So here’s the weird thing…
i’ve done the house rental off-site before - nice house, pool, game room, etc; problem was, trying to save money by stocking the house with food and cooking/heating it up, was too much like home. That is when i realized, that when i’m on vacation, i don’t want to go grocery shopping, cook, nor clean up a kitchen - i don’t want any remnants of my real life :laughing With that said, that was my 1st time staying off site and i think i really missed the convenience of “the bubble.”
Hence, this time around, i’m wondering if it was really the convenience of a hotel (restaurant in hotel or close, room service) will make me feel differently about the experience. So Floridays isn’t as far down on the list as i made it seem. LOL
Our Doubletree experience is from July 2018. We had spent several nights in a room at Caribbean Beach with the single Murphy bed and two queen beds. We were two brothers,13 and 9, me, my sister and her 13 yo grandkid who claimed the Murphy bed. That Murphy bed is advertised as a kid bed. A slightly built petite adult would find this bed big enough. And comfy to sleep on.
We spent the last part of our trip in a suite at the Doubletree which was beyond spacious. Huge main room with lots of space for a large table, sleeper couch which the boys slept on, and a large bedroom with 2 queen beds. Only one bathroom. There was a sink in the kitchen area.
I don’t recall the kitchen at all other than the sink. There probably was a coffee maker and a microwave. Pretty sure the fridge was under counter. Tho spacious the room was quite plain. The storage was not enough for us.
When we were there - 3 days - we had different bus experiences every time. Unreliable. At the parks, the bus stops are not as handy as Disney bus stops. More walking and not covered. We took a Disney bus to Disney Springs from Epcot one night after growing tired of waiting for our bus and walked to the Doubletree. Probably about a 15 minute walk if you’re not exhausted or out of shape. The one in-house restaurant was more like a counter service. On a Friday night at 6 pm we were the only guests there. We were on the 2nd floor. The laundry was in the 4th floor. We had a car and noticed that the guest parking lot was small. We paid for valet parking to let them figure out where to park.
We have stayed a few times in DVC. The queen size Murphy bed is quite comfy - it’s my favorite sleeping surface. The single Murphy bed is like the one at Caribbean Beach room. There’s still only one bathroom, with an extra sink. Not much storage. We like and rely on the bus service. When we’ve had older teens they like the extra options having the bus service affords them. We like having more food service options provided by DVC resorts (compared to Doubletree) because sometimes plans change.
We stayed vrbo in 2017 that was advertised as 15 to 20 minutes from the parks. Since we were trying to to get to the parks when the locals were trying to get to work, our drive to the parks was more than 30 minutes. One traffic light was so slow.
You can have a fun memorable trip at any of your choices if you’re comfortable with your budget and bring plenty of patience and perspective.
Blockquote Ubering a lot of the time (which is also a good option if you don’t want to rent a car and don’t need multiple car seats)
Is ubering everywhere truly a viable option? (never done it so not sure how convenient it really is)
I’m wondering if the inconvenience of it would outweigh the money I’d saved by not renting a vehicle?
Never rented a car via costco before - how does that work?
ALL advice is very much welcomed and much appreciated!
Regarding sleeping arrangements, usually what we do is put the girls in the bed together and then my son would take the sofa bed or rollaway bed.
I’ve found it to work really well around WDW, although I prefer Lyft slightly.
Technically, all 4 of you can fit in a standard, but it will be very tight with bags. If Standard, you’re looking at $40-50 each direction from/to MCO and $10-20 each ride to/from a park from a nearby offsite hotel. If XL for extra space, might be like 20-50% extra for each ride. Add up and compare to car rental, or if the freedom and flexibility of a car rental wins out regardless.
I’ve also never waited more than about 15 min for any ride.
URRGHHHH - this is so difficult!
In the past we went hard when going to the parks - rope dropping & staying until close - so hotel rooms got very little use. However that was usually because we went with people who had never been. This is the 1st time it will just be my immediate family and therefore, looking for a trip more slow-paced than what we did in the past, which means more time in the room.
I definitely remember being annoyed at how long it took to go back to the house when staying off-site and maybe i’m unrealistically expecting i’ll feel differently this time around. As i type, i think i was leaning toward onsite, non-disney but, now that you mention space… I would have to pay double the Floriday price in order to get the same space at the Doubletree. But, then again, it would probably even out as i would need a rental car if staying at Floriday… decisions, decisions
And, i haven’t even heard about Flamingo Crossing - will look into it. Thanks!
It’s very convenient but it costs a bit more than a rental car. It’s worth pricing out to see how often you’d use an Uber vs cost of a rental car - it really depends on how many trips back and forth you take, and how much you value time vs. money. If you’re really on a budget, using complimentary shuttles isn’t horrible.
You need a Costco membership ($60/year), but then you can go to their app or website and book rental cars (in the travel section). You don’t put anything down - it’s a reservation - so you can rebook every time the price goes down.
We had an 8 day minivan rental in late January for $420.
It might still be worth a look at moderate resorts (POR or CBR) depending on price. The internal buses at both can take some time, but we loved CBR. Skyliner convenience was a plus. I assume that is still cheaper than a DVC rental but have not done a lot of cost comparison.
No worries @ all! I’m not familiar with the process either so you’re actually helping me as well. 
HA! You are right - i need to clarify ‘relaxing.’
For us it means, not waking up at the crack of dawn to RD, staying until the park closes, waking up & doing it all again. Actually enjoying the hotel, laying poolside, sleeping in a day or 2 & still being able to ride our favorite rides in the park.
The food aspect does get expensive afterwhile but we’re limited with our options due to my son not really eating finger foods or sandwiches. We’re definitely breakfast people so, to your point, a hot meal in the morning is a must for us & i need to factor that into my decision.
I LOVE ROAST PORK & that looks amazing - for $12, you can’t beat it!
So honestly I am not a huge fan of renting DVC- thats just me though…
Have you considered other outside possibilities - I really enjoy most of the bonnet creek resorts, I just came back from Wyndham bonnet creek yesterday- really well thought out and 2 bedroom to and plenty to do on non park days.
I have also gotten some incredibly decent deals following @JJT advice in another thread the Hilton @ bonnet creek, & Dolphin.
If your looking for disney springs area I like the B resort again decent deals from AAA
Yes - we definitely stick together at all times. Rental car - probably only if we decide to stay off-site.
It’ll be a week long trip but probably 4 days in the parks.
If i book 2 hotel rooms next to each other onsite i think it’ll blow the cost out the water… the cheapest onsite dvc rental i saw was $1500. The other 2 hotel options, onsite ($1800) & off ($1200), there are at least 2 beds - my son doesn’t mind sleeping on a sofa bed, he actually enjoys it 
But, thank u, you helped me realize that space will b important expecially since we plan on utilizing the hotel room more so than any time in the past!
I meant like booking two rooms in a value resort, for example!
WoW - thank u! Exactly the feedback i was looking for. Definitely good to know about the doubletree transportation system; sounds like we’d definitely need a rental car if we choose there.
Thank you for this suggestion. I don’t know why i always forget about Costco when traveling. Their rental car prices are definitely the best i’ve seen!
With the house rental, you don’t actually have to cook to save money.
For example, I will always think of Disney World whenever I see Reese’s Klondike Ice Cream Bars in the grocery store. We’d come back to the condo for afternoon breaks and about half the time I’d have a Klondike bar from the freezer. DD chooses Talenti ice cream (normally out of the budget)
We also buy a bunch of expensive cheeses for snacks. I need breakfast, so we get frozen egg croissant sandwiches and I’ll heat them up in the toaster oven. We also enjoy restaurant leftovers.
Just going outside Disney for restaurants saves money.
For Disney World we stayed in a 3-bedroom condo that was beautifully Star Wars themed. One King, one Queen and 4? twin beds. Windsor Hills, so there was a nice pool with water slide.
OH! Gotcha - i’ll price it out to see where it falls amongst the other options. Thanks!
Any chance you can work with a DVC rental company and try for two studios (if DD19 and 11 want their own beds?