Staying at Onsite hotel for one night-Has anyone tried this before?

[Liz&Griff'smom]

My family is going on a three night vacation to Universal/IOA. We are thinking about staying at an inexpensive hotel on the first and third night of our trip and an on-site hotel on the second night on our vacation for the two day express passes. If we do this, we will have to switch hotels every night of our trip. Has anyone done this before? How hard is it to continually switch hotels? Thanks!

 

[damo]

It is a pain in the butt to be switching hotels. However, if it makes your vacation manageable, go for it!

 

[Bluer101]

Some people will stay the whole vacation offsite and book one night onsite just for the 2 days of EP's. Then they use the hotel during the day to rest and use the pool, you bring a day bag with you.

If you could afford it I would try to stay the whole trip onsite. Once you stay one night it would be hard to return to the offsite hotel, you will be spoiled.

 

[tinydancer09]

My family is going on a three night vacation to Universal/IOA. We are thinking about staying at an inexpensive hotel on the first and third night of our trip and an on-site hotel on the second night on our vacation for the two day express passes. If we do this, we will have to switch hotels every night of our trip. Has anyone done this before? How hard is it to continually switch hotels? Thanks!

Ive read of people booking the hotel and not even staying there so that they can get the express pass. It would offer a room to go back to in the middle of the day but I wouldn't advise jumping back and forth unless you are "pack up and go" kind of people... Makes me imagine a big unfolding suitcase with zipper pockets and ties...

 

[tinydancer09]

Some people will stay the whole vacation offsite and book one night onsite just for the 2 days of EP's. Then they use the hotel during the day to rest and use the pool, you bring a day bag with you.

If you could afford it I would try to stay the whole trip onsite. Once you stay one night it would be hard to return to the offsite hotel, you will be spoiled.

beat me too it.

 

[HayGan]

We have done variations of it and it can be a real pain but if it works for you then do it. You will lose quite a bit of time in the check-out/check-in process as well as moving from one to another. What I would strongly recommend if you are trying to maximize three days is this scenario (if possible)

Stay off-site the first night in the cheaper accomodations
Check-in EARLY on Day 2 to get your FOTL passes
Stay nights 2 & 3 on-site To have 3 days of FOTL access

Alternatively, you could book the off-site hotel for all 3 nights and just pack a bag to head over to the on-site hotel for the one night

Or a third option is to pack 3 small bags as to minimize the amount of stuff you have to move around as ell as pack/unpack.

DS#2 and I once did a 3 night trip to WDW in which we stayed in 3 different villas (although all at SSR) Packing and unpacking put a damper on the trip but we still had a blast!