Both Anaheim and Orlando offer an overwhelming array of accommodation choices. On-property or off? Full-service hotel or motel-style property? Hotel or vacation home? Room or suite? This week we ask the Parenting Panel: What tips for choosing accommodations would you share with parents planning to take their families to Walt Disney World or Disneyland? If you’ve done both, are your priorities the same on both coasts or are there differences?
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry and wife Diane, “the marathon-running graphic designer who loves to garden and is a big Tinker Bell fan,” are raising 10-year-old Samantha, who “shares her father’s love of Disney and her mother’s love of art,” and twin 7-year-old boys, Casey and Alex, who “consider Mickey Mouse’s house their favorite place.” Chris writes:
For us it’s never been a decision as to whether or not to stay on or off property. We’ve always stayed on and we always will. There are many reasons why and many of those reasons pertain to the kids. We’ve been fortunate enough to stay in three of the moderate resorts and two deluxe resorts. As you all read this we should be heading down to our third deluxe, the Polynesian, for a four-night stay. We have yet to stay in any of the value resorts.
Having said that, I’m going to argue for something that some of you may not buy into, but let me convince you. The Disney resorts are the best deal going. I’ve written about this before and I will always stand by my reasoning. In our travels up and down the East Coast, we have yet to stay in a hotel or resort that gives you as much for the dollar amount than the Disney resorts. My favorite example is Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside. We have typically paid between $100 and $149 per night at Riverside. We have even paid less, but never more than $149, thanks to either AAA or other discounts we’ve come across. What are we getting for that? Impeccable theming, cleanliness, a completely safe environment, beautiful landscaping, free Disney transportation to the parks, free ride from the airport, free luggage handling and delivery from the airport, a restaurant, food court, bike rentals, boat rentals, horse and carriage rides, five quiet pools, one main heavily themed pool with waterfalls and a slide, kiddie pool, hot tub, playground, fishing, campfire sing-a-longs, shopping, entertainment in the bar, free boat ride to Downtown Disney, free boat ride to French Quarter (for yet another amazing pool complex, food court, playground, hot tub and shopping) and, on top of all of this, the high quality of Disney service.
All of that and we haven’t even gone to the main attractions. You will not find a hotel or resort that gives you so much anywhere for that price…at all…period. We’ve paid close to $300 a night to stay at Hershey Park, Busch Gardens, various beachfront properties, ski resorts and other places and have never come close to the amenities offered at a Disney moderate resort. Dropping down to a value at Disney will save you even more money and only lose a few of the things I listed above. So, for us, it’s been a no-brainer as far as value for the dollar we are spending. We’ve heavily researched other vacation destinations and end up coming back to Disney and…wait for it…we save money.
A big chunk of the things in my list above are for the kids. Obviously, the playgrounds and pools are important to the kids, but getting there needs to be a breeze. The ease of using the Disney transportation system to get back and forth has always been a blessing. The kids need that break during the hot midday hours and getting back to the resort on a bus, boat or monorail is easy. Plus, the kids like using the busses, boats and monorail. It’s part of the whole experience for them.
My wife added that,as a parent, she likes the fact that everything is connected. When we’re at Disney World, we’re really at Disney World. It’s one-stop shopping. They’re handling our rooms, our entertainment, our meals, our transportation, everything. If there are any concerns or problems, we’re staying under one umbrella and that makes things easier on us. Three kids are enough to deal with. Let Disney handle everything. They do it well.
For a deluxe, we loved Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. My wife and I were there alone, but we really want to bring the kids there. It’s a fantastic place, plenty to do and close to the Magic Kingdom by boat. Obviously, in the moderate class, we’d recommend Port Orleans, it’s one of our favorite places to stay anywhere. We haven’t stayed at a value, but I hear great things about Pop Century. You’ll be glad you chose an on-property resort. Your wallet will be glad you did and, most importantly, your kids will be glad you did.
Parenting in the Parks columnist Adrienne Krock’s three boys are now 11, 9, and 6. They’ve been visiting Disneyland since they were each just weeks old. She has been a day camp counselor and elementary school teacher. Now she’s a mom and a Cub Scout leader and has been a Disneyland Annual Passholder for 15 years. Adrienne adds:
With two whole Orlando trips to my name, I now actually have experience staying in hotels with my family at Walt Disney World as well as Disneyland! My decisions on where to stay, however, are vastly different on each coast.
Most typically, our Disneyland visits are one-day trips, but we have stayed in several Anaheim properties between special occasion trips to the Resort and conferences in the area. These trips include multiple stays at the Paradise Pier Hotel (as the Disney Pacific) and the Disneyland Hotel, as well as several of the off-site properties, both motels on Harbor and almost all of the Convention Center-area hotels.
I prefer to stay off-property in Anaheim. I generally find I get more value for my dollar off-property. The Disneyland Resort hotels seem over-priced for what they deliver and, on more than one occasion, we had disappointing experiences. When I can, I love to stay in suites with my family, and several motels on Harbor offer affordable suites. Because our stays are usually rather short, and we often visit without the boys when we stay for MouseAdventure or conferences, we more regularly reserve single rooms in Anaheim. The properties on Harbor are all, to me, reasonable walking distance and several are as close or even closer than the on-property hotels. I would rather spend less on a nice, clean but affordable room on Harbor and have more to spend in the parks and on food.
Walt Disney World presented an entirely new challenge for us. For those who have only visited Disneyland, the sheer size of Walt Disney World cannot compare. While we can walk between our two parks at Disneyland, we can’t even walk from the parking lot to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. (It’s crazy!)
I knew I wanted to stay on-property at Walt Disney World from years of reading, first newsgroups and eventually Websites, online. I have seen pictures of lovely vacation home rentals off-property and we even rented a car for our trip, so we had no real need to depend on Walt Disney World transportation. But staying on-property in Walt Disney World means something entirely different than at Disneyland. No other properties can come close to comparing to staying on-site, in my opinion, and the price was worth the experiences.
As a big believer in travel agents, I asked mine for advice and before I could blink she suggested the All-Star Music Family Suite for our first visit to Walt Disney World. It was the perfect solution for our family.
While a family suite cost more than a single room at a moderate resort, having so much room more than made up for the “downgrade” to value resort. Being a family of five introduces its own set of challenges at Walt Disney World. Many rooms only hold four guests. The family suite solved this problem without breaking our budget. My husband and I had our own bedroom with a queen-sized bed. Each of our three sons had his own bed in the living area as the chair, ottoman and sofa all converted to beds. In addition we had two bathrooms and a kitchen area with sink, microwave, refrigerator and storage. We parked very close and conveniently to our room. All of the Family Suites are in the preferred building locations, so our room was very close to the front of the All-Star Music resort.
For an extended visit, such as our 10-day trip to Walt Disney World, the suite really helped our family: We could make oatmeal for breakfast in the morning, spread out in our space during the evenings and turn off the lights so the boys could go to sleep while we stayed up a bit later. If budget were less of an issue, or I could score a deal, I might like to stay in some of the higher-end properties in Orlando but I have no complaints about our lovely little suite. I suppose I would have preferred a less plastic upholstery on the furniture but overall the furniture stayed open as beds when we were in our room.
In short, when traveling with my family I have two easy rules of thumb: In Anaheim, stay off-site, on Harbor. In Orlando, get the nicest suite on-property that my budget can handle.
Scott, his wife, and two sons (11 and 16) live in Texas and have been frequent visitors to Walt Disney World since 1994. He is always planning “the next trip”. Scott shares:
Frequent readers are, no doubt, familiar with the “on-or-off-property debates.” On-property costs more – I don’t think there’s any way around this. You can always find a cheaper way to stay offsite. For us, the equation of where to stay looks something like this:
Vacation = Relaxation
The whole purpose of our vacations is to relax and spend memorable time with the family. Our Disney World vacation memories are priceless, and we add to the collection with every visit.
Relaxation = Simplicity and Convenience
When we’re on vacation, we want to be “in the moment.”. We want to spend as much time as possible in the parks, with a minimum of thought involved around daily logistics.
Simplicity and Convenience = Stay on Property
With these priorities as our guidelines, there’s no other option!
- No rental car required: This saves money and avoids the daily packing/parking hassle and delays of staying offsite.
- More time at the parks: We’re at the parks a few minutes after leaving the resort. We can take advantage of “extra magic hours” to spend more time with less crowds at our favorite places (mornings are particularly good).
- Less logistics: At the end of a long day at the parks, everyone is happy but tired. It is so nice to hop on a bus, boat, or monorail and be” back home” in a few minutes, leaving the driving to someone else. Our daily purchases magically appear at our resort, without us having to carry (and worry) about them while we enjoy the parks. We can go to the parks with only our resort key cards, leaving wallets/purses/money behind. This single card gets us into our room, into the parks, and handles all our purchases and dining. We don’t even have to hassle with our luggage at the airport thanks to Disney’s Magical Express.
Once you’ve decide to stay onsite (good choice!), your budget and park preferences come into play.
Allow me to digress for a minute… I’ve had many conversations with Disney guests around Disney “favorites”: favorite rides, parks, resorts, seasons, etc – all while trying to get a feel for what drives people’s decisions and preferences. For many people (my family included), our favorite park or ride is the last one we went to. There are so many wonderful things to do and places to see that trying to pick “just one” becomes almost impossible.
Things seem to be different when it comes to resorts. Many guests become attached to their first Disney World resort, with this resort remaining their favorite regardless of how many others they attend. I believe that your first Disney vacation is such an overwhelming experience, that your first resort becomes indelibly associated with the “Disney high” and all the positive memories that go along with it. For many people it’s hard to change from their first resort based on emotion and positive association. I’ve never spoken with someone that stayed off-property and found an emotional connection with their hotel.
There’s no “bad” resort at Disney World. You must choose your individual “best” from a great selection. When we travel to Disney World, we chose to stay at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge whenever possible. “Whenever possible” for us means that discounts and room availability must align with our vacation schedule. Sometimes this doesn’t always happen, and we’ve also stayed at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort and The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. The Wilderness Lodge is a deluxe resort and can be prohibitively expensive, so we always travel when we can take advantage of value season and additional discounts. We’ve never paid rack rate.
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge was also our first resort, and there is a huge amount of emotion and positive feelings tied to this place. It’s hard to explain the feeling of returning to the Lodge with your family after a full day at the parks. With the lanterns softly flickering and the bugs chirping as you carry a tired little one back to your room… it’s something that must be experienced to be understood, and I hear similar stories from most families that stay on property at other resorts. It’s the many details that separate a Disney resort from the off property options.
Summary:
- Stay onsite
- Be aware of Disney “seasons” and frequent discount codes
- Align your vacation schedule accordingly. This can save big $$$.
- There is no bad on property resort.
- Don’t be surprised to find your first resort may become your permanent Disney “home”
Chris and his family stumbled upon the Disney magic in 2002, and have made a number of trips since then. Since then, he makes it a point to seek out the ultimate in Disney trips and share his experiences with friends, family, and complete strangers. He posts on MousePad as GusMan. Chris writes:
When my family and I started vacationing regularly at Walt Disney World, we only had our daughter and we often toured in a “commando” fashion from rope drop to closing. The resorts, while we always had the intention of enjoying their different features, always seemed to take a backseat to spending time at the parks. Sure, we would want to take the occasional swim, and wanted good transportation, but being at the parks was the ultimate goal.
In the beginning, we also considered the off-site option to save money. There are some great places right outside the Disney property lines that are very nice. However, after counting costs vs what you get, we decided to bypass the experience for the most part. We do occasionally stay off-site for a night or two to help stretch the dollar or Disney Vacation Club points, but our family agrees that there is nothing like being immersed in the magic during the entire stay.
Once my son was born, there was somewhat of a shift as to what we thought was important. Transportation started to become a bigger factor, while a slightly larger room was also desirable. After all, with a newborn/toddler, you need to take into consideration different sleeping, as well as possibly including a stroller into the equation. Because of this, we started to stay at deluxe resorts, which are a little larger, and resorts that had more than one transpiration option. We still stayed at moderates from time to time as they also met our needs, but overall, features, room size, and costs were items that was influenced by our touring plans for the upcoming trip.
Even with that said, we found that it helps to take the following into consideration when figuring out where to say for your next trip:
- Location plays a role. Is there a park that you tend to visit more? If so, you might want to consider staying closer to that park so that your transportation times are lower. This is also important if members of your family tend to want to take a mid-day break from the parks. And we have found that those mid-day breaks really helps our son avoid stimulation overload, and prevents meltdowns.
- Is swimming in the plans? If you are going during the summer, you might want to consider a resort that has a larger or more elaborate pool area, especially if you do not want to spend money on a water park. If going in the winter, it may still be warm enough to swim at times, but you may not want to make it the top of your list of to-dos.
- Consider if you would want to do the different activities at the resort itself during your non-park time. For example, our family loves to take advantage of some of the afternoon activities at some of the moderate and deluxe resorts. Most activities are free and are a lot of fun. (We think that the ones at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge are some of the best around!)
- Consider the length of your stay. If you are doing a longer trip of six nights or more, you might want to consider splitting your stays between resorts. Starting out your stay at a value when all you are doing are park visits may be a good beginning. After a few days, switch to a deluxe or moderate resort for the rest of your stay to enjoy the different resort features. Its sometimes like having two vacation experiences in one trip.
Overall, planning a Disney World trip can be a little overwhelming at times. Between all the different ticket, resort, transportation, and dining options, it’s a wonder how all these decisions can be made. The biggest thing to keep in mind is to be aware of what your family would want out of their next vacation. Get their opinions and see what can be arranged. Keep in mind that sometimes the best trip planning happens when you are actually on vacation.
It’s your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
Visit the Parenting on the Parks section of our MousePad discussion board, and share your opinions about this topic (link), or send your suggestions via e-mail (link). Reader-submitted tips might be used in a future article, and you might be selected to participate in an upcoming panel discussion!
