lodging question for feb. vacation

[almostmom]

We are doing a surprise trip to WDW over Feb. vacation - my parents are flying us to FL to visit them, and we're going to do half the trip with them, and then head to Orlando. This is our second trip there. We will have a car. Kids are 8 and 10.

We'll have 3 days, and will go to MK, Epcot, and Universal (for Harry Potter of course). I'm feeling kind of shocked with the cost of it all (we didn't pay last time), but I'm in for it as the free air fare is hard to beat. And we've been trying to figure out when we could get back.

Looking at lodging, the costs seem so ridiculous on site, so I'm looking off site. I have a room (2 queens, looking at Disney) reserved at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek for $195 a night (plus $22 resort fee). This seems like a great deal at the top of what I want to spend (though the resort fee kills me), as it seems the room will be nice, and we'll be pretty close to the parks. It seems if we want to stay in the park for $200 or less we'll be in a crappy tiny room. But then there are a lot of cheaper options outside the park that maybe I should consider as well.

Anyway, any thoughts? Should I still with the Wyndham? (No deals on the deal sites - too late I guess). I would love to be able to do fastpass+ by having a Disney hotel reservation (and I don't want to buy tickets yet, as my FIL can always get sick from his leukemia and cancel any trip we're on...), but I think the deals are so much better outside the park. And since we'll be at Universal one day, and can drive, it seems like staying outside is a better deal. Of course, it's going to be super crowded, but that is what we have to work with.

Thanks!

[brittone2]

We were prepared to stay off site, as the idea of a nice house (we were thinking Windsor Hills) to unwind in at the end of the day seemed appealing. But when we priced everything out, we ended up opting to book Port Orleans Riverside. I looked at pricier options, and while they would have been nice, I wasn't sure they were worth the increased cost.

We booked during Stay, Play, Dine, so adult park tickets and meal plan ended up at just about kid prices. There was also a slight discount on the room. I think we are at just over 200/night for a preferred room. If we didn't book during stay, play, dine, we would totally have just paid OOP for food as I don't think the regular dining plan would have saved us anything at all based on our preferences. I would have preferred the freedom to have a glass of wine vs. dessert :) It ended up swaying us to on site. However, we've never been. If you've been there before, you probably understand the pros and cons of each scenario pretty well. I suspect we'd be pretty happy or happier staying off site in many ways, but we haven't experienced it yet in order to know how much the Disney "bubble" matters to us. We are going to rent a car and drive vs. rely on buses anyway, so again, probably not that different than being off site in some respects.

I'm no help. Just make sure you are pricing car/parking (or are you doing the shuttle from WBC? I think they charge a fee now for that too, but I may be wrong?) and other "hidden" fees so you can compare apples to apples.

The other thing to consider with going at a busy time is whether you would have any interest in using extra magic hrs I guess? We are going in early Feb, so not as busy, but I don't know that we'd really be able to use EMH, especially with my youngest, even if we were there at a busy time.

[MSWR0319]

We are doing a surprise trip to WDW over Feb. vacation - my parents are flying us to FL to visit them, and we're going to do half the trip with them, and then head to Orlando. This is our second trip there. We will have a car. Kids are 8 and 10.

We'll have 3 days, and will go to MK, Epcot, and Universal (for Harry Potter of course). I'm feeling kind of shocked with the cost of it all (we didn't pay last time), but I'm in for it as the free air fare is hard to beat. And we've been trying to figure out when we could get back.

Looking at lodging, the costs seem so ridiculous on site, so I'm looking off site. I have a room (2 queens, looking at Disney) reserved at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek for $195 a night (plus $22 resort fee). This seems like a great deal at the top of what I want to spend (though the resort fee kills me), as it seems the room will be nice, and we'll be pretty close to the parks. It seems if we want to stay in the park for $200 or less we'll be in a crappy tiny room. But then there are a lot of cheaper options outside the park that maybe I should consider as well.

Anyway, any thoughts? Should I still with the Wyndham? (No deals on the deal sites - too late I guess). I would love to be able to do fastpass+ by having a Disney hotel reservation (and I don't want to buy tickets yet, as my FIL can always get sick from his leukemia and cancel any trip we're on...), but I think the deals are so much better outside the park. And since we'll be at Universal one day, and can drive, it seems like staying outside is a better deal. Of course, it's going to be super crowded, but that is what we have to work with.

Thanks!

We loved bonnet creek. DH refuses to stay anywhere else and I agree. The cost just doesn't make sense. We will be going in a year and I am a bit sad that we can't schedule our FP+ till we get in the actual park, but February is pretty low on the number of people there so I think it's manageable. Since you're going around the busy holiday I'd just make sure you have a good plan and I think you'll still be ok.