Great itinerary... or holiday from hell?

[pricefamily]

Hi folks

Having done loads of searches and looked at the responses to previous postings we've put together a draft plan for our week in Orlando next Feb. This will be our first time in Orlando and the kids are very keen on WDW.

We fly in on the 14th Feb (Saturday). We were thinking about getting a 4-day WDW pass and having a day at Sea World too. We've got 4 children, 5,7,9,11 - and have a strong desire NOT to do a water park!!!!

We wondered about the following

Sunday: Animal Kingdom
Monday: Presidents Day - chillin out and exploring Orlando
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom
Wednesday: Universal Studios
Thursday: Sea World
Friday: Magic Kingdom

On the Saturday we then travel onto the coast.
We know it'll be busy with President's week, but we had no choice over dates.

Any thoughts? If you were making any changes what would they be.

Really appreciated people responses to previous posts
Cheers

Andy

 

[Melcatfish]

If it were me I would swap one of your magic kingdom days to MGM - I know Magic Kingdom is THE disney park but I would not want to miss out on MGM in favour of 2 days at MK. Just my humble opinion.

Regards
Mel

 

[WDWfan uk]

Hi Andy - I was wondering if you are staying on or off-site? (Just to find out if you can use early entry or not).

The other point is - you only include two of the four WDW parks on your itinerary. Have you looked into the other two and decided they aren't for you?

When we first visited WDW and only had a week, we concentrated on the Disney parks and then visited what was then the one Universal park on a later visit - I just wonder why you chose Universal Studios over MGM Studios?

 

[calvinjtodd]

Sounds good, it may be worth going into MK on Presidents day instead of Tuesday, they might be open later and have more things on like spectra magic so you get more for your day/money. I agree about MGM.
Your kids will probably enjoy Islands of adventure if they like rides rather than Universal studios and the parks are charged seperately for entry.
It's a pity U can't get to Busch Gardens, I think U would all really enjoy that park.
Anyway what ever U choose to do U will have a great time visiting with the mouse

Regards
Calvin

 

[mike230652]

Andy

This is only my opinion!!

Why go for a 4 day WDW ticket if you only intend to go to WDW for 3 days?

You can buy a one day ticket at the gate, and then buy a ticket at a discounted rate for another day ( or two ). Certainly cheaper than a 4 park ticket. I know people say " they never expire "......but there is the small matter of flying there to use the ticket !!

Personally I'd do MK, AK and MGM-Disney as suggested by Mel and for the same reasons. MK is THE Park for first timers, but you'd miss a lot if you dipped out on MGM-Disney, especially with kids aged over 7.

Certainly I'd go for Seaworld and Universal/IOA if I had only one week, plenty of time to get your breath back in week two!

My option would be:

Day 1. AK
Day 2. Day off ( Florida Mall/ Premium Outlet Mall/ Altamonte Mall.....or a day at Winter Park )
Day 3. MK
Day 4. Universal
Day 5. MGM - Disney
Day 6. Seaworld

The reason for doing AK first is there's a fair bit of walking invloved at AK....and you'll still be waking up early while adjusting to US time.... so go for it!!

Just my opinion , as I said.

mike

 

[pricefamily]

Just shows how much we have to learn!!

What I meant to say was that we were thinking about MGM... and not Universal!! So for those of you who suggested MGM you were right!

We're staying at Comfort Suites on Maingate East, so presumably can't use early entry

Sorry to throw in a couple of red herrings!

Thanks for the feedback

Andy

 

[JohnnySharp]

I think everyone has their own different ideas on the best approach at touring the parks.
For us looking ahead to our 10th trip we have never based our holiday around Disney or any of the theme parks, hence we tend not to try and pack in visits every day.
For eg depite all our trips we have still never visited Animal Kingdom, our boy is Autistic and gets more fun out playing in the pool plus we need time to relax.

I know you just have a week but visiting any parks for 4 consecutive days can be demanding and tiring, although great fun of course...just try not to cram too much in , relax and just enjoy yourselves.
I would advise you to visit Universal IOA if at all possible.

It also depends on whether you are planning on going back again, in this respect a park hopper would be a good choice and would enable you to visit more Disney Parks and possibly mean you could have another rest day inbetween.

As always though just do what suits you. If you do visit again you would probably do things a bit different next time around.

 

[mike230652]

Johnny

Like yourself our visits to Florida are no longer based around WDW. This November we have a week on the Gulf followed by a week in Orlando. While we've bought tickts for US/IOA and the combined Seaworld/Busch pass.......we've not bought tickets for WDW.

We'll still very probably do MGM ( Guaranteed !! ) and AK, but our two kids ( 10 & 12 ) aren't bothered by MK or Epcot. To be fair DD would love to do Epcot, but mainly because she'd very much like another " Hello Kitty " watch from Mitsuki ( Japan ) and adores the eclairs in the French Patisserie.

Having said that Andy and his family are first time visitors and WDW is THE reason for anyone first visiting Orlando. I know it was our reason... and we absolutely adored it. And I doubt there are many kids of any age group who don't get the WOW !! factor on their first visit to any WDW park.

And it doesn't matter what anyone says..........you will wear your legs out hitting the Parks first time round!!...it's part of the fun.

mike

 

[SidB]

Originally posted by mike230652

The reason for doing AK first is there's a fair bit of walking invloved at AK....and you'll still be waking up early while adjusting to US time.... so go for it!!

I'm not sure about this but it's worth checking out. Doesn't AK open later than some other parks ? You'll be awake early so check out which parks open earliest.

Also, we were their for Presidents Day last year and it didn't seem any busier than usual.

 

[WDWfan uk]

All the parks open at 9.00am, although there are certain attractions or areas (such as World Showcase in EPCOT) which do not open at the park at opening time. (You can collect a Times Guide, as well as the Park Guidemaps, as you enter, which will tell you the opening of these if they differ from park opening, and these also list show times, parades etc.)

You are right As you are "off-site" you canot take an advantage of early entry.

For a first time visit, if everyone is really keen on Disney, I'd explore the Walt Disney World parks first and have a visit to Sea World and then decide whether you want to revisit the WDW parks or make a visit to Universal.

If you do plan to go back again for another trip, I'd then take in the Universal parks.


I think you will find MK very busy on President's Day, and would definitely visit on another day - once the hours are released, you can fine tune your itinerary.

 

[Beejayjay]

I think your itinerary will be hard work, but if you only have a week then it's a case of needs must.

Most of the parks you list are must do's IMO. Universal and IOA, are great, my faves in fact. Magic Kingdom and Epcot are very good, and Seaworld shouldn't be missed either.

If it was me, I'd drop Animal Kingdom from your list and sub in MGM Studios. I've been to AK once and, to be honest, regretted wasting the day.

My view before I went was, hey, a big zoo/safari park big deal, I can do that anytime back home. However, a close friend said we shouldn't miss it, so we went. And yeah, aside from a couple of so-so rides and reasonable shows, it really is just a big zoo. I really wouldn't worry if you don't go...

And if you do want to see some animals, I'd plump for Busch Gardens over AK everytime - great rides, lots of shows, and just as good a selection of wildlife.

MGM on the other hand is one I never miss when I go to WDW. It has great rides and shows, and if you 're a bit selective, it's one of the parks you can do just about all the really good stuff in less than a full day, giving you a bit more chilling out time in that hectic schedule. Because of that we tend to do it the day after arrival - it's not quite such a tough day after the trip from the UK, and it's a really good introduction to what Disney has in store for you !

I love the Tower Of Terror, Rock N Rollercoaster, the Muppets 3D show, the Great Movie Ride, the animation tour... lots of excellent stuff at MGM !

Of course everyone's view will be different, but if you need to drop somethuing from your list to accomodate MGM, it'd be Animal Kingdom for me.

Hope this helps !

 

[wendy_uk]

On our first trip to Orlando Feb 2002. We had 2 weeks there and stayed off site, we did all the parks in this time with the exception of the disney water parks, mainly due to the weather at this time of the year. We all had a fanastic time, but we certainly were theme parked out by the end of it, well i was not sure about my kids DS 10 and DD8. We are going again in Feb o4 and are going to do the tmeme parks again but at a much slower pace. We are staying off site but staying there for 2 weeks. So this time we will be taking in the water parks and hopefully do a bit more in the evening, if we can adjust to the time difference better than we did last time.

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Not being a great fan of SeaWorld (actually, I really dislike it!) I'd drop that from my itinery. I think all four Disney parks are "must do's" although with hopper passes I would chop and change during the day (eg Animal Kingdom during the first part of the day, Epcot in the afternoon & evening). Each park offers something different from the others, and I think to miss one of them is a real shame.

Universal and Islands of Adventure are both terrific parks, and if you think you won't return to Orlando I'd be tempted to give up my day of rest/exploring and spend a day in each. After all, if you have a week at the coast following Orlando you'll have plenty of time for relaxation.

Regards

Rob