Disney v No Disney, offsite v onsite thoughts and comments - June 18- Live

[JessBlu]

So I thought some of my comments might be useful to people with this age old debate more popular than the chicken and the egg !

Bit of history to set the scene 2 adults, 1 teen 1 child.

We had originally booked AKL 14 days with DDP followed by a 7 day Caribbean cruise the total cost of this was £11,000 without spends, but all food included so had not planned on Spending much, due to travel Oct 18.

Fast forward to May and the news broke of the AKL building work and I knew I could not spend that amount of money and go to a building site, quite a lot of back and forth with Virgin and I managed a full refund.

So then what to do ..

We then found great Dreamliner TUI flights for June 18 at £200 each, no brainer and booked to go in 20 days.

We decided on a total switch and that we would not so Disney at all! Shock horror I hear you say ... now we had already booked a villa holiday for May 19 with family so a bit of research and we decided on annual passes to universal would cover both and were the same price as the 3 park ticket (we bought the 2 park annual pass).

We then bought the 14 day seaworld ticket with Aquatica.

Whilst here I has a sneaky look at the summer holiday prices as we had the annual passes, expecting and not being prepared to pay £1000 for direct flights, my heart skipped a beat when we found a great deal with TUI for the last two weeks of the summer holidays at £2990 flights, 4 bed villa and car .. go on then I booked it.

So here are my thoughts ...

Costs
If we disreguard the cruise so we are comparing like for like the flights and AKL Disney stay inc Disney tickets and DDP was £7500 for 14 nights.

We have paid
June 12 nights
£1000 flights inc seats and luggage
£990 villa
£300 car hire

August 14 nights
£2990

Tickets annual pass
£1000 universal tickets
£600 seaworld and Aquatica
These will be used on 3 seperate holidays making it £533 per holiday all include free parking and 10% off anything in the park and city walk.

So my maths make that £5289 before spends for two seperate holidays.
We have spent £1000 whilst here, kids had £100 for their toys etc and the rest pretty much went on Food and grocery’s.

So if we budget £2000 for spends that’s £7289 pretty much like for like and we got 2 holidays.

But I am not forgetting we don’t have Disney tickets!

Food
We have eaten some great food, we have eaten in the parks, outside the parks, seaworld all day dining I haven’t cooked apart from pizza garlic bread etc.

We are completely torn on our favourite here off site or onsite, I think both are equal if you take cost out of the equation.
We have had some great meals offsite and last time we did DDP we also had great meals.
Obviously offsite is cheaper and onsite more convenient.

Faves this time were Buffalo Wild Wings, Outback Steakhouse, Panda Express and Cinnabon.

Draw on food.

Accommodation
Villa wins every time !
Can’t even compare Disney hotel rooms to having your own pool and space!
Laundry all done and back in the cases for August which I won’t even unpack.
You can make food lots cheaper by cooking if you wish.

Waking up to hearing kids in the pool and playing air hockey priceless.

It’s not so far out compared to waiting for the Disney bus etc.
No brainer villa wins, cant think of a con ?

Maybe travel time If you are in one of the very close hotels broadwalk, poly etc but then they are only close to one park ..
Booked a lovely dibb villa it’s perfect.

So here comes the biggie .. parks.

No Disney I hear you cry, we have always had all park tickets but I think we were so upset with Disney re the AKL and the cost of tickets ... we didn’t this time.

Our verdict ?
We have had a fantastic time at universal and seaworld, so much to do great rides, shows, seaworld fireworks are incredible we are heading there for our last night tonight.

The queue times have been low which is great and we all said we have not missed Disney ! We have viewed the Disney fireworks from poly and broadwalk and been to Disney springs and had a glowtini at broadwalk, we took a monorail look Epcot - MK and feel that was enough.

That said I think we will be ready for our trip in May 19 when we intend to have Disney tickets.

Universal has been great and I think overlooked by us in the past due to Disney burnout !
Seaworld also.
Aquatica we really enjoyed just as much as a Disney waterpark.

Weather has been really hot and the kids have struggled with it, but parks quiet and that has helped, we found in early or late is the best strategy, going to the beach or restaurant in the middle of the day.

We have been doing 10+ miles a day walking 🚶with 12-13 hour days and loved it!

Can’t wait to be back in August, any questions please ask.

[Tinkerbell 766]

Very interesting read, and certainly one which will help people think and make decisions.
For me, the accommodation part will always be different. We are DVC members, so pay nothing, at the point of booking, for our DVC villa (which has a washer/dryer).
Foodwise we always do a good combination of off and on site, as we always have a car, and that suits us down to the ground.
Parks is where we differ. I LOVE the HP stuff but, for me, the rest of Universal is just meh 😐 (at best). We never spend more than 2 days there - although I do like City Walk.
We do not go to Seaworld.
Disney is our spiritual home and our happy place, and I could not imagine ever going to the Orlando area and not going there. I never could.
I am sorry the pool closure at Jambo soured things for you.
We own at AKL and always use the Kidani pool as we prefer it to the Jambo one, but each to their own xx

[Tco200]

Sounds great, I have to be honest we always do onsite and I’ve never even considered trying a Villa but could be persuaded and will certainly look after next years trip.

[JessBlu]

Yes we have never not done Disney before and were quite prepared to buy a 3 day ticket whilst we we here as we felt we would have missed it so much ... but we didn’t!

[Mexy02]

Great comparison . I think we all love Disney but I agree with your comments that we just dont give other parks enough credit as they often get as you say “the Disney burnout visit” . And double bonus you get to go again and do it all again in a few weeks . Just a bit jealous

[smithlane]

Very interesting read, thank you for writing. For us we just couldn't not stay in a villa, like you say having your own pool and space is priceless. On our first visit in 2015 we stayed one week in a 5 bed villa then one week at CSR. HUGE mistake doing it that way round. We were so squashed up in one room with no space to put our belongings and having to go to sleep when the kids did or having to whisper and creep around, it really wasn't for us.
How lovely you get to go back so soon!

[JessBlu]

Packing to go again, thinking of Kennedy space center and lots of beaches!

[JLH]

Wekiwa springs state park and fun spot were really enjoyed by us. Have a good time!

[JudeB]

Very interesting read. We've never stayed onsite at Disney before - always stay in a Dibb villa. Like you, we love the space and freedom it offers. Last year we had the 14 day Disney ticket which we all thoroughly enjoyed, but I don't think we'll do it again next year. Maybe just a couple of days (DD doesn't think she could go to Florida without a trip to MK! ) I'm thinking of Seaworld for this next trip - prices seem good and include Aquatica (my kids love the water parks). We'd originally thought of going back to Universal/IoA but to include the onsite night to get the express passes it would be over £1000 for just two days - don't think we can justify it. There is so much else to do and see in and around the area. You will love KSC - we've been twice. We hope to visit some of the national parks next time too.

[JessBlu]

We just bought the seasonal 2 park annual pass £216 each for universal.
Never needed to stay on site or have express pass.

Got in early do lots of rides, or opposite go in late, found no queues that way.

I was on and off HP ride on 10 minutes from start to finish!

So my personal opinion is that you don’t need to stay on site at universal.