Does staying at a villa Cost You Time?

When comparing staying in a private vacation rental near Walt Disney World vs staying ‘onsite’ in a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel, there are many factors to consider in evaluating which will be better for you:

• Time
• Convenience
• Cost
• Experience (Theming)
• Dining Options
• Service

In this article we will look at the myth of saving time by staying onsite at a Disney Resort. In other words: Does staying ‘onsite’ (in a Disney Resort Hotel on the Walt Disney World property) save you time getting to and from the theme parks, when compared to staying in a villa?

Absolutely there are benefits to staying on the Disney property in a Disney hotel, but what they are, and how good they are, depends very much upon the quality level of the resort you are staying at.

I can state from experience that one of the benefits most often claimed, that of saving time (getting to and from the parks) by staying in a Disney resort, is only a myth – unless one is at one of the Monorail resorts, and in that case, it only saves time for those parks also on the Monorail; Magic Kingdom and Epcot. A time saving also exists through staying in those resorts located on the new Skyliner (Disney’s Gondola system) routes, but again, that is limited to two parks; Hollywood Studios and Epcot, which are also on the Skyliner routes.

But for the vast majority of guests who stay on the Disney Property, by the time they walk from wherever their room is on the resort, to wherever the closest bus stop may be, and wait for a Disney Bus to arrive, and then wait for the bus to travel to and stop at other resorts along the way, picking up more people to jam in, and eventually making its way to whatever Park the guest is going to… (whew) a guest could have driven from our villa to the Disney theme park of their choice, parked and walked to the entrance gate in far less time!

For many years, the time to get to any of the Disney theme parks from our villa driveway was exactly 15 minutes. It still is when traffic is light (see note below). I have not experienced a Disney bus trip from park to resort or vice versa which could be completed in under 35 minutes. Ever. And often the bus trips were longer, from 45 minutes to 75 minutes, park gate to room door.

Yes, the Monorail resorts and the Skyliner resorts can be reached by their respective nearby non-bus transport in a reasonably quick amount of time, but the guests pay very highly for that perk! Hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for it. Disney Room rates of three to ten times the price of our entire villa still have a very hard time creating a competitive value equation. Even if one ignores the time savings.

And remember, those times savings only apply to those parks that can be reached by the Monorail or Skyliner. In both cases, there are two other Disney Theme Parks which those forms of transport don’t reach, forcing guests to use the Disney bus service to get to them.

Some claim there is a special ‘magic’ to staying on resort, and Disney sure sells it that way, but they have to. It is the only way they can justify charging three to ten times the going rate for what is often just a mediocre hotel room with a bit of theming.

And so many Disney fans are so sure about staying on property that they never even try staying off site, so they have no ability to compare the two and know what kind of value they are missing out on by renting a quality villa nearby.

Vacation rentals provide a different kind of magic; the relaxation of not being bombarded with Disney and the costs that constantly come with it. And that’s coming from a true Disney fanatic! But if you want to read more about what happens to the Disney Magic when you don’t stay onsite, you can do so here.

You can see a side-by-side comparison of a Disney Value-Resort Room and Breezy Oak Villa on our website here. The only thing we don’t compare is the price, because the single Disney room is two to three times the price of our entire villa with pool!

* In the interests of fairness and full disclosure: At time of writing (early 2025) it is not possible to drive from the villa to any of the theme park parking lots in exactly 15 minutes unless one is going in the middle of the night when traffic on I4 is light.

If there is congestion on I4 one should add 5-15 minutes to the trip, and right now, there is almost always congestion on I4, for two reasons:
• One; I4 through the Disney area can no longer handle the volume of traffic it is being presented with.
• Two; construction has started on I4 in order to reduce the congestion and drive times, but the construction slows traffic as construction always does.
Other roads in the area are also being improved and additional ones are being planned, but it will be a while before that work is done too.
In order to fast-track the entire process and reduce congestion, the very first project on I4 is adding an additional lane going in both directions, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025. Then, with this done, work on the other five projects that are coming to the stretch of I4 around and through Disney World will begin.

But even if one adds 15 minutes for getting to and from Walt Disney World (more than enough to account for delays – although from experience I can tell you it doesn’t feel that way when one is stuck in the traffic!) the time to get to the theme parks from our villas is still equal to or less than the time needed to get from a Disney Resort Hotel room to a theme park (or back).

So the excuse for staying ‘on site’ in a Disney Resort Hotel just doesn’t wash in reality. And with the dramatic increases in prices for Disney Park Ticket, and everything else sold by Disney, it just becomes more and more difficult to justify staying in a Disney Resort Hotel based on the value provided.