Staying off site -Without a hire car

[Manc1979]

Originally Posted by KarenG

I think you could make it work.

I’m looking at 3 bed condos for next year and they are coming in at £80/night. I can’t get one room at the All Stars for that.

I can find some on the 192 that are incredibly close to WDW and while we will have a car for some or all of the time the Uber costs will be very low (lower than car rental and parking costs looking at others experience.)

With two grown up daughters and one of them bringing her boyfriend I’m prepared to compromise on location (we always always stay onsite) so everyone has their own bedroom, and we can walk to a range of restaurants that are considerably cheaper than onsite, too.

So I think your plan could work, depending on your family make up

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Hi Karen ...can I ask where you have seen the 3 bed condos for that price as it sounds great and just what we’re looking for !

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by Manc1979

Hi Karen ...can I ask where you have seen the 3 bed condos for that price as it sounds great and just what we’re looking for !

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Sure! They were all on the 192, Regal Oaks by Old Town and some further down near where Splendid China used to be. This was on Airbnb, VRBO and TUI (when bundled in a fly drive).

[Nimbus]

We used to stay offsite all the time without a car. And that was before the days of Uber and Lyft. It's only during the last couple of trips that we stayed onsite.

We visited all the parks just fine. We visited places like KSC and the various malls. We stayed at hotels that offered free shuttles to the parks, and also used buses and taxis. We never seemed to have any problems. And now with Lyft and Uber I'm sure it's much easier.

Originally Posted by whlparkstone

Have you found any draw backs to staying off site? Or have you found it easy to get to where you want to go without a car?

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The drawbacks include:

• You lose whatever onsite benefits you'd normally get from staying onsite. Things like EMH, free dining, early fastpass booking, etc. These aren't offered at the moment so there's no benefit from those right now. (BTW some offsite Disney Springs hotels do offer some of these benefits, or did in the past anyway).
  
• You're probably further away from the Disney parks so perhaps will have to spend a longer travelling than if onsite. This is especially true if you usually stay in an onsite hotel that is within walking distance of a park. However, depending on where you stay offsite, the time to get to a park may only be a few minutes more than when onsite.
  
• You may not get frequent transport to the parks like you do when onsite. Many of the hotel shuttle buses only run a few times a day (eg, just 3 times in the morning) and, as mentioned above, can take a reasonable length of time to get to the park. This makes getting to/from the Disney parks less convenient. Uber/Lyft will remove some of this drawback.
  
• Without a car you may have to pay for ubers, taxis or buses. Although see below regarding costs with hiring a car and parking.
  
• You're not in the Disney bubble and won't get the Disney theming.

Having said that, there are some benefits:

• It'll be much cheaper to stay in a similar class of accommodation and/or you can get much better class of accommodation for the same price. Bigger rooms, suites, condos and villas are affordable offsite.
  
• It'll be closer to cheaper places to eat, drink and shop.
  
• You may be closer to other non-Disney attractions and the like. So you'll need less time to visit these other places.
  
• Without a car you won't have to pay the overnight fee at Disney. And you won't have to pay the parking fees at other parks. And you won't have to pay for the car hire, insurance and fuel, of course. So it can work out cheaper.

In the past we have done a split stay with half the time onsite and half offsite and had been planning to do the same thing again this year. So that's another alternative to consider. That way, you get the best of both worlds with just the slight drawback of having to pack and move in the middle of the holiday.

[Annie10189]

We used Uber on our trip and actually LOVED it! Neither me nor DBF have any problems driving in America but kinda like the break from it when on holiday... and it was a mega cost saving.

Reasons why:
- UBER offer a monthly pass for 9.99 which protects you from surcharge (well worth it)
- They drop you off and pick you up right at the park entrance (transportation centre for MK)
- They can use the Disney bus lanes so skip any parking queues
- We were staying on I-Drive South (near Vineland Premium Outlets) and it was on average $10 each way
- We used the itrolley or walked on idrive
- We could get self catering accommodation (Sheraton Vistana Villages) for cheaper than on site, save on car hire and parking and basically feel like we were getting chauffeured around
- all of the drivers were polite and professional and we never waited more than ten minutes for a car


Cons

- We didn't go to the park twice in one day like some staying on site might
- No onsite perks