What do I need to know about staying off property? About This Page:

[2Peanuts]

Hi all,

DH surprised me the other day by asking if I'd be up for another trip to WDW next year. Our trip in January was bad. I began writing a TR about it because it was so monumentally plagued with bad things --- sorry for those of you who were following it. I will, someday, return to finish it. Unfortunately, that day is not today.

Anyway, back to the topic --- I swore up & down that I did NOT want to return to WDW in 2013. Mommy needs a break! But then DH, in his ever so persuasive way, said that he wanted to make a trip happen because we missed out on so much this past trip, and he really wants to make it up to the kids. (He's an awesome dad.) So...here I am, looking into making the trip happen.

This time, I am toying with the idea of staying off property. Our family will have our car with us, so transportation won't be an issue. I've done some number crunching, and it appears we will probably save some money by staying off property & paying for meals OOP.

So, assuming there's no free dining offer during the time we want to go, what do I need to know about the pro's & con's of staying off property?

Thanks for any tips & advice!
Carol

[mechurchlady]

I had a bad and a good experience and rather stay onsite but there are some nice vacation condos out there. From Irlo Bronson where I live it is about 10 miles to some parts of WDW. I always take my laptop with me and have it set with a google map of the area. At WDW it is not that easy to get lost if you are paying attention but still I have that laptop and can pull over and study the map.

BRING CASH, if you get lost them toll booths are unforgiving.
I have not read your trip report but do believe that Disney has bad and good sides. I would give them a second chance.

[SW+7]

The convenience of staying on-site, especially with young children, outweighs the savings of off-site. However, if you're going off season and the crowds are usually low I would say go for it.
If you go during school breaks the things you have to consider are:
- Do you want to sit in traffic when entering/leaving the park?
- Paying for parking everyday plus the gas you'll be using to/from
- Are you willing to leave the park if your kids are having a meltdown or need a break?
- Extra Magic Hours
I've friends that have stayed off-site and enjoyed it but then they did not go when it was busy (took kids out of school & their kids were over the age of 7); and then I've friends who have stayed off-site during busy weeks and regretted it.
Good luck with your decision! SW+7

[2Peanuts]

Originally Posted by SW+7

The convenience of staying on-site, especially with young children, outweighs the savings of off-site. However, if you're going off season and the crowds are usually low I would say go for it.
If you go during school breaks the things you have to consider are:
- Do you want to sit in traffic when entering/leaving the park?
- Paying for parking everyday plus the gas you'll be using to/from
- Are you willing to leave the park if your kids are having a meltdown or need a break?
- Extra Magic Hours
I've friends that have stayed off-site and enjoyed it but then they did not go when it was busy (took kids out of school & their kids were over the age of 7); and then I've friends who have stayed off-site during busy weeks and regretted it.
Good luck with your decision! SW+7

Thanks for your input.

I forgot to say that my family usually goes during the quiet season --- Jan/Feb, avoiding the holiday weekends. So, traffic & crowds are usually a non-issue for us. Good to know that off-season bodes well for staying off-site!

Thanks,
Carol

[2Peanuts]

Originally Posted by mechurchlady

I had a bad and a good experience and rather stay onsite but there are some nice vacation condos out there. From Irlo Bronson where I live it is about 10 miles to some parts of WDW. I always take my laptop with me and have it set with a google map of the area. At WDW it is not that easy to get lost if you are paying attention but still I have that laptop and can pull over and study the map.

BRING CASH, if you get lost them toll booths are unforgiving.
I have not read your trip report but do believe that Disney has bad and good sides. I would give them a second chance.

Ooh! Cash --- what a concept! Good to know, as DH & I rarely have more than $20 between us in our wallets. We're thinking about staying at the Windsor Hills condos, which I understand is just outside the gates at AK.

Driving around WDW isn't usually too bad for us, as we've driven there 3 times and on our last trip, I had to make trips almost everyday to stores, pharmacies, and the urgent care clinic (that was just once, thankfully!) off-property so I became "good friends" with the main roads in & out of Disney.

Oh, the bad-ness of our trip wasn't anything Disney did. It was that the entire family came down with walking pneumonia during & after the trip, so we were a miserable mess there. (DH & DD got it somewhere around Day 1; DS got it around Day 3; and I got it on Day 5. We left on Day 6, leaving a day earlier than we had planned because we were so miserable.) We've been to WDW several times & have always stayed on-site & gotten free dining but this time around, we're thinking about changing it up just to see how it compares.

Thanks,
Carol

[TeacherKim]

I think you can have a magical trip, even if you're staying off site. We're staying off site this trip. I just cannot make the numbers look good for staying onsite -- the difference in price is huge and I can't justify it for atmosphere. Am I sad we're not staying onsite? A little. Am I excited to be off site and explore more than just Disney? Yes. Yes, I am.

Benefits to being off site:
1. Not at the mercy of Disney for food choices.
2. More space to spread out. (Huge for us as we have 3 teens.)
3. Not at the mercy of Disney buses. We've always stayed at Riverside and while I was determined not to be irritated about bus waits while we were there, we did waste a lot of time sitting around waiting.
4. Being able to get away from the magic. I teach pre-K and sometimes I just need a break from the sensory overload of Disney. Even the buses have background music playing.

I just think you have to go into it with the mindset that you're going to have a great trip. There's a lot of "onsite or die" people on Disney message boards, but that doesn't mean that you can't have a magical trip if you stay offsite.

[HiddenMickey]

I've done two offsite and one onesite trips in the past year. The things about offsite that I think you might want to know:

You'll be paying for parking each day unless you have an Annual Pass (currently $14 a day) You can use the same day's parking pass to park in any WDW lot, so you can park hop.

You'll need to add in travel time when planning your days at the park. Our condos were about 20 minutes from the parks, but you have to add in the time it takes to park (usually a line), catch a tram (if needed) and if going to MK, the ferry or monorail. [There was a traffic jam coming into WDW one day due to utility work off hwy 536, which was our route in. Luckily, I knew I could get onto I-4 and find another route in on 192 and weren't stuck for more than 15 minutes....but others likely had an hour's wait or so. So, do some research on the roads around WDW before you arrive.]

It's very easy to leave the parks when you want to go back to your hotel/condo for a swim or rest. Keep in mind, it's very easy to think you'll go back to the parks, but last summer, we often got so comfortable that we decided to stay in at night and watch DVDs (and let DD do summer school work online) instead. We did much better a couple weeks ago, and actually did go back to the parks if we left in the afternoon.

There are a ton of options for eating outside the parks. We rode down International Drive on our way out of town and couldn't believe all the restaurants east of Seaworld area. There are certainly quite a few east of DTD as well.

You'll get a lot more space for your money if you choose a condo or timeshare place, rather than a hotel room. A full kitchen will help with saving money so you can have snacks, breakfast, and late-night foods available. Generally the parking will be free and many places have eateries on site and activities if you want a break from the parks.

Have fun planning. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Mom2Stitchy&theDQ]

I have stayed off site 3 times, all 3 for shorter trips, incorporated with visits to my parents outside of Tampa. Each time, as we passed the busses going to our favourite WDW Resorts I regretted not being able to stay at one of them! I find the resorts have as much magic as the parks and I truly missed staying on-site. I had thought it would save me money, but it never did - paying for parking every day, along with the aggravation of not being on property every day, and the gas I had to pay for, just didn't add up. My vote would be to stay on-site!

[mfirst]

My husband and I discussed this because we could have saved money staying off site because we aren't getting the DP because our tickets are through the Y.E.S. program. We looked into it but remembered on our last trip that there were times we "divided and conquered" one went to take a little one to rest, the other stayed at a park with the other two. We wouldn't be able to do that if we had one car and stayed off site...if Cullen needed to leave to get a break from the stimulation, everyone would have to leave.

We also talked about how our oldest is a bit slow to motivate in the morning and I would get up with the younger two, head to the park and my husband would meet us there a bit later. We couldn't take advantage of that if we stayed off site.

So, for us, for now, on-site is a better option because we have Disney's transportation + our car in case we need to split up.

[disney]

Pros of staying off property
you can save alot of money staying off property
resort wheather you pay cash or if you give those timeshare tours 1hour plus tour they usually give alot.
we stayed at lake buana vista suites thru a tour at the hotel free hot breakfest every morning was a good start and if i remebered they had activities for the kids during the day as well the rooms were no extremely big but how long were we actually in the room anyway.
the convience of going to any place to eat because we stayed on property but actually ate off property steak and shake 3.99 all you can eat pancakes plus there is alot of buffets off property that are around the same price range for breakfest give or take , as well as bring some food into the resort . also waffle house , giordanos Pizza , CiCi's , golden coral ,
plus if you want to go shopping the outlets are usually right there .
CONS
staying off property is nice but it does not have the disney magic !
EMH
disney transportation (which i only used once in 15 years)
I think but not sure ADR's at a certain time
this is what i can think of right now if anything else hits me i will post

[lindadarrall]

This is probably petty, but having my purchases delivered to my resort is a HUGE plus to staying on-site!!

[kayjam]

I am sorry to say, we have never stayed on property and will not be doing for our next trip. However, we don't feel like we are missing any magic by being off property.

We are staying at the Marriott Imperial Palms right next to the Marriott World Conference Center. The nice part about this is that it is a place with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, full kitchen, and full size washer and dryer. On top of that, parking lot to parking lot, the longest drive was 8 minutes. Also, the World Conference Center has a shuttle to the parks. If one of the girls needs a break, one of us can go back with the car and the other can catch the shuttle.

With the full kitchen, we stop at a grocery store to stock up on breakfast foods, drinks, snacks, and other things for meals that we might make. And if we go out to dinner, we could bring leftovers back and heat them up for a lunch or snack.

There are so many resturants around the area that the choices are endless but we do make a couple of ADR's for character meals for the girls (CM and CRT).

If you do decide to stay off property and have AAA, try getting your tickets through them and get the AAA Diamond Parking Pass. You will still have to pay for parking but you will not follow the same line of cars. There is a seperate parking area usually next to the handicap parking area closer to the entrance of the parks.

And last, sometimes there can be too much going on and you need a break. Staying off property gives it to you .

All that being said, I still want to stay on property sometime, but staying off property can be a great time. Remember you will need to change some of your expectations to enjoy your trip.

[2Peanuts]

I love reading the tips & concerns that everyone's posting. Thanks & keep 'em coming!


Carol

[DisneyDaddy]

We stayed off site for my DD's, then3yo, trip,
My hotel room was nice but very noisy,
We haven't done so again, but never again will do so
The Disney Magic doesn't exist offsite. The CM's make the
Resorts much better.

[lovewdw3]

I think it is how you feel about Disney, that makes your Vacation Magical no matter whether you stay on-site or off-site!

I have stayed off-site just once, and it was okay. We stayed at the Howard Johnson, near Universal Studious. We only had 4 days: One day at Wet-n-Wild, one day at US, one day at Epcot, and one day at MK. I did miss staying on-site, but I still felt the Magic as soon as I walked into the Parks! Our meals, we sure did have a huge choice of where to eat though!

In my opinion I don't want to ever go off-site again- but then you can only afford whatever you can. We have stayed at all 3 of the All Stars, and if I really couldn't afford the moderates, then I would definitely stay there. But I understand everyone has to do what they are comfortable and staying where it is economically for them!

All I wish for anyone either staying off-site or on-site that they have the Best Magical Disney Vacation! : )