US newbie - last minute trip, tons of questions!

[mannasn]

Hi guys! I'm graduating from grad school in 2 weeks and looks like following graduating we may make a whirlwind 5 day trip to Orlando. We've done WDW years ago when the kids were small, but they're both teens now so considering giving US/IOA a try. A few questions - if anyone could offer any advice would be great!

1) Do we really need to get the express pass or stay at an express hotel? We will be there Sunday - Thursday. If we choose not to stay at a express hotel, can the express pass be added as an option to our tickets on-site? It looks like there is a significant price difference between the non-express (Cabana Bay) and express (Royal Pacific) hotels (around $700) for our dates.

2) Is it worth it to get the orlando flex-ticket to visit other places or do you think US/IOA has enough to keep us entertained for 5 days? I have no idea of the size of it compared to Disney.

3) Is the early admission alone worth staying on site? If you don't stay on site, what is the cost to pay to park?

 

[bumbershoot]

For my family UO has enough to keep us happy. We haven't needed the flex ticket at all.

Even if it's not *needed* we are totally addicted to the unlimited Express Pass. I wanted to try Cabana Bay our last trip and hubby and son wouldn't hear of not having uEP. You can just do soooo much more with it. I know that some would say that with 5 days it doesn't matter, but for us, it does. And we love the deluxe hotels (Portofino and Royal are at the top of our list...HRH isn't a fave but we've only stayed there once). You can buy EP, you can buy uEP on your tickets. You can find those prices (they are date-dependent) on UO's site, I believe. It might be stunning, to see how much it would be for everyone and every day. You might see the value of being at a deluxe.

Parking! You will be paying to park at the hotel (cheaper at CB than at the deluxes). And you won't want to move your car to the themepark garage if you're staying onsite. That would be an extra parking charge and you're not any closer than from your resort.

 

[macraven]

if you are graduating in 2 weeks, which would be early May, do you plan to go to the darkdside middle/late May?
(you stated the trip would be soon after so i'm assuming it could be sometime in May.)

crowds shouldn't be anything like late june so staying at Cabana bay might work.
you could have moderate crowd levels on the weekends.
you would get early entry to one of the parks.

the express pass would be a separate ticket and not attached to your park ticket.

you could stay on site for the first 2 nights and receive the unlimited usage of the express passes for 3 days.
ep is valid for check in and check out dates.
move to cabana bay on your 4th day and still be able to use the express pass you had made at the onsite deluxe hotel.

wing it on day 5 in the parks and use the single rider lines or the standby lines.
i think that would work fine and keep your expenses down for the lodging.

if your trip is next month, book now.

have fun planning your trip.
you will have a blast!

 

[Duanerice]

Agree with above - stay at least one day at Royal Pacific. You really can't beat the express pass. You'll get 2 days of Express pass for just 1 night stay. Well worth it! Stay 2 if you can.

Not sure when you are coming in on that Sunday so didn't know if you were hitting the parks on Sunday. The only reason is that if you stay at Royal Pacific you'll want to arrive early, say 7 or 8 am, check in then, get your express pass go to the parks. Come back later in the afternoon to get your room. The next day you can check out early but you'll have all day to use your express pass. Sometime during the afternoon you can stop over and check in at Cabana Bay. If you are not getting in until late just stay off site the first night then use then strategy above.

I would not go without the express at least for a day or 2 unless I planned to do single rider line for everything but not everything has single rider lines. I can't stress how valuable it is and we just went while it was slow.

As for the Flex pass, if you guys like to go go then yes. I just returned and couldn't imagine spending more than 2 days at the parks. You just run out of things to do - strictly my point of view with no kids. And I rode everything, many rides multiple times. Had a blast but express was a big part of it. Also, we live in S Florida so we don't go to sit around the pool, I can do that at home. It is parks or nothing

 

[damo]

What are your dates? May can be very busy at certain times.