Best "off-property" bangs for the buck?

I have stayed at Motel 6 Kissimmee, Knights Inn Maingate, Ramada Orlando Celebration, Extended Stay at Seaworld and the Buena Vista Palace. ; All different price points, each with their own pluses and minuses.

 

You know, I think the room I was in was in that front section and bigger than the ones in the back, but not sure. ; Something to ask about when you check in.

 

My last few off-site stays have been at either of two places:

1) Best Western Lakeside, on US 192 in the Maingate area (right next to Sherberth Road for easy access to the AK area of WDW property)
Best Western Lakeside on Hotels.com

Best Western has free wireless internet with fairly good speeds, comfortable beds, rooms about equal in size to a Disney Moderate, and floor safes in each room, big enough to hold a 17" laptop and a good amount of camera gear - several lenses and bodies. Each room also includes a coffee maker with coffee, tea, and sweetener/creamers included, a fridge, and a microwave. There is also a desk area and a table, so it was pretty easy for me to set up my laptop each day for surfing and downloading, and to leave my various chargers and cables on the desk. But bring a power strip with a 6' or longer cord - the electrical outlets are behind the desk and hard to reach (typical for many hotels).

The biggest drawback to Best Western was that their computers went down for the first 2 days of my stay, so they had to issue passkeys instead of regular keys to all guests, and the passkeys had to be returned when the computers came back on line. My room also had a problem with the wireless router; the internet didn't work until I asked the front desk to reboot the router, after which it worked flawlessly the rest of my stay.

The hotel is located in the Maingate area of US 192, so it's close to all sorts of places to shop and eat. There is a Walgreens, Wendys, and Burger King on the same frontage road as the hotel, and just up the street are a Dennys, McDonalds, and Golden Coral.

Access to WDW property is easy; take the frontage road, cut through the Burger King parking lot, turn right on Black Lake Road and left on Sherberth Rd, and you're in the AK area in about 3 minutes. From there, it's easy to get anywhere on WDW property, and traffic on that side of WDW is generally light and much faster than taking US 192 down to World Drive. Going back to the hotel at night is a cinch; just follow the on-site signage to AKL, but make the left onto Sherberth before you get to AKL.

2) Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista, on Palm Parwkway, next intersection north of Crossroads shopping center in the Downtown Disney Area (easy access to DTD, or by back roads to the MK area)
Comfort Inn LBV on Hotels,com

Comfort Inn has internet available in the public areas only and it's not free. Internet TV is available in each room, but I tried it and hated it; the TV has too low a resolution to see a web page, and there is no uplload or download capability on internet TV, so about the only thing you can do is surf the boards and maybe check your email.

Beds were comfy, room was about the same SF as a Disney moderate but shaped longer and thinner, so it could get a little awkward to get around if you have a family of 4 staying in one room. There is a desk and small table, but the layout makes it awkward to set up a laptop comfortably.

The hotel is located close to the Walgreens on SR535, several chain restaurants, Crossroads shopping center (which has Perkins, McDonalds, Goodings, and my fave, Chevy's Fresh Mex), and Downtown Disney. Back road access will easily take you into the MK area, as well, via the Ft Wilderness area. By turning on Buena Vista Drive or Bonnett Creek Pkwy, you can also access the Downtown Disney area or Epcot area without all the red lights and traffic on Hotel Plaza Blvd.

The biggest drawback to Comfort Inn was the proximity to I-4. The hotel fronts on I-4 and road noise can be a problem at night; leaving the A/C fan on all night, which I do anyway, drowns out most of the noise.

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Prices vary by season, but I've gotten under $50 at both consistently on Hotels.com for the last few years for MouseFest and Tagomania (end of October) time frames. In fact, I got $37 a night from Best Western Lakeside this past October and was very happy with it.

Both properties are in the "functional but not fancy" category. Both have great staffs - not up to Disney CM standards but personable and helpful - and both are kept clean and well-maintained.

I'd stay at either place again without hesitation, but if the prices were within a few bucks of each other, I'd go with Best Western Lakeside.