How would you plan?

[rdominy]

we are planning a trip from Monday December 26 - Saturday January 7.
13 total days in parks.
Thinking 10 day Disney ticket
(At least 4 days at MK and at least 1 day in each of the other parks)
2 days at universal
1 day at Lego land
Obviously some of the days we will be there will be drastically different than others. Would you stay off property for the first few days while you were doing the other parks or do a split stay on property as we are planning on doing the dining plan and that would give us more flexibility of when we visit the other parks and could mix it up.

What days would you plan? We don't want to do magic kingdom on nye but would be interested in doing it the night before to see the same show. We will have a 9 year old girl and a 2 year old boy at that time.

Thanks for any advise.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

First of all, that's a lot of park days during a very busy time of year. I would consider taking 1 or 2 days off from the parks.

I would do a split stay. There will be a lot of traffic that time of year and I wouldn't recommend driving from WDW to Universal for day trips. Plus, you get early entry perks if you stay onsite at Universal. I would recommend starting with 3 nights at Universal, going to Legoland on the day you switch from your Universal resort to your WDW resort and spending the last part of your stay in WDW as the crowds will start to thin out around Jan. 3. I would not stay the whole time at WDW, especially with the dining plan. Having the dining plan on the days you visit Universal and Legoland would be a bit of a waste of money, IMHO, as you'll have to pay OOP for your food at the non-Disney parks.

If you plan on going to MK for the fireworks on Dec. 30, be prepared to go at rope drop and staying all day. It is likely MK will close due to capacity and it may be hard to get in if you don't go in the morning.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

First of all, that's a lot of park days during a very busy time of year. I would consider taking 1 or 2 days off from the parks.

I would do a split stay. There will be a lot of traffic that time of year and I wouldn't recommend driving from WDW to Universal for day trips. Plus, you get early entry perks if you stay onsite at Universal. I would recommend starting with 3 nights at Universal, going to Legoland on the day you switch from your Universal resort to your WDW resort and spending the last part of your stay in WDW as the crowds will start to thin out around Jan. 3. I would not stay the whole time at WDW, especially with the dining plan. Having the dining plan on the days you visit Universal and Legoland would be a bit of a waste of money, IMHO, as you'll have to pay OOP for your food at the non-Disney parks.

If you plan on going to MK for the fireworks on Dec. 30, be prepared to go at rope drop and staying all day. It is likely MK will close due to capacity and it may be hard to get in if you don't go in the morning.

Totally agree with this.

And I will add something I learned after multiple trips with two DDs (now 9 and 3):

Plan for some late nights with sleeping in for the morning.

Plan some early mornings with early bedtimes.

Late nights and early mornings are the best times to be in the parks, IMO. Just be sure to bring plenty of warm clothing. We saw some people in t-shirts and shorts last week when temps were in the low 60's. They looked cold. We were glad to have our sweatshirts and could have used some even warmer clothing.

We like to have a late night or two (stay in parks until midnight), but in the past I was not good about planning hours the next day for resting and relaxing. I was so busy planning FPs and ADRs that I forgot to plan the downtime.

With the way FPs work, I don't like to take any non-park days, since we get 3 FPs on every day we have a ticket (and you will have a 10 day ticket, so pretty much you can be in the parks every day when you are not at Universal or Legoland).
I like to book 3 FPs every day and some days just spend a few hours in the parks, use our FPs, do a couple of other low wait attractions or shows, then head back to the resort. My DD (9) loved being in the resort and watching Disney Channel. She could have done that for hours (though I am not sure I could have taken it much longer).

Your kids will wear out. If you push them hard, they will get grumpy and fussy and make the entire trip miserable. I have learned that the hard way. I wouldn't try to see and do everything. Pick some must-do's, plan your FP's well, and give yourself some flexibility.

I'd stay at a Universal deluxe hotel for three nights, then move to a Disney hotel for 10 nights with dining plan.