Caribe Royale or onsite?

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I am coming down to Orlando for a business trip and staying at the Caribe Royale. Since I haven't seen the new side of Harry Potter World, I thought I'd tack on Sunday 2/3 to see it. My teenaged son is flying down to join me for this part of the trip.

My options, would be:

1) Stay at the Caribe Royale, take an uber to the park early in the a.m., and an uber back to pick up luggage before an evening flight.

2) Stay at the Caribe Royale, bring luggage to the park, and store it ??????? , go straight to the airport.

3) Move to a cheap onsite hotel on Saturday afternoon.

4) Move to one of the onsite hotels that has early entry on Saturday afternoon.

Thoughts?

Is there an option that I'm missing?

 

[bchbetha]

All of the onsite hotels offer early entry. Only Hard Rock, Portofino and Royal Pacific also add Express Passes (which are really nice if you’re trying to see it all in a day).
Move over the day before and enjoy CityWalk then be ready to stroll over to the parks first thing the next day. Be a lot less hassle and rushing around.

 

[hhoope01]

Can you son fly down Friday evening/afternoon? While the beginning of February will tend to be less crowded than some other times of the year, the weekends can still see some crowds. If your finances allow, I'd get a room at one of the Express Pass onsite hotels (RPR, HR, PBH) for Saturday night. I'd then get up early on Saturday, uber to the onsite hotel, get my room keys (the room most likely won't be ready, but they will still give you the room keys which will be your Express Passes.) You can leave your luggage with the concierge at the hotel and head right on over to the parks. If you do this before early morning access, you can get in to whichever HP section is open early that morning. Walk/Ride around there until the rest of the park opens and then see the rest of the park. The train ride between the HP sections in each park now has an EP line, so you can head over to the other park using that ride whenever you want.

At some point on Saturday you will get a text letting you know your room is ready and which room you have. Your room keys will be usable to access your room at that point. No need to head back to the hotel front desk and check-in again. With EPs, you can probably hit everything you want in both parks on Saturday. Then on Sunday, you can slow everything down and re-ride the rides you liked the best, watch the shows, and leisurely walk around the parks. I'd ask the hotel for a late check-out on Sunday (if they aren't too crowded they might give you an extra hour or two). That allows you to wait until lunch-time to head back to the hotel to pack-up and check-out. Depending on when your flight is on Sunday, you can either head back to the parks (leaving your luggage with the concierge) or head on to the airport.

If the EP hotels are too expensive, then do the same thing with the Cabana Bay or other non-EP onsite hotel. You will still get early park access, but won't get the EP. If that is the case, I'd probably do much the same on Saturday, but on Sunday to get the most out of the "other" HP section, I'd get in line for the train before the full park openings. That way you can get over to the other HP section before most of the crowds get over there. It may not be horribly crowded, but it could save you some time waiting in lines at that HP sections anchor ride.