1am MCO arrival - what to do?

[KalamityJane]

We have a family of 6 (2A, 4 kids - 14, 11, 9 and 18mo) and are flying into MCO, arrival time 1am.

Normally when we do this, I book the Hyatt Regency in the airport on points + cash and get the suite. Works out to being $200 plus ~$100 in points. I checked our dates and prices are going to be $330+$100 in points, which seems crazy for the 7-9 hours we will be there. It’s so convenient though. We are flying from Mountain time zone so 2 hours behind and my kids are night owls if that helps.

Options are -
1 - Book the Hyatt and suck it up.

2 - See if there’s on site availability and book there, probably going to be around $300, but kids can use the pool the next day before we check into Beach Club.

3 - Ask my parents who live locally (but 30 min away from the airport) to pick us up and stay at their apartment. Buy Typhoon Lagoon passes for all with money saved.

What would you do? I’m mostly concerned with the baby’s sleep and asking my parents to wake up in the middle of the night to get us, because they would need to bring 2 cars.

 

[KalamityJane]

4th option would be to Uber to their house, but again 2 cars would be needed.

 

[Lewisc]

Option 1 is it. Assume you have flight delays. Option 2 is rude.
Option 2 and 3 requires 30 minutes in a car

You land. One person gets the luggage while the rest check in and go to the room. Easiest. Works best if flight is delayed.
Others have suggested crashing.in thr airport for few hours. Get to resort after 6a. Hope for early room availability, possibility if your staying at BC but no shot at BCV. Hang out at pool umtil room is ready. NOT RECOMMENDED. I WOULDN'T EVEN THINK OF DOING IT but posters in the past thought this is the way to go. Some planned on going direct to resort and sleeping in the lobby until 6a.

 

[sponica]

I would just bite the bullet and stay at the airport Hyatt.

If you find a place on site, by the time you collect luggage and get to whatever transportation you have, you won't be there until 2ish. And anyone who needs to settle in before going to sleep won't be getting to sleep until 230 or be 3.

 

[KalamityJane]

Option 1 is it. Assume you have flight delays. Option 2 is rude.
Option 2 and 3 requires 30 minutes in a car

You land. One person gets the luggage while the rest check in and go to the room. Easiest. Works best if flight is delayed.
Others have suggested crashing.in thr airport for few hours. Get to resort after 6a. Hope for early room availability, possibility if your staying at BC but no shot at BCV. Hang out at pool umtil room is ready. NOT RECOMMENDED. I WOULDN'T EVEN THINK OF DOING IT but posters in the past thought this is the way to go. Some planned on going direct to resort and sleeping in the lobby until 6a.

Did you mean option 3 is rude? And yes, I agree. I don’t really want to ask them. They are staying on site with us if that matters, but I hate messing with people’s sleep.

We are staying BCV so I’m not expecting a room until later. Lobby/airport sleeping isn’t an option, we will all be paying for it later

We’ve stayed many times at the Hyatt, I’m just annoyed at the price hike (we were just there in Feb).

 

[KalamityJane]

I would just bite the bullet and stay at the airport Hyatt.

If you find a place on site, by the time you collect luggage and get to whatever transportation you have, you won't be there until 2ish. And anyone who needs to settle in before going to sleep won't be getting to sleep until 230 or be 3.

Truth. Which then puts us at 10-11am wake up and screws any chance of doing early morning hours for the next few days.

 

[Marionnette]

18-month-old baby makes it a no-brainer. Spend the money and get the airport hotel.

 

[Lewisc]

Did you mean option 3 is rude? And yes, I agree. I don’t really want to ask them.

I did. Really rude when you include possibility of flight delays 1a becomes 2:30a afternflight delays and time to claim luggage

 

[gatormom2tots]

Pay the money to avoid whiny and grumpy kids (and grumpy husband!)- from a mom of 4!

 

[juxtapose]

Is it cheaper to make your flight a different time? I only ask because we've looked into late arrivals and it's usually cheaper to pay for a better flight time the next morning than an extra night at a hotel. If not, I'd do 1, the hotel at the airport and not expect any early wakeups for a few days after.

 

[meremac]

In the past, I would have given PP's advice above. But right now, if you have the choice, it's better to try to get there the night before (and stay in an airport hotel or wherever) as opposed to flying out on the day you want to start your trip, as the likelihood of having a cancelled flight has shot up astronomically in the last month or so. Getting there early just gives a bit of a buffer.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Whatever you do, leave yourself plenty of flexibility. RIght now airlines are cancelling and changing flight times like crazy. Your 1a arrival may very well end up being a 5a arrival - you just don't know. Be sure everyone sleeps on the plane. That 1st day on property is going to be BRUTAL if you don't.

 

[Her Dotness]

You may not be able/want to do this, but the smartest thing we did on one trip several years ago was to add a day, booking a "pre-Bubble" night in a Lake Buena Vista Drive hotel.

That way, when we got there wasn't a huge concern, and we had somewhere close to WDW to get a little Disney if we felt like it. Disney Springs was literally right across the street. It wasn't an issue arriving later than anticipated if our flight was changed or delayed. The stay was cheaper than on-site, too.

Now, we drive to WDW but still tack on a spare day in case something would happen along the way like the hourlong slowdown of traffic going to a Titans game in Nashville once.

Doing that really removes a level of worry no one needs when starting a Disney vacation.

 

[Anna131517]

We had this issue in May. We ended up staying at CBR for one night. We hired a private Mears car to get there from the airport, which was nice because it was late and the driver helped us with luggage and dropped us off at our building. We did mobile check in so we knew our building and room number. Then the next day we ate and played at CBR before taking the skyliner over to BWI where the rest of our stay was. The CBR QS food and oool were great. The kids loved the playground and beaches with hammocks too. Since BC is also on the skyliner I’d recommend doing something like that.

 

[dvc lover 1970]

I would uber to your parents house or use a private company. Sleep late at parents then head to BC to checkin. Not sure if you are at bc or bcv but of latter there is close to zero chance of the room ready early there. If you go to your parents you don't have to worry about checkout so everyone can sleep in, otherwise I would go with the hyatt. But I personally like the idea of being able to sleep late

 

[dvc lover 1970]

You may not be able/want to do this, but the smartest thing we did on one trip several years ago was to add a day, booking a "pre-Bubble" night in a Lake Buena Vista Drive hotel.

That way, when we got there wasn't a huge concern, and we had somewhere close to WDW to get a little Disney if we felt like it. Disney Springs was literally right across the street. It wasn't an issue arriving later than anticipated if our flight was changed or delayed. The stay was cheaper than on-site, too.

Now, we drive to WDW but still tack on a spare day in case something would happen along the way like the hourlong slowdown of traffic going to a Titans game in Nashville once.

Doing that really removes a level of worry no one needs when starting a Disney vacation.

We add a night before and we keep the room the day we are leaving so we don't have to worry about 11 checkout time

 

[Specter]

Historically DW and I tried to take the very earliest AM flight and arrive prior to noon to give ourselves a half day in the parks or a day to knock out early shopping at Disney Springs or wander the resort.

On our most recent trip we had DD, not quite 3 at the time, and between that and DWs work schedule we just couldn't make AM flights work. We arrived very close to the time that you are currently supposed to in March. However, we opted to just add that night on at our resort and pay for a car service to take us. We had no intention of going to the parks that first day after arrival so it worked well for us to sleep in, eat a late breakfast, and then head to Disney Springs before going back to the resort for DD to nap. We enjoyed that experience enough that we are going to do the same thing for our trip in November.

While it is not ideal financially or in terms of being such a late arrival, we did find that we liked it slightly better than waking up at 3:30 AM so we can get dressed and get to the airport in time for a 7 AM flight, and by flying on a Thursday the airfare is generally cheaper which offsets the cost of the extra night at the resort. Bearing all that in mind, I would try and add an on-site day and, if possible, even just extend your stay at the resort you'll be at the rest of the trip so that you can be checked in and not worry about taking too much out of a bag or having to repack toiletries, clothes, etc.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Book the Hyatt. It’s got a pretty decent cancellation policy in case your flight gets changed. We had to wait a long time to grab our checked baggage in May and I wished we had booked the Hyatt instead of BC. We ended up getting to our room at 4am.

You should be able to use the BC pools the day of check in. Apparently there’s lockers there but I have never found them.

 

[Rory607]

I would suck it up and pay for the Hyatt. One adult and the 14 year old, and maybe the 11 year old, wait for the luggage. Other adult and younger kids go check into room. That seems like the least stressful option.

I would be worried about the drive to your parents and the baby’s sleep schedule. My kids would have woken up when the flight landed, fallen back to sleep during the car ride and then decided they were up for the day once we arrived, lol! Not worth it, IMO.

 

[k5xs]

We have a family of 6 (2A, 4 kids - 14, 11, 9 and 18mo) and are flying into MCO, arrival time 1am.

Normally when we do this, I book the Hyatt Regency in the airport on points + cash and get the suite. Works out to being $200 plus ~$100 in points. I checked our dates and prices are going to be $330+$100 in points, which seems crazy for the 7-9 hours we will be there. It’s so convenient though. We are flying from Mountain time zone so 2 hours behind and my kids are night owls if that helps.

Options are -
1 - Book the Hyatt and suck it up.

2 - See if there’s on site availability and book there, probably going to be around $300, but kids can use the pool the next day before we check into Beach Club.

3 - Ask my parents who live locally (but 30 min away from the airport) to pick us up and stay at their apartment. Buy Typhoon Lagoon passes for all with money saved.

What would you do? I’m mostly concerned with the baby’s sleep and asking my parents to wake up in the middle of the night to get us, because they would need to bring 2 cars.

You didn’t say how far out this trip is or who the carrier is, but assuming it’s some months away, and assuming your carrier is mainline, I’d hope for a change in flight schedule and then rebook for a more reasonable arrival time.