What's Best ... On Property OR Off Property?

[labloverinsc]

Our family will be going to WDW for the 1st time next Christmas (2011). There will be 4 adults and 2 children (will be ages 8 and 16 months at the time of the trip). Our budget is not very large, so I am looking for ways to save money in any way I can. From personal experience, what are your suggestions for where to stay?

I would need to book at one of the Value Resorts in order to be able to stay within my budget. Even then, I would have to book 2 rooms to accommodate all of us. In searching for places to stay, I've found a lot of great deals through VRBO.com and homeaway.com, as well as hotels very close by. I've almost convinced myself that booking a house/villa/townhouse/condo would be the better way to go.

What are the positives and negatives of staying on property as well as off property???

Any other suggestions, tips, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Jennifer H.
Greenville, SC

 

[Kat&Dom]

I have stayed off-site three times at Disney.

The pluses:

All the space you get with a condo - kids can go to bed in separate room while adults stay up and visit.

Being able to have groceries and cook a few meals saves a lot - last August, it cost $180 for 6 people for groceries for 8 days (3 adults, 1 teen, 10 yr old, and almost 4 yr old) - we ended up eating out 5 times during that week and each meal averaged about $70. A case of 24 bottles of water was $2 so we would freeze bottles at night so that we could take them with us to the park - water is $2.75 a bottle at the park so we saved a lot of money by not buying any.

Having laundry in your own unit to be able to wash clothes whenever you want was awesome.

The freedom of having your own vehicle to go where ever you want. We went to the Disney Outlet store and found so many bargains - my son had a $40 budget but ended up only spending $20 because he was able to get the things he wanted for $2.99 each instead of $24. The glowing sword he wanted was $10 at the parks and .99 cents at the Outlet store.

The negatives:

You have to pay for parking - $14 per day unless one member of your party has an annual pass then parking is free.

No extra magic hours but think about the members in your party and decide if you would even utilize it?

If you are not driving from SC, then you would have to factor in the cost of a rental car.

Equalizers:

You are off-site but by driving your own vehicle, you have a 5 minute to 25 minute drive depending how close you stay to Disney. We have stayed at Sheraton Vistana and Grand Beach resorts which were only 5-10 minutes away from any of the parks and we have also stayed out at Kissimee which was 20-25 minutes away. I think that when you look at the value resorts and the bus time, it is fairly comparable so to me, it is equal for a deciding factor.

Good luck on your decision making!

 

[eliza61]

Our family will be going to WDW for the 1st time next Christmas (2011). There will be 4 adults and 2 children (will be ages 8 and 16 months at the time of the trip). Our budget is not very large, so I am looking for ways to save money in any way I can. From personal experience, what are your suggestions for where to stay?

I would need to book at one of the Value Resorts in order to be able to stay within my budget. Even then, I would have to book 2 rooms to accommodate all of us. In searching for places to stay, I've found a lot of great deals through VRBO.com and homeaway.com, as well as hotels very close by. I've almost convinced myself that booking a house/villa/townhouse/condo would be the better way to go.

What are the positives and negatives of staying on property as well as off property???

Any other suggestions, tips, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Jennifer H.
Greenville, SC

Personally, I would do offsite before I did the values again. Sorry but IMO the value rooms are too small, my family and I did it for 5 days and we were 2 steps away from a homicide occuring.

2nd. Christmas is going to be packed. Our stay at the values was during a high season also (summer time). The noise at the food court was hellacious.

So if my choice is a offsite house/villa or a value, i'm going with the value.

You will need a car though so put that in the budget. Also with the car, your dining opportunities open up. There are 1000's of good restaruants near Disney that are waaay less expensive.

 

[gparr]

When my wife and I travel by ourselves to the world we always stay on property. When we travel with our 2 daughters we ALWAYS stay offsite at Windsor Hills. Matter of fact I just booked our Nov. trip at AKL as well as our family spring break trip in April at WH - 8 nights $760.00 inclusive. That is WAY cheaper than onsite including my rental vehicle!

 

[worm761]

You will get opinions on both sides of the fence on this one. I am an onsite person. Love it, have no desire to stay offsite. I know it can be cheaper. I don't like driving in a strange city, I don't like traffic. Both are things you will have to deal with. We also really like the dining plans which you cannot get if you stay offsite. Park hopping may be harder if you have to go get your vehicle and then drive to the other park versus hopping a boat or monorail over. Just some thoughts

Also, two other options for you are the cabins at Fort Wilderness and the family suites at All Star Music. I don't think The Animation Resort will be open by then. You may want to look into those if you are at all considering staying onsite.

 

[Mickey527]

Christmas is one of the most expensive times to be traveling to WDW.
the resorts costs go up and you will be hard pressed to find any discounts. they charge more for food in the restaraunts, and the parks are packed.
If you are looking for budget you might not even find cheap at off site resorts, they figure out their charges by the time of year also so be prepared to pay more for a room then than if you went during a slower time.
You might want to look into "renting" points from a DVC member and get a 2 bedroom. Even still, you are talking about $490 a night for a 2 bedroom at $10 a point at Old Key West, the least expensive of the DVC resorts.
You might want to look at renting a vacation home for that time period. Check out VRBO (vacation rental by owner). I have booked through them before and had a fantastic home both times, although I have never booked in the Orlando area, only along the Siesta Key and Clearwater area.
You will save on food if you stay in a rental home, you can eat Bfst in the home and pack lunch and even dinner. There also are quite a few less expensive restaraunts off property if you want to eat out, just remember, this drive time to go off property will be about 2 hours each time you leave and that is time taken away from the parks.

 

[plutolovr]

I would also chime in by saying that if you are truly choosing to go over Christmas, and I mean Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, that if the parks get to capacity, off-site people will be the first ones to be refused admission. If you stay onsite you are at least guaranteed admission into a park for the day.

I would seriously consider going at a more quiet, less croweded and less expensive time for your first trip.

 

[TnTWalter]

We're family of 5 so limited in our choices onsite. We've done 2 rooms POP and 1 room Poly and a 3 bedroom condo at Windsor Hills.

I really liked all 3 options. Windsor Hills was least expensive. We also went the longest [8 days 7 nights]. We did enjoy POP but we went there first. Our kids still talk about Poly. It was the most magical.

I think you should crunch numbers and decide from there.

We had a car with us for Windsor Hills and relied on onsite transportation the other two times. It was definitely nicer having our car.

We had more sit down meals onsite because we were on the dining plan. That was great for the character meals when they were little but not really a 'value' per sey. It was definitely easier though.

We did 1 character meal while at Windsor Hills so we could get in early to MK. But we ate out at some great places onsite and offsite as well as enjoying quiet meals at the condo.

It was nice having adult time while kids were sleeping but at POP we had our own room [connected to kids room] so that was nice too and Poly we could hang on the balcony after kids went to bed.

There are pros and cons each way really....BUT....with all the free dining I've been crunching numbers and it's still hard to think about NOT staying offsite.

Good luck!!

 

[rlcerabone]

Look at Buena Vista Suites only 2 miles from Wd .. Not bad but not like disney.. Look at All Star very reasonable..

 

[D&DDisney]

Look at Buena Vista Suites only 2 miles from Wd .. Not bad but not like disney.. Look at All Star very reasonable..

I'll second this place. Sleeps 6 with 2 beds and a pull out couch. Free full breakfast and it is a straight shot into Disney property from that hotel on 535. We could drive, park and be at the TTC in like 15min total.

 

[khook82]

We have done Disney World off site and on site. We stayed on site when we had our fourteen month old. I would stay onsite with a toddler because it is easy to catch a bus to go back to hotel if needed. (Nap time, meltdowns, break from crowds, ran out of clean clothes etc).

The buses run every twenty mins so you can leave the eight year old with dad then go back have a break and meet up easily. Leaving the property driving to hotel is going to take way longer than twenty mins. Especially when you have to go back to parking lot, find car, load child and then drive. And that is if you rent a car...

Where we stayed offsite, it was great value, but took shuttle x amount to travel to Disney and then if you went to a different park (drops off at main enterance) it was additional time. And shuttle ran infrequently (every hour or two).

Just having a small chlid less travel time and bus frequency is the way to go. Plus buses go everywhere on Disney and they are right outside your hotel door. Highly recommend staying on property.

 

[DisGal520]

We've stayed offsite twice before staying onsite. Will never stay offsite again. Here's why.

The first 'onsite' was in August 2004 at AllStar Music with an extended family. Let me say that the trip was to be five nights. Then Hurricane Charley decided to avoid Tampa and come into central FL. MCO closed during the Hurricane due to some damage and planes not taking off. It took two more days for the airport to open and AirTran to get us out.

Two days after the hurricane 90,000 Orlando homes/businesses were still without power.

Because we were at Disney we never lost electricity (Disney has its own power plants under the parks/resorts). The resort staff could not have been nicer or more conserned for the safety of all guests.

The day of the hurricane we were told the parks would close at 1:30 if I recall correctly in order to get everyone buses back to their resorts. By 2:30 it was pouring buckets and the winds were kicking. CM's visited all the rooms leaving us extra flashlights and printed directions on what to do; basically stay inside, listen for storm updates, do not double lock the doors, etc.

They ran first class Disney movies on their channels for the kids. Several times in the evening the phone flashed with storm updates. When it had passed we got updates that the restaurant was open for folks who missed their evening meal. It was quite a scary night - the winds and rain was deafening at times.

Next morning 3 parks opened at 9 AM after all safety checks had been done - but open for guests staying on-site only. Disney gave us all an extra day on our park hopper free. (AK did not open as they had corraled all the animals and were taking an extra day to re-prepare that park.) All the debris had been removed from the resort pool and it was open for business. Tree damage was being taken care of and removed - saw a bunch of chainsaw guys and even backhoes at work throughout the property.

CM's were absolutely wonderful considering that many of them had a lot to deal with in their own homes and some were unable to get to work. Those who did work made our stay the best!

When we finally did get out 2 days afterward, we drove through the areas outside the park absolutely amazed at tree, sign, and building damage.


No visits since have been during such horrific weather but it only took one trip to say we will always stay ON SITE!


Gee - I guess my opinion is all plus +++++

 

[Marionnette]

I would normally say that either one is fine b/c it depends on what your expectations are. But your going at christmas and that means that you will not only be stuck in heavy traffic trying to get to the parks. You also run the risk of some of the parks being closed to day guests. Thats what they call people who are staying off site. Transportation will be quicker and youll have a lesser chance of being refused admission if your staying on site. Consider a cabin at fort wilderness. They sleep six and have full kitchens so you could prepare meals there. The added cost of the cabin versus the value rooms could be offset by the savings on the food budget.

 

[Aggiegrl]

I would also chime in by saying that if you are truly choosing to go over Christmas, and I mean Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, that if the parks get to capacity, off-site people will be the first ones to be refused admission. If you stay onsite you are at least guaranteed admission into a park for the day.

I would seriously consider going at a more quiet, less croweded and less expensive time for your first trip.

This exactly. Christmas is not ideal in any way, shape, or form for a first visit, especially with young children. The parks will be incredibly busy, many areas will be gridlocked, and you will likely experience about 50% less attractions than you would if you went in a less busy time. With a 16 month old, your time between naps and meltdowns is very valuable IMHO.

Disney is expensive compared to many other domestic vacations. I personally like to maximize my experience for the money I spend.

 

[cheerforchelsea]

I am an "On-Site" person. Especially with a 16 month old....We have done WDW MANY MANY times with a small child and it is so easy to hop on the Disney transportation and be back at the room for an afternoon nap for the little one. You can do 2 rooms at a value or you many want to check into Port Orleans Riverside - the trundle will accommodate your 8-year old and your 16 month old can sleep in the resort provided Pak-n-Play crib. It will be crowded but will be the cheapest way to go. (I tried booking on-line and it was possible to have 6 in one of those rooms since one child is under 3 years old). Have a great trip!!! You don't have to spend a lot of $$ to have a wonderful trip!!!

 

[ceecee]

On site!!! No driving or parking, love the extra magic hours and we also like to go to the room several times during the day.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Why get two rooms at Disney when you can stay at the All-Star Music Resort offers the options of Family Suites, which accommodate up to 6 people, plus one child under 3 in a crib. Plus you will have a fridge and microwave to use. Comes in handy for breakfast! Or late night snacking.
Here are pic of the room

http://allears.net/acc/g_asmu.htm (scroll down to the family suite section)
http://allears.net/acc/asmu08suite19.jpg
http://allears.net/acc/asmu08suite1.jpg
http://allears.net/acc/asmu08suite17.jpg
http://allears.net/acc/asmu08suite18.jpg
http://allears.net/acc/asmu08suite19.jpg
http://allears.net/acc/asmu08suite27.jpg

This way you will have the option too for extra magic hours if you stay onsite. You won't have to pay the $14 per day parking fee.

Plus who knows they might offer free dinning while you are there and that would be a huge saving for your large family!

 

[eliza61]

Op, sorry I hated using Disney bus transportation with a stroller especially during a crowded period.

Sorry posters but imo unless you are on a monorail line (which op won't be) when you have a child or children in strollers the buses are hell. I was much happier even when I stayed on site, simply getting in my car, no pushing, no trying to finagel (sp) the stroller because the buses were packed to the gills.

sorry, when you got crowds and strollers, disney transportation is any thing but easy. don't even get me started with the "park closing" mad rush to get to values bus experience.

 

[onehotmamma]

We are going to WDW for the 1st time in April. I have 4 children + 1 teenager going with us. My husband and I are on a very tight budget. We looked into all options for a week. I have 2 notebooks with quotes, prices etc. We chose to stay at Windsor Palms Resorts. There are a million great reviews. There is 3BRM 3BATH ROOMS. Master BR has King bed and full bath, 2nd room has 2 twin beds or you can get 1qn with full BR, and 3 room is a childs Mickey room with bunkbeds. The LR also has a pull out sofa bed!! Theres a pool, hot tub, playground, basketball court, hiking, FREE Movie Theater, ETC there!! Its gated, so we feel very safe! The Lady I talk to is amazing. I can give you her info if you would like. For April, we are staying 7nights and its $620... including taxes and cleaning fee. We just have to put $100 down when booking and then that can go towards house. We have until 45 days of our arrival date to pay. We are only doing 1 day park (condo also offers shuttle service to WDW).... and because how much we are saving we have the chance to go to Sea World. We Plan to eat at the condo a lot to save money. We are 3miles from Disney and 45mins or so from 2 big beaches. So since we are going to MK 1 day, we can spend a day at the beach, another day down town disney, and a whole day at the condo letting the kids swim, watch FREE movies in the theater etc!! I hope this helps. I have a friend whos helping me plan this trip on a tight budget.

 

[robinb]

I go between Christmas and New Year's every year. Christmas is a very expensive time to go to WDW. The onsite resorts can almost double in price from their yearly lows and Disney jacks up the prices of their already overpriced buffets and character meals. To add insult to injury, the place is packed. The Magic Kingdom's parking lot will often close by 10:30 AM that week and the park itself will close shortly thereafter even to WDW resort guests. Without a plan you will be sunk. Luckily for you, you joined the DIS in plenty of time to work something out!

There is nothing wrong with staying offsite. Considering the cost of staying even at a Value resort ($183 with taxes rack rate for 12/23/11 - 12/31/11 per room ) you could save a considerable amount of money staying offsite. I remember talking to someone online who was able to book a 3-bedroom condo at Windsor Hills for $890 (taxes, etc inclusive) for Christmas week 2009. That compares to $2570 just for two rooms at the All Stars which do not include park passes or the dining plan. That's a 65% discount to stay off site and for my money all the Disney "magic", buses and Extra Magical Hours simply are not worth it.

Now ... you do have to add a rental car to your cost. Like everything else, Christmas is a notoriously expensive time to rent a car and with 6 people you will need to rent a minivan which is just about the most expensive of them all. I would add a minimum of $375 per week for your car budget. That may seem expensive but as a point of reference minivans for Christmas week 2010 are running over twice that today. The key is to book a car before demand hits and prices skyrocket. If you are still considering staying offsite by the time December 2010 rolls around make sure that you make car reservations for your possible dates as soon as they open up. Check each car rental company's website to see when your dates will become available. If you're not 100% sure what those dates will be you can make a couple of different reservations that cover a few different pick up and drop off dates. There is no charge to make reservations and you can cancel them at any time and always rebook if you find a lower price.. It is imperative that you book those reservations AS SOON as possible. For instance, my December 2010 car rental reservation was made on January 14, 2010. I have not seen a lower rate since then and I check pretty frequently.