More for Less: A Theme Park Planning Strategy

[Planogirl]

Just scanning your plans so far, I would definitely allow extra time to do anything on International Drive. I've been caught in traffic jams there that still blow my mind.

I love Bahama Breeze and going to Texas de Brazil sounds good. I need to decide on our offsite restaurants too so this motivates me.

 

[Laketravis]

I updated DAY FOUR.


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[Laketravis]

Just scanning your plans so far, I would definitely allow extra time to do anything on International Drive. I've been caught in traffic jams there that still blow my mind.

I love Bahama Breeze and going to Texas de Brazil sounds good. I need to decide on our offsite restaurants too so this motivates me.

I'm going to work on some alternate back routes just in case, have a really good GPS app with traffic indications that should help with that. With the exception of Manhattan I haven't found many areas with traffic that can compete with Austin. We know how to clog up roads and bring traffic to a crawl like nobody's business.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm going to work on some alternate back routes just in case, have a really good GPS app with traffic indications that should help with that. With the exception of Manhattan I haven't found many areas with traffic that can compete with Austin. We know how to clog up roads and bring traffic to a crawl like nobody's business.

I forgot that you are in Austin. Austin traffic is insane!

We use Universal Drive as much as possible. We even try to stay at hotels that are either on Universal Drive or have a side road by them that connects the two. I do my best to avoid International Drive even though there is a lot to do there.

 

[larryz]

Aren't you afraid of staying at place called Shingle Creek ? Is it located on Measle Way?

Perhaps he's too chicken pox to stay at shingle creek...

 

[BugsDaddy]

Sometimes experiencing a chain that is not located near your home is one of the fun things about traveling. A couple of years ago I traveled to Texas and discovered Whataburger. Laugh if you will, but I have yet to find a burger that beats that place, and down there it is just another fast-food chain. I wish they would locate to New England.

I live in Texas and I can never understand visitors appreciation for Whataburger. It is decent fast food but I will take a Carl's Jr. or In and Out or 5 Guys burger over Whataburger every time.

 

[johde]

So far, the plan looks pretty good. You might want to "Invest" a little bit in snacks at Universal. Pick up a souvenir red coke glass for $8.99+tax (-10% with AP if not at a Kiosk) and get $.99 refills in the park "forever". I've been using my mug since 2009 (in 2009 they had handles). In addition to soft drinks, you can get refills of Slushies and Icees at a discounted price. You can probably all share 1 but they normally offer buy 2 get 1 free. For $5.99 you can get a refillable popcorn bucket. Popcorn refills are $1.29 + tax.

But, as a long time Dis member, I need to warn you, if you start bringing cans of corn to snack on while waiting for the parade in the MK you may have gone a bit too far. http://www.disboards.com/threads/canned-corn-people-on-main-street.888944/

 

[Laketravis]

So far, the plan looks pretty good. You might want to "Invest" a little bit in snacks at Universal. Pick up a souvenir red coke glass for $8.99+tax (-10% with AP if not at a Kiosk) and get $.99 refills in the park "forever". I've been using my mug since 2009 (in 2009 they had handles). In addition to soft drinks, you can get refills of Slushies and Icees at a discounted price. You can probably all share 1 but they normally offer buy 2 get 1 free. For $5.99 you can get a refillable popcorn bucket. Popcorn refills are $1.29 + tax...

Great point! We've got both the coke glasses and popcorn buckets from our visit last month that we'll be bringing along, I neglected to mention it in the original post but will include the savings in the final calcs.

Funny about the canned corn

 

[Cormoran]

OK, so where's Day 5?

 

[Laketravis]

OK, so where's Day 5?

I just posted DAY FIVE.

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[Cormoran]

I just posted DAY FIVE.

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Bout time!

 

[Cormoran]

We did lunch with an astronaut 3 years ago. It was great. What I learned has stuck with me. Think of some great questions to ask. There's time at the end of the presentation for Q& A. I like your idea of Character dining!

 

[MrInfinity]

For those that aren't Universal savvy, it you wanted to add Express Pass into the mix you would probably upgrade from Preferred Passes to Premier Passes for an extra $110. It would require rearranging your days but the premier pass gets after 4:00 p.m. Universal Express (one trip per ride), Preferred or Valet parking (quicker into the park although you should tip if you use the valet), 8 free bottles of water during the year, and a free HHN ticket (non premium night).

Fuzzylogic, If your willing to go without Express Passes, Cabana Bay can be had for 3 weekday nights in Mid December for $156 a night in a suite. That rack rate with stay more save more. So about $500 for the hotel and about $1200 for the tickets. So, about $1,700. If you wait and book through Orbitz, or travelocity etc. with a coupon code. you could possibly get 20% or 25% off the hotel.

Thanks! I was looking at the Cabana Bay Black Friday deal which was pretty sweet... thing is... I don't want to stay there. I want the Loews. That's why we come up w the $3k, cuz that's where I'd want to stay.

Interesting regarding the once-per-ride on the after-4pm EP.. is that the same if you stay at Loews? Or there, is it good on as many times as you want, and of course all day? But still not any of the HP attractions?

 

[johde]

Thanks! I was looking at the Cabana Bay Black Friday deal which was pretty sweet... thing is... I don't want to stay there. I want the Loews. That's why we come up w the $3k, cuz that's where I'd want to stay.

Interesting regarding the once-per-ride on the after-4pm EP.. is that the same if you stay at Loews? Or there, is it good on as many times as you want, and of course all day? But still not any of the HP attractions?

Yea, I know you want to stay at one of the deluxe Loews resorts. The question you need to ask yourself is if it's worth an extra $1,300+ for a nicer room and Express Passes.

The Express passes with the Hotel room are the Unlimited variety where you can ride any ride you want, except the HP signature attraction Forbidden Journey, Hogwarts Express and Gringotts, Pteranodon Flyers or Kudo and Kang as many times as you want in the express line.


Note: for a single 3 day trip, Premier Passes would be overkill. The initial purchase of Premium passes is $435 compared to $215 for a power pass and $295 for a preferred pass. (you can save a little bit of you buy the right discounted ticket then upgrade at the park) Renewal prices are $290 for Premium, $160 for Preferred and $130 for Power (and at least right now you can switch between levels at renewal).

 

[Laketravis]

I updated DAY SIX.

 

[MrInfinity]

My thoughts on DAY SIX...

Wednesday 3/11 and we've already hit six Orlando theme parks, had lunch with an Astronaut at the space center, enjoyed some pretty good meals off-site, and have managed to do so while only spending around $20 inside a WDW park.

Instead of focusing on the money spent at WDW, which is pretty irrelevant, would you mind tabulating what you're spending in general? Obviously it's not a $50 savings if you don't spend $50 on something at WDW but you instead spend $50 on something somewhere else.

It's been said that Test Track, Mission Space, Soarin, and even Figment can be accomplished in about 90 minutes without FP's so we'll drop Figment from that and see if it's true.

I think this is ambitious. I'd give it 2 hours. But, still plenty of time to make your 11-12 at TOT.

Overall not bad. 8 major rides, all by 2pm, and all with short waits.

3pm: Early dinner at Lighthouse Lobster Feast. I've seen mixed reviews on this place

Ditto on the reviews. This is a place I think I'd like to like, but in practice since they make more profit the less lobster you eat, they have every incentive to make getting an extra lobster inconvenient. I will look forward to your review on this. It might affect whether we try it -- I'm really on the fence for this one.

 

[Angel Ariel]

You've mentioned in the early posts, LT, that it took many iterations to get the fp+ times to be what you wanted. How has that continued to this point in your planning? Appx how long would you say it is taking to book the fps and get them to the times you want? Have certain parks been easier than others? Or more difficult?

 

[Laketravis]

You've mentioned in the early posts, LT, that it took many iterations to get the fp+ times to be what you wanted. How has that continued to this point in your planning? Appx how long would you say it is taking to book the fps and get them to the times you want? Have certain parks been easier than others? Or more difficult?

I'm a left-handed logic-thinking kind of guy, so you can probably understand why I can't simply reserve 3 FP's without wondering what is going on in the background

And what I've noticed is a definite set of rules being applied even when just changing the time choice of one selection and looking at how it changed the time selections of the other two. For instance today with HS it seemed like there was no way it was going to give me TSMM at the time I wanted while keeping the three contiguous (in between ToT and ST for a counterclockwise touring pattern) until I pulled TSMM way out into the evening, set ToT for 11-noon and ST for 1-2 and only then was there a noon-1 choice for TSMM.

This little exercise took me probably 10 minutes, and I've found myself doing it for each day. While I've always been able to structure them in the order and times I wanted it took a little computer chess to accomplish that.

Instead of focusing on the money spent at WDW, which is pretty irrelevant, would you mind tabulating what your spending in general?

It is relevant in the sense that a big initiative for MM+/FP+ was to put upward pressure on guest spending in the parks; I believe I am illustrating that one can still benefit from certain elements without succumbing to that pressure. I'm not focusing on it exclusively, all costs and savings will be accounted for in the final analysis and my mention of in-park spending is just as much a mental placeholder for me.

Ditto on the reviews. This is a place I think I'd like to like, but in practice since they make more profit the less lobster you eat, they have every incentive to make getting an extra lobster inconvenient. I will look forward to your review on this. It might affect whether we try it -- I'm really on the fence for this one.

I think my benchmark for comparison will be Cape May with it's crab legs and other seafood items on the buffet. There's also a Boston Lobster Feast in the same area, reviews for which are just as mixed. It'll serve as a backup in case we pull into the parking lot at Lighthouse and see people come out shaking their heads.


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[SmithSmith]

I'm not sure if you've answered this already, apologies if you have.

So these are your actual plans for your upcoming trip, correct? If so, are you going to be sharing your results with us?

 

[MrInfinity]

It is relevant in the sense that a big initiative for MM+/FP+ was to put upward pressure on guest spending in the parks

Are you trying to demonstrate a legit plan, or just snub Disney? I could easily demonstrate a plan that involves spending $0 in any park. Just eat a healthy breakfast at home, pocket a granola bar, and leave and stop for food when you're hungry. This would be easily repeatable and never cost a penny, and it would apply at Disney, SeaWorld, Universal, Great America, anywhere. These places all put upward pressure on guest spending.

For example... if I "save $1000/mo by no longer shopping at Albertsons" because I don't like that they implement a system that tracks my purchases... but instead I spend $1100 shopping at Safeway... or even $900 at Safeway, I have not saved $1000. I'm +$100 or -$100. So your thread is titled: More for Less. So are you indeed getting more while spending less? That is the question.

In order to conclude that one can get more for less by following this, one should be able to demonstrate that he enjoyed more (by whatever means you wish to compare what one gets out of a vacation). And it should be done for less.

So far, we have...
Baseline: Week onsite at a Value resort, 7-day pass, Hopper, DDP.
Proposal: Week offsite at Rosen. Disney AP. Uni AP. Car Rental. Gas.
$100/day for food was your budget, however on two days you've definitely busted this cap, and on the other days you'd have to eat darn cheap to pull off $100 for a family of 3 eating at places like Chilis or Universal.

That Baseline is $3107. That is for a week at Pop, 7-Day Hoppers, and DDP for 3. If you prefer to compare to a Moderate (depends what Rosen is more like)... then the baseline is $3348, which is the same week in CSR. So the real question is can you pull off that plan that you have described in detail, for under $3k or so?

Now I think in your DAY X plans, I am pretty sure that you are getting more. I mean you have described some awesome, action-packed days hitting up 6 theme parks and driving all around Florida. However, and this is key to your premise, I'm not sure you've demonstrated the "for less".