Editor’s Note: My next post was supposed to be about the budgeting spreadsheet, but I’m discovering as I work through it that a lot of information and pricing has changed since I first built the spreadsheet a year and a half ago, including what options are available on Disney Tickets, etc. Add to that a desire to provide a better tool for everyone, by making the spreadsheet even more user friendly, and the post isn’t done yet. Hopefully it will be ready soon, but in the meantime, here’s a post about the first major decision you will need to make when planning a Disney World Vacation…
Where Are You Staying?
This is far and beyond the biggest decision you’ll make when it comes to planning a trip to Walt Disney World – this one simple choice will dramatically effect almost all of your options and the timings for reservations for the trip – at least as it regards your time on Disney Property. There’s many options for where to stay – both on and off-property. On property, you’ve got a selection of various Disney-run resorts of various pricing/amenities, plus independently run resorts/hotels on-property (the Swan, the Dolphin, Shades of Green – for military families, and hotels at Disney Springs). Off-property options abound as well and include camping and RV, hotels ranging from extremely inexpensive to luxury hotels, renting a home, staying at an off-site resort, etc.
Off-site guests get essentially none of the direct benefits available to on-site guests, and several disadvantages. On-site guests all get a certain set of benefits and advantages, but certain ones are reserved for Disney-run resorts only.
The key things to understand are that:
- Almost any on-site resort is going to be dramatically more expensive than any equivalent off-site hotel or resort with the same amenities. This is especially true for the Disney-run ones. (Most of the on-site options are Disney-run.)
- You can therefore get a much nicer room off-property for the same or potentially less money, or you can get a similar, much cheaper room off-property if you are trying to save money.
- A great deal of the timings and options available to you are driven by whether you are staying in on-site Disney-run lodging.
- Non-Disney-run on-site options generally give you a subset of the perks and options – but only some of them.
If you are staying onsite at a Disney-run resort:
- You can purchase a dining plan as part of your vacation package. There are multiple options with different features, but all the dining plans are available ONLY to Disney-run resort guests. Determining whether a dining plan is worthwhile for your family or not will be the subject of a future post.
- If flying into Orlando International Airport (MCO), you can use Magical Express. This is a free shuttle to/from the Orlando International Airport to/from the Disney Resorts – they even get your bags for you without you having to wait at the airport for them.
- Your theme park tickets are automatically upgraded to MagicBands for free. MagicBands are RFID-enabled bracelets that are used for Fastpass+ (more on that in a second), get scanned automatically for on-ride photos, function as your room key, can be linked to payment information to enable paying for things in the parks by touching a reader, etc.
If you are staying onsite at an independent resort (hotels at Disney Springs, the Swan, the Dolphin, or Shades of Green), you generally get the following perks (guests at Disney-run resorts also get all these perks as well):
- You can schedule meals for days 1-11 of your trip, beginning 180 days before the first day of the trip, for any meals you are eating on Disney Property.
- You can make FastPass+ reservations starting 60 days before the first day of the trip.
- FastPass+ lets you reserve specific times to ride specific popular attractions, allowing you to skip the line.
- You get access to the parks during Extra Magic Hours. Typically one park either opens early or closes late each day – only resort guests are allowed in the park during those hours.
- Free parking at the theme parks.
- Free use of the Disney Transportation System – Buses, Boats, Monorails, etc. to get from place to place within the resort.
- You can have theme park purchases delivered to your room so you don’t have to carry them yourself.
If you are staying offsite, you therefore have the following disadvantages:
- Cannot purchase a dining plan to prepay your meals.
- Cannot use Magical Express to get to/from the airport if flying via Orlando International Airport (MCO).
- Have to pay extra to have your tickets tied to MagicBands.
- Cannot schedule meals for days 1-11 all at once. You can schedule meals 180 days before the actual day you’d be eating. Since many reservations go quick, this can mean that you’ll need to go make reservations for each day’s meals separately.
- This is primarily an annoyance, because it means you’ll be logging into the website and reserving one day’s meals, and then doing the same thing each day for the next several days, until finally you are 180 days away from the last day of your trip, at which point you can make reservations for any of the days of your trip (with whatever reservations are left).
- You have to wait until 30 days before arrival to make your FastPass+ reservations. Some of the best options will be gone – and FastPasses for anything brand new are all but guaranteed to be gone.
- You do not get to enjoy Extra Magic Hours.
- You have to pay for parking at the theme parks.
- You have to carry all your purchases around all day, or have them delivered to the front of the park for package pickup on the way out of the park.
There are advantages to staying offsite, however:
- You’ll probably need transportation to be able to get places. This also means you can go anywhere you want, such as other area attractions, the beach, etc.
- Saving $.
- Just more freedom in general.
Disney’s done what it can to discourage you from staying offsite. Having said that, I find it really hard to justify paying to stay onsite. I myself have never stayed onsite, but opinions do differ – a good friend of mine insists it’s the only way to do it because it is so nice. After theme park tickets, lodging is likely going to be your next highest expense – and I personally would prefer a longer stay at cheaper lodging so that I can visit the parks more.
There is a case to be made for staying onsite. The ideal family to stay onsite loves “Disney Magic” and wants to completely immerse themselves in the environment. Disney is known around the world for having exceptional service. To get the most value out of staying onsite, this family would:
- Fly into Orlando International Airport (MCO), using Magical Express to have themselves and their bags delivered to their resort. (And back to the airport at the end of their trip.)
- Plan to eat all meals on-site.
- Plan not to go to other non-Disney locations while visiting, so there is no need for rental cars, taxis, etc.
- Make reservations for all their meals at the 180-day mark, to take advantage of the benefit.
- Make reservations for their FastPasses at the 60-day mark, to take advantage of the benefit.
- Get a park-hopper pass – use the pass to attend Extra Magic Hours, but jump to another park the rest of the day to avoid the increased crowds.
- Use Disney Transportation (free) to get everywhere.
For those people, they’d save on having to rent a car or pay for other transportation, they’d be most likely to benefit from a meal plan (although they should still check out whether or not a meal plan makes financial sense for their family – tool coming soon), etc. It is still going to be a more expensive trip than doing it another way, but you will be “all Disney, all the time” if that matters to you.
For me, I generally prefer the combination of cost savings, flexibility, and ability to easily go many other places like Universal and LegoLand that staying off-site provides. For our trip in 2018, that’s exactly what we are planning. Furthermore, because we have a large-ish group going we are most likely going to be renting a home – the cost per person is comparable to a lower end motel, but with a lot more amenities and sometimes even a pool (or access to the housing community’s pool). Some meals, especially breakfasts, can easily be eaten there as well and cooked at “home” saving substantial money as well.
For you, the equation may well be different – but I encourage you to understand all the benefits of staying onsite vs. offsite before you decide and make the choice that is right for your family and budget.