Late arrival, What would you do?

[maxmouse]

We decided to take a late night flight which gets us in to MCO at 10:00pm instead of an 6:00am flight the next morning which we would have to get up at 3:30am. We are planning on parks the first day. My question is would you just get a room at the Hyatt MCO for around $200 or add an extra night at CBR for $350? Right now the plan is to stay at the Hyatt, then Uber or DME in the morning. Would love your opinion on transportation the following morning also. I don't have any idea about Orlando traffic.

 

[Dug720]

I did the MCO Hyatt in Feb and will do it again in July. I just get up early (but not as stupid early as first flight of the morning) and am down at DME by 7:30 or so. Works like a dream.

Edit to add: I did Epcot my first day in Feb, so the 7:30 DME worked well. I'm doing MK in July, so my start time may be a little earlier. Or maybe not - I'll see.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We are weird. Once we are in Orlando we have to get to our resort and start drinking. We walk the resort for a bit and hit the quiet pools after till we are about to drop. This is POR of course. Not sure if the pools at other resorts are open that late.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Definitely the extra night at CBR. Otherwise your CBR room will probably not be ready when you arrive there the next day and you will have to deal with storing your luggage and unpacking later in the day. I would much prefer to get to CBR, unpack, and be done with it.

 

[Disneylover99]

I’d go right to the resort.

 

[mom2rtk]

I’m spending your money? Definitely CBR.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

We did the Hyatt MCO thing for a late flight…. once.

I realized that I’m the kind of traveler that just needs to get where I’m going, no matter the time or cost. I sat there in bed at the Hyatt, wide awake from typical travel highs, thinking about how WDW was only around 30 minutes away - and that kind of drove me nuts.

I do think it’s a good option for certain circumstances, certain $ savings, and certain travel personalities, but it wouldn’t be my first choice to do again.

 

[CynBeth]

I also would go right to the resort.

 

[kitkat4622]

We decided to take a late night flight which gets us in to MCO at 10:00pm instead of an 6:00am flight the next morning which we would have to get up at 3:30am. We are planning on parks the first day. My question is would you just get a room at the Hyatt MCO for around $200 or add an extra night at CBR for $350? Right now the plan is to stay at the Hyatt, then Uber or DME in the morning. Would love your opinion on transportation the following morning also. I don't have any idea about Orlando traffic.

I would probably spring for the extra night at the resort that way you are already there in the morning to head to the parks. If you stay at the Hyatt you then have to get to your resort in the morning. Hope for an early check in and then head to the parks. In my opinion that's a few wasted hours in the morning when you could be riding the rides

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

We decided to take a late night flight which gets us in to MCO at 10:00pm instead of an 6:00am flight the next morning which we would have to get up at 3:30am. We are planning on parks the first day. My question is would you just get a room at the Hyatt MCO for around $200 or add an extra night at CBR for $350? Right now the plan is to stay at the Hyatt, then Uber or DME in the morning. Would love your opinion on transportation the following morning also. I don't have any idea about Orlando traffic.

If you have the money to spend, go right to your resort and start your vacation.
Have a great time!

 

[manicstreet]

Think of it as paying $150 more to have a place to hang the next day since you can’t check in until 4 if you stay at the hotel at the airport. Go to Caribbean beach. You will be happy you are there in the morning. You will be all checked in and can go straight to a park.

 

[Maxie86]

We always stay at the Hyatt if getting in after 9PM. I hate those early morning flights and would rather fly the night before. It is so nice to just go up on the elevator to your hotel after traveling. We get up have a nice breakfast before leaving, and get to Disney early, rested and not tired from traveling. We also stay there the last night if we have an early morning flight. We never take DME, we used to rent a car, but the last couple of years we book a car service or take a lyft.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

When you are laying in your bed at the Hyatt, you're going to say to yourself " I should have just spent the extra $150. "

I will add this though. If available, couldn't you just get a cheaper Disney room at say key west, pop century etc, and already be on property, and have them just bring your bags to the next hotel and not deal with anything the next day?

 

[Ensusieasm]

We decided to take a late night flight which gets us in to MCO at 10:00pm instead of an 6:00am flight the next morning which we would have to get up at 3:30am. We are planning on parks the first day. My question is would you just get a room at the Hyatt MCO for around $200 or add an extra night at CBR for $350? Right now the plan is to stay at the Hyatt, then Uber or DME in the morning. Would love your opinion on transportation the following morning also. I don't have any idea about Orlando traffic.

Go to CBR Instead of staying at the Hyatt.
1. Your room will likely not be ready if you wait to arrive early the next morning.
2. Wake up where you want to be.
3. Enjoy!

 

[la la limon]

I was in a similar situation and I ended up getting a night at the Pop. Cheaper than CBR and the Hyatt plus we will take advantage of the free Magic Express that night. We really wanted to start our vacation that next morning! We will drop off our bags at the bell hop after breakfast and hop on the Sklyliner to DHS. When we're done, we'll head to CBR and our bags should be waiting for us.

 

[Eastern]

If we are arriving late I like to use POP as my cheap first night hotel. I guess it depends on your dates and what the other hotels are charging. If it's less than $150 I would probably just go to your original hotel. Usually we are staying in a deluxe so the savings are good if we do POP first night.

I'm the opposite of GADisneyDad. If I arrived at 11pm at YC and I was paying $600/night I would be up all night thinking, 'why did I do that. I am paying $600 or more to sleep for 8 hours.'

 

[VH103428]

I would just do CBR. If I am going to Disney, I just want to be at Disney. This way you can get everything ready in the room and organized.

 

[DavidL]

+1 vote to go straight to CBR. When looking at the grand total of what a Disney vacation costs, that extra $150 will be money well spent.

 

[Dug720]

Just to counteract what everyone is saying - you absolutely CAN check in early. No, your room might not be ready, but it is NBD to store luggage. And if you're taking DME, just look up the earliest flight from your area and give them that. That sets your arrival time at the resort and it *could* result in there being a room available.

I have landed after 10pm before and it was after midnight before I got to my resort. I WISHED I had stayed at the MCO Hyatt by the time I got there and my room was on the complete opposite side of the resort (not CBR, but it was still a distance - especially in the dark when you're tired and lugging bags). And at 2am I didn't want to bother with "Isn't there something closer to my request?" If you arrive in the morning, you might have a bit more leeway in getting your room changed.

 

[Heather07438]

At some point we started doing evening flights so we could hit the park next morning. A big part was DS not missing too much school so we’d go straight to the airport after his dismissal. Several times we booked a reasonably nice room 1st night that included breakfast for under $100. Then we started always finding deals for onsite value resort w/similar cost and found that better since in the morning they’d take our luggage to transfer, we’d hit the park and late afternoon we’d get to our true resort and the luggage was already there. Much less muss and fuss.