The extra magic hours are enough of a reason for young people with no children with them. Those after hours can simply make your trip. You will be there at a pretty good time, as far as crowds and weather. It will still be hot enough to swim, but not so hot the pool water is hot. It will be crowded, but not as crowded as it will be the last week of the month. We'll be there this month, but since we're doing Star Wars Weekend, we don't need the extra hours, and since we have annual passes, we don't have to pay for parking; therefore, we stay at the Doubletree. We'll be at POR in June and Arts in Sept. We always stay in the parks for our main vacation or any trip longer than three nights. The afterhours are a must for us. I can't take the sun because of skin cancer, so the evening and afterhours are wonderful for me. During the last hour or two of afterhours, we have been able to get on the usually crowded/long lined rides over and over. As I stated on another thread, we were able to ride Pirates seven times in a row. We walked straight on Buzz with 0 wait time, and five minutes for Space Moutain and Splash Mountain. Can't say that for Soarin, however. Line was much shorter, but still a little wait. But, in general, you won't do much if any waiting in the last couple of afterhours. The same is true for morning hours, if you're an early bird, but early hours are actually early hour; just one hour. Whereas, the evening hours are usually three hours. The later they start, the easier to get on the rides.
We are glad to pay the extra to have the buses, pools and afterhours during our longer visits. And, if you watch for deals, you can stay onsite as cheaply as offsite, if you add in transportation, parking etc.
As to food, that depends on what you like to eat. We save tons by getting a discount on a room and paying for our food. Most rooms have a fridge, so we eat most breakfasts in the room except for breakfast at Crystal Palace or Sunshine Seasons.
We eat most reservation meals for lunch, then eat places like Pecos Bill or Plaza-MK, Sunshine Seasons- Epcot, Restaurantosauros - AK, and Backlot Express - DHS. There are many of these types of places to eat. We go so often, we only eat at one or two reservations places each trip. We found on our long trips, that we never spent anywhere near the amount we saved on a room discount. If they have some kind of deal where you get a room discount and free meal plan, then that would be different; even though, it usually says with non-discounted room. There are three of us- a 16-yr-old and two adults. This may be different for families with more than one child, or those who want to do several character meals or signature dining.
You could go to allears.com and see the menus for every restaurant and the cost and figure out if you need the ddp or a room discount. It will totally depend on how much and what you like to eat.
All this to say, "Stay onsite if possible!" You will be glad you did.:sohappy:
