2Pirates2Princesses
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2010
I just can't imagine spending more than a day or two in a hotel room when I can get a 2 BR condo for less. We can trade into a DVC 2 BR for about $200/night, which is pretty reasonable -- except we can almost always find an equally nice but larger 2 BR offsite for under $50/night. Orlando is overbuilt, and there are always deals in my experience. Disney magic is too variable to count on, and I suspect that, even if some of us turn out to be really attuned to the whole Disney bubble thing, it wouldn't justify spending four times as much.
But we'll probably give it a shot once we're traveling with fewer kids anyhow. Can't really compare until we've truly been there, and we'd plan to spend time on the resort and check out the pool. But only for a night or two if it's a hotel room; then we'd shift somewhere with some space!
You don't need to be staying there for that. We were wandering the resorts pin trading once and a couple of times either the person they were pin trading with or someone else called them over to the front desk and handed out goodies. I know the kids scored beads at POFQ and balloon swords... somewhere. OKW, maybe? And it seems like there was something else, but it wasn't as popular as the beads or balloons.
Pin trading at the resorts is particularly fun because a lot of them have a big board either on display or back behind a desk somewhere that they'll haul out for kids if you're there when it's slow, which about blew my kids minds with pin overload the first time it happened.
I agree. We love the Disney resorts for the theming and dining options and discovered we can still visit and spend time at the Disney resorts without actually staying there On our last trip we stayed in a condo at Windsor Hills but visited the Contemporary for our Chef Mickey's ADR and the Polynesian for our 'Ohana ADR. We had to cancel our Boma ADR but since Windsor Hills is only about a six minute or so drive away from Animal Kingdom Lodge (via Sherberth Road) we still went there to admire the architecture and artwork in the main lobby, explore the savanna and outdoor areas, and also shop in their gift shop (which is really nice). We thought it was well worth the visit and we definitely got our Disney resort fix on our trip
I hear ya. Hubby and I are fine in a queen-size at home, but on vacation we sleep better in a king. I think you ought to be able to pay extra and get a king, but of course there are plenty of horror stories going around where people paid extra for this or that and Disney overbooked, so they were down graded. Still would up the odds of getting what you want if they had that as a category.
I think they're brilliantly thought out. It's just that the thinking goes, "We need to get people into the bubble, and then we need to get them spending lots of money." They don't want people hanging out in the rooms or spending too much time in the pools; they want them in the parks, stores or restaurants spending money. So the resorts are stunner beautiful, which convinces people they want to stay there, but then rooms are tiny and the pools and hot tubs crowded.
When people say, "This room is dark and small and I can't take it any more, but the pool and hot tub are crowded, so I don't want to hang out there, either. Guess I'll go wander the shops/get a drink or snack/hit Downtown Disney and kill some time," the Disney Powers That Be rub their hands together and gloat, "Everything is going according to plan."
Yes, the Disney folks are definitely brilliant when you figure out the grand scheme of things! We have had the opportunity to stay both onsite and offsite and I can say that I like both for different reasons and there are pros and cons to both. We stayed onsite at All Star Music in a family suite for our first WDW trip two years ago and had an enjoyable stay and thought that was a good choice for our first family WDW trip. This year we took the plunge and stayed offsite at Windsor Hills in a nice 3 bedroom condo and had such a good experience and got such a great deal for the space and amenities our large family needs that we feel that this is going to be the way to go for us from now on for future trips. In spite of how much we love the all inclusive aspect of staying onsite and the theming and energy of the Disney resorts, it just works out better for our family to get a condo and we still have a very magical trip. If staying DVC was in the cards for us then we would have the best of both worlds, but unless we hit the lottery or are gifted with an unexpected inheritance then even renting DVC points wouldn't be something we could do (since we would have to stay in a 2 bedroom DVC unit) unless we save, save, and save and not go back to Disney for another five years or longer which is too long for my family of Disney fans to wait to go back