Anyone care to give me some opinions on a TIME budget?!!

[onenursebrandy]

First I know its a stretch....I posted this exact post in the US/IOA forum and got ZERO response!! I haven't much experience with other parks, so I don't have much idea about the time it takes to tour non-Disney parks, and you guys are AMAZING with budgets in general, so I thought you might weigh in on how to manage my time.....

(I wasn't sure which forum this was appropriate for, so please tell me if there's another that I will get more/better feedback from.)

We have the Flex Pass Plus for our upcoming June trip. I am trying to figure out a touring plan (or some sort of idea) for our trip. We will have park days June 3-June 17.

We are a family of 4. DD19 and DS9 love Harry Potter. DS is over 55 inches and loves all thrill rides, as well as Kong, Super Heroes, Jurrassic Park, Transformers, and he's an animal lover....well we all are.

This will be our second trip to US and IOA (did 3 days in 2013, DS was too short for most of the big rides...but we LOVED both parks). We have never been to Sea World, Bush Gardens, or any major waterpark.

We will have 14 days of admission to any of the parks. (US, IOA, Sea World, Aquatica, Wet and Wild, and Bush Gardens).

There are major rides that might be opening in the middle of our trip at several of these parks....would that impact your touring plan?

How would you budget your time? How many days in each park?

 

[gottalovepluto]

SeaWorld was a one day park for us. As for what to focus on: MAKO! (IF it's open, only opening date currently "summer 2016") and Empire of the Penguin can get long. But if the coaster is up that's gonna be the #1 thing to hit there. https://seaworldparks.com/seaworld-orlando/attractions/rides/mako/?m=1
The thing that surprised me most was how much I enjoyed the shows there. Make time to see all you can!

The only other one on the list I've done is Universal. And I did it one day hitting the HP parks first and using express pass on the rest so I can't really help there. The Hulk was rebuilt from the ground up and is also set to open "Summer 2016". (Admittedly if it ends up like Diagon Ally it won't be until the back half of summer FYI.)

Sounds like a fun trip!

 

[onenursebrandy]

SeaWorld was a one day park for us. As for what to focus on: MAKO! (IF it's open, only opening date currently "summer 2016") and Empire of the Penguin can get long. But if the coaster is up that's gonna be the #1 thing to hit there. https://seaworldparks.com/seaworld-orlando/attractions/rides/mako/?m=1
The thing that surprised me most was how much I enjoyed the shows there. Make time to see all you can!

The only other one on the list I've done is Universal. And I did it one day hitting the HP parks first and using express pass on the rest so I can't really help there. The Hulk was rebuilt from the ground up and is also set to open "Summer 2016". (Admittedly if it ends up like Diagon Ally it won't be until the back half of summer FYI.)

Sounds like a fun trip!

Thanks...I'm hoping Mako is running, also hoping for the new Kong ride and Hulk to be back up at IOA. There's also Cobras Curse set to open at Bush Gardens. I'm wondering how much all the new rides are going to affect crowd levels!!! I know they will increase....but are we talking 7 to a 10 or 15!! LOL

 

[TwoMisfits]

First I know its a stretch....I posted this exact post in the US/IOA forum and got ZERO response!! I haven't much experience with other parks, so I don't have much idea about the time it takes to tour non-Disney parks, and you guys are AMAZING with budgets in general, so I thought you might weigh in on how to manage my time.....

(I wasn't sure which forum this was appropriate for, so please tell me if there's another that I will get more/better feedback from.)

We have the Flex Pass Plus for our upcoming June trip. I am trying to figure out a touring plan (or some sort of idea) for our trip. We will have park days June 3-June 17.

We are a family of 4. DD19 and DS9 love Harry Potter. DS is over 55 inches and loves all thrill rides, as well as Kong, Super Heroes, Jurrassic Park, Transformers, and he's an animal lover....well we all are.

This will be our second trip to US and IOA (did 3 days in 2013, DS was too short for most of the big rides...but we LOVED both parks). We have never been to Sea World, Bush Gardens, or any major waterpark.

We will have 14 days of admission to any of the parks. (US, IOA, Sea World, Aquatica, Wet and Wild, and Bush Gardens).

There are major rides that might be opening in the middle of our trip at several of these parks....would that impact your touring plan?

How would you budget your time? How many days in each park?

I would spend 4 in Universal/IOA taking your time, enjoying some Citywalk, not rushing...this is usually the length we go.
I would spend 1 day in Wet and Wild, just to enjoy it before it's gone.
Since you're animal lovers, I would spend 2 days in Sea World, splitting the shows in 1/2 and enjoying the rides and animals each day (this way, you aren't rushing from show to show).
I would spend 1 day in Aquatica...and 2 if you love it like we do. It's a great water park.
I would spend 2 days in Busch Gardens (maybe only 1 if the drive starts to get to you).

That's 10-11 days planned of "parks". I might look to revisit any of the above for 1-2 of your extra days and then spend 2-3 days enjoying other fun in Orlando/relaxing (I know I couldn't go-go-go for all 14) - maybe taking in a dinner show, a movie, a museum (like Titanic or Ripley's or Wonderworks), mini golf, normal swimming, etc.

 

[katie111]

I would check crowd calendars for the parks to see how the crowds are going to be. The lower the crowds, the less time you'll need for each park. Also, where are you staying? You may want to consider one overnight at US so you get the early entrance for HP. That can make a huge difference. Go to HP at whichever park is open early and then take the train to the other park as soon as that park opens.

Other than that, I wouldn't plan too much. I would go to each park once and then decide which ones you want to revisit & for how many days. I love visiting the non-Disney parks because they don't really require much planning. It's so relaxing. And with that much time you could leave the parks for meals and save a ton on money. I think the waterparks, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens are more "local parks" so I would try to avoid those on weekends as much as possible. We went to Aquatica on a Saturday in June & almost all the slides had a 1.5 hour plus wait time. Have a great trip, 14 days sound awesome!

 

[onenursebrandy]

I would check crowd calendars for the parks to see how the crowds are going to be. The lower the crowds, the less time you'll need for each park. Also, where are you staying? You may want to consider one overnight at US so you get the early entrance for HP. That can make a huge difference. Go to HP at whichever park is open early and then take the train to the other park as soon as that park opens.

Other than that, I wouldn't plan too much. I would go to each park once and then decide which ones you want to revisit & for how many days. I love visiting the non-Disney parks because they don't really require much planning. It's so relaxing. And with that much time you could leave the parks for meals and save a ton on money. I think the waterparks, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens are more "local parks" so I would try to avoid those on weekends as much as possible. We went to Aquatica on a Saturday in June & almost all the slides had a 1.5 hour plus wait time. Have a great trip, 14 days sound awesome!

Thanks! We're staying at Turkey Lake (in our Travel Trailer...not Cabins)! I plan on avoiding weekends in the "smaller" parks, and maybe visiting UA/IOA early on weekends....and take the rest of the day off. We have 10 days at Fort Wilderness prior to moving to Turkey Lake, but I scheduled weekends off. I'm hoping planning for 1/2 days off will actually feel like down time. If not, we may just end up not using all of our ticket days.
Appreciate your feedback, planning is exhausting!!!

 

[LuvOrlando]

First I know its a stretch....I posted this exact post in the US/IOA forum and got ZERO response!! I haven't much experience with other parks, so I don't have much idea about the time it takes to tour non-Disney parks, and you guys are AMAZING with budgets in general, so I thought you might weigh in on how to manage my time.....

(I wasn't sure which forum this was appropriate for, so please tell me if there's another that I will get more/better feedback from.)

We have the Flex Pass Plus for our upcoming June trip. I am trying to figure out a touring plan (or some sort of idea) for our trip. We will have park days June 3-June 17.

We are a family of 4. DD19 and DS9 love Harry Potter. DS is over 55 inches and loves all thrill rides, as well as Kong, Super Heroes, Jurrassic Park, Transformers, and he's an animal lover....well we all are.

This will be our second trip to US and IOA (did 3 days in 2013, DS was too short for most of the big rides...but we LOVED both parks). We have never been to Sea World, Bush Gardens, or any major waterpark.

We will have 14 days of admission to any of the parks. (US, IOA, Sea World, Aquatica, Wet and Wild, and Bush Gardens).

There are major rides that might be opening in the middle of our trip at several of these parks....would that impact your touring plan?

How would you budget your time? How many days in each park?

All my trips are WDW sandwiches lol. I usually make travel days wander days where we enjoy time at Downtown disney or touring hotels or outlets. I need to get WDW Magic Kingdom out of the way first or I enjoy nothing else then I move towards the other parks then back to WDW. You might want to consider giving your family down days so they don't start running out of steam.

Travel Day 1- Magical express into a WDW resort then downtown Disney springs
Day 2-magic kingdom
Day 3- Epcot
Day 4-make way to universal resort for their room key fast pass program that is priceless do Universal
Day 5- IOA
Day 6- rest for a pool day
dAy 7 -Aquatica- I probably stay at a hotel near these places and see if any of them have improved ride access
Day 8- Sea World
Day 9- Busch Gardens
Day 10-Wet and wild
Day 11- rest for a pool day
Day 12-back to WDW resort for Disney studios
Day 13- animal kingdom
Day 14- Magic kingdom again
Day 15-pool day and return home with magical express

Have fun!

 

[Darcy03231]

We had this pass a couple of years ago and had a blast! We all thought it was one of the best trips we've ever done.

We did:

2 days at Busch Gardens
2.5 days at SeaWorld
1 day at Wet n' Wild (Aquatica wasn't open then)
7 days between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

We rented a private pool home and on some days we just did half days, either got up early and went in the morning and then hung out at the pool into the afternoon/evening, or slept in and went to the parks late afternoon and stayed until close. We also took a day and did some shopping and mini-golf. One evening we went to DTD and another we did the Pirates and Princesses party at MK.

Last summer we were in Orlando for 10 days (August) and just did US/IOA and SeaWorld. We did:

2 days at SeaWorld (not full days)
3 days at Universal (not full days)
3 days at IOA (not full days)

We didn't have express pass and we had plenty of time to see/do everything (and some things more than once). We found crowds weren't bad at park opening until about 11 am. Also, early evening was a good time. We didn't wait in line for more than 20 min. for anything (other than Minions which consistently had an hour plus line unless you hit it first thing in the morning).

 

[HM]

I think I'd do 2 days SeaWorld, 3-4 days US/IOA, 1 day at Aquatica and the rest of the trip at Disney.
I wouldn't be interested in the drive to Busch Gardens and we have a Wet and Wild near home, so no need to do that park. But you may want to add a day for each of those.