where to stay for the weekend to save $$$$

[angiepangie8]

I am staying at AKV june 15-19 but would like to stay elsewhere for the weekend to save $$$$ Where do others of you stay to save on the weekends or to not use up your points????

 

[Caskbill]

I stay at my sister and BIL's house. They live about 70 miles West of WDW....

Ok, seriously, if we stay in the WDW area we prefer to still stay on-site, so will do Pop Century, (NOT All-Stars), or at one of the moderates if I can get a good rate.

 

[alldiz]

Stay at POP....

Or do what I did....Pay 300 bucks a night for BWV
Kerri

 

[eva]

The Swan and Dolphin can be good options. We've stayed at the Dolphin a couple times when it was just DH and me. They often offer pretty good discounts. I guess DVC has really spoiled me over the last 10 years and I have a tough time staying in the moderates. So I don't think you will find me in the value resorts. But others have enjoyed staying there. Other timeshares offsite can be a good way to go too. We've stayed at both Vistana resorts and have been very pleased. Since we rarely hit the parks on the weekend, staying off-site isn't so bad. When we first bought in and only had 150 points, we always moved from a DVC resort to offsite, the Dolphin, or paid cash for an inn room at Vero. But we got tired of moving all the time and finally bought more points.

 

[castleri]

We stayed at an offsite motel that is connected to a timeshare across the street on 192 December 2006 to save weekend points. It was about $125 total for the two nights and we could have used their pool and other factiliteies if we wanted to at the resort. We did our Disney stuff on check out day (Friday) at OKW - pool time, shopping at DTD etc, dinner at Angel's on 192 (granddaughter wanted the lobster) and then checked into the hotel. Saturday we went to TL, DTD again and Walmart before going to the hotel to sleep. Up early Sunday and checked into SSR at 7:30am(room not ready but left bags with bell services and returned rental car to Dolphin) then off to the MK for NYE. DH arrived during the day and was able to get into the room and get luggage delivered. If I was planning on doing parks I would stay at one of the value or moderate resorts but doing offsite and water park stuff it saved a lot of money and points to be offsite during the Christmas week weekend.

 

[angiepangie8]

thanks

it looks like it will be $119 a night to stay over that weekend at one of the value Disney hotels. I do have a relative that lives about 50 mins out side of WDW so that is another option but with a lot of driving.

The reason I am trying to convince DH to stay is

• #1 it's our first family trip to WDW,
• #2 it doesn't appear to cost us that much extra to add on a couple days to our tickets,
• #3 I kinda would like to enjoy our stay at the AKV ~& spend some time there as well while we are booked there then if we stay at a value we can spend most of our time at the park.

I'm not sure if I purchase a value room without tickets though if I will be allowed to purchase the DDP

Does anyone know?

 

[Disney Kim]

I would keep checking for special rates, you never know what will come out.
.. We are staying on points jan 27-feb 1 on points and we wanted to leave on the sat morning, But not really wanting to pay 300+ for the one night. I called MS and got a value studio room at AKV for under 200 (well I think its 197 or something so plus tax it might be more) But I thought that was a great deal.

.. But My husband says my idea of a good hotel rate is off

 

[drag n' fly]

The five of us are staying at ASMU suites before we go over to our home resort AKV!

 

[spiceycat]

I'm not sure if I purchase a value room without tickets though if I will be allowed to purchase the DDP

Does anyone know?

you can't pay cash at all and not buy the tickets for DDP. even at a dvc resort.

you must be using points for your stay. (I think - they just changed the rules)

would call and ask (not CRO) but MS - what the new rules are and if you made a reservation thru them (only DVC resorts here) and not CRO if you could get a reservation without tickets and still get DDP even if using cash and not points.

at least you will get your 25% discount through MS.


otherwise yea - Pop Century and just pay cash for your ADR.

 

[johde]

A couple of things I have done is to stay in Tampa for a night and go to Busch Gardens or stay up near Universal and go there for a couple of days.

 

[hag7]

I am staying at AKV june 15-19 but would like to stay elsewhere for the weekend to save $$$$ Where do others of you stay to save on the weekends or to not use up your points????

We loved the Gaylord Palms- obviously not villa sized rooms but we got a $99 rate just before Christmas. you probably won't get that rate for June but mousesavers.com and allears.net usually provide a good discount summary a couple months before you go

 

[Disney Legend]

A couple of things I have done is to stay in Tampa for a night and go to Busch Gardens or stay up near Universal and go there for a couple of days.

Hope not too far off topic but where is a good place to stay at universal?

 

[granmaz]

Hope not too far off topic but where is a good place to stay at universal?

If you stay one night at one of the onsite hotels you get 2 days front of the line access with your room key.

I have only stayed at the Royal Pacific which is the cheapest of the 3 but still isn't too cheap. We really enjoyed staying here. Offsite we stayed at the Homewood Suites at the top of I Drive near Universal and we could walk in 20 mins to the parks. This is a great place to stay at a great price if you don't want to be onsite or are bothered about front of the line.(Just make sure you get the right Homewood Suites though and not the one lower down I Drive.)

 

[granmaz]

Hope not too far off topic but where is a good place to stay at universal?

If you stay one night at one of the onsite hotels you get 2 days front of the line access with your room key.

I have only stayed at the Royal Pacific which is the cheapest of the 3 but still isn't too cheap. We enjoyed staying there. Offsite we stayed at the Homewood Suites at the top of I Drive near Universal and we could walk in 20 mins to the parks. This is a great place to stay at a great price if you don't want to be onsite or are bothered about front of the line.(Just make sure you get the right Homewood Suites though and not the one lower down I Drive.)

 

[plutospal]

We love to stay at POP.Clean rooms and very good food court.

 

[Sandy321]

If you stay Pop you could forego the DDP for those 2 days - that way you could compare what is better for you in terms of dining options!! Pop has a great bus system, a good food court (sometimes the lines at the Moderates can be longer, as well as sometimes the bus can take longer)

 

[Granny]

We used Priceline the last time. $60 for a pretty nice hotel right outside the WDW gates on Vineland Ave.

 

[Granny]

We used Priceline the last time. $60 for a pretty nice hotel right outside the WDW gates on Vineland Ave.

 

[mickeymom629]

We've stayed at the value resorts on property, but off property we use Quality Suites Maingate East, now called Parc Royale (I think). Free breakfast, free beer/wine/soda 5-7 nightly. You can get one and two bedroom suites for really inexpensive! It's not luxury, but it's great for the price, we think.

 

[FLYNZ4]

We do a a variation on the theme.

Since we travel from the west coast, we generally do not arrive at MCO until about 10 PM. It is probably 11:00 PM before we get to the condo. Hence... if we check in that night, we do not get great value. The problem is compounded because we usually travel on a Saturday.... so the points are even worse.

We have chosen to delay checking into DVC and instead will stay in some WDW hotel. By the time we get to the hotel, we immediately crash out... and then we check-out a few hours later first thing in the morning. We don't even unpack our suitcases... but rather put a change of clothes into a small carry-on. Disney handles moving the luggage for us... so it is all easy.

Once we check into our condo (usually Sunday)... we generally stay for 12 nights, and do not bother checking out for the middle weekend. If our kids are joining us for part of the stay... then we will start in a 1BR and move to a 2BR once the kids arrive (usually the 2nd week). DVC seems pretty good about arranging your stay so that you can just open the lock-off door to the studio to make a 2BR... eliminating the need to move during the room upgrade.

We are currenty sitting in DEN... waiting for our connection to MCO. The above description is exactly what we are doing today.

/Jim