Early Morning Arrival, rest of day sugguestions?

[freecia]

I'm flying in on the red-eye from the west coast so we get to Orlando at 6:40 am. Travel during dec 22-28. Arrive on the 23rd/
We'll be staying at the Courtyard in WDW.
I'll try to convince the hotel to allow us early checkin. I intend to get early checkin by calling 1 week ahead, having it noted on my reservation (It's already on there but can't hurt to confirm it). Then I will call the morning ahead and ask speak to front desk checkin. I'll sound them out to see if they think I can get a early morning checkin, note the name of the person I am speaking to, ask them to put a note in my reservation with their name and my request, and ask them who I am likely to speak to while actually checking in the next morning. If necessary I will call them in the evening around 9 pm after they know how many people have checked in and how many people will be checking out the next day. I'd really like a new room with a nice view and non smoking.

Do you think this would work? Or at least increase my chances instead of just showing up to a full hotel? I mean, if the hotel is completely booked, it's booked, but if they can do anything, like give me a time estimate of when a room would be free, that'd be really nice.
I should probably also get the marriott frequent rewards plan.

I'm asking for sugguestions on that situation.

Also, what should I do with my day? I'm thinking my family will probably sleep part of the time.
Downtown Disney seems to be fun. Perhaps DisneyQuest? I could also get some of my disney shopping out of the way.
I plan on catching a movie if our room isn't ready until 3. Any other ideas of what to do?

Ticket Questions:
Should I buy a 4 day ticket or a 5 day? The fifth day we'd be getting on the plane around 6 pm. Would the last day be worth it?
I'm probably going to buy my tickets from Connections because they are the cheapest and include plus options. I'd get the Ultimate but it just doesn't seem cost effective. I don't want to force my family to go to the parks the first day we're there in case they're too tired. However, if they aren't too tired ...
How do the ticket upgrades work? Do I just pay the difference between the two ticket prices? Has anyone tried this with the 4 day park hopper plus from connections?

Wow I have so many questions. Thanks for reading. Please give me your two cents. I'd love to hear it.

 

[disneyjunkie]

If you're going to do Disneyquest, the length of stay pass might be a good idea. DQ isn't one of the plus options on the hopper passes.

If your flight leaves at 6, you'll have plenty of time to do a park on your last day. On our last day our flight was at 5:30. We did EE at Epcot, had breakfast at Ohana, shopped at World of Disney, had lunch at All Star Sports food court, and DS got to play in the arcade one last time, all before the Mears bus picked us up at 3:30.

 

[Palmrc]

On Hotels. Which one are you staying at?
Last year at around 5:30pm on July 3rd, my wife and I decided we were going to live it up and go to WDW for the fourth of July ( this was all sper of the moment, no prior planing what so ever! Because we dont have kids yet!) I got on the American Airlines website and to my suprise found 2 round trip tickets for a little over $300 only 3hrs before the flight! If it hadnt been for that deal we probably would not have been able to go! With only about 30 Minutes to pack for our 3 day trip before heading to the airport for our 9:30pm Flight, the bad feeling of weather or not there would be any rooms available on that 4th of July weekend started to sink in. Before getting in the car I called the Contemporary Resort and asked if they had 2 nights available and that we were flying in late that night, they said that wouldnt be a problem (they were only 65% full). With that said we had the trip planed in under an hour and by 1:00Am on the 4th of July we arived at the hotel. Check in was no problem and we were sleeping by 1:30. After that experience I think that even if you dont check,check, and re-check everything, it will all probably work out in the end. Hope you have a good trip!

PS If you just have half a day left in the parks it would still be worth getting tickets in my opinion.

 

[stacie_d]

I'd vote for no on the 5th day.
You will all probably be tired, and you may not end up doing a lot on that last day then. (At least that is what happened to us last year. We used a day, but only went to the park for about 3 hours.)

I would advise spending the last day at Downtown Disney, maybe play minigolf at Fantasia Gardens or Winter-Summerland.

But on another note, you might want to ask around about crowd conditions. I am not sure what happens with crowds on Christmas and the day after. You may want to skip a more busy day in the middle, and go to the parks the last day.

My advice: it depends. If you would not mind getting the 5 day pass, get it. The days never expire, and if you decide not to go on the last day, you can use that day on another trip. That is what we ended up doing!

 

[freecia]

I hear the time we are going, dec 24-27th, is just nutty. But I plan on avoiding MK on the 24th and 25th, which I hear gets the most congested.
We're staying at the Courtyard Marriott in WDW Downtown Disney. I wanted to book a Moderate disney, but they are all booked up for the 23rd-28th.
I've heard some good things about how Courtyard was clean so I decided to go with that. I also have an opportunity to book at the Wyndham Palace, but I haven't seen many people say good things about that Resort. Most people said it was shabby. I read that the Courtyard service in the daytime was pretty decent.
We'll be taking bus transportation. Does anyone know if they still run buses from Downtown Disney to the Parks? I heard since the Downtown Resort guests kept on overloading the park bus routes so Disney stopped running that route.
Anyone use the Resort's own transportation?

Thanks,
Freecia