Anyone doing Disney and not staying on-site?

Daughter was a Disney employee, so she has a somewhat different/biased perspective, but they are planning to go again (and she's no longer an employee) and she said they will definitely stay on property and do the meal plan (which usually is one sit down and one quick service meal per day plus snacks, so you can eat "on the run" in whichever park you're in and make reservations for a special dinner in a specialty restaurant). Even without the employee discount, she thinks it's still significantly less expensive and easier/more time efficient to stay on property. I agree with pp that there are frequently discounts and package deals. There will also be special perks as honeymooners. I'd call the Disney Orlando travel consultants and ask what they can suggest for your schedule/budget. Good luck!

I would also recommend staying on property if you can swing it. The "Disney Bubble" provides such a different experience. We just went in January for a family trip and stayed at Pop Century, which is one of the value resorts, and we loved it. We are going for our honeymoon and staying at POP again, just because we don't want to throw a ton of money down and we will be out and about more than relaxing in our room honestly. Unless it's peak season, value resorts are usually around $120 a night and I'm pretty sure you kind of get a discount when you package the tickets with the hotel. Don't quote me on that, but it is much easier. One thing we are skipping though is the meal plan. It was super great for the family trip with all of us, but we are going to try to save as much money as we can since this trip is out of our own pockets!

And regardless of which you decide to do, you can use a travel agent through Disney. I would assume you can still use one if you aren't staying on property - not sure about that. But they will help you book everything you want to do and help with deals. It's the one thing I'm kind of mad at myself for not doing this time around just because I'm a control freak and like planning, but we did miss out on some good deals. And they are paid through Disney, so you don't have to pay them.

Yes. There are tons of videos on how to kind of add up the dining plan to see if it's worth it. Price wise, the Quick Service (which doesn't include sit down restaurants) isn't really worth your money, rather than just paying for everything yourselves - you technically lose money if you aren't eating the most expensive meal at every place.

And the Disney Dining Plan is pretty much worth it, you don't save a ton necessarily, but if you were to compare what you spend on the plan to what you would out of pocket, the prices would be the same for the most part. Sometimes you can save on this one, depending on what you eat. But this also includes a ton of food.

We had the Disney Dining Plan on our family trip and we were eating and staying full our entire stay. We also had to buy a bunch of our snack credits before we left so we didn't waste them. But we are choosing not to do it this time because we didn't want to spend the extra money up front, but it also allows us to be in control of what we are spending. And that means we don't HAVE to eat in the park every meal. We aren't doing a table service every night, which will save money, but also we can kind of be conscious of what we are really spending.

I hope that was remotely helpful lol. I know adding it on adds shock value after seeing the price, but keep in mind too that that is pretty much all you will pay. The only thing we paid for was souvenirs and extra drinks. The main thing too is that the dinning plan is for the entire length of your stay, not how many park tickets you purchase. Because you can redeem them in the hotels and Disney Springs. Not sure about Discovery Cove and other places outside of the main parks. It just really comes down to if you want to splurge and not worry about what you are spending for food, or pay attention to what you are spending. If this wasn't out of our pocket, we would 100% do the dinning plan, but we are trying to save for a house too.

And one last hopefully helpful tip, if you are staying on resort you get MagicBands and can make charges to your room, so you potentially don't even need to worry about carrying money around the whole time if you don't do the plan!