Harry Potter at Universal

[awpitt]

We've done both onsite and offsite stays and really prefer offsite. The only "real" benefits to staying onsite are:
*Extra magic hours
*dining plan (cannot book this if staying offsite but you can still dine and make reservations at the onsite restaurants)
*not paying daily parking of $14

But the fact I can stay in a NICE 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with full kitchen, offsite and within a couple miles of Disney for usually less than $100/night, those things (to me) aren't worth paying extra for.
Once we get onsite and park we can still use all the Disney transportion thruout the parks and just about every other amenity they offer.
Honestly the only time we stay onsite is typically during their "free dining" promotions, but it's really hard to give up the space of a condo (especially with teens).

The condos are nice. We hardly ever stay in hotel rooms anymore.

 

[donmagicyourmom]

use VRBO® is Vacation Rentals By Owner

Vacation Rentals by Owner.

Last year and the year before we stayed in a 4br 3bath with a pool for $800 for the week. It was in champion's gate(a golf community/resort) and is ab a 15 minute drive to disney. There are some great deals for orlando and tennessee.

just looked and this was the first one i found.

Luxury Lakeside Villa Nr Disney with Games Room and Hot Tub
5br, 3.5 bath(sleeps 10-11) for $1080 a week. 30min from airport and 10miles from disney

Davenport, Florida vacation rental by owner: 5 bedroom House rental that sleeps 11. Luxury Lakeside Villa Nr Disney with Games Room and Hot Tub

 

[bresamil]

use VRBO® is Vacation Rentals By Owner

Vacation Rentals by Owner.

Last year and the year before we stayed in a 4br 3bath with a pool for $800 for the week. It was in champion's gate(a golf community/resort) and is ab a 15 minute drive to disney. There are some great deals for orlando and tennessee.

just looked and this was the first one i found.

Luxury Lakeside Villa Nr Disney with Games Room and Hot Tub
5br, 3.5 bath(sleeps 10-11) for $1080 a week. 30min from airport and 10miles from disney

Davenport, Florida vacation rental by owner: 5 bedroom House rental that sleeps 11. Luxury Lakeside Villa Nr Disney with Games Room and Hot Tub

I only stayed onsite once and I kind of felt trapped. I mean I love Disney, truly, but I also like to go to Sea World and of course Universal is a bit away. If I were planning a Universal only trip I'd definitely stay offsite. I always find fantastic deals like the one above.

 

[RareBreed]

Mentioned that we were wanting to go to Disney around 2012 time frame and my sister and her family might join us. If this pans out, we'll just rent a house off-site. This is normally what we do when we go on summer vacations. I wasn't dead-set on staying on sight at Disney, just that I heard they have good deals. We're still way too early in the planning stage to worry about where we'll stay yet. Was just looking to see what they offered.

 

[nikisonny]

went to Universal for HP opening

My family and I just got back from Orlando and were there for the grand opening of HP. The lines the first 2 days were 8 hours. So, we saved HP for our last day, we waited in line for 2 hours to get into the village, then another 1.5 hours to get into the castle and ride the broom ride. The dragon roller coaster was no wait at all - it was awesome. We stayed at the Hampton Inn off-site. Great rates and free breakfast daily. We got a rental car so we didn't have to wait for shuttles, but they did provide free shuttles. It was a great vacation.