Help me please with Travel Plans and A place to stay

[Raegansmommy]

Anyone willing to help me with our travel plans? We have been to WDW before, but have always flown into MCO and then boarded the Magical Express. We have about 4 different airports that we can fly from, and one of them is about half the price, but they only fly into Sanford, and we would have to fly 2 days earlier. My question is, does anyone have any suggestions where to stay for the first 2 nights? Disney seems to be booked for those 2 days, other than the Deluxe resorts, and that would be just a little more than we want to spend. We need a place that can get us to WDW as we will not have a car and will need to take a taxi or car service from the airport to get wherever we are going to stay. We can wait and fly out on the day of our reservations, but we are just trying to figure out if we want to extend our vacation 2 nights, or just spend that on flights.

 

[Schneewittchen]

Have you thought about going to the beach? I don't know what time of year you're going, but you might enjoy a couple of days at a beach front hotel in Daytona..... I've been to Atlantic and Gulf beaches in Florida in January, March and April. The beaches are great, not too hot, not too crowded.

If you're talking about a nice hotel in Orlando I can vouch for the Gaylord Palms (awesome atrium and great restaurants) and the Rosen Shingle Creek (wonderful pools). Loved them both. I've also stayed at the Homewood Suites on International Drive, it wasn't my favorite, but it was a place to sleep, it's cheap and it is close to stuff.

 

[dreamfinder]

I'd suggest you re-run your numbers to see if that half price airfare really works in your favor. 2 days earlier means 2 days of food, hotel, plus the transportation to/from Sanford. Your MCO tickets would have to be really expensive, or you traveling with a party of 4 or more to make it worth while based on what I see for prices.

 

[Jess G]

Any of the hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd is within walking distance to Disney springs. I do not have any clue of how much it would cost you for transportation from Sanford to there. I have stayed at the best western @ lake Buena vista with a Disney view, these rooms tend to be like $20 more per night but I thought it was worth it. I was able to see all of the parks fireworks from my balcony. The walk to DS was great (and they offer free transportation to the parks) These rooms will run you anywhere between $70-$120 a night depending on when you stay and where you book it from. Check otel.com and orbitz or even priceline.
Also sometimes you can find a good priced groupon for an Orlando hotel but be sure to check reviews of the hotel for yourself before purchasing.

 

[Raegansmommy]

I'd suggest you re-run your numbers to see if that half price airfare really works in your favor. 2 days earlier means 2 days of food, hotel, plus the transportation to/from Sanford. Your MCO tickets would have to be really expensive, or you traveling with a party of 4 or more to make it worth while based on what I see for prices.

Yes, 4 of us. My husband and I along with our 2 daughter's. We can fly cheaper with other airlines, but they are not nonstop flights. We would be saving roughly $700 by flying 2 days earlier.

 

[Raegansmommy]

Any of the hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd is within walking distance to Disney springs. I do not have any clue of how much it would cost you for transportation from Sanford to there. I have stayed at the best western @ lake Buena vista with a Disney view, these rooms tend to be like $20 more per night but I thought it was worth it. I was able to see all of the parks fireworks from my balcony. The walk to DS was great (and they offer free transportation to the parks) These rooms will run you anywhere between $70-$120 a night depending on when you stay and where you book it from. Check otel.com and orbitz or even priceline.
Also sometimes you can find a good priced groupon for an Orlando hotel but be sure to check reviews of the hotel for yourself before purchasing.

Thanks for the tip on the hotels close to Disney Springs. This would make it much easier to get to our Resort on Disney property, plus would allow us to do a little more Disney shopping! Oh, and eat at Earle of Sandwich a few more times! One of our favorites!

 

[dreamfinder]

Would you be going to the parks?

Just quickly priced town cars from Sanford, looks like you would need to plan on spending $170-200 for a party of 4 for a town car, or like $40 per person for Mears bus. Those are round trip rates. Then toss in taxi/Uber to get your luggage to your WDW resort, plus whatever the hotel/food/etc costs you for those 2 days. Yeah, you might be able to come out ahead in that case, but I don't know by how much.

 

[Jess G]

Just throwing in that if you choose to stay at disney springs hotel you should definitely be able to pick up a rental car at enterprise in Sanford for one day (shouldn't cost more than $50 if you get the cheapest/smallest car) and drop it off at B resort and spa (also on hotel plaza blvd) and take a cheap taxi to Disney the day of check. will 100% be cheaper then hiring someone

 

[Raegansmommy]

Just throwing in that if you choose to stay at disney springs hotel you should definitely be able to pick up a rental car at enterprise in Sanford for one day (shouldn't cost more than $50 if you get the cheapest/smallest car) and drop it off at B resort and spa (also on hotel plaza blvd) and take a cheap taxi to Disney the day of check. will 100% be cheaper then hiring someone

Can I walk to Disney Springs from here and just catch Disney Transportation?

 

[Minnie Mum]

Can I walk to Disney Springs from here and just catch Disney Transportation?

Sure you could. But Disney buses don't start running to / from DS till mid morning. So if you're going to a park, by the time you've taken a bus to a WDW resort, then transfered to a park bus, it will be late morning before you even enter the park.

And you can't bring luggage onto the bus. So you will need to take a taxi or Uber to transfer your stuff to your on site resort on your WDW resort check in day.

 

[dreamfinder]

Just throwing in that if you choose to stay at disney springs hotel you should definitely be able to pick up a rental car at enterprise in Sanford for one day (shouldn't cost more than $50 if you get the cheapest/smallest car) and drop it off at B resort and spa (also on hotel plaza blvd) and take a cheap taxi to Disney the day of check. will 100% be cheaper then hiring someone

Except that they would need to do the same thing on the way back as well to get back to Sanford. Yeah, they may very well be able to get a rental for the duration of their trip for about what any bus/shuttle/towncar would cost, but I'd be shocked if 2 one way rentals didn't end up costing almost as much as just keeping it for the trip.