No Car so need best off site hotel

tinkandonaldfans

tinkandonaldfans

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Trying to convince DH to go for 7 days in June but budget doesn't really allow for a Disney hotel which we would normally use. We won't have a car so need a hotel that offers good transport to and from the parks. Can anyone suggest anywhere to try?
 
I would suggest one of the Disney Springs area hotels: http://disneyspringshotels.com/

I have stayed at the Holiday Inn - It is basic but nice and sometimes you can get deals where your breakfast is included. They have "shared" shuttles that go to the parks every 30 min. One bus will go to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom and another bus will go to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
 
tinkandonaldfans said:
Trying to convince DH to go for 7 days in June but budget doesn't really allow for a Disney hotel which we would normally use. We won't have a car so need a hotel that offers good transport to and from the parks. Can anyone suggest anywhere to try?
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None, unfortunately. The next best thing would be a Disney Springs hotel, but they typically cost the same or more than a Disney value. And you would have to pay to get to that resort, no free shuttle.


Most off site resorts that have a shuttle run them at set times, and those times are very limited. And/or they charge to use them. Some only take you to the TTC and you need to make your way from there. Some dump you off in the outer reaches of the parking lots.

I've stayed off site a few times, but I would never ever do it without a car. Even if it meant cutting a day off of your trip, you either need to rent a car or stay on site.
 
We were going to stay offsite as well for our upcoming trip but when I ran the math, staying at a Disney Value was cheaper or on par with the cost of other hotels. I mean you have to budget in an airport transfer, Uber and/or cab fare to get to the parks if you don't want to be tied to the offsite transfers that only happen a few times a day, and potentially resort fees. When you add all that up, a Disney value is usually a better price.
 


Yep, as others said I would strongly suggest getting a car. Having to rely on a hotel shuttle will be bad...really bad. You can rent an off site condo for pretty cheap, about $70/night, maybe less. You can also get rental cars from MCO dirt cheap too, because there is so much competition.

I wouldn't stay without a car (onsite or off).
 
Thanks everyone, I thought this might be the case! will have to find an alternative. Haven't stayed offsite for over 10 years so hoped it might have improved but guess not.
 
tinkandonaldfans said:
Thanks everyone, I thought this might be the case! will have to find an alternative. Haven't stayed offsite for over 10 years so hoped it might have improved but guess not.
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I have spent hours trying to find deals off site and it is so challenging. I think I find one, then I realize that there are parking and resort fees that add $40 a night to the deal I thought I was getting.

I would also not rely on hotel shuttles to get me to the parks. We recently stayed at the Holiday Inn Waterpark Resort and it is very near Disney and has some really good value rates you can find sometimes, but their shuttles are not great. They fill up a day or so in advance and the times are not ideal. We ended up driving everywhere and never making use of the shuttles due to inconvenient shuttle times and/or full shuttles.

By the time you pay transport costs, you really do get the best deal out of the Disney Values if you don't have a car (and even often when you do).

In all of my conversations with people, the only reason I know that is a good reason to stay off site as opposed to onsite is if you need multiple bed and bathrooms. It is hard to get two beds and two baths on property without spending a fortune, but you can get some really good deals off site. If you must have multiple bed and bathrooms, then off site can be a good deal, even with paying Uber fees. But if you only need one room and a couple of beds to sleep in, then the values are probably the way to go.

Actually I will add another reason to stay off site: if you are doing other parks besides Disney, then staying off site might be a good option. The parks may only be a few miles apart, but the traffic can be terrible. It might take you half an hour to go a few miles.
 


try priceline name your price for car rental, but try to stay on-site, Disney tickets are pricey to waste time on a unreliable service, and most off site hotel do charge extra for shuttles that will cut your park time.
 
I agree with everyone else. You need a spend money on a car to be able to save money on your lodging.
 
I think this also depends on how many people you have, if you have few enough to stay at a value resort hotel and don't mind that then that is less expensive. If you have a party size large enough that you have to start staying in the family suites then off-site can save money (at least when I've run the math it can) BUT I agree that you NEED a car. Rentals from MCO are cheap so if you do a condo with a full kitchen you can probably save money making your own breakfast, etc. Also if you like nicer hotels / resorts look at the VRBO site you can sometimes find timeshares for your dates that are reasonable and then you get the resort experience for less... Good luck!
 
tinkandonaldfans said:
Thanks everyone, I thought this might be the case! will have to find an alternative. Haven't stayed offsite for over 10 years so hoped it might have improved but guess not.
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Are you a Costco member? They offer great rates on rental cars.

Oh, don't forget if you rent a car and stay off site they do charge for parking.
 
AtlantaDisneyDreamer said:
I have spent hours trying to find deals off site and it is so challenging. I think I find one, then I realize that there are parking and resort fees that add $40 a night to the deal I thought I was getting.

I would also not rely on hotel shuttles to get me to the parks. We recently stayed at the Holiday Inn Waterpark Resort and it is very near Disney and has some really good value rates you can find sometimes, but their shuttles are not great. They fill up a day or so in advance and the times are not ideal. We ended up driving everywhere and never making use of the shuttles due to inconvenient shuttle times and/or full shuttles.

By the time you pay transport costs, you really do get the best deal out of the Disney Values if you don't have a car (and even often when you do).

In all of my conversations with people, the only reason I know that is a good reason to stay off site as opposed to onsite is if you need multiple bed and bathrooms. It is hard to get two beds and two baths on property without spending a fortune, but you can get some really good deals off site. If you must have multiple bed and bathrooms, then off site can be a good deal, even with paying Uber fees. But if you only need one room and a couple of beds to sleep in, then the values are probably the way to go.

Actually I will add another reason to stay off site: if you are doing other parks besides Disney, then staying off site might be a good option. The parks may only be a few miles apart, but the traffic can be terrible. It might take you half an hour to go a few miles.
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I can't say I agree with much of this. Where are you looking to try to find off site deals? We use VRBO and have never, in at least 10-15 different stays, paid a parking or resort fee. The only fee we ever pay is a cleaning fee, which is usually around $75-$100. For our upcoming trip, we're very lucky to be able to stay for 17 nights. I'd have to go find my rental agreement, but I'm paying something like $1175...all in. Includes taxes, cleaning fee, etc... That's for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house. Not going to find anything like that at a value resort on property.

I certainly do agree with having a car and not relying on shuttles. If you don't bring your own car, rental cars are super cheap in Orlando due to the competition.

If you're from Atlanta, like I am, then you realize what real traffic is. The "traffic" around WDW is not bad at all, even in the middle of rush hour. We've never had it take us 30 minutes to go a few miles. Sure, some of the roads are heavily congested, but they don't take THAT long to get through.
 
Klayfish said:
I can't say I agree with much of this. Where are you looking to try to find off site deals? We use VRBO and have never, in at least 10-15 different stays, paid a parking or resort fee. The only fee we ever pay is a cleaning fee, which is usually around $75-$100. For our upcoming trip, we're very lucky to be able to stay for 17 nights. I'd have to go find my rental agreement, but I'm paying something like $1175...all in. Includes taxes, cleaning fee, etc... That's for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house. Not going to find anything like that at a value resort on property.

I certainly do agree with having a car and not relying on shuttles. If you don't bring your own car, rental cars are super cheap in Orlando due to the competition.

If you're from Atlanta, like I am, then you realize what real traffic is. The "traffic" around WDW is not bad at all, even in the middle of rush hour. We've never had it take us 30 minutes to go a few miles. Sure, some of the roads are heavily congested, but they don't take THAT long to get through.
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Also from Atlanta and just back from Orlando. The traffic right around and within WDW is not bad, but my point was if you are traveling from a resort near Disney to Universal or SeaWorld or vice versa, you may be sitting in terrible traffic. I had never done this before and did not realize how bad it can be until I did it a couple of weeks ago. I will not book a resort six or eight miles away from the parks I am attending again, unless I am trying to visit multiple parks in one trip (which I don't usually do for a number of reasons).

Also, I think the original poster was asking about resorts with shuttles. I was responding to that. Rental homes do not have shuttles, so I wasn't including that in the analysis. Some rental homes might be a good value, but you also have to factor in parking costs at the parks and car rental fees. OP said they would have no car, so I don't think a rental house is a good choice for them. Rental houses also must be booked in advance and often have expensive cancelation fees. Resorts are nice because you can cancel them a few days before the arrival date.
 
Klayfish said:
I can't say I agree with much of this. Where are you looking to try to find off site deals? We use VRBO and have never, in at least 10-15 different stays, paid a parking or resort fee.
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I would say that many offsite hotels and "resorts" do charge additional fees and sometimes they can be up to $40 depending on how and where you book. Plus, you do have to account for $20 to park if you don't have an AP.

I've stayed offsite many times. The last three times I paid (all in): $222 for 7 days in a 1BR timeshare at Wyndham Cypress Palms, $450 for 7 days in a 2BR condo at Windsor Hills and $800 for a 4-bedroom home in Formosa Gardens. I did book all 3 of them within 1-2 months of my travel dates.

@tinkandonaldfans, another thing you could consider is to use Uber. I think it's about $25-$30 each way but that may come out to less than the cost of a car plus parking.
 
tinkandonaldfans said:
Trying to convince DH to go for 7 days in June but budget doesn't really allow for a Disney hotel which we would normally use. We won't have a car so need a hotel that offers good transport to and from the parks. Can anyone suggest anywhere to try?
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With June a little over a month away, may I suggest you take a look at the June 2017 Car Rental posts:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/june-2017-car-rental.3575002/page-3#post-57471473

I think before you completely rule out having a car, maybe run the numbers using some of the discount codes on that board. I have rented a car at MCO for 2 weeks and paid less than $200. I am thinking if it is only 2 people in your party you could probably do a compact or midsize for less than $100. That will also make it easier for you to eat meals off-site and the savings alone in meals will offset the rental car. Also you get to have a little extra vacation by getting to see other areas of Orlando since you will not be at the mercy of taxi's, shuttles and buses. Go give it a look. The rates may surprise you. You may save a few bucks by staying off-site but when you factor in the inconvenience of not having a car, then you really PAID MORE than you saved.

Now in case you are wondering, I am PRO off-site so I am not trying to talk you into staying onsite. But I do recommend onsite if you will NOT have a car. Personally, I think I get more out of vacation by staying offsite because we like to do more than Disney while in Orlando. We went from an annual 7 day vacation to an annual 14 day vacation by staying offsite. IF we go to Disney then we limit our Disney time to 3 to 5 days MAX!!!! We have stayed onsite at the beginning of our vacation for a few days, then continued the remainder of our vacation off-site at a timeshare resort. I have found MY KIDS enjoy it more that way. Best of both "WORLDS" so to speak.
 
I'm glad this thread popped back up. I just read another thread a few days ago that reminded me of it.

Apparently, the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista is (1) cheap, (2) has no resort fee, (3) gets good reviews and (4) has a free shuttle to WDW. I've read some of the Trip Advisor reviews and the shuttle can be difficult to use and limited but you can't have everything!
 
I'm not breaking any new ground here but I wouldn't stay offsite without a car. You can get really good deals in Orlando. Beyond that I'd grab a place within walking distance to Disney Springs but as others have said a value is often less expensive.

That being said the other alternative is Uber. It beats a taxi or relying on a shuttle and would allow you to stay at a wider range of places.
 
hsmamato2 said:
enjoyed your report...I am considering a stay at Best Western, and it sounds just fine for a night near Disney Springs!
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Its in the perfect location. Just a few minutes walk to many restaurants shops, about 7 - 10 minutes depending on how fast a walker you are!) to Disney Springs and all the outdoor entertainment. All rooms have balconies and I noticed during my walks that it is the only hotel on Hotel Plaza Blvd with tables and chairs in the balconies. On the other side of the street are some hotels, though they overlook a busy highway. BWLBV is small, so you are never far from any amenity and in a quiet location. I love it there!
 
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