First offsite visit with first timers?

[Ciorsdah]

Hey guys! Looking for some advice.

Off to NUC and Orlando this year with some friends, staying in a Villia at Champions Gate for 10nights. The group (4 people) I'm with, have never been to America, let alone Orlando before and have grand plans to cover Universal, Sea World,Disney (inc water parks) and Busch Gardens. On top of shopping and a day to KSC...!

How would you deal with this? I've tried explaining that a jam packed agenda may make for some long days with early mornings and late nights.

We are going in July also which is a massive concern re crowds for me. I usually travel Sep-Nov when it's slightly quieter and we stay onsite.

Z

 

[macca77]

Wow that is alot, but its do able, tiring and may need a holiday again after to recover but anythings possible.
What disney tickets would you get 7 day ultimate?
Possible if you have that sort off ticket to do waterpark in a morning disney early evening and stay a late nite.
Seaworld again most off the day, bite to eat and back to disney at nite.

Long day at universal and try to do both parks in the day.
1 day busch.

Evening shopping at outlets after a day in the park, usually stay open late.

Hope this kind off helps hectic but should be able to do it, if you can do a plan and stick to it.

 

[DLPDreams]

Sounds crammed to me - they will need a holiday when they return me thinks!

Here I am worrying how we will fit in Disney / Universal / Sea world / Discovery cove and some shopping in (oh and did I mention an afternoon or two off to relax!), into a 3 week holiday but to be fair we do have children, so they do tend to slow things down a little .

In addition, you don't say if your friends are total Disney nuts . I think that makes a difference to how long you spend in Disney - some people just see it as another theme park - they aren't there to soak up every little detail (a travesty in my mind as that's one of the things that sets Disney apart from just a theme park!), aren't there to meet characters, autograph hunt etc which can take time.

I haven't been to WDW yet but done DLRP several times - the longest being 6 full days. We had the best trip ever as we took our time and were able to do things we liked several times (managed BTM ride 14 or so times in one day and we LOVED it!!). I have a friend who was horrified that we'd want to spend that amount of time in one Disney resort. They went and were "bored" after two days..... Says it all really, one person's idea of 'doing a park' is different to anothers....

Good luck with the planning anyway - hope you manage to find a 'happy medium' .

 

[Claymore]

Never stayed off site before, but tried the Big Bash holiday with all the parks.
Did it back around 2005 / 07 or something.

obviously came back very tired, but wouldn't do it again. just too much.

Car hire essential obviously, but staying at Disney helped with parking fees etc.

 

[Ciorsdah]

Thanks guys

I've tried explaining to them that whilst its doable, it would be a miserable 10 days because the down time would be so limited.

No Disney "nuts" in the Group other than me, and given that my DBF has agreed to a trip in Jan/Feb for the half marathon I am ok with not covering all of WDW (but there is a day I will mark down as my Magic Kingdom day hopefully to get on the mine train if its open )

Most of them are thrill seekers, so US/BG etc are more up their sleeve, so my suggestion is focus on that for this trip, and we will get another group trip for WDW next year Oct time.

Its so hard explaining the logistics to people who havent been there. One of the group thought that you could walk down I.Drive between Disney and Universal When car hire was suggested people asked if it was really needed!

 

[DLPDreams]

Sounds like a plan

Show them it on google earth - that will get them thinking .....

 

[Azza1987]

We did our first trip last year for 8 days & literally didn't stop. We crammed in;

All day AK, all day MK, all day Epcot, all day at DC, all day at Universal IOA, all day at sea world, an afternoon/evening at DHS, an afternoon of outlet shopping & a 2nd evening at DHS with numerous nights at DTD. I was exhausted, it was great but I certainly wouldn't try and do it all like that again, it was very overwhelming for a new visitor & I honestly missed loads because we whizzed round everything!

Our next trip were planning to alternate park days with rest/relaxation days! I plan to spend more time actually 'seeing' Disney rather then cramming it all in!

Maybe you could arrange alternate Disney days with relaxing evenings, then relaxing days with busy evenings?