Flight Lands at 11am

[ROSARIOFAMILY2014]

My wife, daughter and I arrive in Orlando on Friday Nov 21st at 11am. It looks like the crowd tracker predicts a slow day.... would it be a waste of a day to go straight from the airport (after picking up the rental car) to Universal?

 

[MinnieGi]

We are also arriving that day but by Auto Train and hope to be pulling in to Universal around 11:00. We are planning a day at the parks and hope it will be on the slower side.

 

[agavegirl1]

I don't think it would be a waste of a day. With lower crowds you can accomplish a lot in an afternoon.

 

[ROSARIOFAMILY2014]

According to Touringplan's crowd tracker... it's a 2/10... even if we get there by 12:30-1:00, we should be ok I guess.

 

[snoopboop]

We usually land in Orlando around noon, and we definitely always go check in to the hotel and then spend the rest of the day at Universal!

 

[MisWal]

We are coming in on a different day, but same crowd level. Our flight is scheduled to land at 12:45 and I'm planning on going to the parks that afternoon/evening. I'm hoping to walk through the gates by 3 pm. As cheap as it is to add extra days to the tickets, I figure it's worth it to get those extra hours in!

 

[johde]

I guess my question would be is this an extra day or an only day at the park. Given the price of an extra day in the park I wouldn't hesitate to go to the parks that first day. If you were thinking about making that first day your only day I'd need to think long and hard about it.

 

[ROSARIOFAMILY2014]

Well that would be our only day... It's either that Friday or go on the day before Thanksgiving... which the crowd calendar predicts a 9/10

I guess my question would be is this an extra day or an only day at the park. Given the price of an extra day in the park I wouldn't hesitate to go to the parks that first day. If you were thinking about making that first day your only day I'd need to think long and hard about it.

 

[agavegirl1]

Well that would be our only day... It's either that Friday or go on the day before Thanksgiving... which the crowd calendar predicts a 9/10

With a 2/10 vs 9/10, I would go for the 7 or so hours on the shorter, less busy day over a full day on a busy one. I think you'd get more done.

 

[subtchr]

I guess it would be better than not going at all, but I wouldn't do it, even though I love Universal. Even if you arrive on time, a half day isn't long enough to do even one of the parks justice, much less two (if you wanted to ride Hogwart's Express), IMHO.

If you DO decide you want to visit, I would advise not buying tickets ahead of time. You never know whether a flight will be delayed. We flew to CA a couple years ago to visit DL and DCA. Our morning nonstop, which was supposed to land at LAX at about 10:00 am local time, was cancelled due to mechanical problems. We ended up with hours wasted in two airports, and an arrival at the Grand a half hour before the parks closed that night. We had bought military passes that included that day, so we went ahead and popped into DCA for the last half hour of the day. The CM at the gate was surprised, but when we explained that we didn't have another day to go to the parks, she understood.

Instead, since it seems you are spending the rest of the trip at Disney, I'd wait, and if the flight lands early enough, add a day (which will be quite cheap) to your Disney passes.