Offsite multiple hotels or further away

[tjhart69]

Hello!
This will be our first time doing the theme parks and staying off property. My husband recently started a PT job working of Hilton and gets great discounts on hotels so we are going to give it a try. My issue is that his employee benefit limits the number of rooms at the employee rate so we are unable to find a hotel within a few miles that has more than 1 night available. I can find a few nights in a row at a hotel in Lake Mary or single nights at various hotels in Orlando. Does anyone know what to expect for travel time to the Disney or Universal Parks from Lake Mary. Will morning traffic cause significant delays in travel time? Ultimately I am trying to decide if I want to change rooms every night or have to drive from Lake Mary. Also, my daughter will be competing in a gymnastics meet near Clearwater during this trip, so Lake Mary will add travel time for that as well. I should mention that his employee discount is very significant so we are not open to staying somewhere that would not allow us to use his discount, that was the whole reason he took the job

So, different hotel each night or stay a further distance from all activities?

Thanks for your help DIS

 

[spiceycat]

is it the hotels only - or the timeshares too?

when are you going?

 

[tjhart69]

Only the hotels.

 

[BigredNole]

Not sure what the discount or rate is, but you may find comparable price rentals as close if not closer.

 

[writerguyfl]

Regardless of the discount, I think you'll regret staying in Lake Mary. While it's a nice suburb/exurb, it's too far from Disney World. For example, the distance from the Hilton Garden Inn Lake Mary to the Epcot parking lot is 37 miles. According to Bing Maps, if you want arrive at Epcot by 8:30am on a typical Wednesday, it will take you 1 hour 4 minutes when you factor in traffic.

Link to Bing Maps showing route with historical traffic: https://binged.it/2fWq79v

I used to work in hotels, so I understand wanting to use your discount. However, this is a time when it's probably not worth the hassle.

 

[BigredNole]

If we knew your nightly rate or range, we may be able to offer other options within it.

 

[writerguyfl]

If we knew your nightly rate or range, we may be able to offer other options within it.

I can't comment about Hilton, but in the couple chains for which I worked, it was against the rules to divulge these rates to the general public. If not forbidden, I'd bet that Hilton wouldn't appreciate seeing that rate on a public message board.

That said, I don't work for any hotel companies. My educated guess would be that rates are $30-50/night, depending on the brand/level of the hotel.