Staying on site and having other plans outside of Disney Parks

[friedela]

I am curious as to how some of you tour when you are staying on site? Do you stay on Disney property your entire stay but only hit up the Disney parks for part of your stay? Or do you split where you stay between Disney resorts and other off property hotels? In the past we have always loved staggering our Disney days so we can enjoy the magic throughout our entire trip, but we realize that if we want to do a 12 day trip we also want to do Tampa and Legoland and other places too in which case staying the entire time on property might not make sense. How do you all plan your trips when staying on property? Do you do all of your Disney park days back to back?

 

[DGsAtBLT]

We get on property by way of DME at the beginning and don't leave it until DME takes us back to the airport and we fly home. I really want to do Universal one of these trips, but Disney makes it so easy to just not leave and take advantage of those front loaded tickets.

If not going to Disney, I probably would split the two parts of the trip up in order to not be paying a premium for WDW hotels while not taking advantage of them.

 

[Spunky946]

Tampa is 90 minutes from Disney, so I’d split my time. I wouldn’t want to drive back and forth in one day. I’d probably fly into Orlando, do Disney and then get a car, and do Lego land and Tampa and pro fly back from Tampa.

 

[rpb718]

We get on property by way of DME at the beginning and don't leave it until DME takes us back to the airport and we fly home. I really want to do Universal one of these trips, but Disney makes it so easy to just not leave and take advantage of those front loaded tickets.

If not going to Disney, I probably would split the two parts of the trip up in order to not be paying a premium for WDW hotels while not taking advantage of them.

Actually - our next trip is 10 or so days in the fall, all staying at a WDW resort. The first couple of days we are doing Universal and planning to buy the express pass. However, since our WDW park tickets are dated for the beginning of our trip and we'll still be within the usage window, our first park day would be +3. Should make it easier for making decent FP+ choices. We'll see how this works for us as it may become our standard plan going forward when we want to include Universal or other places in our trip.

 

[5kidsmommy]

Our anniversary trip last year was the only time we've ventured of property. My husband actually had to work, the fun of being self employed. We spent our week at WDW then picked up a rental car on our check out day from the car center. It was so easy as the shuttle came to pick us up at the resort. We then drove down to Siesta Keys so my husband could work. His customer allowed us to use his guest house which was amazing. We were right on the beach. It totally made his having to work worthwhile. We decided that if we ever want to do a beach trip when we are down in Florida we will just add on to our Disney trip. It was so nice after a week at the parks to relax on the beach for a few days.

 

[supercarrie]

If I include Universal on my trips, I will move to a Universal hotel which offers Express passes (Portofino Bay, Royal Pacific or Hard Rock). If we are just doing day trips offsite, I'll just stay onsite at WDW and take an Uber/Lyft or rent a car.

In your case, given you want to go to Tampa, I would probably split my time.

 

[_19disnA]

The times we have stayed at Disney and wanted to go to other non-Disney places, we used our rental car. We never bothered staying at multiple hotels since the packing/unpacking/moving was too much of a hassle. Other times we have stayed off-site and then went to Disney on the days we wanted to do one of the parks. Depends mostly on how you plan to spend your time and where else you want to go. Eating off-site is also a LOT cheaper then eating at Disney.

 

[nkereina]

If I wanted to do Tampa, I would definitely do a split stay. Lots of great hotels and things to experience in that area.

Typically, we do a split stay between Disney and Universal and we always move from a Disney hotel to a Universal hotel for our Universal days. We love Universal's hotels and they come with great perks for their parks. We recently did a trip where we just went to Universal for Halloween Horror Nights only, so we didn't bother changing hotels and just used Uber to go back and forth from our Disney hotel.

 

[Shellyred8]

If we are doing a couple of days at Universal, we will stay at their hotels. If we are doing mostly Disney, but just a day or two at other places, then we will usually rent a car and just drive from Disney. But if we were planning multiple days to the same destination (Tampa, Cocoa Beach area, etc...) we would probably look at staying in that area for a couple of nights instead of driving back and forth.

 

[Beer Me]

My Disney vacations are always 100% Disney - but then again it’s usually only 6 or 7 days so I never really want to leave the bubble.

12 days is a different story and should give you time for other Orlando area attractions. I agree with others that Tampa is too far for a day trip from Disney. I’d spend a few days at a beach between St. Pete and Clearwater and be close to Tampa.

 

[Disneylvr1971]

We do multiple 2 week trips. We do also have US AP's so we include some days there. We spend some 1/2 days outlet shopping, sometimes go to Cocoa Beach/Clearwater Beach. Visit with family in Clermont. We stay on property as we don't want to pack up and move. Easier to just drive and even if we get back late at night no big deal.

 

[Sue M]

If I’m doing a Universal/WDW trip I’ll spend my Universal days staying at a Universal Resort then move to WDW. Same of we plan on some Cocoa Beach days, will stay there before moving to WDW.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We get on property by way of DME at the beginning and don't leave it until DME takes us back to the airport and we fly home. I really want to do Universal one of these trips, but Disney makes it so easy to just not leave and take advantage of those front loaded tickets.

If not going to Disney, I probably would split the two parts of the trip up in order to not be paying a premium for WDW hotels while not taking advantage of them.

It was cheaper to stay onsite the whole time at Disney back in 2017. Plus the way we toured was ping pong back and forth between USO and WDW (2 days at WDW, then 2 days at USO, then day at WDW, day at USO, day at WDW for example).

That said since then with ticket restrictions and new Value hotels at Universal that likely isn't the case for next trip. Next trip for us may be a true split stay with WDW and USO though we aren't necessarily going to be staying at a Disney-owned hotel for the WDW portion.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree with a few others if you're going to go to Tampa during your trip enough to make it feel more like a destination I'd find some place to stay in Tampa for that portion. That way you don't feel like you're having to drive so much just to get there plus you won't have to worry so much about traffic (and tolls? don't know about tolls right around Tampa area).

For your Orlando portion just run some numbers in terms of costs but also consider how you want to tour each place outside of WDW. If you just want a day or two a Legoland I don't necessarily see moving off-site if you're going to be staying on-site at Disney but if you find yourself wanting more equal time with WDW, Legoland and other places within Orlando you may see finding a more centrally located place between all of those easier.

 

[marchingstar]

I’m in the camp of people who does split stays when we visit universal. I find it really relaxing to be somewhere compact (we’ve always stayed at hotels in walking distance from the universal parks).

I’ve never been to legoland, but I have friends who have and they really enjoyed the hotel too. They have some fun theming that I can imagine appealing to my kid when he’s a bit older. I would consider staying there if we were visiting legoland.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We do split stay, mostly because what $300 a night gets you at Disney vs offsite...

 

[friedela]

We do split stay, mostly because what $300 a night gets you at Disney vs offsite...

Yes, I wondered about that! I love the idea of not having to pack up and move hotels part way through but I can imagine that a $300 hotel off Disney property is a heck of a lot bigger than Disney rooms.

 

[TammyLynn33]

We are starting the trip this summer off with two days in Tampa then driving to wdw the first few days we will do SW and Dc thwn return rental car and all WDW and take ME back to airport to go home

 

[TammyLynn33]

I found Tampa to WDW a super easy drive btw but I’d def bass in Tampa for those days