Late flight arrival, what hotel do you recommend for a 1 night?

SummerGirl

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
I'm tacking on an extra night due to a late flight arrival. We will be moving to Yacht Club the next day, what do you recommend for just 1 night with a flight arrival of midnight. We will head to the park early the next morning, and I don't want to add that extra night on to our Yacht Club reservation. Thinking value or mod, we have never stayed at value so I thought that was the easy choice, but I'm worried about the buses being packed the next morning heading to the park???
 
Due to airlines flight change we will arrive a night ahead of our WDW stay.
We decided on Best Western for $70 with a free shuttle to hotel and back to the airport.
 
The cheapest rate on-property. (Probably a value!)

I would NOT make a choice between a value and moderate based on expected BUS crowds. The values are just as good as any other on-property experiences for that. Yes - you have to line up in a queue - frankly I wish they did that everywhere. In 20+ trips - my most horrible bus waits? One time at Poly, one time at POFQ, and the time at AKV because of no queue and a huge group who arrived at the last minute pushed in front of us.

Mods are bigger, have nicer beds - but they don't have better bus service.
 


Honestly, I would stay at your actual hotel. It’s not about the sleep time, but about not having to pack back up, take the bags, stash the bags, and not have a room until at least 4.

I get that YC is a different price range than POR, but going into a midnight airport arrival with por booked with the extra day so we could just settle in felt so silly ahead of time, and felt soooo right once we had done it.
 
I'm tacking on an extra night due to a late flight arrival. We will be moving to Yacht Club the next day, what do you recommend for just 1 night with a flight arrival of midnight. We will head to the park early the next morning, and I don't want to add that extra night on to our Yacht Club reservation. Thinking value or mod, we have never stayed at value so I thought that was the easy choice, but I'm worried about the buses being packed the next morning heading to the park???

I feel like all the busses are packed in the AM. If you can live out of your carryon (change of clothes/toiletries/etc), just leave the luggage with bell services at POP or an all star and ask it to be transferred to YC upon checkout.
 
I agree with considering the Hyatt at the airport. No way would I want to land at midnight, pick up my bags (DME won't get your bags at midnight) and take DME to a value or mod and then have to get all the way to my room to try to fall asleep. You are looking at arriving at the WDW resort, if you are lucky, around 2 am and then transferring luggage to YC and getting on a bus for an early morning at the park? Yikes. If you stay at Hyatt MCO, you can get your bags, check right in, go to sleep and then take an early DME to YC in the morning.
 


Honestly, I would stay at your actual hotel. It’s not about the sleep time, but about not having to pack back up, take the bags, stash the bags, and not have a room until at least 4.

I get that YC is a different price range than POR, but going into a midnight airport arrival with por booked with the extra day so we could just settle in felt so silly ahead of time, and felt soooo right once we had done it.

That's what we did last summer. I went back and forth, and it just made sense to add an extra night to our AKL stay. But, we did sleep in the next morning (that was our plan the entire time). Our flight landed at MCO at 1215am, but our bus didn't leave MCO until 130am, so we didn't get to our room until after 2am. That was ok, because we just slept in the next morning (that was our plan all along). I don't know if I would go that route if I wanted to be up early the next morning....

I would probably stay at the airport if finances allowed. It seems so convenient in many ways. You land, you're at your hotel. Yeah, that's probably what we'll do if we have a late flight again.
 
I always price out the MCO Hyatt.
It's always more expensive than a Disney Deluxe so I always pass on staying there, but I check
We end up going with a Disney Value resort instead. We let Disney move us the next morning. They make it super easy. We get up, usually sleeping in since we get in late so we skip the super busy buses, drop our bags at bell services for transfer, and head to the parks. Our bags are there between 3 and 5 but we never head to the next resort before 5 so it works perfectly. We just head out from the park on our new resort bus. Couldn't be easier
 
I would stay at my hotel. It just makes life easier.

We had an early flight last trip. It was delayed 12 hours. We didn't arrive until 9:30 pm and were at the Poly and in our room around 10:30-11. In bed by midnight. I wouldn't want to do all that at a different hotel and then have to get up early the next morning and pack back up.
 
Honestly, I would stay at your actual hotel. It’s not about the sleep time, but about not having to pack back up, take the bags, stash the bags, and not have a room until at least 4.

I get that YC is a different price range than POR, but going into a midnight airport arrival with por booked with the extra day so we could just settle in felt so silly ahead of time, and felt soooo right once we had done it.
This is us as well, we always arrive after midnight and much rather get to into our room and unpack and be able to sleep in a bit. Twice we tried staying off-site and then heading to our resort room the next day, and (for us) I did not think it was worth the $$ saved. If trying to get to the park early the next morning, you will have to get up extra early to travel to your resort, check-in and then head to the park.
 
Thank you so much for your responses. I definitely agree tacking on an extra night at Yacht Club is the easiest, and likely the most logical, but I personally just don't see the "value" in it. If I was going to spend that much then I would just adjust my flight, and arrive earlier.
I'm glad to hear that wait times for buses aren't necessarily any busier at the values. Some of our worst bus experiences in general were at CBR, POR, and AKL. So, your comments make me feel better. I think depending on the price I am able to get, then I will definitely look at either of those options. Like the previous poster said, I could leave my luggage with guest services that night just to save the hassle of moving it the next morning. Otherwise, the option I never even considered was the Hyatt at MCO, and that was brilliant. I will watch those prices!! Honestly, I probably would Uber the next morning, and not use DME, but the thought of hitting a bed quicker is very appealing. I think this would be the only off-property hotel I would consider staying. However, please share away, totally up for suggestions! Thank you again!
 
We are staying at the Hyatt Saturday night because our flight lands at 10pm and we have kids (ages 9 and 6). I am paying about $250 for the night, which is significantly cheaper than our nightly rate at Boardwalk.

I know many people say estimate 90 minutes from landing to arriving at your resort when taking ME. It has never taken less than 2 hours for us, and last time it took 2.5 hours. (I swear, all we do is use the bathroom and walk to ME). Given our luck with the timing though, I'd never take ME that late at night.

Definitely check the Hyatt. I booked a higher rate so I could cancel if necessary. There were slightly cheaper rates available.
 
We are staying at the Hyatt Saturday night because our flight lands at 10pm and we have kids (ages 9 and 6). I am paying about $250 for the night, which is significantly cheaper than our nightly rate at Boardwalk.

I know many people say estimate 90 minutes from landing to arriving at your resort when taking ME. It has never taken less than 2 hours for us, and last time it took 2.5 hours. (I swear, all we do is use the bathroom and walk to ME). Given our luck with the timing though, I'd never take ME that late at night.

Definitely check the Hyatt. I booked a higher rate so I could cancel if necessary. There were slightly cheaper rates available.
It does depends on #1, the price you get your Disney resort at and #2, what resort you are staying in

We land at 1 AM in December. We are doing a lot of resort hopping, so we can walk to parks vs. dealing with buses at New Years but first we are at Pop. Originally we were flying in Friday evening but when they announced the new stuff at HS we moved it up to late Thursday, so we can hit HS on Friday night. Adding on a 2nd night at Pop was $200. We couldn't get Hyatt at MCO for less than $200, even though it would have been night to stay there. We'll suck it up and plan to sleep in late on Friday, since we really just want to do HS at night anyway.

With the current AP rates at some of the Deluxe resorts in Jan, you can get them for under $300 so the Hyatt can quickly reach their rate. But, it's rate does fluctuate too. We got really lucky one time and found it less than $200. We were flying out early after our flight at night got cancelled. Instead of staying another night at Disney and having to leave there early in the morning we were able to stay at MCO and just walk downstairs.
 
It does depends on #1, the price you get your Disney resort at and #2, what resort you are staying in

We land at 1 AM in December. We are doing a lot of resort hopping, so we can walk to parks vs. dealing with buses at New Years but first we are at Pop. Originally we were flying in Friday evening but when they announced the new stuff at HS we moved it up to late Thursday, so we can hit HS on Friday night. Adding on a 2nd night at Pop was $200. We couldn't get Hyatt at MCO for less than $200, even though it would have been night to stay there. We'll suck it up and plan to sleep in late on Friday, since we really just want to do HS at night anyway.

With the current AP rates at some of the Deluxe resorts in Jan, you can get them for under $300 so the Hyatt can quickly reach their rate. But, it's rate does fluctuate too. We got really lucky one time and found it less than $200. We were flying out early after our flight at night got cancelled. Instead of staying another night at Disney and having to leave there early in the morning we were able to stay at MCO and just walk downstairs.

Absolutely. It depends on so many factors. We really prefer to fly in the morning, but for the Sunday before Thanksgiving, morning flights were expensive. The extra night at the Hyatt, plus all of the other extra costs associated with an additional night away from home, was still cheaper. That might not be the case if the Hyatt was $300 or more. Of course, part if the reason it was cheaper is that there are 4 of us.

I actually booked the night at the Hyatt before I booked our flights. I was hoping flights would come down, but they never did.

It is always worth checking, and if it doesn't work out, I am sure OP and others will find something that works.

I'll report back next week on the Hyatt. We're not in any rush to get over to Disney (and wait for our room), so my kids and I will be heading to the pool to swim and watch planes land/take off. They won't care if it is not warm enough. ;)
 
We have stayed at the MCO Hyatt a few times when our flight got in late. It is GREAT. Grab bags, head upstairs, go to sleep.

Do keep checking rates, though. I've gotten better deals atound 2 weeks before a trip. Though I've never seen unreasonable rates there - just a bit more than the other airport hotels on that date.
 
I have done this previously and recommend a value. We had an overnight bag so we didn't have to unpack. I than went to front desk very early, took an uber to our next resort to check-in and drop off bags, and was in the parks quickly (less than hour once we got into our Uber). We stayed at Sports and was a much better deal than YC for just sleeping and convenient to start our Disney vacation.
 
I don’t mind the hyatt on the last night before an early flight, but it was stressful after a late flight and trying for an early morning to get to the parks.

We’ve also started a trip off at cbr before checking into the DVC stay.

We’ve definitely done what you want to do. And YES the value of staying where you’ll be doesn’t feel there ahead of time. It’s a “leap of faith” type of thing.

Maybe I missed a post, but it seems like all of us who have taken that leap have appreciated it and would do it again, though.

The value is found at 1:30 in the afternoon when you’re at HS and realize you’re bored (not sure why, I like the place, but I’ve never once spent a full day there) and realize that you’re not still waiting on your room, that your stuff is all happily there, and you could go back to YOUR room if you want to. Ahhhhh.
 
Priced our Hyatt MCO last night for tonight and a single night in 2 weeks both were $400!
Ill stay at a value instead or adjust flight times for that hefty price. But agreed it is 'convenient'.
I'm more interested in bag for my buck ... YMMV
 

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