where is the best place to stay

[morganboyz]

. Hello, I am taking my wife and 2 boys to wdw next june. At time of trip the boys will be 7 & 3. where is the best place for the money to stay? would like to stay near or onsite. I have heard many good and bad about each yet still can not decide. Please let me know what you think. Thanks

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Welcome to the boards!!!

There are a lot of questions to consider when picking a place to stay. I think the biggest two are on-site or off-site and how much you are willing to pay.

We are big belivers that staying on site is worth the cost. If cost is a major factor in your planning, I suggest that you look at the all-stars. They are the lowest cost resorts on site and a delightful place for kids. We have stayed at movies and enjoyed our stay very much.

A visit to the resort board will fill you in on moderate and even delux choices that might work for you family. going off season can save you a lot of money as can discounts you may qualify for such as AAA.

HAve fun planning.


Jordan's mom

 

[Planogirl]

Onsite is great but offsite can be too if you want separate rooms and in-room washing facilities and so on. I would look at hotels in Kissimmee if you want to look into offsite because the location is so convenient. International Drive has great places but the traffic is awful. A lot of people seem to enjoy the Holiday Inn Family Suites.

As for onsite, I far and away prefer the moderates with Port Orleans Riverside being our favorite. But all of the moderates are nice, it depends on which would be convenient for you and which one has the most appealing theming. You can often catch good rates at these, it just depends on timing and luck.

 

[BevS97]

It totally depends on your budget, and what you want for your money. Personally, I wouldn't stay at the All Stars - for the money I would prefer to stay off-site, but then the theming at the All Stars does absolutely nothing for me.

We have stayed at the Caribbean Beach and at Animal Kingdom Lodge and they were both wonderful, and I felt that I was getting something special for the extra cost.

We have also stayed offsite, and I have been quite happy with that option too - by staying offsite we are able to afford a longer trip, and for me, extra days at Disney are worth a bland hotel room, so I am prepared to make that compromise. In fact, now that we have discovered condos, and the benefits compared to the price, I struggle to justify onsite costs, especially when some of them are extremely close to Disney property.

In fact, our last 2 trips we have combined time off site, with time on-site, spending the majority of our stay offsite, and then moving onsite for the last few days - that way we get the best of both worlds.
I should say though, that we travel to Orlando for 14 nights, so accommodation cost is a major issue - 14 nights onsite would wipe out our budget, also because we are there for so long, we don't do Disney everyday, so the onsite argument is not so compelling.

Bev

 

[Whosemom]

Next time we go, we're going camping! Yeehaw!!!!

 

[susy]

Hi!!! we have stayed offsite and at all three levels of disney resorts (value, moderate, and deluxe). For the money, our best stay was at Disney's Corondo Springs Resort (moderate). This resort has everything.

See FAQ and pictures at wdwig.com-

Rooms- Each room has two double beds, nightstand, table with two chairs, armoire with TV. Dressing area has a place to hang clothes, safe, iron and board, sink, coffeemaker, hairdryer, and toilet and tub inside the bathroom.

El Centro- Lobby, HUGE giftshop with Disney and resort merchandise- some food, the Pepper Market (interactive food court), grab and go section, bakery window, Maya Grill (sit-down rest) has a great breakfast buffet and sit-down dinner. Arcade.

Marina- has boats to rent (different types), bikes and surrey bikes.

Main pool- has a Mayan pyramid with waterfall and long, twisty poolslide, HUGE hot tub, kiddie pool, playground, sand-play area, volleyball area, arcade, pool bar that serves drinks and lunch items(hamburgers, chicken fingers, wraps,etc). There are towels at the main pool.

The resort is set around a lake that is 3/4 mile around. Great for walking , jogging, riding. There are three different themed areas around the lake.

Cabanas is a "tropical theme" with beaches and hammocks.
Casitas is more city-like with gorgeous courtyards and fountains.
Ranchos is a desert-like area with boulders and cactus-really nice!
Each area has a bus-stop (there is also one at El Centro), a quiet pool (bring room towels to these), and laundry. Each builidng has ice and vending machines.

There is also room service. We got a FL Resident rate of $109 during peak season and we thought it was a steal! I have heard of guests requesting and receiving turn-down service, but I haven't done this so I don't know for sure.

On property is the way to go!!! We go to the parks early and come back for a swim/nap and then back to the parks at night. It feels more like a vacation than just running around theme park all day. The buses are great and so relaxing.

 

[crisi]

You might want to check out the resorts board. A little browsing will answer all your questions

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by Whosemom
Next time we go, we're going camping! Yeehaw!!!!

I would LOVE to try camping one time but DH isn't eager to do this and I don't have the nerve to do it by myself with DS. Oh well, maybe someday.

 

[disneysteve]

Just my personal preference here...

I wouldn't consider an onsite stay with 2 young children. Disney rooms, even in the moderate and deluxe hotels, are relatively small. Offsite, you can get a nice 2 or 3 bedroom suite or condo or even a rental house for the same price you would pay for a room onsite. But instead of being stuck in one room, mom and dad would have their own room and the kids would have their own. We don't sleep with our daughter at home and we don't want to do it when we are on vacation either. Also, you'd have 2 or more TV's, possibly 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, maybe a washer and dryer, etc.

As for transportation, no matter where we stay, on or offsite, we use our car to get around. Disney buses just take too long for us plus you can't get everywhere on property directly.

If price is an issue, offsite accomodations are much more economical.

 

[motaei]

We looked at on-site & off-site & we chose on-site for the convenience. We were looking into All Stars Movies, but then looked at CSR with the better theming for the kids in our party (3 DSs at age 10 & 1 DD at age 8). They are getting too old for the All Star Movies theming (DH refused to stay at AS Sports & the kids would not have gotten anything out of AS Music) & when they found out about the waterslide, well, say no more. Also DH and the other DW would have gone insane with the theming at the All Stars for too long. I also chose the moderate because of the jacuzzi & CSR has the workout room. I had budgeted for full rack rate at the All Stars, but hope that once the discounts come out, I can get a price close enough so that my pocket does not hurt. I know that my party does not match yours much, but I hope my post rambles on enough to give you some things to think about.

 

[susy]

Cindy,
You will LOVE CSR!!!! We have stayed at ASSp, ASMO, CBR, CSR and AKL. CSR is our favorite hands-down and I did also really LOVE AKL!

One of the reasons I don't like to stay at a condo is that I live in a condo and I just would not want to stay in one on vacation. I like the "resort feel". I do not want to see a kitchen while on vacation or even wash one dish or glass. I would rather eat my breakfasts out of a cooler in my hotel room than have a kitchen. This is probably coming form a woman's point of view, but I can see a man seeing no difference, if they aren't the ones doing the cooking and cleaning. I'm sure that some do, but most see it as primarily the wife's job (or that she will just instinctively do most of it)-or they wouldn't want to stay in the condo.

We stayed at AKL over labor Day weekend and the buses were great! 5 minutes to AK, 10 to MGM and epcot and 15 to the MK.
we didn't use the buses at CSR, but according the the transportation wizard (recorded times) on ourlaughingplace.com-CSR has the best times of ANY resort on property, including the monorail resorts.

I do like the AS very much and would stay there rather than offsite. I grew up in FL, have goen t wdw more times thtn I can remember adn we alwasy stayed offsite. Last year we stayed onsite 7 times and I have no desire to go back offsite.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by susy
This is probably coming form a woman's point of view, but I can see a man seeing no difference, if they aren't the ones doing the cooking and cleaning. I'm sure that some do, but most see it as primarily the wife's job (or that she will just instinctively do most of it)-or they wouldn't want to stay in the condo.

At least in our case, this isn't true at all. At home, my wife does do most of the cleaning (though we split the cooking pretty evenly). She much prefers having a kitchen when we travel. The time and money saved by eating breakfast in our room far outweighs the few minutes it takes to clean up afterwards.

We've stayed onsite and offsite many times and are just spoiled by the convenience, cheap rates and spacious accomodations available outside of Disney's gates. Just our personal preference, but we'll stick with offsite.

 

[BevS97]

I am a wife, and I love staying in a condo - and no I don't cook on vacation - It's my vacation too! My husband doesn't cook either (although he actually does most of the cooking at home).

For breakfast, we alternate between cereal, bagels etc, a character breakfast on site, or one of the buffet places off-site; all options are open to us, and frankly cereal or toasting a bagel doesn't feel like cooking to me.

Lunch is always eaten out, and for dinner we will usually eat out too, either on-site, off-site (and there are some great options off-site which are much cheaper than eating on property), or we may get a take-out and eat in the condo.

We don't cook proper meals at all - although it is nice to be able to make my dd a snack which she is familiar with, which can be tricky when you are eating in restaurants all the time. For example on our last trip in hotels, she kept asking me for a ham sandwich - it sounds silly, but it's actually quite hard to get a ham sandwich in a WDW restaurant, we asked one night in perkins and despite having bread and ham on the menu, they struggled for ages before deciding they could make one, and charge me for a toasted cheese sandwich.
In the condo, I had ham and bread on hand, and could rustle up a sandwich at a moments notice.


The reason I like having a kitchen is because we can keep things in the fridge/freezer, and prepare snacks etc. I loved being able to freeze our water bottles, and take frozen water to the parks every day - that kept things a lot colder than any ice from an ice machine.
For some reason, I really like having a washing machine too - and I hate doing laundry at home, but I loved that we could just keep sticking our clothes in the machine each night and they were all clean by the morning, it meant that I could wear my favorite outfits more often, rather than having to resort to the ones that I'd packed in case I ran out.

it's also really nice to have seperate bedroom/living areas, my dd didn't go to bed early every night, but it was nice to have the option of putting her to bed early and being able to sit in the living area, watching the tv and having a glass of wine, without feeling like I was disturbing her.

When you consider that you can get a 2 bedroom apartment, 2 miles off property (windsor palms) for $59/night, it's pretty hard to justify onsite rates.

Bev

 

[BarryCF]

We're staying at Port Orleans Riverside in November on the FTV Pkg. PO is a beautiful resort, and it's our favorite moderate. The Deluxe Resorts are out of our price range, but the Poly is the one place I want to stay the most.(One of these days )

I would also like to place a vote for a Condo offsite if you're staying for an extended period. Disney hotels can get VERY expensive if you stay for more than a week or can't find codes. Maybe you'll get lucky and Disney will run the FTV's again. If they do, we'll be there with you.

Cheers

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by BevS97
When you consider that you can get a 2 bedroom apartment, 2 miles off property (windsor palms) for $59/night, it's pretty hard to justify onsite rates.

Bev

Bev - Where did you go to get this rate? I went to the Windsor Palms website and rates are a lot higher than that, though still pretty reasonable considering the accomodations.

Steve

 

[antmaril]

We are headed to the Wyndham Palms Resort and Country Club next week. This is our first time off-site. We have stayed at Port Orleans, Caribbean Beach and the Beach Club in the past. We have booked a two bedroom, two bath condo at the Wyndham Palms. This condo is 1,552 square feet with a full kitchen, washer and dryer and a 52 inch television. We booked this through hotelkingdom.com for $89 per night. I am very anxious to see how it is. I have read very positive posts about this resort on these boards, so I am hopeful.

I will write a report when we return.

 

[tbuot]

We stayed at POFQ last summer with our boys who were 2 and 5 at the time. We enjoyed this resort..very peaceful and fun pool for the boys. The food court was reasonable and the food we thought was good. It was nice being onsite so we could take a mid-afternoon break.

 

[BevS97]

I have booked through a UK company, on a weekly rate in ££'s, but on the same website, they are showing a nightly rate of $59 for the low season (we are going early December).

The apartments

Nightly Prices in $$ - 2 bed Apt, Low Season = $59


We haven't stayed at Windsor Palms before, but did stay in a friends condo offsite last summer, and just loved it. Unfortunatly, the friend will be using his condo at the same time we are travelling this trip (well, it's also nice as we will see them there), but I have read very good reviews or Windsor Palms, and the location looks excellent, it's about 2 minutes from Sherbeth Road, which I believe takes you directly onto property by Animal Kingdom.


Bev

 

[momof2inPA]

If you stay offsite try to pick a hotel that is new or newly remodeled. Hotels get rundown so quickly in the Disney area with all the kid traffic.

Personally, I did not think Port Orleans Riverside was nice at all. The pools were small, the room was sparse and very small (maybe like a Ramada), but it was clean. Maybe some rooms there are better than others.

Downtown Disney hotels might also be an option. You can probably get a bigger room for less money, and you still have the Disney busses.

We have stayed on and offsite and now prefer a condo. On our next visit, we are staying at the Wyndham Palms, too. I had a hard time choosing between Wyndham and Cypress Point Grand Villas.

 

[jodifla]

To get the space and stay onsite, you could rent points on the DVC board and stay in a Disney Vacation Club accommodation. They range from studios to three-bedrooms, and they come with all the Disney magic.

I grew up in Florida and stayed in many off site accommodations, but there's something about staying at Disney.

We bought into DVC eight years ago, and there's nothing like it for space, luxury and convenience.