Staying off-site at Disney World for the first time in ages, and we'll have a car - suggestions?

[katilac]

We haven't stayed off-site since before kids! The memories are distant, lol. 

 

We are staying at Wyndham Cypress Palms. As per google maps, about 20 mins to Magic Kingdom, 25 minutes to Epcot, and 15 minutes to either Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. 

 

The only off-site place we are likely to go to is Disney Springs, or possibly a Disney outlet if anyone can recommend one. 

 

If you Disney with a car, how do you do it?

 

Do you drive to one park and take Disney transportation until time to head home, or do you drive from park to park?

 

Are any of the parks better/worse for parking and getting into the park? 

 

Has anyone tried or heard about the new premium parking? We figure it only has to save 30+ minutes per day to be worth it, lol. 

 

Hit me up!

[Zebra]

We just did this a few years ago.   We would head to one park, do that until we had enough, and then head back to the condo.   We went in November, so I'm not sure if that has any impact on it.   The parks were busy but not insane by any means.  Parking and walking in wasn't that difficult.   We made sure to get to the park a little before they opened, parked, walked in.   For Magic Kingdom we had to take a boat over from the parking area, but that was as much fun as any of the rides.   For the other parks we did have to walk a bit, but I didn't think it was a big deal at all.

 

Disney Springs is fun.  Honestly, I enjoy going to the Orlando or Kissimmee Target/Walmart and looking at their souvenir sections too  :lol: !

 

I like doing Disney off-site with a car, but I am homebody who doesn't want to party at the parks all night.  We also found that being able to eat a big breakfast at the condo, bring lots of snacks to eat during the day at the park (like trail mix, granola bars, fruit), then eat dinner at the condo saved a ton of time, money and aggravation in the parks.   We would just eat one of our snacks while waiting in line.   Waiting in line to get food in Disney is a real buzzkill usually.

[katilac]

   Waiting in line to get food in Disney is a real buzzkill usually.

 

Have you heard that there's a new app that lets you order ahead of time at some places?? Like they've done for Be Our Guest in the past, you make the order and then let them know when you arrive. We will use that at least twice, so I'm really hoping it saves some time. 

 

I'm glad to hear it's not a big hassle to park and walk. I don't remember it being so, but a lot can change in 20 years or so, lol. 

[Lanny]

We stayed off-site (Summer Bay Orlando, Timeshare) and we had a rental car. You pay once for the day for WDW in the parking lot of the first park that you are going to visit that day. Maybe that will be the only park you visit that day. We were on Park Hopper tickets, for 4 days. 2 of the days we were in the same park all day. One day we were in (I believe) 2 parks. One day we were in all 4 parks.

 

One day we did retrieve the car and drive to the parking lot of the 2nd park. Showed them the receipt for the parking we had paid  in the first parking lot and we didn't need to pay for parking again.

 

Another day, I think that was the day we'd planned to be in EPCOT all day and left very early, we ended up in all 4 parks. We had gotten a very close-in parking space and we left our car at EPCOT and took the Disney shuttle buses to the other parks. When we finished that night, we made our way back to EPCOT and retrieved the car from the parking lot.

 

Either way, you are going to lose time, if you move from one park to another park.

 

ENJOY YOUR TRIP!

 

 

[PeterPan]

We were just there, staying offsite, but we had an ECV in our party. ECVs can't go on the trolleys for parking, so they park you in the handicapped overflow (or regular handicapped if you bring your pass). I did see the premium parking. Don't those people pay like $40 a day? Ouch. With regular parking, you pay the $20 and it's good all day, right? I have an annual pass now (it came out cheaper for us), so we don't pay to park. The trolleys didn't seem THAT inconvenient, and even the handicapped overflow, which is in front of the Premium parking btw, is still a jaunt. Like me, after a long day in the park, I'd be just as happy to get on the trolley and have it take a little longer.

 

How many days are you going? Do the math. If even *one* person in your party has an annual pass, you'll get free parking, discounts at major restaurants, discounts at the gift shops. If you're thinking you want premium parking and were willing to pay that, you might be money ahead to go with an annual pass, get the free parking and discounts, and be tempted to go back. Oh, I didn't say that. :D

[scbusf]

Yes, one day of parking is good at all 4 parks for that same day.

 

We just went to Orlando and stayed off prpoerty, but we only did 1 park per day. We got there as soon as each park opened and stayed the entire day.

 

Disney Outlets - Our favorites are called Disney Character Outlets. There are 2 of them - both at Premium Outlet Centers. One is really close to Disney. The other is about 20 minutes into Orlando.

[PeterPan]

Staying off-site is easy peasy btw. I have no clue why there's the lure to stay on-site. We're going to with my dad this next trip, because he really likes Shades of Green. With his larger, non-portable ECV, staying on-site makes sense. But just in general, yeah, why pay $300+ a night when you can pay $100 a night and have a whole house or condo with a hot tub and pool. Amen.

 

I know there's EMH. Guess it depends on the stamina of your party, sigh. 

 

Staying onsite, without the extra nice amenities like a hot tub outside your door and a 3 bedroom condo, you're more likely to get up early, etc. For us, it was so lovely to sit on the balcony, sip tea, chat, take a swim, then go in. You might find your own pace. And if that happens, you might kinda not car about the park hoppers. 

 

Do you know about security? It isn't arduous, but it takes time. You're not going to just walk up and scan in. Every single park you go to AND sometimes even at TTC (yes, for real), you're going to have security. So park hopping is going to take 30 minutes longer than what you were used to. Might not, but just plan on it. They've got metal detectors, the whole nine yards. Sometimes, sometimes they take it down later in the day, like after dinner, so a late park hop for Fantasmic might not take so long. But just in general, yeah you have to factor it in. I do like park hopping, but it's a deterrent. 

 

Honestly, we really, really love Disney, but we LOVED just hanging at the condo. We liked it so much, we were like hello why did we pay for Disney as well? You never know, lol. I would put your money into stuff or food, not parking, just me personally. Unless it's like level 10 day, bang up full (in which case I would not be there), I would put your money in stuff, not the parking. On a level 5 day on Touring Plans, it's just not SO much better. I'd rather eat more Mickey bars or have more treats. 

 

Yes on the mobile ordering btw. Stellar, stellar, HIGHLY recommend. You really, really want to have the MDE app downloaded and all set up. Mobile ordering is super easy. For Be Our Guest, if you have a lunch reservation or breakfast, yes you can order ahead. You ahve to do it by the night before. If you don't, you're gonna cry at the line. Ds is horrible in lines and has the DAS. For him, mobile ordering is just a way of life, essential. It's really slick at Satuli Canteen btw. That's the new Pandora restaurant in AK. Works GREAT. You'll love it. Plan on eating there a bunch. I'm planning on doing the mobile ordering at Columbia Harbor House next time we go. Stood in line there with ds on a low crowd day, and it just was awful. I would assume you can order day off, right before, for Columbia Harbor House, just like you can with Satuli Canteen. Just for BoG they want it the night before.

 

They need to do mobile ordering for Gaston's Tavern and those insane cinnamon rolls.  :drool5:

 

When are you going? Have you made your plans on Touring Plans yet? Will it be soon so you can hit a holiday party or after Christmas? January is a wonderful time to go, great weather, no heat. 

[Ellie]

We're going next Tuesday. We can hardly wait. We're also staying off-site, so I'm taking notes, y'all. :-)

[shawthorne44]

We are starting to plan a trip to Disney World for early 2019.   Yes, I am a planner, why do you ask?   Originally we were thinking of staying onsite because "They" say you get more time at the park.  But after talking to some friends we are totally staying offsite.   They said that being onsite, really doesn't buy you much time, and the price difference in lodging is huge.   They got a 5 bedroom house for $600/week, and they shared that with another family that was relatives.  Before the other family joined them, they had reserved a 3 bedroom condo for $400/week.  For that price, we can build in some Rest and Recover days where we don't go to Disney.  The reason for planned date is that DH is finally willing to go because of Star Wars, and he wants to wait until they shake out the kinks. 

[katilac]

For us, it was so lovely to sit on the balcony, sip tea, chat, take a swim, then go in.  

 

Do you know about security?  

 

Yes on the mobile ordering btw. Stellar, stellar, HIGHLY recommend. Y 

 

 

When are you going? Have you made your plans on Touring Plans yet? Will it be soon so you can hit a holiday party or after Christmas? January is a wonderful time to go, great weather, no heat. 

 

We definitely hit the parks hard, not much sipping tea on balconies for us, lol. We take relaxing vacations, or we take Disney vacations  :laugh:

 

Yes, I know about the increased security, at least I hope I do and it hasn't gotten even worse since 2015. I'm playing around with the days, whether it makes sense to use the car to get to the next park if it means we can dump everything and have no bags for security. For example, one night we will head to MK just for the fireworks, so won't need much. 

 

I am so happy to hear the mobile ordering is helpful!! What do you recommend at Satuli? 

 

We're in the parks December 16-21, because we're insane. I really miss the homeschooling days of going in October and November, but I do love the parks at the holidays. We were bombarded with the Brazilian tour groups the second time we tried January, and were also lucky enough to have super cold weather, lol. We were not in a hurry to repeat that (and can't anyway with the college kids). 

 

I've been adjusting plans as we add FastPasses and stuff, finally done with that and can really nail things down. Yep, I use Touring Plans also. There are several new things to fit in! 

 

 

We just went to Orlando and stayed off prpoerty, but we only did 1 park per day. We got there as soon as each park opened and stayed the entire day.

 

 

That's what we used to do, and it worked very well. In 2015, we went close to Christmas, and our package required getting park hoppers. We don't have a package this time, but we are hopping because it can be really helpful during that crowded week. Like we will go to Magic Kingdom in the morning on a MVMCP day, so crowds are low there. Then we head over to Epcot for the evening and have Fast Passes. 

 

We are starting to plan a trip to Disney World for early 2019.   Yes, I am a planner, why do you ask?   Originally we were thinking of staying onsite because "They" say you get more time at the park.  But after talking to some friends we are totally staying offsite.   They said that being onsite, really doesn't buy you much time, and the price difference in lodging is huge.   They got a 5 bedroom house for $600/week, and they shared that with another family that was relatives.  Before the other family joined them, they had reserved a 3 bedroom condo for $400/week.  For that price, we can build in some Rest and Recover days where we don't go to Disney.  The reason for planned date is that DH is finally willing to go because of Star Wars, and he wants to wait until they shake out the kinks. 

 

Planning Disney is nearly as fun as going to Disney! 

 

We do find that staying onsite buys us a lot of time, because so few people actually make rope drop for early magic hours. We can get an incredible amount done in the first couple of hours with no rushing - we actually have a pic of Frontier Land, with absolutely no people in it. That was an amazing morning at MK. 

 

The price difference for lodging is indeed substantial, but we've always done value resorts with free dining, which is an abundance of food for us. I loved not looking at the price of each thing (it's hard to turn that habit off), and telling the kids "yes" every time they wanted ice cream. And the kids, all of us really, enjoy the themed properties and rooms. 

 

Our budget has a little more wiggle room these days, so I'm pretty sure I can chill about food expenses, lol. And we do like to plan ahead, so there won't be a ton of surprises - I can estimate how much Tokyo Dining will be, and so on. 

[PeterPan]

What to eat at Satuli Canteen? I went with the vege base I think, which turned out to be salad-ish), chicken, quinoa, and the chimichurri sauce. The fish another person got looked really good too. The desserts were all really good. Sometimes I got double, hehe. The char on the meat is really good and the flavor is SO good. I think you'll be happy with anything you order. We kept finding ourselves going back. It was really a high point of the trip. 

[sbgrace]

We've always stayed in condos off site with a car. We got park hopper tickets our last trip, and I found them nice in that we didn't feel we had to pack so much into each day at a given park on a given day. Still, I generally think we used it to spend time at a less crowded park, but hop to a more crowded for, say, fireworks late in the day. We also used it toward the end of multi-day tickets to hit just the high points of certain parks I think. We may have done 3 in a day the last day, just to enjoy this or that once more.

 

You can monorail between Magic Kingdom and Epcot--easy. We did that more than once. I believe we did boat between Hollywood Studios and  Epcot at least once. 

 

I think everything is bus to Animal Kingdom for Disney between park transport. We just drove to Animal Kingdom, which generally closes earlier during times we've stayed, condo for dinner, then to another park for fireworks or whatever. 

 

 

 

 

[Twolittleboys]

I think the week before Christmas shouldn't be too bad for crowds. Most kids are still in school, right? We went during that time and it wasn't bad at all - however it was quite a number of years ago and I know parks have gotten a lot busier overall. Just don't pick a Saturday to go to the mall (we got so wrapped up in Disney I never even thougth about people going Christmas shopping and it was a madhouse).

[katilac]

I think the week before Christmas shouldn't be too bad for crowds. Most kids are still in school, right? We went during that time and it wasn't bad at all - however it was quite a number of years ago and I know parks have gotten a lot busier overall. Just don't pick a Saturday to go to the mall (we got so wrapped up in Disney I never even thougth about people going Christmas shopping and it was a madhouse).

 

We did similar timing two years ago, and it's only the last day or so that gets really crowded. I'm hoping that holds true again! Also, we always finish up at Magic Kingdom, and luckily our final day is one when they have the ticketed Christmas party at night (so much lighter crowds during the day, because the park closes early).