How do I convince someone to stay off site?

My experience with afternoon breaks while staying onsite is the 1-hour wait for the bus getting picked up, missing the resort activities we planned to attend, then just turning around to go back waiting another hour for a bus. That happened 3x on our last trip staying at a Deluxe resort. Until Disney contractually puts in place a transportation schedule for resorts guests, I will never stay onsite again. On our 7-day stay, we lost 16 hours waiting for buses. That's right, an entire day of vacation sitting at Disney bus stops waiting. That was 2x as long as our total commute times for 2 weeks over the summer staying offsite. Disney Transportation is not a perk.
 
...... On our 7-day stay, we lost 16 hours waiting for buses. That's right, an entire day of vacation sitting at Disney bus stops waiting. That was 2x as long as our total commute times for 2 weeks over the summer staying offsite. Disney Transportation is not a perk.

Wow! I knew the waits were long, but that's crazy!
When we travel with our family members that own DVC and they stay onsite and we stay offsite we always have been at the parks way before them, despite leaving our individual resorts at the same time. And we always get to our resort before they get to theirs at the end of the day, despite walking out of the parks together. The ONLY exception is when they are at BLT and walk to MK. But when they stay at BLT and go to the other parks we still have to wait for them.

On another note for the OP.... our family members who own DVC think we're crazy for staying offsite so much. They are self proclaimed Disney snobs (yes, this is exactly how they describe themselves) who would refuse to even look at offsite UNTIL..... one time some of them had to stay with us one night at the Marriott Sabal before their reservation started at OKW and they were blown away with the amount of space in a huge condo, the pools, the full tropical vacation vibe they felt. The pool and bar at the World Center alone convinced one hard core on-siter. Sometimes people just don't know how beautiful the other resorts are until they see them.
 
Wow! I knew the waits were long, but that's crazy!
When we travel with our family members that own DVC and they stay onsite and we stay offsite we always have been at the parks way before them, despite leaving our individual resorts at the same time. And we always get to our resort before they get to theirs at the end of the day, despite walking out of the parks together. The ONLY exception is when they are at BLT and walk to MK. But when they stay at BLT and go to the other parks we still have to wait for them.

On another note for the OP.... our family members who own DVC think we're crazy for staying offsite so much. They are self proclaimed Disney snobs (yes, this is exactly how they describe themselves) who would refuse to even look at offsite UNTIL..... one time some of them had to stay with us one night at the Marriott Sabal before their reservation started at OKW and they were blown away with the amount of space in a huge condo, the pools, the full tropical vacation vibe they felt. The pool and bar at the World Center alone convinced one hard core on-siter. Sometimes people just don't know how beautiful the other resorts are until they see them.

McKennaRose are there others you stayed at that you enjoyed a lot and were super close,or just the Marriott you mentioned ?
 


I wouldn't try and convince someone to stay off site if they didn't want to. For some cost is not the deciding factor on where they like to stay.
 
My experience with afternoon breaks while staying onsite is the 1-hour wait for the bus getting picked up, missing the resort activities we planned to attend, then just turning around to go back waiting another hour for a bus. That happened 3x on our last trip staying at a Deluxe resort. Until Disney contractually puts in place a transportation schedule for resorts guests, I will never stay onsite again. On our 7-day stay, we lost 16 hours waiting for buses. That's right, an entire day of vacation sitting at Disney bus stops waiting. That was 2x as long as our total commute times for 2 weeks over the summer staying offsite. Disney Transportation is not a perk.


please write to Disney and tell them this happened to you. I did complaint once about the little old lady who would only go 35mph - but guess what instead of asking her what her problem was = they decided that all their buses would now go 35 mph - but people not staying on property might convenience them that getting the buse to go 45 mph (disney's speed limit mostly) is a GOOD ideal.

It is very irritating to get behind these bus on the little roads. -
 
My experience with afternoon breaks while staying onsite is the 1-hour wait for the bus getting picked up, missing the resort activities we planned to attend, then just turning around to go back waiting another hour for a bus. That happened 3x on our last trip staying at a Deluxe resort. Until Disney contractually puts in place a transportation schedule for resorts guests, I will never stay onsite again. On our 7-day stay, we lost 16 hours waiting for buses. That's right, an entire day of vacation sitting at Disney bus stops waiting. That was 2x as long as our total commute times for 2 weeks over the summer staying offsite. Disney Transportation is not a perk.
Just curious- which resorts was this?
 


McKennaRose are there others you stayed at that you enjoyed a lot and were super close,or just the Marriott you mentioned ?
The Marriott Sabal is our favorite and super close; definitely the closest we've stayed at. We've stayed here several times but on our most recent trip last month we stayed at the Sheraton Vistana on 535. The Sheraton is very close too, but traffic on 535 can get backed up which can make the time to the parks a few minutes longer. It's still a nice resort and we would stay there again. I wrote a review on the Sheraton Vista's thread.
 
Just curious- which resorts was this?
It was OKW and EPCOT. None of the buses to the parks were efficient. Going to and from EPCOT was the worst. It took 90 minutes for the bus to show up at EPCOT. One family was in front of us and we got there at 12:45. At 1:15, we asked a bus driver walking to the little building right by our stop if he could find something out. He called his dispatch and they said one was on its way. At 1:30, we knock on the door, same guy, called while we were there with him, dispatch said it will be there in a few minutes. By this time, there were about 40 people waiting. At 1:45, we call the front desk of OKW to get someone to take care of it. The lady helped, got dispatch on the call, and put me through to dispatch. The guy said the bus was there at 1:15 and argued with me, along with 20 other people that it never showed up and if it did, we all wouldn't be calling to complain. He said it was on the way and will be there in a few minutes. 2PM, we call the front desk of OKW again. They put one guy through to dispatch and they told him the bus is at the stop picking us up. Guess what? No bus is there and it was like talking to a wall. The bus driver that I first talked to walked out and saw we were all still waiting. He got his bus and pulled it to our stop. He wasn't suppose to, but he knows we had been there for the hour that he was on his break. He took us back to OKW and had to call dispatch because there were more people than 1 bus could take.

Since the bus made us miss activities my daughter wanted to enjoy at the resort, we relax at the room for about 30 minutes, hop a bus to the lobby to get a quick bite. We head to the lobby bus stop to go back to Epcot for our night time FPs. The first one is at 4:30PM. We are there at 4PM. At 4:30PM, we go to the baggage desk and ask the guy because the monitor said 10 minute ETA the whole time. At 4:45PM, I go back to the same guy and ask him to work with dispatch to fix it. At 5PM, he comes over to us and says he is not sure what is going on and that he was trying to get a taxi voucher approved. I looked at him and told him the Minnie Uber car is right there and someone can just hop in and take us. The other 10-12 people there waiting with us are all upset. We told him we were going to miss our FPs and he said to go to Guest Relations who will take care of it. Finally at 5:30, a bus shows up just as taxi vouchers were approved (90 minute wait). We get to Epcot, head over to Guest Relations and we are the ones that have to argue with them that THEIR buses are the reason we missed. Luckily I took a picture of the guy from OKW baggage, showed it to the lady, and she had to call him to verify. I looked at her like she was an idiot. Then, because the buses were so late, we missed our second having to go to the first. Off to Guest Relations to get that corrected. This time a different one. Yep, she had to call the same guy again. At least he told her to take care of the 3rd FPs since they would be missed as well.

As for calling Disney and filing a complaint, the answer is yes we did. The response back was the same drivel as always. "We do not guarantee wait times and the 20 minutes is an estimate." "We cannot control traffic and guests need to be patient because safety is the most important." "We are continually making improvements to our guests experience. We will look into this for the future." No, these are unacceptable responses. With everything tied to Magicbands, the solution is very simple. Have kiosks at all of the bus stops, tap your band, and it logs the time you are checked in for a bus. After 20 minutes, a notice is put up that a bus has been dispatched with an ETA. After 30 minutes, a message is put up that Disney Uber has been dispatched. After 40 minutes, a fleet of taxis have been dispatched.

I will never go to Disney without a car again. Since Disney already charges a 300% premium for their bad rooms and now charge fees for everything, I have absolutely no reason to stay on property. My longest total commute offsite is 45-50 minutes for MK. That is leaving my room all the way to the entrance. It also requires taking the monorail or ferry. Otherwise, my longest commute is 20 minutes. Disney cannot come close to that with their transportation unless it is a monorail resort to MK. Even then, door-to-entrance is more than 20 minutes.
 
McKennaRose are there others you stayed at that you enjoyed a lot and were super close,or just the Marriott you mentioned ?

All of the Marriott Palms (Sabal/Royal/Imperial) are timeshare resorts just outside of Disney property. As stated, Sheraton Vistana Resort - not Sheraton Vistana Villages, which is closer to Universal - is also in a great location near Disney and has been very well managed the last several years.

Marriott Cypress Harbour and Grande Vista resorts are closer to Universal (near Sheraton Vistana Villages) but still beautiful resorts that are worth considering...
 
All of the Marriott Palms (Sabal/Royal/Imperial) are timeshare resorts just outside of Disney property. As stated, Sheraton Vistana Resort - not Sheraton Vistana Villages, which is closer to Universal - is also in a great location near Disney and has been very well managed the last several years.

Marriott Cypress Harbour and Grande Vista resorts are closer to Universal (near Sheraton Vistana Villages) but still beautiful resorts that are worth considering...

We found that Grande Vista was the perfect distance between Universal and Disney. It was less than 30 minutes door to gate for almost anywhere we went. I did prefer the Hilton Tuscany Village over the Marriot Grande Vista, though.
 
We found that Grande Vista was the perfect distance between Universal and Disney. It was less than 30 minutes door to gate for almost anywhere we went. I did prefer the Hilton Tuscany Village over the Marriot Grande Vista, though.
We have a 3 night Promo Timeshare Presentation offer booked this coming mid December. Although we are DVC members, truly could not pass this up, so inexpensive...From my research the Hilton Tuscany has excellent reviews..have a 2 BR 2 Bath, full kitchen for next to nothing.. Only hitch is that we have to sit through a 2 hour presentation, but we have done Marriott Timeshare Promos to learn about other clubs and are easily able to say "NO", not at this time. This trip will not be a Disney trip, but will doing Universal, which I understand is very comfortable convenient to Tuscany. Funny, that I saw your post on Marriott Grande Vista, we are spending some time with relatives this trip who will be staying at the Marriott Grande Vista. Will be a great way to "get in the XMAS spirit" and spend do some R&R before the craziness of the holidays, the long snowy winters, check out Universal/IOA holiday decorations.:santa: Only "downside" is that every time we have been to Universal, probably about 5 times total, we have stayed at an onsite hotel, Royal Pacific or Hard Rock and were spoiled by convenience at Express Pass. Will miss that, but this should be a great trip. Booked a 2 BR HOPING that eldest DS and by that time wife, will be able to join us and get off from their jobs, hoping that they can get a Friday off and join us! If not it will be me, DH, and youngest DS, who will be halfway through Masters Program and will be just finishing with finals, great way to relax! CAN'T WAIT!:banana: Any tips on Tuscany???? :confused:Thanks in advance!:goodvibes:wave2:
 
Only hitch is that we have to sit through a 2 hour presentation, but we have done Marriott Timeshare Promos to learn about other clubs and are easily able to say "NO", not at this time.
That really depends on how shady the timeshare pitch is. The time is meaningless. What is required is their 10 people that have to sign off on your "No". The only timeshare spiel I went to was a Wyndham. Fortunately, I had documentation in hand to back up my firm no. The uneducated that were there got stuck for 5-6 hours. 2 of the 3 groups caved and bought into it because they were beaten down. Part of that beat down is the threat of having to immediately pay the rack rate for the discounted stay. When they were told their 3BR unit is $750 per night instead of nearly nothing, they start buying into becoming timeshare owners. Thankfully, I convinced the 1 guy to rescind on his 1M Wyndham points for $80k.
 
That really depends on how shady the timeshare pitch is. The time is meaningless. What is required is their 10 people that have to sign off on your "No". The only timeshare spiel I went to was a Wyndham. Fortunately, I had documentation in hand to back up my firm no. The uneducated that were there got stuck for 5-6 hours. 2 of the 3 groups caved and bought into it because they were beaten down. Part of that beat down is the threat of having to immediately pay the rack rate for the discounted stay. When they were told their 3BR unit is $750 per night instead of nearly nothing, they start buying into becoming timeshare owners. Thankfully, I convinced the 1 guy to rescind on his 1M Wyndham points for $80k.
We have attended three Marriott Timeshare promos to learn the latest details of the club while enjoying great accommodations while attending and have had no problems. We covered our bases with Hilton saving all the paperwork which specifies our responsibility of attending the timeshare. No one will bully us to spend any time over the two hours and try to hold us captive on saying that they will charge us the fair market rental value for the nights spent. We know better!We are Hilton Honors Members use Hilton frequently and it is as simple as protesting our Visa charge if they tried it, not worried in the least!
 
That really depends on how shady the timeshare pitch is. The time is meaningless. What is required is their 10 people that have to sign off on your "No". The only timeshare spiel I went to was a Wyndham. Fortunately, I had documentation in hand to back up my firm no. The uneducated that were there got stuck for 5-6 hours. 2 of the 3 groups caved and bought into it because they were beaten down. Part of that beat down is the threat of having to immediately pay the rack rate for the discounted stay. When they were told their 3BR unit is $750 per night instead of nearly nothing, they start buying into becoming timeshare owners. Thankfully, I convinced the 1 guy to rescind on his 1M Wyndham points for $80k.
We've never bought in, on the spot. We've always walked away. And the only "documentation" we brought was the invite.

Our worst was Hilton, when the woman kept saying, BUT, I just LOVE my ownership, I KNOW you would love it too. SEE, SEE my pictures from my trips. I very sweetly told her that I had seen enough pictures, and that I wanted to leave.

She was a hard sell, worst we have seen, but there was no chance I was buying in, especially with her in the picture.
 
It was OKW and EPCOT. None of the buses to the parks were efficient. Going to and from EPCOT was the worst. It took 90 minutes for the bus to show up at EPCOT. One family was in front of us and we got there at 12:45. At 1:15, we asked a bus driver walking to the little building right by our stop if he could find something out. He called his dispatch and they said one was on its way. At 1:30, we knock on the door, same guy, called while we were there with him, dispatch said it will be there in a few minutes. By this time, there were about 40 people waiting. At 1:45, we call the front desk of OKW to get someone to take care of it. The lady helped, got dispatch on the call, and put me through to dispatch. The guy said the bus was there at 1:15 and argued with me, along with 20 other people that it never showed up and if it did, we all wouldn't be calling to complain. He said it was on the way and will be there in a few minutes. 2PM, we call the front desk of OKW again. They put one guy through to dispatch and they told him the bus is at the stop picking us up. Guess what? No bus is there and it was like talking to a wall. The bus driver that I first talked to walked out and saw we were all still waiting. He got his bus and pulled it to our stop. He wasn't suppose to, but he knows we had been there for the hour that he was on his break. He took us back to OKW and had to call dispatch because there were more people than 1 bus could take.

Since the bus made us miss activities my daughter wanted to enjoy at the resort, we relax at the room for about 30 minutes, hop a bus to the lobby to get a quick bite. We head to the lobby bus stop to go back to Epcot for our night time FPs. The first one is at 4:30PM. We are there at 4PM. At 4:30PM, we go to the baggage desk and ask the guy because the monitor said 10 minute ETA the whole time. At 4:45PM, I go back to the same guy and ask him to work with dispatch to fix it. At 5PM, he comes over to us and says he is not sure what is going on and that he was trying to get a taxi voucher approved. I looked at him and told him the Minnie Uber car is right there and someone can just hop in and take us. The other 10-12 people there waiting with us are all upset. We told him we were going to miss our FPs and he said to go to Guest Relations who will take care of it. Finally at 5:30, a bus shows up just as taxi vouchers were approved (90 minute wait). We get to Epcot, head over to Guest Relations and we are the ones that have to argue with them that THEIR buses are the reason we missed. Luckily I took a picture of the guy from OKW baggage, showed it to the lady, and she had to call him to verify. I looked at her like she was an idiot. Then, because the buses were so late, we missed our second having to go to the first. Off to Guest Relations to get that corrected. This time a different one. Yep, she had to call the same guy again. At least he told her to take care of the 3rd FPs since they would be missed as well.

As for calling Disney and filing a complaint, the answer is yes we did. The response back was the same drivel as always. "We do not guarantee wait times and the 20 minutes is an estimate." "We cannot control traffic and guests need to be patient because safety is the most important." "We are continually making improvements to our guests experience. We will look into this for the future." No, these are unacceptable responses. With everything tied to Magicbands, the solution is very simple. Have kiosks at all of the bus stops, tap your band, and it logs the time you are checked in for a bus. After 20 minutes, a notice is put up that a bus has been dispatched with an ETA. After 30 minutes, a message is put up that Disney Uber has been dispatched. After 40 minutes, a fleet of taxis have been dispatched.

I will never go to Disney without a car again. Since Disney already charges a 300% premium for their bad rooms and now charge fees for everything, I have absolutely no reason to stay on property. My longest total commute offsite is 45-50 minutes for MK. That is leaving my room all the way to the entrance. It also requires taking the monorail or ferry. Otherwise, my longest commute is 20 minutes. Disney cannot come close to that with their transportation unless it is a monorail resort to MK. Even then, door-to-entrance is more than 20 minutes.

We had a similar experience when trying to get out of Epcot, it was one of the hottest days of the year (close to 100 degrees) and the monorail was down, they shifted everyone to buses. The only bus they had to the Poly was out past every stop in the middle of the pick up area with no shade. It was 2 or 3 lanes out from the perimeter so you couldn't even hide under the fixed shelters. We too had a very similar experience, go and speak with a driver who calls dispatch, says its on its way, we wait 90 mins for a bus while seeing 2 or 3 buses go to empty bus stops for the same hotel. We call dispatch via the hotel and get the same 'the bus already came'.... lol I swear, in today's modern age you would think they would be able to monitor bus locations in real time. With 3 tired kids I simply bit the bullet and got a mears taxi to the hotel, cost me $20 but it was worth it!

After that, we used the monorail the entire time or if we were in a pinch we sucked it up and just got a taxi or a mini-van. Not really budgeted for but it took a lot of stress out of the equation, so I can see the benefits of being in a car and having control.

We will be doing a 3 hotel split stay this coming trip and will be staying off site as a family for the first time, so it will be interesting to see what the kids think about driving in and out....

Hopefully the systems will improve, it wasn't the wait that was such a bad thing (although it was pretty bad in the heat) it was the fact they were bare faced lying to us that got my goat!
 
We have been very lucky with bus transportation at values, mods, and deluxe resorts, but we have gone in January for the majority of the time we have had children. Now that our kids are older, we are only going to WDW during the busy times--school breaks. From now on, whether we stay on or off site, I think Uber or Lyft will be something we use. We don't like driving in Orlando, but we are looking into a car rental for our stay at WBC next month. We are having groceries delivered, so I am not sure we will really need it.

Our family also needs more space now, so staying offsite is a better option for us for our upcoming trip. We are not die hard on OR off site people, but do use the evening EMH, ME, and 60 day FP+ when staying onsite. I am sure if I get a really good discount through a TA for a room I would stay onsite again, but it would be hard to give up a W/D and more spacious accommodations that an offsite property allows.
 
If he doesn't care about the cost, then you won't be able to convince him based on the cost. You'll need to find some other way to show him that you think staying offsite or at a cheaper resort would be better. More space, better amenities, no need to take buses, access to a car to go other places, better selection of restaurants, that kind of thing. If you're paying part of the bill then it could work to say you can't afford to stay at deluxe onsite any longer.
 
No tips...just enjoy! We didn't use the pool or visit the attached outlet mall, but the resort was well kept and the room was clean. There's a publix across the street for groceries, so it's not hard to get everything you need.
If the weather is cooler in December or lousy, we will take a walk over to the outlets,:D thanks!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top