Need help narrowing down when and where to go, please!

[myhoney]

We are a family of 6. The kids are currently ages 10, 8, 3, and 2. We thought we would go again in January 2018, since the youngest would be 4 1/2 and able to really handle the parks and the full days. But...with free dining promotions in the fall, we bumped it to fall 2017. Then...well, why not January 2017 (our kids have a blow off week at the end of Jan, so it would be easier to pull them out of school then). Last time we went, we did the DxDDP and loved it! The DxDDP is a lot of food, but we did a lot of 2 credit meals last time, which made it worthwhile. We will redo a lot of the special meals because it will be the two youngest's first visit. So DH wants to do it again, and now we are thinking fall 2016! I ran numbers when the free dining promotion was just available so we had a ballpark idea of cost. And, if we go before June 2017, we will still only have 1 Disney "adult".

My questions are:
- do we go in late January or early November? The crowd levels are my biggest concern. The pools are nice but not a big deal.

- should we push to go before our 2nd child turns 10? Or should we wait until the youngest is a little older, like we originally planned? In my mind, I'm trying to decide between Nov. '16 and Nov. '17.

- should we stay in a suite at AoA, or get 2 Mods? On our last trip, we only used the room to sleep. if we go with FD at AoA, we would need to upgrade 2 levels to DxDDP. If we are at the Mod, then it's only 1 level.

- DH wants to go for 1 week, Disney only. I want to go for 10 days and hit Universal as long as we are there. Thoughts? Do we stay at Disney the whole time, or leave and stay at Universal for a few days? (If we stay at Disney, I might only do the regular DDP since some days we would be eating at Universal) Or, do we just plan to do a mini-Universal trip in a few years?


Thanks for your thoughts. I'm trying to decide because we have some bonuses coming up, and if we are going next Nov., I need to allocate that money to a Disney trip. But if we are holding off, there are other things I would do with the money. DH and I can't wait to go, now that we are talking about it, but it's a lot of money, so we want to make sure we think it through.

 

[Wood Nymph]

You won't get free dining in January. They have offered a Stay, Play and Dine discount which is roughly equivalent to adults paying children's prices for tickets and the dining plan. It is often too cold for swimming the last week of January but the crowds aren't too bad.

 

[jcarwash]

Some thoughts for you....


- Crowd-wise, if you can visit in late January that is a good time to go. But as already mentioned, you can expect no free dining during that period.

- I'm not a big "child's age" person -- I think you should go when you can and your experience/memories will be what they will be. There's some experiences with younger children you'll never have again...I walk past the little Splash Mountain play area and remember sitting there as a toddler played.

- If you have a rental car, I found it very easy to stay at a Disney resort and also visit Universal. I'd also speculate that with children of these ages, you may need only 1 or 2 days at Universal, as I think the attractions tend to skew for older children.

If you have the Disney dining plan, you could ensure you spend the day at Universal but return to Disney at night to use credits for dinner.

I guess it also depends on if you want to "conquer" Universal and do as much as you can, or that you mainly want to visit and try it out. I'm in the "try it out" camp + focus on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter sections primarily.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

I'd go in January if it was free. Way too many temperature uncertainties. We went once in January but not again for a long vacation period. We are Waterpark people and we didn't get to a Waterpark once during the trip. Too cold.