Would this be too many hotels?

[natanddaz]

Hello lovely people of the dibb after a bit of advice. Been to Florida twice before but always stayed onsite with the DDP etc. We are a family of 5 with 3 children who will be 6,9 and 13 and don't want to drive. We currently have an august booking for 2 rooms at ASM with the dining credit offer for 13nights before moving to the residence in at SeaWorld for 7 nights at the end of the holiday which we have booked as part of a BA package. However like many of us with the ever increasing Disney food costs and distinct lack of onsite benefits I just can't see the value in spending that much time onsite. There is also a personal element as I'm currently faced with a situation whereby I might need to give up my job (see my other post for details!) So in order for this holiday to be financially viable I need to cut costs! So I have devised the following but I'm unsure if it's too much swapping and changing of hotels especially with three kids in tow.

Arrival night- We are on the late flight out of Gatwick and from experience all we want to do when we get through immigration is crash and therefore I have decided on an airport hotel.
Either the home 2 suites Orlando airport or the Embassy suites which I have enough Hilton points to make it a reward night. Other benefit I can see of this is we can take the free hotel shuttle from the airport and then when will call an Uber from the hotel in the morning to transfer us to Disney we should be able to avoid the airport surcharge!

5 nights in 2 rooms at Asm- never stayed at this resort but I feel the first few days having the familiarity whilst we get over jet lag will be a good thing. Also I don't want to lose my £250 deposit I currently have down with them.

8 nights Staybridge suites royal parc Kissimmee. So this wouldn't have been my first choice however BA go to this hotel and I want to ditch my current 7 nights at the residence Inn as after more investigation it looks quite isolated and as I say we don't drive. So plan to book 1 night with ba and then 7 nights direct with holiday inn. I have enough holiday inn points to use for a 2 night stay here so will actually only be paying for 6.

Finally 6 nights at the Springhill suites near SeaWorld. The location of this looks much better for us as eating places are within walking distance. Also got a good rate booking direct with Marriott.

So the above shaves £1200 off of our original itinerary taking into consideration the loss of dining credits etc. All hotels apart from ASM also include a free breakfast and look close to cheaper off site eats.
Any advice greatly appreciated and apologies for such a long post!

[loldis]

Can you use BA for your airport night hotel so you're not locked into the Kissimmee hotel if it's not your first choice? Not sure if they have any airport hotels though, quick search is only showing I-Drive/Disney area ones. Although I'd just head straight to ASM so I can use that first day jet lag for rope dropping MK instead of transferring hotels.

Other than the airport night, I don't think it's too much moving around since each stay is a decent length of time. Pack your cases per stay instead of per person, so then you know you only have to unpack that case instead of faffing through all of them.

Have you factored in transport costs when calculating the savings? Uber has gone up quite a bit IME, and offsite shuttles generally aren't very frequent so I would always end up relying on Uber.

ETA: Also, if you're not too bothered about staying onsite now, you could also speak to WDTC and see what they can do. They may be happy to transfer your deposits onto a ticket only booking, rather than reducing to the minimum offer stay.

[natanddaz]

Hey thank you. Yes unfortunately ba don't offer any mco airport hotels and there Gatwick hotels for the night before we fly are over twice the price of the premier Inn Iv got booked and no breakfast! The Staybridge looks nice enough but I would of probably preferred lbv if I'm honest but then again we could check out old town which looks fun! Staying in the airport hotel I'm reckoning we can get a quick breakie in (starts 6am) and be over to asmu by 7.30 will leave luggage and then head straight to the closest park which I think is animal kingdom so hoping we may even still make rope drop( although maybe a bit optimistic) . As far as transport it should only be the 8 nights at Staybridge we need Uber. Worse case and non of the shuttle times work for us an XL return looks to be about $50 so even if we spend £300 on Ubers that still saving £800 overall. The Springhill suites is a official SeaWorld hotel and there shuttles look pretty good.

[minnie moomoo]

I don't think that's too many.
I wouldn't care for swapping about after only a day or two but they are all long enough to settle.

You plan plays out similar to ours.
We have previously only stayed onsite but it's just too expensive now.
We are also 100% using Lyft/Uber and onsite transport.
We are 3 adults and two teenagers.

We have 7 nights onsite at POR
We are then moving to Grande Villas Resort LBV for 8 night
Than lastly 6 nights at Cabana beach Universal.

For my BA package I booked my onsite Universal hotel as I wanted to be free to look around for our off-site resort. Cabana bay is perfect for me as we have a family suite, it's walkable, can use the boat or bus
The Endless summer resorts also look fantastic, we just wanted the ability to walk if needed. If you are doing Universal, or maybe even if your not have a look at these as I think they are very affordable.

Our off-site was the hardest choice as I wanted to keep Lyft costs down, walkable restaurants and I wanted more space.

I think hanging on to the first few days at wdw onsite is worth it. With jet lag and early mornings the 30 mins early entry should be easy to get too, then after that your off-site and can take things slower

[Donaldfan]

It would be too many for me - I'm a one hotel person - but only you and your family can decide if it's too many for you as everyone is different.

[snowbelle]

The most moves we have done in a three week trip is nine, including the night before stay.

The Residence Inn Seaworld is lovely , the pool is much bigger than many hotels around, we also stayed on a BA booking years ago but have stayed there since on our own booking.
It is not a far out as it seems as the I ride trolly did stop there ( re-check this to be sure)
Also there are plenty of places to eat at the bottom of Westwood BLvd

We stayed at the Staybridge suites and I didnt like it, it was the other one in Orlando at Sea Harbor Dr, the rooms were dark ,so we had to have the lights on all the time , the pool was ok but busy and it just wasn't right for us, so I would check out the room pics if there are any.
Residence inn rooms are much lighter and airer, but ask for a room the other side of the ones which face the I4 if road noise bothers you , we don't notice but if you are sensitive to noise it can impact.
I would save your points on the first night and use a group like the Courtyard or Holiday inn Express,or a Fairfield , Embassy suites is good but a bit wasted for just one night most have shuttles.

We have never stayed onsite so I would leave that one to the experts to comment.

Springhill suites - Not sure what room you have chosen but they are not huge, it is a great hotel but the pool is small and shared with the Fairfield ( or it was)
The kitchenette is tiny and they only used to have mini fridges, 6 days might be tight for a bigger family , but as you say the location is great and it is a nice clean room and has regular shuttles, it is close to Seaworld and Aquatica.
Breakfast is usually carb heavy and the breakfast room is quiet small.
We used to buy an Annual pass for Aquatica which worked out great even for only a two week stay as we used it like a beach.

I would look into a bigger room for the 6 nights at Seaworld if you can, Homewood Suites, Embassy or another Residence inn could be a better choice.

But only you know your family and how you get on all together in a smaller room

[natanddaz]

Thank you that's really helpful and gives me some 'food for thought'. The Staybridge suites at royal parc Kissimmee was refurbished last year and rooms look brighter then alot I looked at (I did look at the Disney springs double tree but that looks so dingy!). I do think the residence inn looks lovely it is purely the location and I think I would rather cope with a smaller room and better location. Carb heavy breakfasts are all good here as its manly to keep the kids quite and all three are huge fans of 'beige'!.

[theotherblonde]

For costing savings its better to just not stay onsite at all! All the changing between different hotels sounds like a headache to me but it may be okay for some.

Personally I would look at a hotel that was more like a condo for your entire duration and if you do not want to drive look at ones that offer free shuttles to the parks and get Ubers some days.

I like the Grove Resort for having 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom suites with a huge kitchen, living area and balcony. I booked this for August 2023 for 2 weeks and its half of what you would pay for onsite.

If you are feeling that you are about to change jobs and are not financially stable at this moment then do not put so much pressure on yourself. You could even delay your trip by 6 months to get into a better shape and save more or get a new job by then.

I know how it feels though when you look forward to a holiday so badly and you just want to go especially when you have problems and hard times back home. I really hope everything works out for you.

[LLamb]

I don’t think it’s too much moving around, in 2019 we did 5 hotels in 2 weeks.
I also wouldn’t bother with the airport hotel and would rather head straight to asm if you want to keep that element.

[Lola]

Not too many hotels for us. We’ve done road trips with about 10 hotels in 3 weeks. Also have done 2 weeks Disney with 4 hotels