Disney Quest Questions??

[CALaurieA]

Our family will be in Orlando from Jan 1 to Jan 9 (flying out early that morning). Would it be possible to spend time at DQ on Sat 1/3 or will it be completely crowded? I know my boys (10 and 13 yrs) will probably love this but I'm having trouble fitting everything in we want to do. We will have the 5 day 2 park pass for Universal/IOA and two days of hopper passes for WDW. We're staying at Vistana Resort for the week. Could anyone give me a suggested itinerary for this week??

 

[AZKathy]

If you are planning on doing Universal/IOA for five days, you definately can fit in DisneyQuest. We did everything at Universal/IOA in the summer in three days there. I don't think that you have enough time alloted for WDW. Two days won't cut it. We usually plan on two days at Epcot alone! What two parks are you planning on doing at WDW?

I would try and include Disney Quest on a week day if possible for the crowds and get there in the morning. Your sons will definately love it and with the five days at Universal, you can take a day away from there to include Disney Quest, at least half day there. I think our teenagers in our group stayed five hours there while we walked around Downtown Disney and they got everything done during that time this summer when we went.

Personally, if you don't have the tickets, you should reconsider the days for the parks. I figure you want to skip MK since I see you are from California and do DL a lot. So add another day and do the other three parks and drop a day at Universal time. Include AK, MGM, Epcot, Universal/IOA x 3 and a down day for Disney Quest and Downtown Disney?

Have a great trip!!!!

 

[jann1033]

kind of wondering the same thing about your choice of parks...have you been to universal before and really love it? if so go for it but imo you do not need nearly that much time there.since you have 2 days left on parkhoppers I am guessing you have been to WDW before but I think you could easily take a day or 2 from universal no problem for DQ or what ever.

 

[CALaurieA]

Thanks for the replies. To clarify, we probably won't be going to US/IOA for all 5 days, that's just the special on tickets right now. I'm thinking one day on the weekend just to check out the area and see Macy's parade (?) and then two days during the week to do rides, one at each park.
You are right, Kathy, in that we do go to DL a lot, and will be there in Feb again, so I was planning on just a few hours there. My thought was to do Epcot on one day (as much as we can) then go to Animal Kingdom in the morning and MGM in the afternoon of the other day.
Looking at my planning pages, it's just not working
I guess one week is not enough and I don't know when we'll be there again so I'm trying to fit in everything. This is just going to have to be Orlando 101 Intro course and I'll have to find a time in the future to come back. That's all there is to it.
As far as the two days of hoppers, they were given to me by a friend who won't be using them, so no we haven't been there before.
Thanks again for your help and I look forward to any other magical ways you all have of fitting it all in

 

[AZKathy]

Okay, so you arrive Thursday the first and check in Vistana Resort (make sure you tell them you want the newer section i.e. cascade section; we were there this summer and got an older section which we did not like very much).

I don't know what parade you are thinking about? I have not gone in January, so I can't help you out with that. What day is this?

You have plenty of time to do what you mentioned. You can do a park on Friday. Do whatever you want over the weekend....outlet malls, etc. On Monday-Thursday, it leaves you five days for parks there, also. Therefore, you have six days for parks, so you could add a day at WDW. You can get the kids in over the weekend to DisneyQuest while you shop at the Marketplace in Downtown Disney.

Personally, I would do one day each at Universal and IOA and then a third day for the rides at each park that are must do-overs. (this summer, the teenagers and I did Dueling Dragons over and over and over again on the third day), one day at Epcot, one day at MGM, and the other day to split between AK and MK (check it out and see how magnificent Cinderella's Castle is compared to Sleeping Beauty's Castle).

I really really think you need to add one day to your WDW itenerary. WDW is not like DL at all! You can compare DL to MK, but that is just about it. I was in shock the first time I visited WDW being a frequent DL visitor...this place is HUGE. You really should reconsider adding more time at WDW.

I hope this helps. Check out the park hours for January and work from there for the park days. You could also do parks over the weekend if the hours are longer. I think Universal has the same constant hours of like 9am-7pm throughout the year, so those days could be flexible. See when the firework shows are (I heard Wishes is great, so you should do that along with Fantasmic and and Illuminations) and do your days at the parks accordingly.

 

[Deb & Bill]

By the way, if you only have the hoppers with two days left, you will need to purchase a ticket to get into DQ. DQ isn't included on park hoppers or the pluses. DQ usually opens around 11AM, so if you have a late evening the night before, you can sleep in a bit. It's not too bad when it first opens in the morning, but gets crowded pretty quickly. Head to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride first since that gets the longest lines.

When we do DQ, we get there when it opens, stay about 3 or 4 hours and leave. We can do most all the things we want to do before it gets too crowded.

With the DQ ticket, you can go back later on in the day if you get your hand stamped.

 

[jann1033]

since you are limited in time and have been to DL I think I might skip Mk also..your boys would find things they like there but fantasyland might be a little"girly" . I think most boys would like TOTand RNR at MgM( or at least *pretend * they did lol!), probably the stunt show, star tours..just thinking in my head it seems more teen/boy friendly to me than at MK ( although there are fun rides at MK but some are similar to dl I think).I'd probably go to an ee day for ak and try to do as much as you can then switch to mgm and tour and see fantasmic.. another option might be go to ee days for both ak and mgm then switch to epcot since epcot's hrs are longer if you do not care to see Fantasmic. Illuminations is fantastic bty.

now if you could scrape up one more WDW day : day1 I'd do mgm for ee then head to mk for the rest of the day and wishes,day 2 ak for ee, go to mgm after ak closing and see fantasmic and day 3 at epcot( wouldn't be hopping that day so a single day pass would work), one day for rest and DQ and the other days at universal parks

not sure about the early days of your stay but I know Wishes is 7 or 7:30 for the later part of it so you could pick either wishes or fantasmic to see with only 2 days