Staying at Disney hotel and 60 day fast pass.

[may]

I've stayed at a range of onsite hotels including BC. OKW WL and AKL. I have never booked a Disney stay to attempt acquire extended fast pass booking opportunities, not that I'm suggesting at all the OP had done so. They were simply checking what their options were.

IIRC in the days of the paper fast passes there was no fastpass privilege difference between offsite guests and standard onsite guests.

That lack of a differential didn't bother me then and it wouldn't bother me now.

Originally Posted by Claudette

If you are staying onsite you are literally giving Disney more money than somebody staying offsite. Unless the offsite guest spends say £400 per day more on souvenirs and food of course.

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Is that honestly always so? I think Didgey has a fair point. I understand the arbitrary figure of £400 may be an attempt to allow for differing pricing levels at differing hotels. However, a US offsite family of 4 may well spend more with Disney on food and beverages alone than the total spend of an equivalent family staying at a value with free QSDP ? A UK offsite family of 4 may well spend more with Disney on food, beverages and souvenirs alone than the total spend of a UK solo visitor in a value with free breakfast or even in a moderate with free QSDP. Also a guest on Disney property not only gives Disney revenue but they cost in terms of hotel capital investment, running of services etc. ? I think it's quite complicated.

You can tell it's a miserable rainy morning. I can't believe I'm expending so much time wondering about this

[Guest]

Originally Posted by may

I've stayed at a range of onsite hotels including BC. OKW WL and AKL. I have never booked a Disney stay to attempt acquire extended fast pass booking opportunities, not that I'm suggesting at all the OP had done so. They were simply checking what their options were.

IIRC in the days of the paper fast passes there was no fastpass privilege difference between offsite guests and standard onsite guests.

That lack of a differential didn't bother me then and it wouldn't bother me now.



Is that honestly always so? I think Didgey has a fair point. I understand the arbitrary figure of £400 may be an attempt to allow for differing pricing levels at differing hotels. However, a US offsite family of 4 may well spend more with Disney on food and beverages alone than the total spend of an equivalent family staying at a value with free QSDP ? A UK offsite family of 4 may well spend more with Disney on food, beverages and souvenirs alone than the total spend of a UK solo visitor in a value with free breakfast or even in a moderate with free QSDP. Also a guest on Disney property not only gives Disney revenue but they cost in terms of hotel capital investment, running of services etc. ? I think it's quite complicated.

You can tell it's a miserable rainy morning. I can't believe I'm expending so much time wondering about this

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I am not particularly bothered about debating the impact of 60 versus 30 day fastpasses. I agree with another poster that suggested it made no difference to their booking experience. But the statement that somebody who stays onsite does not give more of their money to Disney is absurd. The £400 figure is the average of the last five visits I have booked.

Also many people onsite do not get free dining, I have had it three of those last five times and on two of those I have paid to upgrade to deluxe as I find the regular plan restricting in terms of where I can eat and what I am allowed to choose off the menu. I think off-siters often eat offsite or bring sandwiches too.

[YorkshireT]

I’m onsite and I often take sandwiches in- after all we have a full kitchen!

However, on-site clearly on average spend more than off-site. A 1 bed that I stay in over Xmas runs $750 to $1000 a night, not some pie in the sky rack rate, but what it costs. I don’t pay it as I’m DVC ( and invested about £40000 to be) but many do. Its very unlikely someone offsite can spend enough to make up that. They’d be mad if they were doing.

[may]

I can completely see that in Claudette's case she quite rightly feels she spends a lot of money . I can see that YorkshireT's investment makes Claudette's look minimal :-) However I still think that given the enormous range of the Disney offering there may be circumstances where Didgey may be correct :-)

[Nimbus]

I'm paying around £200 per day to stay onsite next year. That's for a moderate resort (POFQ) with included dining (QSDP). So that covers all my food and snacks, plus things like MagicBands and parking (although we don't hire a car, so no saving there).

I suspect some families staying offsite spend more than £200 a day on food, let alone anything else. If they are a family of 4 and choose to have a character breakfast, a TS dinner, and a snack or two in the middle of the day then that can cost them $350, which is about £275. I suspect there will be plenty of offsite families that will give more money to Disney than I will staying onsite.

However, in general, onsite guests do give Disney more money than offsite guests.

[may]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I'm paying around £200 per day to stay onsite next year. That's for a moderate resort (POFQ) with included dining (QSDP). So that covers all my food and snacks, plus things like MagicBands and parking (although we don't hire a car, so no saving there).

I suspect some families staying offsite spend more than £200 a day on food, let alone anything else. If they are a family of 4 and choose to have a character breakfast, a TS dinner, and a snack or two in the middle of the day then that can cost them $350, which is about £275. I suspect there will be plenty of offsite families that will give more money to Disney than I will staying onsite.

However, in general, onsite guests do give Disney more money than offsite guests.

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This looks like a really accurate take on the situation to me.

[Andybear]

When I went to WDW in the 1990s I stayed on site. There were no such things as fast passes in any form then, we just queued for the rides we wanted to go on. I actually preferred those days, everything was much simpler. I did book fast passes for my trip last month but my plans changed a lot because of health issues so it wasn't really worth me booking them. So I might actually give them a miss for next year's trip.

[Didgey]

Originally Posted by Andybear

When I went to WDW in the 1990s I stayed on site. There were no such things as fast passes in any form then, we just queued for the rides we wanted to go on. I actually preferred those days, everything was much simpler. I did book fast passes for my trip last month but my plans changed a lot because of health issues so it wasn't really worth me booking them. So I might actually give them a miss for next year's trip.

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Would you consider DAS to help you? Parks without fastpasses depending on time of year could be tough going.

[Andybear]

Originally Posted by Didgey

Would you consider DAS to help you? Parks without fastpasses depending on time of year could be tough going.

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Thank you. A couple of people have suggested that. But I'd just feel as if I was getting special treatment which I don't feel comfortable with. I go in September and managed fine with mainly standby and single rider last month.