Maybe this group can help weigh in. We have ONE night at a Disney hotel to hang with our friends before moving over to Universal. We arrive (all together on same flight) relatively early Wednesday and it will be a resort day. Thursday will be our one park day and once we are done with the parks, we will return to the hotel to pick up our stored bags and then Uber over to Universal hotel.
Choices for hotel:
Swan booked "free" on Marriott points. Means hotel/resort time on our own before meeting friends in park.
OR
Join our friends at Bay Lake Tower/Contemporary so we can be at the resort with them/pool and travel to/from the parks. Obviously $$$$$$, but maybe we can do a one night DVC rental for slightly "less"
Friends vs. money......really stuck........
Another thought is they could add you onto the room reservation and you pay the $25 or $35 extra adult fee if they aren’t over the limit of people allowed. Or they could add you as a day guest. With both options I believe you’d be able to use all of the resort amenities. I’ve never done these myself but have read about them on here many times.
If those aren’t an option I would probably splurge on BLT for the one night if I could rent points. Since it’s the one night and not a week long vacation.