Staying off site

[BigredNole]

It really depends on where you are staying offsite. If at a hotel, you have the added "resort fee", hotel parking fee, Disney parking fee, the insane taxes. You can rent a timeshare where most of those are gone. If you have 1 AP, Disney parking is free. In many cases, buying one saves more than paying for parking. The other discounts you get with it help. Our APs wound up averaging $175 a week for the last year. We are probably not going back for 2-3 years, but we got our monies worth this last time.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

It really depends on where you are staying offsite. If at a hotel, you have the added "resort fee", hotel parking fee, Disney parking fee, the insane taxes. You can rent a timeshare where most of those are gone. If you have 1 AP, Disney parking is free. In many cases, buying one saves more than paying for parking. The other discounts you get with it help. Our APs wound up averaging $175 a week for the last year. We are probably not going back for 2-3 years, but we got our monies worth this last time.

Agree about the AP. However, there are MANY offsite hotels that do not charge any resort of parking fees!

 

[jameyh]

We are going January 2019 for 7 nights. We are a family of 4, I found a 3bed/2bath in Windsor hills for $1004, on Vrbo. We will rent a car of some sort and I am estimating no more $600 & the parking at Disney is $22 a day so $134 for the 6 days we will visit the parks.

The condo we rented has a full kitchen and laundry so we can eat some meals in and not pack as much since we can wash. We also like more room and separate beds for our sons.
Even the value resort prices are $900+

Saw on another post the website auto slayer .com and got an intermediate suv for $221 for the week!! Add in our $134 Disney parking and we are way under budget

 

[Sha259]

Our situation may be atypical but staying offsite is really the only option that works for us right now. We currently have a 7 night stay booked and used CC points for our flights and car rental (so both were free). We are paying $900 for a 3 BR townhouse with a heated spa in Windsor Hills, and got discounted park tickets through my husbands job that saved us about $150 for 2x 5 day Park Hoppers. So with cost of park parking (as hotel and DS parking is free for daytime visitors) at $110 for 5 days, and including a food budget of about $800 for the whole trip. We are paying about $2800 for a vacation that would have cost us over $4000 for just hotel and tickets alone at a Moderate (still accounting for free rental car and flight!). But I am getting a house where I can put my toddler son to bed, shut the door, and go downstairs to watch him on his baby monitor while the hubs and I have a few glasses of wine and relax in the spa every night.

This was a no-brainer for me! Also, keep in mind, any park guest (even off site guests) get the same access to the Free Disney transportation that onsite guests do (DME obviously excluded), only I'm not paying for it in both my park ticket AND my hotel price too. Also, some Disney resort hotels take longer to get to the parks via the bus system than to just drive from offsite and park at the VERY well organized parking lots that get you into the parks in like 10 mins from car door to park turnstile! I have lived it, it is great! When we spend all day at the parks, we routinely leave the car at say Epcot, monorail to MK, and then come back to Epcot or Resort hop all on Free Disney Transport. But we also have the option to leave and head back to the house for some quiet time if my son starts to get antsy. If we decide we don't like the meal options at the parks we can easily drive to Disney Springs, and if not that, there are literally TONS of fantastic choices along Rt 192.

IMO, staying on property only makes financial sense to those who want to "buy in" to the Disney Bubble. I am not one of them, so offsite will win! I used that saved money to book a 10 night Cruise to New England and Canada for my family of 3, so then it's practically getting 2 vacations for the price of one!

 

[BigredNole]

There are obvious benefits to both, but the onsite benefits will NEVER top offsite benefits. People who simply do not care about money will spend it like no tomorrow. For me, I prefer keeping the money I make as much as possible. If I can get a BETTER than Disney vacation for $2,000 vs just a Disney vacation for $4,000, I am going with the BETTER than Disney. There are only 2 things a Disney resort guest can do and one of those is partial: go into a room and use the pool. Offsite resort pools are so much better than onsite, that includes BC. Transportation from offsite resorts is hours faster over the course of a week. My December stay at OKW vs my June stay at Reunion Resort was night and day. 16 hours of bus wait/rides while at OKW vs 8 hours at Reunion Resort. That is almost an entire day of vacation bus waiting.

 

[robinb]

There are obvious benefits to both, but the onsite benefits will NEVER top offsite benefits. People who simply do not care about money will spend it like no tomorrow. For me, I prefer keeping the money I make as much as possible. If I can get a BETTER than Disney vacation for $2,000 vs just a Disney vacation for $4,000, I am going with the BETTER than Disney. There are only 2 things a Disney resort guest can do and one of those is partial: go into a room and use the pool. Offsite resort pools are so much better than onsite, that includes BC. Transportation from offsite resorts is hours faster over the course of a week. My December stay at OKW vs my June stay at Reunion Resort was night and day. 16 hours of bus wait/rides while at OKW vs 8 hours at Reunion Resort. That is almost an entire day of vacation bus waiting.

I do enjoy staying offsite but I think the biggest advantage to onsite is DME. Can rental can be expensive and parking is now up to $22 so transportation can add another $45 or more per day. That can tip the difference financially for staying onsite. I suggest that people look at the whole picture because sometimes offsite is cheaper and sometimes it's not. And sometimes even if offsite is cheaper, the conceived conveniences, EMH, and "Disney Bubble" are worth a few dollars more per day to some folks.

 

[BigredNole]

Can rental can be expensive and parking is now up to $22 so transportation can add another $45 or more per day. That can tip the difference financially for staying onsite. I suggest that people look at the whole picture because sometimes offsite is cheaper and sometimes it's not. And sometimes even if offsite is cheaper, the conceived conveniences, EMH, and "Disney Bubble" are worth a few dollars more per day to some folks.

Yes, people have to look at the whole picture. Obviously some people will still drastically overpay to stay offsite because there is a level of risk they are not willing to accept. For instance, my last trip this Summer was in a 3BR unit with amenities that rival anything Disney has. For an apples-to-apples comparison, Disney would charge $1,000 per night for a 3BR room. I was in it for 7-nights for $550. Even if I had to accept $75 more per day for car rental and parking, I am still ~$6,000 saved. Now, if you compare the 3BR to a single studio room at an AS resort, that savings drastically changes. However, it is only a $25 price increase for 6x the space, 3BRs, 3BAs, full kitchen, and better than Disney amenities ($150 * 7 = $1,050) vs ($550 + $525). You can even cut that difference more by purchasing 1 base AP. You have to factor in the deltas: +$400 for the one ticket, -$175 parking fees for 7 days, -10-20% on some meals and merchandise.

There is only 1 true question to ask: Do I want to overpay by 3 -10x for accommodations to stay on Disney property?

 

[mckennarose]

Yes, people have to look at the whole picture. Obviously some people will still drastically overpay to stay offsite because there is a level of risk they are not willing to accept. .........

Did you mean "some people will still drastically overpay to stay ON-Site"????

I posted on another thread about my DVC owning family members who are staying off-site for the first time this October and there definitely was some anxiousness when they booked. Disney make it very convenient by offering their own transportation but my family found out it wasn't as difficult as they thought to work around that.

The game changer for them was when they stayed with us for one night in our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full kitchen, etc, huge villa before their OKW reservation started last year. They were genuinely disappointed going from all that room and conveniences off-site into a standard hotel room on-site. They booked the same villa for October for less than $600 for 7 nights.

 

[BigredNole]

Did you mean "some people will still drastically overpay to stay ON-Site"????

No, I meant offsite. The same offsite room can range in price from $500 - $2,000 for the same exact reservation. Sometimes it takes being somewhat flexible and others just more searching. For our trip, WBC was $800 in a 1BR (Sat-Sat), Windsor Hills 2BR for $900 (Sat-Sat), 2BR WBC $1,200 (Sat-Sat). What we settled on was a 3BR at Reunion Resort for $550 (Fri-Fri). We shifted our dates 1 day, saved a ton, and increased our space. For offsite, you have to be patient, be very diligent searching, and know what risk you can accept.

 

[robinb]

No, I meant offsite. The same offsite room can range in price from $500 - $2,000 for the same exact reservation. Sometimes it takes being somewhat flexible and others just more searching. For our trip, WBC was $800 in a 1BR (Sat-Sat), Windsor Hills 2BR for $900 (Sat-Sat), 2BR WBC $1,200 (Sat-Sat). What we settled on was a 3BR at Reunion Resort for $550 (Fri-Fri). We shifted our dates 1 day, saved a ton, and increased our space. For offsite, you have to be patient, be very diligent searching, and know what risk you can accept.

It definitely takes some work to get the best deal offsite. It's best if you're flexible. It's also hard to know when to strike for the best price. Frankly, your other WBC examples are not bad considering the amenities. The WH one, OTOH, is WAY too high. We stayed in a 2BR there for about $425 for the week.

How did you find your week at the Reunion Resort?

 

[BigredNole]

eBay. I look on many sites for the best deals. Spent 3 months looking and searching. I was about to pull the trigger 10 minutes earlier to book WBC when I found the Reunion deal. Took me 30 minutes to verify it was real and booked it. Like I said, it takes patience and risk. You keep waiting for that great deal, you have to be willing to settle for something not as ideal if it doesn't pan out. My fall back plan at the end was search for better WH/Mystic Dunes deals.

 

[robinb]

I got a great deal on SkyAuction approximately 2 weeks before my dates. I had a refundable reservation and I just kept on looking.

 

[klo1335]

We are getting a townhouse at the Storey Lake resort

We are staying here in November. Very excited to see this resort. The pictures look beautiful!! We are a group of 9 so we needed a much larger space. The 4 bedroom we booked for the week is $1200, which will cost each family $600 for the week! I love having the space to spread out, our own pool to jump into, a kitchen and washer/dryer. The one time we stayed on-site we drove to each park because we didn't like disney transport. To each their own

 

[Woodview]

Wow ......... $ 20 per person a Night with your own pool

And there are loads of these very good places to stay in provided you willing

to " miss " the Disney feel.

 

[can'tgetenufofwdw]

Can anyone confirm if they have music playing daily in the pool area? I can't seem to find the answer to that anywhere. A pool area without music is kind of boring to me.

 

[kathy884]

Another aspect to staying offsite which is worth consideration are meals. Honestly, we save SO much more money by eating offsite most of the time & quite frankly, we've found the food quality to be far superior with few exceptions. When staying onsite, many guests are pretty much "trapped" into paying those inflated food prices.

I so much agree with this! This is what bugs me more than anything else when I say onsite.

I'm usually an offsite visitor. For week long stays I'm really keen on timeshare resort rentals -- often rent these on TUG2.net and Redweek.com // Sheraton Vistana Resort (two bedroom/two bath) and Cypress Point (three bedroom/three bath) are the resorts I've rented most often. There are tons of good ones. Usually with a full week stay and a condo I rent a car too.

For my mini trip next March (just two of us, just four nights/three days) and only one day at Disney of those three, I'm getting a studio at the newly remodeled Residence Inn SeaWorld and doing lyft or uber to get everywhere. Doing the math, I think the rental car plus gas and parking fees would come out a little cheaper, but not by that much and I don't feel like driving. Uber/Lyft is super fast and easy in Orlando. Buses are cheaper, but slower and I don't want to spend the extra time waiting on an already short vacation.

Both these options have no resort or parking fees at the resort. The first with a rental car would have parking fees at the parks.

For a family wedding trip with a party of 12, I'll probably rent a six bedroom pool home at Windsor Hills. A really nice house over spring break with pool heat will be under $300 a night, not bad when you split that among 12 people.

There are so many great options in Orlando, so it's all what appeals to you.


***********************************************************************
I personally feel that Disney lodging is overpriced for what it offers (sometime a value stay can be pretty cheap though) and I don't get that Disney Magic thing. But as a Disney stockholder I love it that so many love to stay onsite and help fill those 40,000 rooms. I've had a few freebie Disney Deluxe stays at the Contemporary when DH had a convention there and his company was paying. I especially liked the time we got a high tower room (great view) and really great to walk to the MK (pricey though and too rich for my blood if it was my own money). Usually Orlando is more of a budget trip for me, so I am looking for value in lodging.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Another aspect to staying offsite which is worth consideration are meals. Honestly, we save SO much more money by eating offsite most of the time & quite frankly, we've found the food quality to be far superior with few exceptions. When staying onsite, many guests are pretty much "trapped" into paying those inflated food prices.

This may be a tangent, but I've been looking for good and moderately-priced offsite restaurants. If you don't mind sharing, what are some of your favorite ones?

 

[ArielSparrow]

I'm estimating $275-300 for travel expenses for my week, which includes a trip to the Crystal Springs (west coast), Universal, Kennedy, and transfer to the cruise terminal. So it just depends on where you are staying and how much you are saving. Personally, I spent $385 for 8 nights hotel. That's like what, 1-2 night onsite? Well worth it for me but it varies per person.