Help with itinery

[disney 4me2]

Hi my husband age (48)and I age (45), son age 16, daughter age 9, are going to be in Orlando from april 18-25th, deaparting on the 26th. We are staying at Vistana Villages for 8 nights, and we will have a rental car. We have purchased 3 day Disney non-hopper tickets, as well as the 4 park Orlando flex tickets. The flex ticket allows unlimited ( up to 14 days) admission to Universal, City Walk, Islands of Adventure, Sea World and Wet and Wild. Our plane gets in at Orlando at 10:30 Monday morning, so we could do a half day at a park(flex tix) on the first day. We have not been to Disney World in 10 years, we went to Universal 5 years ago, and loved it!
So, I was thinking, day 1(arrival day) Sea World maybe universal later. Day 2 Majic Kingdom Day 3 Epcot Day 4 Wet and Wild Day 5 Animal Kingdom OR MGM Day 6 Universal Day 7 Wet and Wild Day 8 Universal Day 9 we leave in the morning Is this too much to try and do in 1 week? I would love to stay longer, but I teach and am already extending my spring break by 2 days! I am hoping to get in some pool time at the Vistana too, I thought we could return to the resort during the aftenoon for a few hours and then go back to the parks around 5 pm. They do let you return later in the day to the same park, right? Also, how much cash do you think we will need for the week? everything except food is already paid for and I have 6 Q&C vouchers. My husband thinks $2,000. I am assuming there will be ATM's at the parks, right? This board has been so helpful, thanks for all the wonderful advice and ideas!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Hey disney 4me2! Maybe we'll see you there! We're heading to WDW for 4/20-4/25.

Regarding your itinerary:

Given that your plane will arrive at 10:30am, the earliest that you can expect to be in a park is noon. Chances are great that you will arrive later than that. I would do Sea World until closing and call it a day on 4/18.

Since you're staying offsite, the EMH is not available to you. Avoid those parks their respective days in order to avoid the crowds. It looks like you will.

My personal preference would be MGM over the AK if I could only visit 3 parks. MGM has longer hours and more "thrill" rides, which might appeal more to your DS16. I would recommend doing MGM on 4/23 (Day 6) because it will be open until 10pm that night (it closes at 8:30pm on 4/22 - Day 5). Go to Universal on Day 5, instead.

Try not to see it all in this trip. You can't and you'll exhaust yourself trying. You can leave the parks at any time and return to the same park without losing a day on your MYW passes. Just make sure that you get your hand stamped when you exit.

Taking a break mid-day is a good idea but I'm not sure how convenient it will be to return to your resort. If it takes more than an hour for a roundtrip, I would find a way to relax within the park or at a nearby resort (a monorail resort for the MK, BW, YC&BC for EPCOT, AKL for AK, Hard Rock Hotel or Portofino Bay for USF/IOA). For MGM, you would need to take a bus to a nearby resort (I suggest CSR, use your Q&C's at the Pepper Market).

Have each family member choose 3 "must do" attractions for each park and make sure that you hit those. Anything after that will be a bonus. This assures everyone that they will get to do what they want most.

With regard to your spending money:

You will need to pay for parking at each park. That's going to eat up about $8/day. Once you pay to park, you can leave and return without paying again at the Disney parks. I believe the same is true for USF/IOA but I'm unsure about Sea World.

You will also need to pay for most of your meals because 6 Q&C's aren't going to go too far. I budget $125/day for our family of 4 (DH,myself, DD14 & DS13). We usually do 1 sitdown meal per day but we eat breakfast in our room. For 10 days, that would mean a food budget of $1250.

This would leave you with just under $700 for souvenirs, tipping and misc. charges. To me, that's a very reasonable amount of extra cash. There are ATMs in the parks and you can also use a check card, debit card or credit card at most locations throughout the parks.