US for 1 day pre-cruise Feb 2016 after redeye flight?

[kalishea]

Hi! Looking for some help and advice on a day trip to US we are planning for February 2016. We have never been there. Here is a little info:

We are 4 adults and 1 six-year old child going on a Disney cruise mid-February. We will be flying in to MCO on a redeye flight arriving at 6:10 am. We thought it would be fun to spend a day pre-cruise at US to see the Harry Potter stuff but we are having some trouble making it work. Here are some of our options:

Option #1- Fly in on a Friday morning, go to hotel and leave bags at desk, head to US for opening at 9:00 and spend the day there. This option sounds fine, but I feel like we may be really tired from the flight and I wonder how long we will actually last there before we are exhausted. Then we would spend the night and head for our cruise ship the next morning.

Option #2- Same as above but get a hotel room for Thursday night as well so we can check in immediately upon arrival that Friday morning, maybe take a nap and get to the park a little later then opening.

Option #3- Fly in on the redeye the day before (thursday, arriving at 6:10 am), maybe try to use hotel pool all morning until they allow us to check-in, spend the night and get up Friday and head to the park.

Option #4- Bag the whole idea of going to US because it's not worth the work for 1 day and arrive Saturday morning on the redeye and go straight to the Cruise port.

What do you think for US and even Orlando area newbies?

TIA!

 

[kalishea]

Bump. Anyone attempted this?

 

[pcstang]

I've never done what your asking but...
I would go with option #3 or #4.
I assume you will be staying onsite?
How many days are the tickets you are looking at?
You can check in pretty early. Not saying your room will be ready but you can still check in to the onsite. Earliest I've done is 6 am.

 

[kalishea]

I've never done what your asking but...
I would go with option #3 or #4.
I assume you will be staying onsite?
How many days are the tickets you are looking at?
You can check in pretty early. Not saying your room will be ready but you can still check in to the onsite. Earliest I've done is 6 am.

Thanks for the input! Not familiar with the area exactly but we were looking at several hotels options with one being Cabana Bay and the others being the Fairfield Inn or Best Western Plus by Universal.
We would still buy the 1-day park hopper even if we arrived Thursday and just do the parks on Friday.

 

[pcstang]

Thanks for the input! Not familiar with the area exactly but we were looking at several hotels options with one being Cabana Bay and the others being the Fairfield Inn or Best Western Plus by Universal.
We would still buy the 1-day park hopper even if we arrived Thursday and just do the parks on Friday.

If you really want to do the parks....
Red eye in on Thursday morning.
Stay at one of the deluxe for the express pass which you don't get at cabana bay and....
Have a great time and enjoy.
I would not try to cram everything in going only one day, especially staying offsite. USO is such a fun experience I just couldn't justify doing that. My family loves it there! I think we went 10+ times last year and stay onsite. We also live about a 5 hour drive away so it's not in our backyard, although I grew up in orlando and still call it home.