Staying off-site drawbacks

[KrisM]

I'd love a vacation for me! I'll give that a lot of thought. Being able to stick kids in different rooms at bedtime makes things so much easier for us. I don't expect to cook all the time, but we do get a bit tired of having to eat out all the time, too. Having the ability to just stay in for mac n cheese would be nice, especially since we'll be there so long. Maybe the cabins is the way to do it - get the kitchen, etc but stay on-site. Yes, it's a boat to the MK. It sounds like a really fun place to stay with lots of neat things to do with the kids. Plus, we'd have some of the shows we want to go to right there.

I didn't know about the to-room delivery of purchases. That sounds great. We will have at 1 or 2 strollers, but not having to deal with stuff is good.

[clc053103]

One last drawback, that seems small, but is AWESOME to have, you can't get your purchases delivered to your room if you're staying off property. We use this all the time. If you buy anything, even something small like a mug, they send it to your room for free. No lugging extra bags through the parks! (although with a stroller it won't be so bad).

Actually they do this a little differently now- they do deliver it back to your hotel for you, but instead of delivering the package to your room, it is delivered to the gift shop at your hotel. not as easy as having it delivered to your room, but a lot better than lugging large things through the park. I think it takes 24 hours.

I am a sucker for the Disney "Magic" as well- there's something about a disney property that I can't even find at the Swan and Dolphin!

[lhafer]

Well, I just did a ton a research on this myself!! I have Hilton points that I could use for 4 free nights. I looked a split stay at DTD Hilton/Bonnet Creek Hilton, almost renting points from a Wyndam Bonnet Creek member for $120/night for a 2 bedroom, or staying on-site at a Moderate resort.

For me, it came down to staying at the Wyndam Bonnet Creek or staying onsite. I eliminated the other options because I didn't want to waste time midtrip to change hotels.

I ended up choosing staying on-site at Coronado Springs resort.

It would have been about ~$1800 to stay at Bonnet Creek in a 2 bedroom after everything was added up. That included 8 nights at the hotel, 9 day Your Way tickets (no park hopper or water park), and car rental stuff - ~$250 for car rental and all fees for parking for the week. This did NOT factor in ANY food. So I would have to buy food either at the store (cheaper) or at restaurants. I hate cooking at home, so I didn't really see myself cooking while on vacation!

I ended up going with onsite at CSR for ~$2200 total. This included the 9 day park tickets, transportation to/from the airport, the regular dining plan for 2 adults, 1 child (we also have an infant), access to extended hours if we want, reliable Disney transportation, and the extra "Disney feel" we are hoping for.

I figured that $400 would be eaten up pretty quickly with eating out all the time for 9 days, even if we didn't eat at the parks. So I went with what was easiest for us this time. It's our first trip to Disney, and I booked through a Dreams Unlimited TA who did everything for me. I was able to make several more character meal ADRs (3 character meals that I had already planned - which did NOT include eating at the castle was ~$200 oop) than I would have been able to if paying oop.

I can foresee us in the future using Bonnet Creek - and looking forward to the space! But for our first trip, and while are girls are still small, onsite will work for us. And being our first trip, it was super easy to just get an all inclusive package deal. Then we can figure out what we like and don't like and what we will do differently next time.

I chose CSR for the queen sized beds. The rest of the resort looks pretty good too. But if I really had my choice we would be staying at Wilderness Lodge. That was a $1,300 upgrade we can't afford this trip. And they didn't have availability for part of our stay. Maybe next time!!

Oh, I did look into the WL villas, and would have gone that route, but they didn't have any availability for our time frame (which is a very busy time for the WL resorts it seems). NExt time I will know to book it much earlier in the year.

ETA: I have a 4 year old and a 5 month old (she will be 9 months at the time of our trip). The 4 year old would not stay in a separate bedroom while on vacation - so the extra bedroom wouldn't really be utilized. When the girls are a bit older, I can definitely go for more space and will most definitely look into staying at Bonnet Creek. I hear nothing but excellent things about it. Check out this thread from the disboards: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2114303

[BeachBum]

We are Disney Annual Passholders and have always stayed on site. I personally would rather drive than take Disney transportation (bus etc) so unless we taking the monorail or boat that is what we do.

This last trip we stayed at Bonnet Creek and I think that will be what we do from now on. The hotel was fantastic. It was so great being able to spread out with the kids (I have 3) in our 2 bedroom condo. We ate our meals at Disney restaurants when it was convenient, off site a couple of times, and we made a quickie breakfast in the room. Eating in the room was a huge time (and money) saver. Our kids are still young enough that we often nap during the day and have early evenings most of the time.

I too was worried about the extra responsibilities of a condo arrangement. But I didn't feel obligated to cook. Actually it felt freeing being able to do something other than be a slave to my ADRs. You do have to take out the trash and pile the linens on the floor on the last day.

There is something really special about being on site--you never get away from the Disney Magic atmosphere. But, for us the trade off of the extra space and huge cost savings it is worth it (we always stay deluxe). I would not make the trade for a hotel off the Disney compound. Traveling around would take too long. But Bonnet Creek is inside the resort area and therefore isn't any more time consuming than many Disney hotels.

I can definitely see an argument for both sides. I think you will be happy and make it work whichever you choose.

[KrisM]

Man this is a hard decision! I will have to make a spreadsheet for the money end and some sort of pro/con chart for the rest of the info.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Man this is a hard decision! I will have to make a spreadsheet for the money end and some sort of pro/con chart for the rest of the info.

LOL - and please make a blank template for the rest of us on Google Docs so we can weigh out our options in the future. It'll be fun to see what the kriskalculator comes up with!

[hellokitty]

Lol, well I guess I have to at the notion that any kind of family vacation with young children, whether on or off site will be a vacation for the mom (unless you bring a nanny or something). The only way I would ever feel like *I* were on vacation is if I went somewhere w/o my kids. If my kids are going to be present, it's not going to be a vacation, regardless of the, "disney magic." Sorry, I don't care how good the magic is, it's not strong enough magic for me to feel like I can relax and be on vacation. However, that is just me... maybe other ppl are able to relax during vacation, I find it stressful and mostly it's about the kids enjoying it and not me.

Let us know how your pros and cons chart goes, lol. I can see pros and cons of both situations, I think in the end it's just basically about you and your family's preferences.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Lol, well I guess I have to at the notion that any kind of family vacation with young children, whether on or off site will be a vacation for the mom (unless you bring a nanny or something). The only way I would ever feel like *I* were on vacation is if I went somewhere w/o my kids. If my kids are going to be present, it's not going to be a vacation, regardless of the, "disney magic." Sorry, I don't care how good the magic is, it's not strong enough magic for me to feel like I can relax and be on vacation. However, that is just me... maybe other ppl are able to relax during vacation, I find it stressful and mostly it's about the kids enjoying it and not me.

Let us know how your pros and cons chart goes, lol. I can see pros and cons of both situations, I think in the end it's just basically about you and your family's preferences.

I think we all "stress" about motherhood in different ways (good thread idea) and for me, a large part of it is having to provide food. Another part is getting everyone ready to go somewhere. Seems like "let's go get on the boat" will have shoes on and kids at the door in a millisecond rather than "let's go get in the van."

[KrisM]

LOL - and please make a blank template for the rest of us on Google Docs so we can weigh out our options in the future. It'll be fun to see what the kriskalculator comes up with!

Once I have time to get it done, I'll be happy to share it .

[KrisM]

I generally don't want to provide food either, but I really really like having down time at night with kids in bed far away . I don't want to have to sit on the edge of their bed to relax quietly while they sleep. I want to sit on the balcony and enjoy a beer while they're inside sleeping in another room.

I should go this year - getting them in the van is easy as they are still so excited it's a van and not a Malibu! We just got back from visiting family and DS1 gave them a 10 minute tour of the van .