Our dates: November 13 - 20 (Staying off site and driving to the parks)
First: In my humble opinion - We have way too many parks outside of WDW everyone wants to visit, but with everyone's work schedule, we have limited time, so our schedule is VERY tight. We rarely get a vacation in Florida so I kind of agree with the family's, "let's just go for broke" attitude, but it does tend to make planning a bit of a challenge.
I'm using a combo of TGM & Touringplans for advice on what day for which park. So here's what I have so far:
Saturday, November 13th: AK/Medieval Dinner Show
Sunday, November 14th: MK/DHS (Fantasmic) - This is a "good" day for MK, but a not so good day for DHS because of Fantasmic. We pretty much know the ins & outs of MK since it's so much like DL, so I figure we can optimize our day here by reserving an 8:05 AM breakfast at Crystal Palace then collect FPs and ride our faves pretty easily by 3:00 PM. We'll then hop over to DHS and be in line by 5:00 PM to see Fantasmic @ 6:30 then see Osbourne Lights after that.
Some may be asking why not do DHS and see Fantasmic all on the same day. As you'll find later, there's a reason for this.
Monday: Epcot all day then take boat to DHS to see Osbourne Lights if we didn't catch it last night AND/OR walk the Boardwalk after dark. I've always wanted to do this.
Tuesday: Universal Studios
Wednesday: DHS - Everyone wants to experience the AI Finale and go to every other show this park has to offer. Fantasmic would eat up way too much of our time. Park closes at 7:00 so we'll hop back to Epcot to see Illuminations this night. (This is rated a "good" day to tour Epcot) I'm handicapped & will be in a scooter so perhaps we can luck out like we did the last time and be able to view this show from the handicapped area behind the Epcot sphere. There weren't very many people viewing Illuminations when we went the same time of year in 2005. If this doesn't work out, we can always catch Illuminations on Thursday or Friday since the "non-WDW" parks close at 6:00. We'd still have plenty of time to drive to Epcot after. (Good thing I bought 7 day park hoppers, even though we really only needed 5. The cost of those extra 2 days was minimal, so heck..why not?)
Thursday: Islands Of Adventure - The Harry Potter experience is a MUST SEE for our entire family.
Friday: SeaWorld - I could have done without this park because we just went to SeaWorld in San Diego last summer, but the rest of the family insisted, so....
Saturday: Start out at MK. Collect FPs for later that evening. Leave park around noon to revisit other attractions at other parks. Return to MK by 6:00 PM - use FPs & watch SpectroMagic & Wishes. None of us are concerned about getting optimal viewing of either, so we'll just wing it. If we see them, we do, if we don't, that's ok too. We just want to end our vacation in the MK. Getting all teary-eyed as we walk down Main Street that one last time is a tradition.
Whew... busy, busy, busy! But I think with some careful planning we can see and do just about everything we want.
First: In my humble opinion - We have way too many parks outside of WDW everyone wants to visit, but with everyone's work schedule, we have limited time, so our schedule is VERY tight. We rarely get a vacation in Florida so I kind of agree with the family's, "let's just go for broke" attitude, but it does tend to make planning a bit of a challenge.
I'm using a combo of TGM & Touringplans for advice on what day for which park. So here's what I have so far:
Saturday, November 13th: AK/Medieval Dinner Show
Sunday, November 14th: MK/DHS (Fantasmic) - This is a "good" day for MK, but a not so good day for DHS because of Fantasmic. We pretty much know the ins & outs of MK since it's so much like DL, so I figure we can optimize our day here by reserving an 8:05 AM breakfast at Crystal Palace then collect FPs and ride our faves pretty easily by 3:00 PM. We'll then hop over to DHS and be in line by 5:00 PM to see Fantasmic @ 6:30 then see Osbourne Lights after that.
Some may be asking why not do DHS and see Fantasmic all on the same day. As you'll find later, there's a reason for this.
Monday: Epcot all day then take boat to DHS to see Osbourne Lights if we didn't catch it last night AND/OR walk the Boardwalk after dark. I've always wanted to do this.
Tuesday: Universal Studios
Wednesday: DHS - Everyone wants to experience the AI Finale and go to every other show this park has to offer. Fantasmic would eat up way too much of our time. Park closes at 7:00 so we'll hop back to Epcot to see Illuminations this night. (This is rated a "good" day to tour Epcot) I'm handicapped & will be in a scooter so perhaps we can luck out like we did the last time and be able to view this show from the handicapped area behind the Epcot sphere. There weren't very many people viewing Illuminations when we went the same time of year in 2005. If this doesn't work out, we can always catch Illuminations on Thursday or Friday since the "non-WDW" parks close at 6:00. We'd still have plenty of time to drive to Epcot after. (Good thing I bought 7 day park hoppers, even though we really only needed 5. The cost of those extra 2 days was minimal, so heck..why not?)
Thursday: Islands Of Adventure - The Harry Potter experience is a MUST SEE for our entire family.
Friday: SeaWorld - I could have done without this park because we just went to SeaWorld in San Diego last summer, but the rest of the family insisted, so....
Saturday: Start out at MK. Collect FPs for later that evening. Leave park around noon to revisit other attractions at other parks. Return to MK by 6:00 PM - use FPs & watch SpectroMagic & Wishes. None of us are concerned about getting optimal viewing of either, so we'll just wing it. If we see them, we do, if we don't, that's ok too. We just want to end our vacation in the MK. Getting all teary-eyed as we walk down Main Street that one last time is a tradition.
Whew... busy, busy, busy! But I think with some careful planning we can see and do just about everything we want.
