July-August 2026 - anyone else?

[disneyholic family]

So i've finally finished all the hotel reservations for this summer.
We'll be in Orlando from July 27 to August 20.
Anyone else going then?
We've decided to really expand our time at Universal.
We start there when we arrive on July 27, staying for 9 nights through August 5th.
Then we move over to Disney for August 5th until the 20th.

I'm obsessed and continue to obsess over the details for our group of 10 (grandparents, kids and grandkids).

And adding to my worries about making it a perfect trip for everyone, the murder of the 3 tourists the other day didn't serve to calm my nerves at all.

 

[DVCyore]

Exciting! That's quite the sizeable group. Are you all staying in the same resort?

I have late Aug - early Sept booked in Universal and WDW!

Everything going on in the US hasn't got me feeling me most confident about traveling.. I've said to my partner if things kick off over there we can go to Japan instead and do Disney and Universal there

 

[disneyholic family]

Exciting! That's quite the sizeable group. Are you all staying in the same resort?

I have late Aug - early Sept booked in Universal and WDW!

Everything going on in the US hasn't got me feeling me most confident about traveling.. I've said to my partner if things kick off over there we can go to Japan instead and do Disney and Universal there

Japan is our 2027 destination.
We plan about 6 years out where we'll be each summer.
2026 was assigned to Orlando because of Epic Universe.
We wanted to see it, but decided on 2026, since at the time we decided, Epic was still a few years away from being finished.
We figured it would for sure be done by 2026.

The 10 comprise my husband and me, our son, his wife and 3 kids (ages 12, 10, 8 in the summer), our daughter, her husband and 2 year old.
We'll all be in the same resorts together.

As for Japan, i'm already stressed about planning that one.
I know all about orlando, but japan? Not so much, even though i've been there. But never with kids so it will all be new.

Getting back to Universal, i sure hope 9 days is enough. It probably won't be, but it's better than zero!!!

I'm getting the 14 day tickets for both universal and disney.

Regarding safety, i think we'll do a lot less off property shopping than we usually do.
We usually go to the malls etc. But i won't feel comfortable doing that this time i don't think.

 

[manakin]

I’ll be on a solo trip in disneyworld from the 3rd of August to the 14th!
I have to say I’m thinking about the whole situation….and yes, I think I’ll stay in the bubble and go out only for couple of days in Universal and seaworld, but that’s it. I will probably do a garden grocer order so I don’t have to go for groceries.
But I really want to go, it’s been 3 years and I wanted to do something nice for myself xD

 

[disneyholic family]

I’ll be on a solo trip in disneyworld from the 3rd of August to the 14th!
I have to say I’m thinking about the whole situation….and yes, I think I’ll stay in the bubble and go out only for couple of days in Universal and seaworld, but that’s it. I will probably do a garden grocer order so I don’t have to go for groceries.
But I really want to go, it’s been 3 years and I wanted to do something nice for myself xD

so you'll be there when we're there.
are you going to get that special fastpass, whatever it's called?
Although you can do single rider lines on the attractions that have them, so that's pretty good.
and august is usually pretty good in terms of lower crowds, since kids start going back to school then.
That's why when we arrive at the end of july, we're starting at universal where we'll have express pass.
we won't have it at disney, but hopefully it won't be necessary.

i just got the ESTA two weeks ago for our youngest granddaughter.
I always get it early just in case there's a problem so that there's time to get a visa if necessary.
Anyway, the ESTA authorization came i think in 20 minutes after i submitted the application.
That's crazy fast!!!

 

[manakin]

so you'll be there when we're there.
are you going to get that special fastpass, whatever it's called?
Although you can do single rider lines on the attractions that have them, so that's pretty good.
and august is usually pretty good in terms of lower crowds, since kids start going back to school then.
That's why when we arrive at the end of july, we're starting at universal where we'll have express pass.
we won't have it at disney, but hopefully it won't be necessary.

i just got the ESTA two weeks ago for our youngest granddaughter.
I always get it early just in case there's a problem so that there's time to get a visa if necessary.
Anyway, the ESTA authorization came i think in 20 minutes after i submitted the application.
That's crazy fast!!!

I still have to do the esta, I’ll probably do it around march (and yes, usually it’s quite a fast process of approval!)

I don’t know yet if I really need to do lighting lanes…I mean, I’m alone, patient and I will have time to enjoy myself and the parks, so I won’t really be in a rush xD maybe I’ll do some single Lightning lanes (like Rise or flight of passage), but knowing the weather will be crazy hot I’ll just try to use late Hours in the parks to have better chance in low waits.

 

[disneyholic family]

I still have to do the esta, I’ll probably do it around march (and yes, usually it’s quite a fast process of approval!)

I don’t know yet if I really need to do lighting lanes…I mean, I’m alone, patient and I will have time to enjoy myself and the parks, so I won’t really be in a rush xD maybe I’ll do some single Lightning lanes (like Rise or flight of passage), but knowing the weather will be crazy hot I’ll just try to use late Hours in the parks to have better chance in low waits.

we definitely won't do lightning lanes. First off, i can't afford it for all 10 of us!!!!!!
and since we're there for so many days, if there's really something we want, we can try rope dropping it.
but fortunately, none of us are too bothered by missing something.
although i think we will want to try the updated buzz lightyear...
what else is new? oh test track...that for sure i guess....
it will be fine...i think everyone really just likes being there without being too fussed about what in particular we go on..
on the other hand, everyone is going to be really sad about splash mountain.
when we rode it for the last time during our prior visit, a few of us actually did shed a tear..

 

[nursejackie]

Deleted

 

[cheryl.UK]

We will be there 29 August to 17 September. We are giving universal a miss. We don't do many coasters and TBH, other than the Potter sections, Universal leaves us flat. We are staying at BLT for the first 8 nights then BCV for the rest of the time as we are DVC members. There's just me and my DH this year.

Like you we don't do Lightning Lanes and just go with the flow. We have APs so we really don't care if we don't do something on a specific day, we can always do it later at night (We are not rope drop people)

 

[disneyholic family]

We will be there 29 August to 17 September. We are giving universal a miss. We don't do many coasters and TBH, other than the Potter sections, Universal leaves us flat. We are staying at BLT for the first 8 nights then BCV for the rest of the time as we are DVC members. There's just me and my DH this year.

Like you we don't do Lightning Lanes and just go with the flow. We have APs so we really don't care if we don't do something on a specific day, we can always do it later at night (We are not rope drop people)

that's a spectacular time to go!!! for sure you'll have the lowest crowds of the year and probably the beginning of not so insanely hot/humid weather.
we love both BLT and BCV!! We're also DVC (BLT is our home resort).

Do you go multiple times a year? I wish we could, but since we'll only be at WDW for 14 days, we'll have UK 14 day tickets.

we used to not like universal, but in 2022, disney did away with the 21 day UK ticket, which is what we always bought (and stayed at WDW for 21 days).
Since i'd already booked our plane tickets, i was stuck with a week of nothing to do, so we stayed at Universal for most of it and fell in love. We stayed concierge at the royal pacific and the service was absolutely outstanding!!!!!
Our kids (in their late 30s and grandkids really enjoy universal, both the harry potter areas and the rest of the parks.
I don't know why we started enjoying it so much in 2022 when we'd really hated it back in 2011 when we went for the first time.

Anyway, hopefully we'll all have a great time with no hurricanes. LOL.

 

[cheryl.UK]

That's exactly why we did Universal in 2022 but we stayed at WDW. We don't go to Florida every year , just most years lol. We too have BLT points as well as SSR. Last year was our first time at BCV and we loved it so this year we are going for less time but staying for 11 nights at BCV. We buy the DVC annual pass and go twice within 12 months so we get up to 7 weeks out of one pass. It works out at £17 per day. I do like a bargain.