The first question many people ask when they begin planning a Disney vacation is “Should we stay on property or off?
So on a recent trip to Walt Disney World, we split our stay between two hotels.
We stayed four nights at Disney’s Pop Century Resort, which is on Disney property, and for the last two nights we moved over to the Springhill Suites in Marriott Village, an off site hotel that is a few miles away.
It was so helpful to compare the experience of staying at an on-property Disney resort with staying off property for the same price on this trip!
In this post, I’ll share our experiences at both hotels, what to expect, and my recommendation for where to stay!
This post isn’t sponsored or underwritten and just contains my honest opinions based on MANY trips to Disney World.
On Property: Disney’s Value Resorts
Disney resorts are split into three main categories: Value, Moderate, and Deluxe.
Here’s what to expect when you stay at a Disney Value resort:
A clean, functional room with two queen beds.
Most rooms at Disney’s Value resorts have two queen beds, though accessible rooms have one king bed.
Check out the Pop Century rooms in this post.
I find the rooms to be very functional, with a small table and two chairs, a mini-fridge, flat screen TV, plenty of storage, and a curtain that separates the bathroom area from the rest of the room.
The rooms are on the small side (about 260 square feet). I personally think the rooms are comfortable for up to two adults and two kids under 10.
I wouldn’t suggest trying to fit more than two adult-sized people into these rooms, however!
I think the Value resorts are the most fun out of all resorts at Disney World.
Around the grounds of the resorts, you’ll find huge “icons” of characters and items associated with the resort’s theme.
There are Disney touches everywhere you look, including hidden Mickeys in the rooms and around the resort.
Staying at Disney resorts definitely keeps you inside the “Disney bubble”, meaning that you will have little to no contact with the outside world.
This may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you feel about Disney!
Transportation is a huge perk of staying on Disney property.
You can rely on Disney bus transportation to take you to and from the theme parks without worrying about parking, traffic, directions, and remembering where your car is parked.
The pools at the Value resorts are large and well-themed, and some even have features like bubblers or water sprayers.
But you won’t find any features such as water slides or hot tubs at the Value resorts.
These amenities are available at all of the Disney Moderate and Deluxe resorts, but not at the Values.
Every Disney Value resort has a food court that serves quality food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
In my experience, the snacks and convenience items at the food courts are WAY overpriced, but the entrees represent a very good value.
So if you bring your own snacks and breakfast items, you’ll get great value and quality at the food courts.
When you stay at a Disney World resort you can use Magic Bands during your stay.
I have fully embraced the ease and simplicity of the Magic Band. I love not having to worry if I have my wallet and room key when I leave my room since the bracelet functions as both.
Get the basics of MagicBands in this post or some tips and tricks for getting the most from them in this post.
No Resort Fee
You won’t be charged a “resort fee” at Disney resorts.
Resort fees are a common way that Orlando area hotels charge more while still appearing to be a lower-cost option in searches.
Disney’s legendary hospitality
Disney “cast members” (as the employees are known as there) regularly go above and beyond to ensure guest satisfaction.
I have experienced excellent customer service at all of the Disney resorts, and the Values are no exception.
I’m never worried about running into a disgruntled employee out to ruin my day.
And if anything ever goes wrong (which of course it sometimes does), cast members will bend over backward to make it right for you.
Other Disney resort perks
There are a few more perks of staying at any Disney resort that are worth mentioning.
First is the ability to book Individual Lightning Lane reservations at 7 am. This is often the ONLY way to buy a reservation for these rides.
SO if you want to avoid long waits at the hot ticket attractions, it really helps to have the advance booking window.
Read about Disney Genie Plus and the Lightning Lanes in this post.
You’ll also get access to Early Theme Park entry which allows you to enter each theme park 30 minutes early every day.
As you probably have figured out by now, I think the Disney Value resorts overall provide an excellent vacation experience.
If you want to know what to expect at the Disney Value resorts in more detail check out this post.
They are not all created the same, however… learn about the best and worst of the Value Resorts in this post!
However my FAVORITE way to stay at Disney World is to rent Disney timeshare points – learn how here.
Next, I’ll show you what to expect at an off site hotel near Disney.
Off Property: Springhill Suites in Marriott Village
Disney resorts were completely booked for the last two nights of our trip (it was the weekend before Thanksgiving) so I looked at off-property hotels.
When we arrived and checked in, there were no rooms ready, so we were offered a room at the Springhill Suites next door.
This was an upgrade to a larger room and we were still permitted to use the pool at the Courtyard, so we took it.
Earn 100,000 Marriott points that you can use for a FREE five-night stay at the Springhill Suites when you open a new Marriot Bonvoy Boundless Visa and meet the minimum spending requirement – click here for all of the details!
Here’s what to expect when you stay off-property:
More space in the rooms
Expect to get more space for your dollar at off-property hotels compared to Disney hotels. We stayed in a stylish “studio suite” with two queen beds and a pull-out couch.
This room was 420 square feet with a living room area that was separated from the bedroom area by a half wall.
This room could accommodate a larger group, though I would warn against trying to have an adult sleep on the pull-out couch as it was VERY uncomfortable! We were very pleased with this room.
More amenities, such as fancier pools and hot tubs
Many off-property hotels in this price range will feature pool areas with more bells and whistles than the Disney Value resorts.
You might find waterslides, zero-entry pools, indoor/outdoor pools, and hot tubs.
We really enjoyed the indoor part of the pool at the Courtyard Marriot because it got too cold to swim outside the last two days of our trip.
I also LOVE hot tubs so this feature was a big plus!
Free “breakfast”
Many hotels around Disney World offer free breakfast as a perk. We ate the free breakfast at the Springhill Suites and it left much to be desired.
There were waffles (including a Mickey-shaped waffle maker), cold cereals, yogurt, eggs, sausage, toast, bananas, and oranges.
The food was lackluster, especially compared to what we had just had at Pop Century.
I personally would rather pay for my food and get better quality instead of icky powdered eggs and sad sausages, but that’s just me.
Resort and parking fees
Most off-property hotels charge either a daily parking fee or a daily resort fee, and many have both.
It isn’t uncommon to find resort fees over $20 per night. You’ll definitely need to do some research on the additional fees a resort charges before you book it.
Hospitality That Is Spotty At Best
The first room we were assigned at the Springhill Suites was in total disarray when we tried to enter our room.
I had to leave our luggage and head back down to the lobby to be assigned a new room, then go fetch our luggage and haul it across the hotel to our new room.
When we tried to go to the pool the new morning, we found it locked. It took the front desk staff about 10 minutes to locate a janitor to unlock the pool.
Needless to say, they didn’t really have their act together at the Marriot properties. Avoiding issues like these are one motivation for staying on-property.
More time & hassle getting to and from the parks
And here is the biggest difference between staying on- and off-property to me. You will spend significantly more time and money getting to and from the parks when you stay off-property.
First of all, many resorts within a few miles from Disney will advertise that they have a shuttle service that runs to and from the parks.
It turns out that the shuttle service from Springhill Suites consisted of one bus that made three trips each morning to the Transportation & Ticket Center (where one parks to visit Magic Kingdom).
From there you had to take Disney transportation to all of the other theme parks.
There were three different times you could be picked up in the evening, and you had to make a reservation to ride this bus at least a day in advance. This “shuttle” would only be feasible for a small number of guests.
If you drive yourself, you will have to navigate the roadways around Disney, wait in line to get into the parking lot, pay $25 per day to park (read all about parking at Disney World in this post), and have a 10+ minute walk just to get to the ticket counters.
We opted to take Uber and Lyft to and from the parks, which added additional cost and hassle. I was missing Disney transportation within a few hours of moving resorts!
If you want more info on using Uber in the Disney World area, check out this post.
So there is my summary of what you can expect from similarly priced hotels on Disney property and off.
Though we had a larger room and more amenities at Springhill Suites, staying at a Disney Value resort offered a far superior vacation experience for my family.
We can stay at a hotel with a nice pool anywhere, but when we visit Disney we want to get around easily, have extra time in the parks, and soak up all of the Disney magic possible.
I don’t think we will be staying off-property anytime again soon.
And if you are driving your own car and staying at an off-property hotel with hefty resort and parking fees, you also could end up paying more than at a Disney Value resort.
What do you think?
Do the benefits of staying at a Disney resort outweigh the added space and amenities you’ll find at off-property resorts for you?
Please leave a comment below!
Heidi
Saturday 19th of May 2018
We've never stayed on property but we always rent a house. We had 10 people in a house 100$ a night. For us we have three kids so it's not always great in hotels & with little ones when they are napping or sleeping your stuck in a hotel room but if you have a house you can be elsewhere in the house & even in the pool The cost of groceries is significantly lower then restaurants. We were a very easy 15 minute drive away we didn't even have to get on any major highways. I highly recommend renting a house!
Leah
Sunday 20th of May 2018
Thanks so much, Heidi! I'm actually looking into this for our next trip! Where did you rent through? I'm shopping around right now and would love a recommendation.
Nicole
Thursday 29th of March 2018
Since this was written Disney World started charging overnight parking fees at all of their resorts, except at the campsites at Fort Wilderness. Anything booked on and after March 21, 2018. :(
Leah
Friday 30th of March 2018
Thanks, Nicole, I'm updating the post now with a link to my post on how to the avoid the parking fees!
Mary
Sunday 21st of January 2018
We are going to Disney this year for the first time in over 20 years, just my husband and I. We are not staying in a Disney Resort because an off site resort stay was given to us. We always stayed in a Disney Resort years ago. I would like to know if the DisneyBand is helpful when you don’t stay in the park?
Leah
Monday 22nd of January 2018
Hi Mary! If you aren't staying on property, you could purchase a MagicBand and link it to your My Disney Experience account. You could use it to enter the park, when you use your FastPasses, and have PhotoPass photographers scan it after you get pictures taken. You can do all of the same with your park ticket (which are all on a plastic credit card now) but you would have to fish it out of your pocket each time you want to do these things. It is totally up to you - many folks like the ease of having the MagicBand so they don't have to keep getting their ticket out all of the time. You can purchase MagicBands from shop Disney here: https://tinyurl.com/y854ty4k Hope you have a great trip!
Tracy
Thursday 4th of January 2018
Great review but I feel like you left out a huge part of staying near Disney. Hotels are NOT the only options. I just returned from a week trip over Christmas. I travelled with my dad, sister and husband. We rented a house from VRBO. We stayed in a 4 bedroom/3 bath home for right at $90 a night. The house had a private pool and a fenced in backyard. We stay off property because our pups travel with us. The house was great because we each had our own space to decompress each evening. The drive into the park each day was no big deal. We were 15 minuted away. Most days we arrived and had parking so close we didnt need to use a tram.
The house also allowed us to grill meals and cook complete breakfasts which saved tons of money. There was even a gameroom with a pool table, air hockey and foosball. I can't imagine staying on property after having stayed in an actual house. We are all over 40 but still enjoyed ourselves like 12 year olds.
Leah
Thursday 4th of January 2018
You are right Tracy, I have left out home rentals because I've never done this myself! I just put it at the top of my "Disney to-do" list (yes, I really have this LOL) for this year coming up. I love that you had a great experience with a VRBO property. That much space for that price (especially over Christmas) is an incredible deal! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Carey
Monday 27th of March 2017
We stayed at Sheraton Lake Buena Vista Village & loved it. We had 3 adults and 2 kids, so that limits choices at Disney. We had a 2 bedroom condo that had 2Q in one bedroom & 1 K in other & a pullout couch in living room. It had 2 bathrooms including a large 2 person jacuzzi tub in master. It had a full kitchen, 6 place dining room table & living room & balcony with 6 chairs & a table. There were multiple pools- including one with a beach entry. The 2 bathrooms were wonderful for getting everyone out the door. We always got to parks before rope drop & parked in AAA parking so time from out front door to turnstile was 10-15 minutes (with 15 for Magic Kingdom- due to having to take ferry or monorail). Every day except AK day we came back at lunch and rested/napped/played in pool & drive/parking was easy. For us, having the space in condo was awesome & being able to put kids down to bed in a separate room for naps & sleep was great. It also had a washer & dryer in the unit, so we were able to pack lighter for the plane. For us, not having to plan & decide on meal plans gave us a lot of flexibility & my children don't like traditional kids meals -- so they enjoyed splitting adults meals for the 3 that we ate in the park (except for California Grill where they both got the kids salmon & split some sushi as an appetizer). For the rest of our meals we enjoyed eating in the condo --especially as my husband has multiple allergies (which I know Disney accommodates well)-- but he just feels better being in control so he wouldn't worry about spending time in the ED on our trip. We have not stayed on-site, so we can't compare. But, the options at Disney when you have to add a 3rd adult would've been way more expensive than our 2 BR/2BA condo that we got for under $1000/week (was NOT a timeshare special- got an offer in the mail for this resort last week for 4 nights for $269 but had to listen to timeshare). Our meals for 5 were handled with $350 worth of groceries & about $500 at Disney (1 character meal, 1 California Grill dinner & 1 Epcot quick service lunch) + some snacks. We did rent a car (which was $133/ week) & had to pay for parking for 5 days -- hotel had shuttles, but car was worth it for the convience for us. We were able to have a fabulous vacation for 3 adults & 2 kids for 7 nights with 5 day park hoppers, including hotel, food, car, plane tickets (for 4 - my sister paid for her own plane ticket) for under $5k (this was 2013). After doing a lot of tournaments with my 2 girls in traditional hotel rooms, a weekend is rough-- I think having 2 BR, 2BA, a common area & a balcony made a week together way more enjoyable & let us stay more rested, too. But, I think it is important to know what will work best for your family.
Kimberly Estridge
Friday 7th of April 2017
Sounds wonderful. We were going to stay on property, however the price difference was huge. We too were going to go for the typical standard room at Pop Century. We decided on a 2 bedroom condo, it too included dining room, washer/dryer, kitchen, porch, multiple pools (heated) and many activities including a water park, putt putt, water bumper boats and so much more. We want to be able to do the same thing wake up in the morning eat breakfast then head to the park then come back at lunch to rest and nap, then back in the evening. I'm glad you had a wonderful trip