why bother with offsite?

[jennytablina]

Every time I've been to Florida I've stayed offsite

First two trips were Quality Inn and Ramada. Nice places but 14 days in a small room tended to be a bit too much family togetherness after a while.

We then tried villas after some friends had tried them and found them to be wonderful. Nice bathrooms, seprate bedrooms, nice big living rooms, full kitchen and a pool. Villas just make staying in Orlando a little nicer, seeing as it means we wont have to live off the resturants and fast food joints all the time.

Last year we took a mosey around the hotels and I will say having seen the hotels and walked around them, I sure can understand wanting to stay on property. What with the magical feel and the lovely service you get, it certainly feels different. I'ld love to try staying in a resort sometime, though my guess is that will be the first trip do solo or with a friend/future hubby.

 

[chloe770]

Offsite.
I agree onsite is great but offsite you can pull the kids away from all of the excitement and get them to take a nap, meaning less cranky kids for the fireworks. Also , I have a really picky eater and with your own house (for less money the onsite) I can accomodate him and save money on food.
Another plus, mom and dad get some privacy!

 

[Charleyann]

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!

Last year we stayed onsite Disney for 18 nights and 19 days. After awhile, you get sick of eating the same foods and seeing the same things. I love, love and love Disney! However, for me personally it was too much Mickey Mouse!

This year things are different. We have variety (we stay longer in Florida thn most) We are going to stay in Ft. Lauderdale for 3 nights (Nov 28th) and then go to Miami for a cruise on Dec 1st. until Dec. 5th. Next we will fly to Orlando from Miami and stay onsite Disney from Dec 5th until Dec. 18th. It will be 13 nights and 14 days.

Next we are going offsite to get rid of the big Disney crowds at Christmas. We will stay offsite from Dec. 18th- Dec. 29th. We will do offsite parks and come back Christmas Day for Chef Mickey, DisneyQuest and helicopter ride over Disney!

We love Disney, but too much is not always a good thing! Without a vehicle rental....you are more confined to Disney. Cabs are expensive to offsite locations. Offsite hotels often offer shuttle services free of charge to guest which takes you to parks and shopping and some freedom.....

Charleyann

 

[AladdinsPrincess]

If I can't get a good deal at a moderate or a deluxe WDW resort, we'll stay off-site before staying at an All-Star. At that point, for the same amount of money, I can stay at the Fairfield Inn or the Hampton Inn and get a free breakfast and a quiet room (walls are too thin for me at the All Stars).

Just my opinion!

 

[kat777]

Can you post a link to the house you are renting?

Sure - I have to say it was this one that first turned our heads:

http://www.grandvillasformosa.com/grandformosa.asp

But wasn't available for the dates we wanted. So, by no means second best if you appreciate a bit of theming (we do!), we then discovered this one:

http://www.minniesmaingatemanor.com/

We all agreed it looked like the kind of place one should stay at when doing an all-theme-parks-all-the-time vacation.

Still, we're very much looking forward to enjoying the ambience of the onsite hotels when we visit for meals too.

 

[goofyernmost]

Here is where I stayed last February. The place was even better then the pictures. There were 11 of us and it was perfect.

http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com/res/property.asp?ID=441

As you can see there are many, many styles and sizes to choose from.

 

[mickeynut1]

We've stayed offsite twice during March (spring break) but only because there were 13 of us (2007) and 8 of us this year and we rented a house so we could all be together. But, Disney wasn't the focus of the trip....it was geared toward a "family" vacation to Orlando. When it is strictly a DISNEY trip, my family of 4 will always stay onsite because for us, we love being immersed in Disney 24/7 . I know there are nice places for less money offsite, but if my main reason for the trip is the Disney theme parks/water parks, there's no better way to vacation than on property, but that's just my opinion and my family's preference .

 

[mickeynut1]

Here is where I stayed last February. The place was even better then the pictures. There were 11 of us and it was perfect.

http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com/res/property.asp?ID=441

As you can see there are many, many styles and sizes to choose from.

I saw your post after I posted and I just wanted to say we used All Star Vacation Homes in March 2007 (13 people) & March 2008 (8 people) and we LOVED them . We stayed in Acadia Estates both times (different houses) and they were both beautiful. We will use them anytime we go again with a big group . I've seen lots of people renting homes from many other sources, but not too many who have used All Star.....glad to see there's another vacationer who was happy with the home . They are a little more expensive than some of the rest, but I think well worth the extra cost .

 

[DCLMan]

Off site hotels offer space and benefits that Disney hotels do not. It also means that if you hire a car you do not have to use Disney transportation.

 

[WillCAD]

Off site hotels offer space and benefits that Disney hotels do not. It also means that if you hire a car you do not have to use Disney transportation.

You don't have to stay off-site for that! I rent a car whenever I go to WDW, whether I'm on-site or off-site.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

We are seriously considering offsite for our stay in 2010. Right now, we don't see any 2009 trips in our future.

One major factor is dog boarding. We spend roughly the same amount of money to board them each night that we would spend on a moderate hotel room.

I gladly pay more to board them at the PetsHotel rather than my vet's office because to do better at the PetsHotel and it's a much nicer facility. But, even with the new dog boarding kennel that's coming in late 2009 on WDW property, it potentially is still going to be prohibitively expensive to make the onsite choice instead of just renting a house that allows pets and staying offsite. The cost of us to stay along with the lack of dog boarding fees would be a HUGE money saver.

This of course doesn't mean that I want to have to do this, but rather it might be the only way that I get pixie dust, so sacrifices sometimes have to be made. I can also see us venturing outside of WDW and maybe going to Discovery Cove and some other Orlando area attractions if we make the offsite choice.

After all of these visits to WDW, it's not that I am no longer all about the Mouse, it's more that reality sometimes hurts the wallet.

 

[myprinceandprincess]

I've done both and feel both are great. Love disney properties. But also own a timeshare that is not Disney so we make use of that. The only downfall that people staying on-site is the transportation. I hate relying on buses and want to just hop in the car.
Both choices are fine and have their pros and cons. It's just which ever works for your family.

 

[parkgate]

We stayed in an All Star home. We have a large family and lots of special needs. We stayed for two weeks too. I can see why on-site is great for lots of people, small families, short stays, all that. But for our family a vacation home works much better, own pool, no need to share bedrooms (or beds!), the younger ones can go to bed while the rest of us stay up etc etc.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I have stayed offsite. I believe for some people it works out, especially large families, but I'd much rather stay onsite if I'm doing strictly Disney. I have no real need to go to Universal but at some point, I'd like to go back to Seaworld. I can easily do this from onsite, however.

I also think you have to choose carefully when staying offsite-the place I picked was cheap but not the nicest place-it looked a heck of a lot nicer online!

For those who have timeshares or can rent a nice condo, more power to them. They're doing what works for them.

 

[lazydoxy66]

It would be very interesting to have a family or a group of freinds of say,10 persons, split up and do a comparison. Like for like with the exception of where they stay.
It's just me and DH. I'm way more into convenience and just WDW. If we could go more often, like some of you, I would want to visit other parks. This would definitely change where we stayed.

 

[rubberband1293]

Couldn't have said this any better! Your reasons are spot on.

all great answers...keep them coming...who knows, maybe someday we will consider offsite again.

my reasons for NOT staying offsite are as follows:
1. while on vaca, we don't want to lift a finger if we don't have to, the more WDW does for us, the better.
2. we don't want to cook, we get to do that the other 50-51 wks in a year, thus a kitchen is useless.
3. for the limited time in the room, watching TV from our bed in a hotel room is just fine. thus do not need a villa with a living room
4. we don't want to make beds or do linens
5. we don't want to drive ourselve to & fro park
6. we don't want to spend money on car rental, parking, GAS
7. we prefer the Magical Express convenience vs. car rental pick up & return
8. most of all, we love to immersed in the Disney experience. can't get enough of it. going back to the resort and getting the Disney touch is a nice pick me up at the end of the day

Anyway, thanks for all the great responses and keep them coming.

 

[ScrapperKimmyD]

Because our timeshare has a condo right there that I don't have to pay for. so, I can stay for FREE at the condo or pay hundreds of dollars to stay on site.

Kinda a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.

 

[eeyoregon]

Ok, I just have to ask. I have read numerous posts saying that they stay at "FREE TIME SHARES" which costs them nothing?? How does everyone get these FREE timeshares??

Did you inherit them?

Did you win them in a drawing?

I have never heard of a free time-share and would love to jump on the wagon!

My father purchased one years ago but has spent thousands and thousands of dollars including the original purchase price/taxes and all of the yearly dues and maitenance fees.

This sound too good to be true.

 

[princess22]

While a lot of people are saying that they like to stay offsite for it being cheaper, I know there are people out there who like the other luxury hotels off property. I just returned from the Gaylord Palms (a weekend trip, and I only went because they are offering a teacher discount). I have stayed on property a couple times, so I can compare. I like staying on property, there is a magical feel to it. But after staying at the Gaylord, I can easily see why people stay off site. The hotel was gorgeous, service was amazing. Their is a shuttle to all the parks if you don't want to rent a car (not as frequent as on property, but it is still an option) We had our car and it only took 5 minutes to get to Epcot.

And, there was still Disney stuff. A disney store down in the lobby. And they played the show that they play in the room on Disney sites. I don't know what it's called, but it's the one with Stacey (I think that's her name).

It was a great weekend, and I got my Disney fill, while enjoying a nice luxury resort off property.

 

[ScrapperKimmyD]

Ok, I just have to ask. I have read numerous posts saying that they stay at "FREE TIME SHARES" which costs them nothing?? How does everyone get these FREE timeshares??

Did you inherit them?

Did you win them in a drawing?

I have never heard of a free time-share and would love to jump on the wagon!

My father purchased one years ago but has spent thousands and thousands of dollars including the original purchase price/taxes and all of the yearly dues and maintenance fees.

This sound too good to be true.

We bought our timeshare about 15 years ago and it's been paid off for a very long time. We have yearly maint. dues, but that's it. Now when we want to go somewhere, we try to use our timeshare. It doesn't cost us anything extra. So when I'm paying for my trip, I'm not forking out anything extra for a hotel. It's already been taken care of.

The one time we went to Florida, we had our way paid because of a timeshare presentation. They flew us there and put us up for a few nights and sent us to the bahamas for a few nights. Between the time we booked that and actually took the trip, we bought into a different timeshare. We still went on the presentation, though.

We also noticed the kiosks in the parking lots in the neighborhood that had signs saying "Disney tickets $15.00" We had to check that out - cheap tickets for timeshare presentations. We ended up going to 5 different presentations during that trip and they paid us $75.00 to go to Epcot for 2 days. Totally worth the time and effort of the presentations.

While looking at them all, we discovered that we made an excellent decision with the one we bought into. It was the BEST of them all with the most flexibility and ease of use. No trading or specific weeks required. So glad we got to see all that we did.


So while it's not truely free, it's not any extra money just for that trip.