Hotel decision and one day tips

[Purpleandwhitewildcat]

Hi! Taking the kids (10 and 12) on a last minute and short trip to DL to piggyback a conference which sends me to LA. Hubs and kids fly in Friday the 24 Sept early morning, and I’m not sure their plans (I’ll be working til 2). They may go to Reagan library or beach. Saturday we have park hopper tickets, starting at DL, fingers crossed we can get a ROR virtual queue. Plan for rope drop and full day at the parks. Any tips for strategy of which order to ride attractions to avoid lines, appreciated. Have reservations at Park Vue for $571(bunk bed room), BWPP $524 (plus 2 days parking at $15/day) and courtyard theme park for $633 (plus $52 total for parking). Seems like a steal for the courtyard, but hubs points out we’ll be at hotel barely at all. Advice on which hotel to stick with? Need to cancel backups soon. Also, any idea when Thunder Mountain reopens? Thanks so much.

 

[GBRforWDW]

We stayed at the BWPP mini suites last month and really enjoyed the walk across the street and being in the park, it was really nice, especially at the end of the night. The rooms were clean, but it's really a no frills hotel. The pool is small and generic, breakfast isn't typical for a hotel, but it works for going to Disneyland - it's essentially a buffet of prepackaged food. You grab a paper sack and fill with what you want. So we filled the bags at 630am, walked over to DL and in line by 645, so just ate the food while we waited for boarding group drop and for security to open.

We also spent part of our time at Cambria which has a decent pool and water play area, which I believe the courtyard has as well. We also had a park view room, which gives a fun and unique view of the fireworks at night. If your family thinks they'd rather stay and play at the water park instead of exploring on Friday, definitely choose that option, otherwise, I would do one of the closer cheaper option and use the money saved to buy souvenirs.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[sjmac42]

For Park Vue are you in the Single Queen Bunk Bed or 2 Queen Bunk Bed as those single queens can be a little tight for 4 people. If 2 Queen I’d go with Park Vue for the space. If it’s a single queen, probably the newer and nicer Courtyard with the best pool area of the 3.
BWPPI is great but I don’t like the pool there and I prefer the viewing deck and parking at Park Vue.

 

[mel2014]

With that cost differential, I'd definitely stay at the Courtyard and the kids could have fun at the water park Friday. I'm actually staring out my hotel window at the Home2 Suites right now watching folks enjoy the Courtyard waterslides with no line. It's only like 2 minutes farther walk than the other two and much newer and nicer. You've got Mimi's, Panera and McD's on the way to the park to get breakfast. If you get a high floor room on the Harbor side, you can get great views of the fireworks. Even in a short weekend trip, we always take hotel breaks for a few hours, just because the parks are so busy midday and it's good to have an air conditioned breather (my kids are 11 and 13).

 

[Purpleandwhitewildcat]

Thank you, all! Decided to go with the courtyard. Not sure I would pay their regular rate, but for this price, we will go for it! I asked my daughter if she wanted to swim on the trip, and she did, so that clenches it! (And we did have the smaller bunk room at Park Vue)