Express pass benefits vs extra day?

[kohlby]

Which is the better option or are they tied? It would be in April, not during Easter break. But it would likely be he only trip there for two people in our group. We are looking at RPR split stay with off- site vs Cabana bay for the entire time and one extra day of parks. (The price issue is that we need two rooms, making RPR add up super fast).

 

[pcstang]

I think I read somewhere it was your two nephews your are taking. Although we always stay at RPR or PBR for the express pass, I would probably say cabana bay. Use the EE to your advantage depending on which park has it. Rope drop US and hit DM first. Not sure how many days you are planning but you could take breaks at CB and enjoy the pools and lazy river. Two rooms there would probably save you enough over RPR to pay for most, if not all, of your meals each day.

 

[kohlby]

Thanks - yes it would be my nephews. The number of days depends on the flights, as they'll be flying without an adult so that's the part we'll figure out based on that. (Somewhere between 5-8 nights, which means 4-7 days for parks. We're planning on Legoland and Disney Springs as well). It looks like CB has more economical meal options than RPR as well. We'll have a car too and bring food from home, meaning we'll eat breakfast in our room as well as evening snacks. (My family is driving down). Every trip we've done in the last 10 years has included RPR so it's hard to adjust our thinking!

 

[pcstang]

Lol I know the feeling! With that many days you will be able to do everything multiple times. I'm thinking now that you have AP's so you obviously don't need any advice on how to do things at the parks. We did a split stay last year to try out CB. We didn't do the parks one of the two days. We still had express on one of the days so we did a little park time. The kids had a blast at CB. I'm with you though, it's hard to not have express after being used to it. I just reread your original post and see you are doing other destinations too. Maybe an RPR + offsite will work well!

 

[kohlby]

We won't have AP's for our nephews likely - as there is no way they'll be able to make another trip that year. Originally, the plan was buying 3 days at US/IOA for them, but if we stay at CB instead of RPR, then we would consider 4 days. My original plan was RPR combined with off-site but now I'm thinking CB for the entire day and an extra day at US/IOA might actually make more sense.

 

[SA mom]

We did a split stay the year Wizarding World of HP opened. We stayed off-site on our arrival day and went to the parks that afternoon/evening. We just walked around and soaked it all in. The next day, we woke up at 6AM and checked into RPR and were in the WWHP at 7AM. We didn't get a room yet, but we had our tickets and were able to use express pass all day. The next day, we checked out early, but we still had express pass for the entire day and were able to get into WWHP by 7AM. We also took a midday break that first day to really enjoy the hotel. It is beautiful.

 

[epcotty]

I'd go with extra day