My Dad just offered his timeshare.... Thoughts?

My dad and step mom have a timeshare that has condo options all over the place. Apparently there’s a condo he thinks is about 15-20 min from the parks. He offered it for free as a late additional wedding present.
So many thoughts…

The week we are looking at is Dec 4 2021. The reason we would go is to ride Tron, DH is sooo excited. How confident are we that it might be done on time?
The condo is 15-20 min away. I’ll confirm the distance myself once I get an address. I’ve never driven to the parks… in fact, I love not having to drive. Do you think Uber/Lyft would be too expensive? Or would we have to really rent a car?
Oh, and Magical Express… by not using it, that would add a cost to our trip to have to use other transportation. Maybe we would put the other 2 days at a Disney value hotel at the front of our vacation so we could ride DME in from the airport?
Is there anything we’d be missing out on by not staying in property? I know we couldn’t charge things to our magic bands, but now with mobile order, that isn’t really an issue.
The timeshare can only be for 7 days. I really wanted to do 8 or 9 days. Where should we spend those extra 2 days?

I will probably have more questions… just only now heard about it.
I appreciate all your thoughts!!

Why not splurge and do the last couple of nights at a deluxe resort?

As for renting a car, I think we usually pay about $600 for 7-10 days for a family car. Once you have an address for the condo you could look to see what Uber would cost. If you don’t want to drive then don’t! You’d be saving a ton by using the condo so use the money to spend on Ubers and a splurge.

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Haha, I like the way you think, but it would cancel out too much of the cost savings to do a deluxe for 2 days. But it’s something still to consider!

And yeah… I think you’re right. We should just use Uber/Lyft to minimize stress. I don’t handle driving in new places very well, even if DH is doing the driving.

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Well then do a couple of nights somewhere on site but less expensive. Just to round things off “in the bubble”.

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Yes, the extra 2 nights would definitely be on-site. Even if it’s just an All Star resort…

Also, out of curiosity I tried to see what WL would be for 2 nights… but the site says unavailable. Is it just because it’s such a short stay? Or has WL still not opened up for bookings?

WL DVC is open, but it is in huge demand, especially at Christmas. When I look at the DVC reservation availability page in my membership there is nearly nothing around that time. Not only WL/Copper Creek, but Boulder Ridge is all booked up on the DVC reservation page. A night or 2 here and there for 2 bedroom and 1 bedrooms, but no studios. Even the Copper Creek cabins are booked up!

I think @lindsayvrsmith is looking at next year.

Because WL hasn’t opened yet and doesn’t have an opening date (as the Poly does) they aren’t taking any bookings.

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sorry! Just saw 2021!

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Thanks, yeah, I knew WL had been closed for bookings before, but since I haven’t been on the forums lately, I thought they would have opened bookings by now for WL. Poly is having the refurb, so that makes sense. But is WL getting a refurb too? Seems odd that it’s not available yet.

You won’t want a rental car. You’d have to pay for parking once you arrived, and the Lyft/Uber wouldn’t be that much more expensive.
If you wanted to do more days and are concerned about transportation you can one Value day at the beginning and another the end.

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Yes this crossed my mind as well, do 1 day at a value at the beginning and end so we can use DME. But it also seems like more of a hassle to split the stay into 3 parts. I think I’d prob just do the WDW hotel at the front. We can take Uber/Lyft on the way home, and won’t have to do the whole leaving 3-4 hour before our flight thing.

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A lot of resorts aren’t open yet:
All Stars
POR & POFQ
WL
AKL
BWI
BC
Poly - opens next summer

These resorts won’t open until the others start filling up. Could take a couple of years in some cases (Port Orleans, for example).

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Thanks for the list! Man, I really hope they get to open sooner than a couple years. But we will have to wait and see!

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I just did the calculations… we would save about $1200 using the timeshare and adding Pop Cent on for 2 days at the front of the trip. If All Stars became available, we’d switch and save even more. The condo is so close, Uber is only $300 for transportation to/from the parks and for the way home to the airport.
I asked them to see if our dates are available for the specific location. Can’t wait to find out! If this happens I will cry! I had pretty much written off a 2021 trip as too expensive until now!

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This is how we almost always stay at Disney. My in-laws have time shares all over, and they can trade them for other weeks/properties. We/they did get royally screwed over when our May trip got cancelled due to COVID, but other than that we really love the set up. We do rent a car, which is an added cost, but having the extra room, for us, makes up for it. We are a family of five, an add in grandparents, cousins, whomever, coming too, and we are such a big group that the costs of staying on Disney property is inhibitive. It might be different if it were the two of us. Sometimes we do book a value resort for a couple of days, in case a couple of us need to get away from everyone else, but not always. Our trip coming up in this December will be our first time staying only on property, and it’s honestly taking some getting used to, because we won’t have some of the things we are used to (larger room, kitchen for part of our stay, etc) The timeshare we usually stay at also has a great view of the EPCOT fireworks, so that was always a bonus!

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Your family’s timeshare sounds awesome! I hope you enjoy your onsite stay though! It is nice being so close all the time :slight_smile:

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I was thinking this morning about staying off-site (i’ve never done this.)

Say FP+ is back by Dec 2021. Would we be screwed with the 30 day booking window? I’m so used to getting every FP we want LOL.

I’ve also never done a split-stay. I think i’ve read about people having issues booking park reservations with split-stays maybe? Would there be any issues booking park reservations? We’d have 9 day park tickets, with 2 days at the value resort, and then 7 at the timeshare.

Park reservations - no problems as long as you remember to switch from the offsite to onsite pool.

(And if you have 2 nights onsite then you can book all three days as onsite guests).

FPs, well you’d have 3 days to book at 60 days.

By the way, why starting onsite? I would move to the bubble rather than out of the bubble, especially if that’s what you’re used to.

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Thanks for the info! Yes, I noticed there are different calendars for hotel guests, aps, and offsite. So i’m glad to hear things are smooth as long as you use the appropriate calendar.

Yeah, the first 3 days could be 60 days out… so that would be very helpful! Day 4-9 would be 30 days… but at least there would be more available the further into our trip.

I want to put the value resort at the beginning of the trip so we can use DME for a free trip from the airport. And it works out to just take Uber/Lyft on the departure day to the airport, since we won’t be restricted by Disney’s 3-4 hours before take-off DME requirement. We can just head to the airport whenever time we feel is best.
We will indeed to going from the bubble to outside the bubble… but the timeshare is SUPER nice, so it will be a big step up from whatever value resort we stay at first!

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Don’t forget to add the cost of parking to your trip planning if you decide to go with a car. And I would definitely say go with a car! It’s so much more comfortable and easy to get around.