Help me decide...

[niklynn1]

I wasn't really up for another big, hot, sweaty FL vacation again this year. Did DisneyWorld for 8 days last year, and a couple of years before then too. I was thinking more along the lines of visiting cool, peaceful Colorado this year.
BUT, my kids DS12 and DD15 have caught wind of the WWoHP hysteria and are begging to go to Universal this year (never been.) IF I can get a room sometime in late June or early July, am I crazy? Will the parks fill to capacity? How much help will the FOTL pass for resort guests really be? Is it only for some rides? I need a rational mind to help me think this through! I've been stewing about it for a few days with two kids pleas ringing in my ears, and time is running out. I'm a big planner and usually have my Disney vacas planned well in advance. Help!

 

[Metro West]

I wasn't really up for another big, hot, sweaty FL vacation again this year. Did DisneyWorld for 8 days last year, and a couple of years before then too. I was thinking more along the lines of visiting cool, peaceful Colorado this year.
BUT, my kids DS12 and DD15 have caught wind of the WWoHP hysteria and are begging to go to Universal this year (never been.) IF I can get a room sometime in late June or early July, am I crazy? Will the parks fill to capacity? How much help will the FOTL pass for resort guests really be? Is it only for some rides? I need a rational mind to help me think this through! I've been stewing about it for a few days with two kids pleas ringing in my ears, and time is running out. I'm a big planner and usually have my Disney vacas planned well in advance. Help!

Frankly I think you should stick with Colorado this year. This summer is going to be absolutely nuts and I wouldn't be surprised if IOA closed quite a bit due to capacity. Staying onsite and receiving unlimited Express will help you on most rides but it's not going to help you much in WWoHP...especially The Forbidden Journey. Also...you will have to wait in long lines at restaurants, carts and restrooms in the park so don't forget about those lines...it's not just the attractions.

I'm going to attempt going over on 6/18 but after that...I won't be back until the end of September when HHN starts.

I think you would be wise to wait a year for the madness to calm down before venturing to Universal. I just think it's going to be too crowded to enjoy yourselves.

 

[tigergrad]

Well I'll take the other side. Our family (9 in all) will be heading down to UO/IOA & WDW July 16-23. We will spend the first two nights at the PBH - great rate with a PIN. (This part of the vacation is a promise kept to my 13 year old son). Front of the line passes will help. We will go early in the morning to WWoHP. Not having small children that get tired and cranky is to our advantage. Last time we were there in late July and had a ball.

 

[niklynn1]

Thanks for your input! I'm a single mom, so I don't really have another rational adult in the house to ponder the pros and cons with, so I really appreciate other people here giving me their 2 cents worth. Right now, I'm sorta leaning toward just doing it! My kids are getting older and our vacation time together as just the 3 of us only has another year or two before they get summer jobs, and too many activities etc. BUT, I also don't want to drop 3 grand to be stuck in a mob, unable to move and not be able to enjoy ourselves. I wish WWoHP had opened in Spring as originally planned.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? All input is welcome!

 

[brenda1966]

Florida in summer just sounds so icky to me! But if you've already done it and survived, then you'll probably be okay. Is there another time, off season, that you could bring the kids to Florida?

I can understand why your kids would pick Florida over Colorado. I spent most of my time plotting to get out of town.

 

[mjohnson96]

Thanks for your input! I'm a single mom, so I don't really have another rational adult in the house to ponder the pros and cons with, so I really appreciate other people here giving me their 2 cents worth. Right now, I'm sorta leaning toward just doing it! My kids are getting older and our vacation time together as just the 3 of us only has another year or two before they get summer jobs, and too many activities etc. BUT, I also don't want to drop 3 grand to be stuck in a mob, unable to move and not be able to enjoy ourselves. I wish WWoHP had opened in Spring as originally planned.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? All input is welcome!

We are going down right after opening on June 19th, this is the only time DH has due to being on call. We are staying for 5 nights and just going to take our time. Head over to the parks in the morning and take advantage of any onsite early hours and then if it gets to insane in the afternoon, go back to the hotel to relax. Some things to look at would be to buy one AP pass, it has saved us a ton on the room (use promo code APH to check prices) and then you also get 15% off additional multi day tickets at the gate plus discounts on merchandise and food.

It will be hot when you are going, but do try to stay for a couple days to get the most out of your experience. The onsite hotels are wonderful and it is nice to be able to just walk over to the park or take a boat ride and not worry about busses, or being there all day.

If you do go, just make sure everyone is prepared for it to be crazy. The express passes will help some and let you enjoy your stay. And you can pool hop between the 3 hotels and all have wonderful pools and activities for the kids.

 

[niklynn1]

Florida in summer just sounds so icky to me! But if you've already done it and survived, then you'll probably be okay. Is there another time, off season, that you could bring the kids to Florida?

I can understand why your kids would pick Florida over Colorado. I spent most of my time plotting to get out of town.

Brenda,
Since you're from Colorado, maybe you can help me a bit more! We're in Iowa, so originally I was thinking of a road trip to CO this summer. But, the kids (who LOVE Disney) keep asking, "But, what would we DO there?"

I had planned maybe the train to top of Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge for a day, maybe chuck wagon dinner one night, Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls. But the kids are not impressed. They say they don't want to just LOOK at stuff, they want to DO stuff. They love the energy at the theme parks! Do you think they will be bored on a CO vacation? Ideas? Suggestions? Any help is MUCH appreciated. I HAVE to make a decision SOON!!!!!!!

 

[kathy884]

Wow -- the two places you're looking at match our vacation plans for 2011. In March, we're heading down to Orlando (and on one of our Orlando days, we'll check out IOA to see WWOHP), and in August we're off to Colorado for a week. As much as I love Orlando, it's too hot and humid in the summer there for me

 

[kathy884]

I used to live in Denver. My very favorite place to go in Colorado is Rocky Mountain National Park (about two hours from Denver). We like to either stay on the Estes Park side (lots of cabins, condos, hotels, motels, and campgrounds), or camp in the National Park. Please note that camping in the National Park is primitive camping which means out houses and going into town to a laundreymat to pay $3 or so to take a shower (beautiful place to be, though). To me Rocky Mountain National Park is heaven on earth. It's just such a beautiful place and never seem that crowded even in the high summer season. One must do is the drive up Trail Ridge Road stopping at all the lookout points on the way. At the top there is a gift shop and nature walk area where rangers give a short Alpine Nature Walk tour. This drive is rated by Rand McNally as being one of the very best drives in all of North America. This park is a dream in terms of family friendly hiking too. I especially like the hiking trails around Bear Lake. My favorite hike in the whole world is the hike from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake which passes by Nymph and Dream lake. There is just something special about Alpine lakes. At the park you will see tons of elk, deer, ground squirrels, and birds, and on occasion beaver and big horn sheep. I love the ranger guided activities. Numerous activities are offered daily in the summer and they are all free (your tax payer dollars at work). You can do a hike with a ranger. They have special photo walks, nature hikes in a meadow, a Rocky at night hike with kids (so cool you get there before it gets dark and without artificial light your eyes actually adjust and you can see outside at night). These are just a few that we've done. There is horse back riding available too at a place called YMCA of the Rockies that borders the National Park. Estes Park has gift shops, things like go karts, mini golf, etc. Estes Park isn't know for fine dining, but there are various resturants and places to eat there too. There is also excellent trout fishing in the area which my son always enjoys.

 

[brenda1966]

Niklynn, the Colorado tourism board will probably hunt me down and torture me, but honestly there isn't much to "do" here. I have a friend coming out in August with her 9 year old and I've already told her that I'm not sure what they are going to do!

Now, there are amazing, wonderful things to see here. My daughter loves camping and playing in the dirt and hiking around. Last year we camped around CO Springs and found plenty of things to go see there. Garden of the Gods is amazingly beautiful and there's a little trading post where we like to have lunch and "mine" for gems (you buy a bucket of dirt and put it in this little trough with water and find things). Around there is also Cave of the Winds which is fun to tour. Seven Falls is a steep hike to see a pretty neat water fall. There's also an Indian ruins site that I really enjoyed. All of it there in CO springs.

There's Santa's Workshop at the base of Pikes Peak, but your kids are probably too old for that. IT has lots of rickety old rides, mostly kiddie ones. Pikes Peak doesn't do much for me. It is a long ways up there and it's often cold. Sometimes the clouds are low so you get up there and can't see a thing! I have a fear of heights so haven't been back to Royal Gorge since I was a kid -- back when it didn't have an amusement park feel, so I don't know what it's like today, but that may be an option for you.

If your kids are used to a Disney vacation, it may be a hard sell to go anywhere else! Maybe river rafting would peak their interests?

My favorite colorado destination is Glenwood Springs. The hot springs pool is my sanctuary. There's hiking and river rafting there, but it's quite a ways up I-70 from Denver. Estes park is also lovely and right next to RM National PArk. I usually go there in the fall when the Elk are bugeling.

On the North side of Denver is Water World -- a very big water park. I used to love it as a teen.

I do love Colorado -- I think the only thing we are missing is a beach. The weather in the mountains in summer can be downright cool and we don't have the humidity.

 

[niklynn1]

Brenda, Thanks so much for the info about CO. I have a feeling we may be skipping it, unfortunately. We went to my sister's house for dinner last night. She dug out pics of when she and her husband went to Colorado Springs about 10 years ago. I tried to get the kids excited by having them flip through and look at the things they did (Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge, Cheyenne Mt. Zoo, Ghost Town Museum...) Nope. They were not impressed.

Soooo, back to the drawing board. I had figured it would still be close to 2K for Colorado, and just don't want to spend that if they're not into it.

They really want to go to Universal, but the whole WWoHP scares me! Our only options are the week of June 18th (eek) or one week mid-July.

If anyone has any additional input as to their feelings on what crowds would be like, I'd love to hear it. We would definitely stay onsite, but still don't know if the FOTL pass would help if the crowds are insane. Obviously, there's no FOTL for bathrooms and food! Also, not even sure if FOTL will work for WWoHP so it would be terrible to go all the way there and not be able to see it!