Help me win a battle against the family to stay on site!

[StitchesGr8Fan]

OP, when was the last time you did a big trip with this group? If it has been more than a year or 2, I think you need to reset your expectations. Not only is Disney different but the kids are too. How they vacationed at 13-15 isn’t necessarily how they want to vacation at 16-18. They may want a lot of down time, or to hang out by the pool. They may want to stay out late, to your point. I get the impression that you are holding on to these old memories of vacations past and are setting yourself up for some real disappointment no matter where you stay. And your idea of “perfect” is impacting your ability to be pragmatic about this. $2000 is enough to pay for a college credit at some schools, or books and supplies for a year at others. Put your opinions aside and ask the group what type of vacation they want to have and make hotel decisions from there. But don’t wait long or you will have no options.

 

[glocon]

OP-it seems as though you enjoy planning.
Maybe come up with three different options and have the family vote. Give the prices as well the pro’s/con’s for a low priced, a mid priced and a higher priced venue. Get all their opinions and see what the consensus is. Also, in giving these options families may all decide on different places to stay and just agree to meet at lunchtime to start touring together then. Maybe meet for lunch at WL one of the days so they can see the magic you see with the on site stay.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

Some concerns for staying offsite: the need for rental cars (and paying for parking), distance from parks, who is allowed to drive (rental cars and teenagers do not mix).

Just about every hotel within 20 miles of Disney offers some sort of shuttle service to most parks.

 

[Amanda999]

Off-site house to save $8,000 for 4 park day trip? (per 1st post.) Ok, even if same price I'd vote house:

I think a group trip of 4 families would have alot more 'together' time in a large house - easy to book one very close to WDW with private pool and hot tub, game room, multiple master suites. Windsor Hills e.g.

I'm a huge onsite fan, but for a trip that's really a trip for the group to socialize - and go to WDW - I think it will work out much better, and be much more relaxing, at a house.

 

[Twitterpaited]

When are you going? Will they still have Magical Express? If you don’t need to rent a car, it will save each family $700-800, probably. If you have kids 14 or older, they can go off on their own using Disney transportation. The transportation will also allow you to easily break up into smaller groups and not need to coordinate cars to arrive, leave, and take breaks. Also, you could stay at a less expensive resort, like a moderate or value to take advantage of many of the benefits.

 

[Twitterpaited]

When are you going? Will they still have Magical Express? If you don’t need to rent a car, it will save you $700-800 probably. If you have kids 14 or older, they can go off on their own using Disney transportation. The transportation will also allow you to easily break up into smaller groups and not need to coordinate cars to arrive, leave, and take breaks. Also, you could stay at a less expensive resort, like a moderate or value to take advantage of many of the benefits.

 

[Cj2017]

After talking to the family yesterday some big changes were made but universally everyone agreed to stay on site. After taking on the cost of parking, gas, heating the pool, using the grill (cost more) buying supplies for the house the savings was closer to $1500 a family. However, the deciding factor was the transportation for the teens. They wanted the freedom to be able to get up and go out together. Once I added all the teens to the group chat they all voiced their opinions and made their case to stay on site. I asked what they wanted to do and most of them are really interested in Universal and doing Halloween horror nights so we added 3 days to universal staying at Hard Rock and removed 2 nights from wilderness lodge and Epcot.

Wilderness lodge
October 10th - Arrival day
October 11th - Disney park
October 12th - resort day
October 13th - Disney park
October 14th - Rest day
October 15th - Disney park

Hard Rock /w express pass
October 16th Universal park
October 17th IOA park (Halloween horror nights
October 18th Universal
October 19th - Check out.


I took a lot of suggestions from here and reset expectations about being together all day. We are going to shoot for rope drop and be together until we go back to the resort mid-day and after that everyone can do their own thing unless they want to stick together. We are going to shoot for Whispering Canyon cafe, Ohanna, and the restaurant at Fort wilderness (name escapes me) together.

 

[Bullseye]

After talking to the family yesterday some big changes were made but universally everyone agreed to stay on site. After taking on the cost of parking, gas, heating the pool, using the grill (cost more) buying supplies for the house the savings was closer to $1500 a family. However, the deciding factor was the transportation for the teens. They wanted the freedom to be able to get up and go out together. Once I added all the teens to the group chat they all voiced their opinions and made their case to stay on site. I asked what they wanted to do and most of them are really interested in Universal and doing Halloween horror nights so we added 3 days to universal staying at Hard Rock and removed 2 nights from wilderness lodge and Epcot.

Wilderness lodge
October 10th - Arrival day
October 11th - Disney park
October 12th - resort day
October 13th - Disney park
October 14th - Rest day
October 15th - Disney park

Hard Rock /w express pass
October 16th Universal park
October 17th IOA park (Halloween horror nights
October 18th Universal
October 19th - Check out.


I took a lot of suggestions from here and reset expectations about being together all day. We are going to shoot for rope drop and be together until we go back to the resort mid-day and after that everyone can do their own thing unless they want to stick together. We are going to shoot for Whispering Canyon cafe, Ohanna, and the restaurant at Fort wilderness (name escapes me) together.

Personally, hearing this saga unfold I'm so happy it ended up this way . Yeah it's a lot of dough but it's also so much fun and lasting memories. And looking at your plans, you are going to have a blast! October is such a great time to be at Disney. Halloween Horror Nights is really fun too! It puts other parks Halloween festivities to shame.

 

[Dsny4fun]

I think you made a really good decision with adding some Universal days...the only thing I would add is I would take one of your rest days @ Disney and add back Epcot. You'll be there doing the Food & Wine festival and everyone might enjoy going to that. I know I do !!

 

[Akck]

Sounds like a good plan. If you got hopper tickets for both, you’ll still be able to go to Epcot and Food & Wine. Likewise, you’ll need them for the full Harry Potter experience. Express Pass is well worth it, in fact, if you look at the cost to purchase it, it pays for your stay and then some for the size of your group. When we went in December, just about every ride was a walk on with the pass. It was easy to do all the rides we wanted with repeats on the 3rd day. Do take advantage of the early entry. We did it for Hagrid’s and it was essentially a walk on. The line moved continuously. My tip for it is to not carry anything that needs to go in a locker that morning. That was about the only area where we saw a wait as we walked by.

 

[Kestryl]

Just about every hotel within 20 miles of Disney offers some sort of shuttle service to most parks.

I mean... sure. I don’t know every hotel. I know you can’t get a shuttle from Cabana Bay to Disney, ha. I also wouldn’t assume that a rental house would have shuttle access.

 

[Cj2017]

I think you made a really good decision with adding some Universal days...the only thing I would add is I would take one of your rest days @ Disney and add back Epcot. You'll be there doing the Food & Wine festival and everyone might enjoy going to that. I know I do !!

You're killing me lol! I did not know this was a thing! My wife and I just watched some youtube videos and she said "we need to do this". I don't know about including it on a rest day, but we might fly in a day early so we can do this.

Thanks

 

[bsmcneil]

Just about every hotel within 20 miles of Disney offers some sort of shuttle service to most parks.

Even right now? When I looked for a mid-Sept trip, lots of places that had originally offer shuttles (which definitely isn't "just about within 20 miles") weren't running their shuttles. Several places near the airport aren't running their airport shuttles right now (note, MCO is 19 miles from WDW and typically one zone will run shuttles - for instance to the airport - while places closer to the theme parks will run shuttles there.).

 

[Brob2132]

For our family, it’s part of immersion just to have everything taken care of. It helps to suspend life and disbelief when that’s all the logistics are taken care of.

 

[KittyKitty]

Last two trips were Thanksgiving 2020, and March 2021. Next trip is this Oct at Pop, and WL.
The perks, magic, beauty outweigh the price for me. It might be my age.

 

[MomOTwins]

You're killing me lol! I did not know this was a thing! My wife and I just watched some youtube videos and she said "we need to do this". I don't know about including it on a rest day, but we might fly in a day early so we can do this.

Thanks

We’re rescuing you! Missing food and wine would be a tragedy! Some crazy people already have color coded spreadsheets devoted to what they’ll be eating and drinking at food and wine. Whaaat? I didn’t say me!

 

[SG131]

You're killing me lol! I did not know this was a thing! My wife and I just watched some youtube videos and she said "we need to do this". I don't know about including it on a rest day, but we might fly in a day early so we can do this.

Thanks

I could see the teens voting out one of the rest days too. When I was that age I wanted to be at the park non-stop. Two days of sitting around would've driven me nuts. Don't be surprised if you're adding a 4th day to the tickets while you're there.

 

[Dsny4fun]

You're killing me lol! I did not know this was a thing! My wife and I just watched some youtube videos and she said "we need to do this". I don't know about including it on a rest day, but we might fly in a day early so we can do this.

Thanks

I would also make the suggestion to do the Food & Wine Festival during the week...it's VERY BUSY and VERY CROWDED during the weekend

 

[HopperFan]

After talking to the family yesterday some big changes were made but universally everyone agreed to stay on site. After taking on the cost of parking, gas, heating the pool, using the grill (cost more) buying supplies for the house the savings was closer to $1500 a family. However, the deciding factor was the transportation for the teens. They wanted the freedom to be able to get up and go out together. Once I added all the teens to the group chat they all voiced their opinions and made their case to stay on site. I asked what they wanted to do and most of them are really interested in Universal and doing Halloween horror nights so we added 3 days to universal staying at Hard Rock and removed 2 nights from wilderness lodge and Epcot.

Wilderness lodge
October 10th - Arrival day
October 11th - Disney park
October 12th - resort day
October 13th - Disney park
October 14th - Rest day
October 15th - Disney park

Hard Rock /w express pass
October 16th Universal park
October 17th IOA park (Halloween horror nights
October 18th Universal
October 19th - Check out.


I took a lot of suggestions from here and reset expectations about being together all day. We are going to shoot for rope drop and be together until we go back to the resort mid-day and after that everyone can do their own thing unless they want to stick together. We are going to shoot for Whispering Canyon cafe, Ohanna, and the restaurant at Fort wilderness (name escapes me) together.

I LOVE this solution and you are maximizing the benefits from the hotels.

I love that you included the teens in the decision making process. Teens can make or break a trip and I think too often what they like is left out of the process.

We just got back from doing both parks with our adult kids and we had a blast!!

You're killing me lol! I did not know this was a thing! My wife and I just watched some youtube videos and she said "we need to do this". I don't know about including it on a rest day, but we might fly in a day early so we can do this.

Thanks

Def fly in early and have some time for yourselves to enjoy this. F&W can be very overwhelming and not necessary for your whole family to enjoy their trip.

 

[Eastern]

I would also make the suggestion to do the Food & Wine Festival during the week...it's VERY BUSY and VERY CROWDED during the weekend

Yes, stay away on Friday/Saturday nights.