It is an unfortunate side effect of the rising demand. They haven't build a new park in Orlando in over 20 years but the world's population keeps growing and more developing nations are having more people with disposable income. They don't need annual passholders as much, they don't need day guests as much. The hotel system at Disney is the biggest ripoff of all. I have only stayed in a Disney hotel once and for 300 dollars it was less than what you would get at a Holiday Inn.
Yeah staying 'on property' has lost nearly all of it's flair and benefit. we still probably would do it if we went on a longer trip, but in the ride-sharing and airbnb era, it makes almost 0 sense to stay in a disney hotel.
It wasn't even that convenient in terms of location. We screwed up and booked a hotel pretty much on the furthest end from Animal Kingdom. It felt like an hour each way with waiting for the bus, driving, and all the stops.
probably the All Star resorts, theyre right at the entrance to AK and, yeah, it's like a 35 min bus ride up to MK if you dont have to make any stops.
i'm a disney resort hotel defender because that's what we have always done but it makes sense to stay off property to save money
We've done on and off resort... and it's just so much easier with kids to stay on resort. Especially when Minnie Vans were around when we didn't take our own car.
We stayed on site growing up, but my parents always drove so we always had a lot of fun. My fiancée and I went in 2018, stayed onsite at Pop Century without a car, and it was nightmare. This was before the skyliner The bus transportation was horrid and made the day so much longer. The hotel was not worth the price, and they charged me for a car even though we took the magic express to and from the airport. I had to call and fight with them when i got home leaving a pretty bad taste in my mouth. We went back a couple years later, stayed at the hilton at seaworld, and we decided we won't ever stay on property again until we have kids. I was raised in Florida so I have a soft spot for Disney but it looses more and more value as time goes on. Even when we took the magic express, they started advertising the cruise line before we even arrived on property.
I’ve always been a big proponent of staying on site but with them literally cutting almost every single perk it really is becoming a serious discussion if the price is worth it
43 days until my flight! One of my friends that I'm going with broke her ankle last week, just a really unfortunate accident. Luckily WDW is very accomodating when it comes to that, so we are going to do everything possible to make sure she has a good time.
Most likely will have to stand in line, and then friend can meet at front? I know thats what they did at AK
I’ll be staying at All Star Movies this weekend because we somehow secured a cheap night so I will be indulging at EPCOT and closing out magic kingdom. Gotta imagine the bus transportation will still be better than the monorail situation when I went a couple weeks ago. Took over an hour+ to get back to the TTC, walk to the car, and exit the lot.
Oh man. I love the busses and staying on property at the value resorts. I was STUNNED, however, when I heard they did away with magical express. I wouldn’t even know how to get to the resort from the airport without it.