I hope I am asking this in the right place. My wife and I are going to WDW Sept 27-Oct 4. We have never been and the likely-hood of us going back any time soon is remote. I want to make sure that we get to have dinner at Be Our Guest and I want to make sure we have no problems getting the Fast Passes for what and when we want (basically the recommendations in the touring plans for those days.) I also want to make sure we have reservations at The Brown Derby for the Fantasmic package. Would it be worth us staying in the park to take advantage of booking this stuff earlier than we would be able to if we stayed off-site? Will I have a problem if park crowds are projected to be 1 and 2 the whole time? Keep in mind (as you know) accommodations are MUCH cheaper off-site and money is a factor, however I will splurge if it is the only way to get what we want. Thanks for the advice in advance!
Why not split your stay. We have never stayed on site and have done 3 visits over 20 years but 3 /4 night split might work to your advantage for fpp and ADR Saying that not many people want to pack up and move mid vacay. Bog is the most diff adr to get so onsite booking at 180 plus length of stay should secure dinner We haven’t visited since new fpp started and there is a definite advantage to being onsite for Adr and fpp. I will never stay onsite at wdw but for your priorities if you can afford it I would stay onsite. Hope this helps.
I only go if I can stay on-site. In fact I just cancelled a May trip because I just didn’t have the funds to stay in WDW. Especially if this is your first (maybe only) trip, I really think you need to spurge and stay on-site. Depending on your timing, you may be able to find a discount where a value comes in a just a little over $100/night…
I agree with @bswan26. You can find deals to make WDW more affordable, stacking discounts etc. there is something special staying in the bubble. It will be more certain to get the ADRs you want. If you stay on site don’t forget to book right at 180 days ADR an 60 days FPP. Good luck hope you have a great trip
OK, at the risk of being shunned by right-minded folk, I will share an unspoken trick here. Make your off-site arrangements, and buy your park tickets and associate them with your MDE account. Before 180 days out, make the cheapest room-only WDW resort reservation for your stay direct through WDW - you will have to put down a 1-day deposit on this. You will then be able to make 180+10 ADRs and 60 day FPP reservations. After you have passed the 30-day mark, cancel the WDW reservation and get your deposit back - your ADRs and FPPs will stay on your MDE account because you are within the ranges for off-site guests.
tricky tricky!!! 
I have done it each way, off site twice and on site once. I will never stay off site again.
Also if you’re checking into ways to get discounts- not sure what you do for work, but if you work for a large corporation, check and see if your company participates in a Delta Vacations discount. I saved over $1000 by going through ours!
When I crunched the numbers and included the transportation costs that are added to staying off-site (like renting a car and parking,) the on-site rooms with free Disney transportation from the airport ended up costing about the same for us. I’m sure there are different scenarios that would change this, but that’s how it worked out for us, so don’t forget to add those costs to your plans.
If you want to stay onsite, you need to make reservations today to take advantage of the early ADRs. I’m staying Sept27-Oct2 and I sign up for ADRs tomorrow.
It’s probably different for US-based folk, but for us in the UK if we time it right (early) Disney will throw in QS Dining and a $200 spend-on-anything voucher, which makes onsite very attractive. The transportation is very good and makes it super easy to flip between resorts and parks for a few hours whenever you feel like it. The resorts also seem to have much better pools than the cheaper offsite motels. Having said that, I couldn’t stand more than 14 days of QS dining, which is very average at most venues. Table-service dining seems to get booked up and need Advanced reservations, which means lots of planning and little scope for the flexibility that should be part of a vacation?
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I am staying in the world!