Only one full day Pre-Cruise, what to do?

[Lunarias]

Coming out for our honeymoon, leaving out of PC. We are arriving at MCO Friday evening, (well at 3ish but after getting luggage and rental car it'll be 5 I'm guessing) so enough time to get dinner, drop luggage, and hit the pool. Then we have all of Saturday to do something before boarding the ship on Sunday for 2 weeks!

Any suggestions on what to do Sat? We have had some brief time at WDW, him on a 3 day school trip and I got a full week (and still didn't see it all) So should I try to squeeze a Magic Kingdom trip in for the day? Is universal more doable in a day? (Harry Potter land yea!) or is downtown enough to keep our attention for the better part of the day? (or we could do dinner there Fri night) Any other Orlando-ish attractions that are good, or inexpensive but entertaining? My fiancée would love something laid back, but I'm a do-er, and I could probably get away with one day of crazy running around, before he vegges out for 2 weeks. Just not sure if it worth the stress/money, if we only have a day.

 

[dclpluto]

Coming out for our honeymoon, leaving out of PC. We are arriving at MCO Friday evening, (well at 3ish but after getting luggage and rental car it'll be 5 I'm guessing) so enough time to get dinner, drop luggage, and hit the pool. Then we have all of Saturday to do something before boarding the ship on Sunday for 2 weeks!

Any suggestions on what to do Sat? We have had some brief time at WDW, him on a 3 day school trip and I got a full week (and still didn't see it all) So should I try to squeeze a Magic Kingdom trip in for the day? Is universal more doable in a day? (Harry Potter land yea!) or is downtown enough to keep our attention for the better part of the day? (or we could do dinner there Fri night) Any other Orlando-ish attractions that are good, or inexpensive but entertaining? My fiancée would love something laid back, but I'm a do-er, and I could probably get away with one day of crazy running around, before he vegges out for 2 weeks. Just not sure if it worth the stress/money, if we only have a day.

Disney springs will be good. What cruise are you taking for 2 weeks?

 

[Lunarias]

What is Disney Springs?

We are on the WBPC for 2017, from southern California so no flight home

Nevermind looked it up, they changed the name of downtown Disney..... Ok

 

[Flossbolna]

What about a water park? With this your fiancée could get some relaxation, but you can get some action on the slides. Also the water park tickets are cheaper than the theme park tickets. WDW has Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach and then there is Aquatica which is part of Seaworld.

If you go to a theme park I would consider checking out maybe Animal Kingdom or Epcot. Both are more doable in one day without feeling totally overwhelming.

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

If you plan to drive out to Port Canaveral to stay on the Friday night, I would highly recommend doing the kayak nature tour with Finexpeditions on the Saturday. You go out for a 2 hour kayak tour in a conservation area in Cocoa Beach. We did it with our 3 kids (15,18,21) this summer and Jeremy the guide was excellent. We actually saw a number of different groups of manatee, as well as many different types of birds, during our paddle through the area. Their website is www.finexpeditions.com

 

[Marc D]

You could drive to Port Canaveral/Cocoa Beach Friday night or Saturday morning and visit the Kennedy Space Center that day. It's pretty much a whole-day visit. DS or Citywalk could probably entertain you for half a day.

Of course, you can visit any park at WDW or UO but you'll be there on the busiest day of the week, at 200 $+ for admission alone. It won't be laid back for sure. As far as Harry Potter goes, if you don't buy a 2-park ticket, you'll only get half the experience and won't be able to take Hogwart's Express. Unless you are a frequent visitor, a one-day visit in between flight and cruise is not a very good use of your time.

 

[Kuzcotopia1]

We always fly in the day before our cruise. I have done Magic Kingdom for a day and this year we visited Disney Springs. If you're going to do anything Disney, I would just do MK. I thought Disney Springs was slightly disappointing and not worth my time. Next time we go, I might just hit the beach.

 

[Kimber1963]

You can buy a one day park to park ticket at Universal. IMHO you only need one day at Universal to do both parks.

 

[pillow]

I would stay at the port and visit Kennedy Space Center on Saturday. You used to be able to get free tickets from your Senator's office (not sure if thats still a thing or not). We did this a couple years ago and loved it!

 

[CherylA]

I love the cocoa beach area, I would stay at one of the hotels on the beach there and spend the day on the beach. Sometimes one of the other ships leaves the night before yours so you can have dinner at one if the restaurants overlooking the water and watch the ship sail out.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you're thinking of Universal, cancel the WDW hotel and stay up at one of Uni's onsite resorts. Those would be fabulous for a honeymoon, even if it's for just 2 nights there.

Stay at Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, or Portofino Bay and you get early entrance to one or both Wizarding Worlds (there's one area in each park, and usually just one is open for early entry, but sometimes you have a choice) AND unlimited Express Pass, which works on almost all rides, including the two coasters in Wizarding World (but not Gringott's, Forbidden Journey, Hogwarts Express, or Ollivander's wand shop show...and two rides outside of Wizarding World). And you get the perks from the moment you check in until park close when you check out. In your case you would just have the one day of those benefits, given that Uni tends to close earlier than WDW, and you would be excited to get out to the Port on checkout day. But the resorts there have a truly RESORT feel, which would enable vegging out.


And then the day you disembark in SoCal you could hit USH and have a bicoastal Harry Potter experience. (this is not ridiculous; or if it is, we're ridiculous because DS and I were at UO and USH inside a week of each other)

 

[LizGirl]

We've enjoyed spending time visiting some of the Disney resorts on a free day. Lunch at one, dinner at another. You can take a nice boat ride from Port Orleans Riverside over to Disney Springs. The Grand Floridian has a great view of Wishes Fireworks. Animal Kingdom Lodge has Boma (!) and some animals to visit. The list goes on! It can be done at your own pace so relaxing but with various activities to keep you both happy.

 

[Lunarias]

Thank you for the suggestions , my sister's family in law owns a place in Orlando , so we are taking advantage of that , otherwise we would probably head to cocoa beach, although the space center sounds awesome to me , I'll have to look that up. For the waterparks (I didn't know they had them) , are they warm enough in April ? That would be right up his alley. Otherwise for parks I think we were leaning toward Epcot, cause he missed it on his last trip. It just seems like a lot of money for one day

 

[CherylA]

Thank you for the suggestions , my sister's family in law owns a place in Orlando , so we are taking advantage of that , otherwise we would probably head to cocoa beach, although the space center sounds awesome to me , I'll have to look that up. For the waterparks (I didn't know they had them) , are they warm enough in April ? That would be right up his alley. Otherwise for parks I think we were leaning toward Epcot, cause he missed it on his last trip. It just seems like a lot of money for one day

In my opinion they are the bestwater parks anywhere, so clean! and a reasonable cost to get in. You'd really have to play it by ear with the weather though, could be hot, could be cool, could rain, you'd definitely need a back up plan. Typhoon lagoon is right down the street from Disney Springs so I guess that could be your back up plan.

 

[RedSox68]

We've done Universal with the HP parks twice and I think that trying to do it all in one day might be frustrating. We stayed three days and pretty much covered most of it in two. Unless you are only interested in the HP sections and nothing else. Those you probably could do in one day. Be sure to have a meal at one of the HP restaurants -- great food. Otherwise, I'd stick with Disney Springs.

 

[coloradocutie]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!

If you really want a luxurious start to your honeymoon, have you looked into staying at the Four Seasons WDW? They often run nice specials but they have an unbelievable property, including an amazing lazy river and pools. You could easily spend a day just enjoying the property.

enjoy your cruise!

 

[Flossbolna]

For the waterparks (I didn't know they had them) , are they warm enough in April ?

They keep the waterparks open all during the winter (at least one of them, they go down for refurb every winter one after the other), so generally Florida has days warm enough for waterparks year round. And the water is heated. I have been to Orlando during the late April/early May timeframe (which is when the WBPC cruise should start) and it was definitely warm water park weather. However, as with anything weather related, it could be possible that the weather does not comply. So, having a back up plan might make sense.

Personally I don't think Disney Springs is that exciting. It is just a very nice shopping mall. However, as someone else suggested, you could do a tour of the different resort hotels. Especially Animal Kingdom Lodge is beautiful and there are several animals there to watch. You could go and have tea at the Grand Floridian. Go horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. Some of the resort hotels also offer guided tours (especially AKL has a culinary tour every afternoon for everyone who just shows up).