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Old 01-12-2016, 01:52 PM   #1
SheLovesAriel
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Epcot & Universal: Solo; advice requested

Greetings! I may be in Orlando for business the week prior to Thanksgiving this year and I am thinking about taking advantage of the opportunity to stay a few extra days (so the weekend before Thanksgiving) to see and do a few things I missed when we did our big child-centric family trip in 2014.

1 - Would like to see US and IOA. I did the Harry Potter attractions in a 5 hour stint with a colleague in 2014 and we didn't see anything else. I thought perhaps of staying onsite (maybe HardRock Hotel???) one night before heading over to Disney and spending one day at US and IOA. The only reason I'd stay onsite is to get the extra morning hour of Harry Potter and the express perk (although I can also use the singles line); I was thinking Hard Rock looks close enough to walk into the park?

2 - Would like to spend a day at Epcot and take my time going through each country. To do this I would need to stay at Disney two nights. I am looking at the Beach Club only because of its proximity to walk in and out of Epcot. But whew! is it expensive for one person! And I am not sure if I have a better chance of being closest to Epcot if I reserve a standard room, garden view or lagood or pool view. If I throw down that much money to be close to Epcot, I would prefer not to be on the far far end of the resort. I'd also like to possibly spend an evening at Disney Springs and do a bit of browsing/shopping. And I do not expect to spend much time enjoying the resort itself other than the ambiance. So quality of pool, restaurants, etc. is not a draw. It's all about proximity and convenience.

Based upon this itinerary does anyone have suggestions or recommendations? I also need to be able to cancel if my business trip doesn't happen, so I was thinking about reserving only the hotels and not purchasing a package or park tickets until the day of. Anyone who has traveled solo and thinks I am going about this entirely wrong please speak up! :-) I value any and all suggestions.
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