New to Disney..stay out of Disney resorts to save money?

[Janamarlene]

Hello, anyone recommend staying off of Disney resorts but still within like 10 miles to save money? Still get the same Disney experience? Is it safe out of resorts ? VRBO or Airbnb?

 

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

We stayed outside of Disney for years due to the size of our group & various ages.
For us, having separate bedrooms, a kitchen for breakfast & simple meals, extra living space & private pool were both budget friendly & sanity savers.
We loved those trips! A lot of togetherness & SPACE...always a good thing!
We stayed in rental homes close to Disney & never had a safety or security issue. We rented through a local company there ( this was before the Airbnb/VRBO option).

 

[BonnieA]

I've been going to Disney since 1976. Never stayed onsite so I can't compare the two. But I do know Disneys prices are ridiculous for what you get. I love having a living area, separate bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, kitchen area, dining area, washer and dryer. Coming back at the end of a day having a glass of wine, snack, kick back and relax on the couch. Would never go any other way but then I go for 2 weeks at a time. I use sky auction for my accommodations. My friend who stayed onsite once would not do it again.

 

[Janamarlene]

I've been going to Disney since 1976. Never stayed onsite so I can't compare the two. But I do know Disneys prices are ridiculous for what you get. I love having a living area, separate bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, kitchen area, dining area, washer and dryer. Coming back at the end of a day having a glass of wine, snack, kick back and relax on the couch. Would never go any other way but then I go for 2 weeks at a time.

Do you mainly stay at vacation rentals? Like Airbnb? Yeah the prices are insane and we want to try to make this somewhat affordable

 

[BonnieA]

I've been going to Disney since 1976. Never stayed onsite so I can't compare the two. But I do know Disneys prices are ridiculous for what you get. I love having a living area, separate bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, kitchen area, dining area, washer and dryer. Coming back at the end of a day having a glass of wine, snack, kick back and relax on the couch. Would never go any other way but then I go for 2 weeks at a time. I use sky auction for my accommodations. My friend who stayed onsite once would not do it again.

 

[BonnieA]

Sorry double post

 

[jeff_h]

But I do know Disneys prices are ridiculous for what you get. I love having a living area, separate bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, kitchen area, dining area, washer and dryer. Coming back at the end of a day having a glass of wine, snack, kick back and relax on the couch. Would never go any other way but then I go for 2 weeks at a time. I use sky auction for my accommodations. My friend who stayed onsite once would not do it again.

I will echo the above - I've stayed at a couple different onsite resorts (CSR & CBR) and while the convenience was nice we found the rooms to be pretty small and not worth the money for us. Some people really love the onsite experience with the hotel theming (there are many threads here where this is debated) but the point the PP made above about the living/dining/laundry areas being right there for you is so nice, especially when you can probably get it for $100 less per night than staying on site.

So good luck deciding which way you want to go - I made the same comparisons as above to a co-worker for an upcoming trip in January and they chose AOA since they really wanted to be onsite, so there are pros and cons of each.

 

[SinCityMMAFan]

I like to stay off-site for a majority of my WDW visits. I do occasionally book a few nights on-site before heading off-site for a week. But my last on-site stay at the GF was not a memorable one to say the least. For the price of 2 nights at the GF we stayed a whole week at a 3 bedroom condo with a full kitchen, full size washer, and everything you need for your stay. It was also very easy to dive to/from the parks and around a 10-15 minute drive at tops and having a washer/dryer in the room makes it easy to pack less and travel lighter.

If you plan on renting out a condo/townhouse/house I would highly suggest looking to rent from the actual owner instead of vrbo. The couple we rented from had their residence listed on vrbo and through the company who manages their property and we ended up saving almost $200 renting from their property management company instead of vrbo as since we stayed 1 week the cleaning fee was waived and also there was no service fees in which vrbo charges.

 

[Timhags]

I have done both. It's depends on who is going and ages, is a gonna be a once in a lifetime trip or not? Lots of different factors involved. My next trip I'm staying Disney Springs area, but I'm planning on a go big trip next year with friends. That will be on-site ( poly most likely).

 

[Calee]

We prefer on site for a lot of reasons. However I dont think you need to worry about safety staying in most off site places any more than you would typically or on site.

 

[Monykalyn]

We’ve done both, although we own a timeshare we trade into the area. Never once have I felt unsafe (and I’ve gone with just me and a kid). I like the Marriott timeshares, but have also picked up cheap rentals from orbitz ( Cypress Point 2 bedroom) and Disney Springs. If you want a fairly reasonable rate and space check Doubletree in Disney Springs- benefits from onsite, but cheaper, especially if you wait for deals to wave parking/resort fees. The one bedrooms are huge, have a kitchenette but not full kitchen.

 

[bankr63]

I would echo a bit of what @Timhags alludes to.

How many kids are going and what are the ages? Would they benefit from the absolute magic of staying in the Disney bubble the whole time. Do you see real benefit from some of the onsite benefits - but do understand that to many those benefits are not benefits at all. Would the adults self-destruct from the saccharine sweetness of staying in the bubble the whole time, not to mention paying top dollar for tiny accommodation. Read up carefully and assess against your needs and your family temperament.

Most people who frequent this corner of DIS are biased toward offsite, myself included (in case you couldn't guess from that last line). We hit Orlando every couple of years or less (more Universal than Disney now, but we love both resorts). Staying (and now owning) offsite has been an enabler to our addiction. I don't think we could visit half as often if we were flying down all the time and staying onsite. So technically I would argue that my family gets more magic overall from staying offsite. I am not one to feel the need to immerse myself or my family completely into Disney; Orlando is one of the best vacation destinations on the continent and has so much more to offer than just the World. Staying offsite allows us to explore that.

In years of staying in Orlando I have never felt unsafe. You see some strange things (it is Weird Florida after all), but nothing dangerous in the areas around the park. Orlando does have some less desirable areas like most cities, but they aren't evident in the areas near Disney.

 

[richmo]

I'm not going to comment on VRBO or AirBnB, since I haven't used them, but most hotels outside Disney are safe. I would recommend using something like TripAdvisor to get a feel for which ones are good and which ones aren't. Kind of related to VRBO, I've stayed at rentals in Windsor Hills and have been very happy with those.

One other thing to remember when you stay outside Disney is additional transportation costs. You'll have to pay for a car rental and parking at Disney (I think its $22 a day now, maybe even $25?). Yes, some hotels have shuttles, but I would strongly recommend getting your own transportation. (Exceptions to that: Hotel Plaza Blvd and Bonnet Creek hotels)

 

[MrKnight]

When staying off-site always be sure to factor in transportation costs to WDW (PLUS parking fees if you drive), after doing the math it may very well turn out that staying on-site or at a nearby resort (such as DS area or Bonnet Creek resorts) that provides complimentary transportation to the parks may very well be worth the few extra dollars in room rate.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Do you mainly stay at vacation rentals? Like Airbnb? Yeah the prices are insane and we want to try to make this somewhat affordable

Vrbo is our favorite. We always stay onsite at Disney, thats just our thing, but we use Vrbo 3-4 times every year in other locations. Never had an issue. There are some mind blowing amazing houses very close to Disney for great prices.

https://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/central-disney-orlando

 

[kathy884]

I'm an offsite girl for the value (great quality places -area-excellent price). I have stayed onsite at the Contemporary Resort (loved it, but I would not pick this w/my money - budget buster for sure) and Port Orleans Riverside (fine, but I have liked place I have stayed offsite more than this and offsite places had more room and were less expensive.) Onsite stays for me have primarily been when DH's company was paying due to his having a conference at a Disney resort.

For a weeklong stay my favorite if I have a larger party is an offsite timeshare condo (renting this from an owner). I often use site like TUG2.net and Redweek.com for that. We often do SeaWorld as well as Disney stuff and I for shorter stays have often stayed in hotels near SeaWorld and used a rental car or uber to get to Disney. Do another post if you would like specific property recommendations and you will get a myriad of responses.

Disney has 40,000 hotel rooms that they fill with marketing "Disney Magic". Overpriced rooms, food, and entertainment and feeling captive as it feels like a long drive offsite for dinner makes me feel more like a prisoner. And it doesn't hurt to keep the family a little farther away from all those gift shops either. I find that driving or taking uber to the parks is pretty darn easy and in many case not further than farther out Disney resorts.

Disney is fun however you do it and lots of people prefer onsite. I almost always choose offsite with my vacation dollar, though.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

There are so many great hotels that are close to Disney. We always stay at Sheraton vistana over near SeaWorld. Also you will see a lot of people get throw away rooms for Disney to get the benefits.

 

[tguz]

We always stay on site and I can honestly say I cannot ever seeing us staying off site. We love it onsite so much that for us, we would be losing some vacation magic staying offsite.

 

[elaine amj]

One thing I really love about onsite is the ability for the group to split up easily. Super easy for one person to head back to the room to rest while the rest keep going or whatever. That's harder if u drive one vehicle and stay offsite. Now my kids are late teens so we split up quite frequently.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

We are doing our first off-site stay next year after being on-site for the last several trips. One factor for us is that we are going for 2 weeks. Another is that extended family is joining us for 1 week each. We are renting a 5 bed/5 bath house in Windsor Hills with pool for under $2800. I priced out those same 14 nights for 1 room at POP and it was more than the house total. No way could my extended family on a budget ever afford this. We are paying for the house so everyone can enjoy a vacation together. This is something we could not do on-site.

I am a bit bummed that I have to drive to Florida (to save money so we can pay for the house) and drive to/from the parks but we will still be on vacation, riding, seeing shows, eating Dole Whip's, watching fireworks and spending time together.