Onsite V Offsite

[DD UK]

Hi all,

I have been to Florida twice in the last year!!!!, and both times stayed offsite, once on International drive and last time in Kissimmee. We found that we could eat fairly cheaply and had lots of choice with regards to where we could go and what we could have.

When staying onsite is their plenty of choice and is it much more expensive to eat than staying offsite!!! We are not bothered about restaurants and expensive eating but just easy cheap food.

I would really love to stay onsite (probably one of the All Stars) but hope that many additional costs won't drive me away.

Also I'm not keen on driving so I would also like to know if can you get scheduled transport to SW and US etc or do you have to rely on taxi's.

I'm unsure which option (onsite or offsite) will be better when you are watching the pennies a little!!

Thanks for your help in advance

DD

 

[BevS97]

if you don't like to drive, then it will be much easier to get around Disney if you are staying on-site - HOWEVER - you will be stuck eating onsite for all your meals, and as you say, it's more expensive.

At the AllStars there are only food courts, which are the cheaper food option but will be still more expensive than similiar food offsite.
You can get an idea of prices hereAll Star Music Food Court Menu

There is plenty of other choice around WDW - and you'll be able to use the bus system to get around, although it can be a little slow getting from resort to resort.

To get the best idea, you can look at all the menus here.
http://wdwig.com/menu/menus.htm#res

You can get Mears or Tiffany Towncars to take you to Universal and Seaworld.

http://www.tiffanytowncar.com/ http://www.mearstransportation.com/

Personally, if I wasn't going to drive then I would prefer to be onsite, so that I could get back to my hotel quite easily - but that does leave you stuck with eating onsite too. So, it's a bit of a toss-up really

Bev

 

[Hilary]

As Bev says, the food will be more expensive on-site.

The transfers to SW, Universal shouldn't be too expensive per person, but if there are four of you it's usually cheaper to get a taxi.

I still reckon that, if you can manage with WDW transportation and taxis elsewhere, you can come out ahead by not taking a hire car offered as part of the packages - or more precisely, not taking the car insurances offered in the packages. Even with the cost of an on-site hotel, slightly pricier meals and a few taxis, it may still come out at less than the £350 or so quoted by the tour operators for the car insurance for two weeks.

 

[LynetteB]

I agree with Hilary. We always stay onsite, never hire a car (except when we went to Kennedy). Last time we went to Sea world(2 years ago) a taxi cost $12 each way - this is economical esp. as there are 4 of us. Staying onsite (imho) is definitely the way to go - just being able to hop on a bus outside the gates and take a short ride back to your hotel is heavenly, especially in the heat! We tend to take breaks in the afternoon - this may not always be viable when you stay offsite.
We have never fancied the idea of driving as soon as we land after a long flight - so we always use Tiffany towncar. The rate is @ $85 return from MCO to most WDW hotels.

Just my 2p - three weeks and counting!!!!

 

[vernon]

Given that Disney hotels are quite a bit more expensive than their off site equals and that eating on site is also quite a lot more, then if saving money is the most important thing off site is almost ALWAYS going to be the cheaper option. The thing that you can't really put a £ value on is the quality of experience and the convenience of staying on site and having the use of the Disney transport system. Obviously if your planning to spend A LOT of time off disney at other attractions the convenience of Disney transport is a luxury that your not making use of, therefore it's an expensive luxury.
If you do plan to visit IOA,US,SW and a few other things it would be worth considering splitting half your time staying on site and half on IDrive, it gives you the best of both worlds but shouldn't prove too expensive.

 

[Goofyish]

Last October we did 7 nights on-site and 7 nights off-site and looking back the amount we spent on meals was about the same for both weeks - although our meal patterns were different for the two locations.
On-site we tended to snack in our room for breakfast and then have an early lunch in a counter service restaurant in the parks and then dinner in the food court at POR. For 4 of us we spent around $80 on meals a day plus a bit more on ice creams and drinks etc..

Off-site we tended to have a big buffet breakfast at the local Ponderosa on IDrive and then snack for lunch and then have a dinner at the Ponderosa or similar restaurant. So we spent about $20 at breakfast, about the same at lunch and then about $40-$50 for dinner depending on the size of steak I fancied

One big difference with eating off-site is tipping. You don't tend to need to tip at foodcourts and counter service places in WDW, but off-site you do at restaurants like the Ponderosa etc. This can add up to quite a bit over 7 days.