There are a few main expenses when planning a Disney trip –
we touched on ticket type in an
earlier post. The biggest and possibly
most expensive decision to make when you decide to take a Disney vacation is
where to stay. We’ll talk about some of
your options below but as always, this isn’t a one size fits all situation and
you have to make the choice that makes the most sense for you and your family.
One thing of note – I’ll mostly be talking about a booking
for one room, as opposed to a larger party that would require something much
more vast and expensive. Chances are, if
you need a villa on Disney property (or multiple rooms), the much more cost
effective option would be renting a nearby house via Airbnb or VRBO. Since that’s generally out of my realm of
experience, though, that can be something you look at with your group and
decide your best course of action.
Essentially your choice of hotel or resort for a Walt Disney
World vacation comes down to a simple question – on property or off property? I
say “simple” but it actually can be quite complicated, considering all of the
factors that go into the decision. We’ll
discuss some of those here.
Cost:
The first question many people have to decide on is
cost. I’ll tell you up front – if cost
is the biggest (or only) factor in your decision, your best choice is likely
going to be off property. I checked a
random week in January (1/9-1/15, if you were curious) and found the following:
Disney’s All Star Sports - $981.00
Best Western Plus Kissimmee - $1,066
Wyndham Lake Buena Vista - $1,113
A couple of points on the above. All Star Sports is an on property resort,
meaning you get all the benefits of staying on property (discussed below). It is considered a value resort in Disney
terms (the three categories are value, moderate and deluxe, which we’ll get
into in a bit). However, I found that
pricing information from a Google search – if you attempt to book that resort
as of now, it’s showing no available rooms.
Either they are fully sold out or they’re not accepting bookings at the
moment (the resort is currently closed, and due to open on 12/9). I didn’t see a whole lot of options under
value resorts in general, though, so you would either have to upgrade or look
elsewhere. The Best Western is just a
hotel in the area, while the Wyndham is considered a “good neighbor” hotel to
Disney, meaning that they also get access to most of the perks of staying on
property.
Of course, a lot depends on your perception of value for
these hotels. For example, the standard
rooms at All Star Sports are 260 square feet, Best Western Plus are 325 and
Wyndham are 301. Disney’s Coronado
Springs, a moderate resort on property, have rooms that are 314 square feet. In other words, based on room size alone, the
two off property hotels are the equivalent value of a moderate resort but price
wise, you’d only be getting a value.
Other amenities likely differ in these off site hotels as well. And this was only a small sampling – the
further away from Disney property you stay, the cheaper a hotel is likely to
be. Of course, you would then still have
to get to the parks each day. This leads
into our next topic.
Perks:
This is sure to be the most controversial aspect of the
“where to stay” discussion, as in years past, staying on property had many more
advantages. Slowly those have been
eroded, and now there aren’t a whole lot of differences in terms of what you
get. Rather than focus on the past,
though, we’re going to talk about the present and see what IS still there for
on property guests.
First, would be proximity to the parks and transportation
options. To be clear, any of Disney’s
internal transportation systems (bus, monorail, boat, etc) are available to
anyone, free of charge. But obviously
it’s more beneficial to take advantage of these if you’re staying on
property. If you’re off property, you
still have to make your way to the parks via your hotel’s shuttle service (if
available) or some kind of taxi or ride share.
Those can add up if you’re going to the parks every day. Plus it’s much easier to leave the parks
mid-day and take a break when you’re staying on property. Off property hotels have drop off spots at
all the parks, but they are usually the furthest away, making it much less
convenient to use frequently.
Walt Disney World is a vast property, so some hotels are
obviously going to be closer to the parks than others. But if you were to stay at a resort on Seven
Seas Lagoon (Contemporary, Polynesian or Grand Floridian), you can walk to
Magic Kingdom or at least have a short monorail or boat journey there. If you’re trying to get ahead of the crowds,
proximity can be a major advantage. This
is also true of the Crescent Lake resorts (Boardwalk, Beach Club and Yacht
Club) as it relates to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Note that all of these resorts mentioned here
are deluxe resorts – this shouldn’t be a surprise given their location.
Another perk of staying on site is early theme park entry. Guests staying on property OR at good
neighbor hotels (the full list is in that link) have the opportunity to access
whatever theme park they have a reservation for that day thirty minutes earlier
than off property guests. You might say
that a half hour isn’t a huge benefit, and you may be right. But Disney fans are nothing if not
determined, and if you want to rope drop Test Track, for example, you’re much
better off being able to be thirty minutes ahead of the rest of the crowd. By the time the general public is let in,
there are likely to be longer waits for all the major headliner
attractions. As we’ve discussed before,
one of the best times of day to get anything accomplished at Walt Disney World
is first thing in the morning, and this early theme park entry gives you a leg
up to knock out a couple of bigger rides before moving on to other things once
everyone can get in the parks. Take a look at this post for our experience using early park entry.
The most controversial perk currently offered is extended evening theme park hours which is offered on select nights ONLY
to those staying in deluxe resorts, giving you two extra hours in the evenings
(as the name implies) for most attractions at Magic Kingdom or Epcot. The current schedule is at the link I posted,
but it’s basically Mondays from 10:00 p.m. to midnight at Epcot and Wednesdays
from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Magic Kingdom.
I say that this is controversial because there has been a large outcry
on social media about how Disney is becoming “elitist” and pricing out the
average person while giving the best perks to deluxe resort guests. These are fair points, though I will say that
it makes sense to me that the guests paying the most money should get the most
for their dollars.
So what do you get for those dollars during the extended
evening hours? Basically just that – two
hours after the park closes with access to most of the attractions with almost
no crowds. While there are a lot of
deluxe resorts compared to the other resort categories, this still represents a
much smaller pool of people than say the early theme park entry that encompasses
all on property guests. Plus, a later
night in the parks usually means families with smaller children won’t stay as
long, and the later you stay, the emptier the parks will be. These extra hours don’t impact regular
operating hours either, unlike the holiday parties that Disney has become known
for. If you have the means, this is by
far the best perk currently offered to on site guests. You need to have a park reservation for that
particular park or have park hopper tickets in order to gain entry. We had a great time using this perk - see a more detailed account here.
If that has you drooling and counting your pennies to see if
you can afford to stay at a deluxe resort, I don’t blame you. One particular trick to gain some savings on
these most expensive of resorts is to rent Disney Vacation Club points. I would recommend using either David’s DVC Rental or DVC Rental Store, both of whom have great reputations
for brokering such transactions (we have personally used David’s twice and –
even during a pandemic – haven’t had any major issues). DVC rental is a large topic that would extend
this already long post but in a nutshell, you can book a stay at a deluxe
resort for what amounts to moderate prices (give or take). There is some risk involved, as these
transactions are non-refundable, but if you’re confident about the dates and
times of your trip, this is a great way to save money and experience incredible
resorts and some extra perks.
Atmosphere:
The last topic I want to briefly touch on when discussing
where to stay is the atmosphere. This
goes back to the idea of Disney “magic.”
This is an intangible quality and one that is the hardest to quantify in
a dollars and cents way. Many people
(myself included!) love the idea of being inside the “Disney bubble” as it’s
often called, meaning that as soon as you get to your resort, you are
surrounded by all things Disney until you sadly have to return to the
airport. This is one reason we don’t
even rent a car – I drive enough in my “real” life, and that’s a headache I
don’t want when on vacation (as always, your mileage may vary).
Walt Disney World resorts are designed to be immersive, with
decorations, background music and general ambience being a part of your
stay. To me, the vacation doesn’t end as
long as I’m inside the bubble. How much
this matters to you will largely dictate whether it’s “worth it” to stay on
property or not. There are plenty of
ways to save money, as I said earlier, if you’re staying off property. But there is something to be said for being
engulfed in this immersive environment from start to finish on your
vacation. That may not be enough to
justify the price, but it is absolutely a consideration for many when booking
their trips.
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