Why stay off property?

For full disclosure: I own no rental property, nor do I want to, nor do I have any interests in rental property.

Every trip to Disney was on property for a decade and a half. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans Riverside every time. These locations got cramped as our family grew to three children, but we used the bunky bed and made the best of it.

Then in 2013 I rented a Villa for a long stay (4 weeks) to experience living near Disney. We have now resented three different villas and I can share my experience to help with your decision.

There are two options to staying off property: you can rent a house or apartment, known as a villa. Or, you can stay in an off property hotel. Off property hotels are often larger and cheaper than on property, but not always. For this article, I will focus on villas.

If you don't have a car, are coming for a short stay, or have a small family, staying on property may be the best answer. You'll be able to immerse yourself into a Disney experience.

If you have a large family, want to save money, staying for a long time, or just want some space? Renting a villa might be a better option. 

The Disney bus system is a nice option and is often seen as the benefit of staying on property. But honestly, the bus system can have long lines, long waits, and long delays. After waiting for all the motorized carts to load, you are often left with standing room only for a long crowded ride to your destination. Alternatively to the bus system, you can get a villa within driving range that is comparable to the Disney bus system. Parking fees can be very expensive, but are free with some passes.

If you stay on property you get the Extra Magic Hours. The park will open early or stay open late on certain nights for resort guests only. The crowd levels are at their lowest and you can ride the most.  That can be a great perk if you are an early riser or a night owl. 

There is a huge benefit to staying at a monorail resort when you are attending the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. Unlike the buses, the monorail quickly delivers you to your destination. However, the monorail resorts are some of the most expensive resorts in the area. 

Some villas are a long distance from the parks requiring an hour drive! Traffic is often terrible, bumper to bumper, and slow going. However, if you select a villa in the West Gate area off 192 (near Famosa Gardins) there is a back road that takes one past the employee casting. You can go from driveway to walking through the Animal Kingdom gates in only 15 minutes.

I will often hear guests say they like staying on property so they can head back to the resort in the afternoon for a nap or a swim. While that may be true, in the time it takes to ride the buses you could make it back to a villa. You will have your own private pool if you are renting a pool house villa.

Food is one of the most expensive parts of a Disney vacation. An adult hamburger meal will run $9- $10. Staying off property gives you greater dinning options. I could have a steak at The Texas Roadhouse for the cost of a quick service meal on property. Or, making a quick meal in the villa's kitchen is the most affordable alternative.

As you can see, there is no perfect answer to the debate. You should pick the option that works best for your family. Which ever you pick: staying on property or off, you are going to have a great time!    

Emerald Island: 8410 Blue Lagoon, Alamo Vacation Homes, Review

This is the third vacation villa we have rented. If you read any villa review that says everything was perfect? Don't believe it. There is always something to point out. As a result, I will be as honest and critical as I can. Even so, let me tell you: this was a fine condo, we had a great time, and I would have no problem renting this again.

 The condo has two stories. The first story includes the kitchen, eating area, living room, bathroom, and laundry. The second floor has three bedrooms and two baths.

The first floor is an open floor plan where the living room and eating area are one large area and the kitchen is separated by a counter.

The condo is less than 100 yards from a four lane highway, thus you hear cars all the time. We live on a busy road, so, this was no problem for me. But if you aren't used to traffic noise this could be a problem for you.

The house is sparse on pots and pans.  If you plan on cooking big meals? Bring more. 

The house is good with bath towels but not wash cloths. You may want to bring those as well.

The furniture is lightly warn. There are stains on the ceiling, but those are only visible in sunlight. The bathrooms have signs above the toilet paper rolls that appear to warn against putting soiled toilet paper into the toilet. We found the message ridiculous and ignored it.

The beds were very comfortable and were newer Beauty Rest mattresses. There is a large flat screen TV in the living room, but small tube TV's in the bedrooms.

The condo has three bedrooms that can sleep six, plus a large pull out couch in the living room. The first floor is all tile. The stairs and second floor is plush carpet that is in good shape.

There is a patio just off the living room. Overtop the patio is a second floor balcony, connected to the master bedroom. The balcony sits two chairs comfortably and overlooks a court yard, of sorts. I walked the neighborhood. The neighborhood is very quite and we rarely saw any neighbors. The landscaping in the neighborhood is well kept, although there was a lot of small scraps of trash in the yards and gardens.

There is a pool and a park about a block away. We didn't have time to use it. There is a very nice club house several blocks away. And tennis courts and basket ball courts two blocks away.

There is a large coffee brewer in the kitchen, requiring filters and ground coffee. The appliances were in good condition and good working order. The washer and dryer worked well except the dryer struggled to get cloths dry and often needed to be ran several times.

No pest problem. I saw several dead worms in the corners, but that is minor. There was a tree frog on the kitchen counter when we arrived, which I quickly evicted.

Garbage collection was unique. Simply drop the garbage into a buried canister outside near the front door and someone comes by every day and takes care of it.

The condo area is gates with a wire fence around the perimeter. This would block cars but not people on foot. To get your car into te neighborhood you will need a gate pass. A gate pass requires a refundable $10 deposit, obtained at the club house.

So there it is. An honest review of the condo. As I already mentioned, I would have no problem renting this again. 

Renting a Villa: Expectations

We have now rented three different houses off property near Disney. We like renting villas because we get to experience what it might be like to live near Disney someday. Villa rental can be a great experience so long as you properly set your expectations.

You need to understand that there is an owner and a management company. The owner typically only has one or two vacation villas. They probably bought it because they like to have a place to stay when they come to Florida, but would like to make some money when not here. The management company cares for the villa because the owners are often out of state or out of country. The management company cleans the villa and takes care of the guests, and they often take care of a great number of villas.

First, there are rip off artists in the Villa world. You should only work with people that have many reviews, good reputation, can be verified, allows you to call and ask questions, and takes credit cards for payment. Be very careful!

Second, you are renting a house, not a hotel room. You are paying considerably less than a hotel for something considerably larger. The house is going to be warn. It should be clean, but expect some wear and tare.

Third, pay attention to the location. If you stay in the Famosa Gardens area off 192, or the Neighboring Four Corners area, you will be 15-30 minute drive to any park. If your condo is someplace else? You'll probably have a further drive.

Fourth, don't trust reviews that say everything was great. Those reviews were probably written by the owners or the management company. No villa is perfect, they all have something that is noteworthy and wrong.

Fifth, when you arrive at the condo, before bringing in your luggage, record everything that is wrong: stains on the carpet, anything broken, etc. You don't want to accidentally get charged for that damage. If you see anything significantly wrong, notify the management company immediately and give them time to correct it.

Sixth,  most places restrict your use of the air conditioner to 75 or 74 degrees. Mix in humidity and 75 is still very warm. 

Seventh, Villas will require that you clean before you leave. That usually means: run the vacuum, run the dishwasher, and put dirty linens in the laundry room.

Eight, you will be responsible for taking out the garbage

Ninth, they will all tell you: this is Florida, expect bugs. But other than an occasional ant, there should be no bugs inside the villa if it is professionally pest controlled.

Tenth, you should expect to find bed linens, towels, plates, silverware, and basic cookery. If you require anything else? Inquire about it.

Disney's Osborne Family Lights

We went to Hollywood Studios to experience the Osborne Family Specticle of Dancing Lights presented by Siemens. 

Normally this section of Hollywood Studios is a dull movie set of a city street. It was created back when Hollywood Studios (then MGM Studios) purpose was to take people inside the movie making experience. Why would Disney want to do this? Because Universal Studios just opened and that's what they were doing. Disney unsuccessfully attempted to fight off the competition.

 Fast forward many years. While this section if the park is interesting, it really serves no purpose. Until... The Osborne lights come to town. Then, all of the buildings are covered in Christmas lights. The lights are timed to Christmas music, so, they flash and blink in coordinated ways. The entire street becomes a light show!

But wait, there is more: Snow! It snows. OK, it is cold soap bubbles, so, for dont want to catch these flakes on your tongue. But it looks like real snow flakes.

The event is ongoing from dusk until the park closes. There are no lines - just walk through the area of park in front of the Lights Motor Action attraction. Intentionally, there isn't anywhere to sit, although we made use of the curbs on the street. 

We had a great time and I hope to see the lights again some day.

Epcot's Christmas Processional

We had the amazing opportunity to attend Epcot's Christmas Processional on Christmas Day. We didn't know what to expect when we arrived so let me share information about the experience in case you have an opportunity to see it too.

The Christmas Processional occurs in the America area of Epcot and includes a guest star speaker who tells the story of the birth of Christ. Music is played between passages. The music is performed by an orchestra and a giant choir. 

The processional is performed several times per day - you'll want to get the times from the Epcot web page so you don't miss it. Each performance is probably 45 minutes long? 

There are three ways to see the processional. First, you can buy a dinner package that includes seating at the front of the amphitheater. Second is the standby line, which fills in all the remaining seats. We were in the standby line at 815 on Christmas and there were plenty of extra seats. Third, there is standing room at the back of the theater on the sidewalk that passes by the theater. Young children won't be able to see from back there and it can be difficult to hear the speaker, but this area is perfect if you just want to experience a few songs and then move on.

The amphitheater is located in Epcot's World Showcase. Epcot has two parts: future world, with many pavilions; and World Showcase. World showcase is a large lake that you can walk around. The lake has been divided into areas and each area is themed to match a different country. One of those areas is America. And that is where you'll find the giant amphitheater.

The event starts with the Orchestra playing several Christmas hymns as you did your seat. Then, the choir pours in from the back of the amphitheater, allowing you to see exactly how huge this spectacle  really is! The choir members just kept coming and coming while singing a hymn. 

Then another song and the guest reader joins the stage. The ensemble is complete and the story begins.

We had a great experience and I would definitely do this again if given the opportunity.

Christmas Day At Disney

It is Christmas Day and we are renting a condo near Disney!

The drive from New York to Florida was challenging because we came down with the flu. The first phase of the flu was hell: fever, severe body aches, etc. the second phase hasn't been fun either: fatigue, nausea, aches. We are now in the third phase: a really bad cold. For me, the cold has developed into Bronchitis. I believe it has done the same for my wife, although she says it is pneumonia and suggested going to Urgent Care.  I didnt imagined we would be spending this vacation being so sick! But you know what I say? A bad day at Disney is better than a good day anywhere else.

The family abnormally slept in on Christmas morning until 11am! I got up earlier to watch the Disney parade on ABC and to make breakfast.

After opening presents, the boys played with their video games and my wife went back to sleep. I took the opportunity for my Christmas present: I went for a nice quite 5 mile walk through the Disney area vacation villa neighborhoods.

Later, we did Skype with my adult daughter in New York and got to see her open her Christmas presents. We also got the latest information about my elderly parent's battle with the flu: my mother was doing better yet my father had taken two trips to the emergency room, but was home resting for Christmas.

We hit Epcot on Christmas Day at 7pm. I have always said that the key to a great Disney vacation is planning. You have to know when various activities are, otherwise you'll spend your time wandering around and won't see anything. Well... We didn't plan y this trip so we didn't know when any of the activities were so we pretty much didn't see anything. Except the Candle Light Precessional (which was awesome), the incredible decorations in the various lands, the massive Epcot Christmas Tree, and the special holiday fireworks added to the end of the normal ones.

It was a breezy 56 degrees. Even though we had jackets on, we froze! I would have paid for this cold weather during the summer and there I was at Disney being able to see my breath because it was so cold!

Overall, this was a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve At Disney

Xmas 2014 Christmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve and we are living in a condo this week just minutes from Disney World! We even decorated Christmas Tree.

We needed groceries so we took a trip to my favorite Walmart on Highway 27 (at the west end of Rt 192). I say it is my favorite Walmart because it is the most bizarre. Almost none of the shoppers speak English, the store is packed so badly that you can't move, and the employees frantically try to stock shelves faster than it is purchased - but it is a futile labor. Add to this mayhem that it is Christmas Eve and you have a spectical more amusing and more packed than Disney World.  That store is absolutely crazy!

I offered to get up and venture to Walmart on my own early in the morning while everyone was getting ready. Linda said she wanted to go too and there was no way I was going to turn down some 1:1 vacation time with her. However, leaving early for Walmart with her means  leaving at 2pm. We got the groceries, loaded everyone into the van, and arrived back at the condo. The plan was to throw the boys into the van and head our to see the Asborn Christmas Lights at Hollywood Studios.

We are still afflicted by the flu. For me, it means cold sweats, headache, and chills today. Just as we were about to leave for Disney, the flu took a turn for my son: nausea, overheating, sweat, and then passed out on the couch. Snoring. While we are standing around the couch waiting to leave! 

My oldest son saved us from getting drenched by rain this Christmas Eve because a storm moved in with an impressive down pour. 

We decided to change our Christmas Eve plans and watch movies instead of go to the park. That means sacrificing one of our precious Disney days. But when one spends six weeks at Disney, how precious is one day?

We watched movies, played a board game, did our Christmas Eve ritual, and then headed off for an early nights rest.

Magic Kingdom at Christmas

My interest in seeing Disney at Christmas was peaked after reading a magazine article about it last year. The article talked about snow on Main Street, carolers, hot chocolate, cookies, special fireworks, Christmas parade, and more!  When I decided to go to Disney for Christmas, I set my expectations low: I only wants to experience these Christmas elements and if the crowds were too thick and I couldn't ride anything? That would be OK.

After visiting the magic Kingdom today, I have concluded that the magazine article I read must have been about Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party - a special extra ticket event (and extra cost). Because we saw nearly none of the elements I expected.

We arrived and were impressed with how easy it was to get on the rides. We skipped Main Street so we could ride the rides we haven ridden dozens of time before. And by doing so, we missed the few Christmas celebrations they had. 

At one point we asked a cast member about it and they said "All the scheduled activities have ended and the park is winding down". We missed it!

We did see a Christmas song played to animation on the castle. And we saw the Christmas decorations around Main Street. The castle looked incredible! The giant Christmas Tree wowed us. We road the Jingle Cruise (jungle cruise with a Christmas theme). Best of all, we were in Disney World on Christmas Eve Eve.

Our experience of the Magic Kingdom at Christmas wasn't very different from any other trip to the Magic Kingdom (mostly our fault). And my expectations were completely wrong. Nevertheless, we had a great time!

Made it to Disney

Those familiar with the TV show Walking Dead know that the show rarely considers the plight of the zombie. Perhaps they are just a family on their way to Disney who are doing whatever it takes to get there.

Drug side effects are a funny thing. You can take medicine for a rash but it may cause sudden death, heart attack, stroke, or your left nipple to fall off. We are now taking Tamiflu for our flu. The side effects of Tamiflu are flu-like symptoms. Hugh?

We arrived at our townhouse (sometimes called a condo or villa, but it is basically a two story apartment) a little after 1pm with one goal in mind for the day: spend a few hours at the Magic Kingdom.

 We left the frozen tundra of New York State and stepped out of the van in the 80's. The temperature change plus the flu sent everyone's systems into shock. We felt exhausted and sick to our stomachs. I pushed on, unloading the van into the condo. And then we all crashed and passed out.

The goal of seeing Disney at Christmas remained. After napping, we forced our sick and exhausted bodies to go to the park. 

We arrived after 6pm. At first, you are probably think that is bad. Actually, by 6pm, most of the people who arrived in the morning are gone. The park is open until 1am, so, we have 7 hours of Disney time. And most of the Christmas decorations look best at night anyway.

We have been at Disney during the peak of summer. Comparatively, we had no problem parking not getting around. I expected the crowds to be horrible however, I felt like I had experienced worse crowds during the summer.

We had no problems parking. We walked right onto the team, right into the monorail, and had no wait at security nor the entry gates. We had no problem getting the fast passes we wanted, and no problem riding the things we wanted to ride.

However... A couple of notes: weare used to the summer time crowds. And we did arrive in the evening.

Overall, we made it from Georgiato the Magic Kingdom and everyone had a good time!

Life with Flu

Fever induced  dreams are really odd.  I kept dreaming about glass orbs and styrofoam . Each glass orb contained a project I was working on at work. These orbs would roll around on a bed of styrofoam while I tried to keep them from falling off the edge.

I woke from this hell at 5:30 am in a pool of sweat. The 101.5 fever broke! Exhausted, I slept another four hours before being the first to drag myself out of bed. We had a rented house waiting for us in Kissimmee and needed to get there!

We check every pharmacy along i95 in North Carolina. No one had Temaflu. Our only hope was to make it to the next state and hope they had some. The first flu symptoms dissipated and were replaced by other symptoms less amendable to travel and requiring frequent emergency restroom stops. I left a note for the maid about the flu along with a large tip. And with 11 hours of travel in front  of us, we dragged ourselves into the van at noon, pointed in south, and hit the gas.

Our first pull off was in North Carolina for hydration and medicine. The flu effects everyone a little differently. My youngest's symptoms included gagging. While taking medicine in the McDonalds parking lot, this gagging reflex caused my youngest to barf all over himself. Like a scene from the exorcist, he barfed down his open jacket drenching it and his shirt and flooding his pants.

My wife and I just looked at each other in disbelief. The flu was causing us to hold into reality by a very thin string, and this event seemed too bizarre to be real. But it was real!

His clothes bag was buried in the back of the van. While suffering from illness, we completely unloaded the back of the van right there in the parking lot. We retrieved his clothes. It was then my job to parade my flu puke covered kid through McDonalds  to the bathroom so he could change. 

I think there is a special place in heaven for parents. After that trip through McDonalds, I believe I have earned my place!

Linda called every approaching town as we drove south on I95. We traditionally stop at South Of The Border, but everyone was too ill to even care about shopping for beach themed gifts.

Linda found a CVS in Florence South Carolina who just got a shipment of Temiflu! That was our destination. We turned off the highway and drove deep into the city until we found perhaps the last remaining stockpile of Temiflu in the south. After an hour, we had the precious medicine and got back on the road.

If Ebola ever goes unchecked in the country, it will spread quickly. We stopped at Manning South Carolina Wendy's where I received a coke instead of a diet coke. I tried drinking it, but after a quarter of the cup, I couldnt. I complained, so, the lady dumped out my cup a d then used by flu infested cup to scoop ice into the cup, thus contaminating the entire tub of ice! I was dumbfounded and didnt know what to say, so, I regrettably said nothing.  Even more than Wendy's, I think of the hotel we stayed at and all the restaurants and gas stations we stopped at. In just two days we could have passed the flu to a hundred people across many states!

The flu didn't only travel south with us. It infected my elderly parents at home too! That left my adult daughter (who chose not to go the Florida with us)  to arrange ambulances and spend 9 hours in the emergency room with them! My wife was in constant communication trying to understand what was going on. She is a bit if a control freak and even at one point called the ER nurse to tell her how to do her job!

Elderly parents in the emergency room, car full of flu patients, and the fear of my youngest barfing again. This was not turning out to be the beautiful stress free vacation we had imagined!

We needed to check into our house but by Alabama it was clear we couldn't make it. We pulled into a hotel. Even though we were exhausted, we still had to wash puke covered clothes in the guest laundry 

We are hoping for a better day tomorrow - perhaps even get into the Magic Kingdom.