How much time do you spend at your hotel?

[Lizzy May Bee]

I get the impression that real diehards like to both rope drop and stay on site, but like… why?

Surely if you’re going to spend the whole day in the parks there’d be no reason to pay for everything extra that comes with a resort hotel. I want to know if this is a real phenomenon or if influencers are clouding my judgement. So, do you stay on or off site, and how much time do you spend at your hotel?

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I tend to stay off-site, wake up late, chill with my morning coffee at the pool before the sun gets too bright, quickly do my daily mails/work over breakfast, then calmly head to a park midday / 1pm-ish.

I'm on vacation, I'm not putting an alarm at 7am.

I love the parks in the evening, so stay until well after closing / until security starts to look at me funny, then have a long evening walk, around Seven Seas Lagoon, or the Boardwalk area, or near Disney Springs. Florida after 10pm is most comfortable, very pleasant. Sleep at 1am. Repeat.

 

[Touchdown]

Park opening and the first two hours host the shortest lines of the day, the evening host the night shows and the second shortest lines of the day, I make sure I experience both. Therefore, typically in addition to sleeping hours I will typically return to the hotel midday for 1-3 hours depending on my mood.

 

[Br0ckford]

In our younger days we spent very little time at the resort. Wake up, chug coffee, hit the parks, rope drop to close. Shower, sleep, do it again. We always chose value resorts.
Now.....when we do stay on site once in a while, we choose moderate resorts and take our time and explore amenities more. Not so much in a hurry now. Wake up, enjoy the coffee sitting outside, stroll around then eventually hit the parks. Stay till we feel like heading back. Dinner, a few drinks, stroll around....much more relaxed.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

For our family, we always stay on property…my DW & I have stayed at BW & GF ( because we bought DVC points from a friend) but we tend to stay at a value resort as we don’t spend too much time at the resorts & find it a waste of money. Even when the kids were little, maybe a few hours in the resort pool was enough for them, even as tots, they preferred to spend their days in the parks. Sleep & shower in the resort, that’s it…even at the deluxe resorts, yeah we checked them out in depth but not for hours.

 

[Skibum1970]

For years, I wanted to do the Disney Death March and we did. Over the last several years, we have slowed down. We stay at Port Orleans and usually get up around 8:30 AM, eat breakfast, and go for a walk. We might rope drop Epcot to get on Guardians more quickly but that is it. Usually, back to the hotel in the early afternoon for lunch after having gone to the parks. Then, after a couple hours, back to the park until close. So, probably six hours/day is spent at our resort (if you don't count getting ready for bed and sleeping). We also tend to have one day as a "resort day". Go walk at Wilderness Lodge, boat to the Contemporary, monorail to Poly, walk to Grand Flo and then walk over to the Magic Kingdom. When I was younger, I would never have done that but now I do.

@Smiley/OCD I do like your signature. I fall into the category about Disney OCD as well.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

For years, I wanted to do the Disney Death March and we did. Over the last several years, we have slowed down. We stay at Port Orleans and usually get up around 8:30 AM, eat breakfast, and go for a walk. We might rope drop Epcot to get on Guardians more quickly but that is it. Usually, back to the hotel in the early afternoon for lunch after having gone to the parks. Then, after a couple hours, back to the park until close. So, probably six hours/day is spent at our resort (if you don't count getting ready for bed and sleeping). We also tend to have one day as a "resort day". Go walk at Wilderness Lodge, boat to the Contemporary, monorail to Poly, walk to Grand Flo and then walk over to the Magic Kingdom. When I was younger, I would never have done that but now I do.

@Smiley/OCD I do like your signature. I fall into the category about Disney OCD as well.

And a HUUUUUGE big red machine fan back in the day…Johnny Bench…a catching GOAT

 

[Spectro shire]

Depending what hotel, I could probably just spend a vacation at the hotel.

 

[Skibum1970]

And a HUUUUUGE big red machine fan back in the day…Johnny Bench…a catching GOAT

Very nice. I loved Johnny Bench as well but George Foster was one of my all-time favorites. The golden age of the Cincinnati Reds when I knew their lineups and pitching staff, even as a young fellow.

 

[danlb_2000]

Me and my wife like to get to the parks early but won't feel the need to be there right at rope drop. At home we are normally up by 4:45 AM, so getting up in time to get to the parks around 8:00 isn't much burden for us. We normally also go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a break. We always stay on site because we love the convience of Disney transportation, and just the general atmosphere of Disney resorts.

 

[donaldtoo]

Similar to what others have posted here, when our 3 kiddos were younger we just used our resort to crash and clean up, mostly, thus a lot of value resorts. Plus, we always fly in and never rent a car. Others can do the driving for us at WDW.
Now that we’re all older, and have 2 young granddaughters (ages 5 and 7), we are doing less park days and enjoying more resort time, because even our adult children don’t feel the need to commando like we did back in the day…!
We stayed at AKL Jambo House and OKW on our last 2 trips, and are staying at AKL Jambo House again next September…!
Such a beautiful resort…!!!!!

 

[jloucks]

In most cases, the on-site hotel/resort was just for sleeping.

In all the times we have gone, we have only visited the resort pool once.

I don't know if they still do this, but I do recall some super-long days that involved special early opening and closing times. I want to say it was from 7am to 2am. Those days, we took a short nap at the hotel. One REM cycle and back to the parks.

I loved how light the crowds were from 11pm to 2am.

 

[JIMINYCR]

We stay onsite, always have starting with our very first trip and always will. We rope drop and stay late.
We enjoy being onsite for the resort ambiance, theming and CM attention. The access to the food court, gift shop, bus transportation, recreation, early park access is worth having. Certainly we could save a lot by being offsite but the comfort , what we receive and the feel of being in the Disney bubble is worth paying what we pay.
It wouldnt be as enjoyable coming back to a hotel room off property from the parks or start our day off coming out of a hotel room and not be on property. It all adds to our vacation enjoyment.
If money was an issue to make or break a trip by going cheaper and we had to stay offsite we might but it certainly wouldnt be the same to us.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Different folks and families do different things-

My father-in-law always said the room was only a place to sleep; family at the park from rope drop to close.

Lot of families rope drop the parks, go back to resort in middle of the day, then go back to parks at night.

We all have heard about the kids enjoying the resort pool more than the parks

I know folks who do not go to the parks and enjoy the resort only.

 

[zurgandfriend]

To each their own. Personally, we always stay on property. We go for rope drop and spend the morning and early afternoon at our park de jour. We have lunch and then we go back to our hotel and kick back. Maybe a pool and hot tub visit maybe a nap. Then we clean up and head back out for dinner and more park time. No driving back and forth, no having to find a restaurant and no worrying about the car, it’s in my garage in Boston, but again that’s just me.

 

[Touchdown]

Another perk of the midday break (especially if it included a shower) is walking up to your evening park feeling refreshed and chipper while traffic in the other direction looks like they are on a death march after having suffered through the heat of the day.

 

[ppete1975]

I live way out of state and only get once every few years. I stay on site and rope drop. Now I stay at port orleans so not one of the super expensive ones. But I like being in the Disney bubble, I dont have to drive i can ride busses to the parks, or the boat to disney springs. There is food on site, and nice places to just walk around if I come back early. So i either fly in (used to take the free magic express which was wonderful) or park my rental.. and it doesnt move till i leave.
If i lived closer I probably wouldnt stay on site.

 

[Mr. Engagement]

I'm always torn on this.

When I hear that folks sleep in or take a break in the middle of the day, it sounds so nice and relaxing. But I'm also like, "You're missing out on precious (and expensive) time in the parks!"

Same with on-site vs. off-site. Being inside the bubble is a huge part of the experience for me, but then we're paying a premium for a room we spend little time in! For me, I always try to have at least arrival day and a mid-trip break from the parks to focus on fully enjoying the resort.

When it comes to staying in "the bubble," I've always found a big difference between the Values and Moderates, so we've always preferred POR/POFQ or CBR. Of course, this drives up the cost of a Disney vacation even more, and with it, the "pressure" to get the most out of the whole experience!

 

[Serpico Jones]

I always stay on site and usually at Pop Century. We just use the rooms for sleeping and showering so it’s not worth getting a more expensive room at a pricier hotel. The skyliner is also awesome.

I live in Miami, Florida which is a three hour drive away so that helps.

 

[Touchdown]

Let’s review what the parks look like midday:
-It’s the hottest part of the day, and also the part of the day most likely to have a thunderstorm.
-It’s the most crowded part of the day with peak lines at all attractions.

Missing an hour or two of that isn’t missing much, at best you walked into a show and did an attraction in 20 min, worse you got in line for a headliner and did an attraction in 60+ minutes. I rope drop a park and have usually done everything I want to do there by noon/2 pm at the latest (and grabbed a lunch.). I always park hop, and usually have a TS meal reservation for 5pm (in or near my evening park) it’s just completely natural and not out of the way to stop by my room as I’m on the monorail so the only hop that doesn’t take me to my resort is DHS/Epcot (and those days I usually don’t go back to my resort.) The park time I lose is litterally just the time I spend in my resort as the transport time would have happened irregardless.