Originally Posted by
MoreMilesPlease
Staying on-site is really the way to go if you can swing it. It gives you so many benefits. You can walk to the parks and come back to the hotel for a break or swin whenever. If you stay at Royal Paciic you can walk or take a boat to the park. Check it out on their website.
With younger kids or during the hot summer days, this is a great benefit. When my kids were younger, we'd go at park openings, stay till lunch-time, then head back to the hotel for a rest and pool break. Depending on how everyone felt, we'd head back later in the afternoon for another round of rides.
Note that all 3 hotels have Water-Taxi pickups to/from the parks. Royal Pacific is on the Islands of Adv. side and is walkable, though usually the Water-Taxi is quicker. The Hard Rock and Portofino are on the Universal Studios side. Hard Rock will be the closest hotel to the parks and I've usually found that its quicker to walk back there. Note that each hotel has its own set of Water Taxis. So there is only one stop each way (the hotel or the parks).