Reply to Disney World: Trade offs of staying on property vs off

Forum Index » Travel Discussion

Reply to "Disney World: Trade offs of staying on property vs off"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]It's been a little over a year since we went and these things change all the time, but, when we went, if you stay on property, you get earlier opportunity to book for special tickets and other certain things.  For us, that was worth it.  It's also a PITA to drive onto Disney property and parking at MK in particular is a disaster (not as bad at the other parks).  And uber can be a little challenging at things like park entry/closing -- because of demand surge charging, you can end up paying a lot, especially if there are other events in orlando at that time. (We were once there during some sort of bowl game and the uber charges were insane and it was hard to even get one.)  Maybe try pricing out some ubers during park opening and closing time and see what the cost is, so you can compare that against the upcharge for staying on property?  I wish they still had the airport magical express to the parks -- I always counted that as part of the savings that offset the higher cost of on-property hotel rooms.  It was dumb of disney to get rid of that.

I would check for discounted rates -- we never pay full price but typically have gotten 20-40% off.  You have to be a little flexible at where you want to stay to see which have discounted rooms available.  The discounts usually open up about 180 days before the trip -- I think basically right after the dining reservations open.    Right now they have 15-30% off from end of July to early October, for instance.  One time we got club level rooms that were cheaper than base level rooms, because they still had a club room in the discount.

As for hotels, I don't like either the Grand Floridian or the Contempo. One thing that MIGHT work for you -- book one night at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which might give you early access for booking things for at least 2 days, but will also give your kids a chance to see the animals at the lodge, which is basically like additional park time.  AKL is one of the hotels where i feel like there is definite value added, because where else in the US can you wake up and look out your window to see grazing giraffes?  If you have a non-park day, you could also book a lunch there, and use that time to see the animals, but without a car that might be more trouble than it's worth.  We've also stayed at the beach themed one, which is nice because you can walk to HS or Epcot from there, and we've stayed at the one that looks like Yosemite, which is a cool hotel with a nice pool and you can take the boat to MK which is nice.  But those are all "luxury" level so you can probably find something more cost efficient.  I know a lot of people like Port Orleans as a relatively convenient, cheaper option, and of course Art of Animation.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics