villa for half the stay?

**Disfan** · 09-05-2009, 01:06 PM

Has anyone ever stayed on disney for half their holiday and rented a villa for the other half? if so would you say its better to rent the villa for the first or second half? Im thinking it it makes any difference to luggage delivery or getting to/from the airport.

Anyone any villa area recommendations? somewhere easy to find and easy to get to disney from

**Taja** · 09-05-2009, 03:54 PM

No practical experience here, but if I were to visit WDW/Orlando area for the length of time our UK members do (2 or 3 weeks), I probably would book a villa for at least part of the time. As much as I love staying on site, I'm seriously ready for a home-cooked meal after about five or six days!

If you stay at a villa, you will need to rent a vehicle or use car services/taxis for most of your transportation. Those costs can easily offset most, if not all, of the savings between a villa and a room on site. Car rental may be a bit less expensive--our UK members will know more than I do. I know it's more expensive than for US drivers, as international drivers have to purchase insurance. Most US members are covered under their personal auto policies.

Depending on pricing, I probably would stay off site at the beginning of the visit and on site at the end. That way, if you wanted to have a rental car to get around to various places, you could do that while staying at a villa, then switch to WDW transportation while on site and book DME return to MCO (assuming flights are at Orlando International and not Sanford).

Lots of options!

**sunsetlakes** · 09-05-2009, 04:27 PM

We've never tried this ourselves, although we have stayed at the villa and travelled to the beach for a few nights mid-stay, but that didn't involve any packing up.

We have guests in at the moment who are in Florida for 4 weeks, they stayed on-site Disney for the 1st 2 weeks and are now in the villa for the 2nd 2 weeks - the email they sent to say they had arrived said that after a hectic 2 weeks they were really looking forward to chilling out for the rest of their stay. I think I would choose to do it this way around too

Just noticed you asked about villa areas - we are in the Formosa area which is lovely and very close to Disney - we can do from our drive to Animal Kingdom in 8 minutes using the Sherberth Road Cut-through. Handy for shops and restaurants too. Other communities apart from Sunset Lakes around this area include: Emerald Isle, Formosa Gardens, Windsor Hills, Lindfields, etc.

**malcolm** · 09-05-2009, 04:48 PM

Hi ...as Rob or Linda said above, stay on site for first part and villa for second as if you think once you get to the villa you can not only leave your stuff out without fear of cleaners going in the room etc but also you can leave your cases out and pack bits in as and when you need to plus you can also do all your washing at the villa and have a quiet place to chill and you may have fewer restrictions at the hotel whereas you may not in the villa.