1 night enough?

[schoonersky]

HI - an opinion question. Just booked 1 night at RPR, planning to check in at 8am, tour park with FOTL and return to hotel at 3 for down time to enjoy the pool. Have some dinner and return to park for a couple of hours and Universal 360. Get back to resort after 10pm.

In morning, pack up overnight bag, check out, head to park and tour until we are done using FOTL. Return to resort to get car and leave to move to Pop Century where we are staying the remainder of our trip (1 night room only, 9 nights free dining).

So I am considering switching and cancelling the 1 night room only at POP and paying the extra $130+ to stay a second night at RPR.

I am curious as to how hard these parks are to tour, and I want to have time to enjoy the beautiful pool at RPR with the kids. And it will be August, so HOT.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[schoonersky]

OK - me playing on the internet and have found another option. Skip the 3 nights I was going to spend at a cheap hotel on I-Drive, stay 5 nights at RPR and get the special deal with free kids tix for the whole visit and save 30% on our room. Works out to $1198US for the 5 nights. And I could then skip the rental car and just use the I-Ride Trolley. Not much more than the cost of 3 nights in a cheap hotel, one night at RPR and one night at POP plus 4 7 day tix to USO.

Can we get to 'offsite' places to eat that are more affordable relatively easily using the I-Ride Trolley?

Could really use some help with planning this part. Thanks!

 

[Darcy03231]

I just spent 5 nights at the Hard Rock and we had a wonderful trip! I'd do it again in a minute. We rented a car as I find that's the best way to get around when staying in Orlando, I really like having my own transportation. Its very easy to drive around that area as everything is very well marked. We mostly ate on-site, but did venture off a couple of nights for dinner on I-Drive. We also brought a cooler with us and went to the grocery store for breakfast items to eat in the room. Saved a lot of time and money.

 

[schoonersky]

We usually do brekkie in the room, too, as we are not big breakfast eaters anyway. Part of my theory behind skipping the rental car is that I can put that money towards the 5 nights at RPR...since we are then moving on the Disney for 9 nights and won't need a car there at all.

I wouldn't mind using the trolley if the stop is near to the resort.

 

[Darcy03231]

I believe that Hertz is on-site. The easiest thing to do would be to get a car for the day at the airport, get the hotel and get checked in, then go out and get what you need at the grocery store and then return the car. Town car service from the airport to the hotel is about $50-$60 each way. For the return I would rent the car for the day again, go back to the airport and then take ME to WDW. I ended up getting a car on Priceline for $14/day. With taxes and fees it ended up being $118 for the time we were there, which was about the same as the car service. I also liked being able to go off-site to eat.

 

[schoonersky]

That's a good idea. I discovered this morning that it doesn't look like the I-Drive Trolley actually stops at RPR or USO, and I don't want to be stranded onsite with expensive food. Renting a car to go from MCO to RPR and making a food stop on the way for bread and peanut butter lmao would at least make a dent in the expense of food for those days.

I might even consider keeping the car for a couple of days while we do SeaWorld and Aquatica and then we wouldn't be dependent on their shuttle service (in case it has odd hours). We could eat offsite those days and then eat onsite on the other days.

 

[macraven]

when you stay on site at universal, the hotel guests receive free shuttle service to Sea World, Aquatica and Wet & Wild.

you can avoid the parking fees at SW then.

if you don't like the shuttle service and want to return early, it's not a bad charge for a taxi then.