Need Advise - Surprise Trip for DH

[dishm12/08]

I'm surprising DH for his birthday with a cruise to the Bahamas. However, since we're leavin from Port Canaveral I'm trying to include some US/IOA time as economical as possible. We have done IOA before. It tooks us a day, but when we first got there is rained for like 2-3 hours. We were also there on our honeymoon in December. This trip we'll be going May 2/3. Our ship doesn't leave until the 4th. We're not show people we're riders and we love HP (this will be our first time seeing HP and the studios side).

I looking to stay offsite. So I'm assuming at this time of year I should spring for the express tickets if they're available. If they're not will two days be enough? We will have a car as well.

 

[Badge]

To be able to see everything in both parks in 2 days, I suggest getting the express pass like you mentioned.

HOWEVER, I would stay onsite for one night, and here is why:

One night onsite gives you TWO FULL days of unlimited express. The cost of a one night stay checking in on 5/2 at Royal is $254.

Now, if you were to follow your current plan of staying offsite and purchasing the express passes, the express passed for two days alone will cost you $127.96, and these are NOT unlimited. That means you can only skip the line once per ride unlike the hotel express pass which lets you ride the same rides over and over again.

So, you will need to find an offsite room that costs around $126 a night (which should not be too hard to find). However, if you end up booking a room that is say $100, you will need to decide if that extra $26 is worth spending to get a deluxe resort hotel that is a short boat ride or walk from the parks. Also, staying onsite gets you into the HP area of IOA ONE hour before everybody else, which is a big help when it comes to FJ since that ride does NOT have express.

If you decide to stay onsite, on the day of checkout, wake up early and pack your car with all your bags, and of course check out. However, keep your room keys since they give you express access and go and enjoy the parks for your 2nd day. Once the parks close, take the water taxi (or walk) back to the hotel, jump in the car and either drive down to Port Canaveral or simply stay offsite anywhere that night.

If you do stay offsite, you can always wait to purchase the express passes once you get there. Make a plan to be at IOA ASAP on your 2nd day. Keep in mind the HP area will be busy because hotel guests already were allowed in for the past hour.

With only two days, I suggest getting to the parks first thing in the morning BOTH days. Arriving around 1 or 2 pm on May 2nd is really going to cut down on the amount of park time you have, and thus might limit the number of rides you can do without the express option.

If you have any questions about staying onsite, just ask. I know a lot of us on here really suggest staying onsite if you plan on purchasing it anyway. It normally is never worth staying offsite if you purchase the express passes simply because of the perks you get with staying onsite and the cost difference normally not being much, or sometimes even cheaper than staying offsite.

 

[zack123]

Agreed. I did a lot of calculating when planning my trip, and it's only really cheaper to stay offsite and buy an Express pass if you only have one person in your party and you go when Express passes are cheap, or perhaps if you have more the maximum number of people in your party for one room at Universal, but could stay in one room at another hotel. Unless you are able to get a really great rate on an offsite hotel, you are using your DVC points to stay at Disney, someone else is letting you stay with them for free, you're camping, etc.

Plus, to really get the same Express perk and early entry as you'd get onsite, you'd have to book through Universal and purchase VIP tickets. That comes out to almost the same as purchasing a Preferred Annual Pass and using it to get a discount on the onsite hotels. And then if you go again in the next 12 months, you still get the discounts and you don't have to buy tickets again.

After being assured by the people on this board that since I was going during one of the least busy times of the year, and staying for several days, Express probably wouldn't be needed, I decided to skip the Express pass. And they were right , it wasn't really needed, so I was glad to save the money. But if I ever decided I did need/want that perk, I'd probably just buy an annual pass and stay onsite.

So if you are planning to buy Express anyway, be sure to compare the prices of staying offsite and buying those to the price of staying onsite. It may not be that much more expensive.

 

[macraven]

Agreed. I did a lot of calculating when planning my trip, and it's only really cheaper to stay offsite and buy an Express pass if you only have one person in your party and you go when Express passes are cheap, or perhaps if you have more than four people in your party and have to get two rooms at Universal, but could stay in one room at another hotel.

onsite hotels allow 5 in a room.

some suites at pbh allow 6.