To Resort or Not to Resort?

[_19disnA]

Over the years, we have done both on-site & off-site. Mostly comes down to your budget and personal preferences. Off-site is likely cheaper, larger accommodations and more economical meal choices. We never saw any huge advantage to being on-site since there in no single hotel nearest to every Disney park and the place is HUGE, clearly not within walking distance of most things.

 

[jimmymc]

Most Disney resorts I think it's worth the cost. My largest factor is location with theming coming in a close second.

AoA, Pop Century, and CB are easily worth the price due to the Skyliner. That is my favorite form of Disney transport.

Moderates I think are a good value due to the Disney transportation, theming, and pools. I fly in, so it saves me the cost of renting a car or using rideshares/working around hotel shuttle times.

All Star resorts are sometimes worth it depending on the price, depending on the difference in cost to off property rooms.

Most deluxe rooms I find not worth it. The theming isn't that much better than the moderate resorts. Sometimes the Epcot area is worth it for walking/Skyliner, but only during a discount.

 

[Darcy03231]

I've done both and after multiple trips over the years and in the past we would only stay on-site if only 2 of us were traveling. Now with no more Magical Express we will be staying off-site.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

We just booked our 10th trip to Disney. The first 9 we've stayed on property, mostly at Pop Century. It's kind of been our home resort as we've stayed there 6 times (All Star Movies once, All Star Sports once, Coronado Springs once). But it's always just been my wife and I.

However, this time, my entire family is going. There's going to be 10 of us, and not everyone wants to Disney all the time. So we decided to rent a house off property. Our trip is Dec. 22-28. Even if we had decided to do a resort, we would've needed probably 4-5 rooms as there's 4 couples and 2 kids. The rooms probably would've been between $200-$300 apiece per night ($800-$1000/night, and we're staying 6 nights).

However, our house (6 bedrooms) is $149/night. So over 6 nights, it was like $900 plus fees and taxes, about $1,300 all together. Just couldn't beat it.

As I said, not everyone will do the parks. My wife and I plan on doing the parks 4 days out of 6 (we're not going on Christmas Day and won't go one other day). My sister and her family are doing 3 days, and my parents are going to do 2 days.

So it just didn't make sense for us to stay on property.

But, when we went in November, we kind of thought it was losing its luster too. Between the lack of buses, last time taking Disney ME, no fastpasses (have to pay for Genie+), dining at 60 days instead of 180, no extra magic hours and no dining plan, it just has kind of lost its luster. But that's our take on it.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

Last year when we could get 40% off rack rates, it was worth it. Otherwise nope.

Yes the theming, pools, etc are great not at $400-500/night. The parking fee is honestly what put my husband over the edge. For $250/night, I can get a two-bedroom suite with breakfast included, a full kitchen and be less than a mile to the parks. Now we will pay for the swan/dolphin but at least we can get discounts and rewards on our marriott account.

 

[Ga9usa]

We went last January and spent 10 days at Disney. For 5 nights, we stayed at the Polynesian Isles Resort roughly 15 minutes from MK. For the other 5 nights we stayed at a friend's DVC studio at Beach Club. Hands down, the off site resort won in this comparison. The off site space was a 2 bedroom condo with a full kitchen, living room, and 2 full bathrooms for only $87 a night. The place had a pool and hot tub plus a kids' playground and parking was included in the room rate. The DVC studio was only remarkable for the unbeatable distance to Epcot (less than 5 minutes of walking) and the pool area. Also, the DVC property was super pretty with a great theme in the main areas. That theme, however, was fairly minor everywhere else in the property, with seemingly never ending, identically bland hallways and boring rooms. The DVC deluxe studio was also really small and the bed was uncomfortable. With a rate of nearly triple what we had paid off-site, we could not justify paying for on-site rooms.
However, we are thinking of dropping in at the end of this month. The same room at the same off-site hotel will be $170. We can rent DVC points and stay at AK for $140. Currently, there are extra evening hours and free parking. Our toddler is a late night kind of guy and not big on earIy mornings. We could get a lot done in those 2 hours. That would be enough for us to stay at the DVC property instead of off-site.

 

[disney-inspired]

Full disclosure - I've never stayed offsite but we fly in from California.
Therefore staying offsite would require a rental car ($$$ right now), gas and parking cost at each park. We are usually a large group so even more difficult to find a vehicle.

I prefer the Disney bubble for transportation and convenience. We've stayed at all levels but will be staying deluxe for the majority of our next trip. We planned a few rest/resort days so will take advantage of the nice room and resort.

 

[WDW Lover]

I am a DVC owner, so I definitely have a bias for staying on property. HOWEVER, I have stayed on Hotel Plaza Blvd, done the Swan and Dolphin, stayed in Kissimmee, stayed in nice off-site properties and some not-so-nice ones off property. I suppose there is a time and a place for an off-property stay - if Disney is booked up or close to it and prices are sky high! But for the most part, if you are going to Florida to JUST do Disney, you really can't beat being on-site. It is so much easier to just drag yourself out of bed, get to the parks when it opens and leave in the middle of the day when it is so crowded you want a break. You can then just hop on Disney transportation and go back and hang out at your incredible resort! Then head back after a quick nap and renewed energy. I have found that if I leave the property if I am staying off-site, I won't go back to a park. Even while staying recently at the Hilton across the street from Disney Springs, the rooms have been up to $300+ a night and have a resort fee PLUS parking. We just stayed at a Staybridge Suites for a couple of free nights (on IHG certificates) at the tail end of a conference and it was adjacent to Old Town. The drive into Disney wasn't bad at all and the hotel was nice. It charged for parking. The atmosphere was NOTHING like being on Disney property. If you want a place to sleep and will be out all day - totally worth it. If you want to spend time at the resort... totally NOT worth it.

Honestly, rent points from a DVC member who has extra points, get yourself a Deluxe resort for the price practically of what I have seen Pop Century and the All Stars going for in peak times (more along the lines of the moderates most times though). You get free parking if you reserve through a DVC member or you can just Uber your family from the airport and don't worry about it. There are boards on here even for renting from a member!

Anyway, that's my 2 cents!

 

[jimmymc]

I want to add that I have become a big fan of split stays between on and off-site resorts. The Universal resorts offer great, sometimes better benefits to staying on-site. There are some much cheaper resorts within walking distance to Seaworld and I-drive attractions if you plan on doing some of those. When I'm on Disney property, I only do Disney things.

 

[Beer Me]

I’ve always stayed on site (beach club had become our favorite) and advocated the advantages but I can’t do it anymore. It was always a stretch but, when you consider the current lack of discounts, effective room rates are about 50% higher than they were just two years ago. Couple that with fewer perks and it’s a hard “no” from me.

 

[ArielFlounderSebastian357]

If the benefits to staying onsite were ones you used and they are no longer there try offsite just once and see if you like it. You may miss being inside but not as much as you thought. If the only thing that kept you onsite was being inside then you may not like being offsite.

 

[littleHercules]

As a long time Disney Parks visitor, I've always enjoyed staying onsite at one of the many Disney World Resorts for a variety of reasons. However, as of late, many of those reasons are becoming extinct. Loss of Magical Express, Paying for Resort Parking, Loss of 60 day out Fast Pass. I would love to hear your stance on Disney Resorts vs. Offsite Hotels. Really feeling like the Dis Resorts no longer have enough to offer for their price.

on a Family trip we chose not to do a Disney resort and instead to do an AirBnB 15 minutes from the park. Since there was 4 of us we wanted at least two separate rooms, AirBnB seemed to make more sense and seemed to save a lot of money.

 

[supergirl04]

My family has never stayed onsite in a 2 bedroom/2 bath timeshare. We are a family of 5 (one with special needs) and there is nothing I can say to convince my husband to pay more to get less. And I would love to have my kids experience the bubble. LOL. I just need some good reasons to convince DH.

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

Over the years, we have done both on-site & off-site. Mostly comes down to your budget and personal preferences. Off-site is likely cheaper, larger accommodations and more economical meal choices. We never saw any huge advantage to being on-site since there in no single hotel nearest to every Disney park and the place is HUGE, clearly not within walking distance of most things.

I don't know if anyone will answer but I am in a huge dilemma trying to find offsite resorts. How do you know what's good?! For ever good resort I find I read reviews of full size beds and old rooms, or 30$+ resort fees daily, or read that the theme park shuttles are so unreliable. We've stayed on site for 6 years and we just can't do it anymore. The benefits do not outweigh the costs and I am really wanted to stay offsite in September.

 

[Darcy03231]

If you're going to stay off-site I highly recommend you rent a car. The only off-site resort I would consider without a car is Bonnet Creek. The shuttle isn't free, but it does run fairly regularly.

Typically we rent a house or condo using VRBO. We prefer that over a hotel room.

 

[jimmymc]

I don't know if anyone will answer but I am in a huge dilemma trying to find offsite resorts. How do you know what's good?! For ever good resort I find I read reviews of full size beds and old rooms, or 30$+ resort fees daily, or read that the theme park shuttles are so unreliable. We've stayed on site for 6 years and we just can't do it anymore. The benefits do not outweigh the costs and I am really wanted to stay offsite in September.

It's really hard, especially in Orlando. I use TripAdvisor for hotels or Airbnb for rental houses. Both have reviews that can almost always be trusted.

 

[snowwite]

We’ve done both. I love some of the resorts but have also had some terrible experiences on site. I now prefer off site but in a house with my own pool.

 

[JakAHearts]

For us, staying offsite makes way more sense. We drive so a car isn’t an issue, we try to get at least once a year so budget is important to our family. We stay at a Good Neighbor hotel for around 100 a night usually. The best part for us since we have three children is the free breakfast! It would cost us nearly 100 dollars a day to get the breakfast that we have at the hotel at a Disney resort. Mickey wafflesx5, coffee for two, orange juice for the kids, yogurt for the kids, two breakfast sandwiches, maybe some cereal, and hot tea for the wifey on the way out the door to the parks.

 

[bakerworld]

We do not like to drive after drinking alcohol or stop drinking hours before leaving. Hence we will always stay on property. Obviously, the parks are not the focus on vacation - they're a nice activity but they're not the focus. Maybe Epcot where we don't usually bother with the rides. We like to walk to the parks. We tend to only visit the parks to which we can walk with Disney Springs the exception. We tend to vacation at places that have high walk ability - Charleston, Savannah, Jersey Beaches, Williamsburg, etc.

Obviously we didn't vacation this way with kids (ours are 40, 37, & 33) but even then we stayed on property.