Onsite hotel worth it in January?

[Angelapm]

Advice on hotels and lines, please!
We'll be arriving in Orlando the afternoon of January 14th, with plans to do IOA (well, Harry Potter mostly!) on Saturday, then we leave for Miami Sunday. We were going to stay on site Friday night to take advantage of early admission Saturday and the express line thing. Saturday we had planned to use points and stay at the Hampton or Doubletree across the street, as 2 nights onsite is too expensive. So I'm wondering, given that it's off season is it really worth it to spend that extra $200+ on an onsite hotel Friday night? I'm thinking of just using points and staying across the street both nights instead, and having patience and waiting in line. Thoughts?? Kids are 8 and 5. Thanks!

 

[Mtnman44]

Well, as long as they do the Express Pass thing, we'll never do it another way. It is very worth it to us. And we'll be there in a couple weeks also! Spending three nights at the Royal Pacific.

Other than on MLK, I would expect general crowds to be very low on the weekdays however. Don't know about Harry Potter though, but express pass can't help there anyway.

 

[DCDisney]

It's a tough call with younger kids. We went on a low attendance time and loved having the early entry and FOTL but lots of the lines we skipped were only 10-20 minutes. Will your kids be tall enough/want to ride the big rides like Hulk, Spiderman, etc.?? If so it may be worth it. MLK weekend though can be VERY busy. For that Saturday I think staying on site is probably worth it. The hotel quality was very good for the price. We stayed at Hard Rock.

 

[glocon]

Remember that one nights stay gets you two days of front of the line. And if you are there for a very short stay and can afford it, I would for sure stay on site. You get in early, get to bypass long lines, and can walk to the parks in 5-10 minutes and not worry about parking. Love it, worth it if you can.