Since our February trip is going to involve 5 people, I seriously, seriously considered renting a 2 bedroom unit at Bonnet Creek. When I priced everything out, it seemed like a bargain compared to one of the SSR or OKW 2 bedrooms. However, they I started thinking, how do we get to the park - they have a shuttle, but it costs $, we could rent a car, but again extra $, what about getting from the airport, no meal plan, no emh, not being in the bubble....and on and on the negatives started outweighing the $ I thought we would save at Bonnet Creek. So, what did we do - we are staying value for the first time ever in an AOA Cars Suite. 3 sleeping spaces and 2 full baths -- and with the S/P/D discount we got, it came to like 280 per night. We are actually excited to get the in your face theming and really excited to have 2 full baths for less than half the $500-600 per night that we would have paid at SSR or OKW.
My 2 cents.
Tom
My sister stayed offsite at her time share a few years ago. I think she and her DH missed a lot. They brought his Mom and so while there was more space at the timeshare, there was a hike to the pool that she as not up to, and so they had to manage getting her to and from the pool, which meant being very available. They swore never to do this again. Now this is a subjective element of the discussion, but they also could not get the
DDP. Mom could not help looking at prices, and the Disney restaurant prices were way over her "raised during the depression" mindset. She would order soup....no matter what they did or said...soup. That's it. This woman would have eaten the paint off a truck if she thought it was "paid for", so all in all, they were not happy upon their return.
Interesting enough, we went in August and she was telling us that we should do a family vacation to Disney...and stay at her timeshare. SO much money to save! I asked how? We would need to rent at least two cars, pay parking, could not get the DDP...and remember how that worked out last time...No. Not for us.
I use to balk at the prices for the onsite hotels, but once I stayed at an onsite hotel, I will never stay anywhere else. The hotels are awesome, the transportation is convenient and there are really good places to eat at the resorts. Again, it really comes down to cost. I only travel to Disney if I can get a deal or discount on a room.
When my DGD was 3 we started planning our first trip back to Disney since my own children were little. I looked offsite and was thinking that we could save a lot of money. DD put her foot down and said that if this was a family expedition, there was no offsite! I did the math, car rentals, parking, etc, and then explained to my DH, who had not been to Orlando in over 20 years, that we would be staying onsite, and he balked but would do anything for our DGD, so he acquiesced, but insisted we would be over paying. Well one thing led to another, and we did pay more for our stay but that was choices we made along the planning way, but DH not only insists on onsite if we go, but he wants only monorail resorts.
I only book if I find a discount that makes it worth it for us, but we find that dollar for dollar we get what we pay for onsite, no matter what level we choose on any given trip.
But there is an allure of it all. One day!! Perhaps for our honeymoon.
We enjoy using EMHs, the counter service at the resort etc. We are a family of 4, 2 DDs (6 & 11) and we have absolutely no issues staying in one room together, we do not need a lot of room for just 7-9 days. Call us strange
