Is Disney World’s On-Site Advantage Disappearing or Reappearing?!
For years, there were big benefits to staying at Walt Disney World owned resorts: free transportation, better line-skipping options, extra hours, and more that justified the higher cost. In this post, we’ll take a new look at how perks have changed and whether on-site hotels are still worth the premium pricing. (Updated September 17, 2023.)
I’ll preface this by saying that we have been advocates of staying in the Walt Disney World “bubble” and are definitely biased towards that. In our On-Site v. Off-Site at Walt Disney World article we attempt to be balanced, but concede that we’re drawn to being inside the Walt Disney World “bubble,” which offers advantages in terms of location, convenience, and the feeling of an all-encompassing vacation destination.
However, that started to change even pre-closure. We still love a lot of Walt Disney World hotels and do on-site stays, but no longer strongly recommend them for everyone. Accordingly, what we are going to do is ask and attempt to answer an important question: what if the selling points of staying on-site are no longer as valuable as conventional WDW planning wisdom suggests?
This is a question we originally posed a few years ago as Walt Disney World hotel prices began to soar and the advantages offered by on-site perks were less noteworthy. Since reopening, we’ve revisited this topic a couple of times for different reasons. That started with the end of Extra Magic Hours and free FastPass, as well as the suspension of the Disney Dining Plan.
For our Late 2023 update that looks forward to planning your 2024 Walt Disney World vacation, we’re revisiting this from a positive perspective. There have been a few positive developments last year and this year, and we’re also granting greater weight to various considerations that we previously glossed over. This has us asking ourselves: is Walt Disney World’s on-site advantage starting to reappear?
Let’s start with the Disney Dining Plan as that is finally returning in early 2024. For many planners, being able to purchase the Disney Dining Plan is very important from a budgeting and convenience perspective. While we’ve been skeptical of this for years, but it’s nevertheless true that guests find themselves surprised by food costs more than anything else at Walt Disney World (see the fascinating survey data about halfway down this article).
So the Disney Dining Plan reappearing is definitely a big plus for a lot of Walt Disney World guests who stay on-site. In our view, that probably overstates the degree to which this is an actual advantage. The reality is that the overwhelming majority guests will come out ahead from a budgeting or convenience perspective by pre-purchasing discount Disney gift cards and using those to pay-as-they-go for food.
Even in the past, the Disney Dining Plan offered the illusion of convenience and budgeting. That’ll be doubly true with the 2024 Disney Dining Plan due to price increases–unless you have more than 2 children or do the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan. Of course, there are exceptions to this–families of big carnivores or those willing to “hack” the Disney Dining Plan did come out ahead. But for the most part, the house always wins. We look forward to the Disney Dining Plan returning, but it wasn’t the benefit that some cracked it up to be.
There’s also the Genie+ line-skipping system, which replaced the free FastPass ride reservation program. (See our Guide to Lightning Lane and Genie+ at Walt Disney World for full details, recommendations, and everything you need to know for making most of that line-skipping system.)
There are two components to this: Genie+ Lightning Lanes and Individual Lightning Lanes. The latter offers on-site guests the “benefit” of being able to purchase Individual Lightning Lane access at 7 am instead of park opening time, which is when everyone else can buy access. Certain Individual Lightning Lanes do sell out prior to park opening time, so that window is beneficial for headliner attractions–but even that is seasonal. If you’re visiting during busy holiday travel dates, it matters. If you’re going in May or September, not so much.
It would be beneficial if on-site guests could book Genie+ ride selections early, but that is not how this works. Everyone is able to book Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations starting at 7 am. That could always change down the road, but for now, that’s how the system works.
There’s no sugar-coating this one. Losing free FastPass+ was a colossal blow to all visitors of Walt Disney World, but especially on-site guests. One of the very best on-site advantages at Walt Disney World was the expanded FastPass+ booking window; that was a significant headstart and allowed on-site guests to scoop up most of the best ride reservations before their trip.
However, that could change once again in 2024, with another much more significant shift in the off-site vs. on-site calculus as advance ride reservations are coming to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World in 2024. As compared to the return of the Disney Dining Plan, this has flown relatively under the radar, but we view this as a much bigger deal.
The reason advance booking of Genie+ Lightning Lanes has been “under-discussed” is because Walt Disney World hasn’t really said anything aside from “it’s happening.” There are absolutely no details about how it’ll work, whether it’ll cost more, or even if there will be an on-site advantage to Genie+ advance booking.
We’ve heard a range of rumors over the last few months, and honestly, none of those have done anything to reassure us. It sounds like this was a mandate from on high in response to negative guest feedback, and the announcement came before the details were worked out. If what we’ve heard is accurate, some specifics are still up in the air. (Suffice to say, you shouldn’t be surprised if Genie+ advance booking does not launch right away in January 2024.)
One thing that does seem reasonably likely is that there will be an on-site advantage with advance booking of Lightning Lanes. For one thing, because there was in the past with FastPass+ and what we’ve heard suggests this will replicate some of that system (except costing money). For another thing, because hotel occupancy is starting to decrease, so restoring this perk–even at a cost–would help resolve that. So consider this one a tentative on-site advantage that’ll arrive at some point in 2024.
Next, let’s turn to Walt Disney World’s two replacements for Extra Magic Hours: Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours. Early Theme Park Entry allows all on-site resort guests and those staying at select third party hotels to enjoy 30-minute access to any Walt Disney World theme park, every day before normal operating hours begin.
Early Entry means that Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios (for example) open daily at 8:30 am and 8 am, respectively, to resort guests, and 30 minutes later to off-site guests. The logical criticism here is that morning Extra Magic Hours was an hour long, so this is half the time, and thus, half as good.
We have done Early Entry over one-dozen times (literally), and that has not been our experience at 3 of the 4 parks. Crucially, Extra Magic Hours occurred on select days of the week and only at one park on each occasion. This mean consolidating all on-site guests at a single park. Early Entry occurs daily at all 4 parks, and better spreads out the crowd as a result.
In practice, we’ve found Early Entry to be far less busy than EMH. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom, it essentially offers a 2-3 ride headstart for on-site guests and is actually a pretty significant. (Most days, it is not as good at Magic Kingdom.)
We’ve used Early Entry to accomplish both Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash at DHS, all three headliners at EPCOT, and pretty much everything in Animal Kingdom. Early Entry is a huge perk, and it’s doubly beneficial to be able to use it every single day at whichever park you want. Do not underestimate its value and skip Early Entry because it’s “only” 30 minutes. (In case you can’t tell, we are huge fans of Early Entry–it’s bigger than many fans think.) Learn more strategy in our Guide to Early Entry at Walt Disney World.
Next, there’s Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. This benefit is exclusively for guests staying at Deluxe Resorts, Deluxe Villas (Disney Vacation Club units), or other select hotels (currently Swan & Dolphin and Shades of Green). Guests staying at Value or Moderate Resorts are not eligible for Extended Evening Hours.
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours occur only two nights per week in total–typically Mondays at Epcot and Wednesdays at Magic Kingdom. This runs for two hours each night, but this is only a perk for those who book more expensive hotels (or the Swan & Dolphin, which are often priced on par with Value or Moderate Resorts). This makes Extended Evening Hours a double-edged sword, with its quality hinging on resort status.
For those who are eligible, Extended Evening Hours is huge. Crowds are virtually non-existent, as are lines for most attractions. It’s way better than Evening Extra Magic Hours, which had become overcrowded due to expanded eligibility during its last few years. (In fact, the crowds during Evening EMH are one of the reasons we first wrote this post, in the first place–Evening EMH had become almost useless due to overcrowding.)
Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of Value and Moderate Resort guests who, as noted above, cannot take advantage of Extended Evening Hours. So if you’re a Deluxe or DVC guest, this perk is fantastic. If you’re staying at a Moderate or below, it’s awful/nonexistent. See our Guide to Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World for more rules, eligibility, strategy, etc.
Two of the most recent changes concern transportation. At the beginning of last year, the Disney’s Magical Express airport shuttle service ended. Now, visitors arriving to Orlando International Airport will need to rent a car, use Uber/Lyft, or arrange for an alternative shuttle service in order to get to their resort. This was a huge loss for many Walt Disney World visitors.
Disney’s Magical Express’ closest paid replacement is Mears Connect Driven by Sunshine. See our Guide to Airport Transportation for Walt Disney World for other options. There’s no one-size-fits-all perfect solution; it depends on your party size, budget, and other factors.
We’ve used Mears Connect many times, and have found it to be virtually identical to Disney’s Magical Express in speed, quality, and service. The biggest downside is that there’s a fee, and that since these are third parties, there’s not always seamless integration between the resorts and the shuttles in the event that an issue arises. (Some fans will cite the lack of luggage handling, but that disappeared from DME prior to this, so it’s hard to tie that to this particular change.)
At the start of this year, Walt Disney World brought back free overnight self-parking to guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort hotels. Complimentary parking was an on-site perk until a few years ago, and it was another prompt for this post in the first place.
We hated the charge for parking, and thought it was a bad decision that diminished the differentiation between Disney and its real-world counterparts. We were not alone. At the time, the introduction of the parking fee was the most controversial change we had ever seen made by Walt Disney World.
Not only did our post garner over 300 angry comments, but Walt Disney World got hit hard by negative reviews on crowdsourced travel sites like TripAdvisor and Google. I had never seen fans so mad–although backlash to the subsequent elimination of free FastPass and Disney’s Magical Express did exceed that response.
In addition to this, Walt Disney World resort hotel guests also continue to receive complimentary standard parking at Walt Disney World theme parks, which is another plus. In tandem, these two things take some of the sting out of the elimination of Disney’s Magical Express–at least for the guests who opt to rent a car while staying on-site. (That number will only grow, as Universal Orlando continues to expand and turn itself into an equally-compelling theme park destination.)
Sticking with the topic of transportation, this is another on-site advantage offered by Walt Disney World…and one that has arguably improved by quite a bit. Let’s start with the neutral components: the monorails and boats are more or less the same.
Given that the monorails continue to age and one boat route has been cut, the argument could be made that these have gotten slightly worse. Anecdotally, I’m not sure I agree–monorail maintenance has decreased downtime and the one boat route is used by a small minority of guests. Speaking of things used by a small minority of guests, we are fans of the Grand Floridian walkway to Magic Kingdom–our favorite form of transportation is “feet” and we wish Walt Disney World made itself more walkable. (Which would ease the burden on existing transportation.)
As a whole, we view Walt Disney World transportation as better today than it was 5 years ago. The big thing here is the Skyliner, which we view as the best transportation option at Walt Disney World. When there is a line, it’s constantly moving and usually a short wait. Since the opening couple of months, the Skyliner gondola system has been incredibly reliable.
We’re huge fans and strongly favor the Skyliner resorts now. It’s especially a game-changer for Pop Century; given all of the perks and transportation advantages of that one resort, we can easily justify the premium pricing there.
Also helping with past transportation woes is bus wait times, which show up both on digital boards at the bus stops and in the My Disney Experience app. There’s still room for improvement here, and there have been hotel stays when we’ve noticed overcrowded and inconsistent bus service. (In particular, Coronado Springs is a big offender.)
Walt Disney World has also addressed its bus driver shortage, which actually predated the closure, by bringing in a third party to assist with routes. All things considered, we’ve been more pleased by bus service and found it to be more efficient last year and in 2023 than it was in 2017-2019. With that said, few things are as hit-or-miss as WDW bus service. Someone could have a superlative experience, and someone else an awful one–despite staying at the same resort during the same dates–simply by virtue of luck and timing.
I won’t include Minnie Vans as a transportation “improvement” since there’s a pricey surcharge for those, and we don’t generally recommend them. Plus, if you’re willing to use Disney’s Minnie Vans, you might as well be willing to use Lyft or Uber, which have become ubiquitous in Central Florida. The ease of Lyft and Uber is definitely an improvement for guests, but it’s neither here nor there from an “advantage” perspective since it isn’t a change made by Disney.
Turning back to dining, there is an on-site advantage when it comes to booking Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs). Currently, everyone can book table service restaurants 60 days prior to the date on which they’d like to eat. In addition, Walt Disney World resort hotel guests can make Advance Dining Reservations for their length of stay (up to a 10-day stay) up to 60 days in advance of their check-in date.
As discussed in our Top 10 Tips for Booking Difficult Advance Dining Reservations, this “60+10” window can be incredibly advantageous for popular table service restaurants or larger parties, especially during busier travel dates. If character dining or highly themed restaurants are important to you, this is huge. Even at the 60 day mark, Story Book Dining at Artist Point, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, Cinderella’s Royal Table, Space 220, Topolino’s Terrace, ‘Ohana, and others can be scarce.
The good news is that ADRs have gotten easier over the course of this year, to the point that the 60+10 window is not really necessary for most parties or travel dates. (We’ve done very well 1-2 days ahead of time throughout 2023, but we’re also a party of 2 and are flexible.) The bad news is that the return of the Disney Dining Plan means ADRs will almost certainly become much more competitive in 2024, making this a bona fide on-site advantage once more.
We view dining as a big component of the Walt Disney World experience, so this is a big deal to us. However, it doesn’t matter to everyone, so your mileage may vary. Also, there are tricks (see that tips post) for scoring last minute availability–but they don’t work as well as booking during the 60+10 window.
Then there’s the biggest consideration, which is cost. This has always been the primary selling point for staying off-site. It’s worth reiterating here because the cost difference between off-site and on-site accommodations has become much more pronounced in the last few years.
As discussed in How Much Does a Walt Disney World Vacation Cost in 2023?, the average total price of a trip this year versus a comparable vacation in 2019 is up by thousands of dollars. On a positive note, that has already improved since publication, as over a dozen different discounts have been released for 2023 and 2024.
As a result of the special offers–which include room discounts of up to 35% off and free dining gift cards of up to $200 per night–the effective price of accommodations at Walt Disney World is actually down considerably in 2023. That’s because many of the same dates in 2021-2022 had no discounts whatsoever for the general public. As pent-up demand continues to exhaust itself, we anticipate even better deals in 2024 as compared to this year.
In other words, this one comes down to your frame of reference. If you visited in 2019 or earlier, a 2024 Walt Disney World vacation is still going to cost a lot more and you’re going to get less. However, the same is true pretty of much everything and everywhere–inflation, shrinkflation, and skimpflation have hit American consumers hard. By contrast, if you visited Walt Disney World in the last two years and are planning a trip in 2024, things are starting to look much better. As with so much, it’s all relative!
If you can afford on-site hotels at Walt Disney World, it’s definitely still nice to stay in a resort with an immersive design, attention to details, and various Disney touches. It’s also nice to be able to walk to the parks, or be part of the Disney bubble.
For many people, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of this. There’s a certain x-factor that the Disney resorts offer that elevates the overall experience into something more special. This is true for us, and even with all of the complaints here, we still prefer staying on-site in Disney-owned properties.
To their credit, Walt Disney World’s resorts are still meticulously themed, with a ton of charm, detail, and transportive environments you mostly won’t find off-site. This has long been a big selling point, as your resort stay feels like an extension of the theme parks.
This applies mostly to the exterior grounds and interior common areas. With certain recent room refurbishments, the sense of theme inside Walt Disney World’s hotel rooms has been diminished. We’ve been highly critical of this because themed environments are what defines Disney, and are in the wheelhouse of Imagineers.
Many of the new rooms seem to be striving more towards crowd-pleasing styles, with generic modern designs, clean and crisp aesthetics, and generally elegant luxury (the last one only applies to Deluxe Resorts). In general, the rooms are less fun and have traded unique and colorful designs for more bland and basic ones.
On a positive note, Disney seems to be turning the corner on this. The new rooms at the Grand Floridian are an unequivocal upgrade over their predecessor in both theme and luxury, and just one recent example of a shift in this regard. It would seem that the worst of this occurred between 2016 and 2019, with the rooms in the last 2-3 years striking the balance much better. Hopefully this is the start of a positive trend and shifts into the ‘on-site advantage’ column over time.
The problem with the previous move towards modern and nondescript rooms is that Disney went from a realm with almost no real competition (ornately themed designs) to placing itself in direct competition with real-world hotel brands by mimicking their style.
This not only makes for an easier head-to-head comparison in terms of guest rooms, but it’s also a comparison that’s often not favorable to Disney. I love a lot of things about Walt Disney World, but do not view it as one of the world’s great operators of hotels.
Actual luxury hoteliers such as Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria, and Four Seasons have high end properties near Walt Disney World, and they generally surpass even Walt Disney World’s flagship hotel on a luxury front. It’s arguable that even the Marriott, Hilton, and Wyndham hotels give Deluxe Resorts at Walt Disney World a run for their money–and those are often priced below Moderate levels!
When it comes to alternatives to staying on-site, we think that the real sweet spot is on-site third party hotels like the Swan & Dolphin, Four Seasons Orlando, and Bonnet Creek Resorts. (See our List of the Best Third Party Hotels Near Walt Disney World.)
Several of these have locations that are as good or better than Disney-owned and operated hotels, and are less expensive. Many also offer the same perks as Disney hotels. Swan & Dolphin, for example, offer Extended Evening Hours whereas Disney Value and Moderate Resorts won’t have access to those.
You also might consider renting a vacation home, both for the sake of privacy and isolation. (See our Best Vacation Home Rentals Near Walt Disney World.) These are especially great for larger parties, and you can literally rent an entire house for the cost of a mid-tier Walt Disney World hotel room. Some of these contain themed kids rooms, in-home theaters, game rooms, private pools, plus everything else you’d expect from a house.
Another great option right now is staying at Universal Orlando, which still does offer most of its on-site advantages and its own sense of immersion and being inside of a “Universal bubble” (albeit to a lesser extent).
If you want to go all-out with Universal’s nicest hotels that are in walking distance of the parks and include unlimited line-skipping at attractions via Express Pass, see our Hard Rock Hotel Review and Portofino Bay Hotel Review. Even though these are Universal Orlando’s more expensive hotels, they’re still priced about on par with Moderate Resorts at Walt Disney World.
Our Universal Orlando Hotel Rankings & Reviews covers the pros & cons of all those resorts, many of which we love for their locations, theme, on-site perks, and value for money. Additionally, refer to Universal Orlando v. Walt Disney World Resorts for a comparison between Disney’s and Universal’s hotels to see what each does better.
Ultimately, that describes our dilemma with accommodations at and around Walt Disney World. The rational side of my mind knows that staying off-site provides significantly better value for money and that the some of the perks we receive from Walt Disney World hotels aren’t as valuable as they once were.
We do now have a lower price ceiling for most Walt Disney World resorts (except Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, and All Star Movies, which are all a bit higher for us now), which can be a challenge given that room rates have been increasing. However, there are still ways to find good discounts, and failing that we can either use or rent DVC points or look at the on-site third party options like Swan & Dolphin, Disney Springs, and Bonnet Creek.
There’s also Universal Orlando, and we absolutely love several of those hotels. Universal can hold its own with many of Walt Disney World’s hotels from a thematic perspective, and many of the amenities at Universal are actually superior to Disney. Plus, the perks of staying on-site are far superior and nightly room rates are far lower.
Beyond that, there’s a burgeoning vacation home rental industry, cheap Airbnbs, and robust slate of new off-site hotels near the parks. We should be further investigating all of that, as some great deals abound. The Central Florida accommodations market is incredibly competitive outside the Disney bubble, and that’s reflected in pricing and amenities.
With all of that said, there’s the emotional side. We have nostalgic attachments to certain resorts at Walt Disney World, and enjoy their lush grounds, dining, and amenities. We love being able to stay late in the parks, even if they’re crowded and all we’re doing is wandering around. We enjoy the seamless experience of going from the parks to our resort, feeling a temporary reprieve from the real world.
It’s difficult to put a price on all of that. While we “value” it below the cost difference between comparable third party hotels, we often jump through hoops to find ways to justify staying at Walt Disney World hotels. I’m not suggesting this is the right (or wrong) approach. I know part of this is Disney’s emotional power, and we fall for it hook, line, and sinker a lot. I’m not making a judgment either way–it simply is what it is. However, we find it happening less and less with Walt Disney World continuing to raise prices and cut offerings–that makes staying off-site a much easier decision!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think…are the perks of staying on-site as valuable to you as they once were, or are you getting less value for your money staying at Walt Disney World hotels? Will you continue to stay on-site despite this all? Have you already moved off-site? Other thoughts on this? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I have to agree that if you are paying more to stay “on property” I also feel that you should have a FP advantage over the 3rd party hotels. I like the idea of the 75 day or even 90 days, if they are giving the third party hotels 60 days. Isn’t that why we pay more to stay on property? I did not know before reading this today that they also had access to EMH. Again-that was a major perk previously. I am definitely going to rethink that next visit! I’d rather earn Marriott or Hilton reward points then!
For our last trip, we could never get a Snow White Mine Train fastpass, even at the 60 day advance mark and constantly checking. We were only able to get 1 Avatar and 1 Slinky dog FP. So disappointing. Seems to me they should open more FP inventory for those rides! Or let us have more than 3 per day- how about 4 Or 5? 3 just seems “cheap” on their part.
With Star Wars opening they really need to give some benefit to the on-property guests, you know the hotel rates will be crazy high!
Was just recently at Disneyland and had great experience with the Maxpass! Except the last day, there were system issues in the morning and we couldn’t get it to work until about lunch time.
Don’t know how often that happens. Of course, that was the most crowded day in the park! Go figure. But the other 3 days it worked excellent!
I’ve been slipping, I too did not realize they had access to EMH. The 60 day FP+ and EMH are the two biggest reasons to stay in site. Later this month may be the last time we do so (booked in October 2018).
Peter, I had no idea either until i read this blog. I imagine that as this becomes common knowledge, a lot more visitors will be choosing to stay offsite. It just makes more sense financially.
My husband and I have been going to WDW and Disneyland since the early 90s when we had small kids, we used to alternate parks every summer. My kids are all adults now, and bona fide Disney Park nuts so I raised them right. 😉 After a bad experience at a Quality Inn (around 1992) we learned that staying on Disney resort property is a must, even though we pay a premium to stay onsite. I agree with your stance on the nostalgia; the Disneyland Hotel goes back to my own childhood. But at Disney World, having stayed at all of their resorts at one time or another (except for the Animal Kingdom Resort,) I am perfectly content staying at the All Star resorts, or if we want to “splurge” we will upgrade to the Caribbean Beach Resort or another Moderate resort. I flat refuse to pay more than a couple hundred dollars a night for a stay at Disney since we only spend about 8-10 hours in the rooms sleeping and cleaning up, I’ll save those vacation dollars for Hawaii. I seriously cannot think of any good reason to stay at a Good Neighbor hotel, I just can’t. As a travel points person, I usually try to stay where I can get airline points like a Marriott or Best Western, but Disney World is the exception to that rule. I will gladly give up points to stay on Disney property. Disney resort transportation even with its hiccups – and I love the Minnie Vans, btw – beats having to make your way to the Monorail at park closing with the droves carrying a sleeping 3-y/o child, or when you are just tired after a long day and ready to get to your room. The food at the resorts is really good, the pools are fun and there’s enough “theme” at the All Stars to satisfy the warm-fuzzy Disney magic. Also, as far as price is concerned, a stay at a Disney All Stars resort is pretty darn close to staying at an off-site motel.
As far as the Extra Magic Hours are concerned, I guess I’ve become jaded to all that. I remember years ago when Disney was piloting the Extra Magic Hours program and we were lucky enough to get in on the action. At resort check-in they asked if we wanted to pay an extra $X amount to stay in the park after it closed. We paid the extra and they gave us wristbands. At park closing they booted those without a wrist band from the park, wow talk about chaos and people getting their feelings hurt. Those without a wrist band (ie, staying at off-site motels) were not allowed on the rides and instructed to make their way to the exit. Over the years it has become a non-perk, as you still have to wait in a long lines for some rides. So on that issue, I can take it or leave it.
I am more upset with the daily parking fee added for onsite hotel stays.
I don’t mind Disney hotels being expensive. What I do mind is when they take away the reasons we were willing to pay that much. The diminishing of in-room theming is really disappointing.
I agree that you have to look at on-site advantages differently when you have young kids and strollers. I also agree one of the biggest, if not the biggest, factor is transportation preference. We would much rather have a worst case scenario wait for buses than ever bother with renting a car & driving ourselves. The hotels that are really in a sweet spot, business-wise, are the on-site third party. With a lot of the perks plus the possibility of using/earning loyalty points, they’ve got a pretty good deal going. If I went for a girls weekend or by myself for a runDisney or something, no question, on-site third party makes sense. Traveling with my family, Disney resort is the way we go.
I find the “Walt would have hated this” comments in regards to prices to be annoying. He was obviously a great dude but also a businessman living in a different era. No one can say what he’d think of how the parks are managed today.
I agree 100%.
The parking fee added on to resorts was the final straw for us. Just plain greedy.
I agree!
A lot of the times that I visit Disney now it’s for race weekends so I want to stay on site for race transportation. But if we plan a visit where we aren’t using our DVC points and I’m not running, I’m definitely going to look into other options. The prices have gone up so much and aside from the 60 day FP (which we could get at a Disney Springs hotel) we don’t use many of the perks. Transportation was a bit one but you make a great point about just factoring Uber into your budget. I haven’t used extra magic hours in like two years because it feels MORE crowded than during regular hours.
I love staying on property, but they have been charging for every little thing. The perks are vanishing. Having to pay for parking is ridiculous! One time a family member sent a package and they want to charge us $5 for accepting it. I don’t think Walt would agree with the price gouging!
I’ve gone to Disney many times as my children were growing up. It was always a struggle to afford it but we managed. Now with more money available to spoil my grand-children, I find the whole experience has become less enjoyable on all fronts. Crowd sizes are consistently growing, lines are getting longer, to get fast-pass or dining reservations you either have to plan months in advance or pay thru the nose for club status. I will not be renewing my annual passes this year and will go with the grand- kids a few times. But sadly, Disney is no longer my go-to vacation destination. I have always said, ” Success ruins everything” and there is no better example that WDW.
Why doesn’t Disney Parks start offering EMH at 2 parks at a time vs just a single park? Everyone staying on property is trying to tak3 advantage of the EMH abd funneling into obe Park. Set up 2 or 3 at a time and spread the load out. Sure there are some staffing and logistical issues with that, but I’m sure Disney Parks could work that out.
We honeymooned at WDW and have been bringing our kids to WDW since 2012, even joining DVC in 2014. Thanks to Tom, we bought resale at SSR for a bargain and with the lowest dues in DVC! I am a self-proclaimed Disney fanatic, but I’m afraid our Disney days are numbered. Disney is slowly eliminating the middle class….even the upper middle class! While we don’t have to worry about room expenses, increases in the cost of tickets and annual passes have outpaced our salaries. We used to go once a year, then every 18 months, now it will be three years before we see WDW again! I am rapidly becoming disillusioned by Disney’s greed grab. I don’t understand why off-property guests now have access to 60-day Fastpasses! Shouldn’t on-site guests be given some sort of edge-maybe a 70-75 day FP? Seriously Disney, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face!!!! Thanks for throwing DVC members a bone though, aka free resort parking! We are taking our kids to UOR this summer and converting our tickets to an annual pass. It is more affordable from the start, and without the feeling of being nickeled and dimed to death or that we’re missing out on something because we won’t pony up $400 more for a dessert party! We’ll still get EMH and I won’t have to worry about the lack of 60 day Fastpasses or 180-day ADR’s! Sadly, the magic is almost gone for me….
What is UOR?
Universal Orlando Resort. . .
FYI, we do pay as DVC members for parking through our annual dues. And those costs have increased consistently and not kept pace with salary increases.
I live two hours away and visit often. The hotel parking charge is a big reason for me to start staying offsite more often. I used to justify Disney hotels by saying that they don’t charge parking and resort fees. We stayed at the contemporary for Christmas but at that time of year being able to walk to mk is priceless. Other than that, we’ve been staying at the Hyatt Grand Cypress. The resort fee is high and they charge for parking but you get a lot included in the resort fee and the rooms are usually much cheaper than moderate resorts. A couple of weeks ago we got a VIP suite for less than any of the deluxe hotels. It was the size of at least two deluxe rooms. I’ll save the Disney resorts for Christmas week and times when my teenage daughters are stressed and need to feel like a kid again. Oh, that’s another charge I’ll soon have to pay. My daughter will be 18 soon but not yet in college. Is it $10 or $20 extra for more than two “adults” in a room?
I am looking forward to our first real on-site stay in early August at CBR which we are doing primarily because of free dining finally being offered during a time when we can go, before school starts and during a football practice break. Free dining makes the extra cost and inconvenience of having 5 people in one hotel room for a week seem worth trying. We will be renting a car. 20 years ago before kids we stayed at the Dolphin and I have terrible memories of long waits in hot weather for busses, and that turned off any appeal of Disney transportation for me. Recent stories of bus waits at CBR sound no better, but we are hoping the gondolas will be operating by then. For our past 4 visits with increasing numbers of kids and various aunts and grandmas, we rented condos first at WorldQuest when it was new and more recently rented timeshares at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. 3 bed/2 or 3 bath condo with kitchen and washer/dryer for $150-200 per night- nothing at Disney is close in terms of value. And Bonnet Creek is within Disney property. With 7 members in our family now (this trip we are leaving the littlest 2 at grandma’s for a late night/fine dining/stroller and whine-free experience!) anything Disney offers for our entire family is either prohibitively expensive or not guaranteed to be together. We will see how our experience goes, but in future unless a good deal is available we will probably go back to offsite especially if EMH don’t pan out to be as beneficial as promised.
Regarding Fastpasses, I agree the competition to get the most popular passes has become ridiculous. But it should not be just for hotel guests, all guests are resort guests and paying a boatload to be there. If off-site guests were excluded that would be the end of our visits. It’s not worth the expense to be there and spend most of the day waiting in lines, or have to skip the biggest attractions. We went to DL last spring for the first time and the Maxpass system was so refreshing! Even though we had to pay a nominal fee, it was well worth it NOT spending hours ahead of time planning and searching for passes. And it was FAIR for everyone. No one gets a Fastpass until they are past the turnstiles, and your next available can be obtained sooner or later depending on the wait time of the ride your last pass was for. If you picked the most popular ride you might wait two hours; if you pick a less popular one you might get another Fastpass in 30 minutes. I wish WDW would scrap FP+ and move to Maxpass.
Disney has done one better. It is called VIP tour @ $700 per hour for minimal 6 hours plus the park tickets. YikeS!
I will always prefer staying on-site in the “Disney bubble” 🙂 But, as you said, it is becoming more difficult to justify the cost of a Disney hotel room. Even the Value Resort prices are getting beat out by off-site competitors. I am concerned that Disney is moving toward more paid “extras” like Toy Story Early Morning Magic, on-site hotel parking fees, and possibly a paid Fastpass+ component in the future as folks have been speculating. Offering more ways to spend money is certainly good business sense, but it raises the amount of money needed to have a truly magical experience. It’s widening and highlighting the gap between upper and middle class, and I fear that we will soon have a WDW where the less wealthy will end up with a sub-par experience. Is there anything the Average Joe can do to influence Disney’s trajectory in this area?
Yes, show them with your wallet. It’s the only way. When the rich close their wallets, which they do in droves much more than others in times of downturn in the economy, Disney will come running back to you.
Many interesting comments on here. We have only ever stayed onsite, so the nostalgia/bubble reason definitely apply to us. And I haven’t compared time efficiency – there is something about knowing I want to go to Epcot and just walking out of my hotel and getting on the Epcot bus that is really nice. I spend a lot of other vacations driving and navigating, so it’s nice not to do that at WDW.
That said, if I stayed offsite and tried driving, maybe I would be converted as other commenters haven.
The quality of the accommodations are more than adequate to me. For comparison, the last 4 non-Disney hotels I’ve stayed at were a Microtel, Sleep Inn, Embassy Suites, and La Quinta. 3 of those 4 are well below what Disney offers even in it’s Value hotels.
You summed it up quite well when you used the word ‘addiction’ … Addiction isn’t usually a healthy thing and people who justify it by saying ‘hey, we’re doing pixie dust, not meth’ are sorta missing the point.
I stay at WDW either on DVC points or EXTREME CM discounts, which shockingly do exist, despite always hearing about how busy WDW is.
Emotional attachment is understandable to some point, but rational adults should be able to make smart decisions. Adult decisions.
When thinking about the pros and the cons of staying on site or offsite I don’t think that I would ever change staying on site. Walt Disney World to me is not just a vacation, it’s visiting home, a place to go, forget everything else exists, and enjoy The time there. Ultimately, Staying offsite is just that you’re staying offsite you’re not in capsulated and all the magic and the excitement that Disney has to offer from the first person that you make a reservation work for the first time you pull up my Disney experience and book your vacation yourself the first time you make a payment when it’s time to book your meals when it’s time to book your fast passes, this is all part of the Walt Disney World experience that most don’t even get the opportunity to experience. So I guess if you ask me if going on vacation to Walt Disney Disney World and choose to stay off property the answer would be hands-down no! The whole idea of going on vacation to Walt Disney World is to experience all that it has to offer from the minute you start booking until the minute you fly home.
Tom (and all Responders)
Nice to read such considered opinions and not the usual rants you often get on such sites! There’s no doubt about it – its harder to justify for all those good points. Smaller children is a real reason too. People also mention the “mid-day break” but this “perk” is less valuable now the parks all close so early. Its harder to justify going back when MK closes at 9pm.
We’re from the UK so we do a full 14 nights and drop around £10k to stay on site – for all those reasons people have said. I suspect our August visit will be our last though. With the park hours reducing and ever increasing crowds – I can’t really justify it anymore. We’re big on rope drop but even RD crowds are starting to get big nowadays as more and more people try and deal with crowds. Disney clearly won’t give two hoots – they just want the money and have no care about eroding their customer proposition as there’s always more people to pay they will just keep charging. If we do come back it’ll certainly be off-site and only to see all the current build completed.
A real shame.
Sorry – had a bit of a whinge and didn’t really intend to.
Wonder what people’s tipping point would be?
It’s probably safe to say that many of us are almost to the “tipping point”. As much as I love it, and have since the 70’s, it’s becoming harder and harder to justify the cost.
I think Disney is about to find out. Make sure when you fill out their surveys you explicitly state you are not happy with the constant price increases and catering to the rich.
Pretty much there. We are booked for 4 days later this month, after saying we wouldn’t take a family vacation this summer due to going to Hawaii in 2018. I got a discount code emailed to me by Disney (that was slightly better than the offers on their website), so I booked a short (4 day) stay around my child and wifes spring breaks (one’s a student, the other an educator). We weren’t planning to go to WDW again until 2021 (our most recent stay being 2017), but my wife didn’t want to wait that long. But yes, between charging for parking at resorts (we usually drive as we usually stay for 6-7 nights), expanding the 60 day FastPass window to non WDW resorts as well as EMH (which I hadn’t realized until this post, though to be honest I didn’t think I’d be planning a stay for several years), and the parks being open for less time daily due to “special events (particularly Magic Kingdom, which only 7 years ago was open until 11:00 PM or midnight on a “regular night, let alone evening EMH nights),” that tipping point is just about here for me. It is rather telling that when I asked my wife a few days ago if there is anywhere she’d like to go for our family vacation in the future after 2021 (which will be Universal Orlando for the Harry Potter attractions, as our daughter will the the same age as a Hogwarts first year student) other than the usual places (WDW, Ocean City MD, Bar Harbor Maine) she didn’t just say “keep going to WDW (this will be our 5th trip there in 7 years, 4 onsite), she actually rattled off a few places.
I would have expected there to be a FP for the new Star Wars attractions too, which would have made staying on site worth it just for that 60 day window advantage. But nope. Our next trip will be the first time we consider staying off-site. That combined with the 60 day window opening to the Good Neighbor hotels anyway is what tipped it for me.
Beverly
April 4, 2019
I love staying on site for all the reasaons we all know. Before kids/grandkids I stayed off site, but once I knew all the “magical” reasons to be in the bubble, well…. I’ll always stay onsite. The extra costs are no different than any other aspect of travel- things go up in price. The joy of riding Disney Express is one of my favorite parts. It totally kicks off the mood!!! The stress relief of not touching my baggage until it’s in my room is the best way to start a stress-free vacay. I don’t mind the bus waits, extra time in the parks is great no matter what and now there’s the air-gondola rides. I’m on site forever!!!!