No Car so need best off site hotel

[leebee]

While it IS possible to rent a car cheaply in Orlando, you also have to figure in the cost of gasoline and the $20 a day parking fee if you are going to Disney. This can easily add $100 to your car rental costs. If you want to stay at Disney, you could try Orbitz for a Disney hotel room. You can add Orbitz current discount code, travelbug, for an additional 15% off. Bo to Orbitz and search Walt Disney World Resorts. It should bring up all the Disney hotels they have in their inventory. Click on the cheapest one, and when it brings up the reservation page, somewhere on the page (before you enter payment info) it should say "I have a coupon or promotion code" or something like that. Click on it and enter the code, and it'll recalculate the total for your room. Right now I see All Stars Movies, 6/21-6/28, for $1084 for 7 nights, tax included (avg. $154 a night with tax). Not a great deal, but Disney is pretty booked up in June. A compact car for that week is $205 incl. tax (carrentalsavers.com) through Dollar, which you'll need to get to/from the airport and to the parks if you are offsite. SO... if you deduct the cost of the rental car and $140 for 6 days parking and $20 for gas/tolls (so $345) from the cost of a Disney room, you end up with an adjusted hotel "cost" of $739 for the onsite room.
(I looked at Orbitz and the Red Lion Hotel Orlando-Kissimmee Maingate- about 3 miles rom WDW- would be $650 for these dates in June, but you'd have to add the $345 for the rental car and parking, so you'd be at $995 for offsite. I checked the free shuttle schedule and it's ridiculous- NO WAY are you going to want to use it!)

I am usually an offsite fan, but for the $90 I'd go onsite.

 

[TamaraQT]

While it IS possible to rent a car cheaply in Orlando, you also have to figure in the cost of gasoline and the $20 a day parking fee if you are going to Disney. This can easily add $100 to your car rental costs. If you want to stay at Disney, you could try Orbitz for a Disney hotel room. You can add Orbitz current discount code, travelbug, for an additional 15% off. Bo to Orbitz and search Walt Disney World Resorts. It should bring up all the Disney hotels they have in their inventory. Click on the cheapest one, and when it brings up the reservation page, somewhere on the page (before you enter payment info) it should say "I have a coupon or promotion code" or something like that. Click on it and enter the code, and it'll recalculate the total for your room. Right now I see All Stars Movies, 6/21-6/28, for $1084 for 7 nights, tax included (avg. $154 a night with tax). Not a great deal, but Disney is pretty booked up in June. A compact car for that week is $205 incl. tax (carrentalsavers.com) through Dollar, which you'll need to get to/from the airport and to the parks if you are offsite. SO... if you deduct the cost of the rental car and $140 for 6 days parking and $20 for gas/tolls (so $345) from the cost of a Disney room, you end up with an adjusted hotel "cost" of $739 for the onsite room.
(I looked at Orbitz and the Red Lion Hotel Orlando-Kissimmee Maingate- about 3 miles rom WDW- would be $650 for these dates in June, but you'd have to add the $345 for the rental car and parking, so you'd be at $995 for offsite. I checked the free shuttle schedule and it's ridiculous- NO WAY are you going to want to use it!)

I am usually an offsite fan, but for the $90 I'd go onsite.

I like the way you used FAIR price comparisons and I completely agree that onsite is a better option....UNTIL I thought about how much MEALS will cost onsite vs off-site. I think in the end the savings will be more substantial than $90 for offsite than onsite. Maybe the cost of meals should be a deciding factor???? But then again, the convenience of not having to drive back and forth to restaurants still may give on-site a little more of an edge. Save money off-site but it doesn't factor in the convenience like onsite does. So....if the OP only wants to go to Disney then onsite STILL makes sense.

 

[leebee]

I like the way you used FAIR price comparisons and I completely agree that onsite is a better option....UNTIL I thought about how much MEALS will cost onsite vs off-site. I think in the end the savings will be more substantial than $90 for offsite than onsite. Maybe the cost of meals should be a deciding factor???? But then again, the convenience of not having to drive back and forth to restaurants still may give on-site a little more of an edge. Save money off-site but it doesn't factor in the convenience like onsite does. So....if the OP only wants to go to Disney then onsite STILL makes sense.

Yeah, meals are too variable for me to calculate them. We always eat breakfast in our room, so I pack food in our suitcases: Mini bagels, pb, cheese&triscuits, yogurt (freeze before packing), fruit sauce pouches. We'd do this whether we were onsite or off (unless there is free hotel breakfast, but even then we usually bring along our own breakfast). We usually arrive at the parks around 10:30am so we stay the whole day; therefore, unless we are having a "down" day, we eat lunch and dinner in the parks, usually splitting a quick service meal for lunch and then doing a TS for dinner. For us it's not worth the time to schlep back and forth to an offsite hotel/restaurant for dinner. This is how we tour Disney... but I have no idea how others would want to handle meals. If you are rope-droppers and go back to your hotel for the afternoon, then I can see having meals offsite, but that'd NEVER work for us!

 

[Klayfish]

EDIT: Nevermind, forgot this was about hotels. My response was about condos.

 

[HopperFan]

If you don't want to get a car ............ Disney Springs hotels are your best bet or budget plenty of transportation $.

 

[Scootchu]

My experience with staying at the main gate hotels was pleasant. We stayed at the Double Tree and they have/had nice suites that were very reasonable. The staff was always pleasant and it was always nice to get a continental breakfast with occasional upgrade to "hot" breakfasts. We visited probably 5 times and in the beginning they had bus transport that was shared between 4-5 hotels and left every 15 mins or so, but on the last trips it was every half hour. It was probably the most fun we had in the hotel rooms we have stayed in. The kids were younger and we just had a great time when we were there.

I do rent a car every time we fly in. At first it was to negate the cost of a cab or shuttle to the hotel and airport. Double Tree has a rental desk in it's lobby, so I started renting a car on arrival day and departure day. We also fly into Tampa and drive. Times and prices were better doing that rather than Orlando. We have it down to a science. Now I shop for discounts on rental cars and it's usually about $230 for the week, but I like the independence and freedom it gives us regardless of where we stay on or off property.

 

[Sprockie]

I like the way you used FAIR price comparisons and I completely agree that onsite is a better option....UNTIL I thought about how much MEALS will cost onsite vs off-site. I think in the end the savings will be more substantial than $90 for offsite than onsite. Maybe the cost of meals should be a deciding factor???? But then again, the convenience of not having to drive back and forth to restaurants still may give on-site a little more of an edge. Save money off-site but it doesn't factor in the convenience like onsite does. So....if the OP only wants to go to Disney then onsite STILL makes sense.

We are booked at the Doubletree at Disney Springs this fall. We got the free parking package from disneyspringshotels website. We will have a rental car for supplies/meals out. We thought of staying onsite as well, but the meals are what pushed me over the edge. Our kids are 12 and 16, so no kids meals here. I bet we'd spend at least $150/day for a medeocre lunch and dinner for the 4 of us at Disney. I'd much rather spend $100/day offsite and have great meals at one of the many many restaurants within a mile of the hotel. The room is about $100/night cheaper than POFQ, and gives us a two room suite, which will be essential for us for a 10 day stay.

 

[richmo]

Just to pile on...

"No car" and "best off site hotel" are in direct conflict with one another. Unless you're staying at one of the Hotel Plaza Blvd. hotels, get a car. Offsite shuttles have lousy schedules and really force you into definite time slots (assuming they show up and aren't too full). At least the Hotel Plaza Blvd places have a regular bus schedule, but, as has been pointed out, they are likely more expensive than a Disney Value.

Get a car...and if you don't, be sure to have Uber/Lyft setup on your phone, because you might need it.

 

[TamaraQT]

We are booked at the Doubletree at Disney Springs this fall. We got the free parking package from disneyspringshotels website. We will have a rental car for supplies/meals out. We thought of staying onsite as well, but the meals are what pushed me over the edge. Our kids are 12 and 16, so no kids meals here. I bet we'd spend at least $150/day for a medeocre lunch and dinner for the 4 of us at Disney. I'd much rather spend $100/day offsite and have great meals at one of the many many restaurants within a mile of the hotel. The room is about $100/night cheaper than POFQ, and gives us a two room suite, which will be essential for us for a 10 day stay.

I agree...the meals make a difference. I was reading on the FREE DINING thread yesterday. I was surprised to learn that Free Dining isn't always a good deal either. The cost to eating off-site can save enough to have a rental car. Also, the meals off-site are far better in cost AND quality IMHO. For hotel stay, I go a step further and stay at a TimeShare Resort. Almost the same in cost per day and I get to relax in a jacuzzi at night and drinks on a balcony...and the kids have their OWN rooms. But then again, I always stress we go to ORLANDO for vacation and not just to DISNEY. So that makes a difference in choices too.

 

[spiceycat]

summer is expensive no matter where you stay. timeshares are a great bargain -but they in demand in the summer like everything else.

 

[Accident]

I didn't see anyone mention this but I think most of the good neighbor hotels have free shuttles to disney and some surprisingly low rates, espcially if you want something like a suite or kitchen to cook in.. https://www.wdwgoodneighborhotels.com/ is the disney run website to find them. Catch 22 that always seems to sneak up is they all have daily fees on top of the room fee. This is because of how taxes work and if it's bundled with the room, they have to add on a much higher tax so it's separated into service and room costs. Just make sure you know the total cost to stay somewhere..

Now if you had special needs, or needed a couple rooms then offsite always saves money, it's really the "can you stay at a disney value" where cost wise it gets very blurry on which is the better total cost of vacation.

I've priced this a lot lately (I live here and helping friends and family visiting find a place that works best for them).. If it's a single room, you don't need much it's hard to beat a value resort at disney with the extras like transportation around property that runs often, free transportation to/from the airport. The cost of food is easily reduced making use of delivery services like garden grocer. Generally it's easy to get breakfast, lunch and bottled water that is easy to store in the tiny fridge. Cereal, energy style bars, fresh fruit, donuts, bagels. things that really don't need to be refrigerated and then a reasonable size milk or deli meats.. I personally like something else for 1 meal a day so maybe it'll be lunch you get and do dinner and breakfast for example.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

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.

what hotel do you usually stay at?

 

[richmo]

I didn't see anyone mention this but I think most of the good neighbor hotels have free shuttles to disney and some surprisingly low rates, espcially if you want something like a suite or kitchen to cook in.. https://www.wdwgoodneighborhotels.com/ is the disney run website to find them. ...

There's a lot of "good neighbor" hotels. Frankly, I think the main criteria is they let Disney put in advertising displays and in many cases, a desk with a cast member. The shuttle used by these hotels varies greatly in quality and frequency. I'll stick with my earlier comment that if you're staying at a non-Disney hotel, its best to have a car, with the exception of Hotel Plaza Blvd properties (and maybe Bonnet Creek?)...and if you do stay at another without a car, at least have Uber/Lyft app on your phone...just in case.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

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?

When I first read the original posters' comment. I thought the Values are too expensive. But now I am not so sure if they mean the values or they mean something else like moderates and deluxe. Because my recommendation will be very different.

 

[Brian Noble]

We won't have a car so need a hotel that offers good transport to and from the parks.

I would put off the trip until you can afford either a rental car, or an onsite stay. There isn't any offsite resort that has shuttle service comparable to a Disney resort. (And I write that as someone who has enjoyed numerous offsite stays---but always with a rental car.)

 

[AdamEfimoff]

Dear OP,
Trips are time and money. When is your next vacation? When was your last vacation? When was your last Vacation, Is this something you really want or need? We have unlimited wants. We need to prioritise those wants. I learnt something really valuable patience is a virtue. It took me 6 years to plan my USA trip it was so perfect . I really worry about doing any trip any sooner now

 

[cmorris303]

We just stayed at Best Western in Disney Springs for 5 nights over Easter. We didn't have a car either and relied on the Disney Spring buses. We had no problems at all. The buses leave every 30 min. It was really easy to work our schedule around the bus pickup. We were the first pick up and the first drop off so we didn't have to deal with the bus being full when it picked up up. That happened quite a few times for the last hotel to be picked up, which was one of the Hiltons. The walk to Disney Springs was enjoyable. I booked through Travelocity and used a coupon code to get an extra 15% off. Our total with resort fees was about $200 less that a value with my AP discount. We would definitely stay there again.

 

[LSLS]

Values may be on par price wise, but certainly not any other way. We just stayed at the Hilton Buena Palace and it was AMAZING. The room were huge, it has a nice pool, lazy river, multiple places to eat/drink, easy walk to the springs, and buses running to the parks. And with the cost of the values now and adding in the resort charge, it was still $15 a night less than a value.

 

[Sprockie]

We just stayed at Best Western in Disney Springs for 5 nights over Easter. We didn't have a car either and relied on the Disney Spring buses. We had no problems at all. The buses leave every 30 min. It was really easy to work our schedule around the bus pickup. We were the first pick up and the first drop off so we didn't have to deal with the bus being full when it picked up up. That happened quite a few times for the last hotel to be picked up, which was one of the Hiltons. The walk to Disney Springs was enjoyable. I booked through Travelocity and used a coupon code to get an extra 15% off. Our total with resort fees was about $200 less that a value with my AP discount. We would definitely stay there again.

Can you tell me if the Doubletree is one of the first on the pickup route too (right across from Best Western from what I see). We're staying there this fall and I'd love to know if we're first or last.

 

[maxiesmom]

Values may be on par price wise, but certainly not any other way. We just stayed at the Hilton Buena Palace and it was AMAZING. The room were huge, it has a nice pool, lazy river, multiple places to eat/drink, easy walk to the springs, and buses running to the parks. And with the cost of the values now and adding in the resort charge, it was still $15 a night less than a value.

I guess it depends on what you want out of a vacation. I usually spend little to no time hanging out at the resort. So giving up free transportation to my hotel, and bus service that is far superior to any off site hotel is out of the question.