newbie staying on site questions

[sandyplayer]

My Disney trip two years ago was awesome thanks to many of you.

We are now planning on a quick three night trip as we pass through Orlando on our way to southern Florida.

We have booked three nights at the Hard Rock at the start of spring Break. I know it will be crowded but we are early people and it is not tough for us to get an early start.

My questions are:

Since we will have room keys that give us dining preference, do we need to make reservations for Mythos and Finnegan's? We are thinking of eating lunch or dinner at one or both of these. I made lunch reservations for Mythos and plan on making dinner reservations but does the hotel room key get us the same preference as reservations for the next table?

With the exception of Forbidden Journey and a few others that don't honor Express Pass, all of the rides show we really want to enjoy should honor the pass. We are not riding most of the rides that have a height requirement, both because two of my kids are too small, my husband does not really like rides, and my daughter and I do not care if we ride the really scary big ones this time.
That being said, do we need to worry too much (with the exception of WWOHP) about following any particular order of rides due to having the room key?
We do plan on arriving from opening to early afternoon, going back to the room and then returning from about 5 to 8 each night.

Thanks for any guidance.....

 

[pixeegrl]

That's the beauty of Unlimited Express...you can zig zag all over the park if it's your hearts desire Perhaps if there is a ride you and your daughter really enjoy, your DH could take the little ones to one of the play areas while you ride and re-ride. The Jurassic Park section has a great area to explore in IOA as well as Seussville with little rides and on the Studios side you have Curious George Goes to Town and Fievel's Playland. Hope you guys have a fantastic trip!

 

[Akwafunk]

This will be a somewhat useless response, but I did want to say that we were there last year on the Sunday of Spring break, and we weren't staying on site. We were there at rope drop and we all hot to ride FJ several times (comination of single rider and child swap) went to Olivanders, did Hippogriff and the stores in WWoHP (we have small kids too, so most of the rides were out) and hit everything we wanted to at Seuss Landing too.

We had a wonderful day. Got done everything we wanted to without very long wait times. The park really got a bit crazy by 11am, but until then, it was very manageable. The weather was perfect too. Have a great time.

Universal Studios has some wonderful rides and it's really pretty deserted in the mornings - a very underrated park - the Simpsons' ride is the funniest thing I've done in a long time, ET is fun too and good for the littles. I'd head over there early one morning - maybe after early hours at IOA and have your pick of some really worthwhile rides

 

[macraven]

Since we will have room keys that give us dining preference, do we need to make reservations for Mythos and Finnegan's? We are thinking of eating lunch or dinner at one or both of these. I made lunch reservations for Mythos and plan on making dinner reservations but does the hotel room key get us the same preference as reservations for the next table?

your hotel key does not give you the edge for dining preferences for the restuarants inside the park.

it does at some of them located in City Walk.

in most cases, it will give you the next table if you go to HRC.

 

[sandyplayer]

Thank you for all your help! We are looking forward to it and the tips make planning easier!