Mardi Gras 2012 - how to plan?

[mommyof2boys1girl]

We are planning a first ever family trip to Orlando, staying on property at WDW, but want to include Universal for at least 2 days of our Feb holiday. Departing the frozen North on Feb 16, 13 nts in sunny FL, flying back home Feb 28. With this itinerary, we straddle 2 weekends (President's Day long weekend and Mardi Gras), and one probably very busy week at all parks. Originally I had intended to do WDW for our first 4 days, head to Universal mid-week (hoping to avoid crowds) and then finish up at WDW with a "day off" somewhere to prevent burnout. Our kids are 8, 6 and 5 - the 8 and 6 year old boys will meet most height req., so they and Dad will ride the "big kid" rides and the 5 year old girl and I will shop, find play areas, meet characters, etc...

But I have several questions. Because it will be a holiday week - didn't realize that when we were planning, but must take holidays when kids are off school....sigh...., 1) will my mid week plan acutally make any difference, being that I was planning to go to Universal on Feb 21-22, and the 21 is Mardi Gras? I've heard that WDW handles crowds a bit better than Universal, and since we have several days there to go back and do missed attractions, I'd like to get an idea of crowd levels before we go.
2)would it benefit us, because of crowds, to take our first 2 or last 2 days of the vacation and stay onsite to enjoy Universal Express? We were going to take a shuttle from our WDW hotel to Universal for our planned 2 days, but if the unlimited Universal Express access we would get from staying onsite would be a huge benefit, perhaps it would be worth the hassle of changing hotels? But then we'd be at Universal over a weekend, so would we really be helping at all?

Thanks for any advice - looking to put a deposit down on WDW hotel reservations, and we won't have any flexibility to change our hotel dates after that, so I wanted to get this figured out now.

 

[Jason71]

Any time school is out you can expect crowds. And any time there are crowds, it's worth staying on-site at Universal for express pass. (Not that the hotels aren't beautiful and worth a visit anytime.)

 

[andyman8]

Well first of all, you are going to have an unbelievable time. Now, I agree that Universal is not fun when it's crowded IF you do not have an Express pass. You can purchase these at the gate or online. Most DISers recommend waiting until you are there but in this case there is no doubt it will be crowded and Express Passes might sell out, so I'd by it online, if you want to do that. Now with the purchased Express, you can ride all rides only ONCE per ticket.

I like your original plan. I would do Disney Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday because in my opinion Disney does not handle crowds well at all. I would then take Tuesday off (water park if not too cold) and do USF on Wednesday and IOA on Thursday (you can eat at the character breakfast at Confisco Grill; it is amazing!). On Friday, take another day off to experience DTD or go golfing or relax by pool. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday can be spent at Disney. Then spend your day of departure relaxing and packing up.

Tickets for this will cost you. 7-Day Disney Tickets with Water Park & More Option (get this option; you can go to Blizard Beach, Disney Quest, golfing, ESPN Sports Complex, and more!!) will in total with tax cost you $1,653.96, but that includes the majority of your vacation. Now your Universal tickets (themselves) will cost about $596.45. Then you add two day Express for $259.90, and your character breakfast will cost $71.75. So in total it will be about $2,603.64. That includes tax. I'm sorry (I know that is a lot of money) Welcome to Orlando.

As for staying at Universal, I would just say purchase the Express and you'll be fine. Oh, and definitely eat Dinner at CityWalk (you can pre-purhcase an entree online for only $6!), and I would suggest just using a Mears taxi instead of DU.

Remember that only Blizzard Beach will be open, but you can still go to DTD and DisneyQuest.

Unfortunately, I don't think you will be able to see Mardi Gras unless you spend another day at USF, but no worth it. Remember to make your Disney ADR's and you can make Universal ADRs for character breakfast and dinner on OpenTable.com

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask! Hope you trip is great! Happy Holidays!

 

[Metro West]

Well first of all, you are going to have an unbelievable time. Now, I agree that Universal is not fun when it's crowded IF you do not have an Express pass. You can purchase these at the gate or online. Most DISers recommend waiting until you are there but in this case there is no doubt it will be crowded and Express Passes might sell out, so I'd by it online, if you want to do that. Now with the purchased Express, you can ride all rides only ONCE per ticket.

Good advice only I would not recommend standing in line at gates to purchase the EP. You can purchase them at any number of stores throughout both parks and unless there is some insane sale going on, the line will be much shorter than standing at the gate.