You can only pay for 2 LL rides per day and the Genie option is basically only good every 2 hours. If you want to use those paid options, there is no guarantee every ride will be available even if staying on the property. Since the OP indicated they don't like to stand in line, good to understand that virtually every Disneyworld ride/show involves a line and sometimes a relatively long wait. I would expect to find that every popular ride has a line of some sort.

Even if you stay on the property, you will probably be surprised to find how crowded the parks are and no hotel is closest to every park. That is just the reality of going to someplace that is as big of a draw as Disneyworld.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Here's our situation:

First visit to Disney World is coming up in July (but we're frequent visitors to Disneyland, and one time visitor to DLP).

We like the "Big" rides: Rise of the Resistance, Remy's Ratatouille, hopefully the new Guardians coaster. (And we're ok with paying for the Individual Lightning Lane access.) We don't like Standby lines. Not my thing. I prefer not to do a long standby line, no matter what the ride at the end!

We currently have our 5 day WDW ticket purchased, with reservations made across all four of the parks. And we're booked to stay the week at a nice timeshare property not too far away.

But... with benefits like early access to Lightning Lane purchases... we're wondering if we should stay one night at an on-site property (like Swan or Dolphin)? (Maybe check in on our Epcot day, and check out the following day ... where we have Hollywood Studios reserved.) Just for the 'on-site hotel benefits'!

It adds a bit of time and complexity, but we can get those hotels on points ... so the cost would be negligible.

• Are the benefits worth it?
• Is there any risk that we might not get our 'BIG rides' with Lightning Lane at any of the parks if we don't stay on-site ... and therefore don't have early access to Individual Lightning Lane purchases and early entry?
• If we stay at an on-site hotel one night, do we get full 'on-site' park benefits on both days (i.e. our arrival day and our departure day)? Or do we only get the on-site benefits once we've checked in in the afternoon ... meaning we wouldn't get the early morning benefits on that arrival day?

Agree with PP if the skipping the line benefit is worth it to you. By the time the park opens, ROTR, SDD, Remy will all be sold out so then your best bets are rope dropping or end of day getting in line which for some of those rides will still be close to an hour wait.

Swan and Dolphin are a great on property alternative since you get deluxe accommodations for moderate pricing and the proximity to DHS and Epcot are great. Look for deals if you can. I know right now Disney has a summer special rate out too if you can find some deals. I think boardwalk was high $300's/nt on the summer deal and that might be close to Swan and Dolphins pricing right now and it's a bit closer to Epcot.

 

[kanerf]

One of the best things about staying on-site is you can go back to your room at some point during the day to rest and get out of the heat for a while before going back to the parks or for dinner. This can be a really good deal if you have young children in tow.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

One of the best things about staying on-site is you can go back to your room at some point during the day to rest and get out of the heat for a while before going back to the parks or for dinner. This can be a really good deal if you have young children in tow.

We have teenagers in tow and taking midday breaks for all of us is even a huge benefit!

 

[Mle8308]

And yes, if you stay on property for even one night you can do ILL for two days, arrival and departure. As a previous poster said, if you choose the Dolphin or Swan, make sure all is linked in MDE beforehand. You could even benefit from the evening extra magic hours if you book the right night!

 

[Smugpugmug]

One of the best things about staying on-site is you can go back to your room at some point during the day to rest and get out of the heat for a while before going back to the parks or for dinner. This can be a really good deal if you have young children in tow.

I'm a childless millennial and even I love doing a midday break. Don't think I could survive the Florida heat without one lol

But I agree with what others have said. If those ILL rides are important to you and you don't want to wait in the standby line for them I would stay onsite for 1 night just to get the early ILL booking benefit. I also agree about transportation. It's just so much easier to just hop on a bus/monorail/Skyliner to wherever you need to go vs. driving there yourself and paying the parking fee every day or taking a rideshare.

 

[Tattylou]

We stayed onsite and got up at 7am and still didn’t get a LL for ROR on one of our days. We were onsite for a week though so we got it our other HS days. Just fyi you aren’t guaranteed to get it even at 7am onsite. We were there a particularly busy week and did have a party of 7 - factors that added to difficulty getting it even at 7am.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

Ok, so we know that staying onsite has its benefits with LL, rope drop, transportation and what not, but my DW and DD are late sleepers, especially the DW, would it be worth it staying onsite? I know this is subjective as it depends on what we as a family likes/want, but asking anyways. I could get my DW and DD up early for the first day at the Magic Kingdom, but outside that I doubt it. Oh, should mention that we're not the type of family that goes commando on planning and riding rides. Do we want to ride rides? Absolutely! But we're more of the walking around, taking our time and seeing what happens kind of family.

ETA:
With the park reservation system in place, do we have to stay onsite in order to get preference in getting park reservations, or is it as long as you have a ticket you can get a reservation?

 

[Mle8308]

Ok, so we know that staying onsite has its benefits with LL, rope drop, transportation and what not, but my DW and DD are late sleepers, especially the DW, would it be worth it staying onsite? I know this is subjective as it depends on what we as a family likes/want, but asking anyways. I could get my DW and DD up early for the first day at the Magic Kingdom, but outside that I doubt it. Oh, should mention that we're not the type of family that goes commando on planning and riding rides. Do we want to ride rides? Absolutely! But we're more of the walking around, taking our time and seeing what happens kind of family.

ETA:
With the park reservation system in place, do we have to stay onsite in order to get preference in getting park reservations, or is it as long as you have a ticket you can get a reservation?

You can make park reservations as soon as you purchase tickets and link them in MDE. Depending on when you’re going, it’s best to make them ASAP. There are 3 different allocations of reservations. One for AP’s, one for resort guests, and one for ticket holders (not staying on Disney property). If you are trying to buy tickets for a time frame where no park reservations are available, they will not sell you a ticket. You have to indicate the starting date on whatever type of ticket you purchase. Or, if you buy tickets and wait too long to make reservations, you could be out of luck.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

You can make park reservations as soon as you purchase tickets and link them in MDE. Depending on when you’re going, it’s best to make them ASAP. There are 3 different allocations of reservations. One for AP’s, one for resort guests, and one for ticket holders (not staying on Disney property). If you are trying to buy tickets for a time frame where no park reservations are available, they will not sell you a ticket. You have to indicate the starting date on whatever type of ticket you purchase. Or, if you buy tickets and wait too long to make reservations, you could be out of luck.

Thanks for this information, this is what I needed to know. Man, more and more to think about when heading down to the World.

 

[summerlyangel]

If we only need 1 room, then yes, it is worth it to us to stay onsite at POP. If we have 5 or more and need 2 rooms, we stay offsite in a condo or suite style hotel, because 2 rooms at POP or a suite is just too expensive for our budget.

 

[01Sweetpea]

Hubby & I are headed down for a 5 night memorial day weekend trip for a business trip. We have hotel reservations off property with the business group, but decided to book 1 night on site at the cheapest resort to give us 2 days of early entry & early Genie+. We felt the perks of staying on sight were worth the cost.

We then scheduled our park reservations based around the two days that we knew we would have access to early entry and Genie+.

 

[Gentry2004]

We feel (hope) that we can do everything we want staying offsite and paying for Genie+ and riding Rise, FOP, 7DMT at closing. The one wrench in our plan is if Guardians does not have a standby line or VQ (this is for December), since I know the ILL$ will be long gone before off-site guests can purchase it. I may add 1 night onsite just for Guardians, we will see.