Help please!!! - Parks synopsis

[lisagirlyUK]

Hi all,

further to my previous post called 'Do we really need in itenerary?', I have had the idea of putting together a kind of park synopsis sheet instead. What I am going to do is list each park that we have a ticket for, list the quietest days to visit each of these parks (thanks to the Brits guide) and also have a basic description of each park and how long to estimate spending there.

We have a 5 day disney ticket. Now I have pretty much worked out form this forum that if you visit Disney, its best to go in the morning, go back and relax at the villa in the afternoon and come back in the evening. We also are entitled to 2 vists to the WDW BB, TL, DD, PI and world of sports. I dont know what any of these are so if anyone could recommend any of them and what they are and how long to spend in them.

We also have the 5park flexi ticket to BG, US, IoA, SW, WnW plus a complimentary vist to universal city walk. I found out we can visit these parks as much as we like during our stay. I'd appreciate of anyone could give us a park synopsis for each of these too and how long we would need at each one.

Basically I want to plan out which parks:
1. we would need to take an entire day out for (such as WDW)
2. which places to visit in the day that wouldnt be too tiring eg. somewhere to go in the day if we were going to a Dinner show or a nice meal in the evening.
3. Which ones involve or are waterparks and would be good to visit on a warm day

All advice would be much appreciated!!!

Thanks and bye!

 

[marv]

hi
I posted my itenery on uk planning thread (Itenery) have a look and you may get some ideas. As a family of 5 with older children our itenery is busy but myself and my husband cant bare to be still on holiday. We like to see and do loads and the children are the same, i think we will all be shattered but thats ok. We are doing the water parks wich are Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach as a more relaxing day and not getting to the water park untill dinnertime or after, just a chilling out day. As for the Parks such as Epcot and MK we will spend all day there and then watch the fireworks i will take change of clothes and jumpers if needed in bags and leave in lockers. We are staying in Kissimee and seems waste of time going back to resort. I have read my guide book front to back over and over and came up with our Itenery taking into consideration: that we have children, making sure we see everything we want, going to certain parks on their light days, shopping, and certain days to relax. I am pleased i have done it as there will be no body worried the eve before wondering what to do. It takes the thinking out of the holiday which can sometimes waste time, but if anything crops up or we dont feel like doing something we can allways change it our Itenery is not cast in stone and can be changed.

hope thats some help
Marv

 

[CarolDel]

I have a spreadsheet that may help a bit, I went through a couple of books and internet sites to work out the busy, average & light days, and have a quick breakdown of what are the main attractions at each park.(colour coded by type of attraction)

Can't tell you about how long in each park, never been myself. don't know how long you are staying, but if you want to see an itinerary for 3 weeks with all parks and loads of breaks for the other attractions and shopping let me know

I have been in planning hyper mode putting lists,journals & files together to make the most of our time there, if anyone else can use it , more than happy to share.

drop me a pm with your email if you want me to send it.

Carol

 

[juliebro]

Lisagirly,

It sounds like you need a good guide book - if you have not already got it, I suggest the Brit's Guide to Orlando and WDW by Simon Veness. It has details of the busiest/quietest days, what the 'must see' and 'must do' attractions are at each of the parks, and even has a couple of suggested itineraries which you can use as a basis.

On our first trip we had the same tickets as you have - but found we didn't really get to use them all on our 2 week trip. In fact, I ended up selling our flex tickets to a ticket agent just before we cam home as they still had a week left on them. We still had one Disney day and the 2 water park days left too. We used them up on our last trip.

Also we found that park-hopping or returning to our villa for a break in the middle of the day took too longer than we expected - so generally ended up staying at one park for the whole of the day.

IMHO you need one whole day for MGM (especially if you include Fantasmic), another whole day for MK (including the fireworks), at least one day for Epcot (else a very long one - starting early and leaving late) but that AK can be done in less than a day.

We also spent a whole day at each water park (BB & TL) on our last visit - but that was down to long queues for the slides. It was just before Easter so was quite busy.

I am currently busy planning our next trip - and have posted our itinerary on another thread. My work colleagues think I'm mad putting so much effort into planning the trip - bu then they have never been! IMHO it's vital to have some sort of plan - although you have to build in a bit of flexibility.

Good luck!

Julie

 

[KayleeUK]

We got to the Water Parks - Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach at opening time, this was to make sure we got a good lounger. We always found we were ready to leave about 1pm. It got far too hot for me We then headed back to the resort showered and changed and then went to a park in the evening

Pleasure Island will be a good evening out for you. There are many clubs to visit. We enjoy the Comedy Club and the Rock n Roll Beach Club.

Do you have tickets for DisneyQuest we spend a couple of evenings in here and love building our own rollercoaster.

I hope these links help you

 

[vernon]

Here's a very brief (personal) view on the amount of time each park needs and their particular "slants".

MK, needs 1.5-2 days to cover all the rides and shows here. MK is definately aimed at the lower age groups, but is still enjoyable for all the family. Disney's strong point is it's "themeing" of each ride and attraction, while some of the rides lack in cutting edge "thrills" it's impossible not to be impressed with the thought and work that goes into every attraction. If MK has a "weakness" it's in it's restaurant offerings, the best of which are the buffet brekkie and lunch at the Crystal Palace and the somewhat expensive pasta options at "Tony's" ( Lady and the Tramp)

Epcot, needs 1 day (but I prefer to cover it as two half days starting early afternoon and eating at one of the excellent restaurants around the world showcase each evening) IMHO Epcot is worth a visit if only for the excellent laser/firework show each evening. The rides are aimed more at educating than thrilling, although a couple of thrill rides have recently been added. Epcot usually appeals more to older guests, while kids can be amused relatively easily for a half day at a time, but IMHO a whole day in one go can be a stretch on their patience.

MGM studios 1 whole day. This is another Disney park aimed at younger guests, with some very cute shows that little girls in particular seem to adore. Again this doesn't mean that adults are left out, there are a lot of interesting rides and a couple of REALLY good thrill rides.

AK, depending on how keen you are on animals this can be anything from a token half day to three or four visits (half a day each). There are also some excelent rides and shows at this park. It is probably my favourite park, but there are also a lot of people that think it's a waste of time. Disney tried to do something different and add appeal to it's "world" with AK, I think they were successful but it's not a universal opinion.

Universal studios 1 day. There are some good rides here that kids enjoy, although few of the kids will be familiar with the movies the rides are based on. IMHO it's adults that get the most out of this park.

IOA 1 day ( maybe more if you're an adrenalin junkie or a teenager LOL) IMHO this is Orlando's finest "cutting edge" thrill ride park. It has a number of outstanding rides and in Spiderman has the best all round ride in Orlando. IOA also has some excellent restaurants and coupled with the others in Citywalk ( at the edge of the parks) offers probably the best eating options of all the parks.

SW, again it depends on your liking for watching animals. I like to spend at least a day and a half at SW. It's virtually impossible to cover all the shows at SW in one day due to their timings. If you are just interested in walking up to the seal and sealion enclosure and saying "OK we've done them" and leaving you can get though the park pretty quick, if you like to take a bit of time, watching the animals and allowing them to entertain you it can take a lot longer. SW also has a couple of excellent thrill rides.

BG it's possible to cover most of BG in one day, but not all of it and not taking time to allow an in depth look at the exibits. I prefer to take a couple of days. BG has the best selection of coasters,thrill rides and log flumes of all the parks in central Florida.

Disney's waterparks ( Typhoon lagoon and Blizzard Beach) are the best waterparks in the area, I like to get there pretty early ( close to opening) in order to make sure you get enough chairs/beds and that they are in areas where you can find shade if you desire. I don't usually leave before 4.00 in the afternoon and by the time you get home and shower there isn't much time left to do much else other than eat, although a trip to Cirque is one of the other options available to you.

DQ is a great afternoon for anyone that enjoys Virtual reality rides, they also have a selection of first generation computer game consols ( no payment for most of them) like pacman, missile command and frogger. It probably appeals most to 8-18 year olds but there are many things for their parents to enjoy. It's unlikely to be a major hit with 50+ age group.


DTD is a good selection of shops and restaurants, but doesn't use up any "ticket options". I think a couple of afternoons is enough to get most of it covered.

I haven't made it to PI yet ( always too tired LOL )


I would agree with getting a copy of Simon's "Brit's guide to Orlando". I'm not sure if you need to definately plan to take a break at midday all the time, I can see an argument for groups with young kids, but even then not everyone needs the break.

 

[Hilary]

Although I'm a firm advocate of taking a midday break, I think you might struggle to do this and still get to see and do everything you want to do in the Disney parks on the 5 day ticket. I'd suggest seeing how it goes on your first Disney park day and taking it from there.

I'd also agree that arriving at the water parks early and leaving earlier is a better plan that not arriving until the afternoon when it will be hot and busy.