Staying off-site with no rental car-good idea?

[OfftoDisney2009]

We have already reserved a room at Pop and do not plan to rent a car. The magical express service and extra magic hours are bus service to the parks sound great. But another option would be to stay in Kissimme, or somewhere close. It would cost much less per night. Plus they also offer shuttle service to the parks. Is this a good idea to save money? Or do the shuttles not work out well? We want to do afternoon naps and come back to the parks at least some evenings, so we'd have to use their shuttles for 2 round trips. If we stayed off site and rented a car, the savings wouldn't be that much, so if we had to rent a car, I'd just assume stay at Pop and take advantage of the magical express and extra magic hours.

Oh, the trip will be in April, 09. So expensive rates for the Disney resorts.
Thanks in advance for your help :-)
Cheryl

[GusMan]

In short, my general rule is that if you are staying off-site, get a rental car. While most off-site hotels do offer some sort of shuttle service, their services may not be as good as you would like for them to be to make it worthwhile.

My take is also this... compare your total costs between staying on-site without a car and off-site with a car. Depending on certain variables, you might see that the total costs are not so far apart. Even if the cost is still more to stay on site, there are other perks to consider that may still make staying on site a better value.

[mom22gls]

Also consider whether or not your family will want to stay together in the parks all day, and always, want to come and go at the same time. Almost always on our trips, DH and younger DD will tire out and want to go back to the hotel, before older DD and I want to. Staying on-property, it has not been an issue at all. Those who want to leave, just grab a bus, or whatever other transport is available, back to the hotel. Those who want to stay, just get a later bus when we are ready to leave. If you are depending on a rental car, very likely, you will feel that you all have to come and go at the same time, or you have to work out other arrangements, such as some people relying on the shuttle. Also check the shuttle schedule, which, likely, will not be continuous service, and not run more than once an hour.

[Cheshire Figment]

Most of the off-site shuttles run only three or four times per day in each direction. They tend to stop at several hotels along the route, so you will not have direct transportation. Also they may have drop-off/pick-up at only one location, such as the TTC or Epcot lot, or they will stop at all the parks.

So you have to rely on their schedule and not necessarily what is convenient for you. And they park at the Charter Bus parking and not the close-in parking.

The Disney buses tend to run on about a 20 to 30 minute schedule most of the day, and they go from the resorts directly to the park entrance. And if you are there around park closing they run continuously.

[Drince88]

My response to your question is:

No, No, No!!!

Everyone else covered the reasons, I just had to chime in!

[OfftoDisney2009]

Thanks everyone. Last night we brought up the possibility of driving 18 hours to WDW. Haven't done a long road trip like that since 2001. Depending on the price of gas at the time, that could save us quite a bit of $$. As for whether the family will stay together, that shouldn't be too hard to manage, since it will be us and DD.

[TinaMouse]

That's about the bubble point, IMO. You don't want to get down there tired and in need of 2 days of recovery. However, if you have several drivers, it might make for a good way to save $$--depending on the total number of people in the car. Do some serious number crunching to see what gas, oil change, motel (if you want to stop 1/2 way), food, etc. will cost and bounce that against airline tickets and w/ or w/o car rental fees. Also consider if your car will need any brakes, tires, other work to it before you go on a long road trip.

I usually say, "FLY!!" but it takes us a good 10 hours to get to the airport, wait, fly, get to next flight, wait for the luggage and get home, so if there's a decent cost-effectiveness, I could be persuaded to drive 18 hours.....

[GusMan]

Tina hit some good points. When it comes to lodging and transportation, consider all costs with all scenarios. I know it may seem odd to include things like an oil change and brakes to a vacation budget, but if your ride need those items anyway, this will be the prompting to do it. For us last August we spent about $500 on Tires and Brakes and other regular maintenance. $400 on Fuel round trip. It would have cost us $1100 on airfare and I would still need the brakes and tires. So, I came out ahead by $200 which also allowed us to stay one extra day!! :)

Sometimes driving can be a good deal if you have a little more time than money. (Our trip took about 18 hrs as well, not including stops, etc.)

[OfftoDisney2009]

Thanks again, the more I think about it, the more I think driving is not the way to go. It would just be me and DH driving, and DH does not like these long car drives at all. Plus, our car is a great, reliable Toyota Camry, but it is a '99 with 123,000 miles. I am going to keep looking for a good deal on flights to Orlando. We have our reservations at Pop, which I don't think is too much more expensive than staying off-site and renting a car. Maybe we'll suffer through a time share presentation and get discounted tickets :)
Cheryl

[Cheshire Figment]

Another thing to consider, especially if you are near the I-95 corridor, is to consider Amtrak's AutoTrain. This leaves Lorton (just South of the Washington Beltway) at 4:00pm and arrives in Sanford about 9:00am, which is less than an hour's drive to WDW. Or you can take it in the other direction on the same time schedule. The train does about 800 miles overnight while you are eating and sleeping. And it can be either one way or round trip. I used to find driving down and taking the AutoTrain home worked best.

[GusMan]

Maybe we'll suffer through a time share presentation and get discounted tickets :)
Dont know if you are kidding, but "Just Say No" to that idea. Its not worth it.

[danyoung]

When considering a rental car in Orlando, remember that they're really cheap at Orlando Int'l Airport. I'm getting a midsize from Dollar for 6 days for $220. Not a bad rate at all!

[hmsharpe]

So, I am a bit of a minority, but a fan of staying off-site, unless money was no object and I could go deluxe all the way! We stayed in a two bedroom Marriott with a full kitchen, dining room and 2 patios for $91 a nite, but a car rental was necessary-BUT, it was $13 a day for a malibu from budget, so for less than $105 a night we had a car and a huge suite with amazing facilities. I think the other thing to consider is if you are doing exclusively Disney or not. We also did SeaWorld and the bigger thing for us, was being able to go shopping when we wanted, not just the walmart run for munchies, but we went outlet mall shopping :D

I have stayed onsite at a value, and while the bus system is good, I really didn't find we were at the parks any quicker than staying off site and having a car rental with a AAA parking pass. But maybe the busses are quicker now, that was 4 years ago that we stayed on site.

[danyoung]

I have stayed onsite at a value, and while the bus system is good, I really didn't find we were at the parks any quicker than staying off site and having a car rental with a AAA parking pass. But maybe the busses are quicker now, that was 4 years ago that we stayed on site.

I think you're probably right. I don't stay onsite for the time factor of getting to a park quicker - if you stay at the right offsite place, you can zip in and hit a park very swiftly. But I really do enjoy the total immersion of staying onsite. And I still do a rental car, as I don't like waiting even a little bit for the busses.

[OfftoDisney2009]

Another thing to consider, especially if you are near the I-95 corridor, is to consider Amtrak's AutoTrain. This leaves Lorton (just South of the Washington Beltway) at 4:00pm and arrives in Sanford about 9:00am, which is less than an hour's drive to WDW. Or you can take it in the other direction on the same time schedule. The train does about 800 miles overnight while you are eating and sleeping. And it can be either one way or round trip. I used to find driving down and taking the AutoTrain home worked best.

Oooh, thanks, I knew about the autotrain, but hadn't thought of that. Something to look into.

And about time share presentations, I'm kidding. I did that once in Atlantic City. I would never repeat that experience unless they were going to fund the whole trip :)

As for time it takes to use Disney transportation vs. your own car, I'm sure there are advantages to having a car, but I also like the idea of someone else driving, and not trying to remember that I'm parked in row 23Z. And just not knowing my way around the area. Do GPS systems have maps of WDW?

[GusMan]

Do GPS systems have maps of WDW?
I have used my Garmin GPS on Disney grounds with no real issues. Same goes for the Magellan system used by Hertz's Neverlost.

[terri910]

When considering a rental car in Orlando, remember that they're really cheap at Orlando Int'l Airport. I'm getting a midsize from Dollar for 6 days for $220. Not a bad rate at all!
Are they less expensive than if you book with the same rental car company on-site at WDW?

[danyoung]

I've never rented on property, but I would guess that the rates are cheaper at the airport. Just for giggles I just logged in to Expedia and gave it the same parameters as my upcoming trip, but looked for the location of Walt Disney World. It looks like the cheapest for the same car would be around $300. So yes, it appears on the surface to be cheaper at the airport.

But then if you rented on property you'd probably only be renting for a few days out of your trip, so it could come out cheaper than if you got a car at the airport for the whole vacation.