Staying offsite in downtown orlando vs. on the WDW campus?

[HIU8]

Does anyone know how far the Embassy Suites Orlando Downtown is from WDW? We are going for a wedding the weekend prior to our WDW vacation and wonder if it will be cheaper to stay offsite (we will have our own car). The rates for the suites are $139 a night. Realistically, what are we in for if we don't stay on the WDW property, as far as travel to and from the park, parking etc....

[egoldber]

You're probably looking at an hour from the hotel door to the park entrance, and maybe 1.5 hours for the MK.

[Fairy]

An hour?! Wait, which one are you at, and are you SURE that's the one you're at, cuz there are ALOT of Embassy Suites in Orlando. The one on I-Drive is pretty close, IME, probably 30 minutes door to door.

This may help
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...suites+orlando

I've stayed at the one on I-Drive, and it was great, included very big and full free b'fast. Most Embassy's do offer this, but some are better than others.

[HIU8]

I don't even have the invite to the wedding yet, as it is not until January 2010. All I know so far is the Embassy Suites Orlando Downtown is where the block of rooms is. The actually wedding is at the Country Club of Orlando. I did just google it and the one listed as downtown is on east pine street .3 miles from city center. I assume that is the one since it was the only one with Downtown in the hotel name.

[hez]

We went for a weekend for a downtown Orlando wedding for my cousin/day at MK a few years ago, and decided it would be more convenient to stay at the Embassy Suites by WDW (Link) based on what we wanted to do that weekend. I think it was probably 10 or so minutes to the parking lot for MK/transportation center on a day with light traffic. If you get up early enough to be one of the first folks to the parking lot, it cuts down on the traffic. We've stayed there several times, and would stay again.

[HIU8]

We really want to stay at a hotel onsite at WDW and not at the hotel with family b/c it will be more convienient than staying offsite. However, if there is a huge price difference in staying offsite, we would consider that. I also didn't realize that it would be so far away (even 10 minutes to the parking lot and then taking disney transportation into the park may be to much for us, but I don't know...

[Momof3Labs]

If you are downtown, you are like 25 miles from WDW, so a half hour or so in no traffic (you'll definitely deal with traffic going to the parks in the morning). Plus, time to park, take a tram to the entrance, and walk in. For MK, you have to take a tram from your parking row (or walk), then the boat or monorail to the park entrance. For all parks except MK, you probably won't lose much travel time vs. staying onsite, but MK is much faster when you are onsite. You'll also have to pay for parking daily ($11-12 per day, I think) and will not get access to EMH.

I'd absolutely consider staying offsite, but not downtown. I have a client in downtown Orlando, and there is no magic there. In fact, it basically shuts down at 5pm and turns into a ghost town. I don't like it there when I'm there on business - would hate it on a vacation! You may also have to pay for parking at the hotel downtown, come to think of it.

[Fairy]

Get out of DT. "Block of rooms" is often a racket, because there's rarely any huge price savings from that to if you just do your homework and get a good rate from a travel site. DT is not the place to be if you wanna go to WDW. I-Drive or closer, period.

We stayed offsite, and we were totally fine with the traffic. No biggie at all for us. But I'm from Chicago, where traffic is so heinous that everything else looks good to us :-). But there are great benefits to staying on property. I, personally, would love to stay on property one day, but my taste in hotels precluded us from doing that, as it was way too expensive. We stayed for free on points at the enormous Marriott, but we were prepared to pay for a few hotels we'd narrowed it down to, and it was less than WDW, worked out to something like $150/day. But I'm a hotel snob, so take it for what it's worth.

Bottom line, DT is not where you wanna be.

[egoldber]

Why not just change hotels after the weekend?