Alright - I feel like this is the age old question, but I didn’t find anything super recent in the existing posts.
I’m putting together package options for my family and the inevitable response is going to be,“AirBnb?”
So questions:
Obviously access to EMH and earlier FP reservations are the major perks of staying on property. What else is there to consider?
There COULD be 6 adults on this trip… soooo I’m looking at Family Suites. Anyone had first hand experience? There seem to be enough sleeping spots, but is the space cramped or is there truly enough room. Looking at FW Cabins, AOM Family Suites and AS Music Family Suite.
Never used AirBnB, but if staying off property, I recommend using homeaway.com (aka vrbo.com). You can find nice condos or rental homes that accommodate plenty of people at far cheaper than anything you can get on property, as long as you are willing to not get EMH and 60 day FP reservations. The advantage to renting the condo/house is that you have a full kitchen so you can save money on food, etc.
I should add that if you want to stay off property to save, but still don’t want to drive, we’ve stayed at Floridays and really liked it a lot (https://www.floridaysresortorlando.com). They offer a shuttle service. You can get up to 3 bedroom condos (we got a 3 bedroom). They aren’t quite as cheap as some of the homeaway offerings, but we definitely recommend them as an option.
I presume you mean if you drive? Yes. Once you pay to park, you are good for the day, even if you decide to leave and return, or leave and return to a DIFFERENT park. Just save your parking receipt/ticket.
I think that you have to consider how much money you have to spend and what you expect (or desire) to get out of it. For us, we have three still-small kids. And we don’t particularly enjoy all five of us in one hotel room…all parents understand how horrible it is to put your kid to bed at 8 and it’s pretty much bedtime for you, too, because what can you do when you’re expecting them to go to sleep? Honestly we don’t have the money for the bigger places on property. So we’re getting a 3-bedroom, sleeps 8, place off-site instead. We’re also planning on actually being at the resort some, too. I think if you’re not planning on doing anything except for sleeping in the hotel then it doesn’t matter so much where you are or how cramped it might feel.
i’m thinking we are going to stay off property. After reminding myself of what the priority FPs typically are for MK and AK, height requirements are going to take us out most of those anyway.
we stayed at a Lion King family suite at AOA, I’d say that’s probably not going to accommodate 6 adults (queen in the bedroom, pull out sofa and pull down murphy bed) technically, yes, practically, not sure.
I’ll second VRBO / HomeAway, last year we got a 3 bedroom / 2 bath / full kitchen / pool for about $150 night. We rented a car, it was give or take 10 minutes to MK, EPCOT, HS…AK not much more.
just read the whole listing because the listed price can be quite different from the final price after add on fees like cleaning, service etc, For instance i just looked at one that was $75 a night for 3 nights ($225) but the total was almost $400 at checkout after fees and taxes
You might consider getting multiple rooms. We are a family of 6 and get two rooms as it is the cheapest way to stay onsite. For our upcoming trip, two rooms at pop and using the Disney transport from airport and on property looks to be about as cheap as an offsite condo when you factor in parking and rental car. Just a thought
But I believe @cjandres is coming from Raleigh, NC. That’s easily a single day’s drive. No need to fly (saves money) and then the car would be down there with them (no rental). You would have to pay for parking each day of course. But the savings more than offsets that by a huge amount.
Good catch, definitely cheaper to drive if you are close. We usually fly b/c a 16 hour drive not including stops takes up too much vacation time for us.
True. But we always drive from Michigan down to Florida. Usually stop over somewhere between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Takes two days to get there, but it saves a ton of money. We don’t mind the drive.