How many nights should we book?

[sacteach]

My mom and I are planning a trip for July. We are flying from CA and arriving late on the 7th (Wed). We are booking a package through AAA.

Our thought was to stay off-site on Wed night and get up early to head over to our hotel (Pop Century) and check-in to get our passes. We'll just have them hold our luggage until the room is ready. My mom's flight out is at 2pm on Tuesday and I'm heading over to a convention that afternoon.

Should we pay for five nights (Th-M) even though we won't have time to do much on Tuesday? We're thinking we would have time for breakfast and maybe a few rides before she has to leave for the airport.

Or, should we pay for four nights - check out on Monday, but have them hold our luggage, then go check in at another hotel off-site late Monday night. If we do that, we would probably go back and shop on Tuesday morning or pay for a character breakfast, but would not go to any parks.

We are purchasing the "Silver Package" and if we only book 4 nights, we would save about $300 (before paying for the other hotel).

Do you think it would be too much of a hassle to stay somewhere else on Monday night? We just don't want to pay for a day (Tuesday) that we really can't use.

 

[Gomez Gang]

switching hotels on Monday sounds kinda like a pain to me but I understand you not wanting to waste the money (who would?)
Here is a thought---- find out if your passes are the kind that expire or are only good on the days that you are at the hotel. If they give you regular park hopper passes, they NEVER expire so you could stay till Tuesday and NOT use the pass. Save it for the next time that you go. I am sure AAA would be able to tell you if you would be able to do that. Then Tuesday morning, go to a character breakfast outside of the park like Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary or the one at Grand Floridian. You will still have the Disney atmosphere without wasting a ticket and moving from the hotel (which takes up VALUABLE time!)

 

[sacteach]

My understanding is that it is a length of stay pass. It's good from the minute we check in until the end of day on the day we check out. So, if we check out an noon, our card is still valid until the parks close that day.

That's the reason we're staying off-site on Wed. Our flight doesn't get in until 6pm, so we didn't want to "waste" that day.

We anticipate that we would have to leave around 11am/noon on Tuesday to get my mom to the airport on time. We're worried that doesn't give us much time to do anything on Tuesday morning. Which is why we considered staying off-site on Monday. Even if we don't check in until midnight, it might be worth it to save the $300.

Another related question - how early can we check in? We want to be on-site as early as possible on Thursday morning so that we can get in a full day. But, we need to check in to get our passes to get in to the parks.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I personally don't find it to be a hassle to switch hotels... we usually do this for the sake of money anyways. Actually, this trip, we will be staying in 5 diff places over a 7 night span! LOL

I can totally see it being a pain if you have children and such... but with adults, its not a big deal to move and worth saving the money.

Esp if you're saving $300. You could easily find an inexpensive off site hotel and save that money =)

 

[JKanownik]

One option is to book your last night at Pop seperately from the other days. Make sure that you get a room only rate. This is the only way to get the UPH and not pay for the last day. You may have to switch rooms at the Pop that night, but you might not have to switch and either way it is MUCH easier than moving to another hotel all together.

On your last day I would plan a character breakfast at one of the resorts in lieu of going to one of the parks.

-DH