Itenerary advice request

[soupy11]

Hi everyone,

My wife (34), Mom (65) and I (32) are going to Orlando in October 2004. I am drawing up an itenerary as we speak and could use some help. Here is what I have so far.... please note we are not staying on disney property but will have our own car.

Saturday October 9th, 2004 - Arrive at Hotel 3-4pm. Check in, shower, relax, swim. We are driving from Toronto, Ontario and will be pretty tired from the 21 hour stretch. We are going to get in the Disney mood by having P.S for Ohana's at 7pm. (we are hoping to see the fireworks and are guessing that 7pm will be a close time.) After dinner we will wander about Polynesian resort and then head back for bed.

Sunday October 10th, 2004 - Nothing planned other than shopping/downtown disney, resort sightseeing/boardwalk etc. We are trying to avoid the parks on this very busy weekend (it is a holiday right?) We are going to have dinner at 7. Probably eat at Red Lobster as we are big big fans and this is a tradition.

Monday October 11th, 2004 - Animal Kingdom. We figure this will be the best place to be to manage crowds (holiday?) We also have plans to take the Sterling Casino Cruise at 7pm out of Canaveral. Therefore the early closing at AK facilitates this.

Tuesday October 12th, 2004 - Disney Studios. We are doing lunch at SCI-FI and dinner at Prime-time. Staying until close to see the night shows.

Wednesday October 13th, 2004 - Epcot all day with dinner at Tepenyaki (mom is insisting on a japanese steak house experience.)

Thursday October 14th, 2004 - Magic Kingdom all day followed by MNSSHP that night.

Friday October 15th, 2004 - Universal Studios and IOA (we were here in February 2004 so we can blow through both parks in one day. (we probably would not even bother but mom is insisting on this park. Loves the thrill rides) Dinner at Citywalk (Marleys?)

Saturday October 16th, 2004 - Crowds again? Weekend? We need to hit a water park so is this a good day for it? We have nothing planned yet.

Sunday October 17th, 2004 - No plans here, HELP!

Monday October 18th, 2004 - Check out of our hotel and hit the road for home.

As you can see we have a stretch of time on the second weekend with no plans. We try our best to avoid the crowds at the parks so therefore we have them scheduled work week. Are the water parks ok to try on a Saturday? Wife needs to book some time in to rollerskate (there is a great place in Kissimee for this.) Maybe the 17th or 18th will work for this.

So any thoughts on what to do with our schedule? Thoughts on our crowd control strategy? We don't hate crowds but we try our best to avoid them. Maybe a five day park hopper would be best and the second weekend we can park hop our favourites? I am seriously scratching my head over it. Thanks for reading this lengthy nonsense.

 

[Disney Fool]

looks okay to me, other than the fact that you may want to spend more time in Epcot at this time of year, as the Food and Wine Festival will be going on. Check out this link:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guides/epcot/events/index.htm

 

[soupy11]

Thats a good idea, how is epcot on a saturday? Maybe we will upgrade to a 5 day pass and use it on the saturday.

 

[Hollua]

Seems like a good schedule. I would try to fit the water parks in on a weekday. The local kids will be all over the water parks on the weekend. I think Epcot on a weekend at that time of year is fine.

The only thing I'd want different if my DH made this schedule is the restaurant choices at MGM. The Sci-Fi has a cool venue, but not so great food. I'm not a huge fan of Prime-time either. It's just okay. I'd go for Mama Melrose for sure. Or even Hollywood & Vine (okay food, many choices being a buffet). Just my tastes.

Sounds like great planning. Have fun!

 

[redskiesx25]

Seems like a good schedule. I would try to fit the water parks in on a weekday. The local kids will be all over the water parks on the weekend. I think Epcot on a weekend at that time of year is fine.

The only thing I'd want different if my DH made this schedule is the restaurant choices at MGM. The Sci-Fi has a cool venue, but not so great food. I'm not a huge fan of Prime-time either. It's just okay. I'd go for Mama Melrose for sure. Or even Hollywood & Vine (okay food, many choices being a buffet). Just my tastes.


I've heard many bad things about Mama Melrose, i know i haven't been there myself, but i have heard some terrible things. Also, Hollywood & Vine is quite expensive...and i personally liked sci-fi and Prime-time was a lot of fun.. and both food i liked, but thats just me.

 

[Eeyore2003]

I'm not sure if this would work or not and maybe someone else knows how busy ECPOT is on off season week-ends, but you might want to take your EPCOT day and do a water park day in the middle just for a break and then do EPCOT on the week-end. You could end your water park day with a nice dinner at a more adult Disney place. DH and I like Le Cellier and Artist Point alot.


Also, you're not staying at Disney and Thursday is EMH day for MK. Just so you know there will be more crowds than usual. Whether that makes a difference in October, I don't know. Actually, I just looked over your whole itinerary, and you have every park scheduled for an EMH day. Again, I'm not sure what it's like off season, but realize there will already have been people streaming in there for an hour already, maybe you might want to re-think that. Especially, AK on a holiday monday. Maybe someone who's gone more often in October will know if this really makes a big difference at that time of year.

Don't forget things like miniature golf. The SummerWinterland is really cute and fun. Also, you may enjoy just looking at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, if you go all the way to the back of the lobby, you can walk out to a lookout over the savannah. The lodge itself is worth a look, same goes for Wilderness Lodge.

I also ditto the Mama Melrose comment. We didn't like it very much. We like Sci Fi, 50's Prime Time, and are trying Hollywood and Vine in July. Didn't care for Brown Derby either. It gets such good review though, so maybe we had a bad day.

 

[soupy11]

Good stuff there. I will keep AK on the monday due to its early closing and the need for us to be at port canaveral for 7pm. If I shuffle MGM and MK around, I think that will help out a lot. Epcot on the Saturday with a down day mid week. That way we can hit a water park at a semi-quiet time of the week. Mini-golf sounds awesome as well, that is going on the list. Thanks