why bother with offsite?

[asmit4]

You say it means nothing, to me it means everything. It is simply the truth. That is why so many people say it.

When I stay onsite, I am completely cut-off from the outside world for the duration of my stay. So "immersed in Disney magic 24/7" sums it up for me.

I agree!! Being cut off from the outside world is GREAT. No driving, no traffic lights, no worrying about how to get to where, directions. No eating at any places like chain restaurants, nothing that isn't MICKEY...it's GREAT!

 

[JoanneGreco]

We're planning our first trip as a family in October and we're staying off-site at a time share that's already been paid for.

 

[poeticdiabetic]

For us, there are two vacations: A Disney vacation and an Orlando vacation. When we do Disney, we stay, eat, ride the transportation, and everything else exclusively Disney. That's just us. Disney have 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a whole bunch of hotels and restaurants, and there's just so much to do that we don't need to do anything else.

Now for an Orlando vacation, we do everything else. We go to Universal Studios and IOA, we ride out to Busch Gardens, we hit the restaurants on International, we do the Wet and Wild, and we do Sea World. We have a lot of fun, but the one place we do not go to is Walt Disney World while on an Orlando vacation.

 

[Cool-Beans]

While I'd rather stay offsite for WDW, when I go to Universal I stay onsite. The FOTL thing can't be beat. And unlike Disney, the transportation to the parks is quicker and easier (and prettier!) than doing it yourself. Disney could learn a thing or two about boat rides from the Uni folks.

I hate to switch hotels and am starting to think I should just stay at Uni and drive to Disney, which is kind of funny since it used to be the other way around.

 

[Abharmagic]

Because I have stayed both offsite and onsite in the past and perfer offsite- you get a nicer room/villa/home for less $$$$.

 

[ntsammy5]

It is simply the truth.

Your truth, not mine!

 

[WillCAD]

I agree!! Being cut off from the outside world is GREAT. No driving, no traffic lights, no worrying about how to get to where, directions. No eating at any places like chain restaurants, nothing that isn't MICKEY...it's GREAT!

I love being immersed in the Disney magic as much as anybody, but I wouldn't say you're completely in a fantasy world when you stay on-site.

No worrying about how to get to where? Ha! Check the Transportation board and see how many people ask "How do I get from ___ to ___?" Disney has lots of transportation options - which makes the system confusing and tough to understand until you've been there several times.

No eating at places like chain restaurants? I happen to love many of the big chain restaurants, and I think they compare very well to the mid-level Disney restaurants. Only a few of Disney's most expensive restaurants really blow away the chain restaurants - and I can't afford any of them.

Nothing that isn't Mickey? I don't get a Mickey feel from the lobbies of most of the Deluxes - GF, Poly, Contemp, Y&BC, BWI, all seem less like Disney hotels than the Values.

 

[Laura_Lewis]

It's just my DH and I. We rent a vacation home and love it. I travel a lot for business and get tired of staying in hotels. Also, we love kids, but it's nice to come 'home' from the parks and have a nice, quiet relaxing evening in the pool or hot tub.

We've stayed on site before (Dixie Landings, Grand Floridian and Ft. Wilderness), but for us off-site works better.

 

[WeCantWait]

Some are looking for a luxury Resort. Disney does not offer that option.

I also think there are people looking for a little more space than a tiny Disney Resorts rooms offer.

 

[aribelle]

okay, first let me start off by saying i am prepared to get barbequed on this one since it will probably strike a nerve with those who feel differently...

Why bother staying offsite? with all that WDW resorts offer and what are reasonable prices (talking about value to moderate resorts) why would anyone stay offsite? i just don't get it.

let the games begin!

Hmmmm...let me count the ways.....

1. Because I can either pay $100 a night for on site (ok, that's an average...value is $82 in value season, moderate is $134 in value season)......or $900 for a MONTH offsite. Even having to rent a car for the month ($582 including tax/fees, etc for midsize for month) still makes it cheaper....by almost 3 times. In other words....I could stay for two weeks on site....or a month offsite. Oh...and since I have car....I go anywhere else I want...if I want. Or not.

2. Because said $900/month condo has 3 BEDROOMS, and a kitchen....and a living room where we can actually sit down to watch TV without the need for pillows to prop you on the bed. That $100 a night is just 260 (value) to 314(moderate) square feet. oh....and if there are 5 people in my group I don't need to pay for two rooms (so $200 a night). Or an extra $25 a night if there are more than 2 adults in a room. So while it's normally just me and the two girls....when daddy and grandma come along it doesn't cost any more...and we still have plenty of room.

3. Because I can take a shower while the kids get their teeth brushed and we don't have to share the 15 square feet of bathroom space....or when someone is....ummmm...taking a while in the bathroom....no one else is outside the door hopping up and down, yelling hurry up.


4. Because I don't have to pay for laundry.....not even soap (I collect the freebie samples and take those along). I also don't have to worry about someone taking my clothes....or just dumping them on the dirty table because I arrived 2 minutes after the washer turned off. Nor is it likely that the condo dryer will be so hot that it burns my clothes....like hotel laundrymats are known to do. And I don't have to take a "pool day" to do the laundry....I can throw a load in the washer on the way out the door in the morning, and throw it in the dryer when we get home and are relaxing before bed. 5 minutes of hanging up and it's done (confession...I don't fold socks or underwear on vacation ). Compare that to 2+ hours of waiting around while the laundry is done becuase you can't leave it there all day, or you'll be naked at the park the next day! Sooooo...add yet another extra day in the parks for offsite me. Or, of course, I could pay the extra fee the airline now charges to bring along a second bag (ok I couldn't...I don't own enough clothes for a month long stay....but I could for an onsite short stay of 2 weeks).

5. Because I'm guaranteed a parking space.....10 feet outside my front door. Every night. No hunting. And no having to remember where it's parked.

6. Because I don't want to take the bus. Ever. 'nough said.

7. Because EMH is nice....but it's an hour in the morning...or 3 hours at night. One or the other. Even if you figure 7 of your days would be the 3 hours, and the other 7 would be 1 hour (and looking at the calendar not every day has an EMH somewhere...but assuming).....that would be 21 hours of evenings, and 7 hours of morning...28 hours....figure 10 hours in a park day....that's about 3 extra days worth of time. I get 14 extra days for the same cost. And from what I hear, the wise DISer avoids EMH mornings because of the crowds. Evenings are apparently better though.

8. Because if I want/need Disney theme decor, I can bring it myself. Although a lot of the offsite places already provide it. Yes, the Disney resorts are beautiful....but I leave for the parks early in the morning, and come back after dark....so I don't see much of it anyway. Sure, I could spend a day hanging out at the pretty resort.....but that's a day not IN the parks. And all of the activities that can be done at the resorts (carriage rides, etc) are available to us off-siters. Oh...and the pools at the resort.....hmmm, crowded, loud, and I don't even want to ask about that kid with the baggy diaper. The pool at the condo is hardly used. When we rented a house (ok, it was about $500 more) the pool was private, and the rules enforced.


9. Because I don't want to listen to the cheerleaders, cranky kids, obnoxious fighting spouses....or anyone else when I'm wanting to go to sleep. I need my beauty rest if I'm gonna be at rope drop in the morning. And I want calm...not chaos. And sorry, but reports seem to be that Disney staff does nothing about noise complaints. And the staff is the only ones that can enforce it....because its private property.....but they don't. While I've yet to have any problems offsite....there are laws about noise late at night offsite.

10. Because with the money I saved on a place to sleep, I don't need the dining plan. My family of three can eat very nicely for less than the $120 a day for dining plan. And we can have an appetizer instead of a dessert if we want....and not pay extra for the privilege. And if we aren't hungry enough for 1Ts, 1CS and 1 snack every day, we don't have to feel like we wasted money. No guilt eating. Oh, and since we have APs because we stay so long off site (and frankly if you're staying 2 weeks onsite, you should have an AP too), we also have the DDE.....so I get a 20% discount, so that makes the dining plan cost of $120 go up to $144 a day worth of food. That's a LOT of food.

11. Because I have a car, I can go to the outlets for souveniors....saving me even more! Sorry, but Disney buses don't go to the outlets, lol. Or, I can go to that great pizza place the DISers are raving about, instead of the cardboard pizza at WDW.....and eat twice as much for less money! Or, I could get a steak for a few dollars instead of $30. Or I could get a Checker's ice cream! Or...well, you get the idea.

12. I'm sure there are more, but frankly, that fire alarm has kinda zapped my brain, so I can't think of anything else. Or maybe, because at the condo the fire alarm means I can get out of the building fast, instead of being in a herd of people all sauntering towards the only way out of the building. Ok, so it was obviously a false alarm....but what if it wasn't!

So....I'll keep staying offsite and going for twice as long.

 

[njb1148]

thanks to all of the folks who make excellent points about staying off-site. I have not stayed off site and I am a bit nervous about the thought of it, but you all have changed my mind and I am going to start looking for a better deal off-site for our trip in November! From the sounds of it, I should be able to find a great place to stay for far less than the cost of my current on-site cost!
I love the magic on-site, BUT, I hate the bus waits and crowds. The rooms are very small for the price, we do not use the EMH's, and I would love to have a washer/dryer so I would not have to lug around (and now pay for) having more than one suitcase. I am anxious to see if I can really get an off-site place and tickets for less than the quote I have for a value or moderate or the price I took for WL!
thanks for the great discussion on this topic!!

 

[nemomama]

LOL at this! I SO do not do buses either!

Anyway, I have no interest in staying on-site...we've gotten too used to the space you get when you have a 2 or 3BR unit. It's perfect if you have kids!

 

[SnowWhite33]

I found this thread by doing a search on the ADVANTAGES of staying off site.

I've only stayed offsite once, and really that doesn't count in my mind because during a 2 week vacation, the 1st week was spend at the Poly, the 2nd at a rental house for Thanksgiving and that has been many years ago.

My family includes myself, DH and DS,13. We always stay onsite at the Poly and love it. So when I had an opportunity with a 40% off pin code I booked 2 gv rooms for mid Dec (4 adults, 1 jr, 2 kids-us and my oldest son's family) with tickets and dp the price tag is in excess of $6,000.

On a whim today I decided to price vacation homes and I looked for dates in Sept since that is right before our APs will expire. I found a 4 br, 3 bath with a big screen, pool, and game room for $548.00 for 7 nights.



Of course I jumped on that And I feel so GREAT about it.

I love WDW, the atmosphere, and the dining and I was worried that maybe I was doing the wrong thing. I mean what about fireworks from the Poly beach, maid service, the monorail? But with a savings and a value like that I can't pass it up and I think we'll get over it. Plus, I want to see Sea World and DS is super hyped about Universal. We will still have our Disney, we'll just be doing it different.

And if it's less than what I expected, there's always next vacation

Great thread OP-it's just what I was looking for

 

[poeticdiabetic]

There are no right or wrong answers to this, but there's a reason why, when we go to Disney, we stay onsite. And when we go other places in Orlando, we stay offsite.

Back in 1995, my DW and I went to Orlando to Universal Studios, and made the trek to Daytona Beach, up the coast to Jekyll Island, and back home to Atlanta. We paid a total of around $600. Stayed at Motel 6 and had a lot of fun. We could have upgraded and spend a little more, but we were just glad to be out of the house. And we had no kids.

But when we go to Disney, I could not imagine staying offsite. Here's my reasons:

When I pay for Disney, I do not want that experience interrupted. Back in 2006, we stayed onsite, but we decided to hop back into our car to go to Walmart. And we went to the gas station and had a weird experience:

People were working. And this guy was complaining about gas prices. And the service attendant wasn't exactly "Disney Friendly." In other words, real life was going on, and I didn't like it. Especially since we still had that euphoric look on our faces, and people can just look at us and know that we just left Disney. Well, we pledged never to leave while on a Disney vacation again.

Another experience is this: We went to Disney and met some people that were staying offsite that was on our son's athletic team. My son's friend was very excited because the Magic Kingdom was staying open until 11PM. Meanwhile, my son was telling his buddy about this little band that he had on his arm that allowed him to stay in Magic Kingdom until 2AM.

But the kicker was that when we came home to compare notes, they paid about the same price for their vacation that we did on ours. And they left WDW to eat offsite. And they fought traffic leaving the parks.

But to each his own. No one's wrong. It's a matter of preference and personal taste. But we paid a grand total of a little over $2800 for our vacation for 6 days. That included our tips and souvenirs. For a family of 4. That may be a little pricey for some, but it worked really well for our budget.

 

[DOOM1001]

Why do I stay Off site? Because I live in South Florida and many times in the year I'll be at the parks twice a month and at least once every month.I've decided I'd rather go frequently and spend $40-$60 on a hotel that has free breakfast than spend $90 minimum for the POP or All-Stars.I'm not saying I never stay at a Disney hotel but 90% of the time I find excellent hotels for the money usually on I-Drive.

 

[resol37]

I've always stayed onsite at the Shades of Green hotel with my family as my father is retired Air Force. However, I'm hoping to take a trip down with my boyfriend sometime in the future and there is no way we'd be able to stay in any onsite hotel for more than one or two nights. And one or two nights does not a good Disney vacation make. At least not for me. So we'll most likely be staying offsite.

Trust me, if we could afford to stay onsite we would! But it's just not in the cards.

 

[perla75]

For just the two of us, we like to stay on-site. We don't like to cook or drive on vacation & we like to spend as much time as possible on WDW property (a relaxing break from the parks for us is spent resort hopping or hanging around the Boardwalk!). For us, that's a big part of what we want out of our WDW vacation-to me, the WDW resorts are like secondary theme parks! Also, when I go to WDW, I like to pretend that the outside world doesnt exist
So, it all depends on what your priorities are for your trips.

BUT, our trips so far have solely been WDW when we travel to Orlando. In the future we are planning to visit other places as well, like SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, Kennedy Space Center, Universal plus 3-4 days at WDW. We are likely going to stay off site for those trips because it just makes more sense.

I do NOT expect to be disappointed with an off site location though! My guess is that many places are very luxurious and very cheap!

 

[eeyoregon]

We stay on-site and LOVE it but there are only 3 in our family.

If you have more than 4 people in your family you are better off staying off-property unless you have deep pockets. There is no way that I could afford 2 rooms on property, even in a Value resort.

Off-site is tempting because you can get some awesome homes with private pools, multiple bedrooms, kitchens and super affordable rates.

For our upcoming trip we are doing the 1st 2 nights off-property. We won't even arrive until 1:00 am the first night and then we are spending the next day at the parks so it didn't make sense financially to pay $200 for a barely slept in room at the Values when I can stay 1 mile away for $70 total for both nights in a 3 star resort.

We will check-in to a value resort for free dining for the next 4 nights.

The magic you get by staying on property is nice but it's certainly not affordable for many families.

 

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

We stay offsite for several reasons. First off, we've seen some of those value rooms, and they look exactly like a room at the Radisson or Comfort Inn except more expensive and more Mickey Mouse. Second, we own a timeshare in Kissimmee and we can stay for a week for $139 total. Third, we would much rather stay in a place with lots of SPACE! Full kitchen, washer/dryer in our villa, master bedroom w/jacuzzi, second room with 2 queen beds, 2 full bathrooms, huge living room with sectional couch, and oh did I mention the large-screen TV!, private balcony, and several pools and activities to do around the resort. We enjoy cooking our own food, as grocery shopping for a week costs FAR, FAR less than dining out every day, even with the DDP. We also either rent a car or drive our own as we hate relying on busses/public transportation. Just the thought of all those sweaty bodies crammed together in a bus after the fireworks at MK make my skin crawl. We also enjoy the freedom going anywhere in Orlando or the surrounding area we want, instead of being confined to Disney property. The only way we would consider staying on-site would be if we stayed at one of the Disney villas. However, its really hard to trade for those and we are not going to pay a week OOP in a Disney villa when we have one of our own for $139.

 

[shazy03]

We have a 5 bedroom villa all to DH and me, enjoying the value for money, living in luxury with the space, with us in United Kingdom being an island we have to squeeze a lot of properties in

Also like to come and go as we please with the car not tied to buses etc, enjoying offside activities like shopping malls, travelling down to St Petes beach, miami