Feedback on Plans

[c3h3a3r]

Hi Everyone.
Hubby and I are visiting from the UK for 3 weeks at the end of October 2026 so we get to experience Halloween and Christmas. It will be our 5th Visit, the last one being 2022. We are staying off property and will be using rideshare to get around. This is my current 'loose plan' Any comments or feedback greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

 

[zavandor]

Discovery Cove doesn't serve dinner. You can probably have a big lunch and a late snack in the afternoon and be done with the dinner.

You already have 2 days at Epic, so it's probably overkill, but you might look at going in the evening during one or more of your days in the other two parks. Lines are usually shorter at Epic in the evening, you can do a lot in the last two hours of operations. Have you ever been to Orlando before? The other two parks haven't changed a lot lately, you can probably do 1,5 days in each

It's a lot of dinners offsite. It's true, Disney restaurants are overpriced and sometimes not so great quality, but once you factor time lost and the extra expense of another rideshare, it's probably a wash. And you're missing on a lot of cool experiences. Red Lobster food might be better than Sci-Fi dining (but is it? I've been once and didn't fall in love), but the latter is way way cooler and something exists only in WDW. I'd dine offsite when you go to a waterpark in the morning and maybe when you go to Seaworld. In Seaworld food is not that great, but I ate at the shark restaurant and it was ok and for the view it was worth it.

Personally, I prefer to do sit down lunches instead of dinners. The reason is that the last hours of operations are always better than the middle of the day. It's shorter lines and dinner might prevent you from watching the night show, depending on schedule., Instead, getting off your feet in the middle of the day is very pleasant

I would go to Boma the day you go to AK, for sure. It's wiser to go when Christmas decorations are up, AKL is one of the best, but it's so much more convenient to go straight from the park.

If you have a fridge in your hotel room/villa, have groceries delivered or go do some shopping and have breakfast in your room. It's a huge money and time saver and would allow you to be more easily in the parks for rope drop.

 

[c3h3a3r]

Discovery Cove doesn't serve dinner. You can probably have a big lunch and a late snack in the afternoon and be done with the dinner.

You already have 2 days at Epic, so it's probably overkill, but you might look at going in the evening during one or more of your days in the other two parks. Lines are usually shorter at Epic in the evening, you can do a lot in the last two hours of operations. Have you ever been to Orlando before? The other two parks haven't changed a lot lately, you can probably do 1,5 days in each

It's a lot of dinners offsite. It's true, Disney restaurants are overpriced and sometimes not so great quality, but once you factor time lost and the extra expense of another rideshare, it's probably a wash. And you're missing on a lot of cool experiences. Red Lobster food might be better than Sci-Fi dining (but is it? I've been once and didn't fall in love), but the latter is way way cooler and something exists only in WDW. I'd dine offsite when you go to a waterpark in the morning and maybe when you go to Seaworld. In Seaworld food is not that great, but I ate at the shark restaurant and it was ok and for the view it was worth it.

Personally, I prefer to do sit down lunches instead of dinners. The reason is that the last hours of operations are always better than the middle of the day. It's shorter lines and dinner might prevent you from watching the night show, depending on schedule., Instead, getting off your feet in the middle of the day is very pleasant

I would go to Boma the day you go to AK, for sure. It's wiser to go when Christmas decorations are up, AKL is one of the best, but it's so much more convenient to go straight from the park.

If you have a fridge in your hotel room/villa, have groceries delivered or go do some shopping and have breakfast in your room. It's a huge money and time saver and would allow you to be more easily in the parks for rope drop.

Hi, Firstly thank you so much for your response.

This will be our 5th visit to Orlando

Discovery cove - yes we will probably do that food wise. I don't think we will need dinner that day.

Thank you for the tip about visiting Epic in the evening.

We will only do dinners offsite on the way back to the hotel, if we are 'finished' in the parks. If not we will just grab food in the parks. We are staying on International Drive and hoping to use the I Ride Trolley as well as rideshare, so hopefully reduce costs a little.

Thank you again for your response and feedback, I really appreciate it.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Looks good. I know you’re looking to save money (isn’t everyone lol) hence all of the off site eating. If it were me I’d cut out all of the fast food and restaurant breakfasts and just order milk and cereal, bagels and cream cheese and fruit or something to the room and eat in the room every day and take the little bit of savings and teat at some more on site restaurants. For atmosphere unlike anywhere else you can’t beat SciFi, 50s Primetime, San Angel in the Mexican pyramid, Garden Grill, Space 220, the Harry Potter world quick service restaurants, Das Stakehouse in Epic and many others. Of course they’re a bit pricey but they’re one of a kind places.

Not sure when the resorts decorate for Christmas but if they are decorated while you’re there I’d take a day to hop around and check them out for sure. Even if they’re not decorated I’d still take the time to check out the monorail resorts at least.

Looks like you have 2 Epic days and one day at each of the other Universal parks? That should be plenty, but I’d personally cut out one of the water park days for an extra Universal day to maybe hit some stuff missed on the other days. But that may be because I’m not a huge water park fan. Do you have hoppers? You’ll need them if you want to take hogwarts express, but I’m sure you know that.

Wow, 3 weeks! I’m jealous lol. We do a 2 week trip each year to WDW/Universal and it still never feels like enough time. Have a great time!