Equestrian
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2018
Hey guys! Very excited to head back to Universal in September with a friend. First time attending HHN for both of us! We are currently planning on flying down, staying onsite (likely Sapphire Falls, we found an APH rate for $147/nigh), and looking at Sept 20-23. Flying from RDU to MCO, and ubering from the airport and back to the airport. There are several options we are considering to maximize our time and minimize our expenses, and I’d live your opinions on the following options:
Option 1: fly Southwest, keep original dates, would be able to just book hotel for 3 nights and fly nonstop, arriving around 9:30am Thursday morning and leaving around 2pm Sunday afternoon. Flights would be roughly $487(though southwest has a promotion I’ll probably take advantage of which would give me a $200 credit), hotel around $450. Pricier flights, but would have more park/resort time with only 3 nights of hotel expenses. Carry on included in ticket cost, and overall probably a nicer flight experience. So pros: more comfortable, better times Cons: more expensive
Option 2: fly Frontier, keep original dates. Would arrive in Orlando at 8:30pm Thursday (lose a day) and leave Orlando at 8:30am Sunday (lose another day). Pros: cheapest option Cons: lose 2 park days, will also have to pay for carry on bags
Option 3: fly Frontier, leave Wednesday night instead of Thursday night. Pros: would give us Thursday back, still slightly less expensive than Option 1. Cons: would be paying an extra night at hotel, would still be paying carry on fees. Would still leave early Sunday, unless we took a flight with stops which could allow us to possibly leave later in the day. Also would have to pay another night for leaving car at airport.
Other options we considered are booking a cheap (offsite) hotel Wednesday night and/or Saturday night, but then we also would have to figure out logistics of moving hotels (so more Uber costs, or a lot of walking). We stayed at the Doubletree across from the Universal entrance in March (though we drove down for that trip) and were happy with that hotel. We know they have a shuttle, could also Uber or walk. But also kind of want to get the entire onsite experience and spend some time this trip at the some of the different pools and restaurants each onsite hotel has to offer.
What would you guys do? Also open to other options as well! I did look at flying out of Greensboro or Charlotte (although we live in Raleigh so RDU is ideal) for cheaper flights as it’s not a bad drive to either (2-3.5 hours) but it didn’t really make enough of a difference and not as many direct flights. Also considered flying into a different Orlando airport but again, not as many direct flights and not a huge price difference.
Option 1: fly Southwest, keep original dates, would be able to just book hotel for 3 nights and fly nonstop, arriving around 9:30am Thursday morning and leaving around 2pm Sunday afternoon. Flights would be roughly $487(though southwest has a promotion I’ll probably take advantage of which would give me a $200 credit), hotel around $450. Pricier flights, but would have more park/resort time with only 3 nights of hotel expenses. Carry on included in ticket cost, and overall probably a nicer flight experience. So pros: more comfortable, better times Cons: more expensive
Option 2: fly Frontier, keep original dates. Would arrive in Orlando at 8:30pm Thursday (lose a day) and leave Orlando at 8:30am Sunday (lose another day). Pros: cheapest option Cons: lose 2 park days, will also have to pay for carry on bags
Option 3: fly Frontier, leave Wednesday night instead of Thursday night. Pros: would give us Thursday back, still slightly less expensive than Option 1. Cons: would be paying an extra night at hotel, would still be paying carry on fees. Would still leave early Sunday, unless we took a flight with stops which could allow us to possibly leave later in the day. Also would have to pay another night for leaving car at airport.
Other options we considered are booking a cheap (offsite) hotel Wednesday night and/or Saturday night, but then we also would have to figure out logistics of moving hotels (so more Uber costs, or a lot of walking). We stayed at the Doubletree across from the Universal entrance in March (though we drove down for that trip) and were happy with that hotel. We know they have a shuttle, could also Uber or walk. But also kind of want to get the entire onsite experience and spend some time this trip at the some of the different pools and restaurants each onsite hotel has to offer.
What would you guys do? Also open to other options as well! I did look at flying out of Greensboro or Charlotte (although we live in Raleigh so RDU is ideal) for cheaper flights as it’s not a bad drive to either (2-3.5 hours) but it didn’t really make enough of a difference and not as many direct flights. Also considered flying into a different Orlando airport but again, not as many direct flights and not a huge price difference.
