disney hotel or not

[Flower]

Stay on site, go for a value resort if money is a concern. We will never stay at an off-site hotel again.

[Dizneyfan]

Forgot to say to intercot.

[Narawen]

100% on site. If you're worried about saving money, go for one of the value resorts, they can be just the same or even cheaper than nice off-property resorts (we stay at hampton inn everywhere but Disney, and the value resorts are cheaper than that in off season).

Keep in mind if you stay off property, you have to pay for transportation, or parking if you use your own car. On-site gives your free disney transportation, or free parking if you prefer your own car.

On-site also gives you the advantage of EMH, where certain parks stay open 3 hours late at night, or open one hour early in the morning. You can find the schedule online.

Staying on property also gives you the advantage of being able to go back to the hotel easily mid-day for a break to nap, swim in the pool, or just relax. It comes in handy with little ones, and some of the more grown up crowd too.

You can easily make your room key a charge card so you end up with only one bill, and you don't have to carry money around. This makes it alot easier, the only things you really have to carry are a water bottle, camera, and your room key (which doubles as park ticket). When you make purchases in parks or other hotels, you can have them sent to your room free of charge, this is alot easier than lugging around bags of merchandise all day.

And lastly, staying on property gives you the full "disney experience". I've only stayed off property once when I was little, but staying on property is so much more rewarding. You're surrounded by disney magic even as you sleep, the service is impeccable, and it just makes everything simpler.

[Jayhawk]

Staying off site is more cash friendly indeed. Staying in a resort is less of a headache. If time is important to you then you can't go wrong by staying at a resort. Transportation is free and each resort has more than several buses runing back and forth compared to an offsite lodging area that may only have a one or two units running. The other advantage is getting into the parks an hour early(days vary) than off site guests. The other service is the guest card. It is used as your guest key and charge card. No need to carry cash which is helpful when around a large group of people.Good luck in whatever choice you make.

[gdb1962]

We've visited WDW several times and have always stayed in the Lake Buena Vista area. Our next trip will be the first time we actually stay at a Disney resort. That being said...we've had some very nice experiences at the Vistana Resort and the Hawthorne Suites our last two trips. The prices are significantly lower, especially at the Hawthorne Suites, and the travel time to the parks is minimal. We bought a book called "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World" each trip to get recommendations on hotels in and around the Lake Buena Vista area and have never been let down yet. Do some homework and you can get a good deal on a nice place.

[Becky'sMom]

We own a timeshare off site....
We have stayed on Disney proprty before buying the timeshare....that was also before the dining packages, so if you're doing the ddp, you need to be on-site. I love my enormous 3 bedroom luxury timeshare - this year we are staying for 2 weeks because we only used the 1 bedroom portion last year - banking the 2 bedroom portion. So, we will be in the 2 bedrom for 2 weeks and will give the leftover 1 week in the 1 bedroom to friends of ours who are a family of 5 that would never be able to afford Disney if they had to pay for travel, accommodations and park tickets.
We did enjoy staying on-site, but it was only 2 of us. We also were initially given a parking lot view, but when I went to the front desk and was visibly disappointed because it was my honeymoon, they switched us to a gorgeous corner spot with a view of the hammocks and sandy beach (CBR). As far as not using your car, I became frustrated several times while on-site with how long the disney transport took to show up - shuttle after shuttle going to the wrong destination. We just take our car, hop on the tram and then we can use monorail if we're going to the poly or contemporary for a meal.

[robyn221]

We've done both onsite and offsite and it really depends on with whom you will be traveling and what you want to get out of the trip.

My husband, our two kids (then 4 & 6) & I made our first trip to WDW as a family in March 2003 and staying onsite was absolutely fabulous because, as others have said, we were completely immersed in the whole Disney magic. It was particularly nice to be able to hop a bus back to our cabin at FW so the kids could rest for awhile in the afternoon and then head to another park or resort restaurant. And what's not to love about daily housekeeping!!!!

We were back at Thanksgiving that year with my husband's family. At that time, we rented a couple of vacation homes about 4 or 5 miles from WDW. The parks and the resorts were very crowded so we were quite happy to have a nice quiet place to relax. We also had enough room for everyone to get together in the evenings for meals and visits. The real hit, however, was the private heated pool that we had in our backyard. We REALLY enjoyed being able to get in the pool after a long day in the parks. And never underestimate the ability of a nice swim to wear out young children and make sure they are asleep at a decent time!

Which every route you decide to go, I'm sure you'll have a great time! Good luck with your planning!

Robyn

[dixielandings]

I know there are 3 pages of responses to your question, Tealady, but I can't help but chime in. I am very passionate on this issue - stay on Disney property, without question. They have made it more affordable than ever, especially at the Value resorts. It's not a guarantee that an off-site hotel will be less expensive anyway. Don't cheat yourself or your family! Be Disney's guest!

[tltcats]

I've stayed onsite and offsite LOTS and LOTS of times. Even as an adult without kids I miss the upbeat, fun...yes MAGICAL feel of the DIsney hotels. You're going in a great month in terms of money - you should be able to get a value resort at a price that rivals an offsite hotel. And, like all of the others have said - time is money - and you'll have more time in the parks if you stay on-site because you'll have less travel time....not to mention saving $$ on gas!!!!!

[paddington]

Many off-site resorts have transportation, too. So don't just judge by that. We stayed at Liki Tiki Village for 7 nights last year, $800 and they had their own water park! I have been do Disney many times and have never stayed in the park because I can't bring myself to pay those prices for one room when you can have a whole condo for half the price.