Extended Hours - Worth it - $350 for 3?

[kwdw]

Okay - WWYD?

We are doing a one day at each park trip in a little less than a month. I just discovered that our day at MK is the same day at the extended hours for deluxe hotel guests.

We are currently staying a value. There are rooms at CR (Garden wing) that night for $350 more per night. If we moved for ONE NIGHT (it's our last night) - we'd get those 2 extra hours at MK for the three of us. And we could stay up until midnight to truly use them.

Now - the hassle - MOVING on the day. Now - we do have a car but that would mean we would have to spend time loading the car in the morning at the value and then checking in/unloading at some point - and I don't know if we would want to wait until midnight to do that. CR is at least quick access to MK. We can be exhausted the next day because its just check out day and we aren't doing anything until a late breakfast at Boma and a flight home. Literally, we'd be sleeping at CR, and really nothing else.

Added to my thoughts - we will be at EPCOT the night before - Harmonious is at 9 am - and we'll be leaving the park after that. (It's extended hours there that night, too, but I don't feel like EP extended hours is worth 300 for me.) In general, we were planning to hit early entry at all 4 parks, but if we have to move hotels, we wouldn't make early entry AND the extended evening hours.

We are folks with STUFF. Now - at the value - we can't make too much of a disaster because the room is small - but it will be a disaster area and we'll have groceries. It will be stressful for us to move.

But I'm also thinking that TWO full hours at MK with just deluxe guests.... man.... that could be worth it.

Anyone done this? If it do this, how do I make sure our magic bands will reflect the correct resort that evening?

Note - our days - there are no after hour parties at AK or HS - or I would have paid for one of those!

 

[Pyxie]

If it's in the budget, I would do it. In fact, I probably am in May (just reverse and doing it the first night instead of the last). That is, as long as the extended evening hours are released and line up with my plans in May, which they should if they keep roughly the same schedule.

 

[Disneylover99]

An extra 2 hours in the park for that price and the whole move for one night would not be worth it to me.

 

[Marthasor]

It sounds like you would, essentially, lose about 2 hours at MK on your moving day only to gain 2 extra evening hours - it's not worth it, IMHO. Is there a MK after hours event planned during your trip? That would be a better investment if you want to spend more time in MK, IMHO.

 

[Bahamontes]

Absolutely worth it, at least to me. Caveats: if they offered an extra hour to be used from 3-4am, I’d be there in a heartbeat. I just want as much park time as I can get. I’m also super fast to pack up a room.

Could y’all hit up Harmonious, head back to the value, and pack up (or at least mostly) that night? If yes, I say go for it. Maybe plan to have all the groceries consumed by that night and splurge a bit on food for the sake of convenience on the last day?

 

[jo-jo]

Just a thought, have you priced out a studio at a DVC like SSR? Depending on your dates, might be cheaper.

 

[kwdw]

Just a thought, have you priced out a studio at a DVC like SSR? Depending on your dates, might be cheaper.

They are a tad less, but it’s worth $100 for me to not sleep on a sofa bed and so far, haven’t been able to snag one at OKW. It’s three of us and while the other two can share a bed, I don’t want to and I can’t put them on a sofa bed. Curse my bad back.

 

[kwdw]

It sounds like you would, essentially, lose about 2 hours at MK on your moving day only to gain 2 extra evening hours - it's not worth it, IMHO. Is there a MK after hours event planned during your trip? That would be a better investment if you want to spend more time in MK, IMHO.

No after hours events our whole stay! It’s like they skipped the time we are going! We did a morning one at HS and an evening one at AK before and I totally would be paying for one if there was one! We loved those but the timing of this trip was dictated by a lot of other factors.

 

[coasternut22]

I'm trying to imagine what that day would look like. I can be anywhere anytime. It's usually others I have to wait for. If I was in charge, I would be packed and in the car by 7:00. I would drive to CR, tell the guard I was staying there that night, park, and walk to MK and be at the security between MK and contemporary by 7:30 sharp. Early entry rope drop. Then around 4pm ish, take a break, walk to CR take my stuff to the room, relax, have a drink and head back to MK by 6ish. Close the park at midnight, and walk back.

THIS, however, is a VERY long day. I've done days like these and it's exhausting. Especially if the last two hours of the night are when you need the most energy to get from attraction to attraction quickly. If you are prepared and you don't kill yourself trying to do too much during the day, then it's totally worth it. I would treat it as a 2 hour after hours event instead of a 3 hour after hours event. I'm not looking at this in terms of cost, but energy. This, to me, is the issue. That is what you need to put the price tag on.

I go a lot. I've found that evening deluxe hours and after hour events are much more enjoyable when I had a resort day that day or a half park day where I was in the room for more than 4-5 hours. Last time I went, we had the intention of doing evening deluxe hours, but we left at park closing since we did everything we wanted using G+. That day was also a full day of park hopping and Food and Wine.

 

[loves to dive]

It wouldn't be worth it to me. The move wouldn't really bother me, I do split stays all the time. I just don't think those two hours would be worth that money and that long day.

 

[kwdw]

Thanks all for your feedback. I've decided if it was just me, I'd would do it this trip. I haven't stayed at CR in 40 years, and even one night would be fun for me. I'm going to ask the other two for their opinions. I know the one doesn't like to move, but she also loves times when the park is a lot quieter and she loves closing out a park at night. I can be practically passed out on a bench, and she is in her element as a night owl.

I'm thinking if she says yes, I could go have a couple hours of down time in the CR room after its ready. If we drop our stuff at Bell Services in the am, then they could deliver it in that time frame and I would be off the hook for hauling our stuff to the room without them. Of the three of us, I know I'm back later in the year and I could miss a couple rides at MK and not feel bad. And if they start selling AP's - I might be back 2-3 times in the next year!

 

[ThisIsMyName]

We are doing 2 nights at Pop and 1 at WL for budget, locations and Extra Hours. Although we are just getting 2 day park hoppers so the extra time helps a lot. I don't think the move will be bad as we looking to head to MK same time as moving over to WL anyway. Day 1 we plan on doing rope drop for HS and Epcot evening ending with fireworks. Day 2 rope drop Epcot in the morning. Pop location with skyliner is good for all that. Around 1pm on Day 2 we'll move the car over to WL and then head to MK from like 3pm-ish to midnight. Day 3 we'll sleep in and check out the WL and leave early afternoon.

 

[MammaMia 80s Kid]

Okay - WWYD?

We are doing a one day at each park trip in a little less than a month. I just discovered that our day at MK is the same day at the extended hours for deluxe hotel guests.

We are currently staying a value. There are rooms at CR (Garden wing) that night for $350 more per night. If we moved for ONE NIGHT (it's our last night) - we'd get those 2 extra hours at MK for the three of us. And we could stay up until midnight to truly use them.

Now - the hassle - MOVING on the day. Now - we do have a car but that would mean we would have to spend time loading the car in the morning at the value and then checking in/unloading at some point - and I don't know if we would want to wait until midnight to do that. CR is at least quick access to MK. We can be exhausted the next day because its just check out day and we aren't doing anything until a late breakfast at Boma and a flight home. Literally, we'd be sleeping at CR, and really nothing else.

Added to my thoughts - we will be at EPCOT the night before - Harmonious is at 9 am - and we'll be leaving the park after that. (It's extended hours there that night, too, but I don't feel like EP extended hours is worth 300 for me.) In general, we were planning to hit early entry at all 4 parks, but if we have to move hotels, we wouldn't make early entry AND the extended evening hours.

We are folks with STUFF. Now - at the value - we can't make too much of a disaster because the room is small - but it will be a disaster area and we'll have groceries. It will be stressful for us to move.

But I'm also thinking that TWO full hours at MK with just deluxe guests.... man.... that could be worth it.

Anyone done this? If it do this, how do I make sure our magic bands will reflect the correct resort that evening?

Note - our days - there are no after hour parties at AK or HS - or I would have paid for one of those!

Would you mind sharing—how did it turn out? Or have you not gone yet? Maybe your trip is the same time as mine (4/23-25) with no AH available. I also would buy them and prefer to stay at the moderate where we are, but am considering changing it for Extended Evening Hours at Epcot (thereby giving us more time at MK or maybe even allowing us to hop over to HS w/ a Genie + on that day for a few rides-or to enjoy the resort during the day and rest for a bit before heading out to Extended Evening Hours.

Thank you!

 

[kwdw]

Would you mind sharing—how did it turn out? Or have you not gone yet? Maybe your trip is the same time as mine (4/23-25) with no AH available. I also would buy them and prefer to stay at the moderate where we are, but am considering changing it for Extended Evening Hours at Epcot (thereby giving us more time at MK or maybe even allowing us to hop over to HS w/ a Genie + on that day for a few rides-or to enjoy the resort during the day and rest for a bit before heading out to Extended Evening Hours.

Thank you!

We did it and I’d do it again for MK! We got up around 6:30, packed the car, and drove to CR. We had our bags checked with Bell Services. Shockingly, i did go to the desk to get a suggestion of where to park, but our room was ready! Drove there, went to room, had bags delivered by Bell Services. We settled into the room some. Visited the CR gift shops and took the monorail to MK. I think we got to MK about 10:30 am and I don’t think we left the value until 8 am. We had booked our first LL for about 11 - Jungle Cruise. I can’t remember if we booked 2-3 other LL that day, but we did make sure to do things like PeopleMover and COP during the day because they wouldn’t be open at night, so we didn’t work to max out our LL as much as we might have.

For the 11-1 deluxe guest hours, it was great! At 11, there might have been a bit of a line at BTMRR, but after that it was basically walking through the queues. In the last bit, did SM and 7DMT twice each before time was up. We got a TON in those two hours and because we didn’t hunt down the three mountains earlier, we got in every ride over the course of the day except the Speedway and Astro Orbitor. We could have got in both if we had been a bit more go-go.

We topped off the evening with some great photos on Main Street at 1 am. At the rate of about $100-150 per person, we’d do the move to a deluxe for MK deluxe guest hours again.

 

[MammaMia 80s Kid]

We did it and I’d do it again for MK! We got up around 6:30, packed the car, and drove to CR. We had our bags checked with Bell Services. Shockingly, i did go to the desk to get a suggestion of where to park, but our room was ready! Drove there, went to room, had bags delivered by Bell Services. We settled into the room some. Visited the CR gift shops and took the monorail to MK. I think we got to MK about 10:30 am and I don’t think we left the value until 8 am. We had booked our first LL for about 11 - Jungle Cruise. I can’t remember if we booked 2-3 other LL that day, but we did make sure to do things like PeopleMover and COP during the day because they wouldn’t be open at night, so we didn’t work to max out our LL as much as we might have.

For the 11-1 deluxe guest hours, it was great! At 11, there might have been a bit of a line at BTMRR, but after that it was basically walking through the queues. In the last bit, did SM and 7DMT twice each before time was up. We got a TON in those two hours and because we didn’t hunt down the three mountains earlier, we got in every ride over the course of the day except the Speedway and Astro Orbitor. We could have got in both if we had been a bit more go-go.

We topped off the evening with some great photos on Main Street at 1 am. At the rate of about $100-150 per person, we’d do the move to a deluxe for MK deluxe guest hours again.

We did it and I’d do it again for MK! We got up around 6:30, packed the car, and drove to CR. We had our bags checked with Bell Services. Shockingly, i did go to the desk to get a suggestion of where to park, but our room was ready! Drove there, went to room, had bags delivered by Bell Services. We settled into the room some. Visited the CR gift shops and took the monorail to MK. I think we got to MK about 10:30 am and I don’t think we left the value until 8 am. We had booked our first LL for about 11 - Jungle Cruise. I can’t remember if we booked 2-3 other LL that day, but we did make sure to do things like PeopleMover and COP during the day because they wouldn’t be open at night, so we didn’t work to max out our LL as much as we might have.

For the 11-1 deluxe guest hours, it was great! At 11, there might have been a bit of a line at BTMRR, but after that it was basically walking through the queues. In the last bit, did SM and 7DMT twice each before time was up. We got a TON in those two hours and because we didn’t hunt down the three mountains earlier, we got in every ride over the course of the day except the Speedway and Astro Orbitor. We could have got in both if we had been a bit more go-go.

We topped off the evening with some great photos on Main Street at 1 am. At the rate of about $100-150 per person, we’d do the move to a deluxe for MK deluxe guest hours again.

Thanks so much for sharing, and I’m so glad you did it and had a blast!