Help Me Please!!!!

[ilovehawaii19]

I am planning a trip to orlando soon and i was wondering how many days i should spend at disney, and at universal studios and what other attractions that are good to see around there. Also, what type of tickets should i get parkhopper, base? Please Help!

 

[Aliceacc]

HI and welcome!

Tell us a bit more-- do you have kids, what time of year are you thinking, budget...??

To be honest, this is our first trip to Orlando since 1990, and the first with kids. We're doing 6 nights, 7 days, just Disney. It's 4 big theme parks (plus 2 water parks we're not even going to)-- that's more than enough to occupy my family for a week. And some of the resorts are AMAZING-- you may want to leave some time for them.

When my husband and I did last go (before kids) our one detour was to Cape Canaveral-- it was most certainly worth seeing. Also, judging from your screen name, can we assume that seeing the ocean for the first time isn't a priority?

Give us more info, and we'll be HAPPY to give you some opinions!!!

 

[disneygal922]

i've been to Disney a couple of times, but this will be my first as an adult. We are spending 5 days in the parks and know there is NO WAY we will be able to do everything we want to! I reccomment 6nights 7 days for a trip. Definitely get the park hoppers. They are very convienent especially if you want to eat at multiple places in Epcot like we do! We spend the day in one park and hop to Epcot for dinner! I agree with the PP, I went to Cape Canaveral when I was little and it was amazing, one of my best trip memories! hope this helps!

 

[disneytab]

Can't really answer this without more info. Who's going? When? Where staying? What are your definite 'must dos' on your trip? You need to rate them in order of importance. . .Disney (if so, which parks) , Universal, Sea World, Cape Can. There's NO WAY to do it all. . .so decide what has to be done and aim for that

ALWAYS get park hopper. If you don't, you'll have that great opportunity for supper at Epcot but will miss it

 

[Jollean]

We just got back and feel we had just the perfect amount of time.

Here is my suggestion based on our household (2 adults and 1, 8 year old)

2 Days Universal
(1 Day Universal, 1 Day Adventure Island)

1 Water Park Day

6 Days at Disneyworld
(2 Days EPCOT, 1 Day MGM, 1 Day Animal, 2 Days Magic Kingdom)

2 Days off
(Sleep in days, hang by the pool days, discount mall shopping)

Total: 11 Days

In reality Florida has a lot to offer and you really need more than one trip!

 

[marypoppinswannabe]

Some other suggestions:


Sea World
Discovery Cove (although this may be part of another park, I am not sure.)
Also, Busch gardens is in Tampa
And the beach would be a good day trip as well. I can't remember how far Orlando is from the beach.

Also, if you are going for the first time and you are only going to spend 4 days at the parks, then I would do a base ticket, that way, you could make the most of each park. If you got a parkhopper, you might spend more time going in between the parks.

 

[Tammysue5]

I can only share my limited experience... we went last year for our very first WDW vacation Me, DH, DS16, DD8 and DD5. We stayed 12 days and it was wonderful... we did not have to worry about cramming everything into one day. While we did MANY things,,, we realized that there are MANY things we did not even get to do. We are taking our second WDW vacation this year... for 1 week (end of Aug/Sept) We decided that we are not even doing the water parks,,, just the four theme parks trying to catch things we missed the first time. We LOVED the park hoppers.. the flexibility was more than worth it for us... We went to one park that morning and it was horribly crowded, so we hopped over to another and it was perfect. We did that over our whole trip... if we missed something at one park that we really wanted we could start at one park and finish up at another.

 

[ambroz4disney]

10

 

[Mkgaapril]

Get the park hopper!!!! I can't stress this enough. If you are there for 6 days or less you really want them. As someone said the dinner thing is a big issue. I went once with just a base ticket and it SUCKED... all other times i did park hopper. I have purchased the water park and found it to be a complete waste of my time. I can swim at the hotel if I want. The past two times my family was able to get free ticket upgrades and didn't step foot in the water park....I will say if you are there for 10 days and if you are not using the dining plan i would use base..just my opinion ....have fun.....

 

[DisneyMagick2008]

I also agree. Get the park hopper. That way, if you get to a park and are there for a while and don't like it or you find yourself wishing that you were at a different park, you aren't stuck there. It also helps in dining as mentioned above. The flexibility is well worth the upcharge.

 

[srwarden1928]

DONT get the park hopper. Its your first trip. There is so much to see. Save yourself some money. Disney takes a MINIMUM of four days--one for each park. Each is unique and worthwhile. Many will tell you a minimum of five or six days because Epcot and Magic Kingdom have so much. Spend as much time (and money) as you wish at Disney. It is so worth it.

Sea World is an excellent park in Orlando and well worth your time. Busch Gardens is in nearby Tampa. It is also an excellent park. Cypress Gardens and Silver Springs are smaller parks in Winter Haven and Ocala. They are worthwhile.

Ive heard that Gatorland is a good half day diversion.

Tampa also has the Museum of Science and Industry and the Florida Aquarium. These are worthwhile attractions. If you have enough time and want to go that far, there are many smaller excellent attractions in Sarasota: Ringling Museum, Mote Marine Aquarium, Marie Selby Gardens, a classic car museum whose name escapes me at the moment, and several others.

Sarasota, Bradenton, and especially St. Petersburg have wonderful beaches if you like that.

The Kennedy Space Center is not far from Orlando in the other directions and has an interesting .

It all depends on what interests your family and what you want out of your vacation. Also how much time you have available.

 

[Stack316]

I am planning a trip to orlando soon and i was wondering how many days i should spend at disney, and at universal studios and what other attractions that are good to see around there. Also, what type of tickets should i get parkhopper, base? Please Help!

If I had a lot of money, I would have stayed at a universal hotel for 2 1 night and hit the two parks, since they have line privaledges, then on to a Disney hotel to allow access to the Disney bus service and Extra magic hours.

I would not Park hop, and depending on how long you stay, I would not do the water parks and more.

if staying offsite this file will help you
check out this spreadsheet I made for last year, we did a similar trip as to what you are suggesting:

http://www.editgrid.com/user/stack31...ing_share?ro=1

Once in the site Choose
FILE
then EXPORT AS
Choose Excel

 

[justplaingoofy]

Depends on:
-when your last trip to disney was?
-what month you are looking to travel?
-will you be staying on property or off?
-if traveling w/ children & their ages?


If your last trip was a while ago then you'll probably need more time. Also, if you are going during a peak season then you'll probably spend alot of time waiting in lines. If you are staying on property then you can do the extra magic hours and would be amazed at how many attractions you can do from
8a-9a.

Disney has changed its pricing structure over the last couple of years. You can now purchase tickets that expire within 14 days of first use which makes them alot more affordable. By buying these tickets extra days are only an additional $1-2 more per person. So it will probably cost you more $ to go over to Universal since extra days are so inexpensive.

If you are going at a busy time you might also want to consider going to Disney first, then going over to a Universal property because if you stay on Universal property you can use their "special lines for Universal guests think its called something "express". It is a card thingie that you get when you check in. so if you want to go to Universal for 2 days I would go to Disney first, check out first thing in the am, then go over to Universal and check in for 1 night. they will give you the "express thingie" which you can use that day and will also be good for the next day that you are due to check out. In my experience Universal lodging was more expensive than Disney and the least priced property to get the express pass is royal pacific.

 

[chcmama]

We just got back from our first trip, our goal was to see as much as possible because we don't know when we will be going back. It was 2 adults and 3 kids (10, 7, and 2 1/2) We spent 1 1/2 days in each park, we found because it wasn't as crowded we didn't need 2 full days for MK, we could have spent more time in Epcot, but the kids didn't want to. We also spent a little more time in DHS and AK then some poeple do. If we returned though we probably wouldn't even spend a full day at DHS. We like having the park option for the day's we did half days, we spent morning in MK and afternoon in Epcot. We also spent a day in Sea World and 3 days at the waterparks. My family loves waterparks (I don't care either way) We were there for 2 weeks and no way would we have been able to fit in Universal. If we were there at a busier time we would have needed more time though.

 

[december]

We've been to WDW twice without park hoppers, and I won't get them next March either. For us, we didn't want to give up time in the parks to move from park to park! We stay from opening to close, and there is so much to see (from the opening ceremony, to the parades, and night time entertainment). And it was easier to plan our dining by the days we'd be in each park. I think 6 days in WDW is the best (as stated above)-2 days for Epcot (concentrate on WS one day and FW the other-my kids love Epcot!), 2 in MK, one in AK and DS. We have a great water park an hour from here, so I don't bother with them in WDW. And my kids like to swim on our AK night (while I do laundry near the pool) since it usually closes early. An extra day to sleep in and explore would be good as well. We plan to do the same thing next spring.

Then in 2010 I want to take the kids to Universal (Harry Potter World) and SeaWorld/Discovery Cove. I think this will be a vacation all by itself.

In 9 days we are going to CA for the 1st time, and we will hop there since the 2 parks are side by side. They are just too spread out for it to work for us in WDW. We are also going to SeaWorld San Diego, so I'm very excited about that!