Life with Mrs C

The next stage of the planning series is picking your package and hotel. There are generally two ways you can go for a trip to Walt Disney World – staying on site or staying off site. Both have good and bad points, you can get decent holiday packages for both option, however it comes down to your preferences, your priorities, and budget. I will be discussing both of these options in their own post, starting with staying on site.

What does staying on site mean?

Deluxe Resorts – these are your top end hotels such as Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian. These will set you back a pretty penny to stay there, however you can choose to rent Disney Vacation Club points and stay at their villas as an option if you really want to stay here. you can also potentially add a 1-2 night stay as part of a longer stay at a different hotel if you are there for a special occasion.

By on site, I mean staying in a Disney or Disney approved hotel. There are different level options of hotels:

Moderate Resorts – these tend to be your mid range hotels, usually come with some extra amenities compared to the value resorts, but are a good chunk cheaper to stay at for a long trip than opting for the deluxe. The big moderate hotels are Caribbean Beach – which has just had a total refurbishment – Coronado Springs and the two Port Orleans resorts, Riverside and French Quarter.

Value Resorts – These are the low end hotels budget wise, but that is not to say they are basic by any means, I’m not even sure Disney does basic! The main value resorts are – Pop Century, the All Star resorts (Movies, Sports Music) and the Art of Animation, although this can be counted a a bridging resort between these and the moderates.

What package options can you get?

You can usually find packages through travel agents or directly on the Walt Disney World website, which is how I have booked any of my Disney holidays. You can usually sign up to the Walt Disney World website for alerts on their special offers as well, and you are also able to take advantage of some of these by going through a travel agent. A lot of the packages and discounts you can find include offers on free nights, discounted stays and free dining – although this isn’t running at the moment I am hopeful this will come back.

It is worth noting that most packages offered to UK residents also offer the Memory Maker included, which is usually $199.00 to add on, which allows you access for 1 month following your departure date to any photos taken during rides, with characters or from around the parks. I personally love this add on and I have hundreds and hundreds of photos using the Memory Maker.

Costs of staying on site…

Naturally staying in a Disney hotel will cost more than staying off site, so it is worth looking into both if you know you are working to a budget. As I mentioned before there are multiple offerings in hotels to meet different budgets so there is scope when staying on site. For example a 2 week holiday in May 2022, with two adults travelling, staying at Pop Century is £2,054.00 before flights and tickets. The same trip at the moderate resort Coronado Springs is £2,600.00. If you wanted to look at the deluxe resorts near the Magic Kingdom park you looking upwards of £7,000.00 for two weeks – before tickets and flights.

Perks of staying on site…

There are plenty of perks of staying on site on Disney property. You can take advantage of the Magical Express (although this is being discontinued 2022) which is a Disney transfer service which takes you from Orlando Airport to your hotel. There are also shuttles which you can catch from your hotel bus stop to the parks, water parks and Disney Springs which run regularly. By being in a Disney hotel you are able to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours which get you extra time in a park either before or after normal opening hours – you can check the daily information on the My Disney Experience app. You are also able to book fast passes at 60 days out rather than 30 days out, and when you buy anything in the parks you can get them sent to your hotel shop for pick up rather than carrying stuff around with you.

Down side to staying on site….

By staying in the Disney bubble you are less likely to head out into Orlando to see the other options for dining, entertainment and activities. to be able to venture further than the Disney property you are either going to have to rent a car or use a taxi service or Lyft/ Uber. Tickets for any other parks are obviously not included in a Disney only package so you will have to get these separately, as well as pay out of pocket for anything there such and food, which if you have the DDP you wont be doing by eating on site. The obvious downside, and a big on for a lot of people, is the cost of staying so close to the magic.

As I stated at the start, it really is a personal choice where you stay and the way you book. You need to decide what your priorities are, what your budget is and what works best for the group you are travelling with. For a couple, staying on site can make life easier. You are closer to the action and if you have the option of the DDP you can enjoy the many different restaurants on offer on site and you are likely to be doing a lot of things together and wont be splitting up too much.

If you are a large family group travelling together, this would mean multiple rooms at the price points above – which can stack up. The cost of a villa which can fit everyone in, and car hire of a couple of smaller cars to allow people to do their own thing might work out better for you split between everyone and be better value over all.

Ill be looking to the off site option as well and doing a similar discussion to hopefully help with those planning questions – I’ll link here when it’s live.