We are thinking (almost committing to) of adding a stay at UOR for 3 days as an addon to our WDW trip in Sept. As you all know, planning a trip to UOR is totally different than planning a trip to WDW.
Hotels are the first challenge - UOR rates change up and down on a daily basis and APH rates are significantly less than quoted rack rates. We are not getting a car and it is just my wife and I. I want to stay at one of the Express Pass resorts - either the Portofino or HRH.
Here is an outline of my plan. I will purchase a Seasonal Annual Pass for myself and a 3 day, 3 Park ticket for my wife. I will purchase a single day Epic ticket for myself (I believe I get a discount with the Annual Pass). We will transfer from our WDW hotel on Sunday morning and go to UOR hotel - check in to get our unlimited Express passes. Go to IOA and UOR during the day and attend HHN that evening. Monday and Tuesday - we will spend one day at EPIC (probably purchase the overpriced express pass) and the other day enjoying IOA and UOR. Wednesday we will depart for home.
This sounds like a great plan! You should be able to get your UOR hotel in the range of $400 / night, so keep checking if it’s higher than that! It’s even possible to get in the $300s but that is rarer these days.
Just a note – I went through this same process as you and ultimately decided to stay at Helios and buy 3-day / 3-park, 1-ride-per-attraction-per-day Express Pass, rather than stay at a hotel with EP. I’m happy I did this because we loved Epic and wanted to spend more time there than at the legacy parks, though we enjoyed those as well.
My Seasonal Pass ended up not being super economical (especially since they never checked for it at check-in for my passholder rate … but I don’t recommend skirting that requirement). It would have been cheaper to get a 3-day, 3-park park-to-park ticket. But price it all out and see what works best for you.
I was going to suggest to check the cost of a cheaper hotel (either Aventura /Cabana Bay or Stella Nova since the first two have easy access to city walk and Stella Nova is a quick walk to Epic) and the 3 day express.
Apart from this little bit, I would have recommended perhaps considering spending a half day each day at Epic, going toward the late afternoon into the evening, and then starting each day in the legacy parks. Why? Because the crowds are significantly better later in the day, but doing a single day at Epic probably won’t be enough time, really.
Actually, one other caveat to this plan is that you are looking at September, and so you are more likely to have to deal with the rain storms in the late afternoon.