On-site Disney hotels: please share your opinions!!!

[Stacia]

We are considering a rather last-minute trip to Disney. It would be our family of 4, plus my parents. My kids are 8 & 11 & are not too interested in the 'character' stuff (like meals, etc...).

 

We have been to Disney before w/ the kids, but stayed off-site. (When I was a kid, my family stayed at the Contemporary.) We want to do on-site this time, but I would love (& beg & plead for) opinions, pros/cons, & any other comments you have about the following Disney hotels:

 

Contemporary (we would get 2 rooms)

Wilderness Lodge (we would get 2 rooms)

Treehouse at Saratoga Springs (we would all fit in this suite)

Cabins at Fort Wilderness (we would get 2 cabins)

 

I realize that some of these are in different price categories. Somehow, the cabins seem appealing & kid-friendly (& generally have great reviews on-line). The Contemporary is most expensive, of course, & is it worth it to have monorail access? FYI, we would have a car w/ us.

 

Please, please tell me what you can! Thanks!

 

:D

[nova147]

I'd say that monorail access is not all that important. The bus system is very efficient and usually pretty convenient. My only other thought on what you have mentioned is the suite at Saratoga Springs. My family stayed at Old Key West (very similar suites) and while it was lovely, living with people you aren't accustomed to being with can be tough. By about 4 days into the trip, we all wanted to be away from each other (ok, except for the kids, who loved having their cousins and grandparents around). We're going again in October and all have our own rooms. Just a thought.

 

I'd suggest checking out allears.net -- great info about Disney there!

[dhudson]

I don't think the Contemporary is as kid friendly. Saratoga Springs is close to downtown Disney which is fun and has great stuff for after hours. I haven't been to any of the Wilderness Lodge places but imho anything on site is fantastic.

[vkay]

We can't wait!

 

Prior to last year, we only stayed onsite. Now there's no way we would pay full price again, but I'll explain that later. We've tried the Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and our usual favorite was the Old Key West. That one was nice because you could get a condo style place with a small kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and even a washer/dryer in unit.

 

The Contemporary is nice with the monorail access, but whether or not you should stay there depends on how long you will be staying and if you plan to visit the other parks such as Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios. If you're going to be there for more than just a few days and plan to visit Disney's other parks, then you have to leave and use your car anyway. I always found that it wasn't worth it to stay there when we did this. If you're only staying a few days and plan on only seeing Magic Kingdom and Epcot, then it's probably an ideal place to stay.

 

I'm sorry that I don't know about the other choices you listed. Try looking them up in http://www.tripadvisor.com/ I find a lot of people use this site and you can read many reviews there.

 

On a side note, I know that you mentioned that you want to stay onsite this time..... but........ after years of staying onsite and paying big bucks, we have discovered the joy of renting condos or houses from priviate people. Orlando is swimming in availability and prices are crazy low! One place in particular that we will be exploring this time is Reunion Resort. It's run like a 5star hotel, but it's made up of condos and houses. It has many amenities including a mile long lazy river ride!! It's about 10 - 15 minutes from Disney and is much cheaper than staying at a Disney anything. A tip for this place: if you call them directly or check their website, a 3bed/3bath condo will run about $320/night. BUT, if you look to rent via www.vrbo.com then you will save even more.- we found many for $100/night - taxes and fees included! They don't advertise this price. The advertised price is around $150+/night. They offer these prices after you email them with interest in their condo, then they know you are also looking at other people's and then they compete for your business.

 

Reunion is going to be more $$ than other offsite locations because it's so nice. Other regular condo places offered me a rate as low as $45/night. These are 3 bedroom places!

 

We tend to stay for 3 - 5 weeks at a time, so it's VERY important that we save as much as we can. I just wish I could find that same sort of deal in Hawaii!! :D

 

GL and have fun!!

[mchel210]

We can't wait!

 

On a side note, I know that you mentioned that you want to stay onsite this time..... but........ after years of staying onsite and paying big bucks, we have discovered the joy of renting condos or houses from priviate people. Orlando is swimming in availability and prices are crazy low! One place in particular that we will be exploring this time is Reunion Resort. It's run like a 5star hotel, but it's made up of condos and houses. It has many amenities including a mile long lazy river ride!! It's about 10 - 15 minutes from Disney and is much cheaper than staying at a Disney anything. A tip for this place: if you call them directly or check their website, a 3bed/3bath condo will run about $320/night. BUT, if you look to rent via www.vrbo.com then you will save even more.- we found many for $100/night - taxes and fees included! They don't advertise this price. The advertised price is around $150+/night. They offer these prices after you email them with interest in their condo, then they know you are also looking at other people's and then they compete for your business.

 

Reunion is going to be more $$ than other offsite locations because it's so nice. Other regular condo places offered me a rate as low as $45/night. These are 3 bedroom places!

 

We tend to stay for 3 - 5 weeks at a time, so it's VERY important that we save as much as we can. I just wish I could find that same sort of deal in Hawaii!! :D

 

GL and have fun!!

 

Oh...I agree!!!

 

Staying off site has huge benefits...such as GOOD FOOD. We saved so much money staying off property.

[Kari C in SC]

I have not stayed at any of those - so I can't comment. We love, love, love the Port Orleans - French Quarter because you can take the riverboat to Downtown Disney. It is really nice at the end of the day to just hop on the boat and go down there for a little while. The Riverside side has this option too, but it is bigger than the French Quarter. We like the quaintness of the French Quarter.

[ChristusG]

I would sooooooo LOVE LOVE LOVE to stay in the Treehouses! We always do the value resorts though and stay at the Pop Century. The Contemporary is nice, but it is one of the oldest hotels. But it is nice. Wilderness Lodge has great decor in the lobby, but the rooms are pretty small and nothing special about them. We've stayed there before. Cabins are great. Fort Wilderness is awesome, we camp there often. There is PLENTY for everyone to do if you do not want to go into a park. We're bringing our RV there at the end of October again. I would definitely choose the Treehouses though!

[ChristusG]

I wanted to add....the monorail access is nice, but not a must in my opinion. We always have our own car and prefer to take that so that we do not have to wait in any lines for transportation. Plus it is nice to just get into your own vehicle after being in the parks.

[Unicorn.]

I vote for the cabins at Ft. Wilderness. Dh and I would looooove to be able to stay there. They have a lot of fun stuff to do without even going to the parks. We stayed at All star movies, and it was great. We love being on-site. It just cuts out a lot of hassles, plus the extra hour in the mornings was great!

 

As for saving on food- don't the cabins have kitchens? Also, we saved a ton on food by eating granola bars and juice boxes in our room for bkfst, and most days we took PB&J sandwiches, or pimento cheese, and fruit cups/ pudding, and water w/ us for lunch. They never said anything.

[lynn]

We are considering a rather last-minute trip to Disney. It would be our family of 4, plus my parents. My kids are 8 & 11 & are not too interested in the 'character' stuff (like meals, etc...).

 

We have been to Disney before w/ the kids, but stayed off-site. (When I was a kid, my family stayed at the Contemporary.) We want to do on-site this time, but I would love (& beg & plead for) opinions, pros/cons, & any other comments you have about the following Disney hotels:

 

Contemporary (we would get 2 rooms)

Wilderness Lodge (we would get 2 rooms)

Treehouse at Saratoga Springs (we would all fit in this suite)

Cabins at Fort Wilderness (we would get 2 cabins)

 

I realize that some of these are in different price categories. Somehow, the cabins seem appealing & kid-friendly (& generally have great reviews on-line). The Contemporary is most expensive, of course, & is it worth it to have monorail access? FYI, we would have a car w/ us.

 

Please, please tell me what you can! Thanks!

 

:D

 

We really enjoyed Ft Wilderness. We brought our camper but plan to get a cabin next time. Getting around is really easy. I think it is worth the money to use stay and use their transportation. One of the advantages we love is every day one or more parks let resort gets get in early or stay later. In the 1 hour we got in early we went on space mnt 3x's, the alien ride, the airplane thing that you take an elevator up to (4x's) and buzz light year 3x's. It was different combo of mom/dad and the 3 boys but it was so nice to have that hour and get the alien, buzz and space mtn finished for the day and teh airplane thing I never got to go on before because it's slow loading and unloading when it gets busy. Ds and I rode it 3x's because we did not have to wait for anyone then ds #2 and dh got to ride it.

[sandalwood]

We haven't stayed at any of those, but those we stayed at in order of how we loved them:

 

Hands down #1 to us: Port Orleans French Quarter. Can't say enough good things about it, smaller than most of the other resorts, BEAUTIFULLY decorated, landscaped, boat ride & a decent deli type rest. there. Pool is great!

 

#2 Coronado Springs, it was nice and the pool was great, but was a long haul from the room to where you ate/pool unless you lucked out and got a close building. The hours at the rest. were odd and not always open when they said they would be (in the am) in Sept. the year we stayed there.

 

#3, we have stayed at a couple of hotels in Downtown Disney. One has changed hands, can't think of what it is called now. It was always cheap and clean but a major chain bought it out and for the life of me can't think what it was. The rates tripled though, so you might as well pick a budget or moderate hotel over it. Some of the downtown Disney hotels are larger than the moderate, quieter and have their own buses that run to the parks every 30 min. Stayed at these many times when the rates were really cheap. But, you miss the "disney" experience as far as themed rooms, etc. mostly as a rule.

 

Anyhow, check out this site for hotel pic. Click on the fact sheets in the left hand column and somewhere it shows tons of pics. This was hot we picked P.O. a couple of years ago.

 

[Jennifer in MI]

On a side note, I know that you mentioned that you want to stay onsite this time..... but........ after years of staying onsite and paying big bucks, we have discovered the joy of renting condos or houses from priviate people. Orlando is swimming in availability and prices are crazy low! One place in particular that we will be exploring this time is Reunion Resort. It's run like a 5star hotel, but it's made up of condos and houses. It has many amenities including a mile long lazy river ride!! It's about 10 - 15 minutes from Disney and is much cheaper than staying at a Disney anything. A tip for this place: if you call them directly or check their website, a 3bed/3bath condo will run about $320/night. BUT, if you look to rent via www.vrbo.com then you will save even more.- we found many for $100/night - taxes and fees included! They don't advertise this price. The advertised price is around $150+/night. They offer these prices after you email them with interest in their condo, then they know you are also looking at other people's and then they compete for your business.

!!

 

I'm SOOO glad to see this! We rented a place through VRBO.com in Windsor Hills. We got a rate of $466/week for a 3 bedroom condo. We're splitting it with my brother. I was a little worried about it as we've stayed on property the only times we've gone.

 

I've never stayed in any of the places you mention, OP, so I can't help you there. We stayed at Port Orleans - Riverside when we went. That was the cheapest place to stay with a family of 5. We loved it!! Now that we're a family of 6, off property was the best option.

[Holly in FL]

We always stay at the cabins in Fort Wilderness and LOVE it! The fact that there is a full kitchen saves us tons of money on food! Of course, we are FL residents...so, it's easy for me to pack all the food I want to bring. We go right before Xmas when the prices are best for off-season guests and FL residents. You may want to rent golf carts while you are there to get around the grounds because not all areas in the campground are accessible by cars.

 

Smiles!

~Holly

[emmsmama]

You didn't ask about offsite, but dh and I and our two children stayed offsite in 2008 and LOVED it! We rented a 3bed/3 bath towhouse with a private heated splashpool for only $500/wk. (plus a one-time cleaning fee of $65). We were there the first two weeks of Dec., so it was considered low season and the rates reflected that, but still the place we stayed at had the lowest rates I could find AND it also was in Windsor Hills which is very close to WDW and a beautiful resort AND it was super clean and well-cared-for. The website we booked through was www.vacationcentralflorida.com and I have nothing but excellent things to say about their property we stayed at and their service. We hope to go back to WDW in 2010 and I will be renting from these same people again without a doubt.

 

ETA: Keep in mind that Windsor Hills is very well-kept and a beautiful resort, but not every property in Windsor Hills is top notch because they are independently owned and managed. If you are staying offsite, try to stay at a place that gets good reviews on www.disboards.com or from someone you know.

Edited August 26, 2009 by emmsmama

[gingersmom]

We stayed at Caribbean Beach and my kids liked it so much they never wanted to leave and go to the main park.

 

Beautiful pool with water slides and kinda like a mini waterpark.

 

Food was served nearly 24/7.

 

Their was a free shuttle to all the parks/waterparks/downtown.

[Imprimis]

Well, we've stayed in all of those you mentioned, except the tree house. The cabins are neat, and the full kitchen is great if you want to prepare some of your own meals---there is also a grill outside each cabin. You can take a boat to the Magic Kingdom, or buses to other parks from Ft. Wilderness. For me, though, I prefer The Contemporary or The Wilderness Lodge (which has an amazing lobby, btw!) I like being closer to the restaurants, shops, etc.

 

The Wilderness Lodge lobby has all these awesome little nooks and corners with cozy, overstuffed chairs and sofas in which to relax. I love taking a book and a cup of coffee (or glass of wine) down to the lobby after the kids are asleep. It's an incredibly beautiful place to unwind after the hustle and bustle of the parks all day.

 

You can take the boat to the Magic Kingdom from The Lodge, or buses to other parks, just like the cabins.

 

I also like The Contemporary. The monorail is great if you are spending a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom, or plan to eat at some of the great restaurants at other monorail resorts. There's a huge arcade in The Contemporary if that's something your kids are interested in. It's home to two well-reveiwed restaurants---The Wave, a new eatery featuring natural foods, and The California Grill, which is atop the hotel with a great view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks, and a really nice wine list...

 

It really depends on what appeals to your family. All Disney resorts have a special ambience, imo. And, staying onsite does give you the extra magic hours, either in the morning or at night, which can potentially make your trip more enjoyable by enabling you to see and do more in less time.

 

Have a great trip, whichever resort you choose!

[LibraryLover]

When are kids were tiny, we stayed at The Contemporary and it was fantastic. the rooms are a bit small, but you can walk (takes less than a minute) to Magic Kingdom. It was one of the best vacations we ever had when the children were small. The ease of it was nothing short of fantastic for 2 tired parents and 3 tiny kids. The breakfast buffet is terrific. Lots of fresh fruit, bagels, eggs...really filling and healthy.

 

We did a family reunion at Wilderness Cabins-- absolutely wonderful. There are grills on the deck and nice kitchens. That was a lovely holiday for us. It's so easy to grill, and the pools are great, there are campfire singalongs, a petting zoo area, and a horse trail. You feel that you're in the woods; it's incredibly peaceful. There are buses and a ferry.

 

I also have to put in a plug for the All Star resorts. Under $100/night with AAA, and the pools are close to all rooms. The staff is fantastic and there are decent cafeterias, with microwaves and toaster ovens etc.

 

For a little romance, The Polynesian is nice. The Peter Pan Club is on-site and my kids loved that. It gave dh and me some time to be together alone together while the kids had dinner and fun. They loved it. It's like a little evening camp with dinner for the kids, a bird show, and games. There is a ferry to get to the MK and Epcot, I think. Nice.

 

We go frequently as we have family in FL, so if I can answer questions about other hotels, I will.

 

We have also rented a large house with a pool. That's also wonderful. But I prefer to stay right on site. The traffic in Orlando is absolutely horrible.

Edited August 26, 2009 by LibraryLover