Staying Off Site in a Vacation Home

So, far we have been fortunate enough to always stay on property, since we had kids. We live 3 hours away from Disney. We drive up, my husband parks the car at our resort and we don't enter it again until we leave to go home. He loves that! We stayed off property once when we were first married and hated every moment of it! You get your money's worth staying on property and in many cases save some. You don't feel completely "In the Magic" if you are not on property, at least for us.

I hear ya! So sorry! You could put a saddle on the roaches down here. May the Force be with you!

We stayed off property years & years ago. It was okay, but once we stayed on property, we never went back. There is a much different feeling , and to quote Poppet "You get your money's worth staying on property and in many cases save some. You don't feel completely "In the Magic" if you are not on property, at least for us."

I agree with you too about the perks of driving a car too, thats why we do it all the time, but we drive down to WDW also, so we don't have the hassel of renting a vehicle.

We have only stayed on-property so we have nothing to compare to. As for rental cars, last time, for the first time we used Enterprise car rentals and it was a great experience. Best rental company we have ever used. First I checked with my insurance company and they told me my policy covered me in any and all rentals and NOT to get any additional insurance most policies DO cover you but check just to be sure. Second I rented a sub-compact because it was just the wife and I and not much luggage. They quoted me a cost of $374.00 for two weeks which was the best price I found. When we landed at the airport we went straight to the parking garage across the street and the lady said to me, we do not have any more sub-compacts like you wanted so we will give you an upgrade. I asked how much this "upgrade" would cost me, thinking bait and switch, and she said "absolutely not a penny more" she led us over to to brand new 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV and said how about this one, that amounted to a triple upgrade. Heck that is one of the cars I have at home so it was a no-brainer. Enterprise is my choice from now on. When we were at OKW two years ago we did have one of those little Geckos come right into the room from under the door, that caused the wife to jump and to request a little more weatherstriping under the door. Disney maintenance came over and took care of it.

The lizards are good! They eat the roaches and mosquitos. Not that I would want one crawling on me, mind you but they are harmless.

We're very pro-driving, but we are pro-on-site (but we include the Swan & Dolphin and Waldorf as "on site"). That being said I think for larger groups the extra space of a vacation rental is invaluable. Also when we stayed in Kauai we rented houses and loved it. I think the way most of us visit Disney is just easier when staying on-site, but I could easily see arguments for the rental as well.

Well I come from the other side, I have never stayed onsite! We will be spending 1 week onsite later this year and I'm sure already that it wont be our last

We come from the UK so when we come, we dont intend on just visiting Disney, we do all of the parks, even Busch Gardens. Plus a few days shopping and visiting a beach or 2. If there are just the 2 of us going then we stay in a hotel room (offsite) but as soon as there's more than that we hire a villa and I do admit, i am not in love with villas in the way most brits are. They like a home away from home and being able to tay in and have a home cooked meal, sod that! I cook every day at home, i want to eat out EVERY DAY! I want a maid to make my bed and clean up after me LOL. Though saying that, we are staying in a posh villa on our next trip which i'm looking forward to. For our 2 week stay in the villa its costing us GBP170 per person for the whole time. When you compare it to disney at GBP100 each per night, we simply couldnt stay onsite the entire time it would be the difference in going to WDW and not going. We could stay in a cheaper WDW hotel but it would never be that cheap

Plus on the good side, we are just adults who go and i think 2 weeks (or more!) of full on kiddies would drive me nuts in the end. I love kids (am a nanny) but when i go away i like to have at least some 'adult' time which we usually can do in the evenings.

I agree with the car hire desk though, they target brits hard i know as we are 'easy targets' apparently as the flight is usually around 10 hours so we're shattered when we come off and most do say yes to all of the things we are offered. The worst i found was Budget which was last year, the guy was trying to double talk me into having an upgrade on insurance but as I'm a frequent WDW goer I knew what was coming and told him where to go

We we stay onsite we wont be having a hire care so this will be a first for us, I like the sercurity of having a car and then if i'm unwell being able to get back to where we're staying pretty painlessly and quickly.

Another Brit view point.

We've stayed on site (Pop Century) and off site at a hotel near Seaworld and never bothered with a hire car. As Robyn says, we Brit's tend to visit the whole area rather than just WDW, even allowing for this I much prefered staying on site.

Being on site felt like I was much closer to the action with over half of the area's parks within a short free bus ride. The other parks are easily accessable by taxi which is quite reasonable when the cost is split between 4 adults, I guess that's not a concern for most on here.

When we stayed off site on International Drive, the I-Trolleys were useful but getting into WDW required either a taxi or 2 busses and Universal was either an I-trolley ride and a 20 minute walk or taxi again. Seaworld was right by the hotel so we spent quite a bit of time there. We definately spent more time getting about. Many would say just hire a car, but friends we were travelling with had been to Orlando over 10 times and had tried every combination of hotels/villas/cars/no cars possible and reckoned the cost of the hire car just doesn't stack up when compared to the cost of other transport. Plus there's the stress of driving in a foreign country (again probably not a concern for most here).

What I missed most being off site was the EMH. We seemed to spend so much more time in the parks when staying on site and seemed to get so much more done that it would be my first choice for any future visits.

Another thing to take into consideration is pets. My parents always have to stay off-site, either in a hotel or a rental house because they have a dog that they can't leave at a kennel (he's a chihuahua and he's very protective of us and doesn't like other people). They always talk about how they want to stay on-site or go on a cruise, but it's just not an option right now. I wish Disney would take that into consideration and offer a pet-friendly place to stay. Maybe there is one, but they've never found it. Anyone know if there is an option for pets?

I stayed off property when I was a kid I think it was a Days INN or something like that and there were buses that came to the hotel to take visitors to the parks. It was OK but once we stayed on property it was awesome. I never want to stay off property again. We drive to Disney but once we are there we park the car and use the buses because I like leaving all reminders of home alone.

We stayed off property in 2003 - one of the vacation rentals from All Star Vacation Homes. At the time, we chose that route because we thought we wanted more space, our own pool, noone above, below or next to us, and the full kitchen.

I will say that the home was really nice, and if it were any other vacation, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

But, as many have noted, it did not have the Disney feel or magic. I never came home to a towel animal, and noone left me Disney soap and shampoo every day So I can't imagine doing it again. I get too much enjoyment from being on property.

We also always have a car. When we flew in, we rented. Now we are close enough to drive, so we have our own car. I just don't have the patience and wear-withal to rely on any other form of transportation.

With the exception of one night at the Swan, we've always stayed off site at timeshare resorts. I'd like to stay on site, but the cost of a two- or three-bedroom timeshare exchange with two or three bathrooms and a full kitchen for a full week is a fraction of the cost of even one value resort hotel room for the same timeframe, and we can bring guests for no extra charge. As great as staying on site is, it's not worth several hundred dollars more per trip, or a two or three thousand more if we bring guests.

Hi Jessi5989, unfortunately no there are no options for pets other then the new kennel that was built several years ago. JeffC could tell you all about that, he has used them. I don't think Disney would ever even get involved with pet friendly resorts, mainly because some people abuse them. You know some people would not pickup after their dog and some would not get back in time to walk their dog and there would be accidents in the rooms. Thats just one more thing they don't need to have to worry about.

We have a pug who is very spoiled & I would love to be able to take him with us but; having to walk the dog several times a day is one of the thing we go on vacation for to get away from. We are lucky enough to have children that stay at our house while we are away and watch our little guy.

Here is an article on Best Friends Pet Resort if you want to check it out.

There are campsites in Ft. Wilderness that allow for pets but then you have to be camping.
Joe

Wow! I can't believe I didn't really know much about this before! I'm going to get my parents to check it out, just to make vacation easier on them and the dog. Thanks!

The Roachzillas are the main reason I would never stay away from Disney. If I were you I'd get up early and get out and stay out until late. The more you're in 'Disney' the better off you'll be. PS: keep your clothes in your suitcases or at least shake them out before you come home. You don't need any hitch hikers.

We have stayed both on-site and off so I definitely think there are pros and cons for both. I like having SO much space with a vacation home, especially with children. Being in a small hotel room for a week? Not so pleasant! Many of the homes in Orlando have private pools, so I love that.

But I do always miss the magic of being THERE plus not having to pay for parking!

Hi Jessi - I did a trip report on Best Friends Pet Care after our trip in December 2010, which was a few months after they opened the new facility. Here's a link if you want to check it out from our perspective.

We're obnoxiously picky about where we board. Best Friends offered us a great alternative. We're pretty new to Charlotte and don't know anyone in the area we would trust to house-sit and/or take care of the dogs, and we have not found a boarding place in the general area we like either, so it made sense for us to take Gus with us and board him in their facility.

This time in April we are taking both Gus & Dora and boarding them together there.

I agree with mrhub - I would not look to Disney to ever have a pets-welcome policy at the resorts, and I would also agree that I would be irritated with people who would undoubted not clean up after their pets. And I really don't want to hear barking dogs while I'm at my resort, so I think the Best Friends place is a really decent option.

If you have any questions, just let me know

I am very anti off-site. Not aggressively or anything. For me I think staying on-site is part of the magic that makes Disney so wonderful to me! Like Jeff said..I need my towel animals and music pipped in through every outlet or else I'd be dissapointed. We drive to Disney and we are one of those freaks who just LOVE the buses.

My first two trips to Disney we stayed off-site. When I booked my trip in 2010 at Pop, a friend was telling me it's so much cheaper to stay off-site. I told her I'm going with friends who already are staying on-site and they invited me so I'll stay where they're staying although it didn't matter to me if it was on-site or off-site. Yes, I was naive. Since I've been staying on-site, I don't think I could stay off again.

That trip report really helps Jeff! Thanks a lot! I think they would be able to vacation more to Disney if they knew the dog would be ok and they could go check on him 3 times a day. They always tell me that they would love to stay on property, but they wont leave him with anyone else but me.

Great info Tony!

Did you ever try driving here?

He might get alittle wet Brad!

I stay onsite so much that sometimes I forget that EMH's are only for resort guests. That would really be a downer for me if I was offsite.

No, not yet. I wouldn't rule it out on a future visit if it was going to make our plans easier. On my first visit to the U.S. I was honestly very glad that I didn't have to drive for the first week, after that I began to feel more comfortable with the idea.
I've driven in both France and on the Greek Islands. Lower traffic levels but a real challenge in places trying to negotiate mountain roads in Greece with motor coaches coming the other way.

I'd need this car...

So right Tony, so right!

The one year we stayed off property was probably our worst experience in Florida... period. We went with family... like the whole family, and it was just horrible. The property was probably 40 minutes from the park which stunk, and we rented a car of course. On the last day... my wife, son, and my Dad just literally said "F$@#% it!" and left everyone! We were so sick of not doing anything that we wanted to do something, and ended up being the best day! lol

But never again.... on property is the way to go.

Jan, I and the kids went to the Magic Kingdom on opening day(in 71 or 2, can't remember) and stayed at a campsite off site. That was the last time we stayed off site.
Joe

Wow are you sure Kristen? That gives you a whole day and a half.