Why off-site vs. On-site

[hinodis]

Brian, go for the special occasions package for $739 for two nights in a 2 room club level suite. We do this about 3 or 4 times a year. We only live 40 minutes away from Dearborn. The amenities in the package are worth about $400.00! There is so much food on club level you don't have to eat anywhere else.

 

[Lisa P.]

It's a tough call... when to compare a deluxe onsite hotel room to a timeshare studio and when to compare it to a timeshare 1BR or 2BR.

For some people, comparing the studio makes sense. It appears to be apples to apples - sometimes it's even at the same general resort property!

The deluxe hotel room doesn't have a microwave and the timeshare studio doesn't have daily housekeeping (and perhaps no room service). While a timeshare studio (in a points system) may "cost" less during the week, it also "costs" more on the weekends. Unless you are comparing an average 7 night stay (perhaps during school breaks, for most people), it's not apples to apples, really. And, here's the thing, for us (5 people - adults & teens) - it's altogether impossible. If we want to, we can fit into a single deluxe hotel room but not a timeshare studio, which sleeps 4 full sized people.

So the comparison that counts for us is a Disney deluxe hotel room (or 2 value/moderate rooms, for the added bathroom & privacy) vs a timeshare 2BR (or maybe 1BR at AKL's DVC). Since our kids have different college schedules (all 3 graduated our home school in June - yay!), we're now limited in scheduling to the higher seasons, during school breaks. So that's what we'd compare - 7 nights in a Disney deluxe hotel room (or 2 value/moderate rooms) vs. 7 nights in a 2BR timeshare offsite during school break weeks. The resale pricing we enjoyed on our Wyndham/Fairfield timeshare points a decade ago is similar to the resale pricing available to a newbie today. So I can definitely say that our stays in 2BRs offsite offered us a better vacation than our stays in Disney hotel rooms and saved us money in the process.

At Disney hotels & resorts, there are the onsite bennies (which are completely useless to us):

• assured access on busiest days - Christmas-New Year's Eve & July 4th - we've never wanted to be packed like sardines, so don't go into the parks on these days; the turnstiles don't close to day guests at other times
• ME airport-resort transport - we drive, don't fly, so we don't need it, but we usually carry on our luggage rather than checking it anyway - the fewer people handling (or losing) our luggage when we fly, the better
• Disney park transport - we drive anyway (w/our own music & drink cooler) - no standing to wait for & ride crowded transport at closing with crying, overtired little ones or adults who forgot deodorant on hot days
• resort package delivery - we've used park entrance pick-up (avail to everyone), since Disney's room delivery disappeared, requiring an extra stop in the resort's gift shop (there's an oddity at Disney )
• room key charging - we've had problems with our room keys on some trips; we prefer the purchase/theft protections offered on regular credit cards, which are accepted everywhere the room keys are accepted
• Disney dining priority seating - only a slight edge for onsite guests making these a bit earlier; the toughest ones (btdt) don't matter to us anymore, the rest are readily available to us; offsite restaurant/attractions assistance is usually available in addition, at offsite hotels/resorts
• special nights in the parks - for a fee, we've never done these, not interested, no need
• daily housekeeping - we prefer the privacy/security of having no one entering our room when we want to nap (also, fewer squeaky housekeeping carts outside our door in the morning & at nap time); extra towels and services are still available through resort housekeeping, if we need/request them (sometimes for a fee)
• room service - some onsite hotels don't offer it, some offsites do - if comparing the same type of property (and level of service) onsite vs. offsite, then this is a non-issue
• in-hotel restaurant convenience - see room service
• special pools, boating, tennis, golf, recreation, shopping - see room service; also, day guests may use all of the Disney hotel recreation & resort amenities (except the pools)
• themed restaurants & resort grounds/environs - avail to day guests for visiting enjoyment
• inter-resort Disney transport - horrible, except on monorail/boat routes, far better to use a car like a day guest

And then there are the onsite bennies, which are moderately useful to us:

• extra free hours in the parks - we're fine w/fastpasses & a good tourplan, so we rarely actually use these during onsite stays anymore
• free parking at the parks - amounts to ~$70 for the week, dwarfed by the $100s saved offsite for comparable accommodations

Obviously, when considering the value of onsite bennies, YMMV. With the money saved, we like to take more or longer vacations than we could otherwise. Of course, we could use some of it to purchase "lost" benefits, if we really wanted them, by getting a campsite (and the corresponding resort keys) onsite or paying a company to provide taxis or even personal limo service.

Comparing a stay in an onsite hotel to buying DVC today to stay in onsite timeshare studios is a unique comparison. It needs to consider the reduction of daily housekeeping, reduced flexibility in planning (vs. using cash at any hotel), reduced promos (like free dining) not offered on DVC stays. It needs to consider the gains of an inroom microwave, free use of laundry rooms, locked-in pricing, feeling a part of the resort and other perks (like discounted annual passes) that may change at any time. And it needs to consider the pricing as it stands today, not how it was 5 or 10 or 15 years ago, since that's the only thing a newbie could reasonably find useful. There's no assurance that the future holds the same as the past, in terms of growth or resale pricing.

Comparing a stay in an onsite DVC timeshare resort to an offsite timeshare is a whole other discussion. Look at TUG below or the DVC forum here for much more on that. We found the value offsite (purchased resale), for the money paid, to be far, far superior to DVC, for us in our given situation (so we sold our DVC), but again, YMMV. If it gives you an inkling to our perspective, we do enjoy visiting other places on vacation very much. When in Orlando, we like to see other theme parks and do lots of things that aren't just Disney. That means a lot, when considering different people's preferences and what they think is a good value. HTH.

 

[Brian Noble]

the special occasions package for $739

The weekend of indulgence? That looks AWESOME. For those following along at home, this is what it includes:

From $739 per two night stay
Escape together into a glorious celebration of your romance, and fall in love again in an atmosphere that will charm your senses.

The Weekend of Indulgence package includes:

First night:

* Suite accommodations for two
* Two 30-minute massages (or one 1-hour massage) in your suite parlor
* Butler-drawn tranquility bath following massage therapy

Second night of arrival to include:

* Suite accommodations for two
* Romantic floral turndown service
* Full bottle of specially selected sparkling wine
* Chocolate-dipped tuxedo strawberries
* Buffet breakfast for two in The Grill or full American breakfast through in-room dining
* Complimentary use of the fitness center and swimming pool
* Complimentary valet parking
* Complimentary newspaper

Yoi and double yoi!

(Curses. Not available for our anniversary weekend.)

 

[hinodis]

Brian, PM me I happen to know someone at the Ritz. They may just find a room for you on the weekend you need it. Yes, it was the indulgence package I was refering to.

 

[crisi]

My husband is still talking about the experience at the Gaylord Palms and Portofino Bay - and those aren't even the Ritz. Disney Deluxe hotels are nice, but they are very expensive for as nice as they are.

Now, I'm completely an on-site snob - but its because I hate driving a rental car in Orlando and I like Disney, not Florida.

 

[Lisa P.]

I have two teenage boys and a 10 year old girl:
1. I will not stay in a small room with my two wonderful sons for 10 days
2. My daughter wouldn't want to either
3. I have a kitchen and a grill out on my lanai next to the pool
4. The magic on my vacation does not have to come from Disney
5. Disney accomodations are NOT 5 family member friendly--this means two adjoining rooms, where my 10 year old daughter has to stay with 19 and 16 year old young men.

I love your post. We're in the same place w/ an 18 yr old DD & two nearly-17 yr old DSs. A single hotel room is highly undesirable for all these young people and us. Though they get along well, they feel exactly as yours do about the adjoining hotel rooms, too. Getting along doesn't mean they want to sleep in a room together on vacation. LOL!

Plus, having friends along on some trips adds fun for our family. When we stay in a timeshare condo, sleeping arrangements are determined by the number of guests we've got. If the boys don't have any guests, they usually take the sleeper sofa in the LR and give their sister the 2nd BR for privacy, especially if she does have guests. If she has no guests or they have some, she sleeps in the LR so they have the 2nd BR w/2 doubles. And sometimes, we get a 3BR timeshare.

If we had to pay for all these hotel rooms onsite or overpriced 2BR & 3BR DVC condos, bringing guests would be out of reach for us. Since it adds "value" to have them along, this is a distinct benefit to offsite, for us. With 3-6 teenagers on every trip, a kitchen stocked with the foods & beverages they like, at all hours, is a very good thing, too!

 

[isla bonita]

Brian, I have to agree with you fully on this one. There is nothing like the service at a Ritz Carlton. Have you been to the one in Dearborn?? It is actually the lowest priced rooms out of all the Ritz's in the world. With the service you would ecpect. A great weekend getaway if you want to be spoiled on club level.
For me, I saty off-site in a nice big pool home. I have two teenage boys and a 10 year old girl:
1. I will not stay in a small room with my two wonderful sons for 10 days
2. My daughter wouldn't want to either
3. I have a kitchen and a grill out on my lanai next to the pool
4. The magic on my vacation does not have to come from Disney
5. Disney accomodations are NOT 5 family member friendly--this means two adjoining rooms, where my 10 year old daughter has to stay with 19 and 16 year old young men.

It's a choice people....One choice is no better then the other. Sometimes I feel like I am ostrasized here for being an off-siter. It's not even always about the money, its what works best for each individual family. I am a stay at home Mom for 19 years. I have spent plenty of time with my kids. I don't need to stay in 300 square feet with them for 10 days. It's called a VACATION

Just a great post! Loved "The magic on my vacation does not have to come from Disney"

 

[MiaSRN62]

It's a choice people....One choice is no better then the other. Sometimes I feel like I am ostrasized here for being an off-siter. It's not even always about the money, its what works best for each individual family. I am a stay at home Mom for 19 years. I have spent plenty of time with my kids. I don't need to stay in 300 square feet with them for 10 days. It's called a VACATION

hinodis,
This is the only part I didn't get (the above quote).
Who here on this thread ostrasized you or anyone ? Or do you mean just generally on the DIS overall ? I can't imagine these Orlando boards make you feel that way because the majority is very "pro" offsite. Sometimes "I" feel out of place talking about staying onsite or DVC here on the Orlando boards.....so I can relate (but in the opposite).

I think it's been a fair comparison of on and offsite. If you go back to the OP, they pretty much asked how some make the choices they do. Disney does need to get more affordable rooms for families of 5 (we are one too). Right now, the All Star suites and POR (Alligator Bayou) side are the least expensive, followed by the FW cabins, deluxes and DVC. I think building a nice moderate resort (like POR) that slept 5 comfortably would be a terrific idea on disney's part. Years of renting two rooms led us to invest in DVC.

We happen to do both on and offsite (as do a couple other people on this thread), so I feel I can give a pretty fair comparison of both. But I didn't think anyone was ostrasizing anyone (again, unless you are talking about other boards on the DIS ?). I, personally, feel for doing WDW park visits, onsite works much better. I know MANY here are shaking their heads "no" right now at me. But (from my experiences) Disney resorts do have their perks for navigating the wdw theme parks more efficiently than when one stays offsite (at least in our 13-14 years of yearly++ visits as a family). Things that come to mind are EMH : getting to the parks earlier and able to stay later are a plus, particularily during busy seasons like summer and holidays. Also, bus transportation. My kids can come and go as they like without all of us having to get in a car together and drive them somewhere to drop them off. An example : in Feb we wanted to go to Epcot but my girls wanted to stay and swim. My friend and I went off to the park and the girls swam a little before meeting up with us 90 min later. We didn't have to go get them, they were able to just hop on a bus to Epcot. We've done stuff like this numerous times. So that counts for something. One year we had my mil with us. She fell ill and wanted to leave the park. We all had to leave because we were staying offsite. It would have been too much of a hassle driving back to the hotel and then turning around and going back into the MK. Because this made our vacation "easier", that is how we measure "magical" some times.

For doing other things, i.e., the beaches, Sea World, Universal etc.....offsite is great. It's the best of both worlds. And the whole comment about the "magic" not coming from disney. I can agree on one part (true, a family makes their own magic), but we do enjoy visiting the disney parks more when staying on disney property. If one doesn't want to use the term "disney magic" that is fine. But wdw theme parks visits go more smoothly & efficiently for us when staying onsite. For offsite trips and touring, our Vistana timeshare is perfect.

LisaP says : resort package delivery - we've used park entrance pick-up (avail to everyone), since Disney's room delivery disappeared, requiring an extra stop in the resort's gift shop (there's an oddity at Disney )

Yes, but if you're park hoppers like us---we're seasoned disney tourists so we like to hop frequently---package delivery to the gift shop is so simple. Just about every single day we park hop. So if we buy something at the MK at 10 am and want to hop over to Epcot at 1 pm, our package is most likely not going to be at the park entrance. So we hop over to Epcot and then we would have to return BACK to the MK to get our package. Not to mention, carting whatever souveniers we may have purchased at Epcot as well. This is a royal pain (for us at least). With disney resort delivery, we've bought souveniers (and some large), and don't have to worry about picking them up until we get back to our resort. We can pick the packages up at our leisure. So I don't find it an oddity at all. We use this perk extensively. In fact, we usually hold off on buying in-park souveniers when we stay at our offsite timeshare until we move over to our onsite resort. We tend to split our stays between the two.

LisaP : special nights in the parks - for a fee, we've never done these, not interested, no need

Like Mickey's Halloween or Christmas parties ? That can apply to anyone...on or offsite, so not sure why that made the list. We happen to find these some of the best most memorable nights during our stay. But everyone is different and I can understand if they wouldn't interest some.

I disagreed with many other onsite perks that LisaP listed as "useless", but to each his/her own. I can respect everyone's opinion. Extra Magic Hours often make or break a vacation for us. Example, this past July/Aug trip we were just on. We split offsite and onsite. The first part of the trip was at Vistana and we got on far less rides than when we moved over to our onsite portion. My kids noticed it big time. We tried to just do more offsite trips (visiting relatives, beach, Sea World while staying at Vistana). We got the EMH one morning at Blizzard Beach and for the first 90 min, everything was walk-on.....it was awesome. By 1 pm we all wanted to leave because the lines had become so bad. But some may not see the benefits of this ? That is fine. Totally understand there are different viewpoints.

LisaP : free parking at the parks - amounts to ~$70 for the week, dwarfed by the $100s saved offsite for comparable accommodations

Add in a car rental---which is not required at a disney resort----and you can save. Our rental car for the week we stayed at Vistana was $350. So for those flying, ME and no requirement of a rental car can save $---especially if you can stay at a value or moderate resort. So again, I feel there are two sides to the coin. I can certainly see how saving money on a car rental would be useless to someone who drives their own to WDW.

But then again, I hardly expect to get much backup on my post , because these boards, as I've said before, are understandably very pro-offsite. That's ok......I understand........

hinodis says :its what works best for each individual family.

This is the one part of your post that I can honestly say I agree 100% with

 

[hinodis]

hinodis,
This is the only part I didn't get (the above quote).
Who here on this thread ostrasized you or anyone ? Or do you mean just generally on the DIS overall ? I can't imagine these Orlando boards make you feel that way because the majority is very "pro" offsite. Sometimes "I" feel out of place talking about staying onsite or DVC here on the Orlando boards.....so I can relate (but in the opposite).



I meant on the the DIS in general. Certainly, not on this particular board. Sometimes on the other boards I feel as though I am the only one staying off site and that I will be "missing" something. This is only our second trip to WDW. Last trip we stayed in our friends time share for only $125.00 for the week! By our fifth day at WDW my DD who was five at the time said, "I am soooo sick of Disney" I could not believe it!! I have never stayed onsite so I guess I don't know what I will be missing. I wanted to stay onsite this trip but I was TOTALLY out voted. Now sometimes I read these boards and think did a I make a mistake?? We just really like large accomodations on vacation. Disney resorts did not offer that in our price range. I am very happy with the house we found. It is totally in my budget and way too big for us!! We will actually have one empty bedroom. It is on a huge lot --we looked at it on google earth!! We will be going to Discovery Cove and Sea World this trip. My kids are so excited to have a pool attached to the house and a game room. My DS does not like the long walk to the pool. Like I said before, it is a personal choice.

 

[MiaSRN62]

I meant on the the DIS in general. Certainly, not on this particular board. Sometimes on the other boards I feel as though I am the only one staying off site and that I will be "missing" something.

Hinodis.....
I can certainly understand how you probably have been made to feel ostrasized on other boards on DIS-----it's either pro on site or pro offsite & these are "disney" boards. I really do try to just stick to discussing my offsite experiences here on this board, but sometimes threads like this one pop-up and I get "brave" and talk about my onsite stays as well. It rarely gets much if any support. So I've been made to feel the way you have sometimes just on different boards. Some scoff that any of us who choose to stay at disney hotels are crazy for paying the price, sucked in by the "magic" or whatever, etc, etc. We all just have to take it with a grain of salt. We all know what is right for each of our families. My kids would never say they were sick of disney.....so you're right.....it is totally a personal choice and there is no right or wrong way to vacation in Orlando.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

The reason we stay off site is that we would rather trade the proximity and daily maid service to having the space that a pool home (previously), now 3br timeshare, gives us.
I'm not a coffee snob but do insist that it be freshly made, as in, by me or dh. In restaurants, hotels, Starbucks, 7-11, they all taste as if it's been sitting in the pot for at least an hour.
I like to quietly sit in my nightgown before anyone else wakes up and enjoy my coffee. I would be miserable to have to wake up, shower, dress, blowdry my hair just to head down to a place that sells overpriced, burnt, lousy coffee. By then the kids would be up and the moment is gone.

We like having a kitchen but I never cook. Dh likes to cook a big breakfast. We like that dh can be doing this while the kids and I get dressed. It's nice to have popsicles in the freezer or nuke some popcorn while we watch a movie.
Also it saves lots of money on drinks in the parks when we freeze a case of bottled water and bring a few each day in a collapsible cooler. We always have an ice cold drink handy for about 50 cents each. This may change for us when we stop renting a stroller; then who wants to have to carry a cooler?

Having our own washer/dryer allows us to pack very little though I fully respect those who feel that it's crazy to do laundry on vacation. Very handy though when ds puked all over himself.
We like having our own bedroom with a king size bed, TV and jacuzzi. We like that the kids have their own room and dbl bed for each ds and a tv in there too.
When our boys get to the age that they want to bring along friends, there will be plenty of room. Our ts sleeps 12. So far only grandparents have come along with us.

Onsite perks aren't that important to us. Opening and closing the park is more than enough hours for us and we don't mind driving at all. Our car rental is usually less than $150. Charging to a room key makes it too hard to monitor spending. We like traveler checks or occasionally use our cc to earn ff miles.
We love visiting Disney but don't need to be immersed in it 24/7. I feel trapped with no car and like to do other things like US/IOA, SW, KSC, etc.
I think it's great that there are so many different on and off site options so every family can find what works for them and have a great vacation.