Booking two trip options (one onsite, one offsite): am I missing anything?

[Weather_Lady]

Our previous WDW trips have always been onsite stays. However, my family is a get-up-early-for-rope-drop, attraction-focused group, meaning the earlier access to Fastpasses, ability to use WDW transportation to conveniently get us to parks well before rope drop, and the opportunity to make use of EMH were always big motivators for us in staying onsite.

We plan to visit WDW at the end of August for 5 days/4 nights as the second leg of a combination trip with Universal, and originally booked an onsite room-and-ticket package with the "2 ticket days free" promotion. However, as we continue to educate ourselves on what WDW has to offer at present, it appears that all of the things that used to bring us onsite are gone. Due to unannounced early rope drops and truncated transportation hours, you can't rely on WDW transportation to get you to a park in time. There are no Fastpasses for anyone, and the start date for the EMH "early park entry" replacement hasn't been announced yet. Given what Disney just did with Ratatouille (deliberately holding it back so there's something "new" to offer on October 1st), I suspect they may do the same with early park entry.

DH and I were talking it over and are thinking that in light of these factors, it might be wise to plan a second, offsite trip option for the same dates (with components that can all be canceled up until a few days or weeks ahead of the trip) staying at a nearby AirBnB -- there are lovely 2-bedroom townhouses available at Fantasy World and other resorts, with private pools and resort amenities, for a fraction of what we'd pay for the onsite Disney hotel standard room -- and renting a car (which would also mean having to pay for parking at our Universal hotel, and at the Disney parks), and buying our tickets from Undercover Tourist.

We did the math and it looks like even with the added expense of a car rental and parking and loss of the "2 ticket days free" promotion, we still stand to save over $1,000 by staying offsite. So our plan is to keep the WDW reservation for now, book the offsite option as well, and then ask ourselves 30-60 days out from our travel dates (when we can cancel anything and everything penalty-free) whether there's any real value to staying onsite at that point. Does this plan make sense? Is there some disadvantage of an offsite stay -- other than loss of the ability to make dining reservations for the length-of-stay at 60 days -- that I'm missing? Is there anything unethical about booking two options when we only plan to keep one?

I welcome your thoughts. We had thought this trip would be our big "last night in the nursery" staying onsite, but I'm not sure that sentimental value alone is enough to justify the added expense of an onsite stay, especially if being onsite is actually going to hurt us, touring-wise.

 

[Tuvalu]

Two quick things ~ After 4 pandemic trips, Disney transportation has not failed to get us to the parks well in advance of posted opening time.

You *may* be limited to the number of park pass reservations you can have at one time as an offsite guest. I recently read 3, but did not go to the trouble of further research.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Two quick things ~ After 4 pandemic trips, Disney transportation has not failed to get us to the parks well in advance of posted opening time.

You *may* be limited to the number of park pass reservations you can have at one time as an offsite guest. I recently read 3, but did not go to the trouble of further research.

Thank you -- these are exactly the kinds of "overlooked considerations" or on-the-ground updates I was hoping to hear about.

 

[StarshipDisney]

it might be wise to plan a second, offsite trip option for the same dates

I am doing the same thing. Only if I move off-site it will be over a $5,000 savings over our current reservation at the Contemporary Resort.

Does this plan make sense?

Well, obviously I believe it does. I will myself need to learn about having a "ticket only" reservation in MDE and hopefully still be able to get park passes and a couple ADRs. This will be new to me but hopefully works the same.

If we stay off site, then I am not worried about park passes. If we get them great, and if not, then guess we will try Universal or SeaWorld or just do something we have never tried...that is...enjoy the Orlando area and all the various nice restaurants and shopping without regard to Disney. Attractions like Wonder Works and Ripley's also look interesting.

 

[nickys]

Two quick things ~ After 4 pandemic trips, Disney transportation has not failed to get us to the parks well in advance of posted opening time.

You *may* be limited to the number of park pass reservations you can have at one time as an offsite guest. I recently read 3, but did not go to the trouble of further research.

The limit of 3 applies to AP holders staying offsite.

Staying offsite with multi-day tickets you can book for as many days as you have tickets for.

The biggest worry for me would be the early entry, if they decided to introduce it sooner than the 50th to encourage bookings over the Summer.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Two quick things ~ After 4 pandemic trips, Disney transportation has not failed to get us to the parks well in advance of posted opening time.

You *may* be limited to the number of park pass reservations you can have at one time as an offsite guest. I recently read 3, but did not go to the trouble of further research.

Thank you -- these are exactly the kinds of "overlooked considerations" or on-the-ground updates I was hoping to hear about.

I believe the park pass limitation is for passholders. If you have "normal" tickets, you should be okay to make passes for however many days you bought.

 

[Weather_Lady]

The biggest worry for me would be the early entry, if they decided to introduce it sooner than the 50th to encourage bookings over the Summer.

That's my biggest variable -- I worry we'll get to the 30-day mark (the last point we can cancel the Disney package without penalty) and Disney won't have announced anything about early park entry yet, so we won't have the information we need to make an educated decision.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

That's my worry -- that we'll get to the 30-day mark (the last point we can cancel the Disney package without penalty) and Disney won't have announced anything about early park entry yet, so we won't have the information we need to make a decision.

Are there any room-only offers? They have a much more generous cancellation policy.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Are there any room-only offers? They have a much more generous cancellation policy.

Not at present (at least, not that cover our dates). That's a good point, though -- I have the Special Offers page bookmarked and check it every day, so if a better offer comes along I will try and snap it up.

 

[RememberWhen]

I don’t see any ethical issues. Weve also been pondering our off-site vs on-site options, especially with the loss of ME coming in 2022. If we have to rent a car anyway, we may as well stay someplace cheaper. We’ve done off-site no-park trips before and actually had a great time just visiting a few resorts and making a few ADRs.

 

[wendysue]

The limit of 3 applies to AP holders staying offsite.

Staying offsite with multi-day tickets you can book for as many days as you have tickets for.

The biggest worry for me would be the early entry, if they decided to introduce it sooner than the 50th to encourage bookings over the Summer.

We are AP holders staying offsite in May and I booked 4 days of park tickets and it would have let me book 5 but decided to cancel one.

 

[wendysue]

I don’t see any ethical issues. Weve also been pondering our off-site vs on-site options, especially with the loss of ME coming in 2022. If we have to rent a car anyway, we may as well stay someplace cheaper. We’ve done off-site no-park trips before and actually had a great time just visiting a few resorts and making a few ADRs.

This is exactly what we will do IF we come back in 2022 after our AP's expire. With ME going away and having to rent a car anyway, may as well go anywhere else.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

If you don't mind moving around, we often do split stays. We stay part of the time onsite, and part of the time offsite, which kinda gives us the best of both worlds. You can see how you like the condo without committing to it for the whole trip. We tend to prefer eating out on vacation, but it can also be nice having access to a real fridge/microwave/cooktop, even if you just want to make instant oatmeal or reheat some tasty leftovers. Even just trying to keep a half gallon of milk cold can be a struggle sometimes in those little dorm cubes. There are pluses to being onsite though too, like especially if you want to be at HS very early.

As another poster said, room only reservations are often a good option for a host of reasons. I only book packages where there's a real incentive to book one. I'm not sure why you can't book a room only room for August, or is it just they aren't offering any 'deal' on a room only reservation? A 'discount' isn't really a discount if you are paying more, it is just a marketing gimmick. WDW jacks up room prices, but then offers a ticket 'discount.' It is only a discount if it is the lowest price in the big picture, or if you are very keen to stay at a specific hotel. I can't vouch for the offsite place you mention, but Orlando has many nice offsite options.

The thing to know- is the cancelation deadlines- and don't muck around waiting until the last minute. Make sure you keep track and CANCEL anything you don't want, well in advance of the deadline. Oh, and know thee is a gap between when you request a refund and when it happens. It can take a week for the refund to appear. If you request it just as your statement is about to close, then it might end up on the next month. And of course i am assuming you aren't carrying any credit card debt or anything like that. Where the extra deposit could make a difference to your budget.

 

[Weather_Lady]

As another poster said, room only reservations are often a good option for a host of reasons. I only book packages where there's a real incentive to book one.

The thing to know- is the cancelation deadlines- and don't muck around waiting until the last minute. Make sure you keep track and CANCEL anything you don't want, well in advance of the deadline. Oh, and know thee is a gap between when you request a refund and when it happens. It can take a week for the refund to appear. If you request it just as your statement is about to close, then it might end up on the next month. And of course i am assuming you aren't carrying any credit card debt or anything like that. Where the extra deposit could make a difference to your budget.

Thanks for your input!

I agree that the room-and-ticket packages aren't ideal: we booked this one only because of the "2 days free" promotion, which saves us about $100 night off of what we'd have paid if we bought the components a la carte (e.g., for the same room at rack rate, with tickets from Undercover Tourist). There are no room only discounts available for August yet, but I do check every day to see if something better comes along.

Thanks for the reminder about cancellation deadlines. I've got them all on my calendar and we'll cancel whatever we need to in plenty of time. Deposit refund timing should not be an issue, as we don't book a vacation until we've saved way more than enough to cover it, and we don't carry any credit card debt.

It feels so weird essentially having two different vacations booked at the same time. When I went over the details of each one with my husband, I felt like I was describing alternate prize showcases on The Price Is Right. I guess it's all good, though -- whichever one we choose, we'll still be going on a long-overdue vacation as a family, so we win!

 

[MissViv]

I have been looking at this too for a trip in either Sept. or Oct. I will be flying in and I have been using the Magical Express and do not want to rent a car since it is just me but my niece may be meeting me from Tampa so she could pick me up at the airport.

I have stayed in the "bubble" for years and you can't beat the convenience! Having a hard time thinking about staying offsite even with a savings.

 

[Bullseye1967]

Two quick things ~ After 4 pandemic trips, Disney transportation has not failed to get us to the parks well in advance of posted opening time.

You *may* be limited to the number of park pass reservations you can have at one time as an offsite guest. I recently read 3, but did not go to the trouble of further research.

I was able to get at least 4 at a time (maybe 5?) during our offsite stay in Jan/Feb.

 

[JohnD]

The limit of 3 applies to AP holders staying offsite.

Staying offsite with multi-day tickets you can book for as many days as you have tickets for.

The biggest worry for me would be the early entry, if they decided to introduce it sooner than the 50th to encourage bookings over the Summer.

That's exactly what I'm doing over the 50th Anniversary. I made a reservation for Marriott SpringHill Suites Flamingo Crossings then having park reservations for 10/1, 10/2, and 10/3.