Our 3 week itinerary - please comment

[athelstan]

In just over two weeks we fly out for what is probably our last family holiday before kids start preferring Falariki and Ibeza and we go somewhere else without them. Two of them anyway. It's also our 25th wedding anniverary this year, daughter No1's 21st, son's 18th, and youngest daughter is 11 going on 16. Never been to the States before, we are doing it large and spending big (for us) over three (count 'em) weeks.

In the face of bewildering choices - helped no end by this forum - I have devised an itinerary. Comments, criticisms and advice are most welcome. Is this practicable or sensible or just stupidity personified and why haven't I understood all the advice?


BTW, the present Mrs S suffers from vertigo - does this mean she will be miserable? Anyone been there with vertigo before and got away with it (she thought Pirates of the Caribbean at Paris was a white-knuckle ride!)

I've left evenings free for make it up as we go along decision making. I think we also get two character breakfasts in with our Ultimate 9 day (times two) Disney tickets. I know I should know, but Jetsave don't seem to!

Friday 18th July
Morning Flying out to a restful holiday. Not?
Afternoon Arrive Hard Rock Hotel in rented Dollar minivan
Night Get bearings. Swim in pool
Saturday 19th July
Islands Of Adventure
Sunday 20th July
Wet N Wild
Monday 21st July
Universal Studios
Tuesday 22nd July
IOA
Universal
Wednesday 23rd July
Busch Gardens
Thursday 24th July
Sea World
Friday 25th July
Morning Depart Hard Rock
Afternoon Arrive Caribbean Beach
Shop/climatise
Saturday 26th July
MGM Studios
Night Cirque du Soleil 9pm
Sunday 27th July
Magic Kingdom
Monday 28th July
Typhoon Lagoon
Tuesday 29th July
MGM Studios
Wednesday 30th July
Morning Kennedy Space Centre
Thursday 31st July
Magic Kingdom
Friday 1st August
Morning Depart Caribbean Beach
Afternoon Arrive Animal Kingdom Lodge
Saturday 2nd August
Blizzard Beach
Night Magic Kingdom
Sunday 3rd August
Morning Discovery Cove
Afternoon Discovery Cove
Night Discovery Cove
Monday 4th August
Animal Kingdom
Tuesday 5th August
Sea World or some other fave park
Wednesday 6th August
EPCOT
Thursday 7th August
Fave Park
Fave Park
Friday 8th August
Morning Animal Kingdom
Afternoon Go home shattered and in need of a restful holiday

Many thanks

Andy Stansfield

 

[tony64]

Hi
First you do not want to visit a water park on the weekend as it will be packed as all the locals go in the summer.Monday to Wednesday is best for all water parks in the summer.
Can i reccommend you visit www.wdisneyw.co.uk/bestday.html as they have the latest chart of best days to visit allowing for the recent change in early entry days for disney resort quests

 

[tony64]

Hi
First you do not want to visit a water park on the weekend as it will be packed as all the locals go in the summer.Monday to Wednesday is best for all water parks in the summer.
Can i reccommend you visit www.wdisneyw.co.uk/bestday.html as they have the latest chart of best days to visit allowing for the recent change in early entry days for disney resort quests

have a great holiday

 

[UKDEB]

Hi, Andy. Firstly I feel obliged to disabuse you of one very important point. Once they have been to Orlando, your teens will <i>not</i> want to go to Ibiza, Ayia Napa or anywhere else for that matter. Believe me, I have been trying to convince my teenage daughters for some time that they do not want to come on holiday with us, but they're not having any of it. I can see them still tagging along when they're in their 60s with children and grandchildren of their own!

We've been to Orlando 8 times now, and twice for a 3 week stint. The nice thing is that it gives you time to chill out, although you will still be surprised at how quickly the time goes. One of my 'hot tips' is always to take time to soak it all up and not to try to 'blitz it'.

You will be congratulating yourselves at choosing to stay onsite at Universal. My dds love the freedom it gives them and HRH is the best of the pick for that age group in my opinion. They will love the theming and pool (and so will you!). As you probably know, HRH is the closest to the parks and CityWalk and easily walkable. Front of the Line is a huge perk.

Unless the kids are complete water slide nuts, you might want to skip Wet 'n' Wild. Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach are far superior and you may find yourselves unable to drag yourselves away from USF. Play it by ear.

You don't seem to have factored in any time for shopping. There are <i>lots</i> of great places and with teens I can't imagine you'll be able to avoid it!

You've obviously decided to take advantage of your onsite privileges at WDW and do 'Early Entry' parks. As you're going to be there during peak season, you might want to consider park hopping mid - late morning to avoid the worst of the crowds.

 

[ukeeyorelover]

Hiya,

Well, first i just wanna say 'Have a great time'. We fly in 26 days and we too are there for three weeks. This will be our fourth visit but it will be the first we time we visit for three weeks and we are all so excited.

We always write up a quick itinerary before we leave. This usually includes where we will visit during the day and where to go at night. To be honest though......we very rarely stick to it.

Aslong as you work out how to include every park and how not to waste your park passes then i dont really think you need to plan exactly where to go because when you arrive there is just so much to do and it is so overwhelming. If u feel happier planning then that is what you should do but weve been three times now (planned every time) and we still havent seen everything there is to see at Disney........lol

One piece of advice i would give you is make sure you have a break during the day otherwise you wiill just ware yourself out. We tend to arrive at the park at opening time, leave at around 1 in the afternoon, go back to the hotel for a swim and a rest, then return to the same park or a different one at night.

Hope this has been useful for you
Have a great time

 

[Melcatfish]

... when you said you have 9 day times 2 disney tickets have you already paid for these? If not you should look into 30 day fun in the sun tickets - include all Disney property admission, character breakfast Kennedy Space center and some other mini attractions. They work out about £200 per person depending on exchange rate and are valid for 30 days from the date of first use. Unused days expire. Email Rosa at paramount for details.

If I've got the wrong end of the stick then no advice except have a great time. We are off for 3 weeks but not til NEXT August... AAAAaaaggggggghhhhhhhhhhh its ages away!

Regards

Mel

 

[athelstan]

Amazingly quick replies!

Many thanks -

1 Water Parks busy days - I figure nearly every Saturday is busy everywhere, and if I were to choose a busy place it'ld be a water park rather than anywhere else. But I've taken your advice and moved the second one around - so thanks for that. It's a shame our changeover days (the downside of three hotels) mess up each Friday, to what extent we'll wait and see. The only place to go on a Saturday seems to be AK! But that page is very useful - ta v much.

2 Shopping. Be prepared for a dip in High Street sales figures, probably mentioned by the BBC while were away. DD#1 shops for England and son is not far behind; I've put whole days down as a park when I expect us in reality to give in after lunch, and go out to a Mall or something, before returning to A N Other park.

3 Planning. I've never done this before and SV's book does talk about military style planning, and it does, I admit, run counter to my nature. I generally don't plan, not much anyway, so my progress thus far is by my usual standards anal in the extreme! I suspect you're right and my plan will dissolve in a fine mist the frist Saturday morning when we attend a reps' meeting instead of hitting IOA!

Thanks for the suggestions and advice - what a helpful & friendly crowd you are!

Andy
whose signature lacks the countdown stuff 'cos he's obviously missing something simple!

 

[tony64]

don't fret about the countdown i got mine only after ukdeb pointed me in the direction of tech support discussion check it out it is really easy even for a non techy like me

 

[SidB]

Originally posted by athelstan
It's also our 25th wedding anniverary this year, daughter No1's 21st, son's 18th

Off topic now, sorry. In one 12 month period we'll be having my 50th, our 25th wedding aniversary, eldest daughters 21st and youngest daughters 18th. Very badly planned me thinks. I'm already making plans for 10 years time. Now that is planning ahead. I quite fancy several weeks in the US so I'd better get the mortgage paid off (fat chance).

 

[athelstan]

Hmm. If I think about it, I can sympathise. I was just thinking that superior planning had not landed me in that situation then realised that as I am 50 on July 1st next year, I'm actually on a par in the bad planning league, as for me too it all happens in one 12 month period. Then I presume they cart me of to the old folks' home.

Hope you get the mortgage paid off in time. I certainly will. NOT.

Cheers
Andy

 

[BongoBetty]

Hi

If you insist on doing a waterpark at the weekend then be sure to get there early or you'll have nowhere to stretch out. We have arrived at a w/park later in the morning during the week, to find no place at all to lie down. We had to base around some chairs and I have to say it did spoil it for us somewhat as DW and DD both like to lay out in the sun.

TT (BB's dad)

 

[athelstan]

Mrs S is a great believer in getting there early. We may well have the place to ourselves (if only for 3 seconds) when we get there!

And, as you can see, the great tech god in the sky is smiling on me today (thanks, tony64 - as advertised!)

Anyone care to comment on Mrs S' vertigo

 

[vernon]

Hi Andy, welcome to the DIS. IMHO you may be looking to pack in a little too much , IMHO youmay also be able to do things a little more cost effectively with ticketing. I notice that you're staying on site at both Disney and USF plus you are "doing DC". The express passes at IOA and US really can save you a massive amount of time and these will cut down on the amount of time you need in those parks. I believe that they are doing 3days for the price of two "hopper" passes for USF at the moment and IMHO that would be enough time for you to cover both parks. HRH has a great pool and I would drop WetnWild in favour of enjoying the pools at the Universal hotels. You can pool hop to the excellent Portifino Bay Hotel. With your DC day you get up to 7 days use (consecutive days )of SW included, but they have to include the day you go into DC. AKL is a wonderful hotel with great pool facilities, I would plan to use them for at least some of the time there. DW's vertigo will put out a lot of IOA's better rides, but with the express pass she won't have too long a wait for the rest of you. Spiderman is possibly an OK ride, but I'd sample it first and give her your opinion. You do have a "simulated 200 feet drop" at the end ( you really drop maybe 10 feet) the effect is pretty convincing, but if she can close her eyes for that bit (as you go over the edge of the building) she will probably enjoy the rest of the ride. You can see most of the rest of the rides at IOA as you walk past them so she'll be able to give you a "not on your life" reading for most of them LOL.

Here's some ideas that may make more economical usee of the parks and ticket options and also leave you a little more leisure time. This does depend on you being able to change your DC to a slightly earlier one. If not slip BG into the 24th and juggle the other SW days into the dates with DC's free days. You can always drop a pool day for a park day if you feel so inclined .
18th arrive
19th IOA
20th HRH pool and shop to Belz
21st Universal
22nd PBH pool and shop at Mall at the Millenium
23rd IOA/US
24th SeaWorld
25th shop at DTD, pool time and settle in to CB
26th MGM+Cirque
27th MK
28th either TL,DC or SW (depending on reorganised day for DC)
29th Same as above )
30th same as 28th
31st MK
1st settle in to AKL, pool and check out the savannah
2nd BB
3rd BG
4th AK
5th AKL pool and shop to Premium outlet mall
19th Epcot
20th leave ( I doubt you'll have time to fit in a park this day)

That gives you a 3 days for the price of 2 at USF, one single day at BG, your DC day gives you the SW time and for Disney you need a 5 day hopper plus ( you may have to pay for one extra waterpark day) You could also slip in an afternoon/evening at DQ which if any of the kids like video games will be a sure hit. I think that will work out a lot cheaper than the "ultimate hopper pass" ( mostly because you're using the SW free days) but enough time to cover the Disney parks adiquately as ,given the ages of your kids, you should be able to go longer in the parks IF you slide in more relaxing days either side of them.

 

[athelstan]

We bought the tickets last October; each of the three places we went - Thomas Cook, Holiday Hypermarket and Going Places pretty much came up with the same packages and they'd probably say they were meeting our criteria - we wanted as much access as possible over the three weeks.

Which or whatever, them's the tickets we've got! (I'd still like to know if the 9 day Ultimate Hopper passes include a character breaksfast - anyone know?)

Very grateful for your suggested itinerary and thoughts - given that the tickets are a done deal, anything further to add?

Most grateful too for the DW advice - I'd have thought Spiderman was a no-no, but if we can get her through that then maybe she can get on a few more. She really wants to go on RnR RR as she likes Aerosmith (no comment) so she's game.

Cheers

Andy

 

[UKDEB]

Originally posted by vernon
You do have a "simulated 200 feet drop" at the end ( you really drop maybe 10 feet)

Yikes! Are you sure about this, Vernon? My understanding is that the track is completely level and that your Scoop acts in the same way as a normal simulator (i.e. moves around a fixed pivotal point) whilst at the same time travelling along the track at a constant speed. I'm pretty sure you don't drop at all.

 

[vernon]

As the tix are nailed down not much you can do about it, but to maximise their use I would look to do a lot of half/three quarter days in the parks and make use of the facilities you have at the hotels to give yourself the best chance of remaining fresh and rested. Particularly the AKL is a wonderful hotel to not make use of their facilities would be a shame, JMHO.

You do run the risk of afternoon thunderstorms over the time you're there , even the chance of whole days :O , so you will need to be flexible and work around those possibilities. I would have a list of the indoor attractions and rides at each park and have then pencilled in for between 3-5 each afternoon. That's often the most likely time for rain. USF in particular has a lot of indoor attractions so it may work well to try IOA ( or pool) in the morning and USF from 2.00 onwards. At Disney, AKL is mostly "outdoors" attractions so I would try here on mornings and reschedule if it looks like it may rain all day. Epcot I would visit for 2,3 maybe 4 afternoon/evenings and complete 3 or 4 rides then eat in one of the excellent world show case restaurants. My favourites are Akerhus in Norway and Le Cellier in Canada but Morocco, Mexico and Japan all have some offerings that are worth the visit.

She may be OK on Rocknroller as it's in the dark you can't see where the hell you are anyway ( Space Mountain is also the same although you can see a little more in Space also Space has no inversions).

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

With three weeks you can't go wrong, no matter what your plan is! My only piece of advice is to consider hopping from one park to another during the day. We often spend the morning in one Disney park, and then spend the late afternoon/evening in a different park (after taking a mid-day break). This variety helps keep our interest and energy levels high, and allows us a bit of flexibility with regard to where we eat, waht evening shows & fireworls we see. etc, etc.

Happy planning!

Regards

Rob

 

[vernon]

Deb I'm pretty sure you physically move up and down as well as spin around and from side to side on Spidey. On BTTF and Startours I've never been "fooled" about the degree of motion to the extent you get on Spiderman. I could be wrong, but my feelings are that there is a "real fall" mixed in with the simulation. IMHO it's the length of time that you are excelerating that lead me to think you physically move to a much greater extent than on any of the other "simulators"

 

[athelstan]

Can I just say a big "thank you" to everyone who replied?

To say this forum has been helpful is a bit like saying I find oxygen useful.

Cheers
Andy

 

[kazzie]

I think you've has such good advice I can't add much! Except to agree I think you should try to have have a trip to Disney Quest.

I would try Wet'N'Wild if you have the chance.If you really like any of the water parks in particular you can go back to them.I think you need a bit more R&R time in the itinerary but that will probably happen quite naturally when people are tired or would rather swim laze by the pool than go to a theme park!