brooker, if the express passes are $20 on the days you want to go, that is an indication of lower crowds.
don't buy them until you are there to see if you really need them.
if it were me, i would bite the bullet and stay on site with that $147 rate.
if all of you got the ex pass, what would it add up to for the entire time you were there? if you stayed on site, consider that extra charge a bonus of what you are saving. subtract the numbers from the hotel charge and if you are only behind $30, then stay on site.
or you can have the best of both worlds. stay the last night on site and you will have fotl perks for two full days. the day you spend the night and the day you check out all in your party will have fotl on check out day.
So the saga continues. We decided to rebook with the RPH after all for our last 3 nights. We decided that it would be nice not to have to rush so much for the last 3 days of our vacation. Hopefully the parks will be blocked from May 4-6 so my wife will agree it was worth the extra costs...lol. So we have 4 days at Disney then 3 at Universal. We leave on Monday......right now our daily temperatures are still in the 40's 'F so 85 'F will feel like a heat wave to us...lol