Early May weekend - on site or off?

[AprilJ26]

We are planning a weekend trip to IOA for May 7-9 for my son's birthday. We will only visit the park on the 8th which is a Sunday (and Mother's Day). As far as I can tell, it will cost us just under $300 to stay one night on-site for the ride access perk. Do you think it is worth it at that time of the year or would off-site be ok? I've never been to Universal or IOA and am not sure how the crowds are at that time of the year.

 

[IdesOmarch]

It is always better to stay onsite for several reasons, just part of the charm, you're close to everything, front of the line access etc., but to answer your question, no, its probably not totally necessary that time of year if you need to save the extra $$$.

 

[Hemlock]

Wow, this is weird. I came to this thread to post almost the exact same question. We are also first time visitors to US/IOA and are thinking of visiting on May 8-10. Also wondering if it is worth it to pay $275/night to stay on-site.

 

[Metro West]

Wow, this is weird. I came to this thread to post almost the exact same question. We are also first time visitors to US/IOA and are thinking of visiting on May 8-10. Also wondering if it is worth it to pay $275/night to stay on-site.

I don't think you will need to stay onsite that weekend...the crowds shouldn't be too bad then.

 

[Princess_Emily]

Same question for us, we'll be staying June 10-11-12 and we hope to visit both parks for 2-3 days. Debating if we should stay on site...we are currently booked on site at Port Orleans from the 1st to 10th (9 nights) with free dining.

I noticed Universal has a promotion that if you stay 4 nights or more around that time you can get 15% off. So if we cut short our Disney stay by one night and stay at Universal 4 nights, we can get quite a savings (it works out to about $238 a night on average rather than $280).

I worked it out and I think the cost will work out to be around the same overall if one less night of free dining is taken into account. The hotel will probably be a bit nicer than our Port Orleans Riverside room with two queen beds (rather than doubles). Also, I like the idea of being able to get in to IOA early for Harry Potter and to be able to take the boat across, but is it worth it?

The other option is finding a cheaper hotel off-site for around $100 a night and just purchased the Express pass for $100 (fri) - $160 (sat) for the four of us. Then it works out about the same, too.

The thing that would really clench it for me is if Universal came out with some sort of Spring sale and prices of staying went below $200/night - then it would be a done deal. Anyone hear of such sales? What are my chances of that happening?

What would you do?

 

[damo]

Check AAA rates as well or other specials by calling the reservation line. I would also ask for annual pass rates because sometimes the purchase of one annual pass will give you a huge savings due to significantly lower room rates. AP rates for May are not out yet.

 

[AprilJ26]

Thanks for all the advice! I really think we will be better off just saving that $300 and dealing with a few lines. This is just a little mini vacay for my son's b-day because we had enough airline miles for plane tickets, off-site hotel, and park tickets. Since we are heading to WDW for a week in November, I really don't think I want to fork out too much money on this trip. BUT, if it looked like the crowds would be awful it just might be worth it... Thanks again!