Disney World hotel recs?

[tippy7]

I am thinking of planning a spur-of-the-moment trip to Disney World for next month. I am considering any of the Disney Value hotels, but would like to spend as little as possible. I have found some cheap hotels on travel websites, but was wondering if anyone had any personal recommendations for cheap accomadations. Thanks!!!

[Grace]

Oh, my favorite is the Radisson - 1-1/2 miles from Disney's main gate. We've been there several times, and I will go back again. The rooms are $79 or $89 a night. Ask for a room in the "6000" building - they're newer, with feather blankets and great mattresses!! They do have shuttles over to Disney too, if you want them, but we always have a car and drive ourselves around. Once on Disney property we can get from park to park without moving the car (although once you pay for parking in one lot, it's good for the entire day in all of the lots, so you can conceivably take your car too if you wanted). We don't have children, so going back to the hotel throughout the day is not necessary for us. Also, we noticed that at night, when the parks close, the lines to get on the busses and trams back to the hotels were outrageous. I bet it takes people an hour sometimes to get back to their on-property hotels. We were always back in the room in 5 minutes (literally). Here's a link:


http://www.radisson.com/hoteldirectory/hotelbio.jsp?hotelCode=FLKISSIM&key=hoteldirectory.info.&origin=Hotel Directory&backURI=http:%2F%2Fwww.radisson.com%2Freservation% 2FhotelPreference.do%3FlocationUni%3D506%26dno%3D0 1030501040510

[Peggy]

We stayed at an Embassy Suites that was right outside the park. The rates were reasonable and the location was good.

Peggy

[krhm]

I've heard good things about both those. I would recommend that you thoroughly check out the "value" hotels that you can find the cheap deals on. We've had bad experiences, believe me. Plus, there are some areas of Orlando that are right outside of Disney, but not so nice.

We've stayed in the value hotels on site, and they're okay. We love the "cabins" at Fort Wilderness though; they're basically trailers with some siding, but there's a bedroom in the back with a queen bed and a bunk bed, a kitchenette, and a small living room area with a pull-down Murphy bed.

[cangoss]

My sister and I did a budget 4-day trip to Disney in December. We don't do Disney hotels because we hate their coffee (it's Nescafe) and ended up going offsite for coffee in the morning when we stayed at All Star Music. For our last two trips, we've gotten our hotel through Priceline and it has worked out really well. This time, we were at the Sheraton Safari for $42 a night. There is a web site called Bidding for Travel (http://www.biddingfortravel.com) where you can get help with bidding and finding out which hotels are coming up for your dates and rating.

If you're staying offsite, I'd definitely recommend getting a car. If you use discount codes, you can get one pretty cheaply (we paid $89 for four days including taxes). None of the offsite hotels have really good shuttles - most will take you to one park only, and then you have to take Disney transportation from there.

[MISSINDI]

We're planning a trip there in August, but think we're going to opt for the Big Red Boat cruise thing -- still don't know.

We stayed at the Port Orleans (Disney owned) one year ... hotel was fine, but some of the buildings (of course, the one we had) were quite a walk from the car/parking lot, which was a pain.

One year, we stayed at one of the "value" hotel chains -- name escapes me, but it was near a Cracker Barrel restaurant; had two "guards" on the property outside at all times. Never had any problems, but that certainly didn't give me a warm and fuzzy.

Have a great time -- spur-of-the-moment trips are always fun! We're doing one to Boston sometime this month. :D

[tippy7]

Thanks for all the tips!

I have found quite a few very cheap hotels, but am kind of sketched out at how cheap they are! Right now the All-Star Movies resort is our number one choice, although I didn't realize the theme park tickets were so expensive! Unfortunately, both my boyfriend and I are (barely) under 25, so we can't rent a car and will have to depend on shuttles to get two and from the park. I am going to check out the hotels everyone mentioned...thanks!

[MISSINDI]

If you or a family member have AAA, you can buy Disney tickets discounted through them before you leave (also saves you waiting in line to buy them when you get there). There is also the Hopper Pass, which is one set price that will allow you to get to all the parks. Hope this helps! :D

[hlao23]

We went to Disney about 8 years ago and stayed at the Econo Lodge. It was off-season and $30 a night. It was clean and comfortable and had a $10 breakfast buffet. Also they had a great shuttle to the Disney parks. At the time, the hotel was in the middle of renovations (new carpeting, etc) so it's probably in really nice shape now.

[krhm]

Julia, if you can't get a car, I would highly recommend staying on site. Also, Park Hopper passes are really a fantastic deal; do Disney, MGM, or Animal Kingdom during the day (the Disney transportation is easier to deal with then park hopping in your own car, IMHO), then skip over to Epcot (which stays open later during the off-season) to enjoy dinner and the fireworks show.

I'll be there this Thursday and Friday and I'm really starting to get excited! :D Kari

[cangoss]

Park Hopper tickets are gone as of Jan. 2 - there is a new ticket package called "Magic Your Way" - you build your own ticket; choose the number of days, then choose whether or not you want to park hop, then choose whether you want "plus" options (water parks, Disney Quest, etc.).

I have used ticket brokers to get discount tickets - Discount Orlando Vacations and Ticket Mania. Both of them were very fast and offered better deals than I could get anywhere else. If you start reading Mousesavers.com and sign up for the newsletter there, you can find out about deals on tickets. They also give codes for hotel room discounts. Another place to look is Disboards.com - a web forum full of people who are more obsessed with Disney than people here are with cooking :D

[jellyben]

We stayed at the All Start Resort. This was after 9/11 and we got a special military rate of $49/nt, I think it is normally $79(??). It is very basic, no restaurant, just a cafeteria style place, but the food was adequate, the rooms were clean, and the parks were relatively easy to get to.

Have fun!!

[MelissaC]

We stayed at the Pop Century Resort in October. I agree that the room was a litte on the small side for my husband, daughter and myself but we were never in our room for large amounts of time where it was a problem. The hotel was very clean and we stayed in the 70's building which was close to the lobby and bus stop. The hotel didn't have a restaurant but had a cafeteria style place that had at least 4 or 5 entrees offered each night. We ate there a few times when we were exhausted from the parks and it wasn't bad. We also used the buses to go to other hotels and eat at their restaurants. By staying on Disney, we were able to get by without renting a car ( we took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel) and were very impressed with Disney's transportation system. We never had to wait for buses very long and didn't feel that we were restricted from going anywhere because we didn't have our own transportation.

Have a great trip!!

[tippy7]

Thanks everyone! I think we are definitely going to stay at one of the All Star resorts, as they seem to be the best option considering we won't have a car.

Melissa - Do you recall what shuttle service you used to get to and from the airport??

[bekki]

I'm not Melissa, but Mears has the contract thing with disney, and while you can make a reservation ahead of time, I thik you can also just buy a ticket when you get to the airport. I think it's about $30 per person round trip, and they go really often

I found the website: http://www.mearstransportation.com/

[MelissaC]

Yes, we used Mears. It worked out great for us but we visited in the off season. We booked through Disney and they suggested if you're visiting during a busy time to get a private car. It was $50.00 per person round trip for the car. The benefit of this is that you'll go straight to your hotel. The Disney employee said that when you take the shuttle during the busy time that you may have to stop at several Disney hotels and let people off before reaching yours. He stated that people have been on the shuttle for as much as two hours during this time.
I'm not sure how busy Disney is in February but if it's not a busy time, I think you would be fine on the shuttle.

Melissa

[sharhamm]

Live just 10 minutes from Animal Kingdom. YES, it is real busy in February. You best bet is to stay at a Disney hotel. They are all nice, just call to get the best rate. There are some real seedy motels in the area that charge low rates but believe me, you wouldn't want to go there! With the Disney Hotels you get free transportation to all the parks, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM, Animal Kingdom, and Downtown Disney. Two young adults, such as yourselves, will love Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney. New Years Eve every night. You also can go to the different hotels and water parks. They also have restaurants on property. The downside is:
You'll definitely need transportation from the airport and back.
Finding cheap food on Disney property can be a problem.
Other than that, you'll have a wonderful time.


:)