What do you consider to be the greatest onsite perk?

[Ensusieasm]

Is it proximity to the parks?
Free parking?
Availability of dining plans?
Fp+ at 60 days?
Extra magic hours?

Something else entirely?!

My dh would say free dining
But my answer is emh

The greatest perk for me is the transportation, including from the airport to the resort and then all around Disney parks and resorts.

 

[DSLRuser]

-Disney Service
-60 days FP+
-Being able to park my car for a week when i drive
-Short walk, bus, or boat to everywher

 

[jaiminee krikit]

Definitely transportation. Both ME and at the parks and resorts. I hate driving in places I am unfamiliar with, especially on vacation, it stresses me out a lot. I love that I get dropped off or park at my airport at home, and then I don't worry about driving anywhere until I get home. I like that I can close my eyes and relax in an already cool bus when leaving the parks. I rarely let the transportation frustrate me, either, I just tell myself "It's better than driving myself!"

 

[lovin'fl]

FP+ at 60 days. Disney, don't mess with that please.

 

[married2mm]

FP+ at 60 days. Disney, don't mess with that please.

 

[Amanda999]

The fantastic lifeguards at the pools. (Yes, I am aware of the few tragic incidents, which could happen at any pool.) I have yet to find an offsite hotel/resort - other than Nick/Holiday Inn water park that has such attentive lifeguards. While I do watch my kids (now teens), its nice to not be panicked every minute. Seriously its the main reason I book onsite.
Oh and the marshmallow roasts and movies. My kids prefer those to the parks most days!

 

[married2mm]

The fantastic lifeguards at the pools. (Yes, I am aware of the few tragic incidents, which could happen at any pool.) I have yet to find an offsite hotel/resort - other than Nick/Holiday Inn water park that has such attentive lifeguards. While I do watch my kids (now teens), its nice to not be panicked every minute. Seriously its the main reason I book onsite.
Oh and the marshmallow roasts and movies. My kids prefer those to the parks most days!

My dd (30) is adamant we have to schedule marshmallow roasts & movies under the stars into our forthcoming trip

 

[Tinkerbell2017]

I have to say the fast passes at 60 days and the bubble. Love not having to deal with getting there. I'm not big on the ME. I was surprised at how long it took to get to the resort, last stop, and how long it took to get our bags. I went by the four hour timeline but it turned out to be more like 6 or 7. There is nothing like getting up in the morning, looking out from your balcony and seeing the Magic Kingdom!

 

[mkh531]

The lifeguards at WDW are truly excellent. They don’t just sit in a chair, they basically stalk the pool. They are the single best way for a nervous parent to enjoy WDW

 

[robododo]

I love staying onsite because it means turning off my brain - relaxing. No driving, plans are taken care of, guaranteed family enjoyment.

Every other vacation requires me ("The Dad") to concentrate on keeping everyone happy, figure out how to get from A to B, etc. It's almost like work. Disney takes care of all the work for me.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Transportation, hands down, for us.

Knowing that we can get up in the morning and head out without having to load and unload my scooter, is a huge load off of our minds. And backs. Same thing when we head back to our resort. I can park my fully assembled scooter right on the bus, and ride the bus back.

Basically, once my husband buts her together, she stays together for the entire trip. We only disassemble when we are ready to leave.

 

[Orko]

Love the transport, as an Australian who doesn't feel comfortable driving on the other side of the road, the transport really makes life easier. I also don't want to be spending money on car rentals when I'm going to spend most of my trips at theme parks anyway.

 

[Monykalyn]

If you fly and plan only Disney then Magical Express is the biggest perk.

To your thoughts ...

Proximity - really depends. I can stay offsite, not far, drive and am sure am in bed before some folks on the buses are. If you will spend most your time at MK, then the monorial resorts are a big plus. If you do mostly Epcot, then Epcot resorts a plus. The rest, no big deal.
Free Parking - well if you stay onsite you can use transportation so the parking is/isn't a perk. I have AP so it's no perk to me.
Dining Plans - not for me, I can eat better, for less by choosing what I want and combining with TiW card or AP. Even if I had neither I think it's really hard to break even (I've tried) let alone come ahead ....... so what is the perk? MagicBand vs CC.
FP+ 60 days - well look at Disney Springs now ... it's great for FoP and will matter for SWL but other than that, no, nothing is that hard to get.
Extra Magic Hours - this has always been the biggest perk for us but lately we seem to use less and less (and they've been more crowded). If I stay offsite I can save enough money to do the extras like DAH which is way better than EMH.
Free Dining - isn't free. We call it Complimentary Dining, which means if you pay more for your room they will give it to you. For us it stopped being a plus when we dropped to 2 that time of year, when they took away so many components, when they took away the good plan unless you were deluxe and upped the ticket that had to be purchased since we have APs.

We are past being wowed by pools, activities and some hidden mickeys in our room. We stay on and off, and it all boils down to price for each trip because we'd rather go often and have a nicer room than wake up to Mickey in our room. But we have stayed onsite about 6-7 times in last year as POP has good rates.

HopperFan summed it up perfectly for me. The Marriott Timeshare resorts are beautiful, quiet and hands down will beat any Disney deluxe resort, especially for price. Time wise it really isn't any longer driving (I've timed it) than waiting for busses.

The biggest perk onsite is the ability for our party to split up if some want a nap while some want to continue on. but that is decreased somewhat by having to be crammed into small space, but tolerable for shorter trips.

Fastpasses isn't big deal - literally just booked a trip for 17 days from now- the only FP not available is FoP and SDMT. And I'll bet if we really want to we can get those day of.

Summary-short trip convienence of transportation. Longer trip (7+days) -there isn't a perk/convenience worth the price

 

[msb578]

The fantastic lifeguards at the pools. (Yes, I am aware of the few tragic incidents, which could happen at any pool.) I have yet to find an offsite hotel/resort - other than Nick/Holiday Inn water park that has such attentive lifeguards. While I do watch my kids (now teens), its nice to not be panicked every minute. Seriously its the main reason I book onsite.
Oh and the marshmallow roasts and movies. My kids prefer those to the parks most days!

I do wish there were lifeguards at Bonnet Creek, where we stay now.

We’re only interested in villas. Unfortunately when I look at renting DVC for a 2 bedroom, which is what we need, it costs about 6 times more than Bonnet Creek for our week in April. I do believe that it’s hard to put a price on safety... but lifeguards aren’t a guarantee of safety. So we go with what we can afford, and do our best at the pools. I have to say, a 9 year old at a lazy river- while also keeping track of 6 year old twins- is very difficult to supervise.

 

[Woody412]

The Bubble is what does it for me. While staying on-site is absolutely more expensive than the alternative, I don’t know anyone who’s said it wasn’t with the money. Parting with a dollar is always difficult for me, but I never regret giving it to the mouse. I only wish I had more to give so I could stay in the Bubble just a bit longer.

 

[msb578]

The Bubble is what does it for me. While staying on-site is absolutely more expensive than the alternative, I don’t know anyone who’s said it wasn’t with the money. Parting with a dollar is always difficult for me, but I never regret giving it to the mouse. I only wish I had more to give so I could stay in the Bubble just a bit longer.

I hear you, and I do place value on that. But, real-life scenario I’m facing next year: $888 for a week at Bonnet Creek, or $4913 for a week at Kidani DVC. Both 2 BR. I have to go Bonnet Creek.

 

[Woody412]

I hear you, and I do place value on that. But, real-life scenario I’m facing next year: $888 for a week at Bonnet Creek, or $4913 for a week at Kidani DVC. Both 2 BR. I have to go Bonnet Creek.

That is a substantial difference, and would make me think twice. Luckily my kids are small and I can still get away with a Murphy bed and crib. I imagine I’ll have a similar dilemma in a few years, which is why we just bought into DVC resale.

 

[Arazia]

For us, the Disney transportation was one of the major perks for us. We chose our hotel based on the availability of transportation options (Polynesian). Secondary to that, at least to me, was advance dining reservations. I am one of those 'planner' people, so I like having our restaurants all figured out ahead of time.

 

[LiveToTravelNicely]

Location
Disney customer service
Immersion in the Disney bubble
Not having to drive my own car the whole trip
Advanced FP+ reservations
10 day advantage on dining reservations

 

[coast2coastmickey]

The Bubble is what does it for me. While staying on-site is absolutely more expensive than the alternative, I don’t know anyone who’s said it wasn’t with the money. Parting with a dollar is always difficult for me, but I never regret giving it to the mouse. I only wish I had more to give so I could stay in the Bubble just a bit longer.

To me, it's not worth it.

Off site, you can get a suite or 1 bedroom apartment, with equal or better building quality as a deluxe, just a short driving distance from Disney, for less than the price of a value.

Our most recent trip was on-site, subsidized by my wife's employer. We stayed at Yacht club. I will not lie, it was AMAZING being able to walk to a couple of Disney parks, and minimize the use of bus/car transportation. We paid very little for what amounted to an awesome lagoon view and a week long stay.

What made it bad? The room was TINY! And it only had a lackluster fridge (barely kept cold) and coffeemaker. We like to make our own breakfasts, because $10 dry scrambled eggs and mickey waffles aren't worth it to us. We like to keep a couple frozen foods for economical late night snacks after a long day at the parks. Without a freezer, oven, or microwave, we couldn't do any of that.

We like in-room laundry. The ability to do a couple loads of laundry allows us to end the trip with minimal dirty clothes, making the return from vacation less stressful.

We don't mind driving. Bus transportation is horrible in the sense that it doesn't save me any time, which is at a premium in the parks. Sure, as I admitted before, it was nice not having to drive. But is that worth $300/night more? Absolutely not.

You can argue that i'm not fighting fair since I'm only considering deluxe, and that we can easily stay in a value or get a deal on a moderate on site. But, that's the thing, the whole draw of staying on site, in my opinion, is making your trip...easier. Depending on bus transportation does not make it easier, in the sense that it guarantees more time in the parks or anything.

As a previous poster stated, it's really hard, when comparing apples to apples, to justify Disney prices, provided you're willing to spend a little bit of effort with planning, and don't consider driving a chore (I don't).