Will anyone stay on site any longer?

Seanual757

Seanual757

Well-Known Member
Dave B said:
I do not think that is completely accurate that your stays are FREE, last I checked DVC is not FREE, there were A LOT of upfront and yearly costs unless something has changed
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We have been lucky all 3 are paid off (just finished out last one 2 days ago, we broke even on all 3 resorts about 1.5 years into it and we use our Disney Chase card to pay our yearly annual dues for each resort so our out of pocket is zero to stay. So as long as we use our Disney card the rewards add up typically we could pay our annual dues and pay for 3 or 4 of our trips meal plans using the left over rewards.
 
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Dave B

Well-Known Member
Seanual757 said:
We have been lucky all 3 are paid off (just finished out last one 2 days ago, we broke even on all 3 resorts about 1.5 years into it and we use our Disney Chase card to pay our yearly annual dues for each resort so out out of pocket is zero to stay. So as long as we use our Disney card the rewards add up typically we could pay our annual dues and pay for 3 or 4 of our trips meal plans using the left over rewards.
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Congrats!!!!
 
OG Runner

OG Runner

Well-Known Member
Dave B said:
That's what is great about the value in Universal right now, that $600 Express Pass is included in a $400 room and it is included for everyone in the room, so going by your numbers that is a $2400 add on for free by staying at Universal Deluxe Room
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No what I was saying, is that if you were staying a Cabana Bay, you would need to pay an extra $600.00 for your Express Pass.
 
V

vikescaper

Well-Known Member
Technically, yes, we will continue to stay on property as my mom is eligible to stay at Shades of Green. We do have the Caribbean Beach booked for December but other than that, we can’t justify the prices.
 
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Bea123

Member
I love Disney and the atmosphere that you get from staying onsite. So much so that apart from my first two trips to Orlando I have stayed in onsite hotels (from economy to deluxe). That said, I am visiting from the UK and with all the 'perks' that have been taken away and the additional costs for riding attractions (let's face it as much as I am heartbroken about the free FP being replaced with a paid option I will have no choice but to cough up as we are travelling from too far away and visit too few times over the years to spend all day queuing up). We only have a finite budget. So to stretch it out we have opted to rent a villa with a pool for the majority of the holiday (14 nights). We will stay onsite in Disney for 3 nights (4 days) out of the 14 and visit the parks once each and pay for Genie Plus for these specific days only. Additionally paying for 2 x rides per park per day...phew that will really add up so this next visit we will swap most of the table service restaurants for 'snacks' and quick-service meals and have breakfast in the villa as much as we can. We are a family of 6 so it's a lot of money. In previous years (my second visit to Orlando) we did stay in Universal and the unlimited ride ticket was great. Completely different to Genie Plus as you can ride all rides as many times as you want and when you want. Not get up at 7 am to get one ride booked and then see what is available (if anything) for the rest of the day one ride at a time. Of course, I suspect that this is exactly what Disney wants now. Fewer people visiting, less often, spending more money per visit on park entry and rides (as they don't make as much from restaurants etc). Although it will be interesting to see how many people will stay in the parks in the afternoon when presumably the Genie Plus rides have run out and fewer people are staying onsite.

I used to stay onsite, travel free from the airport (as I don't want to drive in the USA), use Disney dining plan, book FP and dining bookings in advance (literally on the first day I could) and never leave Disney for the whole 14 days (just staying in the bubble). Now the bubble has been burst it will be a strange holiday for me. And I confess I would have left it for a few more years to see how things pan out but I have promised the kids so maybe just one more year for us and then we will try something else instead.
 
Richie248

Richie248

Well-Known Member
On the fence here. I think the only resort that I'll continue to stay at is Coronado. I've been able to get some great rates via Hotwire. Stayed at WL last week and honestly it wasn't worth the price. The room was not clean. I've always wiped my room down (even before covid) and the amount of dust and dirt that came up from the furniture was shocking. Transportation was a mess (ended up taking ride shares to avoid the buses). Lack of housekeeping was also a negative. Right now there are no perks for onsite guests, maybe my opinion will change once extra hours start. I'm coming down for the 50th (so I can be in the parks October 1st) and ended up getting a room at Waldorf for less than $200 a night. With prices like that I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay double for a "deluxe" Disney hotel.
 
Richie248

Richie248

Well-Known Member
LovePop said:
You are making a mistake! Waldorf or Hilton is nothing compared to GF. No magic! Not worth the money saved. I know because I've stayed there.
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GF is a shell of what it used to be. The rooms are just as tired as the Waldorf but the price of Waldorf is usually much less (even with the resort fee). The walkway is nice but the perk of the monorail negates itself as it always seems to be down these days. Tried to hop on the monorail during my trip last week and it was down every time.
 
Schweino

Schweino

Well-Known Member
For me it depends. I don't do Mod or Luxes, so the price between a Value resort vs. the cost of an off-site + rental car + daily parking (potentially at hotel and disney parks)...whats the difference? If its negligible, I'd just probably stick with the Values and save the headache of a rental car booking and just use disney transportation. If you usually stay at a Mod/Luxe, you're gonna see a tremendous value bump obviously off-site.

Disney taking away all these little things, and only giving "Early 30 minutes" in return, is just really sad. I will always remember Disney taking my luggage and getting on that bus to head to the resort. Sure, it's priced into my vacation, but as the video says it truly felt like my vacation started as Disney was handling literally everything since I arrived at MCO.
 
Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
Bastet said:
Yes, I will continue to stay on site mainly for the transportation. I'm from the UK and am not confident enough to drive in the US. I did a split stay with Universal in 2019 but truth is I just prefer Disney.
I am annoyed that ME has ended, but it seems that some UK holiday companies - virgin and tui - are now offering transfers as an option to car hire.
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We used Virgin Holidays a few times before Magic Express was a thing. We got transfers with Mears included in the Virgin Holidays package, but we could have done car hire instead.

We also used to attend the Virgin Holidays welcome meeting at Downtown Disney so we could book Mears transfers to Universal and the tickets for Universal too, as well as the coach shopping trip.
Then the internet became more of a thing and it got easier to book a trip ourselves, hotel direct with Disney, flights with Virgin and transport to the other parks direct with Mears. Then finally we took the plunge and rented a car on our two most recent trips and drove ourselves to the non-Disney parks.

But I agree in that for the Disney parks their transport does make a big difference.

However our next trip probably will be a split stay as the benefit to being onsite isn't there anymore. We will probably do half Universal and half Disney. Or maybe even just find a good off-site hotel and not stay at Disney at all if there are no good discounts.
 

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