Experiences of Disney off site

[Eggzandbacon]

So we have been 3 times and stayed on site.
Part of the reason for doing this is the dining plan and also DD has food allergies which are well caterered for.

DH isn’t happy about the price increase and wants to look at staying off site with a car.
Getting separate tickets so we can also go to universal.

My issue is we will spend a lot of time travelling in and out (he thinks he will be able to go back to hotel room like we do at Disney - I think it will take ages).

He thinks we can part self cater - I don’t think we will end up eating in accommodation apart from breakfast because we would have to leave the park - so we would spend a fortune on food at Disney/universal. Therefore saving no money.

Also trying to find places that DD can actually eat is a nightmare and Disney is amazing - I suspect it won’t be like this off site.

What are people’s expeeienxes - especially if you’ve done both

We took food in with us. Loved the dipping in and out and the travel to other places. It isn't all about Disney then.

How long does it take to get back to the hotel in the Disney package?

We stayed out at vista cay resort and usually took 20 mins from resort to the car park - universal would be nearer.

Things to consider would be daily parking charge. We ate breakfast in each day then stopped for meals on the way home. We also took snacks and drinks into the park.

About 20 minutes from front of park.

Even though we could save with breakfast I think we would spend a fortune on dinners - especially as needs to be places that accommodate DD.

The US are amazing with allergies and intolerances. You could always got to Walmart/dollar tree/ publix and get snacks to take with you to the parks and breakfast, even meal times. Will you be at the parks rope drop to close? Very long days if so?

Why not plan 2/3 of a day in the parks and 1/3 out? That's one meal not in the parks. You could also do other things in Florida too then and see what there is to offer and explore.

I agree that Disney is amazing at allergies, but that's in some part reflective of the fact that Florida in general is. We've stayed off site with allergies and it's been fine. We didn't do super long park days though and if you want to do that I agree that nipping in and out isn't really doable in the way that on site is.

Also in recent years the price of character meals is so expensive that without the dining plan they can be prohibitive, also you can reserve restaurants and fast pass further in advance on site (though we've never struggled with that anyway).

We've found that by staying off site you can take snacks and cold drinks in (that's much easier with a pushchair though).

We've found the best of both worlds is doing apart-hotels, just because when we've stayed in a villa I feel like I end up with lots of cleaning jobs I'd prefer to not do. But apartments have all the stuff you need (including washing machine and coffee maker) but still get cleaned like a hotel.

Staying off site is a different type of holiday, I don't know that it saves so much money, it just leaves you free to spend it in different ways, which on balance we prefer as you end up seeing more of Florida.

We stayed off site with a car, it was fine. I loved universal. We had a great time.

Much nicer off site you have much more space and you could even have your own private pool

20 mins drive is one thing but you also need to add the time it will take to get back to the car park, then the same time back again, could easily add an extra 1 hour onto the time spent away from the park

Ive never staywd in the disney hotels. I once stayed at a wyndham at the back of downtown disney and once in a villa. Both were good. The villa we ate at diner places a lot. We loved IHOP!

We drove all over to Disney universal other parks and shopping.

Why is being onsite much better? Surely there is only so much to see within easy walk / boat / monorail of your hotel before you'd be better off driving.

We stayed off site in a self catering apartment. We shopped at Target/Walmart/Publix and generally ate breakfast in the apartment, had lunch in the parks and then had dinner either in the apartment (bought food and cooked it ourselves, also did a couple of takeaways) or ate in a local restaurant. That way we didn't spend extortionately on food. We did do the Rainforest Cafe one evening though which was great.
Apples, small cans of pringles, cookies make good snacks to pop in a bag for round the parks. Plus water, we took a Brita water filter bottle that we all shared and could refill at water fountains all day.
Travelling around we had a hire car and weren't too far out, getting to parks early meant not too much traffic, daily parking costs don't apply for Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach or Disney Springs. Satnav was useful in the hire car especially for the drive to Kennedy.
However for our next trip we want to try being in a Disney hotel, just to see the difference!!

Onsite at universal has its perks. Most of the hotels are a walk in. Early entry & more?