Apr/May 2026 First Time w/ Friends PTR

[clappyclaps]

Hey all,

I've written a few trip reports of varying lengths, but never written a pre-trip report until now - I'm that excited for my upcoming WDW trip that I just had to write one!

About Me
My name is Sarah and I'm 38 from Greater Manchester in the UK. I've been to WDW a number of times since I was 10 years old, and have also managed to tick off Paris, California, Hong Kong and Shanghai in recent years. I love rides, I love films and like many my life growing up seemed to revolve around Disney films. I go to Disney mostly for the rides, but also for the general theming and atmosphere. Oh and the food and drink too as I'm a bit of a foodie. This is a photo of me at SDL in November last year:



My last trip to WDW was in Oct 2024 with family, and sadly it wasn't quite as enjoyable as I would've liked (you can read more about that here), I vowed to go back after I'd done my solo trips to LA, HK and Shanghai (trip reports in the link), and my initial plan had been to go solo again, until I was invited to go with some friends who had already booked their trip.

My Party
I'm not going to reveal their full names or photos until I get their permission, but I'm travelling with 3 female friends and work colleagues: C, J and M. All 3 are in their 50s, and have all been to Orlando more than once, but not for years. I've known and worked with M for 17 years, and she is married to J. I've known C for around 12 years and she was at some point one of my staff members (but not any more). J & M had already booked their trip, and invited me to come with them when they heard I was planning a return trip. C had been wanting to go back to WDW for years and couldn't resist joining us when I asked!

Our Travel & Stay
We are doing a split stay this time, spending 1 week at Universal first and then 1 week at WDW.

We fly on Thursday 30th April direct from Manchester, UK to MCO with Virgin Atlantic. We're spending our first week from 30th April to 7th May at Universal's Endless Summer Resort - Surfside, and then our second week from 7th to 14th May at WDW in Pop Century. We fly home the evening of 14th May, arriving back in the UK the morning of Friday 15th.

Dining Plans
Our dining plans are a little varied across our group and it's likely a lot of our mealtimes especially at WDW will be spent apart. While I love food, I can't eat massive meals and prefer instead to spend the entire day snacking on smaller things. I already have a massive list of food and drinks I want to try across the two weeks! J & M have a quick service dining plan and have a number of restaurants booked for meals including Boma and Ohana. However the only things C and I have planned are:

The Garden View Lounge - Afternoon Tea experience
Beak & Barrel (for drinks with maybe a snack)
GEO-82 (again for drinks & maybe a snack)

The rest of my meals will likely be from the Flower & Garden festival, which I'm so looking forward to!

Current Itinerary/Plans
At this moment in time, we don't have a fixed set in stone itinerary. J is very organised so has pulled off a rough schedule based on crowd calendars and our dining plans above, but we're not wedded to it.

I will add to this over the coming weeks as our trip draws near, but for now I'm just super excited about getting to go back and go with people who should love it as much as I do. I love Universal as much as WDW too so really looking forward to seeing Epic! The only potential pitfall with this trip is that I'm a little regimented and ocd about some things, so my friends may want to murder me after a few days...

 

[disneyseniors]

Hey all,

I've written a few trip reports of varying lengths, but never written a pre-trip report until now - I'm that excited for my upcoming WDW trip that I just had to write one!

About Me
My name is Sarah and I'm 38 from Greater Manchester in the UK. I've been to WDW a number of times since I was 10 years old, and have also managed to tick off Paris, California, Hong Kong and Shanghai in recent years. I love rides, I love films and like many my life growing up seemed to revolve around Disney films. I go to Disney mostly for the rides, but also for the general theming and atmosphere. Oh and the food and drink too as I'm a bit of a foodie. This is a photo of me at SDL in November last year:

View attachment 1061703

My last trip to WDW was in Oct 2024 with family, and sadly it wasn't quite as enjoyable as I would've liked (you can read more about that here), I vowed to go back after I'd done my solo trips to LA, HK and Shanghai (trip reports in the link), and my initial plan had been to go solo again, until I was invited to go with some friends who had already booked their trip.

My Party
I'm not going to reveal their full names or photos until I get their permission, but I'm travelling with 3 female friends and work colleagues: C, J and M. All 3 are in their 50s, and have all been to Orlando more than once, but not for years. I've known and worked with M for 17 years, and she is married to J. I've known C for around 12 years and she was at some point one of my staff members (but not any more). J & M had already booked their trip, and invited me to come with them when they heard I was planning a return trip. C had been wanting to go back to WDW for years and couldn't resist joining us when I asked!

Our Travel & Stay
We are doing a split stay this time, spending 1 week at Universal first and then 1 week at WDW.

We fly on Thursday 30th April direct from Manchester, UK to MCO with Virgin Atlantic. We're spending our first week from 30th April to 7th May at Universal's Endless Summer Resort - Surfside, and then our second week from 7th to 14th May at WDW in Pop Century. We fly home the evening of 14th May, arriving back in the UK the morning of Friday 15th.

Dining Plans
Our dining plans are a little varied across our group and it's likely a lot of our mealtimes especially at WDW will be spent apart. While I love food, I can't eat massive meals and prefer instead to spend the entire day snacking on smaller things. I already have a massive list of food and drinks I want to try across the two weeks! J & M have a quick service dining plan and have a number of restaurants booked for meals including Boma and Ohana. However the only things C and I have planned are:

The Garden View Lounge - Afternoon Tea experience
Beak & Barrel (for drinks with maybe a snack)
GEO-82 (again for drinks & maybe a snack)

The rest of my meals will likely be from the Flower & Garden festival, which I'm so looking forward to!

Current Itinerary/Plans
At this moment in time, we don't have a fixed set in stone itinerary. J is very organised so has pulled off a rough schedule based on crowd calendars and our dining plans above, but we're not wedded to it.

I will add to this over the coming weeks as our trip draws near, but for now I'm just super excited about getting to go back and go with people who should love it as much as I do. I love Universal as much as WDW too so really looking forward to seeing Epic! The only potential pitfall with this trip is that I'm a little regimented and ocd about some things, so my friends may want to murder me after a few days...

We will be at Universal in May, too. However, you leave for WDW when we get there! It will be great to finally get back to Universal. We love it! Your trip sounds like a lot of fun. It seems that you will get to do your own thing while there , doing what you want to do. That sounds great to me. However, it is difficult for me to go my own way when I'm with others. It sounds like you have it figured out though, especially dining where You want to Can't wait for your TR.

 

[DLo]

We will overlap a little at WDW - May 11-16 at WDW. I also have the tea experience and GEO 82. Right now probably skipping beak and barrel but may change my mind once I am there but thinking wailulu will win out .

 

[clappyclaps]

We will overlap a little at WDW - May 11-16 at WDW. I also have the tea experience and GEO 82. Right now probably skipping beak and barrel but may change my mind once I am there but thinking wailulu will win out .

Looking forward to hearing what you think about the afternoon tea and GEO-82 and if we have similar experiences

 

[clappyclaps]

So it is now 20 days until we go! I've had a busy stressful few weeks at work and now these are over, I'm glad I can finally countdown properly. And I've only got 11 working days left til I finish

I'm also super glad Big Thunder is going to have reopened by the time we go. I'd have been devastated if we missed it. Can't wait to see what they've done to it.

On another note, I'm debating whether to get a 3 day photo pass for Universal. In all the years I've been to Universal I've never once had ride photos from any park and I'd really like to, and as I'm now an adult with my own cash to burn, I would really like to get some ride photos with my friends too.

 

[clappyclaps]

Evening all,

It is now only 11 days to our trip! and only 7 working days left too.

We were meant to have a planning meet up today to discuss any final plans, but unfortunately one of my friends was ill (full of a cold), so didn't want to pass anything on to the rest of us so close to our hols.

In other news, I purchased the Universal photo pass for 3 days and I'm really looking forward to getting ride photos from there for the first time! I also did my last bits of shopping for the trip too to pick up some last minute essentials. This next week can't go quick enough...

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Did you and your friends think about doing your planning meeting online, so you don't catch the cold?

 

[clappyclaps]

Did you and your friends think about doing your planning meeting online, so you don't catch the cold?

That's not a bad idea, although one of my friends prefers seeing people in person and usually uses that as an excuse for us all to go out for food. Which I never complain about!

I don't think we've got that much to catch up on but we'll probably end up having a quick online catch up next week before we go

 

[clappyclaps]

Evening all,

It is now only 1 week until our trip - this time next week we will be on our approach into Orlando!

I realised I hadn't posted our proposed itinerary for our trip, so here it goes - as I said originally it isn't set in stone and doesn't include any park hopping, shopping side trips or water parks - these will be subject to how we feel on the day. The itinerary has been planned around crowd calendars, existing restaurant bookings and just generally trying to get an decent spread across the parks that we want:

• Thurs 30th April - land MCO 13:45, check in at Universal Surfside then head to Islands of Adventure
• Fri 1st May - Islands or Epic
• Sat 2nd May - Epic
• Sun 3rd May - Studios
• Mon 4th May - Epic
• Tues 5th May - Studios
• Weds 6th May - Islands
• Thurs 7th May - HS and Epcot (J&M have an evening booking at Cape May)
• Fri 8th May - MK (C and myself have a lunch booking at Beak and Barrel)
• Sat 9th May - HS plus AK for J&M as they have an evening booking at Boma, Epcot for C and myself as we have an evening booking at GEO-82
• Sun 10th May - currently unsure but J&M have an evening booking at Ohana
• Mon 11th May - HS
• Tues 12th May - currently unsure but J&M have a lunch booking at Hollywood & Vine
• Weds 13th May - Epcot and/or MK (c and myself have the Garden View afternoon tea at lunch
• Thurs 14th May - AK and then fly home at 20:30 - arrive back in the UK 9:40am

These are the parks we intend on starting at each day, but its probably unlikely we won't end the day somewhere else!

 

[PollyannaMom]

Sounds like a fun trip!!

We're spending our first week from 30th April to 7th May at Universal's Endless Summer Resort - Surfside, and then our second week from 7th to 14th May at WDW in Pop Century.

I've stayed at both of these and liked the fun vibes and photo ops!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Following along. Not long to go now until your trip!

 

[DLo]

We overlap a little. I am May 11-17. I am doing the tea on that Friday .

 

[Becky2005]

This sounds like such a fun time!!! We are overlapping a tiny bit for your trip and also staying at POP! We arrive on the 12th.

 

[clappyclaps]

We overlap a little. I am May 11-17. I am doing the tea on that Friday .

Be interested to hear what you think of the tea

It's now only 4 days until our trip! I woke up this morning in a massive panic thinking my ESTA had expired even though I checked it months ago, no idea how that came into my head but not a good way to wake up!

We've also discovered that none of the Universal parks are open later when we arrive on Thursday - Studios and IOA shut at 6pm and Epic shuts at 7pm. Not ideal as realistically we probably won't be ready to leave our hotel til around 4pm ish, if not later depending on how we get on at the airport. So bit unsure now what we're going to end up doing that first evening.

 

[PollyannaMom]

We've also discovered that none of the Universal parks are open later when we arrive on Thursday - Studios and IOA shut at 6pm and Epic shuts at 7pm. Not ideal as realistically we probably won't be ready to leave our hotel til around 4pm ish, if not later depending on how we get on at the airport. So bit unsure now what we're going to end up doing that first evening.

Universal's CityWalk area is usually open late, so maybe you could blitz a couple of rides before the parks close and then hang out there? There are tons of restaurants and entertainment spots we haven't tried because we're usually park-focused on a shorter trip.

https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/theme-parks/citywalk

 

[clappyclaps]

Universal's CityWalk area is usually open late, so maybe you could blitz a couple of rides before the parks close and then hang out there? There are tons of restaurants and entertainment spots we haven't tried because we're usually park-focused on a shorter trip.

https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/theme-parks/citywalk

That's what we're hoping to do i think if we can. We won't be having a late night as we'll be jetlagged so a couple of rides followed by some food, drinks and bed would be the ideal!