I realize that there are SOOO MANY variables. I'm just looking for other peoples experience executing a budget friendly trip that may not include staying on property. I LOVE DISNEY, but they are pricing their hotels at RIDICULOUSLY HIGH PRICES.
Here's my experience with a "cheap" trip:
We became a family-of-5 long before Disney decided to create family suites or Value Resorts. So, our first trip as a family-of-5 was off site. The hotel had 2 rooms (a living area with pullout sofa bed, and a bedroom with 2 full size beds). There was a fridge but no microwave. They had complimentary bus transportation to both Disney and Universal. And there was a continental breakfast offered each morning. We got tickets thru a discounter (I think it was Orlando Fun Tickets?) and took Mears transportation from the airport to our hotel and back.
First the good: it cost less than staying onsite and buying a package. We got to visit Disney World for a week and the kids still had fun.
Now the bad: The hotel was not some place that I would stay again. The room was dark and musty. It was noisy. The beds were not comfortable. And on top of that, they had the nerve to charge a "resort fee" at the desk ("cash only, please") when the room had been prepaid.
The bus service was inconvenient, crowded and not pleasant to deal with every day. There was not enough space for all of the strollers and backpacks that people tend to drag with them. It never departed early enough to make rope drop and it only went to the TTC, where we would have to board Disney buses to get to the park we wanted to visit. To get back to the hotel, we had to make our way back to the TTC in order to get the bus back. And of course, bus service ended well before park closings. Relying on the hotel's buses also meant that once we arrived in Disney, we were there for the day. There was no running back to the room to retrieve anything we forgot.
The continental breakfast consisted of coffee or tea and a box of powdered donuts in a corner of the lobby. When the box was emptied by the first couple of people, there were no additional donuts provided. At least the hotel was close enough to shopping that I was able to walk over and pick up some breakfast items to have in the room.
The Mears transportation was a shared ride van, which meant that we stopped at a number of resorts before actually getting to ours and then the same was true for the return trip.
I wish that I could say that even though it was done cheaply, it was still a memorable trip. In a lot of ways, it was. But they weren't positive memories. If I learned anything, it was that I'm not happy being cheap with vacations. We don't get away often enough for me to spend one or two precious weeks of time off in misery just for the sake of saving a few bucks. I would rather shorten my trips and go less frequently than repeat that cheap trip.