Trip reports

[bookmama]

Hi everyone,
My family wants to stay offsite for the first time and I was wondering if there were any trip reports from disers who stayed offsite. All I see is those who stayed onsite.

I know when we get back I'll be writing one for sure.

 

[shoppgirl]

Hi there. We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando last summer for our pre disney cruise stay for 4 nights. We did not visit the parks, but did go to Sea World and Aquatica. We also went to Downtown Disney and the Beach Club for lunch. If you would like to read my DisCruise report with our experience at the Waldorf, I would be happy to send you the link.

 

[janatmovies]

Hi. I stayed at the Homewood Suites Lake Buena Vista for 3 nights prior to my cruise. I did 2 days in WDW. They have a free buffet breakfast with everything you can think of - cereal, muffins, donuts, coffee, juice, fruit, yogurt, eggs, sausage, and MORE. The breakfast itself was worth at least half the nightly rate for the 4 of us. It started at 6:30 am. OH and they have a Mickey waffle maker those Mickey waffles were AWESOME.
The hotel itself was beautiful. It was clean and the pool was awesome. It was cheaper than staying in a Disney moderate hotel, thats for sure, like 84 bucks a night. And they give you a free shuttle to Disney.
ONLY DOWNSIDE was that the shuttle took like 2 hours to get me to the MK. Because it drops you off @ Epcot and then you have to take the 2 monorails. And it stops at other hotels to get other people before you go to Epcot. So that sucked. Plus the shuttle only had like 3 or 4 departure times and 3 or 4 times to come back to the hotel.
I would recommend it if you are willing to spend a little extra travel time on the shuttle. It is a lot of savings potential with the free breakfast. The rooms are all suites.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Hi everyone,
My family wants to stay offsite for the first time and I was wondering if there were any trip reports from disers who stayed offsite. All I see is those who stayed onsite.

I know when we get back I'll be writing one for sure.

We stayed offsite this past January, and I wrote a full trip report on the Canadian board. You can find it here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2864779

Disclaimer: we did not do Disney this trip. We visited Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, the World Bowling Center, Hawaiian Rumble mini golf, Pirates Cove, and Gator Golf & Adventure Park (as well as the outlet malls and the Florida Mall). Our hotel, however, DID offer free scheduled transportation to Disney (in addition to the Universal and SeaWorld parks) for those guests without a car.

We loved the perks of staying offsite. For less than the cost of a room at a value resort, we got a one bedroom suite with two flat screen TV's, living room, and a full kitchen. We had a full hot and cold breakfast buffet daily, free snacks every evening, and two free alcoholic drinks per person each night from 5-7 pm with unlimited soda for the kiddo (nice to kick back with a beverage and relax by the pool after a long day of touring at the parks). One block off I-Drive, we could walk to TGI Fridays, Chilis, and a host of other restaurants where we ate FAR cheaper (and just as well!) for a whole lot less. Sure stretched our vacation dollars and allowed for us to add in some extra special attractions like Discovery Cove with the dolphin swim .

After having that much space as opposed to a tiny room at a value or mod, DH and DS vow to never stay onsite again. This coming August, we have a two bedroom, two bathroom villa at Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa (1200 square feet of living space) for a nightly cost that's comparable to a value resort at Disney. With a teenager, we LOVE that extra space! We loved the Disney magic at POR, but comfort after the parks is so much more worth it to us.

 

[BrerMama]

Love Gina's trip report! I'm in the process of writing a PTR and will do a full trip report when we get back in a month. I agree that there needs to be more off-site Trip Reports!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Love Gina's trip report! I'm in the process of writing a PTR and will do a full trip report when we get back in a month. I agree that there needs to be more off-site Trip Reports!

Thank you!!!

I look forward to reading your full trip report after your vacation. Do you have a link to your PTR?

 

[BrerMama]

Thank you!!!

I look forward to reading your full trip report after your vacation. Do you have a link to your PTR?

Oops. That would help, wouldn't it? It's here.