Trying to save money on the housing side.........

[tulsanurse1]

Whats the least you have spent on motel expenses? Was a good experience and did you still feel "the magic" on your vacation? Also, does anyone know of a decent budget hotel with a kitchenette? Im wanting to use most of our vacation budget for doing the extras while we're there, i.e. circ de sol, renting watercraft, and disney dive,,,things like that. I have a ressie at CSR for $1650.00 for 3 people, the standard room for 7nights/8days, plus 8 day MYW plus Water, Fun and more. The housing part of the ressie adds up to be about $850-900 (with a discount I received). Is it worth it? Will my two teenage girls miss out on the "magic" if they dont onsite? Im lost and could really use some advice.

 

[HopperFan]

Have you considered a value resort. We always stayed moderate or deluxe when they were younger....but now my teens think value are just fine. They would prefer CSR, their favorite....but ......they don't miss the slides and hot tub, and would rather have spending money for other things now. We take breakfast foods to the room, and snacks for in between to keep the costs down. (Normally when we travel we stay where breakfast is included).

 

[tulsanurse1]

My discount wouldnt didnt include the POP. Actually the price of our stay at CSR with the 40% discount would be cheaper than staying at the POP without the discount, so said the CM. I guess 900.00 for 8nights in the CSR is a good deal. Ive never been to DW so im not sure what to do. Neither one have kitchenettes but CSR has a refrigerator. Im looking off site but just worried my girls wont get to feel the magic if they dont stay off site.

 

[tulsanurse1]

Correction..................I meant to say if they dont stay on site

 

[dgaston]

I have mixed feelings about this. Normally I would say look into Cypress Pointe for a 2 bedroom for yourself and the girls. Now that I read it's your first visit, I think staying on property is a good idea. And your discount is great! Keep in mind the beds at CSR are only doubles, but it has a great pool slide, better than AKL in my family's opinion, and the largest hot tub on property.

Now my other point is that the magic is really the memories you and your family create. Sometimes for us that's bringing light-up necklaces from the Dollar store or decorating our resort window with window clings. Try to spend a little time on the budget board to get an idea. One of our favorite things is to break up the trip with a water park day.

 

[HopperFan]

That is a great rate and I would stay put ! Even when I find a great rate for a moderate, CSR is never available with it. I would jump on that rate !!!!!

CSR is our teen's favorite resort, the pool area is great. I will tell you from my teens, that the hotel atmosphere is very important to them. Disney just creates a 24/7 feeling of magic. Like you say you have a fridge, so do breakfast in room. We have taken a sliced ham, cheese and rolls and eaten some lunches or dinners we made by the pools. You will have the plus of guest perks, take advantage of them. You have water craft right there at the hotel. The bus service is great.

We do stay offsite for some trips, but it is absolutely not the same. We only do it when we are doing lots of non-disney stuff like Universal. We have stayed with kitchenette, and found we rarely used it. We are lucky to go quite often, but if I didn't you would only find me at Disney resorts.

 

[5mins2disney]

A lot of people will tell you staying offsite is not the same, then many on this board will tell you it's better! Let's see, for the price you mentioned for a small, crowded hotel room, you could have, a townhome, condo, or pool home in a 5* resort, with your own kitchen, 3 bathrooms, free internet, free phone, your own full sized kitchen, and more. Same cost, 10x better amenities, hence the one posters comment about "the magic is where you make it". We've never felt like we missed out on anything by not being on site, other than paying too much! LOL In fact, quite the opposite, we feel sorry for the poor people staying in those small overcrowded hotel rooms, forced to pay too much and eat out for every single meal, all so they can get an extra hour occasionally in the park....not worth it! (Unless you're rich!)

Many die hard fanatics will tell you "onsite is the only way to go"..and you will certainly hear a lot of that on the DISboards....but you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you didn't at least look into the world of offsite housing and short term rentals near Disney World! There are over 75,000 beds available offsite in various resorts within minutes of Disney, all at much better rates than the traditional resort hotels, it's a big "Secret" Disney honestly doesn't want you to know about!

Before you listen to just one person's opinion, please, do a little research and checkout ALL of the options available...onsite is just one of them, I certainly respect people's opinions who feel that way, we just happen to disagree! With all of the $$ we've saved staying offsite we were able to take additional whole trips to WDW, now that's Magic to me!

 

[Brian Noble]

It will be relatively difficult to get much farther under that $850 number. Take the offsite rate that you get, and add $80 for theme park parking. Then, if you are flying and not driving, add another $150-$250 for your rental car. So, you need a hotel/condo/what-have-you for well under $100/night *after* tax.

I personally prefer to stay offsite. But, it's not so much to save money as it is to get much more spacious and well-appointed lodging for little or no extra money. I usually spend somewhere between what a rack-rate Value and a Moderate costs for lodging, then add rental car/parking costs to that. But, I'm staying in a fully-equipped condo, townhome, or pool home instead of a 314 sq. ft. box with a commode, a tub/shower, and a mini coffee maker.