Advice please on my Itinerary!

[1sttimer]

Hi all,

we are goiong on 10th April, have used guide books and tips on here. being newbies can anyone give any comments on the rough Itinerary we have planned!


Monday 11th Welcome meeting/shopping
Tuesday 12th Animal Kingdom
Wednesday 13th Blizzard Beach
Thursday 14th Epcot
Friday 15th FREE DAY
Saturday 16th Daytona Beach
Sunday 17th MGM Studios
Monday 18th Island of Adventure
Tuesday 19th Typhoon Lagoon
Wednesday 20th Magic Kingdom
Thursday 21st Shopping Evening Old Town
Friday 22nd Universal Studios
Saturday 23rd Choice of water park
Sunday 24th PLAY BY EAR GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks

Miccy

 

[RICH]

It looks like you have a good idea what parks you want to do and you've split your days up well.
The only thing i would suggest is , sack the welcome meeting ,it's only a sales pitch and a waste of a morning ,unless you have to pick up tickets or are interested in what they have to say.
Have a great time.

 

[Dimplenose]

If it were my family we'd be up early and itching to get to a theme park on the Monday. If you have an early welcome meeting you could still be in a park long before 10am.

Have fun, Libby

 

[tartangirl]

Hi,

Are you staying in a Disney hotel? The days you have picked are likely to be busy days due to the extra magic hours (have you seen http://www.touringplans.com/BestDays.htm ). If you are in a Disney hotel then, when the extra hours are in the evening, it may be worth heading to a quieter park then hopping across later on. If you are not in a Disney hotel then I would avoid the busy parks.

I would agree with previous comments - skip the welcome meeting.

 

[maleficent_man]

Another for the bin the welcome meeting suggestion!

 

[ely3857]

Hello,

Looks like you have planned your time well but I agree with everyone else on this....SCRAP THE MEETING!



Ely3857

 

[Miffy2003]

Looking good

I won't say "forget the meeting" as everyone else has beaten me to it

 

[eileds]

Seems that you like your water parks! Are you sure you only want ONE day in Magic Kingdom?

 

[DebIreland]

Hiya,
Something that struck me when I read your itinerary is that you'll be in Orlando NINE DAYS before you get to visit Magic Kingdom! I'm a newbie too so it's all guesswork for me but don't you want to see the original and possibly the funnest park first?!!! The castle and Main Street etc. etc. Especially if you are travelling with a child. I would definitely schedule that in first before anything else. Perhaps put Animal Kingdom further down the list. Oh also I have learnt (from my extensive research that you do not need a day to do Animal Kingdom - apparently 5/6 hours or so is plenty (veteran WDW visitors would know a lot more about this than me) - so anyway, maybe you could fit another theme park or activity in on the day you do AK. Just a thought. Have a wonderful holiday.

 

[AndRu]

Swap Epcot and Animal Kingdom so the parks get better.
Three water park days? TL and BB? TL is the better of the two IMHO.
No Sea World / Universal Studios / Kennedy Space Centre?

Daytona's OK but it's a long drive...

 

[kevin harrison]

Hi all,
Monday 11th Welcome meeting/shopping
Tuesday 12th Animal Kingdom
Wednesday 13th Blizzard Beach
Thursday 14th Epcot
Friday 15th FREE DAY
Saturday 16th Daytona Beach
Sunday 17th MGM Studios
Monday 18th Island of Adventure
Tuesday 19th Typhoon Lagoon
Wednesday 20th Magic Kingdom
Thursday 21st Shopping Evening Old Town
Friday 22nd Universal Studios
Saturday 23rd Choice of water park
Sunday 24th PLAY BY EAR GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks

Miccy

Thoughts.... Also don't know if you are hiring a car, which can help you do more in a day...

First thing, it's been said, I'll repeat... DITCH THE WELCOME MEETING - COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

Magic Kingdom needs more than 1 day to be fully appreciated...Also I'd it as early as possible, so if you want to go back you can do. Leaving it till day 9 doesn't give you much time to visit again....I'd go there straight away and drop the welcome meeting or visit a water park on the first day - an easy way to get used to the climate in a relaxed manner

In my opinion you can do Animal Kingdom in half a day - depends if you like it really - we are missing it completely this time - taking in the far superior Busch gardens again. You could easily do Animal kingdom and a water park in one day.

This may sound silly but I've always found Animal Kingdom, for some reason unbearably hot, I think it's something to do with the vegetation causing extra humidity - you may find Animal Kingdom more bearable after you have been in Florida a few days and aclimatised a bit more.

Shopping - we always do this on a couple of evenings or on a rest day, personally I wouldn't waste a valuable day shopping, when you could easily do it after visiting a water park. It's not like England, the shops stay open late so it's not a case of doing it by 5pm.

We never visit parks on a weekend, as all the locals are there also and does get a lot busier.

Are you missing Seaworld and Busch Gardens?

Not trying to pick holes, just help a little, doubtless other people have other ideas. Hope this helps.

 

[eileds]

hadn't noticed you'd missed off Seaworld.

Do NOT miss Seaworld - we went twice on our last visit, althought not two full days. My kids were 6,5 & 2 and they loved it!

 

[vernon]

I'll agree on a few of the comments
1) miss the welcome meet, you'll get more advice on these boards on what's available to you and it won't be aimed at selling you stuff.
2) I think you'll need more than one full day at MK. An option that would both give you more time and move a trip to MK earlier in the schedule would be to make use of hopper tickets ( if that's what you're buying) and leave AK about 4.00 (IMHO most people can cover pretty much all of AK by 4 if you start early) and head for MK for 3 or 4 hours, stroll along Main St to the castle and take in a couple of the rides that have short queue times. It does make it a long day, but you have a relatively relaxing day booked ( BB) next so I think it's a workable plan. Depending on the ages of your kids (younger ones find Epcot of limited interest), another (IMHO better way) to work it would be to split AK and Epcot on day 2 ( IMHO the fireworks show at Epcot is the best thing in the park) have MK a full day on day 4 and then day 10 either have a (second) full day in the MK or split that day half in MK and half in which ever park you most wanted to revisit.
3) try to slip SeaWorld in somewhere. With the 2nd day free it's an economic park to visit and it's easy to split a day with half at SW and half shopping.

Last thought ( and I think it's all my own LOL )
If you HAVE to go to Daytona , there are some fun things there if you're big into motor racing, I would probably not schedule it for a Weekend as that is likely to be the busiest time for locals. I'm not much into beaches, so maybe I'm not the best person to listen to on beach trips, but it's a fairly long drive ( I'd guess 2 hours there and 2 hours back). Of all your plans this day would be the one I would sacrifice if I was feeling tired or if there was something extra the family decided they wanted to include. You don't mention where you are staying, but a day round the pool, or just getting up late and having a "lazy day" would probably be a much more relaxing day.

 

[paulh]

the best welcome meeting you will get is if you get to MK before it oppens we had a cindys brekkie and micky and minnie oppened up and we went on dumbo with them better than any hard sell from reps
Paulh

 

[paulh]

we have also got to MGM befor it oppened during the star wars weekends and they have stormtroupers on top of gate and they do a little show
Paulh
as you can see we get up early

 

[florry]

I agree with all that's been said. Especially about ditching the meeting - they will put pressure on you to sign up for shows and day-trips....you won't have time for these on your first trip to Orlando!
Magic Kingdom is always a "first" for me - you don't have to spend a full day in the parks and if you have hopper tickets - then do just that - hop in to Magic Kingdom for 4 hours - hop out for lunch - hop in to MGM for Fantasmic in the evening.
Also - IMHO - the Daytona trip - is it just for the beach?
On our frist trip I really thought that I would miss not being by the sea - but after a visit to Typhoon Lagoon I felt like we had been anyway.
Whatever you decide - there is one thing for certain...... you won't be able to "do it all" in one trip - so be prepared - this will probably be just the first of many!

Have a great holiday.

 

[1sttimer]

From all your posts and they are ALL useful going to have a play around with the Itinerary. Going with Mum, dad and 6yr old son staying in Virgin Villa which is at end of US192 so about 25 minutes from Disney, 50 mins from Orlando. Dad is heavily into Motorbikes but after I explained that from the tips on here there is probably not hoards about for him to drool over at Daytonna beach, going to stick just with the bike show on the Thursday in Old Town. Have already purchased tickets 14 day hopper for disney and 3 day 2 park orlando ticket. These where all booked over ayear ago. How I wish i had found this site first. Think I ended up with some of my days falling on the EMH as "the unofficial guide said these are the days with the lightest crowds. Armed now with all your tips I'm going to have another go.
Have also purchased Simon Veness planner, so I'm sure I'll be on plan z by the time we go. I just want to try and fit as much in without burning out, however DM thinks I planning a military operation!!!!

Thanks again to all...

 

[heatherbelle]

I agree with the others about missing that boring meeting. What a waste

On our first trip, we arrived mid afternoon, we headed straight for downtown Disney and I had dinner with Mickey Mouse, it was magic. I'm not sure if that restuarant is still there though! Highlight of my holiday.

What about visiting MK on an evening as well, depending on the type of ticket you have.

Some friends of mine who go every year, they go to AK during the day, pop out at tea time and then go back to MK for the fireworks and rides etc.

Whatever you decide, you'll have a lovely time. Just remember to pace yourself and you can't go wrong.

 

[Verity Chambers]

Just a thougt, try Old Town on Fri or sat evening as they have a classic car show at 9.30pm, it's worth a look. Will try to check if it's fri or sat for you. verity.xxx

 

[Verity Chambers]

seems to be fri and sat night. have a look on virtualtourist.com

v.xxx