That sounds like basically a good plan to me too.
Being so young and in that environment, you gotta at least try for a freebie from a horny tourist chick. I'm still not sure where you're gonna do the deed with her IF you succeed and IF you're staying in a dorm room. The Nuevo Johnson may be just $2 more for a private room, but I've stayed at the NJ and I can tell you it may be fine for taking back a chica puta but it ain't gonna impress any gringa tourist that much. I think a better bet for you would be to shift over into a private double with shared bathroom for $32 at the same hostel (or do that for both nights). That may not be the best deal out there but it would be the simplest if you really have to have that hostel experience.
As for your question on how to get to Arenal, your most likely options are the public bus, tourist shuttle, Exploradores Pacuare Whitewater Rafting Trip or some Arenal Day Tour (private driver or even flying are some others but we'll ignore those). The public bus would clearly be the cheapest (<$10). You seem to have some trepidations about taking the bus but you will have had the benefit of having had a couple of days in the country under your belt PLUS you probably could find some people to travel with at your hostel. The shuttle comes next in price at $35. You'll probably find it a little more comfortable than the bus and it will certainly be less daunting since you'll be travelling with other tourists, they'll pick you up at directly at your hostel and deliver directly to your other one in Fortuna. But, like the bus route, it is just a straight trip taking 3 hours and leaving you with half a day in Fortuna to come up with some other activity.
I really recommend you consider taking one of the tours I recommended earlier to get you to Fortuna. You're probably going to spend some money on some activity in Fortuna on Saturday anyway. Why not combine the transit with an activity and see some other parts of the country other than just the SJ, Fortuna and Quepos areas. My first pick would be the Exploradores Rafting Trip, particularly if you were thinking of doing a raft trip at one of your locations anyway. If you were otherwise going to pay $35 for a shuttle to Fortuna anyway, then the effective cost of your raft trip drops from $99 to just $64, which for CR is a real bargain.
Unfortunately, the Grayline Arenal Tour I mentioned earlier is not an option since they don't run on Saturdays, but there are other similar Arenal Day Tours from SJ. For example, here is another one
http://www.costaricantrails.com/tours/san-jose/arenal-volcano-by-night2.html. Unlike the shuttle or the public bus, this tour makes more stops along the way TO Arenal at several interesting villages. Also, like the rafting trip, it includes several meals that you don't get with the more basic shuttle or public bus services. And even more significantly it includes admission to the hot springs which I KNOW you're already planning to do. Their rates are $89 if you go to the Baldi Hot Springs or $114 if you go to Tabacon. Those are a bit higher than it would cost to go to those springs on your own once you get to Fortuna, but don't forget you're also getting the transportation and an extra meal out of it. For example, a full day in Baldi with lunch and dinner costs $60 ($45 with just 1 meal). Add the $35 that you might have otherwise spent on the shuttle and you're already past the $89 that costaricantrails charges even before you factor in the value of the extra sightseeing along the way TO Fortuna. Similarly, you'd come out a little ahead with the Tabacon option as well. Tabacon charges $85 for its day pass with just dinner. Add the $35 you would have paid for the shuttle to get there and that totals out to $120 vs the $114 on the package tour price and that doesn't even factor in the free lunch as well as the extra stops. The only way this doesn't pay is if you were going to opt for taking the bus to Fortuna. In that case, you'd be better off doing everything a la carte.
BTW, regarding the Arenal Backpackers Hostel, I've heard both good things and bad things. One bad thing which I tend to believe is that they are reportedly pretty forceful at trying to sell you tours through them (at somewhat inflated prices) and if you balk the service/attitude you get while staying at their hostel can suffer a lot.
How to get to MA from Arenal? I have no bright ideas here. Going by public bus would most likely mean having to backtrack to SJ and switching buses there, which is just too much hassle for the cost savings involved. Your best option is to use the tourist shuttle for this. Grayline costs $35 but takes a lot longer than Shuttlebus.co.cr/Interbus. Both pickup in Fortuna at 8:30AM but Grayline puts their arrival time at Manuel Antonio as 3PM whereas Interbus says they arrive at 1PM. I'm not sure what accounts for the difference except maybe that Grayline goes by way of SJ, but for $2 more I think it is worth booking that leg of your trip through shuttlebus.co,cr. 1PM may still be too late for most organized tour activities but at the very least you'll have more beach time than if you didn't arrive (and get settled in) until after 3PM. BTW, weirdly enough, Grayline going in the other direction (MA>Arenal) takes only 4.5 hours if you take their afternoon shuttle. If you decide to schedule your trip in reverse order using a Arenal Day Tour to get back to SJ is really out but the rafting trip works well in both directions and IMHO would make for an excellent finale for your trip.
Which hostel to stay at in Quepos? Sorry, I can't really help you on that one. I know of a cheap tico hotel in town that is supposed to be pretty decent for the price but I don't know anything about any hostels. Overall, even more so than Fortuna, the MA area tends to have inflated hotel prices relative to other less popular parts of the country. In general, the places closest to the park tend to be the most expensive. The cheaper places tend to be closer to (or in) the town of Quepos.
How to get back to SJ from MA? If you haven't tried the buses by this point then maybe this is your last best chance as it is a fairly straightforward route. You probably don't want to arrive in the bus area of downtown SJ late at night but you plan to travel in the morning anyway, so no problem there. Even so, take the standard precautions with your valuables while on the bus and in the stations as tourists have been known to be targetted for various ripoffs and scams particularly along this route (e.g. don't fall for the old "I dropped my coins" distraction trick and others).
Lastly, where to sleep your last night. I forget when you said you were going but if it is anytime soon, you might find that the Sportsman's is already pretty booked up (except perhaps for the less desirable courtside rooms). If that is the case, the Castillo or perhaps the Amistad make for pretty good alternatives as they're both within easy walking distance of the Sportsman's.
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