Does this plan sound reasonable?

[deanimal]

We're planning a three day trip to Disneyland in early October as an add on to a week long trip with extended family in San Diego. So far the plan is to arrive Saturday night, spend Sun, Mon and Tues in the parks and leave Tuesday evening.
I've booked three nights at the BWPPI since proximity is our main priority with a two and a three year old and my hotel budget for the three nights is $450 or less. We got the first two nights at an entertainment book rate of $99 but the last night was $129. Still reasonable, so fine.
Well, I've been doing some thinking. With the extra EE perks they have now, the DLH is looking a lot more attractive. We still couldn't afford three nights there (unless we slept on the street the last night!) but.......if they have a fall promotion and we just booked the last night, I may be able to squeak it into the budget. So, before I get too excited, I have a couple of questions:

If we get up super early and check in at six or so, can we get EE that first day as well as the next one?

When does security start when crossing the plaza? If we head across at six am can we just wheel our suitcases over to the DLH withou all the hassle of the bag checks?

Does it seem worth the hassle to change hotels if we can only afford one night?

 

[skiingfast]

What I would do is drive up Sunday morning and check into the DLH. It sounds like this would be one less night and make it affordable. You also should be able to find cheaper rates that are only a few minutes more of walking.

You can check in but may not get a room that early. To enter a Extra Magic Hour you would need the room key. Some people have done this.

Security usually opens at 6:30 on weekends when the parks open at 8am and 7am for the early acess. They close the Esplanade before that for a short while to clear the area. If you need to cross the Esplanade with luggage it's not a problem you just tell the CM's that is what you are doing. They will let you across earlier or escort you across after and won't check you bags for this.

 

[SherriA1]

When we checked in to the GCH a few weeks ago, we checked in around 7 am and, although one of our group's rooms was not ready, we got the room keys and then they just texted us with our room number when our room was ready later in the day, and somehow activated our key to open that room's door without us having to go back to the checkin desk. So I would assume if you wanted to check in around 6 am and then do early entry, that would work fine because you would have your room key to prove that you were a hotel guest, even if a room was not yet assigned to you.