Changing hotels just to get FOTL

[Belle1962]

We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge April 22 - 29. We definetly want to do IOA again. Would it be worth it to switch to HRH or Portofino for say, Thursdday-Saturday night only? I noticed on the early entry dates that we would miss early entry for IOA, but would it be worth it for FOTL on Friday and Saturday? (I would save $$$$ over the Wilderness Lodge $119 vs $154 but we have been really looking forward to staying at the Lodge). With the changes in FOTL, and the fact that spring breaks will be over, is it worth it?

 

[Beckles]

In a word ... Yes!

BTW, I think early entry is not a big deal with FOTL. The three times I've been to the parks with FOTL we've literally done both parks in one day, and two of those trips were in the past month when park hours were only to 6 PM or 7 PM (depending on the park and night of the week), I think by the dates you're talking about the parks will be open even later.

This is nice, because obviously there's no need to wake up early ... it is a vacation after all!

 

[Glory Days]

We decided to change our Disney trip for the same reason. We've never been to Universal so we have a lot to see. But one thing we hate on vacation is getting the teens up early to get rolling. By staying at the HRH, we have FOTL. Now we can sleep a bit on our vacation, and just walk over later in the morning and use FOTL. No more running to every attraction as soon as the park opens. We got a good rate at the HRH with the entertainment card of $129 (pool view), so we're saving big over the BC. Packing up in the middle of the week and moving from one resort to another doesn't thrill us, but I think it'll make life a lot easier in the long run.

 

[SAFETY LADY]

We have also decided to change our reservations to the the FOTL on a couple of days. We will at Disney from April 14 - 21st. Easter - So after the easter crowds at Disney it will be great to get FOTL.

 

[TJA]

Every year we shuttle back and forth between Disney and Universal. This year, we're staying at WL for 7 nights, then moving over to Portofino for 3 nights. We figure that after 8 days at WL, we won't feel too rushed moving to Portofino. Now I only hope 3 nights we be enough at Portofino!

 

[kntheboys]

We were just at IOA and USF on 2/11 and 2/13, and never waited in line longer than 10 minutes. In fact, most of the time, there was absolutely NO WAIT. (The only time we DID wait was because the show had just started --like at T2 3-D and Poseidon's Fury). We arrived on the 11th sometime around noon or 1pm and left about 4:00 to get to Arabian Nights. We went to IOA again on the 13th at 11am to see a couple things, then hit USF by 1pm. In less than 2 hours at IOA that morning, we saw Poseidon's Fury, Eigth Voyage of Sinbad, rode the Dueling Dragons and watched the wishing fountain. We walked at a VERY leisurely pace.

At USF, we saw/went on everything except Kong and Beetlejuice and the Gruesome Makeup Show (and the Woody Woodpecker kids area). We ate lunch during our time there, too.

We would have liked to have a couple more hours at USF just to see Nickelodeon, but the park closed at 7pm.

I just gave this "report" so you'd have an idea of time. If you're going during the busy season, I'd say FOTL access is probably worth it, but if it is during low season, I wouldn't worry about it, because, like I said, we didn't get to the parks early, and had NO wait time.