Flying in at 5:30pm the day before our stay. Value or MCO Hyatt for one night?

[jaykorf001]

I think you've already come to your decision, but I would agree with PPs about going directly to Disney that night.

Speaking from experience, we drive to WDW and often drive straight through, leaving at 5 AM and arriving in Orlando around 10 PM the day before we check-in. It is so hard to pass right by WDW only to check in a hotel off-site for the night when all I want to do is start my vacation in the cocoon of Disney!!

Nice to see how long it takes to drive from St Louis. I'm from KC and have wondered. You make any stops?

 

[jade1]

If your going to WDW-go to WDW, get there as soon as possible IMO.

 

[sjs314]

I would Definately stay onsite, you should arrive at a resort and be all checked in by 7:30-8 PM can grab dinner then get a good nights sleep to head out bright and early. Check in at SSR, have bell services move your luggage and you can spend the day at the parks and return later when your Villa is ready.

 

[kwdw]

I'm usually pretty "stay at Disney" not the airport - but.... in this case......

Two scenarios:

1) Take ME to Disney, stay at value or mod. Wait in line to check in, wait forever for your luggage to show up four hours later. Unpack enough to sleep, pack up the next morning, take bus to PARK with luggage, transfer to bus to new resort with all your luggage, check in again, drop off stuff, off to park. This plan gets alot better if you take a taxi between the two resorts - but that will cost you $20-$30. Values only have double beds - typically too short for a tall guy. Mods have queens, but cost more.

NOW - you can also ask Disney to TRANSFER your luggage. If you are comfortable with that - this gets easier. You could just haul stuff to bell services, catch a bus to a park - and not worry about checking in until after 4pm - when you know your room will be ready and luggage should be at the new resort.

2) Pick up luggage at airport, haul to room at Hyatt. Queen beds. Check in lines typically short. Do nothing. Unpack enough to sleep. Pack up stuff, Haul stuff to ME, ride bus, check in at hotel at Disney. Off to park.

So - depending upon how you "pick" to handle the transfer between the two resorts, I can see a perspective that staying at the airport is easier.

Me - I'm all about getting to Disney property. I'd walk off plane with my backpack, head to ME, check-in, leave the heavey stuff in the backpack in room and I'd head to Downtown Disney or do a resort tour that first night if I didn't have tickets for that day. Get back not too late, roll into bed - only having to pull out the sleep attire and toiletries pack on top in the checked bag that magically arrived while I was out. Next morning, shower, put on the outfit again planned so its on top in the bag, throw toiletries/dirty clothes/nightshirt back in suitcase, (no digging through suitcases for me!) and I'd pay for the taxi between resorts. (I like to know WHERE my bag is, in case I need something - so I don't like luggage transfer. And it takes too long to do the resort-to-resort thing on the bus). Oh - and grocery delivery schedule for arrival at the resort I'm staying longer, not the first place for the one night. But that's me. Now - with a late arrival - says 7pm or later - I would do the same BUT - I wouldn't check my bag for ME. I'd get it at Baggage Claim and haul it to ME myself so I don't have to wait for it. I don't want to risk my bag showing up TOO late and me waiting for it to go to bed.

However, that wait for luggage for ME until late drives some of my family members crazy, and hauling luggage around hotels is a huge hassle for some of them - so the concept of switching gets more burdensome for them. And one of them has to basically unpack every night - and totally repack the morning. And we are all tall people and none of us like sharing a double bed. And one family member isn't that into Disney - so prefers to be off-property more. All those things play into these decisions.....

 

[herb102211]

I would head straight to Disney. You could still hang out at the pool or head to DTD that night, as you won't be getting there that late. We love the Hyatt but we'll only stay there if we have a late night flight or have an early morning departure. Otherwise, I'd say head right to WDW!!

 

[imchatti]

it happens to us frequently .... we have always done a value for the night and this past trip we were upgrade to a family suite at ASM.

 

[saskdw]

I'm usually pretty "stay at Disney" not the airport - but.... in this case......

Two scenarios:

1) Take ME to Disney, stay at value or mod. Wait in line to check in, wait forever for your luggage to show up four hours later. Unpack enough to sleep, pack up the next morning, take bus to PARK with luggage, transfer to bus to new resort with all your luggage, check in again, drop off stuff, off to park. This plan gets alot better if you take a taxi between the two resorts - but that will cost you $20-$30. Values only have double beds - typically too short for a tall guy. Mods have queens, but cost more.

NOW - you can also ask Disney to TRANSFER your luggage. If you are comfortable with that - this gets easier. You could just haul stuff to bell services, catch a bus to a park - and not worry about checking in until after 4pm - when you know your room will be ready and luggage should be at the new resort.

2) Pick up luggage at airport, haul to room at Hyatt. Queen beds. Check in lines typically short. Do nothing. Unpack enough to sleep. Pack up stuff, Haul stuff to ME, ride bus, check in at hotel at Disney. Off to park.

So - depending upon how you "pick" to handle the transfer between the two resorts, I can see a perspective that staying at the airport is easier.

Me - I'm all about getting to Disney property. I'd walk off plane with my backpack, head to ME, check-in, leave the heavey stuff in the backpack in room and I'd head to Downtown Disney or do a resort tour that first night if I didn't have tickets for that day. Get back not too late, roll into bed - only having to pull out the sleep attire and toiletries pack on top in the checked bag that magically arrived while I was out. Next morning, shower, put on the outfit again planned so its on top in the bag, throw toiletries/dirty clothes/nightshirt back in suitcase, (no digging through suitcases for me!) and I'd pay for the taxi between resorts. (I like to know WHERE my bag is, in case I need something - so I don't like luggage transfer. And it takes too long to do the resort-to-resort thing on the bus). Oh - and grocery delivery schedule for arrival at the resort I'm staying longer, not the first place for the one night. But that's me. Now - with a late arrival - says 7pm or later - I would do the same BUT - I wouldn't check my bag for ME. I'd get it at Baggage Claim and haul it to ME myself so I don't have to wait for it. I don't want to risk my bag showing up TOO late and me waiting for it to go to bed.

However, that wait for luggage for ME until late drives some of my family members crazy, and hauling luggage around hotels is a huge hassle for some of them - so the concept of switching gets more burdensome for them. And one of them has to basically unpack every night - and totally repack the morning. And we are all tall people and none of us like sharing a double bed. And one family member isn't that into Disney - so prefers to be off-property more. All those things play into these decisions.....

You describe all the important factors, good post!

For us the decision is made by arrival time. We come all the way from western Canada so the travel time takes up most of the day. We have two choices. Get up at 4am catch the early flight which after one layover gets us to Orlando around 5:30pm. Or catch the a flight that leaves here about 3:30pm and gets us to Orlando about 11:20pm.

The first three times we took the early flight. We had really good luck with ME and were usually in our room at WDW by 7pm. Lots of time to do something at WDW, however we were always to exhausted from being up at 4am and travelling all day. So usually eat at the resort and relax. I find it takes a couple of days to feel normal again after that 4am travel day.

The last time we took the late flight to avoid the 4am start. We figured we weren't missing anything because we never did anything with that first evening anyway. It was much nicer not starting our vacation at 4am! We landed at 11:20pm and had gathered our luggage and were in our room at the Hyatt before Midnight. Had we taken ME to WDW it would have been 1-1:30am before we got to our room. We got a good sleep, had breakfast the next morning, and then took ME to WDW. Worked much better for us.

Having said that I would still elect to go straight to WDW if we arrived earlier.

 

[kandb]

We are staying at the BC for 7 nights in Sept. We are staying at the Hyatt/MCO for the first night (arriving at 8:00pm) and the last night of our trip (have a 10am flight). I got the government rate for the Hyatt of $97/night. So we will have full days at Disney and for the first and last night, we won't have to pay the $400/night like we are paying at the BC. I think the kids will love seeing the planes taking off and landing.

 

[disney-akj]

We have arrived the evening before at about the same time. We got a one day car rental fairly cheap ($50 ish). Loaded our luggage into the car, and I packed where we only had to bring one suitcase in for that evening and valuables (left all the other luggage locked in rental). Went MK for evening fun, what we do every trip. Then left the value the next morning to the parks and DH returned car during our afternoon break at a wdw location (there were a few options for rental returns within wdw) right after we checked in at our resort. We found this got us to the magic quicker and made luggage hassle easier for us. Just another idea??

 

[a1tinkfans]

Hey OP!
I think that getting in at 530 Id go straight to your resort, cause it sounds like you wont like to be missing out on disney time Id personally stay where your vacation starts rather than moving around and the Xtra time and moving.......
.I actually like staying at Hyatt whenever we get a flight into orlando too late or (for us...thats evening...Id just rather be refreshed and since we dont unpack, just crash at Hyatt, we're all rearing to go and rested when we wake up and off to ME and to resort early am). We basically drop our stuff after check in and off we go....
Its so nice to start a vacation with rested kids, relaxed atmosphere instead of craziness and potentially cranky kids....so
just do what you think would be best for the kiddos.
Whatever you decide, have a wonderful time with your family....
Wish I had another trip planned......Just thinking about my happy place, makes me SMILE

 

[Suzanne74]

You all are giving me some great opinions and tips. I know 7pm seems early to arrive at Disney but my husband is working that morning before we leave and our youngest is just turning 4. I doubt we will do anything but get some food and go to sleep.

And now that I think about it, I wonder if Bell services would keep my luggage in the main building instead of bringing it to us. We will have every thing we need in our carry-ons and will just be transferring the luggage in the morning anyway. I thought about putting SSR on our ME bags destination and already have them there, just transfer the carry ons but that worries me.

 

[kandb]

The resort will not hold your luggage unless you are arriving at that resort. Meaning, you can't go to AOA for 1 night and send your luggage to BC since you arriving there the next day. I called ME and they told me we couldn't do this.

 

[Suzanne74]

The resort will not hold your luggage unless you are arriving at that resort. Meaning, you can't go to AOA for 1 night and send your luggage to BC since you arriving there the next day. I called ME and they told me we couldn't do this.

Thanks, I thought that this would be the case.

 

[wdwrich]

2) Pick up luggage at airport, haul to room at Hyatt. Queen beds. Check in lines typically short. Do nothing. Unpack enough to sleep. Pack up stuff, Haul stuff to ME, ride bus, check in at hotel at Disney. Off to park.

Note that the airport Hyatt will bring your luggage to ME for you, so no need to haul it to ME yourself.

 

[Suzanne74]

Note that the airport Hyatt will bring your luggage to ME for you, so no need to haul it to ME yourself.

Thank you. My husband really wants to just land and get dinner at the Hyatt and stay there. I want to go to Disney. Decisions decisions....

 

[nkereina]

Sorry if this was already mentioned in the thread, but is your SSR reservation a package as in you'd have to check in at SSR before getting your tickets? Or will you have your tickets from another source? If the latter, I would do the value. Naturally, you wouldn't unpack anything so you could just zipper everything up and call luggage services in the morning who will transfer your stuff for you. Only extra step would be making sure you have everything ready to go, and no additional travel time in the morning.