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Booking a trip to Disney World - Looking for some advice

Fingolfin269

Fingolfin269

Lifer
We're heading to Disney World (Florida) in late May/early June and I am looking for some advice. I've priced out what looks to be the best bet for us on-site (hotel/park tickets/food/etc. through the WDW site) but now I am most interested in learning about the experiences of those who stayed off-site. How bad is traffic and parking when driving from off-site to the parking lot? Is parking expensive or included if you have a park ticket? Have you done both on and off-site lodging? If so, which do you prefer? Etc.

One advantage I can see to off-site is that it will give us a better hotel rate and plus it will be that much easier to sacrifice a day of WDW for Sea World or Universal.
 
I have done both...

I think at that time of year, parking won't be too bad. I think it's like $15/day.

Pros to staying "on campus"
-Bus service to all Disney parks
-Guest perks like extended park hours
-Guaranteed park entry even if there is a sellout crowd
-Don't have to pay for car rental or parking
-Family can easily split up since everyone can get back to the hotel on their own
-Disney "Magic Express" service makes travel between the airport and the resort ridiculously mindless and easy

Pros to staying "off campus"
-Hotel will likely be cheaper (though daily cost of car rental + parking may offset any savings)
-Can get a suite/efficiency with a kitchen and prepare some of your own meals
-Can do your own food shopping
-Can eat at restaurants outside of resort
-Can visit Universal/Wet N Wild, etc more easily

Which is better for you depends on a lot of factors, so hopefully this helps you evaluate...

Personally I can't really decide which I prefer. When I stayed off-site, it was nice to visit the non-Disney properties, and you can save a lot on food. But it's hard to beat the convenience provided when you stay on-site.
 
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i've done both. unless your main focus is orlando and not disney, stay at a disney resort. i've stayed at what was dixie landings (not sure what it is now), the wildnerness campground, and the wilderness lodge. they're all great. well worth the extra money.
 
do you have kids? how old?

we've only stayed on-site so i can't really help with opinions of off-site lodging. i can tell you that we loved staying on-site. the first year we went the girls were 1.5 and 4.5. we brought our own lightweight double-stroller which was very helpful. we stayed at the grand floridian which is on the monoroail route. this was good because we knew that at any time we could wait at the terminal and be at the park in 5 minutes or so. this means that we don't have to worry about getting to the park by X a.m. to make sure we don't have to park in one of the annex lots or something like that. it also means that if we forgot something or wanted to leave something or get something in the hotel room it wouldn't be too difficult to go back and get it. this could be a lifesaver if you have very young children. after a long day it's also nice to just push the kids in the stroller all the way to the hotel instead of doing the transfer to the car seats and back out. we stayed mostly in the magic kingdom but took one trip for a character dinner at epcot. that was a mistake. the monorail ride was really long and the kids took a really late nap because of it. and the food sucked (but that's not because of the monorail ride).

last year the girls were 3.5 and 6.5 and we stayed at the wilderness lodge. it is not off-site but it is also NOT on the monorail route. there are boats to the magic kingdom and buses to the other disney resorts. it was not as convenient as the monorail back and forth to the magic kingdom but it wasn't bad at all really. the wait for the boats was maybe 20 minutes at the most and the ride was about 5 minutes. we still used the double-stroller which was great. you can push them right on to most of the boats. and we didn't have to keep herding the kids toward where we were going when we were in the park. we did go to hollywood studios and animal kingdom (or whatever its called) so we had to take the buses. the ride isn't long but the wait one time was about 30 minutes. and at the end of the day having to take the bus probably more accurately recreates the parking experience. though someone else drove and the kids were able to sit in regular seats.

if you're looking to go to sea world or universal wouldn't you have to drive there anyway? my point being that i don't see how being off-site is better than on-site since it is probably only 5 more minutes driving.
 
You may want to look at something like Vacation Rentals by Owner (http://www.vrbo.com/). You might be able to find a furnished house, condo or town home to rent that would be cheaper than a hotel. An added benefit is that they usually come with kitchens so you can save money by eating meals at the rental.

-KeithP
 
We've done both.
I prefer being on-site, mainly because I like the Disney resorts and I like having the whole Disney atmosphere while at the parks and back at the hotel. Even when staying on-site, we still drove to the parks most of the time, but there were also times when it was nice to be able to use Disney transportation.

If you have a car, getting from a disney resort to Universal or Sea World isn't any more difficult than getting from an off-site hotel to Universal or Sea World. Assuming your off-site hotel is near Disney World.

But there's nothing wrong with staying off-site if that works better for you. There are off-site hotels that are literally a 3 minute drive to get on WDW property and 10 or 15 minutes to the parks. So if you're looking to save some money and you'll have your own car, it might be worth considering an off-site hotel.
 
Jzero said:
* SNIP *

-Guest perks like extended park hours
-Disney "Magic Express" service makes travel between the airport and the resort ridiculously mindless and easy
Click to expand...

extended park hours alone makes it worth it. my daughter rode the big thunder mountain railroad probably 5 times in the span of 30 minutes. we went to the park at 10 pm and left at 1 am and rode everything we wanted to ride multiple times with minimal wait in only 3 hours. trying to do the same during the regular park hours would have meant longer waits and fewer rides.

the magic express bus is also very nice but not as big a benefit as extended park hours imo.
 
I've done both and enjoyed staying at the Value Resorts on the Disney grounds. It wasn't much more expensive than staying off-site and the added benefits of the bus service and extended hours were great. I don't know what the prices are now but the meal plan was also a good deal when we went. Cheaper than buying food at the resorts at least.
 
blackdogdeek said:
extended park hours alone makes it worth it. my daughter rode the big thunder mountain railroad probably 5 times in the span of 30 minutes. we went to the park at 10 pm and left at 1 am and rode everything we wanted to ride multiple times with minimal wait in only 3 hours. trying to do the same during the regular park hours would have meant longer waits and fewer rides.

the magic express bus is also very nice but not as big a benefit as extended park hours imo.
Click to expand...

Last time I looked the extended hours were only showing maybe till 11:30 pm versus the 10 pm time. Staying till 1am would be great if they still offer that.
 
Pros to staying "on campus"
-When you buy gifts on sight they send them from the shop to your room so you dont have to lug them around all day.

-You will get a Disney card at the hotel that links to your charge card so you don't have to take cash on the grounds.
 
rudder said:
Last time I looked the extended hours were only showing maybe till 11:30 pm versus the 10 pm time. Staying till 1am would be great if they still offer that.
Click to expand...

yeah when we went in nov 2009 there were sunday extended hours for magic kingdom from 10 pm to 1 am. we kept debating whether or not it would be worth it because we thought the girls would fall asleep well before midnight even. they both stayed awake and we had a great time. ok the 3 year old fell asleep but at like 12:30 am.

the next day, monday, hollywood studios had extended hours until 11:30 pm i think. we took advantage of that and only had to wait on the toy story line for 40 minutes. i know, that sounds like a long time, but we went back during regular hours and we waited on the line for over an hour.
 
Check into the volunteer promotion they have going right now. You can get a 1-day ticket or other stuff for a few hours worth of work. If you do a hotel only reservation or offsite you can upgrade the free ticket to whatever you need, so it is like a $79 coupon. You probably still get a better deal with a whole package, but see if the other stuff is worth it to you.
 
rudder said:
Last time I looked the extended hours were only showing maybe till 11:30 pm versus the 10 pm time. Staying till 1am would be great if they still offer that.
Click to expand...

It depends on what time the park closes to the general public. This perk is called Extra Magic Hours. In the evening, it means the park is open 3 hours later than the normal closing time. They also do Extra Magic Hours in the mornings, where the park opens one hour earlier for resort guests.

Even when we stayed on site, we did not use the Extra Magic Hours. In general, the parks that have Extra Magic Hours will be the most crowded parks that day. So if you're just looking to minimize crowds, you're better off choosing a non-EMH park each day.

That doesn't mean it's not a nice perk for some people. I love being in the parks after dark and I'd probably take advantage of some evening Extra Magic Hours, but we've always had young kids who couldn't make it past about 8 or 9pm. And I'm not getting up an hour earlier to use the morning EMH, so for us, it worked best to pick a non-EMH park and try to get there at the normal opening time (usually 9am). The first two hours of the day are the least crowded, no matter what day it is or what time of year.

By the way, if money is no object or you're budget is big, then by all means, stay on-site at a monorail resort (Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary). Being able to walk out of your room, jump on the monorail, and be at Magic Kingdom, is a huge convenience. If you're choosing between off-site and the Grand Floridian, there's no contest.

But if you're on a budget, like many of us, you might not be looking to spend $250 and up per night. If you're comparing off-site to staying at a value resort (All Stars, Pop Century), then the value resort doesn't have quite as much of an advantage.
 
quikah said:
Check into the volunteer promotion they have going right now. You can get a 1-day ticket or other stuff for a few hours worth of work. If you do a hotel only reservation or offsite you can upgrade the free ticket to whatever you need, so it is like a $79 coupon. You probably still get a better deal with a whole package, but see if the other stuff is worth it to you.
Click to expand...

In general, you don't save any money by booking a package instead of booking room only and buying tickets separately. It's normally the exact same price. The exception would be when they have special promotions going on that apply only to packages.
 
DT4K said:
In general, the parks that have Extra Magic Hours will be the most crowded parks that day. So if you're just looking to minimize crowds, you're better off choosing a non-EMH park each day.
Click to expand...
Alternatively, if you have Park Hopper tickets you can go to a less crowded park all day and then go to the evening EMH park after the crowds leave.
 
blackdogdeek said:
yeah when we went in nov 2009 there were sunday extended hours for magic kingdom from 10 pm to 1 am. we kept debating whether or not it would be worth it because we thought the girls would fall asleep well before midnight even. they both stayed awake and we had a great time. ok the 3 year old fell asleep but at like 12:30 am.

the next day, monday, hollywood studios had extended hours until 11:30 pm i think. we took advantage of that and only had to wait on the toy story line for 40 minutes. i know, that sounds like a long time, but we went back during regular hours and we waited on the line for over an hour.
Click to expand...

Are you from New York or New Jersey?
The only people I've ever heard say ON line instead of IN line are from that area.

Like I said, I'm not saying that the extra hours aren't worth it. Just depends on your situation and what you want to do. But I just want to point out that if you were there in the morning, in the first hour or two the park was open, the line would have probably been more like 10 or 15 minutes. So evening extended hours might have shorter lines than in the afternoon, but they are still likely to be longer than what you will see in the morning, especially at a park that doesn't have extended hours scheduled that day.
 
Make sure you go to the "It's a small world after all" ride first so you have the song stuck in your head for the rest of the decade. 😉
 
Jzero said:
Alternatively, if you have Park Hopper tickets you can go to a less crowded park all day and then go to the evening EMH park after the crowds leave.
Click to expand...

Definitely.
With young kids, strollers, and diaper bags, park hopping is too much work for us right now. But once all of our kids are out of strollers and more self-sufficient, we'll definitely try it that way.
 
quikah said:
Check into the volunteer promotion they have going right now. You can get a 1-day ticket or other stuff for a few hours worth of work. If you do a hotel only reservation or offsite you can upgrade the free ticket to whatever you need, so it is like a $79 coupon. You probably still get a better deal with a whole package, but see if the other stuff is worth it to you.
Click to expand...

Can I make my kids volunteer? They are the ones that want to go.
 
I did not read all of this. If you sat at a hotel like we did:

Get a rental car
Take a couple dollars in coins with you for the toll roads
Get a fridge in your hotel room for like $5 a day so you can store some stuff in there
 
I'd say if you have kids going and it's your/their first time, the extra cost of staying on-site is worth it. I've done both a few times, and both experiences can be enjoyable, it's a matter of how much of your time you want to devote to Disney/other attractions.

Also worth noting (not sure if it's been mentioned yet), most hotels near Disney will offer complimentary shuttles to and from at least one of the parks (from which you can catch various transportation to the other parks), albeit less frequently than the shuttles to-from the disney resorts.
 
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