I'm a person that brings their dogs! I have 2. They're 9 now. I've been bringing them since I adopted them at 6. There's a lot of reasons I have decided it works best for me - they don't get along with other dogs so dog daycare doesn't work, they also think I am re-leaving them at a shelter, they struggle with pet sitters (and it's cheaper than a sitter to bring them), and they seem to really like hotels, and because I have them with me, i can take longer trips. I prefer the Universal hotels to Disney (for starters, their fees are sooo much better) but we have stayed at AoA Mermaid Rooms and Port Orleans Riverside. I did not enjoy the Mermaid Rooms. We're going back to Riverside for 2 nights in September. On park days, I try to leave them about 5 hours. I feed and walk them before we go, usually around 7. I aim return around noon or 1 for a quick walk, depending on what we're doing, and then again around 5 or 6 to feed dinner and walk (closer 7 if I am done for the day, closer to 5 if I plan on going back to the park again and returning around 10-11) Depending on which park I am at, how bad crowds are, how quickly I get a bus, and how long it takes the dogs to do their business, it takes me 1-2 hours round trip. It is a LOT of extra walking and we have to plan our day to time things so that dog walks align with things I'm ok with missing (grew up in FL and we go every 1-2 years so there isn't many "can't miss" items for me anymore) and we usually buy Genie+ for that reason to help with the planning but we make it work ok. If my parents come, they will come over and stay with my dogs for the day or go back for the evenings since they don't do full park days anymore. For something like the Halloween party, I will feed and walk them at 5 and then head to the party and they are good until I return. My comment is long enough so I've leave it there, but I'm happy to share further thoughts or answer more questions about my dog experiences if you'd like.
We've brought our dog with when we've gone to the Fort Wilderness in our camper. The first time we did that we used Best Friends Pet Hotel for their daycare they offer when we wanted to do long park days. The 2nd time we did a combo of Best Friends and having him stay in our camper. Both work well. But if we brought him with and stayed at one of the hotels? We'd do Best Friends for sure for a whole park day.
