Best Hotel for Discovery Cove, SeaWorld, Universal Trip

[spyder114]

We are struggling to find the right hotel for this trip and was curious if anyone could point us in the right direction.

-We are flying into MCO
-We are staying May 23rd-May 30th - Sunday to Sunday (7 nights)
-The initial plan is to take one day for Discovery Cove, two days for Universal and three days for SeaWorld/Aquatica

The plan was to stay near SeaWorld and shuttle to all the parks, but I'm finding that the hotels don't always provide shuttles to everywhere and when they do, they often leave at times that aren't ideal. They often leave too late (we like to get to the parks early).

After looking at a map, we realized that if we stayed at the Renaissance, it would be an easy walk to SeaWorld, but a long walk to Aquatica and Discovery Cove. We could do the Hilton Garden Inn which would be a fairly easy walk to both SeaWorld and Aquatica, but a long way from Discovery Cove.

Any suggestions on what we do? We hate to take Ubers all week as that will add up pretty quickly. The last time we came to Orlando, it was a Universal exclusive trip and I guess we got spoiled by their non-stop shuttles all week.

I heard that if you stay in certain Universal hotels, that they have a shuttle that runs to SeaWorld. Is this true? We'd plan to go to Universal anyway for at least two days, so that would work for us if it's true. Does it only run to SeaWorld or would it also take us to Aquatica as well? What about Discovery Cove?

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Pooh's World]

We are struggling to find the right hotel for this trip and was curious if anyone could point us in the right direction.

-We are flying into MCO
-We are staying May 23rd-May 30th - Sunday to Sunday (7 nights)
-The initial plan is to take one day for Discovery Cove, two days for Universal and three days for SeaWorld/Aquatica

The plan was to stay near SeaWorld and shuttle to all the parks, but I'm finding that the hotels don't always provide shuttles to everywhere and when they do, they often leave at times that aren't ideal. They often leave too late (we like to get to the parks early).

After looking at a map, we realized that if we stayed at the Renaissance, it would be an easy walk to SeaWorld, but a long walk to Aquatica and Discovery Cove. We could do the Hilton Garden Inn which would be a fairly easy walk to both SeaWorld and Aquatica, but a long way from Discovery Cove.

Any suggestions on what we do? We hate to take Ubers all week as that will add up pretty quickly. The last time we came to Orlando, it was a Universal exclusive trip and I guess we got spoiled by their non-stop shuttles all week.

I heard that if you stay in certain Universal hotels, that they have a shuttle that runs to SeaWorld. Is this true? We'd plan to go to Universal anyway for at least two days, so that would work for us if it's true. Does it only run to SeaWorld or would it also take us to Aquatica as well? What about Discovery Cove?

Thanks for any help you can give!

Double Tree Sea World, there's a back gate that is open that makes it a 5 minute walk to Sea World (3 min to Renaissance hotel)

If you are a Diamond Member you get the free buffet breakfast at their restaurant.

The walls are kind of thin in the tower (unless you are on the HHhonors floors) so you may want nature music playing when you sleep.

The resort area rooms facing the pools can be noisy as people are up late outside.


*Most Universal hotels would go at most one time a day just to the main Sea World and back.

The best thing to do is stay near Sea World and use the LYNX bus system.
$16 for a 7 day unlimited pass
$4.50 unlimited per day
These buses go every 30 minutes from 5:30 am to midnight.

if you look at google map and zoom in you will see the blue bus icon bus stops all over the place.

*LYNX 8 goes to Discovery Cove
*LYNX 8, 50 to Sea World

 

[Pooh's World]

For Aquatica,

closest bus stop is intersection of International Drive and Sea Harbor Drive (this is across the street from Double Tree Sea World) then you have to walk about 5 minutes to the Aquatic entrance/parking lot.

You can:
walk along the road/grass of Sea Splash Way (doesn't look like their is a sidewalk looking at Street View)
walk along Water Play Way ((doesn't look like their is a sidewalk looking at Street View)
or the third, farthest entrance to Aquatic that doesn't have a street name but has a sidewalk.