need help planning a mini vacation

[goin2disney1day]

Hello everyone, not sure where to start but I haven't been to disney yet. I have 3 adults, 3 older kids and 3 young ones. We want to surprise the kids and go this weekend, the second weekend of august or the last weekend of august. I need help with cheap hotels close to disney. Is there any discounts out there for anything during these times. Thanks so much

[forever a child]

:welcome:

Just wanted to say Welcome to Intercot.

I have not stayed off site since I have been an adult (only as a child staying with family) so I can't really answer your question. But I suggest you do a Intercot search for "off property hotels" and I am sure you will see some past threads with some hotel suggestions.

Have fun planning and a great trip!:mickey:

[faline]

Welcome to Intercot! :mickey:

If you've never been to Disney before, it does require a bit of advance planning especially if you're going during the busy summer months.

Will you have a car or will you be relying on shuttle service from the hotel property? Keep in mind that you would need to pay for parking which, I believe, is now $14 per day. Also many off-site hotels that offer shuttle to the parks service have odd hours - sometimes arriving well after the parks open, having multiple stops along the way, and departing the parks well before they close.

Will you be doing only quick service dining? If you want to dine at any of the table service restaurants, you may have difficulty gettting reservations for the times you've posted.

I'd suggesting looking at the last weekend in August. This weekend, being a holiday weekend will be super crowded. Crowds stay high through mid-August and then begin to drop off. Plus, this will give you the ability to plan a bit more for your trip.

Unlike many local amusement parks, Disney isn't the sort of place that you can just drop in on without any advance planning. Well, you could, but then you might be surprised at all you missed. Remember, there are four parks and two water parks on site as well as asorted other activities as well. If you're only going for a weekend, you need to know what's there and have a plan that outlines your must-see attractions because you will certainly not have time to see and do it all in a weekend visit.

I can't offer you any off-site resort suggestions as we generally always stay on site.

Good luck with your planning!

[1DisneyNut]

This weekend being the 4th of July it will be extremely busy. I would suggest waiting until your other dates in August. I really don't see a lot of discounts for cheaper off site hotels in that area. Most of them are already so cheap there isn't much to discount. You can usually find rooms from around $39 to $59 at any time if you search. Most of the big chains have websites where you can search all of their different brands at once. You might consider getting two rooms at one of the on site value resorts. They are not that bad and you can ride the internal buses to the parks instead of having to drive in and pay to park each day.

[clausjo]

Welcome! :mickey:

If you look at travel sites like hotwire and put in the general area you want to stay, you can generally get a hotel for a bit of a discount. I recently stayed offsite when I had to come up to the area for a baby shower. We stayed at a Comfort Inn for $49/night. It was clean and there was a small (really small) breakfast each morning. The area I searched was the Downtown Disney Area because even though I'm offsite I still like to be really close. The biggest downside was that it was late when we came back and the parking lot was very full. I had to park in the back of the shopping plaza next store. I didn't really feel that secure with just me and my kids.

I suggest you contact Magical Journeys and see what they can find for the Values. You'd be surprised at how reasonable the rates can be. You'll need to factor in the amount of parking each day and, at $14, it can certainly add up. Good luck!

[faline]

I suggest you contact Magical Journeys and see what they can find for the Values. You'd be surprised at how reasonable the rates can be. You'll need to factor in the amount of parking each day and, at $14, it can certainly add up. Good luck!

I didn't suggest the value resorts as it looks like they have a party of 9. With such a large party, they would not fit into two value resort rooms and would need to look to moderate rooms.

Contacting Magical Journeys (http://yourmagicaljourneys.com/)is an excellent suggestion!