Originally Posted by
trajanc
Good rate. Very good properties.
Does your visit coincide with the dates for the free dining offer? Would you be buying theme park tickets and hotel so as to qualify for free dining?
If you are looking for a Disney villa style place the absolute cheapest way to rent one is from a Disney Vacation Club owner. You can do it thru somewhere like
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29
Still gonna cost lot more than $1000.
Rental cars in Orlando are cheap. I usually expect to pay $160 or less for a week, midsize or standard. You have to add in $17 a day for parking at WDW.
When you stay onsite you get to use Disney transportation. Sounds nice and its usually quick but Disney themselves says to allow for an hour to get anywhere within WDW using their transportation.
Last issue is Disney 'magic.' Is staying in the Disney bubble important? For some people it is. Others don't care.
Either way, on site or staying at one of those Marriott's, you should have a blast. Beyond that I guess you do the math and then it's a personal choice. For our next visit in January we are doing a split stay; 2 nights on site at Art of Animation, then 7 at Floridays (nice condo style place like the Marriott's). For us that's the best way to do it, best of both worlds.
The dates we're going are the end of October until early November. I don't know about any free dining offers but yes, we will be buying theme park tickets. I've been shopping around for those as well, but it seems obvious at this point that they don't discount those tickets very much. Are you saying that there may be a way to qualify for free dining?
Should we maybe look into a hotel that's a bit closer to the parks that also offers free shuttles to the parks (if such a hotel even exists)? Although it does sound like having a car there would be advantageous anyway, especially since we'll certainly want to go to the grocery store, off-site restaurants, etc.