Killing a day in Orlando

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Staying with family at Merritt Island. Driving in to pick up son at AK at park close and the end of his marching band trip on a Tuesday.

Will have four 14 year olds + 2 parents for sure. Possibly other family members (5, 7, 9, 10, adult) but not sure about that.

Best way to spend the day without going in to the parks? These are some of my thoughts. 14s are animal lovers. We've done Sea World San Diego

Downtown Disney
Gatorland
Sea World
Orlando Eye
Aquarium

Could i take a shuttle from DTD to AK to collect him?
Or I assume there is a way to pick up without paying to park?

Thanks so much! It's been a long time, but this board made a great trip for us in 2009 WDW and 2012 DLR.

 

[Upatnoon]

Staying with family at Merritt Island. Driving in to pick up son at AK at park close and the end of his marching band trip on a Tuesday.

Will have four 14 year olds + 2 parents for sure. Possibly other family members (5, 7, 9, 10, adult) but not sure about that.

Best way to spend the day without going in to the parks? These are some of my thoughts. 14s are animal lovers. We've done Sea World San Diego

Downtown Disney
Gatorland
Sea World
Orlando Eye
Aquarium

Could i take a shuttle from DTD to AK to collect him?
Or I assume there is a way to pick up without paying to park?

Thanks so much! It's been a long time, but this board made a great trip for us in 2009 WDW and 2012 DLR.

You can take the Disney transportation anywhere for free, thus using it from AKL to Disney Springs is fine. You can also drive to the resort and pick him up. They have free parking for that purpose, or just looking around the resort and eating.

You could go to Gatorland, then in the evening to to Disney springs or the boardwalk area, then to AKL to pick him up.

It is fun to walk around AKL and see the animals there as well, for free.

Since you will be there at night, you could also watch the MK fireworks from Poly.

 

[bankr63]

Upatnoon, I think she is thinking of pickup at the park directly. Pirate1+Princess4 be aware that you can't get a DT bus from Disney Springs directly to any park. You can get a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge (as Upatnoon indicates) which is near to the AK park, but DS would need to take a bus from AK to AKL as well and meet you there. If you are driving, I know that MK has a free drop off where the taxi stand is, but looking at AK on Google Earth it appears that these zones are inside the paid parking area, so probably not. (At MK you go through the furthest right parking booth and veer off onto the road for MK resorts just after the booth - the attendant will direct you, or you can go the back way up Vista Blvd and avoid the parking booth).

All of your suggestions are fun ones. SeaWorld is a full day park experience, I don't think I would plan on much more, but maybe DS for the evening. Gatorland and the Aquarium/Eye are generally half-day diversions - you could probably do all 3 in a day. If the 4 princesses are shoppers, DS will need a fair bit of time as well.

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Thank you so much!!! I did a little more research and have some ideas, especially if it's just us and not the extended family. Knowing that most of that is a 1/2 day diversion will give us an opportunity to be as leisurely as we'd like. My original question was about picking up at AK and not AKL, as that is where the tour buses will pick up the band and make the lonnnng trip home. I'll know more about how to collect him after the big meeting on Monday.

BUT I ADORE the idea of roaming around AKL with the princesses. I might be able to stay with them while DH takes the car to collect the pirate. Then they can meet up with us before our drive back to the coast. I imagine he'll be exhausted and ready to go straight there. We are planning to do KSC the next day and we'll likely arrive early and spend the entire day there, so don't need a late night.

Oh, and I guess the name has changed from Downtown Disney to Disney Springs? Guess it's been longer than I thought. I remember Pleasure Island before the pirate and princess were a twinkle in my eye *wink*

Also saw the Treetop Trek. That looks cool. But one of my princesses was "ho-hum" over the zipline at The Wilds in Ohio. Not sure I'm up for 2 - 3 hours in the tree tops, and pretty sure the pirate will be mad at us if we do that. But then..... WDW for him with no parental supervision.... so we can call it even.

Thanks again for the insight. It's MUCH appreciated.