Need advice on touring plan for Columbus Day

[aeasterling]

Hello,

We leave in one week (yay!) for Disney and I am starting to question one part of my touring plan.

Our group is me, DH, DD-9 and DS-12. Here is our current plan. We are staying at AOA and won't have a car. We have 6 day tickets, no park hoppers.

Saturday 10/10 - arrive hotel around 2pm, EPCOT, ADR at Garden Grill - will ride a few things (FP for Soarin) but not stay too late
Sunday 10/11 - MK rope drop and stay through 10pm Wishes, lunch at BOG. My kids can handle this, but it will necessitate sleeping in a bit the next day.
Monday 10/12 (Columbus Day) - Universal. I plan to take a cab. Our focus is HP - so we'll do both parks. May ride a few other things, but kids aren't into big roller coasters or anything really intense, so not sure how much else we'll do. Since we'll be out late the night before, we'll probably get a late start.
Tuesday 10/13 - Animal Kingdom in the AM and MNSSHP in the PM
Wednesday 10/15 - free day (although the kids are lobbying for a water-park visit!), then dinner at Via Napoli and a FP for Illuminations. We'll check out the F&W this night.
Thursday 10/16 - EPCOT. Late breakfast at Akershus, FP for Test Track, the dinner at Sanaa at AK Lodge. Plan for this to be an early night.
Friday 10/17 - 8am Crystal Palace breakfast, do MK in morning then head back to hotel. Our flight is at 5pm.

So... I'm worried about Universal being crowded on Monday since it is Columbus day. Since we'll be up late the night before, I don't see us getting there before 10am. I've heard that if it gets really crowded, they stop letting people enter WWOHP. This would be a disaster, since its pretty much the only reason we want to go to Universal. DD and I are huge HP fans and we've never been, so (even though it costs an arm and a leg), this visit is non-negotiable.

I'm thinking about switching Monday and Tuesday. We could have an easy day on Monday, hit Animal Kingdom around 10am and probably be done by late afternoon. I might look into a dinner ADR at Yak and Yeti, or we could just eat back at the hotel food court. We would then do Universal on Tuesday - get there at open, hit the HP stuff and get a cab back to the hotel around 3pm to change and head over to MK for the party.

I only see two potential issues. Could we get everything we want done at Universal if we get there at open and leave around 3? I'm thinking we could since we are mainly interested in HP and don't mind if we skip other stuff. The other downside is that with a late start at AK we may miss the best time for the Safari. Right now I have a 9:30am FP for it on Tuesday (although not sure I even need it if we arrive at rope drop). If I switch to Monday, the earliest FP I can get is 11:30am.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[aeasterling]

Bumping back to first page - hope someone can give some good advice!

 

[kkendle]

My opinion is that Universal will be less crowded on Tuesday. If you end up doing that you need to get there way before the park opens so you are one of the first ones in and head straight for the HP area. You should find out which one of the parks has early opening for hotel guests...they get in an hour earlier...and head to the other one. You will have to have the 2 park pass to get to the other park...you could ride the Hogwarts Express to get to the other park. I think this could be done before 3pm...if those are the only 2 areas you will be visiting. If you want to visit other areas of the Universal parks...it will be very difficult to do this and be back at Disney at 3pm. The slow Animal Kingdom day makes sense to me. For our upcoming trip we have one late start day and it will be the AK day. I have done multiple trips to US and Disney but always stay onsite at US for the early entry and express perks. I wouldn't do a one day trip there but if that is all you have...then go for it.

If you wanted to spend more time at US...then Monday would be better since you don't have to be back to Disney at 3pm. You could stay all day.

 

[tinkermomto3]

We were planning on going to Universal that day (we've since switched to an all Disney vacation starting next week and an all Universal vacation this summer for a bunch of reasons) but from what I read, it's not going to be crowded on Monday. (From my notes it looks like Monday and Tuesday are "equal" in crowd levels) If you want to be at MNSSHP by 4 on Tuesday I would leave your plans the way they are and do Universal/IOA on Monday.

 

[kkendle]

I suppose it depends on which crowd calendar you look at. The one I use lists Monday(Columbus Day) as Moderate crowds and Tuesday crowds as slow.

 

[ELSA711]

I would personally hate dropping all that money on Universal and having to cut out early for MNSSHP but thats just me

 

[vinotinto]

All parks will be crowded Sat - Sun - Mon. I think you've paired MNSSHP nicely with AK and given the age of your kids, Universal will be a full day. I think the only thing I see is your arrival day - Saturday - Epcot will be very busy with F&W at Epcot and your Sunday is very long. What if you head to MK on Saturday, do Wishes on Saturday, and then your Sunday won't keep you as late and you will be able to be more refreshed on Monday for your Uni day?

 

[aeasterling]

Thanks everyone for the advice

For Saturday night, I don't even plan to go into WS - given that F&W will be going on. We have a FP for Soarin (and a couple of other random things) and a 7pm ADR at Garden Grill. Plan is to ride a few things in Future World, eat dinner and head out right after dinner.

Good point on Sunday being a long day. I don't know if I want to give up Soarin and Garden Grill at EPCOT for Wishes on arrival day (plus we might be tired), but maybe I'll just play it by ear. If the kids are getting pooped before we get to fireworks time, we can leave. We'll have Hallo-wishes, so I won't be completely heartbroken to miss it on Sunday if I have too. Was also thinking of a "pseudo" afternoon rest on Tom Sawyer Island.

 

[crazylady]

I'm too cheap to buy the park to park Universal ticket and leave by 3. If you're concerned about Monday, I'd flip Universal to Thursday and do Epcot on Monday. I think Epcot would be more relaxing after a long MK day anyways. Also, my kids are about the same ages as your kids. They really liked spiderman, transformers, minions, MIB, and JP. Those are not rollercoasters so I think you'll find plenty to do outside of HP if you have the time.