New to forums planning our 1st trip

[Mark7616]

Hello people what a lovely site this is full of lots of usefull information. We have been to Euro disney once last year for the christmas celebrations and loved it. I have been recently left some money and after paying off bills etc we have decided to take a family trip to disney world. We are a young energetic family with 2 children of 9 and 4 (when we travel) we are not worried about cramming it all in but dont want to rush. We are going to book a 16 day trip for August 14-30 next year. We have made an provisional intinery that we wanted to run past the more experianced disney crew to see if its ok or weather things should be moved/changed/extended. This is what we have so far: Looking at staying at the Carribean Beach Resort

Day 1 Arrive, shops, hotel pool
Day 2 Gatorland
Day 3 Universal Studios
Day 4 Universal Studios
Day 5 Sea World
Day 6 Busch Gardens
Day 7 Aquatica
Day 8 Rest day in hotel, shopping malls etc
Day 9 Water park still undecided
Day 10 Magic Kingdom
Day 11 Magic kingdom
Day 12 Epcot
Day 13 Animal Kingdom
Day 14 Hollywood Studios
Day 15 Hollywood Studios / Magic Kingdom
Day 16 Shops for souveneres and pack for home

How does this sound to everyone. Also its very confusing and overwhelming were are not sure weather to go with the dining plan or delux dining plan not sure what will work out the best option.

 

[luke]

How does this sound to everyone. Also its very confusing and overwhelming were are not sure weather to go with the dining plan or delux dining plan not sure what will work out the best option.

Next year there is free dining, I think offering the Quick Service (like your McDonald's style restaurants) for moderate resorts like Caribbean Beach.
However staying at 'Deluxes' gets you the normal dining plan for free.

Last two years Saratoga Springs and Old Key West have also offered massive savings (up to 48% off) which offer this normal dining plan for free too.

Sure you'll get lots of great advice here, enjoy your planning

 

[macca77]

Well hello and welcome your right these boards are great.
Im assuming all the trips to universal includes ioa and not just to us?
I dont think you will need 2 days at these parks tbh, unless you really like them, you may be better having some more rest days taking in all the other great stuff orlando has to offer. I.e crazy golf,wonderworks,ripleys etc etc.

It is a little crammed but if you dont know when you will make it back again you may aswell do as much as you can and love every minute.

I havent dont the dining plan but plenty of people have and it seems good im sure you will get a lot off reviews.

You will have a great time whatever you plan and good luck with it all.

 

[kieras nana]

i personally couldn't wait,till day 10,to take the children,to magic kingdom,but thats just me.i'd be bursting with excitement
tracy

 

[scojos]

i would suggest paying for tourguidemike for your first trip, worth the $$$
you will find out about EMH and learn to embrass/avoid devending on your point of view (i avoid~)~
last 2 week of aug are good as american schools have gone back, you might what to consider staying a few days onsite at US to get FOTL, well worth paying for
HTH
tracy

p.s and welcome

 

[scotlass]

i personally couldn't wait,till day 10,to take the children,to magic kingdom,but thats just me.i'd be bursting with excitement
tracy

Im with you there !!

We tend to have two days at every park other than AK but we dont go 2 days in a row.

I like to spread them over the 2 weeks.

 

[Pegasus928]

Hi and Welcome to the Dis.

We try to be a nice friendly bunch, and if you can't find the answers to your questions here then you won't find it anywhere.

Looking over you plan I would only suggest that you try to mix it up with Universal and Disney. Personally I think they are 2 totally different experiences and you might find that you will get more out of one than you do the other. The other advantage about mixing them up is that if you decide you want to go back for some reason you will still have a plenty of your holiday left to do it.
I see that you have allocated full days in some instances - but always be flexible as after being there for 3 or 4 days you will start to tire, and it's no fun dragging tired kids around the parks when they would rather be in the hotel pool (or - believe it or not - bed)
My other suggestion - and this is purely personal so others may not agree - is that unless you have a really REALLY big thing for gators I would probably avoid Gatorland on a first trip. It's quite a trip out and didn't really do anything for me when we went during our second trip, and we have never felt the need to go again. If you decide to go again maybe fit it in then.
Finally if you want to see any other itineries then pop over to the Trip Reports section. Lots of us put ours up as part of our Pre-trip Reports - so you may get an idea of what works amd what doesn't.
An example of my latest one is HERE

 

[london75]

Hi,

My personal suggestion would be to not do so many parks if you intend going again. In order of preference I would choose (I have girls so it might differ if you have boys

Disney
Universal
Seaworld
Others

If I were going to do a first itinerary with hindsight it would be something along the lines of

Day 1 Arrive + Magic Kingdom for atmosphere and fireworks
Day 2 Full day in MK
Day 3 Epcot
Day 4 Universal
Day 5 Animal Kingdom morning, shopping afternoon (AK is tooooo hot)
Day 6 Universal IOA
Day 7 MK
Day 8 Seaworld
Day 9 Hollywood Studios
Day 10 Epcot
Day 11 Universal IOA
Day 12 Shop morning MK Evening
Day 13 Universal
Day 14 Hollywood Studios morning plus pool or shop evening
Day 15 MK
Day 16 Downtown Disney, pack and home

Our kids are a bit younger.

Another bit of advice, I always plan on doing two things each day as that is how it pans out, one can always get binned if you're having too much fun so shopping is usually a second activity for the day.

I'd also plan for two visits to each park min if possible as you never know when weather is going to cause one trip to change.

Just my 2p

Andy

 

[wayneg]

Welcome to DISboards.

I also wouldn't do consecutive days in same park, would rather split them up.

Still haven't done Gatorland after 24 trips, certainly wouldn't have it on a 1st trip, plenty to do without it. Unless gators are a big thing to you.

Later in August the quieter the parks get, I would leave Universal til later we often go at the end of August and no need to pay for Front of The Line tix, might need to earlier in your trip.

If you bought your hotel & Tix thru Disney.co.uk to get free dining the tickets include water parks so no need to pay for Aquatica, a 1st visit would be enough with the 2 Disney water parks.
As Luke said consider the DVC studio's at OKW or SSR not discounted yet unless you buy thru Complete Orlando but great prices and reguler Dining plan included. No way would I pay for Deluxe DDP but some do, regular is just right for us, although they have still not announced what will be included in DDP for 2011 yet.

Just keeping asking anything you want to know.

 

[jackieleanne]

Welcome to the Disboards

I think like others have said look out for Saratoga Springs and Old Key West resorts as they are usually available in August with the dining plan at discounted rate I just booked Saratoga for 2 weeks next August with Complete Orlando.

Secondly like others have said I personally wouldn't do two days in a row at the same theme park and always try to mix things up, we also like to do split days and maybe do a morning in a park a few hours back at the pool and then back to the parks in an evening when it cools down.

I'm another that have never done Gatorland been 9 trips and unless your into Gator's I don't think it would be worth it, others may disagree.

Personally I would do Magic Kingdom on the first day I'd never be able to wait until the 10th day in.

 

[Mark7616]

Ok i can see everyone is in agreement to sack gatorland. I'll post my revised intiary, for each day that is the main activety we want to do. If we take a few hours of in the afternoon or cut the day short we will work it out at the time as what to do. Once there we can decide on perades and evening fireworks etc. The reason for not doing Disney day one is we will buy 14 day disney ticket and 14 day Orlando flex ticket. We want the disney ticket to run out at the end not 2 days before. So this is what we have now:


Day1- Arrive, shops and pool
Day2- Universal
Day3- Sea world
Day4- Magic kingdom
Day5- Aquatica
Day6- Bush gardens
Day7- Rest day
Day8- Water park
Day9- Magic kingdom
Day10- Epcot
Day11- Universal
Day12- Hollywood studios
Day13- Animal kingdom
Day14- Hollywood studios
Day15- Magic kingdom/ anything the kids want to do/see before we leave
Day16- Shopping, pool & packing.

 

[Netty]

Hi!!

I would swap day 9 and 12 around.
do you need the orlando flex ticket? maybe its cheaper seperatly, just a thought, i'm sure Wayne or Kenny will be able to advise there!

 

[wayneg]

6 park Flex ticket £182.00

Universal/IOA £81.00
Seaworld, Busch & Aquatica £71

Only difference buying seperate I believe is no Wet n Wild but with 2 Disney water parks and Aquatica not needed, so £30 saving over Flex.
Its been a long day so double check I have facts right.
This is based on this years prices, offers could be different next year.
Kenny's ticket thread for prices.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2457413

 

[WiganTony]

Hi and welcome,

Personally I wouldn't get too worried about specific days in each park just yet (although plenty of excellent advice on here as usual ). Around 6 months beforehand, you should be able to get various busy days guides and Disney release their park opening hours including Extra Magic Hours days which may steer you to (or away from!!) certain parks on specific days.

You may also find at this time that some shows (e.g. Fantasmic) are only showing on certain days, so again this may dictate your planned itinerary to some degree.

Also please be aware that to qualify for free Disney Dining, you need to book your hotel and Disney tickets as a packge (whether with Disney UK or through a tour operator). Again as noted, check if the discounted OKW or SSR rooms are available - you then get a larger studio (or option of 1 or 2 bed apartment) plus Table Service DDP.

HTH.

 

[Dimplenose]

The August heat tires us out very quickly so we tended to split our days. So a morning in MK(or another Disney Park) followed by a few hours back at the hotel (in the pool or even napping!!) the a late afternoon/ early evening trip to a different Disney park.