Where do you stay, on Disney Property or close by?

[migel]

Our first two trips we stayed at Disney's Port Orleans Resort and loved it! We still often jump on the Sassagoula Riverboat at Downtown Disney and visit. I've also stayed at the Hilton, directly across the street from downtown Disney, a superb location and a great rate back in 2011. Just wondering what resorts/hotels/campsites other Canadians prefer. I know off site resorts like Windsor Hills, Orange Lake, Floridays, Celebration village, etc, are popular with Canadians.

 

[sympatico]

Off site at these: Windsor Hills, Emerald Island, Indian Creek, Reunion Resort etc. First three are in the same area, Reunion is a little further south.

 

[minnie56]

99.9% of the time on site.
I love being able to head back to my resort in the afternoon to swim or just chill. I'm on holiday - only thing I want to make is reservations!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We stayed onsite for our first Orlando trip (Port Orleans Riverside).

The 5 trips that have followed have all been offsite, initially at various hotels (I-Drive, SeaWorld) but then we fell in love with the space and amenities of the timeshare resorts.

We are now owners at Sheraton Vistana Resort (right around the corner from DTD), and can't imagine staying anywhere else. We have almost 1300 feet of space, two separate bedrooms, enough sleeping areas for 8 people, a washer and dryer in our villa, a full kitchen, a king bed and jacuzzi tub in the master suite, two full bathrooms, a screened balcony, 3 flat screen tvs, free internet, free parking and no resort fees. The resort offers 13 tennis courts, 7 pools, 6 hot tubs, multiple playgrounds, sand volleyball courts, 2 basketball courts, shuffleboard, and a whole host of daily scheduled activities from karaoke to dive-in movies to wine tastings. Its our home away from home!

 

[dancin Disney style]

We do both onsite and offsite. When onsite it tends to be the value resorts...we've stayed at them all and only repeated Music. We have also done all the mods except CBR. When staying offsite we have stayed at WBC, Hilton BC, Coco Key, I-drive Quality Suites and Marriott Grande Vista.

I can't say that we prefer onsite over offsite or vice versa but we do know that we much prefer to stay in the Lake Buena Vista area. Our last two trips were to the MGV and we spent a lot of time driving over DTD way to various places. We realized last year that this is just the area that we want to be. Now, I will never pass up the MGV for location only....it's a fantastic resort and we do spend time enjoying the resort amenities. It is by far the best timeshare resort we have ever stayed at. You get all that a timeshare offers but it has a higher end hotel resort feel to it.

Our next trip is going to be onsite(probably). I'm looking at POP or renting DVC. It's my DD's birthday and she wants onsite but the room rates that week are about 40% higher than what we normally pay. So I'm hoping for a discount to become available for POP. Otherwise renting will at the very least get me more for the same amount of money.

 

[sympatico]

99.9% of the time on site.
I love being able to head back to my resort in the afternoon to swim or just chill. I'm on holiday - only thing I want to make is reservations!

Just because you stay in a house or condo doesn't mean you have to cook. We eat most of our meals out. We have the option of grabbing something quick if we don't want to bother to go out to eat. I like the space and privacy. And we head back to our house to swim and relax in the middle of the day too. It probably takes no longer to do than those onsite. It's all according to what you value when on vacation. Everybody's different.

 

[tgropp]

Most of our stays have been at Wilderness Lodge. DVC was the best investment that I have ever made

 

[Sunshine25]

We have never stayed on site, just can't justify paying so much money for such little space.

We now own a town house in Regal Palms and love it, 4 bedrooms, kitchen, and plenty of space for the kids to roam free. Its a great resort atmosphere and wonderful amenities, lazy river, slide, several children activities throughout the day, weekly dive in movies, it's great value. We normally cook breakfast lunch, and then grab a bite out for dinner. Only 20 minutes from the disney

 

[bankr63]

I'm with Gina; timeshare resorts are our thing, currently owning at Sheraton Vistana Resort and Silver Lake Resort. Our 3 bedroom at Silver Lake is over 1800 sf - a bit bigger than our house. But we generally stay at Vistana for the level of luxury and amenities. Can't imagine staying in a hotel room with 2 teenage kids, and we need the kitchen as our DS has a severe food allergy; we prefer to cook safely.

 

[pigletto]

9 trips onsite, most of them with split stays so we've stayed at all of the values, Port Orleans Riverside (twice) and Coronado springs (twice). We've also stayed at the Poly, Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge, and Old Key West.
For our upcoming 10th trip we've decided to stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort. It took a few trips of wishing we had more space, and wanting more value for our money, but we've finally decided to do it. We booked 7 nights in a 2 bedroom (that Gina wonderfully described above) for $620! That left so much more room in the vacation budget we will still eat out every day, and we'll be able to add 2 nights and 3 days at Universal staying onsite there.

I can't say we will never stay onsite again as I do love being onsite for an all Disney trip, but I am really looking forward to how everything will be new and different on this trip! Two and half months to go!!

 

[mytymom79]

I agree with Gina, Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas are amazing. I may be a little biasis but my choices are the swan/dolphin or the vistanas . I just cant justify paying double to stay onsite when we can have all the amenities of the villas to comfortably fit all 5 of us. We do not usually cook in the villa other than breakfast but the resort itself is amazing ! My only regret is never having enough tiime to just relax and enjoy the resort itself more, we are always on the run with the 2 boys.

 

[migel]

In 2012 we purchased a condo at Caribe Cove, a small resort about 5 miles west of Animal Kingdom. While we love it, we still miss on the onsite experience, so much so, our daughter still wants us to spend a night or two at Port Orleans. We probably will next year. Occasionally when I'm on a solo visit, I'll jump on the Disney bus to one of the parks. We opted for Annual Disney passes this year, it's great for half day visits, or even just for evening fireworks. The Sheraton mentioned by other posters above looks amazing, and Regal Palms is not too far from us, also a great looking resort.

 

[Sunshine25]

I am curious ... did you use your US address to purchase Disney Annual passes? Did you buy them while you were at Disney? How much?

Sorry for all the questions, but I would love to do that!

In 2012 we purchased a condo at Caribe Cove, a small resort about 5 miles west of Animal Kingdom. While we love it, we still miss on the onsite experience, so much so, our daughter still wants us to spend a night or two at Port Orleans. We probably will next year. Occasionally when I'm on a solo visit, I'll jump on the Disney bus to one of the parks. We opted for Annual Disney passes this year, it's great for half day visits, or even just for evening fireworks. The Sheraton mentioned by other posters above looks amazing, and Regal Palms is not too far from us, also a great looking resort.

 

[migel]

My daughter and I did a road trip back in July, my wife had to work that week. I purchased two Florida Resident annual passes for myself and my daughter (11 years old), right at the ticket booth entering EPCOT. I showed them my photo ID and our most recent electric bill that showed our condo's Kissimmee address and my name. That's all they needed. I think the total cost was about $1000 USD. In August my wife purchased her own, however because her name is not on the electric bill, she couldn't get the resident discount this time. She will be setting up a local bank account so come next year, she'll also get the discount. I believe the renewal fee will also be even less next year. Considering we are down 3-4 times per year, the annual passes made sense. They're also handy for discounts on merchandise, restaurants, half price mini golf, and so forth. The Disney website breaks down the prices so you can get an idea of how the annual passes work. We did not get the Waterpark option. I'm doing a solo visit for a few days next month, and I'll be hitting all four parks while I'm down!

 

[bandit113]

My family and I like staying on site, My favorite places to stay are the beach club and animal kingdom lodge. I love the pool at the beach club with the sand bottom.

 

[Sunshine25]

Great, thanks! I will check the website

My daughter and I did a road trip back in July, my wife had to work that week. I purchased two Florida Resident annual passes for myself and my daughter (11 years old), right at the ticket booth entering EPCOT. I showed them my photo ID and our most recent electric bill that showed our condo's Kissimmee address and my name. That's all they needed. I think the total cost was about $1000 USD. In August my wife purchased her own, however because her name is not on the electric bill, she couldn't get the resident discount this time. She will be setting up a local bank account so come next year, she'll also get the discount. I believe the renewal fee will also be even less next year. Considering we are down 3-4 times per year, the annual passes made sense. They're also handy for discounts on merchandise, restaurants, half price mini golf, and so forth. The Disney website breaks down the prices so you can get an idea of how the annual passes work. We did not get the Waterpark option. I'm doing a solo visit for a few days next month, and I'll be hitting all four parks while I'm down!

 

[RipperSB]

As Disney Vacation Club members, we always stay on-site. Our next trip (in 10 days ) will be our fourth stay at Bay Lake Tower (our home resort) and our next will be a split stay at Boardwalk Villas and Old Key West... with a seven night eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Fantasy in between. Love staying on property and especially staying at a resort where you can walk to and from the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Evelyne]

Since 1999 we always stay on site, mostly Pop Century. We sometimes take 1 or 2 nights off site before our check inn date on site. We just love the atmospher, easy to go back for a pool break in the afternoon, love the night time movies... Would love to get a DVC, maybe in a couple of years...

1990 to 1999 Off site
2000 to 2003 All star Sports
2004 to 2011 Pop Century
2012 The World was great again (Pop Century) without the kids for the 1st time
2013 March Disneymoon with the kids
2013 September 2th adult trip, kind of another Disneymoon

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[minnie56]

Just because you stay in a house or condo doesn't mean you have to cook. We eat most of our meals out. We have the option of grabbing something quick if we don't want to bother to go out to eat. I like the space and privacy. And we head back to our house to swim and relax in the middle of the day too. It probably takes no longer to do than those onsite. It's all according to what you value when on vacation. Everybody's different.

Absolutely!
I like the extra pampering as well ..my bed made every day for me ..bathrooms cleaned etc. I also have my fave restaurants and most are on site so for us is works. Not to say we haven't also enjoyed renting beautiful houses here n there either.

 

[dsneygirl]

I think our last off site was '99 or something like that. We bought DVC in '05 and never looked back. Stayed in studios for the first few years, now with 2 kids we get 1 bedrooms. Best of both worlds.