how much should we do on first trip?

[henrydog]

Having purchased 10 day disney passes for myself, dw, ds 14 and dd 10 for first trip at end of
May, do you think we would be attempting too much by also getting universal tickets or
possibly Orlando flex tickets as well?
We are all fit and don't mind plenty of walking, and have a car for the 2 weeks. Want to fit in as much as possible as not sure when/if we would go again?
Thankyou all for your help

 

[Angeluk]

Hi & Welcome
On our first trip we had length of stay passes for WDW and bought a 2 day ticket for USF/IOA, and a day pass for Sea World. This gave us plenty of days popping in and out of Disney parks, a couple of days at Blizzard Beach, 2 days at Universal and a day at SW. We also managed to fit in a day at Kennedy, spending a couple of hours at Cocoa Beach in the afternoon! Oh, and plenty of shopping time of course! Phew!

Of course we viewed it as a 'once in a lifetime' holiday!.....just been back for our 5th trip, so thats a laugh!

There are some better deals to be had on tickets these days though, as people will tell you, so best idea is to make a plan and then see what you need.

Hope you have a wonderful time

 

[S'mE]

Hello,

We're all for the do as much as you can approach!!

Big fans of Universal & IOA, SW, Busch etc.........

If you're fit, driving and willing then go for broke. By the end of the fortnight you'll already be planning your return.

My two kids were 16 & 14 last time we went in 2000 and my 14yr old son couldn't get enough of IOA and MIB in Universal.
If you're into rollercoasters, Kraken at Sea World is the best metal coaster and Gwazi at Busch is the best wooden coaster!

We've bought the 10 day world pass for this Summer, and also the 5 park flexi, our fifth trip looks to be as hectic as the rest!!

We're planning on the sort of .....
Morning Animal Kingdom
Lunch Typhoon Lagoon
Afternoon Sea World
Evening IOA
Night Universal sort of trip.................laid back and chillin'...........yeah, RIGHT!

 

[henrydog]

Thanks for the repies

I've just been reminded about shopping time as well although i'm not really into that.

We are all big coaster fans so I think IoA & Busch are musts. Looks like 5 day
flex is best value, I was just worried about fitting it all in.

Oh well, just have to have a sick day when we return to get over it.

 

[S'mE]

If you say you're into coasters then IOA and Busch are for not to be missed !!
As I've said, I think Kraken at Sea World is the best around, but the other parks have "crackers"!! Also, with your children the ages they are your son at least will have seen the films of most of the "big rides" at Universal. ET, Back to the Future, MIB, Jaws, Earthquake, King Kong, Twister, Terminator..............awesome!!

 

[WDWfan uk]

..... since you are staying in Orlando for your whole trip, I think you should manage it fine - but... if you all feel tired, have a 'down' day - relax by the pool, those that want to can shop in the afternoon and perhaps visit Downtown Disney in the evening. No matter how good the parks, if you've 'hit the wall' you aren't going to appreciate them - don't feel guilty about taking a rest.

 

[anne1]

Hi

We went for our first trip in January- me,DH, DD's 9 & 11.

We did 7 days at Disney, interspersed with our rest days which were shopping, pool and just not rushing around as much. I don't enjoy shopping here, but over there WOW.

It was going to be a "once in a lifetime holiday", but when there got the bug, and decided to save US/IOA etc for the next one!

Anne

 

[vernon]

I would say that a day at IOA and one at Universal for certain. It then leaves you free to make the choice on SW and or Busch Gardens depending on who you feel and what time you have left. Don't forget you may need an excuse to go back again LOL

 

[Hilary]

Another point to bear in mind is that you don't have to use all 10 days of your Disney pass to get value from it.

If you've got the 10 passes I'm thinking about (around £199?), they don't cost much more than Disney's five day hoppers, and also include the water parks, Disney Quest and a breakfast, so even if you 'lose' a couple of Disney days by shopping or just resting, you won't have 'lost out' finacially

On the other hand, it's a long way to go to sit around a pool........

 

[jue]

Hello

On our trip to Disney in 1999 we tried to do as much as possible.It was great.If you are all fit do as much as you can.Just have a quieter park inbetween the more hectic days.e.g. Do Epcot and then follow this by Animal Kingdom on the next day. I'm not sure I would buy a flexi pass for universal though as well as your 10 day disney ticket. What about a 2 or 3 day escape pass? I would just buy a single day then for sea world/busch/or perhaps Kennedy Space centre.

Hope this Helps

The quieter parks we found were:
Animal Kingdom
sea world
and the water parks

 

[henrydog]

Hilary

Yes we did get the £199 offer, we were originally going to get 5 day hoppers for about
the same money so your right we wouldn't worry about not using every day up.
Another question regarding the tickets - if for instance we went in MK in morning,
TL for an hour and then Epcot in the evening this would use one day of the ticket,
but how do they know not to take another day off for the evening park? I read somewhere
about getting your hand stamped as you leave the first park but is this all the proof you
have that you have already entered, and does it not get washed off at a water park?
Thanks for your help.

 

[I Love Tigger]

Hi Henrydog

We had the 10 day pass last June and never had a problem going back into the parks in the evenings, even after we had been swimming

Also like you, we said in April 99 it was going to be "a holiday of a life time" and we are now planning our fourth trip this April!!!!

Nikki

 

[BONZO]

Ooooohh! - Sharp intake of breath!- tough call.

You've had tons of good advice here already so I wont witter on too much.

The main advice is that go in the knowledge that you just CAN'T do it all, so you'll have to "Cherry Pick" some of the best bits - that's the trickiest thing.

"Trip of a lifetime?" - maybe....maybe not.....most of us have gone with that opinion, but even if you can't get there year on year (we've never managed it with the the kids), keep the plan in your heart and you'll make it.


Fire away with any other questions.

 

[UKDEB]

henrydog, firstly don't worry about the hand-stamp washing off in the pool - it won't.

My advice is to make the most of the flexibility of having the 10 day passes - if they have cost you the same as the 5 day ones, then think of it as having 5 days for free and don't feel that you've got to get 16 Disney hours out of each of the 10 days to have got your money's worth. I know this has been said before, but I think it's worth repeating because I know it's an easy thing to do.

In other words, because you have got the 10 days, you probably won't need to spend <i>whole</i> days at Disney. You could have some days where you arrive at a park at the opening time, spend 5 hours there, then go back to your hotel for a swim, or go shopping and then go back to a park during the evening. Or get up later, go shopping or to a water park, back to the hotel and then a park during the evening. Obviously there are hundreds of possible combinations. The thing is that you make a broad itinerary, but you can't (and wouldn't want to) plan for every eventuality. You don't know what you will feel like on any given day, and we often deviate from the plan. I know from experience that spending all day and all evening in a park doesn't work for me - but I didn't know that on our first trip.

<b>Definitely</b> do Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. IMHO, Universal Florida with the two parks and CityWalk is every bit as good as Disney. Sea World is a nice change from the theme parks and worth a visit if you can fit it in, although I would be tempted to wait and see and buy a ticket at the gate if you decide to go for it. Busch Gardens is a great park, but there is <b>so</b> much else to see and do in Orlando that I think an 1.5 drive (each way) to do it is overkill for a first trip. I never tire of the WDW and US parks - there are still things I haven't seen in 6 trips - and I would recommend you spend days revisiting (especially as you have the 10 day passes) rather than try to fit in BG. JMHO. Again I would suggest reserving judgement until you are there.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to make sure you take time to take it all in. On our first trip we blitzed from ride to ride, ticking off the attractions as we went. You miss so much if you do it this way - the theming of the parks is incredible and is what sets them apart from anywhere else you will have ever been. Soak it all up, live every minute, otherwise you will get home and it will all be a blur - a happy blur, but a blur nonetheless!

 

[Muppet]

Me and DH go in and out of themeparks like yo-yos. Take each day as it comes see how you feel and go for it.. Malls are open till 9pm most nights. Do what you can each day and if you missed something oor wanna do it again pop back in.

Make sure you really enjoy it though as there is nothing quite like the first time.

Oh and you'll probably sleep well the whole way back on the plane.

One more thing your kids are good ages too not too young or yes you would have to take a slower pace.

Enjoy.

 

[BevS97]

we had the flex tickets and an UMP for disney last year, and actually felt that having all those days meant that we could relax a little more - we didn't have to worry about having a full day in the parks so that we didn't waste the ticket - so although we went to a park nearly every day (actually I think everyday), quite often we just did half a day either sleeping in and arriving late and staying for the night time activities, or arriving nice and early and leaving the park by 3 to chill out in the afternoon/evening.

The only thing we did which I wouldn;t recommend was to try and fit in shopping after the parks - we went to Florida Mall one evening arriving around 5pm and we were so shattered that we didn't buy much, had a big row, and ended up coming home v. grumpy - This year shopping will be fitted into the schedule as if it were a park - so instead of IOA one day my plan says SHOPPING!

Also - if you price the 5 park flex tickets, you don't need to be planning on very many days at those parks before they are cost effective -we only planned on 1 day at IOA, UNIVERSAL and Seaworld and it was cheaper to buy the 14 day flex than those 3 tickets individually - then since we had the flex ticket, we ended up doing and extra day at Seaworld because we had that flexibility.

Bev

 

[henrydog]

Thankyou all for the great info, I think this site is better than any book you can buy.

Regarding whether to stay in one park all day or to park hop, do you find it takes up a lot of your time travelling between parks and is it better to drive between disney parks or use their transportation system?
I believe one parking ticket covers all disney parks for the day and the same for universal parks is this true?
And also are there any tolls you have to go through between I-drive and disney or between any of the parks and if so how much.
Thanks again for all your help

 

[BevS97]

there are some toll roads in the area, but if you use I-4 you shouldn't need to pay any.

You just pay to park once per day at either Disney, or one of the flex ticket parks and it covers you for the entire day. if you went from Disney to Universal you would need to pay twice.

If you are driving then it's not too hard to change parks (we didn't use the transportation much, so I can' t really comment). It probably does 'waste' some time, but I think you need to take some time out and relax a little or you will end up exhausted at the end of the first day.

If you are on-site then you can use the transportation system, but if you are staying off-site then you will be better off taking your car, or at the end of the day you may find yourself at Animal Kingdom and your car would be at MK - last thing you want to do is drag yourself back across the resort to find your car.

Bev

 

[Hilary]

We prefer to split our days between parks, as we feel we get more from each park, even though we do lose a bit of time travelling between them.

Walking into the second (or even third or fourth!) park of the day helps us to feel we're seeing everything with fresh eyes, rather than getting 'parked out' in one place all day.

We use the Disney transport system and find it really good, but I know others prefer the independence of their own car. A trip on the monorail is an event in itself, so make sure you do that at least once!

 

[Janet & Terry]

Been following this thread with great interest as we're off in less than 2 weeks (whoo hoo!).

Have bought 7 day park hopper plus (for price of 5 day), 7 day Universal/IoA passes (for price of 2 day), SeaWorld pass is covered within our Discovery Cove booking. I've been worrying myself re whether we've overdone the passes as we only have 9 full days in Orlando, the rest of the holiday being on Gulf Coast. But we've decided now that we've got flexibility to move around between parks as the fancy takes us.

HenryDog has raised the ? that I'd been about to ask re moving from park to park when you have a car. (I didn't know that car parking ticket could be transferred from park to park - so thanks for that insight) Can I ask ... how much time is taken up getting in and out of these parks back to your car when park hopping (we're staying off-site)

Janet