In March 2025, my brother and I flew to Orlando, Florida to spend 10 days at the Walt Disney World Resort and surrounding area. The plan was to spend 5 days at Disney World and the other days just relaxing. Part of the reason for this was to avoid going to Disney over the weekend. The 5 days in the parks allowed a day in every park and then a second day in one of the parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and then again back to the Magic Kingdom).
We stayed off grounds, which meant we didn't stay at a Disney hotel on Disney property. However, there are an abundance of hotels very near to the parks which translates to some very low-priced hotels (competition!). The only slight disadvantage is this requires you to get to the parks every day. Disney parking is $30 per day, and getting in and out of the parks can be a traffic nightmare (especially at the end of the day). Staying off grounds also lets you get food at non-Disney prices at the start and end of the day. But wait, it gets better! The hotel we stayed at not only had a free continental breakfast, but also had free shuttle bus service to all the parks. WOW! I can't tell you how convenient this shuttle was. It got to each park before it opened and returned shortly after each park closed. It was exactly what we needed. We were going to spend an entire day in each park anyway (no park hopper ticket, which costs extra anyway). The hotel shuttle stopped near the entrance gate of each park at the bus center, so we were just steps away from the park entrance.
It was the first visit to Disney World for my brother. Needless to say, while we generally had a great time, there were some things he was less than enthusiastic about (if you know him, you know what I'm talking about). We didn't pay for any privileged ticket priority, so we had to wait in lines for the rides. I used the Disney app and tried to jump around the park based on wait times, so he did enjoy all the walking we did. But getting through the crowds was another story, it wasn't a quiet hike in the Canadian Rockies. He did get a free '1st visit' button...
Always fun at Disney...
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