Convince me we'll enjoy offsite

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Magnificent

The premise of your question assumes that offsite will be worse …
… so hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised!

For me, to be able to rent a 3000 square foot home rather than be confined in a 300 square foot hotel room, is a holiday. I live in hotels working away a lot, a hotel is not a holiday.


To explore the rest of Florida - the state parks, the beaches, the restaurants etc. I can count the number of days I've been to the parks since 2013 on one hand … while I enjoy them, it's no longer what I go for, there is a whole world out there outside the theme parks.

The downside may be a bit more travel time to and from the parks … but even this time can be used well … unless you're the driver, by the time you've sorted your phone/photos and applied your sunscreen, that's your dead time taken care of.

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Thanks - I guess it does sound like I'm assuming it will be worse but I think I'm just aware that it will be different and having enjoyed our previous trips I'm really worried that we won't enjoy different quite as much.

We do quite enjoy staying in hotels on holiday as it feels different to being at home and not having to do housework is always a bonus! I'm not sure my girls are ready for exploring the rest of Florida yet - it's something I would like to do one day though. The opportunity to try out some of the offsite restaurants without feeling it is a waste of money because of the dining plan will be good though.

[dannigizmo]

Hi... we have done both some 1 or 2 night disney stays with a condo & other longer disney stay along with universal hotels.
We enjoyed the disney stay but still ate offsite as the food/value is just soo good. We found we missed the condo and space it gives. We have stayed on Bahama Bay & Cane Island but prefer our own terraced upstairs/downstairs space and did have some issues with noise at Bahama Bay with people above us.
Then we found Encantada...stayed here now 5 times... they are 3 or 4 bed 4 in a row condos own small pool or hot tub and on 192 near fab places to eat/ supermarket etc and not too far from disney...we can get to AKL in 10 min. We have the one girl so she enjoys meeting other kids too so still use the fab 2 communal pools and they run activity clubs during the summer. We find Encantada is the best of both worlds own large space/bedrooms, small pool communal pool lovely lake and pool cafe but still very close to disney. We are renting a fab 3 bed in Encantada from a lovely dibb owner this year...we cant wait. This may work for you.

Hope this helps and happy planning. dx

[duchy]

One of my favourite parts of our split stay holiday last year was sitting by my own pool with an early morning cuppa and the four and ten year old hopefully peering out and asking if they could get in the pool yet ! They got such joy out of the freedom their own pool gives.
At the end of the holiday all three voted pool and TL the best things they did except the four year old who after a lot of thought decided meeting Princesses justpipped the pool .
They enjoyed the parks but so enjoyed having time no space to play too. The third is a moody thirteen year old ... he smiled non stop the villa week.

The Boardwalk Inn was gorgeous but if I had to choose only one it'd be a villa.

[dannigizmo]

Oh and meant to say...i hardly do any housework we eat out mostly all the time so apart from odd glass and maybe a brush around the place once thats it... no one knws if u dont make the beds they are upstairs ! Plus love the easy of washing you clothes takes no time at all! dx

[dx4100]

If you are doing a 100% Disney trip then I don't see how staying offsite makes any sense at all. Drop the car hire, avoid the parking charges, use the transport and live in the bubble.

If you are doing other parks or your going to visit the park infrequently then I think it makes more sense to offsite.

Of course if you simply can not afford to stay onsite I get you may not have a choice but every time I price it up I think staying offsite doesn't save you all the much when you factor in extras like car hire and parking.

[Burgmeister]

We like to do split stays and this year our offsite bit will be in the Sheraton Vistana (again). It has a nice pool for your girls to visit and make friends and is very close to Disney so you could still get a break if you so wished.

If you normally buy the meal plan at Disney, how about putting that much money in to an envelope each day and then see how you get on? I'm pretty sure that you will end up with cash leftover so, even though you will still be horrified at the individual costs of the food, you can feel reasonably good that it isn't costing you any more than you would have paid on a mealplan.

[ChoppyGirl]

Good idea about split stays. This year we have 2 weeks in a villa thenwe have a night booked at Grand Plaza St Pete’s Beach and 2 nights at Boardwalk villas using rented DVC points. Looking forward to all 3 parts for different reasons.

[jothp]

Originally Posted by dannigizmo

Hi... we have done both some 1 or 2 night disney stays with a condo & other longer disney stay along with universal hotels.
We enjoyed the disney stay but still ate offsite as the food/value is just soo good. We found we missed the condo and space it gives. We have stayed on Bahama Bay & Cane Island but prefer our own terraced upstairs/downstairs space and did have some issues with noise at Bahama Bay with people above us.
Then we found Encantada...stayed here now 5 times... they are 3 or 4 bed 4 in a row condos own small pool or hot tub and on 192 near fab places to eat/ supermarket etc and not too far from disney...we can get to AKL in 10 min. We have the one girl so she enjoys meeting other kids too so still use the fab 2 communal pools and they run activity clubs during the summer. We find Encantada is the best of both worlds own large space/bedrooms, small pool communal pool lovely lake and pool cafe but still very close to disney. We are renting a fab 3 bed in Encantada from a lovely dibb owner this year...we cant wait. This may work for you.

Hope this helps and happy planning. dx

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Thanks for your thoughts, I'll have a look at Encantada. I think we'll eat offsite as much as possible but don't want to carry too much with us or have to leave the parks everytime we're hungry! I find the planning is half the fun.

Originally Posted by duchy

One of my favourite parts of our split stay holiday last year was sitting by my own pool with an early morning cuppa and the four and ten year old hopefully peering out and asking if they could get in the pool yet ! They got such joy out of the freedom their own pool gives.
At the end of the holiday all three voted pool and TL the best things they did except the four year old who after a lot of thought decided meeting Princesses justpipped the pool .
They enjoyed the parks but so enjoyed having time no space to play too. The third is a moody thirteen year old ... he smiled non stop the villa week.

The Boardwalk Inn was gorgeous but if I had to choose only one it'd be a villa.

See more...

Mine do all really enjoy time in the pool but will often all do different things and use it as an opportunity to get some space from each other which won't be an option in a villa. Having said that the accommodation itself will give them more space so that may not matter.

Originally Posted by dannigizmo

Oh and meant to say...i hardly do any housework we eat out mostly all the time so apart from odd glass and maybe a brush around the place once thats it... no one knws if u dont make the beds they are upstairs ! Plus love the easy of washing you clothes takes no time at all! dx

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I do like to do as much washing as possible while we're away so I can just put things away when we get home. We would eat out unless for any reason we didn't fancy it so it would only be drinks and snacks to wash up after. There is something quite nice though about having your bed made for you each day.

Originally Posted by dx4100

If you are doing a 100% Disney trip then I don't see how staying offsite makes any sense at all. Drop the car hire, avoid the parking charges, use the transport and live in the bubble.

If you are doing other parks or your going to visit the park infrequently then I think it makes more sense to offsite.

Of course if you simply can not afford to stay onsite I get you may not have a choice but every time I price it up I think staying offsite doesn't save you all the much when you factor in extras like car hire and parking.

See more...

We generally do a few nights at a Universal hotel for FOTLP and then stay onsite at Disney as our base for when we visit any other parks. The first time we went we only visited Kennedy Space Center but the cost of the hire car was actually only slightly more than the cost of a coach trip for the five of us so we went with the car for freedom.

If we were happy to stay all in one room and got free dining then staying offsite wouldn't really be a big saving.

Originally Posted by Burgmeister

We like to do split stays and this year our offsite bit will be in the Sheraton Vistana (again). It has a nice pool for your girls to visit and make friends and is very close to Disney so you could still get a break if you so wished.

If you normally buy the meal plan at Disney, how about putting that much money in to an envelope each day and then see how you get on? I'm pretty sure that you will end up with cash leftover so, even though you will still be horrified at the individual costs of the food, you can feel reasonably good that it isn't costing you any more than you would have paid on a mealplan.

See more...

We normally book with free dining but I'm sure we would easily end up with cash leftover on the cost of the dining plan. I worked out that if we bought the meals/snacks we would usually buy when at Disney then we would about break even on the cost of the plan but of course if we were staying offsite then we would eat as much as possible offsite which would be much cheaper.

Originally Posted by ChoppyGirl

Good idea about split stays. This year we have 2 weeks in a villa thenwe have a night booked at Grand Plaza St Pete’s Beach and 2 nights at Boardwalk villas using rented DVC points. Looking forward to all 3 parts for different reasons.

See more...

Sounds like a good trip. I am beginning to quite like the idea of trying offsite for part of our holiday but I think I will need to change around the itinerary I had started planning out in my head a bit. I think we'll need to do the Disney part of the stay first so that we can add tickets to hopefully get free dining.

[nkotb4life]

We do split stays 3/4nights universal 3/4 nights hotel offsite and week on Disney property. First time we hired a car when we were off-site and I hated driving, next time we decided we'd just get taxis and sure it worked out cheaper than hiring a car. We went through uber and lyft. Both had good deals for new users and if set up accounts on all your phone's and recommend each other you get free rides! Also they don't expect a tip just a good rating. I would never drive in Florida again! Found both services really reliable and the drivers really friendly.

[duchy]

We found the doing the different things worked better in a villa ... room to spread and when we did different things it was easy as we just used a Lyft for the smaller group.
Fourteen days all in one room would kill me though lol