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

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Check out major hotel's website and refine by location to get closer to Disney.

A few are in the Disney Springs area and then if you branch out a bit more you'll get outside of Disney's property.

I believe Flamingo Crossings is another area to look for built by Disney but just outside the Disney property line. There's a SpringHill Suites and I *think* a Homewood Suites, Home 2 Suites and a Hampton Inn are presently being built there.

They are many options offsite from hotels to vacation rentals. There are a variety of options onsite though I have found Disney is not the best for larger party sizes and/or those who have more adults in the traveling group/people needing more separate sleeping arrangements. Often with this situation you would need multiple rooms or a higher category of room which could be up there in cost depending on things.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If you have a large group and would need multiple rooms, I can see the appeal of offsite. However, if you’re 4 people or less and in 1 hotel room, Disney has a wide variety of hotel options for many budgets and those stays come with some nice perks that make a difference on the ease of your trip (earlier fast passes, extra magic hours, park transportation etc).

I would actually further refine this to "who is in your traveling party" because 4 people while that may be the hotel occupancy max for most rooms doesn't capture the make up of someone's traveling party.

Let's say it's myself, my husband and my mom. 3 'people' Not exactly appealing to us. Absolute worst case we could do it but it wouldn't really be comfortable and likely lead to us feeling like we're on top of each other. So if we stayed onsite that would mean 2 rooms. Not a problem but it would double the cost. Now if you're looking at just a budget thing it may be better to get a hotel room that has a suite with a separate sleeping area for example and the sleeping area comfortable for an adult.

Let's say it's myself, my husband, my mother-in-law and my step-father-in-law. 4 'people' but we refuse to share a room with them anymore. We've done it before when we were young but between the in-laws terrible snoring and the lack of privacy not to mention bed size. Just not worth it. So 2 rooms there.

Let's say it's myself, my husband, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. 4 'people' but again same problem as the first example. My husband and I have done this with the other sister-in-law and her boyfriend when she was 17 but that was years ago. Not really what we'd want to do these days. So same problem as the first example.

Totally agree on the benefits as one would want to consider if those benefits matter to them and see if the budget works with that.

 

[Maggie Gallagher]

By the end of a long day in a park, I am happy to escape the "magical bubble".
Especially when saving over 1000$ for a week stay with more space than most on property rooms.
I don't understand spending lots of money when we are in the parks all day.

For those of us that split our time between the parks and our resort, that $1,000 might be worth it. We stay Deluxe so we can come and go from the parks whenever we please. We tend to go morning and some (not all) evenings to the parks. We enjoy our resort pools. We usually rent a half-day cabana for a couple days and a full-day cabana for a mid-week break from the parks. When we stay at the Beach Club, we always spend at least one full day at Stormalong Bay. The resorts in WDW are so special, not just the Deluxe resorts. We used to really enjoy the Values when we couldn't afford anything else.

We have stayed with family outside WDW and were unhappy. We also stayed off-site for part of a trip when we stayed at BC for a week. We were so depressed staying at that very nice 4-star hotel in Orlando. I would much rather spend an extra $1,000 and have the complete Disney experience.

If we traveled like you and spent all of our time in the parks, I might think differently.

 

[jameyh]

We stayed in a condo in Windsor hills in January 2019. I think onsite vs offsite debate depends on how you vacation. We chose offsite because we were able to eat in the room and do laundry. For our family of 4 from Saturday to Saturday we spent under $5000. We only did 1 character meal (chef Mickey Breakfast) and brought our lunch in the parks daily.
If you prefer to eat out every meal and have lots of ADR staying on site during a free dining time may save money.

Staying offsite also means you typically need a car and will pay $25 a day to park at Disney.

We are starting to plan a June 2020 trip 4 days before a cruise and staying onsite with 3 day passes is over $3000. I just booked Bestwestern at disney springs for 1/2 the price of Caribbean Beach. Those savings alone will pay for our food and parking.

 

[spiceycat]

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?

now I have not read everything - but the parks itself are further apart than 10 miles - especially with the new highways.
So would look in the Kissimmee West area close to US192 for a house or condo (this are is also close to AK) - but be careful - some a great, some okay and some you don't want to spend time in.

 

[whitneyebz]

This thread is very interesting and informative to me! We are Disneyland vets (it's practically in our backyard! Well, 6 hour drive...but that feels super close, lol). We are finally planning a WDW (and Daytona beach) trip for our family of 6.

When I was 14, my parents took us to WDW for the first time. We stayed at Yacht Club! I had no idea at the time that they had gone all out for this trip. I LOVED Yacht Club and walking to Epcot (which was my favorite park). Animal Kingdom had just opened, which was really cool. We definitely felt the Disney bubble. I wanted to do that for my kids, too. But we don't exactly have a money tree. We can use points to pay for flights, but the rest will be out of pocket...with 6 people, it would be around $600 a night (I don't want to stay value, and even that is $500ish a night). I was disappointed when I realized we just cannot afford to do onsite.

I started looking at offsite VRBO places. Some of them have really nice amenities and pools, and we would get a kitchen (I won't be cooking, but it will be nice for breakfast!) and 2 bedrooms, which we really need. We will save thousands. So unless there's some option for onsite that won't cost me $2k more than a (really nice) offsite condo, then we will stay offsite. Maybe someday if just my husband and I go, we can stay onsite, but for now it's either offsite or we don't go at all. Also, I think DH will be happy to drive each day- and even with renting a car we are STILL saving a ton. (And we will need the car for Daytona anyway).

I am still looking at all our options and getting advice, but I think when you have 6 or more people and don't have a ton of money in the budget, offsite makes sense. And the offsite options are plentiful and very nice (unlike Disneyland where we DO stay offsite but the options are just basic hotel/motel).

 

[whitneyebz]

You are smart! Honestly, I couldn’t imagine life without my cherubs (my house would be so eerily quiet with only my oldest two girls). And, I have resigned myself to driving a minivan for the next 15 years #iusedtobecool. But, we still take what I consider to be pretty lavish Disney vacations and for that, I feel fortunate because so many cannot. It just takes a lot more thought and planning (for me) that it would if we had a small family. I approach the vacation budget like a puzzle or mental challenge and look for ways to solve & save.

I think my single most exciting budget score of this trip is that I am flying all 7of us direct to Orlando for $665 round trip. You didn’t read that wrong! I couldn’t even drive us there for that price with stops from New England down I-95. Hoping Frontier doesn’t flake out and cancel the flight, but we can deal with carrryons and less leg room.

As for other trips, we utilize Vrbo for home rentals and when we need to do block hotel stays for my daughters’ large dance comps we try to divide and conquer and hubby will stay home with the youngest members of our fam so we don’t have to book two rooms. Those are not really vacation trips anyway but unfortunately cost the same as a vacation!!

We sound a lot alike! I can't imagine life without my 2 youngest...it would be SO quiet! But yeah, it makes it very hard sometimes to book trips. We are running into the same issues when looking into a cruise (non-Disney. We love Royal Caribbean and we don't want all our vacations to be Disney anyway). Everywhere is set up for a family of 4. That really is the deciding factor for staying offsite- but we also get other benefits! Laundry, kitchen, TWO bedrooms and bathrooms. And we will be at the parks all day- we don't stop.

My question is, how do you all do fastpasses when not staying onsite? It's giving me anxiety. WHY can't they just have the same system as Disneyland?? I don't want to pick my FPs in advance, but I guess I have to.

And how did you get a good deal on flights? We are coming from AZ but even if we paid twice that, I'd be pretty happy.

 

[whitneyebz]

I mentioned a few pages back about helping my son in law's sister booking an offsite trip. We have some numbers now to show how the cost differs enormously.

She has a reservation for OKW for October and the price is $3,500 for 6 nights. She will most likely rent a car for between $90 and $150 per day, depending on which type she wants. The SUV is $150 so we will go with that for argument's sake. She will have to pay for parking for 6 nights at OKW at $24 per day at a total of $144. I'm putting this here for the "but you don't have to pay to park at the parks" arguement. You do still have to pay for parking at the Disney resorts if you have your car. She has 5 day tickets so she won't have to pay the $125 for parking at the parks. Parking at OKW is still more expensive over the week than paying to park at the parks.

For offsite, she can get SVR (2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, living room, dining room, full kitchen, washer/dryer, jacuzzi tub in master) for the week (7 nights) for $800 through skyauction, which is accessable to everyone. (we sometimes stay through our timeshare co. and get great rates, but skyauction can be accessed by the general public) No parking fees, no daily resort fee. SVR is directly across I4 from Disney Springs, for reference on how close it is to property. It takes about 5-10 minutes to Epcot and HS, and maybe 15 minutes tops to MK or AK. Getting into a car at the end of a night and driving will take way less time than standing in a crowd waiting for a crowded Disney bus and they will be back at their resort in way less time, in most cases. I know this for a fact because every time we stay at our offsite resort and our DVC family stay onsite and we leave parks the same time, we always get back to our resort at least 15 - 30 minutes sooner than they get to theirs, the same is true for getting to the parks as well. The ONLY exceptions has been when they stay at BLT and can walk or when we go to MK because we have to wait for the monorail or ferry.

So, if she stays offsite for $800, adds parking for 5 park days, the cost of rental SUV she's roughly paying $1,075 for the week for just the resort, car and parking. If she stays with OKW, rents a car, pays for parking at the resort she's up to $3,794. The price difference is $2,719 that she would save by staying offsite. For me, and a lot of people, paying $2,719 just to stay in a "bubble" is definitely NOT worth it. YMMV and to each his own.

I'm posting this because we are in the middle of working numbers for her. Every question she's had about parking fees, transportation time, the "bubble", etc. have been the same comments I've seen on this thread from people who enjoy staying onsite. Now she's presented with actual numbers and facts and is shocked. She knows she could stay in an All Stars for a little cheaper, but she likes the resort feel of OKW and doesn't like the value resorts. SVR has the same feel as a moderate Disney resort.

This is so helpful! And I did the exact same thing with crunching the numbers. We save over $2k staying offsite, including rental car. But what rental car costs $90-150 a day? We can get a minivan for a week for around $350 total.

Another factor to consider is dining. I thought we might want to do the dining plan (and therefore stay onsite)- but then I calculated how much we would likely spend on food, and it is a lot less than the dining plan (middle dining plan). And we can't go during a time with free dining, so that would not help us.

 

[mckennarose]

This is so helpful! And I did the exact same thing with crunching the numbers. We save over $2k staying offsite, including rental car. But what rental car costs $90-150 a day? We can get a minivan for a week for around $350 total.
.............

Yep, that was definitely a typo! It's $90-$150 for the week, not per day!

.......

My question is, how do you all do fastpasses when not staying onsite? It's giving me anxiety. WHY can't they just have the same system as Disneyland?? I don't want to pick my FPs in advance, but I guess I have to.
.................

This thread might be of interest to you:
Throwaway Room

 

[whitneyebz]

Yep, that was definitely a typo! It's $90-$150 for the week, not per day!


This thread might be of interest to you:
Throwaway Room

Yeah, $90-150 for 6 days is great for a car rental I will look into the throwaway room!

 

[leebee]

We have stayed onsite and offsite. When DD and my nieces were young, we ALWAYS stayed offsite. We liked the space, the kitchen, the washer/dryer that you get with an offsite condo or house. Private swimming pool doesn't stink, either, LOL! We also love having our own car; easy to do grocery runs, and I absolutely hate using the Disney bus system. The last thing I want to do after I have been on my feet in a theme park for 14+ hours is stand in line for another 30+ minutes, waiting for a bus, and then be packed onto said bus like sardines, squished up next to a sweaty stranger, trying to figure out how to hold tired/sleeping children and still hold on to the overhead railing for the 15 minute ride. We usually have lunch and dinner in the parks/resorts, but it sure is nice to have our own kitchen for breakfasts, snacks, adult beverages, dessert, etc. We have always felt that the money we saved by staying offsite meant we could go to Disney more frequently!

For the past 5 or so years, we've become onsite people. First of all, DD is now an adult, and we love to do Food&Wine, or tour the resort lounges, hang out at the pool bar in the evening, etc. Sure is less of a concern if Disney is doing the driving! Being able to take DME from/to the airport, not having to pay for a rental car and now the ridiculous parking fee, is also a plus (although it means using the Disney bus system... grrr...) We also find that we spend less time at the parks than we used to. After 30+ trips, there is no more commando-touring for me, unless we are taking folks for their first visit (or we decide to do a suicide mission to the parks). We NEVER go to a park, back to the resort, and then back to the park, but we ARE the people who arrive at the park around 11am or so and just take our time with it all. However, we won't stay onsite if I can't get some sort of a deal on a resort; I've rented DVC points (BWV and AKV), done an amazing package deal (AKL), bought a reservation through eBay (OKW). Even when we stay at ASMu, I'll get a code from Orbitz so I can get Disney's best price AND the Orbitz discount. However, I also offset this by juggling my credit cards. We have a ton of Southwest points (and a companion pass at the moment) so airfare is essentially free, and I have a Disney Visa card that racks up 2% (I know that there are better deals, but these are EARmarked for Disney). Both of those help offset the cost of staying onsite. Yes, they'd also make staying offsite even more affordable as I can use the Disney points for food, souvenirs, and park tickets, and we do that sometimes. I got really spoiled the summer DH and I stayed at AKV (DVC rental points) and we didn't go to the theme parks. Just hung out at the resort, lazed in the pool and by the pool bar, did some "free" Disney stuff, etc. That's when I learned to love on-site stays... when I stopped going to the theme parks!

 

[beachdreamr1229]

I have a random question which may have already been answered, but hopefully I'm not repeating something already said. I'm hoping to piggyback on the original post since I'm in early stages of planning and desperately trying to save my family some money.

When you book offsite, if not at one of the "Disney affiliated" hotels, it's my understanding that you can't book your FP+ as early as onsite guests. For anyone who has been in this category, does this tend to impact your trip much? I mean, do you still get FP booked for everything you wanted, or do you end up missing out?

My family are coming from California. As a family of 6, a 10-day onsite vacation is going to cost us about $20K including air fare. I'd love to save a couple thousand if possible by staying offsite, but I don't want to miss out on anything. My family (3 adults and 3 kids who will be ages 7, 7, and 11 when we go) goes to DL all the time and are used to staying offsite due to the prices in California, but WDW is a whole other ballgame and realistically we'll only go once in a lifetime.

 

[RamblingMad]

I stay off property with the deluxe resorts priced this high, and I stay at the hotels frequented by business travelers. No screaming kids in the lobby. No unattended children in the pools. Just a good place to put my head at night and get a good nights sleep for less than $200 a night.

This frees up more cash to save or for more trips.

 

[whitneyebz]

I have a random question which may have already been answered, but hopefully I'm not repeating something already said. I'm hoping to piggyback on the original post since I'm in early stages of planning and desperately trying to save my family some money.

When you book offsite, if not at one of the "Disney affiliated" hotels, it's my understanding that you can't book your FP+ as early as onsite guests. For anyone who has been in this category, does this tend to impact your trip much? I mean, do you still get FP booked for everything you wanted, or do you end up missing out?

My family are coming from California. As a family of 6, a 10-day onsite vacation is going to cost us about $20K including air fare. I'd love to save a couple thousand if possible by staying offsite, but I don't want to miss out on anything. My family (3 adults and 3 kids who will be ages 7, 7, and 11 when we go) goes to DL all the time and are used to staying offsite due to the prices in California, but WDW is a whole other ballgame and realistically we'll only go once in a lifetime.

I don't know all the answers, but we are also a family of 6- 2 adults and kids age 13, 11, 9, 7 (at the time of travel). $20k seems like a lot! I priced it out at $10kish for a 6 day stay including airfare from AZ, but I know it just depends on a lot of different factors. We are going to use points for airfare and anything else I can use points for. Staying offsite brings our 6 days down to $5500 (not including food, but it DOES include airfare.).

As for FP's- that's honestly my only concern with staying offsite. I am now looking into booking a throwaway room (check out the comment a few replies above this one! I had never heard of it before!) I would just do it for one night, and then you have access to booking FP's early! I am so excited about this because it will get us our magic bands as well as free parking the day of check-in and check-out.

 

[whitneyebz]

I might be the only one that feels this way...but I actually don't want a private pool. We (mostly the kids, but me too) enjoy going to big resort pools- they get bored if it's just them. But I have found several places offsite that fit the bill! And my husband will be happy too because he would rather drive each day than wait for a bus, and we get 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. I am getting more excited the more I look around at offsite places. It's SO different from Disneyland where the offsite hotels are NOT great and cost way more.

 

[RamblingMad]

I have a random question which may have already been answered, but hopefully I'm not repeating something already said. I'm hoping to piggyback on the original post since I'm in early stages of planning and desperately trying to save my family some money.

When you book offsite, if not at one of the "Disney affiliated" hotels, it's my understanding that you can't book your FP+ as early as onsite guests. For anyone who has been in this category, does this tend to impact your trip much? I mean, do you still get FP booked for everything you wanted, or do you end up missing out?

My family are coming from California. As a family of 6, a 10-day onsite vacation is going to cost us about $20K including air fare. I'd love to save a couple thousand if possible by staying offsite, but I don't want to miss out on anything. My family (3 adults and 3 kids who will be ages 7, 7, and 11 when we go) goes to DL all the time and are used to staying offsite due to the prices in California, but WDW is a whole other ballgame and realistically we'll only go once in a lifetime.

Disneyland is superior to Magic Kingdom. Universal Orlando is superior to Universal Hollywood. Animal Kingdom is slightly better than San Diego Zoo only because of a few attractions. EPCOT is really dated. I prefer RSR over Test Track. And Hollywood Studios is mostly under construction.

The big draw for me is Universal for teens and older. I’ve lived out west, and that’s why I’d go. But it’s not worth $20k to me.

I struggle with the idea of spending $20k to go to WDW if you live on the west coast. What’s the draw?

I usually stay at a business oriented hotel for less than $200 a night. You can find some onsite hotels for that price, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of the screaming kids at a value resort. I like my sleep.

 

[Penmac]

We sound a lot alike! I can't imagine life without my 2 youngest...it would be SO quiet! But yeah, it makes it very hard sometimes to book trips. We are running into the same issues when looking into a cruise (non-Disney. We love Royal Caribbean and we don't want all our vacations to be Disney anyway). Everywhere is set up for a family of 4. That really is the deciding factor for staying offsite- but we also get other benefits! Laundry, kitchen, TWO bedrooms and bathrooms. And we will be at the parks all day- we don't stop.

My question is, how do you all do fastpasses when not staying onsite? It's giving me anxiety. WHY can't they just have the same system as Disneyland?? I don't want to pick my FPs in advance, but I guess I have to.

And how did you get a good deal on flights? We are coming from AZ but even if we paid twice that, I'd be pretty happy.

This is our 5th visit to Disney and we always ride everything we want to at least once, usually twice or three times, if visiting that park more than once. I don’t wait more than 25-30 min for any ride, period. I try for the earliest FP times as possible right at 7am EST on booking day. Once my last FP is gone at the park, I book another immediately and continue that for the rest of the day.
We also have in-park strategies we use. During the Festival of Fantasy parade, we go straight to Thunder Mountain. The lines dwindles down to 10 min at that time. During Happily Ever After fireworks at night- same. We had the most amazing ride on that coaster while fireworks were going off over our heads. We rode twice in a row with under a 5 min wait because everyone was at the show.
We rope drop and hit up a couple hard to do rides with no FP.

There are some limitations, but not dealbreakers. We can’t do FoP at AK, we avoid DHS in general since lines are long at most rides and FP are hard to get for the good rides because of tiered system. We usually rope drop Minetrain at MK (20 min wait), since we can’t usually get one for that 30 days out. I have scored an evening time once, I think. I’ve honestly never tried to ride FoP- I suppose we could rope drop it but it’s not at the top of our list anyway since my husband and I both struggle with motion simulation sickness.

I try not to stress about the 30 days out because I’ve been known to change which park we are going to on what day while I’m there. Then we book all new FP anyway. I try to be flexible and work around weather, etc. and our changing moods! Sometimes my kids just want to go back to MK for a 3rd time and skip the other parks and they decide that on vacation (occasionally). Since we are offsite and not tied to a firm schedule with ADR we have that flexibility, and people cancel FP all the time closer to the day. We score some good ones sometimes.

As for flights- I joined Frontier discount den. I checked cheap times to fly from our area. Late August had some $39-$59 direct fares. I took advantage of the kids fly free promo and got 2 free kid fares with two paying adults. Discount den only covers 6 passengers so I had to call and book my 5th child separately because you can’t buy individual minor tickets online. The sales agent linked our confirmation numbers. I paid for two checked bags. We can do laundry and summer clothes don’t take up much space. I have a car seat bag for my two youngest boosters and I will pack their puddle jumpers in there, too. I also paid for two seats- me and my youngest. The others will be fine and I am sure the person sitting in the middle of my son and I (I bought window and aisle), will gladly switch with my 5 year old. Grand total $665.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Disneyland is superior to Magic Kingdom. Universal Orlando is superior to Universal Hollywood. Animal Kingdom is slightly better than San Diego Zoo only because of a few attractions. EPCOT is really dated. I prefer RSR over Test Track. And Hollywood Studios is mostly under construction.
I struggle with the idea of spending $20k to go to WDW if you live on the west coast. What’s the draw?

I went when I was a teenager and want my kids and husband to experience it. I definitely prefer Disneyland, but we don't have the Animal Kingdom out here, or Toy Story Land, Pandora...We also aren't planning to go until 2021, so at that point, Hollywood Studios should be done, right? We're also planning on going to Universal for a day to see the Harry Potter stuff we don't have in CA and Cape Canaveral as a day trip. My oldest is super into astronomy and space exploration. I think everyone should experience more than one Disney resort, so we're going. Only question is how much we'll have to spend. $20k does include food budgeted, but the problem is needing 2 rooms or a suite onsite. Offsite is clearly cheaper. We could get a condo at Bonnet Creek for $200 a night. Just a question of if the FP would be a problem.

 

[Penmac]

I might be the only one that feels this way...but I actually don't want a private pool. We (mostly the kids, but me too) enjoy going to big resort pools- they get bored if it's just them. But I have found several places offsite that fit the bill! And my husband will be happy too because he would rather drive each day than wait for a bus, and we get 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. I am getting more excited the more I look around at offsite places. It's SO different from Disneyland where the offsite hotels are NOT great and cost way more.

Try Windsor Hills, Wyndham Bonnet Creek, Sheraton Vistana Lake Burma Vista. All great options for bigger families. We are actually getting a private pool for first time this year but only because we got a good deal on house. The clubhouse has a huge pool and water slides in walking distance so we get the best of both worlds.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I don't know all the answers, but we are also a family of 6- 2 adults and kids age 13, 11, 9, 7 (at the time of travel). $20k seems like a lot! I priced it out at $10kish for a 6 day stay including airfare from AZ, but I know it just depends on a lot of different factors. We are going to use points for airfare and anything else I can use points for. Staying offsite brings our 6 days down to $5500 (not including food, but it DOES include airfare.).

As for FP's- that's honestly my only concern with staying offsite. I am now looking into booking a throwaway room (check out the comment a few replies above this one! I had never heard of it before!) I would just do it for one night, and then you have access to booking FP's early! I am so excited about this because it will get us our magic bands as well as free parking the day of check-in and check-out.

Disney recently changed the system. Previously, you'd get the 60-day FP for the onsite stay, with a rolling-60-day window after that. In the most recent change, you can only book advance FP for the actual days you have the room. So, in your case, you would be able to book day one and two at 60 days, but the remaining wouldn't open up until 30 days.

Now the 60 day window can be helpful, but you still might not be able to book what you want with a throwaway room. For onsite stays, the window opens up for the whole stay at the 60 day mark, so people with a week onsite are booking the other days at 60+1, 60+2, 60+3, 60+4, 60+5 and 60+6. Many people report difficulty getting the headliners until the 3rd, 4th, or even 5th day of their onsite stay. You will probably have better availability at 60 days than at 30, but you still might not be able to get, say FoP even for your second day (60+1) because everyone onsite who booked a longer stay that started before you had a head start booking FP for that day.