Just reread and see you said Easter Saturday… I just meant eating plans for a non park day. 
Yes, mostly traffic. Maybe a lot that we’re slow learners. I think the holiday changed the traffic patterns in the middle of our stay. One traffic light was really long. We were west on 192 and then north a few miles. After a few days of that traffic light I started looking for alternative routes. Found a great one with way fewer traffic lights.
I think there were some differences in getting going in the morning - took a couple days to figure out what other people’s getting an early start meant. The seriously early start folks finally started saying we’ll meet you inside the park. We did arrive one day a few minutes after the tap styles opened. But of course we had a crowd tween us and them.
We hadn’t parked in the parking lot of a park in awhile - didn’t leave enough time to drive around the parking lot to where CMs were directing guests. Even tho we missed actual park opening, trams weren’t running, so we walked to the park entrance - no real big deal for most of us tho the 80+ guy was getting a bit cranky by week’s end.
Maybe the biggest idea to get our heads around was what being “less than 10 miles away” really means in actual time door to door. We live 40 miles away from the nearest big city which is actually a small town of 40,000 - so easy parking in town. We expect to take at most an hour door to door. It took a few days to realize we needed to allow at least 40 minutes for travel time.
This September we were off property again this time off Vineland/Apopka, not far from Buena Vista Dr. Much shorter lights. Easily made rope drop most mornings.
I will absolutely price it out! Thanks for sharing your actual numbers! We aren’t sure of our group numbers yet, between 4 and 8 plus baby. Free magic bands for the group would be nice (only me and dh have them already) and we will want the convenience of that.
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I have always stayed off-site. First two times at the Galleria Palms Hotel, then we discovered how to use Interval with my Mom’s timeshare, and my other friend I Disney with has a timeshare at Parkway. So, always 10-15 mins to the parks. No rope drop issues, close enough to go back for afternoon breaks. I’ve always had a rental, and last few trips had AP so parking is free. Everyone still has Magic Bands, just don’t have the 60 day booking window. (I make the sacrifice and get up at 5 am on booking days…which I get to do starting later this week for Jan trip)
I prefer to use my money elsewhere vs a place I am mainly at to just sleep. Oh, and we have even done resort breakfast a couple times and still made rope drop. Port Orleans for Beignets is a must for us.
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As a backup would you consider renting DVC points? The pricing is comparable to a value-ish (room only). I say backup because the booking window for DVC is @ 11 months, and that’s assuming all the stars align and the resort you want to stay at is listed for rent by someone that owns there. Otherwise the booking window is 7 months. That may be cutting it too close to the trip date for your comfort, but it is a viable way to save money and stay in the bubble.
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I would consider DVC, but first I need to learn some more about it. I know the basic premise. The stars would definitely have to align!
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As things stand today, you probably wouldn’t be able to get SDD or 7DMT at 30 days out. If MMRR were a Tier 1 under the current system, I highly doubt you could get that one at 30 days out too. That said, it’s too early to know what the system/tiers will look like in April 2021. There might be paid FP options then. The tiers may be different. There might be virtual queues for certain newer rides (MMRR? … it will be 13 months old at that point so unlikely, but possible).
That said, if I had to plan now, I would assume that by staying off-site, I would be looking at long waits for SDD and 7DMT and very long waits for MMRR (unless I was going to be one of the first at Rope Drop). You didn’t mention Ratatouille, but I would assume a very long wait for that one too.
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We reserved our campground today! The new price is 78 mid-week and 88 on Friday night. We’re saving just over half the campground cost in parking and somewhere between 45 and 90 on magic bands. I’m sure they’ll raise the price of parking this year, so I think the remainder ($30 per day) is well worth the 4+ days of emh that we’ll take advantage of and the priority fp booking.
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We are thinking about staying offsite for next trip. If we book the campsite do we need to stop and check-in? How does that work? Thanks!
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We checked in online months ahead and that was it. I got a text while at MK that our site was ready, but we never even went to Fort Wilderness.
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Thank you. Had wondered how this works.