Help Me Plan!

[mommy23boysazh]

My family of 5, including kids aged 15, 13, and 9, are coming to Orlando Sept. 7-15. We've been to Disney twice in the past and my daughter (youngest) would still like to go to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios this visit. We've never been to Universal, but I'm thinking they would all enjoy that, now that they're older. Definitely plan to do Discovery Cove one day since we've always wanted to, but never have before.
Anyways, I'm looking at all the various Disney/Universal/Discovery Cove ticket options and my head is swimming! (No pun intended!)

My DH and I are fine with splitting up for the day, one of us taking the older boys and one taking our 9 year old daughter someplace else, but I just can't seem to make sense of how best to do this! We would probably like a waterpark at one day, too, if the weather is hot. Aquatica is included with the Discovery Cove tickets, so that would suffice.
Suggestions for how to satisfy everyone without spending $$$$ every single day on tickets?!

 

[mommy23boysazh]

OK, additional question: Since we don't mind "dividing and conquering", would it be possible to purchase 3 four day Universal tix and 2 four day Disney tix and then change up who goes each day? For instance, DH and DD go to Disney while I take boys to Universal, then on day 2, DH, 1 son and DD go to Universal, while I take 1 son to Disney? Can more than 1 person use the same ticket on different days?

 

[chicagoshannon]

You're not supposed to use the same ticket. Does your daughter have her heart set on Disney? A good option would be to get a pass that includes Sea World, Universal, Aquatica, Discovery Cove and Bush Gardens. I think they make those. Then you could take just your daughter to a Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween party so she'd have some time in the Magic Kingdom.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

For me personally.....while the "divide and conquer" philosophy might be possible, I wouldn't want to do it. A family vacation, for us, is spending time as a family. Making one set of plans (incorporating a little something at each place to appeal to everyone) and staying together. But that's just me .

I also don't find it cost effective to combine a Disney/Universal trip. Regardless of how nice it would be to spend a few days at each, this is the very most expensive way of touring in Orlando. Prices get cheaper as your ticket length extends, so it will be difficult to find a "deal" on tickets for two separate parks for short lengths of time.

If it were me, and Discovery Cove was a highlight of your trip, I would buy DC tickets and then enjoy two days at Aquatica and two days at SeaWorld (both included free for 14 days with your admission to DC). So that's five vacation days spoken for. Choose to stay at one of the official onsite hotels, and you will also get free Quick Queue each day at SW. If you choose something like the Residence Inn SeaWorld, you will get a free hot breakfast buffet (its awesome), free transporation to the parks, free parking and free internet.

Then, with the ooodles of money you have saved, you could add Busch Gardens to your DC/SW/AQ ticket for an extra $20 pp, and that includes transporation. Or maybe a car rental and spend a day at Cocoa Beach. Or maybe a day at Gatorland. Or a shopping day. Or mini golf on International Drive. Or tickets to the Outta Control Dinner Show. Or whatever you can dream up .

 

[mommy23boysazh]

Wonderful suggestions! Thank you! I suppose we could get by with just Mickey's Halloween Party for our Disney park time. The boys don't care about going to Disney at all, so I could just take my daughter to that and she'd be happy. And we could definitely add Busch Gardens (never been) and Aquatica (also never been) since they're free or cheap to add to the Discovery Cove tickets. As for Universal, are those parks big enough that you need a couple of days to do/see everything, or can you pretty much do it all in one day? For instance, we went to AK and spent half a day and felt we'd seen everything we desired to see, but spent a couple of days at MK and still didn't see everything. Is one day per park sufficient for Universal? Wonder if I only bought a one day ticket and wanted to add a day once we were there? Can you do that?

Sorry for all the questions, but I figure this is the best place to get them answered! Thanks a bunch!!


And BTW, we are staying at Bonnet Creek because we are owners there, so hotel packages are not a consideration. We will have a car rental, also.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

As for Universal, are those parks big enough that you need a couple of days to do/see everything, or can you pretty much do it all in one day?

Is one day per park sufficient for Universal? Wonder if I only bought a one day ticket and wanted to add a day once we were there? Can you do that?

I would suggest at least one full day per park, and even then it will be a full day. With Express Passes (if you chose to buy them) you could get a ton done as your waits will be minimal to none. Without EP, you may even want 1.5 days per park to be sure you see it all and do it all.

I believe you can upgrade your tickets at the park before you leave, but not 100% sure. I think the Undercover Tourist offers a 3 day park-to-park ticket at a small small savings vs. buying direct from Universal.

 

[kkmcan]

We are kind of doing the same type of trip in a couple of weeks.

Definitely going to DC, so we got the Sea World and Aquatica tickets with that. I tried to talk my kids into Universal since we've never done that before but it wasn't flying with them. I think they would really like it but that would mean no Disney and then weren't okay with that. For them it seemed so crazy to fly all the way across the country and be so close to WDW and not be able to go. So I gave in and we are doing 2 WDW days only. So here's our itinerary:

Day 1: fly, grocery store, check into Bonnett Creek
Day 2: MK
Day 3: DC
Day 4: Sea World
Day5: Day off- no plans
Day 6: Epcot
Day 7: Aquatica
Day 8: Fly home

Jam packed schedule. I only hope we don't crash and burn since we've never done so many park days before. We can flip days 4-7 around if we are finding that we need a day off sooner or that we want to keep going and not take a day off until day 6. Only days set in stone are MK day (lowest crowd day) and DC since I had to make a ressie for that.

 

[mommy23boysazh]

Gina~ Thanks so much for the info about Universal! I'm not planning to get the Express Passes since we will be going at an off-peak time, but maybe I'll be sorry... I was reading about those passes on the Universal site and the way I understood, you can only use the express pass once per ride? Is that right? So, if we really like a specific ride, we can only use the express pass once for it? Doesn't seem worth the $$, if that's the case. Although I also read someplace that they put ALL the express pass people on the rides before the regular ticketed people... My DH will NOT have much patience for THAT!

kkmcan~ It sounds like you are doing a VERY similar trip to ours! I'd love to hear how it goes. Maybe you could post an update when you return, to this thread? I didn't notice how old your kids are. Mine are all old enough to be able to withstand a lot of activity, but I'd still want at least one down day. Our last 2 trips were 9-10 days, which was great. This one will only be 7 days. Wish it was longer!

 

[dougsmom98]

We went to Universal this past trip. We got three day tickets. We did not get the express pass and we didn't need it even though we went during school vacation week. My friend went the same week and bought the express pass, because she didn't get to the parks early, she didn't get to do 1/4 of the stuff that we did. If you choose not to get the express tickets, I highly recommend using the touring plan found in the Unofficial Guide to Disney World book and I recommend getting to the parks early. We got the parks before opening and we did nearly everything in two days (missed a couple of shows) with hardly any wait and then we were able to finish up with anything we missed on the third day. We did most of the headliners 2X3 times. In our family we have 4 kids (boys 14, 12, 12, and a girl 7). As a family, we enjoyed Universal Studios more than Island of Adventure. The boys liked Islands of Adventure, but my daughter was a little bored. She was tall enough to go on everything but she didn't want to ride things like the Hulk or Dr. Doom's Freefall. I tried to get her to go on rides in Seuss Landing while her brothers were on roller coasters but she didn't want to go on the rides without the rest of the family, so we went later in the day as a family. For us, splitting up and dividing and conquering wouldn't have worked well because we are so used to the 6 of us together on vacation that just one or two of us together is kind of ho hum...

We had planned to go to Disney for one day and go to the Magic Kingdom this past trip since we have some non expiring tickets with days left on them, but our family was hit with the stomach bug for the first 2.5 days of our trip. Our Universal Tickets were promotional (buy 2 days get 1 free) and they expired in June, so by the time we were able to get to a theme park, we ran out of time for Magic Kingdom.

I personally would plan the majority of my trip around DC, Aquatica, Universal and then if you have time and your daughter wants to go to MK still, buy a 1 day ticket.