Staying on site ~vs~ off site...

For off site hotels with a party of your size it may be worth staying at the Hyatt Regency. They have a number of very reasonably priced 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suites. I've gotten them for 140/nt on weekends in the summer. It's a bit too far too walk, but you can take the ART or rent a car.
 
We are thinking and talking about a family visit.. Next year. So I have been running the numbers and trying to figure out the best options for us. The cast will be - DH and myself, DD, SIL and my sweet little grandson who will be 4 at the time.

Looking at expedia, for flights, and good neighbor hotel, is around 3,500.00 to 4,500.00 playing around with the dates. Then we have to get park tickets. ( 2 rooms)

then I looked at

Staying on site and park tickets through Disneyland then booking flights direct with Delta. or Booking Good Neighbor hotel with park tickets through Disneyland, then booking flights direct with delta. We have alot of miles, and after this next trip i think that DH and I will have enough for at least 2 RT tickets, maybe 3 so the airfare would be alot less than paying for all 5 of us for the flights.

We have stayed off site at a good neighbor hotel when we went to Disneyland 5 years ago... and I thought it was great, it was just DH and myself...the hotel offered a bus. We are use to riding the buses here at WDW and its not a problem for us.

Is there anything that makes it... just so worth it to stay on site, for the additional money?
Extra Magic Hours every day are a huge perk.

Beyond that, how much do you care about theming and staying in the bubble? We love to stay in the bubble, and staying at Disneyland Hotel did that for us last November. Our standard room there, in the Fantasy Tower, was very comfortable, and had a great view of fireworks, as well. It was just a pleasant 10-minute stroll through downtown Disney to the parks.
 
Gosh, I've stayed off site and on site and I much prefer staying on site at the GCH. This gives me a complete bubble feeling and is part of the DLR experience I love--so it is worth it to me to be so close to the parks, and a short walk through DTD plus the perks of coming and going with ease and sitting in the hotel in the evening listening to the piano having a nightcap. However, I have only been able to justify the cost over the last 5 years as my travel/vacation budget has increased so I am not giving up other travel to stay on site. I've stayed off site and had a wonderful time and probably would again if I got another AP. IMO It depends on what you can afford balanced with your overall budget.
 


We used to LOVE staying at the resort hotels.....but that was when they were actually reasonably priced. Now, it is just not worth it to us. With ticket prices increasing and the cost of the resort hotels becoming out of our budget, we stay off site now. Usually at Hojos. We have just as much fun as before and the walk is not bad at all. And if we get a room facing the parks, we can see the fireworks!

This is a difficult question because everyone finds a different value in their experience. I think the main thing you should think about is if you want to splurge, or if you might have second thoughts about spending the extra money. I have a hard time spending more money than we need to. But that is me. You do what is right for you.

Regardless, you will have an amazing trip and make special memories for life no matter where you stay! Have a great time! :goodvibes
 
No, use the money saved to purchase MaxPass for everyone and some dining experiences with preferred viewing for parades/Fantasmic!/World of Color.

That said, we have booked a Park View room at PPH for our final stay with our current AP. We will not be returning to DL for several years and my 7 year old daughter remembers the ONE night we stayed there during a short trip 2 years ago (long story short, we had to move up our trip by a day and our Good Neighbor Hotel was booked on the extra day so we booked a single night at PPH and then moved to our Good Neighbor Hotel)....since our kids always know we are going on our Disney trips we figured this would be a nice little surprise for them and I've made enough extra money with my side job to pay the extra $1100 for the 4 night stay (I'm still trying to get over the splurge but it will be worth it). I plan to take full advantage of the Early Entry available in DCA for only Disney Hotel guests!

But over the past 6 years that we have been visiting DL regularly we have always stayed at Good Neighbor Hotels and been very happy, especially because by saving that $ we've been able to do MORE trips to DL!
 
Don't ignore the advice about the it might be dependent on Star Wars opening. I think that is really on the money. We have stayed on site mostly when going was a rare occasion once every couple of years. Once we started to go regularly, we stayed off site and understood a bit better why people say on site is not worth it. As a general rule, the off site "harbor hotels" are actually MOtels that I am not willing to stay at. There is nothing wrong with them in particular, its just not how I travel. Once our kids were old enough, we figured out the trick of staying way off property (usually at Great Wolf Lodge with a groupon) and taking an uber. With a 4 year old, you are going to need to be within walking distance or use buses or cart around a car seat. A couple of options: 1. get one room on site that sleeps 5 and book another room on Harbor. Book all 5 folks into the room on site for the perks but actually have some of the other people sleep somewhere else. 2. You could very easily fit 5 into a Paradise pier cabana room. 2 each go in queen beds and one on sofa bed. If you do that, I would book club level. With 5 people, you will easily cover the cost with the free food and drinks (in fact, for us I think it is cheaper than two harbor motel rooms total cash out of pocket for the trip).
 


OP here, and WOW

I have a lot of info to go through... We could do a 2 bedroom suite... but not sleeping all in the same room... My SIL snores awful... really bad. I'm a very light sleeper... and personal space and privacy are really important, to us so that we don't get on each others nerves. We also need king beds... no way DH and I could sleep in a queen... I would end up on the floor... one of us is a bed hog... and its not me... :D

When is Star Wars opening at Disneyland... I don't know if we want to go before it opens... then just wait it out here in Fl for Star Wars land to open. Or bite the bullet and go for it... With DD and family going they only have a certain window of time, due to their jobs... So a lot to take into consideration.

As always I appreciate any and all info...
:thanks:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:
 
OP here, and WOW

I have a lot of info to go through... We could do a 2 bedroom suite... but not sleeping all in the same room... My SIL snores awful... really bad. I'm a very light sleeper... and personal space and privacy are really important, to us so that we don't get on each others nerves. We also need king beds... no way DH and I could sleep in a queen... I would end up on the floor... one of us is a bed hog... and its not me... :D

When is Star Wars opening at Disneyland... I don't know if we want to go before it opens... then just wait it out here in Fl for Star Wars land to open. Or bite the bullet and go for it... With DD and family going they only have a certain window of time, due to their jobs... So a lot to take into consideration.

As always I appreciate any and all info...
:thanks:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:pixiedust:
We've just booked our first Disneyland trip and we are splitting on and off property, so we get the perks, but keep it more affordable. We'll start with a two bedroom suite at DLH and then we move to the Anaheim Hotel with two rooms.

We're not going until November, so Galaxy's Edge will be open when we're there - we have some SW fans in our group, so we'll have to brave the crowds for that, but I'm going more for the holiday overlays. We have 7 park days planned, which I know is a lot, but we're coming from the East coast, so I'd rather have extra time than feel like we missed everything. I hope you find your perfect solution and have a wonderful trip!
 
We used to LOVE staying at the resort hotels.....but that was when they were actually reasonably priced. Now, it is just not worth it to us. With ticket prices increasing and the cost of the resort hotels becoming out of our budget, we stay off site now. Usually at Hojos. We have just as much fun as before and the walk is not bad at all. And if we get a room facing the parks, we can see the fireworks!

This is a difficult question because everyone finds a different value in their experience. I think the main thing you should think about is if you want to splurge, or if you might have second thoughts about spending the extra money. I have a hard time spending more money than we need to. But that is me. You do what is right for you.

Regardless, you will have an amazing trip and make special memories for life no matter where you stay! Have a great time! :goodvibes

I agree... everyone experience is different. If you have the money, then go and splurge.

We stayed at the Grand Californian during the holidays November 2013. We wanted to take in and experience it all. We traded DVC points with a friend. We had a wonderful time. This was a Disney only trip.

We stayed off- site hotel in July 2016. We were happy! Still walking distance and we could see the fireworks from our hotel room. We did this because of savings. We did Disneyland and San Francisco trip.

We are going in October 2018 - off site hotel again. Again, saving money because we are doing Las Vegas and Disneyland.
 
We used to only stay onsite, and our fave was a park-view room at PPH. But now that they have changed the security and forced the walkway to DTD back to the DH, forget it. My kids are older and we now stay only at the Hilton. I use HHonors points and we get a fireworks view room on the 14th floor and you can see the castle projections from the room. It's a quick Uber or taxi or we walk or take ART. The Starbucks in the lobby with the dedicated line for HHonors guests is awesome.
 
Something else to consider is how you plan on visiting the parks. Do you plan on being park commandos and stay in the parks all day? Or does your grandson need to go back to the hotel and nap during the day? If the latter than I would definitely suggest walking distance off site hotels.

In general I agree that MaxPass and EMH with the 3 day hopper negates a lot of the perks of staying on site. And with so many hotels on Harbor being so close the proximity factor is a non issue as well.

For me, the on site hotels are destinations in and of itself and is worth the splurge for like a birthday or something (more so for DLH and GC than PPH). But if you’re going to be in the parks most of the day you’re really not getting your money’s worth in my opinion.

One off site hotel I would suggest is the Hyatt House. It’s walkable right on the corner or Harbor and W Katella. it’s new and spacious. Free breakfast also. They have lots of king bed options too.

Hope this helps!
 
We have stayed onsite as well as offsite. We much prefer offsite, for the reasons listed above. We would rather stay at a hotel on Harbor and walk to the parks. The offsite hotels are so much cheaper. We spend most of our time in the parks, and very little time at the hotel.
 
I’ve stayed both onsite and offsite but it has been about 3 years since we have went. How is the ART service? Is it similar to the Disney bus service in Florida? Long lines at night, buses full, etc. We have plenty of Hilton points so thinking of staying at the Embassay or Hilton Garden inn but not sure if I will like the ART. We have a todddler so I think Uber is out. Bummer... So I’m trying to decide if we should just drive our rental and park at the park daily. Thoughts on that??? The $20 parking doesn’t seem too bad since the shuttle would be $12 but I’ve only stayed walking distance so I’m just not sure.
 

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