What incentives are left to stay on-site?

[Lovetherodent]

1. We're in the bubble people. I like that the theme of the resort. Even if my room is plain, I love the spectacular lobbies and the CMs in costume.
2. Fan of the one stop shopping and prepaid experience. When I go on a cruise, I book my shore excursions through the line because I am all about convenience. i do room, tickets, DDP and leave will a bill of less than $200. Like the way that feels.
3. No dealing with any transportation arrangements other than the flight. I land and Disney takes care of the rest.

I do not go annually or even every other year. Because my trips are infrequent, I want to splurge. I want to eat, sleep, and breathe Disney. So, it's on-property deluxe resort for me. If I could drive, I'd go more often, but cost would become a huge factor, and then I'd make changes.

 

[nkereina]

By getting the DxDP we have no qualms ordering whatever we wish. Because it’s already prepaid it frees us from our more frugal natures and we can indulge to our hearts content. Without the DxDP we would make more cost efficient choices, but with it we indulge and are happy knowing the DxDP means we are saving money on those indulgences. Does that make more sense?

I don't want to derail the thread or get nitpicky, but a person is only potentially *saving* money with DxDP if each person would order their own app, entree and dessert anyway - regardless of cost or plan. The dining plans are not meant to be a savings and are priced to account for the items included with the plans. That said, I fully understand and agree about the convenience of pre-paying for the food and indulging by not caring about menu prices. I get that. I also agree the plans, however you use them, are a true benefit of staying on-site for those who want to make their Disney trip as all inclusive as they can.

 

[Jennasis]

I think some people are confusing incentives or perks of staying on site with "things I love about Disney World". Mickey waffles?? Really? That's a perk of staying onsite you wouldn't get booking offsite??

 

[Princess_Lisa]

I think some people are confusing incentives or perks of staying on site with "things I love about Disney World". Mickey waffles?? Really? That's a perk of staying onsite you wouldn't get booking offsite??

I had Mickey Waffles at Breakfast (ate at WCC) recently and I stayed offsite on starpoints.

 

[Farro]

I think some people are confusing incentives or perks of staying on site with "things I love about Disney World". Mickey waffles?? Really? That's a perk of staying onsite you wouldn't get booking offsite??

I'm not confused. Everything I described in my posts are incentives for me to stay on-site.

 

[Lexx1214]

I don't want to derail the thread or get nitpicky, but a person is only potentially *saving* money with DxDP if each person would order their own app, entree and dessert anyway - regardless of cost or plan. The dining plans are not meant to be a savings and are priced to account for the items included with the plans. That said, I fully understand and agree about the convenience of pre-paying for the food and indulging by not caring about menu prices. I get that. I also agree the plans, however you use them, are a true benefit of staying on-site for those who want to make their Disney trip as all inclusive as they can.

I think you misunderstood my point. For us getting the DxDP is like buying a car that on sale. If we had to pay full price we wouldn’t, but since there are considerable enough savings we do. I’ve done the math and have the spread sheets to prove it lol. Staying onsite allows us to have this luxury and if we stayed offsite we would have a very different food experience that we would not enjoy as much

 

[MemphisVanessa]

By getting the DxDP we have no qualms ordering whatever we wish. Because it’s already prepaid it frees us from our more frugal natures and we can indulge to our hearts content. Without the DxDP we would make more cost efficient choices, but with it we indulge and are happy knowing the DxDP means we are saving money on those indulgences. Does that make more sense?

This is exactly why we get the DxDP! Otherwise we would be eating nothing but quick service and still fretting over food costs. Pre-paying for the dining plan is freeing and we have a lot of fun trying new things and restaurants we might otherwise skip. It's a psychological thing.

 

[cgh]

Mickey waffles you can't necessarily get elsewhere. For us, it's probably location/access to allergy free foods. (son has severe food allergies) Mickey waffles are only available at sit-downs in the and some QS at hotels. 'Perks' are going to vary based on what you think is valuable. I can say I do like that I can check in my bags and they appear in my room,

I like that I have so many restaurants that I can just hop on a boat or monorail for.

That being said, once the four seasons got their 60 day fast passes it makes me much more likely to stay there depending on how much it costs. (we actually looked at it for this next trip but it was $800 more a night then Poly club. But, I was looking in June and it was 'only' $600/night. (thought their rooms are much smaller then the Disney rooms)

We have younger kids and have been staying at monorail resorts. (we tend to come back for naps). Not sure when we will go next time, but there's a good chance I'll cast a wider net.

Oh, in the rooms I like the pull down beds. My boys are wild sleepers and I don't know if they will ever share a bed.

Oh, I have another perk that is special with Disney properties. CM. They also have Disney specific solutions for stuff that goes wrong. Of course, this isn't a guarantee. However we've had 2 incidents where we got magic fast passes. One, my 2 year old started to have a tantrum and the monorail went down so we weren't going to make our 7dmt fastpass. A CM happened by and gave us fast passes for 7dmt and another to see talking Mickey. What could other non Disney resorts do? Again, I wouldn't book a resort based on this because whether this stuff would happen is unclear. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time. At DL we kept on having issues with our keys, and had to go back to the front desk 4 maybe 5 times. They comped us a meal at Goofy's Kitchen and got us reservations.

I don't think they should have extended that FP offer to so many resorts. My guess is that they are trying to stem the competition from Universal.

 

[JerseyJanice]

At one time, I would have said that they have great themed swimming pools, but since they took away late night pool hours and even went to seasonal hours, that’s another perk gone.

 

[Princess_Lisa]

Mickey waffles you can't necessarily get elsewhere. For us, it's probably location/access to allergy free foods. (son has severe food allergies) Mickey waffles are only available at sit-downs in the and some QS at hotels.

You don't have to stay at a Disney Resort to eat there. I have eaten at MK Area resorts and as much as I would love to stay there, my budget doesn't allow it. Of course, being able to walk from your room to your Breakfast ADR would definitely be considered a perk, though I think that would fall under the umbrella of "location".

 

[4077]

And as DVC members we won't have to pay for parking.

We are DVC as well....however, EVERY time I read this, all I can think to myself (unfortunately) is, "Give it time...."

 

[DISNEY1975]

I don't want to derail the thread or get nitpicky, but a person is only potentially *saving* money with DxDP if each person would order their own app, entree and dessert anyway - regardless of cost or plan. The dining plans are not meant to be a savings and are priced to account for the items included with the plans. That said, I fully understand and agree about the convenience of pre-paying for the food and indulging by not caring about menu prices. I get that. I also agree the plans, however you use them, are a true benefit of staying on-site for those who want to make their Disney trip as all inclusive as they can.

Last year my nieces were dancing at HS and in the parade at MK, so although I cringed at the cost, we decided to go late March/early April rather than our usually cheaper time of year.

Since my daughter didnt have any holiday breaks during that time, she missed 7 days of school Before I booked the trip, I spoke with her teachers and they all said it was fine and they would give her work to do while away. Her math teacher gave her an assignment of OOP vs the DxDDP. For the first time ever, we were forced to see if we got a deal out of getting the DxDDP. Since we always book character meals and dinner shows / signature dining, this package made the most sense to me.

We save all our reciepts and tallied everything.

We paid $3816 for the package.
We spent $2761. This included the 50 snacks we brought home at around $4 each. Im sure part was due to paying adult prices for my daughter who 90% of the time eats from the childrens menu (she was 12). But Im also sure if we werent on the DxDDP we would not have had apps and dessert every night at dinner, which would have made our OOP less. We also left 9 credits behind on a 12 day trip.

 

[cgh]

You don't have to stay at a Disney Resort to eat there. I have eaten at MK Area resorts and as much as I would love to stay there, my budget doesn't allow it. Of course, being able to walk from your room to your Breakfast ADR would definitely be considered a perk, though I think that would fall under the umbrella of "location".

Yes. However, we prefer to be right there for the food because we want to be in the parks during the morning. Disney overall is phenomenal with food allergies, so that is a very specific perk. The ability to have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the resort is a huge perk.

But regardless, yes, you are coming to the Disney resort to get those, as they aren't readily available at any hotel. I'd say it wouldn't be 'location' but more access to Disney food. And Disney touches (ie. mickey on lots of stuff). It might not be all over rooms, but there's little Disney stuff, hidden mickeys, etc. all over the place.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

There are tons of perks staying on site
we stay at the Contemporary so,
Elevator ride to monorail
Walk to MK
Great view of fireworks from our balcony
DDP
180+10 ADR's
Theme Park Extra (90 day FP)
EMH
Great shopping in resort
Good bars for adult time
Minnie Van service
And .......
Having security walk in on you while your naked

 

[gillep]

Actually I love the room renovations! We stayed at Poly last October, room decor was great - kitschy Polynesian and really looking forward to Yacht Club and and the new floors - looks quite nautical.

None of the on-site hotels look ordinary to me. Perhaps maybe the values, but they have their own charms.

And it's not just the decor in the room I'm speaking of when I say total immersion, it's all of it. The lobby, the building itself, the cast members (almost all are wonderful), the restaurants, the shops, the music piped in everywhere, the sounds of the boats, fireworks, the noise from the Boardwalk, looking around and just feeling like "aahh, I'm back" ..all of it.

When you walk from the front doors/drop off for Beach Club and head through the sliding doors, you can walk directly across lobby and out the other sliding doors, see the Boardwalk, look towards Epcot and it's like walking into your vacation!
Same with Polynesian - in from front drive out the other side to the water and the castle in the distance. These are my perks.

I realize I sound like a lunatic - but I do have have a grip on reality -
Again, WDW is the only destination that gets these allowances - going to D.C later this year and got a great deal!!!

If you are a lunatic so am I, as this is why I stay at WDW Resorts as well.

I travel quite a bit outside of WDW and stay at a lot of Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott properties (I even lived in an Embassy Suites for a few months while my husband's job was sorting out our living arrangements when we relocated) most are good, some are great, but I have no desire to stay at one when I am at WDW. When we stay at these properties, we have rarely ever had the desire to just hang out at the resort, something that we love to do at WDW properties.

Some people love offsite rented houses and condos, but for me, I would prefer to just stay home than to stay in a rental house or condo, rental houses are great when we do beach vacations, but other than that I prefer hotels.

I also have no issue with WDW transportation, it isn't always the absolute fastest mode of transport possible, but we really do sit back and relax at WDW so it doesn't bother us, if we need to do resort-resort transportation and aren't close to a park we will just pay for an Uber.

I also really like RAC, as we have had a few times that my husband and I split up, and I fly home while he goes on a work trip, so it is nice to only have to lug all of our luggage through my home airport and not MCO as well.

 

[cdnusagurl]

Not much, although the parking doesn't really affect me since I will never drive in Orlando or any other major city center for that matter when I'm on vacation.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

We couldn't find a compelling reason to stay onsite this coming trip, and we probably won't again for a long time. We mostly stayed at the moderate resorts, values before that. The main reason we booked offsite to start with is because our kids won't share a bed and we don't want to be crammed into one room (privacy). We cannot afford a DVC unit and would not rent points.

Magical Express - great perk, but only if you fly. We don't.
Disney transportation - We will miss this if our kids want to go back to the resort before we do. However, now that our oldest is 17 and drives, they can take the car back and we can Uber.
Magic bands - we have some from last trip, and they are only $12 online. Nice, but not a big benefit.
180 ADRs - We booked our trip at 102 days and only made 2 ADRs anyway.
Room charging - We will miss this
Dining plan - hasn't made financial sense for the last six trips, so we don't use it
Free parking at the parks ($22/day) - we used this, but it would have been basically a wash since we would have to pay $19/day to park at a moderate resort.
60-day FP - This will be the worst part for us, I think. We are staying at WH, so it is 30 days for us. However, we have 9 park days, so I'm hopeful that it will work out.

You can just pay for your items, & pick them up at the front of the park on your way out. No biggie!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Mickey waffles you can't necessarily get elsewhere. For us, it's probably location/access to allergy free foods. (son has severe food allergies) Mickey waffles are only available at sit-downs in the and some QS at hotels. 'Perks' are going to vary based on what you think is valuable. I can say I do like that I can check in my bags and they appear in my room,

I like that I have so many restaurants that I can just hop on a boat or monorail for.

That being said, once the four seasons got their 60 day fast passes it makes me much more likely to stay there depending on how much it costs. (we actually looked at it for this next trip but it was $800 more a night then Poly club. But, I was looking in June and it was 'only' $600/night. (thought their rooms are much smaller then the Disney rooms)

We have younger kids and have been staying at monorail resorts. (we tend to come back for naps). Not sure when we will go next time, but there's a good chance I'll cast a wider net.

Oh, in the rooms I like the pull down beds. My boys are wild sleepers and I don't know if they will ever share a bed.

Oh, I have another perk that is special with Disney properties. CM. They also have Disney specific solutions for stuff that goes wrong. Of course, this isn't a guarantee. However we've had 2 incidents where we got magic fast passes. One, my 2 year old started to have a tantrum and the monorail went down so we weren't going to make our 7dmt fastpass. A CM happened by and gave us fast passes for 7dmt and another to see talking Mickey. What could other non Disney resorts do? Again, I wouldn't book a resort based on this because whether this stuff would happen is unclear. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time. At DL we kept on having issues with our keys, and had to go back to the front desk 4 maybe 5 times. They comped us a meal at Goofy's Kitchen and got us reservations.

I don't think they should have extended that FP offer to so many resorts. My guess is that they are trying to stem the competition from Universal.

Almost all offsite hotels that offer breakfast have Mickey waffles, for real.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

And .......
Having security walk in on you while your naked

 

[smiths02]

https://www.amazon.com/Disney-DCM-1-Classic-Brushed-Stainless/dp/B005PO9UUC

I could probably bring this to an offsite condo.

Grocery stores actually have a TON of Disney themed food.