ilovecraigandcooper
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2009
- Messages
- 260
I haven't been to disney world since I was 12, which was many, MANY moons ago 
I have taken several disney and royal caribbean cruises over the years and am a wealth of knowledge when it comes to all things of the sea BUT disney world scares me...there's A LOT to know. And it's different than any other vacation I've planned as an adult (and I live to plan vacays)! I'm still trying to wrap my head around picking a resort/dining plan/ticket package/extra magic hours/special mickey parties/fast passes....OH MY!
When we first decided to do a land vacation this year, my plan was to fly from Georgia and stay five nights this upcoming October. THEN royal caribbean came out with '3rd and 4th guests sail free' promotion and I'm all "OH ROYAL CARIBBEAN, YOU DIRTY LITTLE VIXEN, YOU ALWAYS MANAGE TO GET ME..." So this is my new "plan" and I'm looking for advice and what changes any of you guys (aka: experts) would make...if we do the cruise it will cut down on our disney time A LOT...but it's hard to justify NOT doing the cruise since it's a great deal, we'll already be in the area and I LIVE TO CRUISE (did I mention that)?
Sunday, October 5th: Drive to cocoa beach (flying with probably be out now since A- we're adding a cruise so we're spending money there and B- we'll need more luggage because of the cruise and by the time I checked bags I would be spending more than I want considering it's *only* a 8 hour drive (that I despise....). Spend the night at the Four points by Sheraton (by fav hotel) and take the shuttle to the cruise port the next morning...
Monday-Thursday: 4 night cruise
Friday, October 10th: Carry off our own luggage (early departure) and *hopefully* be on the road (after we retrieve our car) by 10ish and head to the Orlando airport, where we'll pick up my dad, who hates cruising
<-- can't even comprehend and drop off my aunt who isn't doing the disney portion of the trip OR if we ALL decide to fly then we'll take the hotel shuttle to the airport and all of us take the magical express to the world....Anyway, I figure there's no way we'll get there before noon SO if this is one of the days that they'll be having MNSSHP I think it would make more sense to get a ticket for that (rather than a regular tix) and go to magic kindgom from 4:00-12:00, right?
So then we'll have Saturday and Sunday. (We'll leave to head home on Monday, Columbus day). I've been reading that this is a busy weekend.
So in your infinite wisdom, since this is *kind of* our first visit ever since my husband and myself were kids the last time we went and our son (who will be 6) has never been, what would you do on Saturday and Sunday?
I feel like the magic kingdom would appeal most to my son...but he would probably also really like the animal kingdom...I think I've almost talked myself out of epcot for this trip because 1) the food and wine festival will still be going on, right? So that means more crowds? And 2) although I've read about some wonderful things there it seems like there is MORE that would appeal to us at Mk and Ak. (I was also hoping to go to downtown disney at some point and take Coop to the lego store...possibly before the MNSSHP)?
I was kind of leaning against adding the park hopper option just because with such a limited amount of days it seemed smarter to spend all of each day in ONE park to maximize our time...although maybe I'm looking at it wrong and we SHOULD get the hopper BECAUSE we have such little time?
And then it's possible that we'll decide against the cruise all together (we have until 3/31 to make up our minds) and in that case we'll probably add at least 2 nights to disney giving us 5 all together...
This was a lot of rambling. ANY INPUT/ADVISE/ETC to the itinerary/thought-logic/trip in general, is GREATLY appreciated!!!
(And we'll probably stay at art of animation. Or one of the other values. Definitely not a deluxe, lol)
I have taken several disney and royal caribbean cruises over the years and am a wealth of knowledge when it comes to all things of the sea BUT disney world scares me...there's A LOT to know. And it's different than any other vacation I've planned as an adult (and I live to plan vacays)! I'm still trying to wrap my head around picking a resort/dining plan/ticket package/extra magic hours/special mickey parties/fast passes....OH MY! When we first decided to do a land vacation this year, my plan was to fly from Georgia and stay five nights this upcoming October. THEN royal caribbean came out with '3rd and 4th guests sail free' promotion and I'm all "OH ROYAL CARIBBEAN, YOU DIRTY LITTLE VIXEN, YOU ALWAYS MANAGE TO GET ME..." So this is my new "plan" and I'm looking for advice and what changes any of you guys (aka: experts) would make...if we do the cruise it will cut down on our disney time A LOT...but it's hard to justify NOT doing the cruise since it's a great deal, we'll already be in the area and I LIVE TO CRUISE (did I mention that)?
Sunday, October 5th: Drive to cocoa beach (flying with probably be out now since A- we're adding a cruise so we're spending money there and B- we'll need more luggage because of the cruise and by the time I checked bags I would be spending more than I want considering it's *only* a 8 hour drive (that I despise....). Spend the night at the Four points by Sheraton (by fav hotel) and take the shuttle to the cruise port the next morning...
Monday-Thursday: 4 night cruise
Friday, October 10th: Carry off our own luggage (early departure) and *hopefully* be on the road (after we retrieve our car) by 10ish and head to the Orlando airport, where we'll pick up my dad, who hates cruising
<-- can't even comprehend and drop off my aunt who isn't doing the disney portion of the trip OR if we ALL decide to fly then we'll take the hotel shuttle to the airport and all of us take the magical express to the world....Anyway, I figure there's no way we'll get there before noon SO if this is one of the days that they'll be having MNSSHP I think it would make more sense to get a ticket for that (rather than a regular tix) and go to magic kindgom from 4:00-12:00, right?So then we'll have Saturday and Sunday. (We'll leave to head home on Monday, Columbus day). I've been reading that this is a busy weekend.
So in your infinite wisdom, since this is *kind of* our first visit ever since my husband and myself were kids the last time we went and our son (who will be 6) has never been, what would you do on Saturday and Sunday?
I feel like the magic kingdom would appeal most to my son...but he would probably also really like the animal kingdom...I think I've almost talked myself out of epcot for this trip because 1) the food and wine festival will still be going on, right? So that means more crowds? And 2) although I've read about some wonderful things there it seems like there is MORE that would appeal to us at Mk and Ak. (I was also hoping to go to downtown disney at some point and take Coop to the lego store...possibly before the MNSSHP)?
I was kind of leaning against adding the park hopper option just because with such a limited amount of days it seemed smarter to spend all of each day in ONE park to maximize our time...although maybe I'm looking at it wrong and we SHOULD get the hopper BECAUSE we have such little time?
And then it's possible that we'll decide against the cruise all together (we have until 3/31 to make up our minds) and in that case we'll probably add at least 2 nights to disney giving us 5 all together...
This was a lot of rambling. ANY INPUT/ADVISE/ETC to the itinerary/thought-logic/trip in general, is GREATLY appreciated!!!
(And we'll probably stay at art of animation. Or one of the other values. Definitely not a deluxe, lol)
yes, it WAS a lot of rambling!!! Thanks for getting through it! Good idea about skipping Mk on Saturday and doing downtown disney that evening!
