Tell Me all the Advantages of Staying Offsite...

[Emme]

I know there is so much hype about staying onsite and we ourselves usually stay onsite, BUT...this trip we are thinking of going offsite in a villa. The savings would be close to $600. My hubby is a little harder to convince so that's where you all come in.

Please help me to get him excited about staying offsite in a nice two bedroom villa. Give me all your pluses about offsite and why we should definately go with it...

Thanks and give me your best!

 

[spiceycat]

less money, more space.

however you do need a car for quick transportation to the parks.

You can stay at a nice (not grand) resort offsite for less than a Disney moderate resort.

the Grand resort - Ritz Carlton, Gaylord, Hyatt Grande Cypress, Marriott World Center - are just as much as Disney.

however sometimes you can get a bargin with some offsite - Renaissance is a business hotel - so sometimes for the weekend and holidays it has reduced prices.

Hilton Grand Vacation Club is a timeshares - but it is still a Hilton - and sometimes they are having a deal for your state.

Would I stay in a 2-bedroom over a hotel room - well I didn't for this last trip - I could have had a 3-bedroom Imperial Palms a resort I wanted to stay at - vs Disney's SSR in a studio.... this was surpose to be a solo trip so the studio should have been fine. It wasn't....but that is another story.

 

[califred]

Well it's so much more space, we rented a house so we had our own private pool. We were able to cook a few days to help save more money. when it was bedtime for the kids, the adults still had somewhere to stay up.

We are staying on site this next time, but only b/c I am able to get a Military special they're offering. Otherwise we'd be back in a house. (And if we end up changing our dates we will also be in a house).

We did drive there so there was no need for a rental car and the house we stayed in was only a 10-15 minute drive from the parks.

 

[Brian Noble]

It's a money/space/amenities tradeoff. Whether the trade is worth it depends on the size and ages of your party, and whether you are a 'driver' or a 'rider'.

We have two kids, aged 4 and 6. The 4yo still naps from time to time at home, and more frequently when on the go-go-go of a vacation. The kids have bedtimes of 8-9, and we try not to stretch that more than a half hour or so on vacation.

We have an ironclad requirement for any stay longer than a day or two: there must be separate sleeping spaces for adults and children, separated by an honest-to-god wall with a door in it. This is non-negotiable. Even on one-night stays, I won't book a single room unless I don't have any competitive options, and I still resent the half hour I have to spend in the evening pretending to be asleep so that my kids will nod off.

You cannot do this on site, at any season, with any discount (except perhaps a CM discount), for less than about $110 per night all-in, and that was the "good old days" of $49 value rooms. More often, you are looking at $200 per night and up. You can get any number of pool homes, condos, townhouses, and all-suite hotel rooms that are well-kept, reasonably up-to-date, and clean for $60-$90 all-in per night, year-round, within a 5-10 minute drive of one of the two main entrances (World Drive/Epcot Drive).

If we are somewhere for a week or more, we also require some ability to make a meal or two, preferably with an equipped kitchen. This means, at a minimum, a Residence Inn or similar hotel property, or a pool home/condo. This allows us to eat waffles, eggs, and bacon in our pajamas in the morning while sipping good coffee. You want to do that at WDW, you absolutely must have either a wildnerness cabin, or a 1BR villa or better, and even with discounts or renting DVC points, you are looking at a minimum of $160 per night, compared with that $60-$90 offsite. Over seven days, that $70 per day starts to add up. The difference pays for two adult 7-day hoppers, and then some.

The downside of offsite is that you absolutely must drive, and that can eat into the room savings. Plus, if you don't like driving in new places, that's going to be a real drag. There can be a time difference, but it's modest, especially comparing driving to a nearby offsite hotel to Disney busses between some of the onsite locations. If you would drive even if you are staying onsite, then there is a larger commute time difference, but also a larger cost difference.

Since most of our trips to the World are with family in tow for a week, well, someday maybe I'll bite the bullet and stay onsite, but it's really hard to justify that extra $500 when I could spend it on so many other things.

That said, DW and I are going for an adult-only long weekend, and that changes the equation considerably. We no longer need separate rooms, and we don't need kitchen facilities, making value and moderate resorts (and point rentals for studios) possible.

 

[Emme]

We have a car, as we are driving down. We have one 17 year old ds traveling with us so the seperate room is a big plus.

We are looking into staying at the Polynesian Isles Villas, 2 bedroom. I love the idea of saving so much money, being able to find a seat at the pool, having the washer/dryer nearby, having an outdoor patio, kitchen facilities...

We go to WDW often enough (roughly twice a year) that this isn't the "Let's break the bank we are only doing this once trip." So that definately gives us some options. Please keep the PROS coming. I will show to DH when he gets home. Thanks again!

Emmy

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

All great posts, but Brian..........that is exactly how we feel!!! couldn't have put it better.

I don't know if DH and I are "freaks" or something, but we LOVE driving around Orlando and discovering all that it has to offer. I used to think only WDW existed there, but no more.

Ofcourse, we have never gone in the summer or holidays, so traffic has never been a problem. And actually, the last couple times we stayed on-site, we drove our vans to the parks. The buses started to get on our nerves, so crowded and always hurry up and wait.

We loved trying off-site restaurants, especially Sweet Tomatoes. I would also love to try the exhibit, "Titanic" when we are in town next.

The space off-site that we were able to get for the money was almost rediculous. 1250 square feet for less than what a moderate costs on-site.

Brian: We also did the on-site trip for DH and I. Three nights at WL at Christmas time..........we flew so we used the WDW transportation. I'm glad we did it and we will do it again sometime. But we didn't need the space because we didn't have our children along. Have fun planning that one.

 

[emmalgin]

Ridiculously savings there. Many places include breakfast too. Look at Homewood Suites for better accomodations and breakfasts. If you are cooking in your room, which with young kids you may have to, big savings along with beverages (alcoholic & non).

We ordered pizza from Uno's 1 night (brother & sister in-law with young nieces with us) and for 8 people we were stuffed and ridiculous leftovers for under $40. Another evening did bbq (Bubbaloo Bodacious BBQ) for under $70 and we probably ordered 50% too much.....

Find someplace with a nice pool and you can relax and not have to be running from ride to ride.....

 

[spiceycat]

if you have a car - there are lots of nice grocery stores in Kissimmee area - I like Publix plus the Super Walmart on US 27 - US 192.

I have lots of food allergies - so eating out is not big on my list - whether I am staying on-site or off-site.

See why I brought DVC back in 93...best deal around now - I can stay onsite for my maintence fees and get my grocery for my allergies.

 

[emer95]

I agree with all of these posts, and I'm probably just repeating. But we plan to go down for 8 days, and only go to Disney for 4 days. I want to go to the beach, the outlets, spend a day at the hotel relaxing in the pool, etc. Ours kids are 4 and 6, and I don't think they'll do well with a go-go-go attitude.
I absolutely cannot sleep in one hotel room with all 4 of us. I am a night owl and I need to watch TV, read, putz around to wind down. My older dd is a very light sleeper and she'd never go down with my dh and I still up, so two rooms is a MUST for us. There's no way we could afford that on-site. I still would love to try it once, just for the experience, but maybe after we're more financially stable and $200 a night doesn't make my jaw drop.

 

[Musky]

To me, the "magic" of staying onsite means:
1. Being crammed into a room that's slightly bigger than a phone booth.
2. Hearing the rest of the family snore all night.
3. Sharing one bathroom among four people - one of which being a teenage boy.
4. Having to walk about a mile to mail a postcard, buy a quart of milk or get something to eat.
5. Returning to your hotel and still having to fight the same crowds you fought all day in the parks.
6. Paying exorbitant prices for mostly bad food.
7. Parking a mile away from our room.
8. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus, then having the pleasure of standing on that bus for another 20 minutes or so, when we could have driven ourselves in seated air-conditioned comfort, and been in the park already.
9. Hearing those incredibly annoying wake-up calls at 5 a.m. (sorry, I know some people like them, but to me Mickey's voice is like fingernails on a blackboard).
10. Having to wait in line a ridiculous amount of time to check-in. I have stayed in many, many hotels from Florida to California and I have never had to wait more than a couple of minutes to check in anywhere but Disney.

Those are my reasons for staying offsite, but if I had to convince my DH to rent a villa, the #1 reason I would give him would be: If we have our own bedroom, we can have sex!!!

Becky

 

[flagdaytwins]

I haven't read the other replies yet - so forgive me if this is duplicated.

My entire family was at Disney last week. Some stayed on-site. We compared travel time to Disney: we always got there faster EVEN having to park, take a tram, and then a boat to Magic Kingdom.

I only see benefits when staying off-site and I HAVE DONE BOTH. HOWEVER IF I were to go to Disney again I would consider staying at a monorail resort -- but you pay a price for this. BUT the monorail is so quick and easy to get around.

Off-site benefits:

1. Peace and quiet. Our townhome at Windsor Palms was HEAVEN. The beds were pillowtop mattresses - I have NEVER slept so soundly in my 40 years of living. We are buying the same mattress!

2. 1400 sq feet for $109 a night. Divided by two families in our case...$50 a night for a 3 br, 3 bath hot tubbed townhome.

3. REntal car: $104 for the week.

4. Food: wake up and make your own hot breakfast: eggs, sausage, toast, your own coffee. Does it get any better than that? I'm not talking about saving $$here -- it's about fresh, good food with no waiting. I have twins, 3 yrs old, and waiting to eat meals is NOT FUN at restaurants.

5. Look forward to returning home each night....in our case, to a blender for margaritas and a hot tub. And again, Peace and Quiet.

6. Kids have room to run.

7. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. You save it by staying off site.

8. Have space from your spouse --- seriously -- down time -- we had 3 tvs and we could watch our shows at night in separate rooms without fighting (I'm a reality TV fan he is a CSI/History channel nut).

9. Kids have own room, own TV, own bathroom. Talk about privacy!

Just look around and do alot of research on where to stay and good luck!
These boards are so helfpul in planning a trip -- everyone has such good advice.

 

[spiceycat]

Disney only has a few channels on their onsite TV - most Disney channels.

So if you (like I am) just have to watch - TLC, Discovery, Travel Channel, Animal or many, many others. Forget it on WDW property. They want you at the parks not in the room watching TV.

This probably won't be a problem for most people - but I have an allergy to the sun - so I need to be in the room from 11 am to 3 pm and Disney doesn't have a lot to do in the rooms. - there is a ton of resort activities but you must leave the room to do them.

the offsite resorts have a bunch of TV channels - so they have more of a variety. plus when you can spread out you do enjoy your trip more.

 

[Captn Jack Sparrow]

DW setup our last trip and set us up in an off-site location.....I must admit that I was VERY aprehensive. Our family has always spent our time on site. I loved the easy access to all the parks via the bus, I know from reading posts here that people don't like the busses but at 2am after a whole day of parks and DTD it was nice to ride a bus instead of drive. However i must say i was plesently suprised by my off-site stay. it was a VERY large and comfortable condo we got for $260 for the week. The driving, which i thought was going to be a problem was the easiest thing in the world (no pun intended). I, a die-hard-stay -on-site-guy would like to state for the record that I would definatly stay off-site again with out hesitation.

So I would tell emme's DH give it a try you will, I think, be very surprised by the expirence.

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

To me, the "magic" of staying onsite means:
1. Being crammed into a room that's slightly bigger than a phone booth.
2. Hearing the rest of the family snore all night.
3. Sharing one bathroom among four people - one of which being a teenage boy.
4. Having to walk about a mile to mail a postcard, buy a quart of milk or get something to eat.
5. Returning to your hotel and still having to fight the same crowds you fought all day in the parks.
6. Paying exorbitant prices for mostly bad food.
7. Parking a mile away from our room.
8. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus, then having the pleasure of standing on that bus for another 20 minutes or so, when we could have driven ourselves in seated air-conditioned comfort, and been in the park already.
9. Hearing those incredibly annoying wake-up calls at 5 a.m. (sorry, I know some people like them, but to me Mickey's voice is like fingernails on a blackboard).
10. Having to wait in line a ridiculous amount of time to check-in. I have stayed in many, many hotels from Florida to California and I have never had to wait more than a couple of minutes to check in anywhere but Disney.

Those are my reasons for staying offsite, but if I had to convince my DH to rent a villa, the #1 reason I would give him would be: If we have our own bedroom, we can have sex!!!

Becky

 

[emmalgin]

We're getting almost as vocal and myopic as those who stay on-site..... Though if I had money to burn, on-site, dinners at V&A, concierge and room service would not be a terrible thing.....

 

[Planogirl]

I enjoy both onsite and offsite. This time we're staying offsite because we have access to a friend's timeshare and I'm definitely looking forward to it. It will be nice to have lots of space, to NOT have to listen to my husband's loud snoring, to be able to make a cup of tea or popcorn if I want to, to try some offsite attractions and restaurants and to save lots of money.

That said, we'll probably be back onsite on our next trip.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i love offsite we tried it for the first time and will vacation that way from now on, we are comming in 3 days before our cruise and we will stay onsite for those three days but the other three weeks will be offsite at OLCC

 

[emmalgin]

4 weeks vacation..... I'd be VERYHAPPY.....

 

[luvtoall]

We really like both. But it is most relaxing for us off site. We have too many people to hurry in the morning to get breakfast. I drink coffe and eat a bagel while everyone gets dressed and eats at their own pace. When everyone is up and dressed and eaten we are out the door. Love private rooms and multi-baths.

 

[MN Dis Fans]

Another vote for off-site. We wouldn't do it any other way. It's at least 1/2 the price! (Mind you, the DW wants to stay at AK lodge just once, to say we have done it!)

We have minimum requirements in any resort we stay at. It must be Gold Crown (we are RCI members), have at least 2 bedrooms (again dependant upon how many travelling with is), have a full kitchen, and have a washer / dryer.

It's much more relaxed than staying in 1 room.

Our favorites are: Orange Lake, Summer Bay, & Silver Lake.