Where to stay on arrival night?

[MomOTwins]

If it were me I would just stay at the Poly. With young kids, do you really want to waste all that time on two check ins, unpacking and packing, and transport between hotels?

If it really makes that much difference to the cost to add an extra poly night, I would just go with a less expensive Disney hotel for the entire stay. The Poly is one of the most overpriced hotels on property. Sometimes it costs even more than outer building at Grand Floridian! Beach Club/Yacht Club/Boardwalk are priced much lower and walking distance to two parks. AKL is not as convenient in location but a wonderland for small kids.

 

[Paul Francis]

If it were me I would just stay at the Poly. With young kids, do you really want to waste all that time on two check ins, unpacking and packing, and transport between hotels?

If it really makes that much difference to the cost to add an extra poly night, I would just go with a less expensive Disney hotel for the entire stay. The Poly is one of the most overpriced hotels on property. Sometimes it costs even more than outer building at Grand Floridian! Beach Club/Yacht Club/Boardwalk are priced much lower and walking distance to two parks. AKL is not as convenient in location but a wonderland for small kids.

You don't have to do any of that. With online check-in you don't have to go to either front desk. Your room assignment is sent by text and your magic band and/or phone will both open the door, leave your next day outfits on top in your luggage, you simply go to the park as you would the next morning and bell services takes your bags to the next destination at no cost, and finally when you are ready to go the second resort after your park day you're already checked in and could go directly to your room. The only extra is calling bell services.

 

[Lynne M]

The occupancy limit for a standard value room is 4 persons plus one child under the age of 3. Disney takes room occupancy seriously, and does not make exceptions, even for just one night.

I’ll also remind everyone that discussion of ways to break Disney’s rules is not permitted on the DISboards, and may result in infraction points being assigned.

OP, a standard value room won’t work for your family. If you want to stay onsite, you’ll need two value rooms or a moderate or deluxe that sleeps five. In your situation, I think the Hyatt MCO is a much better choice. You’ll be in your room shortly after you land, no dealing with shuttles, and you can walk right over to the ME bus the next morning.

 

[MomOTwins]

You don't have to do any of that. With online check-in you don't have to go to either front desk. Your room assignment is sent by text and your magic band and/or phone will both open the door, leave your next day outfits on top in your luggage, you simply go to the park as you would the next morning and bell services takes your bags to the next destination at no cost, and finally when you are ready to go the second resort after your park day you're already checked in and could go directly to your room. The only extra is calling bell services.

I've been to WDW 8 times since they began offering online check in. Only twice have I gotten the text with my room number before arrival even though we always arrived in the evening, and in both cases I had to go back to the front desk to deal with an issue (Door would not open with magic band one time, and the next time the room they gave us had a door that would not lock, so for security reasons I had to request another room). I have also on one occasion hadto use bell services to transfer bags when we relocated within Disney property (changing rooms in the same resort when our original room had a burst pipe in the bathroom) and even though I called in the morning to confirm the pickup, they never picked up the bags, so had to deal with that after returning from MVMCP at midnight.

I understand that in theory that is how it works, but in practice.... it is often not so simple.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Another vote for the Hyatt. We have stayed there plenty of times for late arrivals and it's just so convenient, you can't compare to other airport hotels that require a shuttle. Also not to be a pessimist, but your arrival time is assuming your flight is on time. On one of our Hyatt stays, we had a 9pm Friday night flight with 11:30 pm arrival time. Due to T-storms all along the east coast, our flight was delayed and we were taking off in Philly at 12:15 am. It was well after 2 am when we arrived at MCO and I was never so happy to be able to just stagger to the Hyatt. My youngest was 8 on that trip. Sometimes convenience is more important than cost when traveling with little ones.
Just enter as your ME arrival info a flight that has a morning arrival close to the time you'd want to get on ME for your transfer to Poly.

 

[Lynne M]

Another vote for the Hyatt. We have stayed there plenty of times for late arrivals and it's just so convenient, you can't compare to other airport hotels that require a shuttle. Also not to be a pessimist, but your arrival time is assuming your flight is on time. On one of our Hyatt stays, we had a 9pm Friday night flight with 11:30 pm arrival time. Due to T-storms all along the east coast, our flight was delayed and we were taking off in Philly at 12:15 am. It was well after 2 am when we arrived at MCO and I was never so happy to be able to just stagger to the Hyatt. My youngest was 8 on that trip. Sometimes convenience is more important than cost when traveling with little ones.
Just enter as your ME arrival info a flight that has a morning arrival close to the time you'd want to get on ME for your transfer to Poly.

Yep, that’s how I discovered the Hyatt, too. Delayed flight out of Philly, arrived at MCO hours late. It was pure joy to just walk right into the hotel from the terminal and collapse. At the time, it felt like the most comfortable bed in the world.

And so great to arrive at WDW well-rested and relaxed. I left the hotel, walked over to the food court to have a quick breakfast, and strolled down to the ME boarding area. I was at WDW by 8 AM.

 

[wdwlver]

We always fly in day before and stay at Hyatt MCO. Keep checking rates. So nice to get off plane and be in room quickly then head to WDW first thing in am.

 

[Happy2BMommy0812]

We’ve done the value resort route with young kids. Personally for us, it sucked. The magical express made a ton of stops and we were last, our luggage arrived at 1 am despite us asking for it to be held. Now that my kids are much older (11 and 8), we would consider this, but when we had a 7 and 4 year old it was not worth it for us. We were exhausted the next day.

Since you have 5, you’d have to book 2 value rooms anyway, so you really would not save much over the Hyatt.

I’d suck it up and pay for poly one more night or stay in the Hyatt, probably leaning towards Hyatt given the 8 pm arrival and my distaste for late night magical express rides with young kids.

PS - I’d be ticked at your travel agent for suggesting one value room with 5 people. They should be better informed. You could do a value suite at all star music or art of animation, but again, then you are close to or possibly exceeding the price of the Hyatt.