Too much??

[jovigirlnj]

Sorry this is so long but I am having a war inside my mind!!
Ok I have posted this on a Disney Board but I still cant decide. We have a trip planned for the last week in Aug in 2009. We are spending 9 day onsite at disney. I really wanted to go to Sea World,Universal and IOA but I dont want to go while we are staying at disney. We are driving and our first night is on Thursday. I came up with the idea of leaving here on Saturday, getting to orlando Sunday and staying at HRH. Spending sunday at sea World, Monday at Universal and Tuesday at IOA then Wed a day to relax in the pool. Then onto Disney as planned. That has turned our 9 days into 12 days not including travel days. All in all it would wind up being 14 days we are out of our house. My hubby thinks this is way too long and too much to do in one trip. He said he know he and I will be fine but there is no way the kids will make it that long. I plan on taking off here and there for relaxing pool time. My boys at time of travel will be 13,11,8,5 & 2. This year we went to Myrtle Beach and were gone for 12 days but it was a different kind of trip, but the kids were ok.
We only get to take 1 vacation a year so if we dont go to Universal then we dont have a shot until 2010. Thinking that far in advance is killing me.

I quess what I am asking is do I say "Go for it" and hope for the best. Or do I suck it up and not go to all three?? Also we have to do Disney last cause the kids have school the following week.

Any advice please??

 

[goofy!]

Sorry this is so long but I am having a war inside my mind!!
Ok I have posted this on a Disney Board but I still cant decide. We have a trip planned for the last week in Aug in 2009. We are spending 9 day onsite at disney. I really wanted to go to Sea World,Universal and IOA but I dont want to go while we are staying at disney. We are driving and our first night is on Thursday. I came up with the idea of leaving here on Saturday, getting to orlando Sunday and staying at HRH. Spending sunday at sea World, Monday at Universal and Tuesday at IOA then Wed a day to relax in the pool. Then onto Disney as planned. That has turned our 9 days into 12 days not including travel days. All in all it would wind up being 14 days we are out of our house. My hubby thinks this is way too long and too much to do in one trip. He said he know he and I will be fine but there is no way the kids will make it that long. I plan on taking off here and there for relaxing pool time. My boys at time of travel will be 13,11,8,5 & 2. This year we went to Myrtle Beach and were gone for 12 days but it was a different kind of trip, but the kids were ok.
We only get to take 1 vacation a year so if we dont go to Universal then we dont have a shot until 2010. Thinking that far in advance is killing me.

I quess what I am asking is do I say "Go for it" and hope for the best. Or do I suck it up and not go to all three?? Also we have to do Disney last cause the kids have school the following week.

Any advice please??

Go for it!

The kids should be fine.

Although, I would switch it up a bit. I would leave early as planned, but do Disney first.

With FOTL access to all the rides at Universal, it really is a much, much more relaxing time. You can go to the parks in the morning, go to the pool in the afternoon and then back to the parks in the evening.

Everything, the hotels, the restaurants and the themeparks are 5 minutes walking distance from the Hard Rock. Or, if the kids are tired, you can take a very relaxing boat ride.

Disney is so much fun, but there is no denying it is exhausting. Doing Universal last will give you many more opportunities for down time as the vacation stretches into that twio week mark.

 

[jovigirlnj]

Go for it!

The kids should be fine.

Although, I would switch it up a bit. I would leave early as planned, but do Disney first.

With FOTL access to all the rides at Universal, it really is a much, much more relaxing time. You can go to the parks in the morning, go to the pool in the afternoon and then back to the parks in the evening.

Everything, the hotels, the restaurants and the themeparks are 5 minutes walking distance from the Hard Rock. Or, if the kids are tired, you can take a very relaxing boat ride.

Disney is so much fun, but there is no denying it is exhausting. Doing Universal last will give you many more opportunities for down time as the vacation stretches into that twio week mark.

I am afraid that if we do disney first then the kids will be so pooped that they arent even going to want to go anywhere else. I thought if I did Universal first it wouldnt be too taxing on them because we will have the front of the line pass. Then this way we take it easy in the beginning then bring on Disney then home. Does that make any sense??

 

[macraven]

Sorry this is so long but I am having a war inside my mind!!
Ok I have posted this on a Disney Board but I still cant decide. We have a trip planned for the last week in Aug in 2009. We are spending 9 day onsite at disney. I really wanted to go to Sea World,Universal and IOA but I dont want to go while we are staying at disney. We are driving and our first night is on Thursday. I came up with the idea of leaving here on Saturday, getting to orlando Sunday and staying at HRH. Spending sunday at sea World, Monday at Universal and Tuesday at IOA then Wed a day to relax in the pool. Then onto Disney as planned. That has turned our 9 days into 12 days not including travel days. All in all it would wind up being 14 days we are out of our house. My hubby thinks this is way too long and too much to do in one trip. He said he know he and I will be fine but there is no way the kids will make it that long. I plan on taking off here and there for relaxing pool time. My boys at time of travel will be 13,11,8,5 & 2. This year we went to Myrtle Beach and were gone for 12 days but it was a different kind of trip, but the kids were ok.
We only get to take 1 vacation a year so if we dont go to Universal then we dont have a shot until 2010. Thinking that far in advance is killing me.

I quess what I am asking is do I say "Go for it" and hope for the best. Or do I suck it up and not go to all three?? Also we have to do Disney last cause the kids have school the following week.

Any advice please??

too long??

i don't think it is long enough.......

i go solo and do motherland and darkside on the same trip and fly in.
15 days is fine for me to do everything i want to do and still relax.

i agree with goofy.
start the theme parks with disney on site.
then move over to universal.
it will be a very relaxing trip at that point. less rushing and more kid programs at the hotel and at the pool for them. universal is a smaller park and little planning is really needed for it.
if you hit universal at the very end of august, you will get better rates for the onsite hotels, but you would have to rent 2 rooms for the 7 of you in the family.

you said you would leave on a saturday and arrive on a sunday to orlando.
how long of a drive is it ....are you driving straight thru the night or just a couple of hours nearby?

if you are driving a long way, that would really take away the glamour of universal on site hotels or off site hotels.
you'll be so tired and not able to relax and appreciate what that place has to offer your family.

since you have been to disney before, you could go there first and you would know how to gauge your days for the parks.

i would leave sea world out on this trip.
it is costly and food is not cheap there.
very rushed during summer vacations.
it would fill one day but with the ages your kids are, i would think they would enjoy doing rides more than watching shows.
jmo.

i think if you concentrate on theme parks, the kids would love it.
sea world has many shows and extra costs.
once the kids do the parks, both of them, they might not enjoy or appreciate what sea world has to offer.

make that a different side trip on your next vacation.

you could do 7 days at disney and 4 nights, 5 days at universal and have a well rounded trip.
you could get by with 6 days at disney depending on where you are staying and how many breaks from the park you would need for the two littles.
unless you rent 2 rooms at disney, you would need to find off site arrangements. the wilderness cabins allow for more people but they are not cheap.
i don't get why you have to do disney first. you said the kids go back to school the following week. i am confused by that one statement.
can you explain that again before i give any more suggestions?

 

[Tizzy_Meliss]

I agree with Mac and Goofy. Do Disney first and US/IOA second. We made the mistake of Disney after US/IOA FOTL, my children were not to pleased to have to wait in hour long lines after only waiting 10 minutes at US/IOA.

 

[jovigirlnj]

too long??

i don't think it is long enough.......

i go solo and do motherland and darkside on the same trip and fly in.
15 days is fine for me to do everything i want to do and still relax.

i agree with goofy.
start the theme parks with disney on site.
then move over to universal.
it will be a very relaxing trip at that point. less rushing and more kid programs at the hotel and at the pool for them. universal is a smaller park and little planning is really needed for it.
if you hit universal at the very end of august, you will get better rates for the onsite hotels, but you would have to rent 2 rooms for the 7 of you in the family.

you said you would leave on a saturday and arrive on a sunday to orlando.
how long of a drive is it ....are you driving straight thru the night or just a couple of hours nearby?

if you are driving a long way, that would really take away the glamour of universal on site hotels or off site hotels.
you'll be so tired and not able to relax and appreciate what that place has to offer your family.

since you have been to disney before, you could go there first and you would know how to gauge your days for the parks.

i would leave sea world out on this trip.
it is costly and food is not cheap there.
very rushed during summer vacations.
it would fill one day but with the ages your kids are, i would think they would enjoy doing rides more than watching shows.
jmo.

i think if you concentrate on theme parks, the kids would love it.
sea world has many shows and extra costs.
once the kids do the parks, both of them, they might not enjoy or appreciate what sea world has to offer.

make that a different side trip on your next vacation.

you could do 7 days at disney and 4 nights, 5 days at universal and have a well rounded trip.
you could get by with 6 days at disney depending on where you are staying and how many breaks from the park you would need for the two littles.
unless you rent 2 rooms at disney, you would need to find off site arrangements. the wilderness cabins allow for more people but they are not cheap.
i don't get why you have to do disney first. you said the kids go back to school the following week. i am confused by that one statement.
can you explain that again before i give any more suggestions?

We have never been to Disney before, I have been to Sea World a long time ago - As far as rides at Sea World I dont plan on going on them we will be going there just to see the mammels. Two of my sons are very into fish,sharks,whales etc.
The car ride for us would be about 16 hours - when I thought about it we would have to leave here on Friday after work drive as far as we can then get to the Hard Rock Saturday evening and hang out for the rest of the night.
We already have our ressies at Disney made for two rooms at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for 9 nights.

We were planning on leaving Disney the last Saturday in Aug - that would get us back home Sunday. The kids start school that week so I wanted to be back on Sunday.
I suppose I could change the Disney dates around but I know the way the kids are usually - if we spend 9 days and nights at Disney they arent going to want to go anywhere else after. If we did it first then they would be ok at the begining and hopefully ge through disney. Maybe??
Thanks for your advice - I quess I need to think it through some more. Maybe play around with the dates.

 

[goofy!]

We have never been to Disney before, I have been to Sea World a long time ago - As far as rides at Sea World I dont plan on going on them we will be going there just to see the mammels. Two of my sons are very into fish,sharks,whales etc.
The car ride for us would be about 16 hours - when I thought about it we would have to leave here on Friday after work drive as far as we can then get to the Hard Rock Saturday evening and hang out for the rest of the night.
We already have our ressies at Disney made for two rooms at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for 9 nights.

We were planning on leaving Disney the last Saturday in Aug - that would get us back home Sunday. The kids start school that week so I wanted to be back on Sunday.
I suppose I could change the Disney dates around but I know the way the kids are usually - if we spend 9 days and nights at Disney they arent going to want to go anywhere else after. If we did it first then they would be ok at the begining and hopefully ge through disney. Maybe??
Thanks for your advice - I quess I need to think it through some more. Maybe play around with the dates.

Take it from us. You don't want to be at Disney with tired kids.

Another thing to consider is that kids usually know about Disney more than they know about Universal, so that is their focus. (until they have been to both and just know that Universal rocks).

Long, long ago, we took our kids 4 and 6 for two weeks to Orlando, almost the same schedule as you. 4 days to start out with at Universal followed by 10 days at the Poly.

It was terrible. All I ever heard was "when are we going to see Mickey Mouse." When are we going to see Cinderella. They were so focused on seeing Disney that they were too young to also enjoy Universal. I wish we had done it the opposite way that vacation and let the kids have their Disney fix first and then move onto Universal when they could have appreciated it. Of course, now there are 3 kids and none of them even want to step foot at Disney. It is all Universal, Universal, Universal.

But it really is more relaxing at Universal. Everything is rush, rush and then wait, wait at Disney. You wait for the busses. You wait in long, long lines. You rush to make it to your ADR's. You rush to get the next fast pass. There is little flexibility at Disney. You make your dining reservations 6 months in advance. Even if your kids are cranky, you still feel like you have to drag them there because you know you cannot make other ones while you are there.

At Universal, with Front of the Line passes, you can be very spontaneous. You can sleep in, you can go to the parks for a little while. You can spend time in the pool. You can eat when you want to and where you want to. It is a much better environment for kids that have been on the go for 9 days.

After 14 days of theme parks, you are going to have melt downs in the 60 minute queues for the rides. If you are at Universal at the end of 14 days, you will have 10 minute waits if not walk-on with FOTL and it being the end of the summer.

 

[jovigirlnj]

Thanks I will look into going to Universal after Disney - everyone seems to say the same thing. Thanks for the help!!

 

[macraven]

the first time, we did disney first and then universal with some side trips on the weekends to old town, go carts, gladiators show, ripleys, kid type of entertainment.

i used to avoid doing disney parks on a saturday. too many people.....

since my 3 boys did the mickey mouse first, they were happy to switch over to a slower pace trip for universal. i wore them out at disney.

at disney we did a split stay of half off site then rest of the time on site hotels.
that helped them ease into the park thing.
this was the first time ever they had been to orlando, heck the first time on a plane or outside of illinois........


we did the emh when it was the 7:30 open time early morning for on site guests at disney. we would stay until the joint closed down at night.
my kids were young then and easily amused with anything.

the last day we did disney, they were exhausted. i had to cancel park plans, they didn't want to get up at 7 that morning. we blew the day off and stayed at the resort, played in the arcade room, watched tv, took all food to the room and ate there. left the next day at check out time and moved to universal. first trip there we did not stay on site.
the other trips we did.


what a relaxing vacation that was.

no rush to busses or drive the rental car to another parking lot, and from there catch a tram to get to the park entrance..........try that with 3 boys all a year apart in age while their dad stayed home and worked to pay the bills for this trip.....

no over crowded pools, city walk was an adventure to try new places.
not one resturant complained when i took food bagged from one place in with us to order from that place. yes, always one child that has the melt down for just a hot dog for dinner...
discounts for all the places at universal and city walk...

we had the perfect ending to our vacation.
we loved disney for what we did there. it was exhausting due to the heat and having to be on busses so long to get anywhere, just as bad as using the rental car to go from the hotel to the parking lot of one of the parks ......to get to the fun part of the trip at disney.

the disney parks the boys loved, not the part of getting up real early to do breakfast and then stand in a long line to get on the bus......that down time was hard on my kids.

the food courts at the resorts were very handy for us at disney.
not as much of a variety but it served the purpose when they wanted to eat and not wait.

once we moved over to universal, we could sleep later. the walk to the park was a short one. the rooms were larger than what we had at disney.
tickets were way cheaper for us at universal. they even had tv channels that we were used to and none of the 24 hour disney tv.. pool they loved at uo maybe due to the kid programs they had...

fotl was the clincher for us.

no heated melt downs or tempers. very little wait for lines.
what a joy that was.........

i suggest you do a few days, maybe 3 at universal on site after your disney trip. you'll leave on a good and relaxing peace of mind.