Last-Minute, Budget-Friendly Early Jan.

[SeaCastle]

Hey everybody- would appreciate some last minute trip planning advice. My SO and I will be in Orlando for the Surf Expo in early January and we wanted to take one or two of the days after to sneak out to WDW. I've been to the parks many times, her only a couple and not in over a decade. I haven't planned a last minute WDW trip before, and because we'll be tight on time and money I wanted to get us the most bang for our buck. We are planning for just Epcot and MK- my SO does not dig rides so much so we would both probably be happier checking a few choice rides and just walking around and taking it all in.

Much is up in the air, but we figure we may be in the parks for 1 or 2 days. We will be staying closer to the convention center for the balance of the week and will not have a rental car. My understanding of the per-person, pre-tax cost breakdown is:
Single Park: $122 for 1-Day, $217 for 2-Day
Park Hopper: $177 for 1-Day, $282 for 2-Day

The way I see it our options are:
1) Stay at same hotel near convention center, commute to parks for 1 or 2 days but stay out all day
2) Move to on-property hotel for 1 or 2 nights, do 1 or 2 days of parks and take DME back

My main questions are:
1) Are there discounts/packages available to bring the park tix price down? My hunch is that the short length of stay is doing us no favors.
2) For laid-back travelers is it feasible to check out both parks on the same day using Park Hopper, or would we be better off splitting over 2 days for about $40 more for admission?
3) Not having a rental car and given the cost of ride hailing to/from the convention center from the parks, to/from the hotel, and to the airport, would the cost of staying at an on-site or DD-resort area hotel for one and two nights be justifiable?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Nemo14]

Unfortunately ticket prices are pretty much what rhey are. We ran into a similar issue a few weeks ago when we got the opportunity to go for a fast weekend trip.

You might want to check with the convention sponsors though because sometimes they offer discounts on reduced hours tickets, and as far as transportaion goes, you'll save a lot using an Uber.

 

[dreamfinder]

My main questions are:
1) Are there discounts/packages available to bring the park tix price down? My hunch is that the short length of stay is doing us no favors.

Yes and no. WDW direct packages don't offer any price breaks over buying the parts individually. Some of the WDW Specialist TAs will offer discounted packages, but they usually have minimum stays, and only cover certain resorts/dates.

2) For laid-back travelers is it feasible to check out both parks on the same day using Park Hopper, or would we be better off splitting over 2 days for about $40 more for admission?

I'd split it over 2 days. Especially if you are using WDW transit, you are looking at usually losing an hour or so in transit. Even if you are just doing MK & Epcot, doing both in one day is really hard to make it worthwhile for an infrequent visitor.

3) Not having a rental car and given the cost of ride hailing to/from the convention center from the parks, to/from the hotel, and to the airport, would the cost of staying at an on-site or DD-resort area hotel for one and two nights be justifiable?

Thanks for any help!

Run the numbers. MEARS has a taxi estimator online here -> http://www.mearstransportation.com/taxi-services/taxi-fare-estimator/, and I think you can get the same type of thing for Uber/Lyft. See if the costs to go over/back once or twice ends up costing more than a rental car or booking an onsite hotel. MEARS says Convention Center to Epcot is $22 one way. Back and forth twice would be $88+ for a taxi. You can probably get a short term rental car from/near the convention center, but would need to pay parking. A value resort would run you $112 minimum depending on the night unless you find a discount, looks like 15% might be available for that time.

 

[SeaCastle]

Thanks both very much for the responses- looks like we will be doing a single day at one of the parks, so we'll likely just do a single round-trip taxi to the parks. Value resorts were booked for that duration so we'll probably stay put at the convention center-- guess this is what you get for going last minute!