So all along, we have planning to leave as early as possible on Thursday (1/2/20) morning, hoping to get to WDW and drop our bags at the resort and get in a solid 1/2 day at HS. We had planned to stay at a hotel near the airport the night before, assuming I can get a very early flight.
I’m keeping an eye on flights but can’t even price for some airlines because it’s too early, schedule isn’t released yet for our full trip dates (1/2 - 1/11). In other cases, some fares are already sold out… so I’m getting nervous.
While searching flights, I realized that MAYBE it will make more sense to fly down on WEDNESDAY 1/1 and stay a night at an inexpensive off-site hotel, rather than spend that night at a hotel here BEFORE our trip! DUH… it avoids having to get up SUPER early with stress about making a 7:00am-ish (or earlier) flight, we can get down there mid-day or early evening, get a good night’s rest; Uber to our resort on Thursday morning and proceed as planned! My initial research looks like flight cost won’t be much different, and I found a hotel option that looks good and is probably even cheaper than the one we would consider locally. And frankly, even if it’s just a wash on the flight costs, I would MUCH rather get to Orlando a day earlier and have the travel behind us for our first park/resort day! 
So my question is: if we go this route, we obviously can’t take advantage of MDE on arrival, but would still want to use it on our departure day. Is there any problem or issue with just booking MDE one direction?
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SWEET! I already reserved the Wednesday night room (can cancel up to day before of flights work out better for 1/2). I will feel much better when I get our flight booked, as that’s the last “big” puzzle piece, other than FPP, that has to happen!
If you stay close to the airport,Magical Express would still be an option for arrival day too. Just be at the airport and give them an arriving flight time that corresponds with what time your family will be ready to travel to Disney. Might or might not be less expensive since you will need to calculate time and money getting from your offsite hotel back to the airport.
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Thanks for the idea! I did consider that as well, but then we would still need to transport from airport->hotel->airport->MDE to resort. I think I would prefer to transport from airport->hotel->resort, for the simplicity of it and the “feeling” that we have arrived “at Disney” on Wednesday night, not at the airport, lol. Uber is pretty inexpensive, and it gives us more freedom and an earlier start (if we want it) on Thursday morning! 
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Not sure where you’re staying for the WDW part of your trip or how the prices will compare, but you could try to get a cheap room at the All Stars for your first night, then you could take DME to the resort. Disney would also transfer your bags for you to the next resort on 1/2, if you don’t mind waiting for them.
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I briefly considered that… but it looks like the cheapest on-site room would be around $250 (I think that was All Star, with 2 double beds… we really prefer queens). The off-site room I have reserved is only $85. 
I love the plan that we will get there on “day 0” instead of “day 1”… but I’m trying to avoid this turning into “vacation creep” lol. “Well gee, as long as we’re doing THAT… let’s stay on site… and make some more ADRs… and… and… and…” 
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Makes sense. Wow! $250 for the All Stars is nuts.
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I take it back, I just double checked and it’s $214… although I presume that’s before taxes/etc.
However… it WOULD save us the 2 uber rides, so with that factored in… hmmmmm… maybe I’ll talk it over with dh and see what he thinks. 
#vacationcreep 
I was going to mention the same look at the values! If the math works out, less of a hassle your first park day I would think!
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It would be difficult to argue that the math works in favor of this idea, lol… the question is, how much is the added convenience worth? And how to I convince dh that it is worth that much? 
So, since I’m bouncing around this idea now, does anyone know:
- if we are staying, say, at All Star on day 0, then we are moving to Kidani on day 1, when we check out, would they transport our luggage to our new room for us? E.g., can we just pack up and check out and head to the park, and then get into our Kidani room later in the day and have our stuff delivered there?
- Our Kidani reservation is through Davids DVC and the day 0 room would be my own reservation. Obviously they will both be on MDE, but does that create any complications?
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Haven’t done it but yes I believe that’s right, would be moved for you.
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What type of complications? I would think it’s like a split stay.
No experience— I’m sure someone with more solid info will answer.
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I guess I’m not sure… lol. Yes, I think it would be like any other split stay (which I’ve never done). Wasn’t sure if the fact that the Kidani reservation is under a DVC member, while the one-nighter would be my own, would add any wrinkles that I should be aware of. Probably not… 
I see what your saying. And I am
No Help. It might give you an extra day on fast pass booking? Win!
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So, #vacationcreep is a real thing, my friends! I just made a one-night room only reservation at All Star Music for our day 0. That was the cheapest possible stay, and they are doing the refurbs now so the CM put a request on the reservation for a refurb’d room, which can’t be guaranteed but would give us 2 queen beds instead of 2 doubles.
Of course I may still end up canceling this, but dh wasn’t completely opposed to the idea. Since we avoid some Uber rides vs. my original off-site plan, the way I figure it, the upcharge from staying offsite is approximately $100. For that we get less hassle, both from airport on day 0 (via DME) and from checkout on day 1, since we can go straight to a park and have our luggage taken over to Kidani for us!
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Just an idea… Since you are already through David’s… Why not check last minute point rental for the first night? A 1 nt at say… Saratoga… May be cheaper is you than all star. A studio is 11 pts… If you can pick up last min pts from someone for say 14 pts a nt… $154 is lower than your all star.
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Thanks! I did consider that also, but I used a site (not Davids) that shows availability and it had NOTHING lol. I guess I could try through David’s… maybe I’ll do that.