Is there an advantage to stay onsite anymore?

[2minny]

To answer a few questions. We're not really planning to do sit-down restaurants. We usually just do quick service and have only gotten the dining plan a couple of times. I honestly, didn't care for it as the whole day was scheduled around eating. I just want to eat quickly and have fun, not sit in a restaurant. It was fine for character meals when the kids were young, but that's not an issue anymore.

We generally rent a car for our onsite visits and drive to the parks. I find driving around Disney very easy. We stayed at Pop once using Magical Express and the buses and it wasn't my favorite. Used to get free parking so it was fine, now, not so much. Our favorite resorts have been Poly, Wilderness Lodge, and Beach Club for the close proximity to the parks, but with 7 "adults" that's will bankrupt me!

I have looked into David's rental for DVC points. I am waiting to hear back about how it works to book more than one room.

The thing holding me back is not being in the bubble. I love that feeling of passing those Disney property gates and being in the bubble for a week. That's the thing that's really holding me back! I do appreciate all the input and from reading everything it does seem a house would be the way to go.

We are using David's DVC rental for our group this trip - renting a villa - it is less than other onsite individual room stays for our large group, but still much more than off site condos. I did think of another perk for onsite - the 60+10 ADR's!! Since most book so quickly, that's a pretty good perk for onsite!

 

[DeutscherDon]

I agree with some of the points made, getting pricier, not a lot of perks, to stay at a nice place you pay more, but using Dave’s DVC points and found a room at animal kingdom lodge for 2500 for ten nightS. Larger than Hotel rooms, with kitchenette and sleeps five. Were Stoked. Last year That we get the Magical express so we are all in. You can get lodging close to disney but you have to remember that Disney is 25 square miles so even the front gate is a ways away. Plus parking and Driving time in and out and Convenience. There is also a overall feeling of feeling safe in the disney bubble. So it might happen sometime but for us not yet! Love Disney!

 

[gharter]

I've always been curious as to how long your "ten minutes or less from all the parks" works out at closing. From the vantage point of the bus, it looks to me like it could take a good long time to just get out of the park parking lots.

The only park we drive to is AK. Whether we leave before closing or after, we have never had an issue leaving.
We intentionally take the bus to MK as it takes along time leaving by monorail or boat and then exiting the park.
The other 2, we can walk to.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

A rental car is dirt cheap id rather a rental car than the clunky bus system for sure

 

[gharter]

A rental car is dirt cheap id rather a rental car than the clunky bus system for sure

Current rental prices are far from dirt cheap. Previously we could rent a midsize for the week for under $250, currently they are over $500.

 

[bakerworld]

I love not having to drive - I'll stay on property and pay the extra $$$ to be able to walk to the bus and let them drive, especially after I've spent the evening bar hopping.

 

[limace]

I love not having to drive - I'll stay on property and pay the extra $$$ to be able to walk to the bus and let them drive, especially after I've spent the evening bar hopping.

Or spend $15 on an Uber

 

[twodogs]

We would be planning to rent a car (using Costco), most likely a minivan to fit us all in. I have heard a little about the shortages. Do you think this will still be an issue come October? I haven't read enough to know what the cause/solution is. Something I absolutely need to look into before making a final decision!

I don't know all of the reasons, but I think some has to do with decreased manufacturing, and some has to do with rental car companies not buying normal inventory of new cars and/or selling off cars in their inventory during COVID since almost no one was traveling for business or for leisure. Cars sitting there on the lots getting older is not good for them, of course. This is cut and pasted from the Costco Travel rental car site: "Limited Rental Car Availability - Due to COVID and car manufacturing shortages, rental car availability is extremely limited. If you are not able to find a rental car for your desired travel dates, please either search for new travel dates or select a transfer service instead. "

We are trying to rent a car in Phoenix at the airport for this weekend (Easter). Costco (where I have rented probably 100 times or more prior to COVID) has been sold out of every type of car from all 4 companies for over 2 weeks. I check multiple times daily. I was able to put a car on hold via Costco about 3 weeks ago, so we have something, but it is over double what we would normally pay, nearly triple. So rental cars may not be back to "dirt cheap" for a long time (I was so spoiled by those low rates pre-COVID!). They will likely not want to invest in buying a bunch of cars until they are certain that travel is fully back and that things won't get shut down again. I don't know what it will look like in October, but I am hoping for the best for you since I think off site sounds like it will work really well for your family!

Here is a link to the Transportation thread about rental car rates. They are crazy high on the more recent posts! https://www.disboards.com/threads/may-june-2021-rental-rates.3821598/

 

[ucf_knight]

For us the only advantage is proximity to the parks. Meaning being able to walk, boat, monorail or sky liner over to them. All the other resorts without this benefit for us aren’t worth it.

 

[Darcy03231]

We're a large family and stay off-site when we're all traveling. Only time we stayed on-site was if just 2 of us were going. We rented a van and pretty much left in the morning and came back in the evenings together. A couple of times the adult kids took a ride share either back to the rental home or decided to go over to DS for an evening took a ride share back. It was still way cheaper than staying on-site.

With the way things are now, even if it were just 2 of us I would stay off-site.

 

[dprincessmom]

I haven't checked any bargain sites, only WDW and Costco (Costco has the best deal right now). There are no deals yet for the fall so that may change.

You might want to try and rent points. A lot of DVC members are desperate to offload points right now with them renting for anywhere from $10-$15 per point. It might be worth a look - there is a facebook group or you could go through an agency

 

[disneyseniors]

Current rental prices are far from dirt cheap. Previously we could rent a midsize for the week for under $250, currently they are over $500.

Yes, the prices are crazy. My daughter and family took a last minute trip to Sanibel Island, and yes, during spring break. They just got tired of all the snow and cold up here, LOL. They stayed 4 days and rented a car which cost $1500. dollars!!!! And it smelled of pee and was dirty. I guess they were lucky to get anything at all last minute during spring break. They could have taken the car back and get another, but it would take 1/2 a day to do in their short stay. But, come on!

 

[StuckInKS]

That being said, the "Disney bubble" is important to us, personally. I love being there. I love the gift shops and the food courts. I love the ridiculous theming. Other places have very similar things, of course, and I'm not knocking them. However, for us, when we did stay off-site, it just didn't quite feel right leaving Disney every night.

Same. I just love the atmosphere of being onsite and DH likes ditching the car for the entire trip after driving for 2 days. When we got to POP on our trip earlier this month, I just felt so relieved to be at Disney again, even if it was just the hotel. Part of this was a result of being stuck in the house all year, but it wouldn't have been the same feeling if I were checking into a regular hotel offsite.

 

[btk2333]

For us it’s location, location , location.

we Love the Epcot resort area and happily pay extra to be able to walk to DHS and Epcot- also love the boardwalk area restaurants and entertainment (pre-covid)

 

[ThreeMountains]

My wife, son, and I stayed at one of the non-Disney hotels in the Disney Springs area on a short, rather unexpected trip a year and a half ago for the first time since I was a little kid. It was as non-magical as I expected. No real theming. The shuttle was enough of a pain that we ended up using Minnie Vans both ways (I'm actually a fan of the bus service for the Disney hotels). The room was super dated. Just didn't have that Disney magic about it overall.

Granted, it was just one experience at a single non-Disney hotel, but it was on-property and had a small Disney store. It just didn't do it for me after multiple decades of only staying at Disney hotels. Perhaps others are better.

Also, being dropped off at the Disney bus stops at Magic Kingdom is HUGE if you're a rope-dropper, which I am 100%. Some may think it's a small thing but, for me, it's huge.

 

[moesy4]

I still am baffled when people mention the busses as a perk...they are by far one of the worst perks I could imagine. Long waits, jam packed pre Covid, and rude people trying to cut. Yuck. But I digress.
One thing not mentioned is amenities. Especially during Covid, most of the resorts have limited amenities and activities. Many of the activities at timeshare resorts are opening with appropriate restrictions. At Windsor Hills a few weeks ago, we easily enjoyed resort days with tons of things to do. Disney hotels have to operate as a collective with the parks, so they seem to be a lot more restrictive.

 

[MMSM]

I am on property now. No advantage at all except walking to MK from GF. In fact pools are busier and there was a wait at Beach Club. We just came from GF and it was busy but we never had to wait in line e for the pool.

 

[kmacht]

We have done onsite only twice in the past 13 trips over 20 years. I just can’t make the cost benefit of staying onsite work. We are going for 10 days in April and have a 3 bedroom condo in Windsor hills for $1200 all in with taxes and fees. I can’t even get the cheapest single room at Disney for that. Yes we have to drive ourselves to the park but other than MK where you have to park and then take the boat or monorail we found it quicker and easier to get in and out of the parks with our own car rather than having to wait for a bus at the resort and then get in a huge line for a bus at the end of the night when the park closes. We also save a ton of money by eating breakfast in the condo before we leave in the morning and making some sandwiches for lunch. Dinner is usually at a restaurant in a park but not having to pay park prices for breakfast and lunch really add up in savings quickly. Onsite used to have the advantage of having extra magic hours and not having to pay for parking but those perks are now gone.

for people who are only going to do one trip to Disney in their lifetime I recommend staying onsite to be in the bubble and not have to worry about getting around but for those who are planning other trips I always recommend staying offsite as it is much more affordable and you aren’t really giving up anything anymore.

 

[Stargazer65]

For us a big advantage is the freedom to split up and meet up wherever and whenever. Right now we have three teens that travel with us. We do some things independently and some things together. If we weren't staying onsite, I'd be a chauffer during a good chunk of the day, dropping off, picking up. Or conversely, we'd just have to stick to the same itinerary for all of us.

However, that being said, we usually do both by staying half the vacation onsite doing Disney things, and half offsite when we are doing other things. I don't spend my money or points for an onsite room when we're going to other places.

 

[kmacht]

Uber is always an option for those days when your group doesn’t all want to stay together. A few Uber rides are still going to be way cheaper than an onsite stay.