Park Duration Planning and other questions!

[Punkss]

Hi guys!

More advice from you wonderful wonderful people, if you don't mind of course!?

Now me and girlf have been waiting over a year for this trip (!), and it is her first time and i haven't been since I was about 9 so we want to have a basic pln to stop us worrying too much. So you have helped in the past with good advice about times to go where to go and the like so now i need your advice on durations.

We are going September 25th to October 9th and would like to know if our plan is a good one. These are not in order of days or chronologically at all (though we will be doing MK first because in our eyes thats the introduction to the magic). Anyhow here goes...

2 Days MK
1 1/2 Days Epcot
1 1/2 Days MGM/Disney Studios
1 Day AK
1 Day Typhoon Lagoon
1 Day Blizzard Beach
2 Days Universal
1 1/2 Days IOA
1 Days Sea World
1 Days DisneyQuest/Downtown Disney (Rain day!).

So if you could can i have pointers as to whether that would get us to see almost everything in each of the parks?

(Side Note: Sorry to anti-Universalists but we are from the UK and it is part of our amazing (hopefully!) holiday. If you can't understand that, shove off! :lol: )

Also how long does it take to drive between parks (from gate entrance to gate entrance) or would it be better to use Disney monorail/buses/boats and collect the car later?

More questions (sorry!) do they still the UV hand stamps when leaving? Does anyone have rough park opening times as they are not on the official site yet?

Thanks very much for your continued help everyone you have made this trip great! :sohappy:

George

(Only 130 days to go!)

 

[djmatthews]

Hi There fellow Brit!

I have returned from Orlando in April, we managed to squeeze everything (except SeaWorld) in 10 days. But we needed more time to chill. During September however, it is off-season (I beleive), so crowds will be lower, but so will the park hours.

I like what you have done, however, Downtown Disney & Disney Quest could be done at night - maybe atfer a water park freeing up a day.

2 Days for Universal Studios sounds a lot to me, maybe 3 days to cover both parks, I beleive you can "hop" between them both.

Have you considered a trip to the Boardwalk, or having some relaxing days, Florida Mall? Shopping outlets? Hiring a boat or something.

You havn't metioned what pass you are getting, and where you are staying.

You will have a great time!

P.S. out of interest, who are you flying with \ have you booked with?

 

[Punkss]

Yeah sorry i hadn't used up my entire quota of days there to keep some spare for shopping and the malls and maybe a relaxing day Cypress Gardens. And maybe even a drive to a beach.

I put 2 for Universal Studios as my boss who went last year said he would go back for another but his group didn't want to! :lol:

I have booked with First Choice Holiday Hypermarket. The reasons were 1) they did not try to stick us on I Drive though we are there now but thats a different story 2) they were the cheapest by about £300. 3) They got me a car, despite the fact i will be only 23 4) No fees and no forced supplements.

Link for First Choice

Though they are owned by First Choice i'm sure they use the same people to book with so try them out.

We also looked around for tickets for the parks. We have the UK 10 Day World Pass (reduced to £199 which is less than 7 Day currently). And the 4 day FlexiPass for Universal SeaWorld.

If anyone else has advice its always welcomed.

 

[Laura]

Well I am going to have to completely disagree with your plan. :lol:

My husband and I went at that exact time last year and did every ride at every park (except Blizzard Beach because we were too tired) in 3 days.

The parks are dead. You can really fly through them.

I would say 1 day for Magic Kingdom. At that time of year you can probably do every ride twice in 1 day.

1 day for Epcot - in fact you might finish that in less than 1 day.

You will probably finish MGM Studios by 2 p.m. Even on a busy day that park only takes 3/4 of a day to finish. What I would do is sleep in late that day and go around noon. That way you'll finish seeing all the attractions 1-2 times by the time Fantasmic starts.

Animal Kingdom will only take you 3-4 hours max to see everything.

You could probably easily fit Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach into the same day.

DisneyQuest only takes a couple hours to do everything. Downtown Disney is just shopping. You can probably do all of that in half a day.

I haven't been to Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure in a few years so I don't know how long you should devote to those.


You have alloted 9 days to just the Disney portion of your trip, but in reality during that time of year you will probably finish all of your Disney stuff in 5 days because the parks are so dead. I suppose you could always spend 1-2 of those days going back to the different parks and repeating your favorite rides. But you'll probably want to find some more things to do. Maybe spend a day on International Drive and do some of the neat museums (Ripleys Believe it or Not and Wonderworks are great!). Spend a day doing nothing but sleeping and swimming at your hotel (trust me - you'll need some good breaks!). Do a dinner show like Hoop-Dee-Doo one night. Maybe spend a day just checking out the different hotels. I think it's fun to walk through the Polynesian and the Contemporary when I'm bored.

Hope that helps!

 

[Punkss]

Yeah I can see what your saying and i do not know crowds etc. But we haven't been there before and we are little slowcoaches so i think we could add at least a couple of hours onto your time plus we will be watching shows and looking in all the shops (women eh?!), sitting down and eating dinner. And yeah we'll probably ride things more than once. And MK will be a Sunday which i've heard is always busy. And characters...my girlf wants to meet as many as possible.

And did i say we were ssssloowwwwwww? :lol:

And bearing in mind at our local theme park which we to every year we still manage to spend a whole day there even on a school day! And its roughly half the size of MK.

So you're probably half-right in the sense it won't take as long as you say but it will still take us a while!

Thanks for your advice and your help all is good. Anyone else?

 

[PhilharMagician]

You can use every bit of those 10 days at WDW. Just take your time and enjoy the magic. There is no reason why you should go flying through the parks when you have this much time. Just enjoy the atmosphere while you are here.

Make sure if you have any character meals you want to go to, get the PS's ASAP.

You can do both water parks in one day. Or you can go to one park and then go explore some of the resorts and have dinner in some of the restaurants in the resorts. Cape May Cafe @ the Beach Club :slurp: Yum!!

As for Universal & IOA I would say a maximum of 3 days. We took our time last year and we were actually bored after about 2 days. We went back for the 3rd day just to use the pass and did not even go back for the 4th day. They have some good rides & shows, but just not Disney.

It looks like you have booked you rooms, but it is so much different to stay on site @ Disney. The experience is awesome. Last year we stayed on site for 8 nights and then spent 6 offsite in Orlando at a great hotel, but the Disney stay was so much better.

For your lenght of stay, look at annual passes(if you can from the UK). The annual passes would get you reduce rates on your Disney hotel rates. Ask around the boards for some of the rates that people have gotten are extremely cheap at the value resorts.

Good luck and enjoy your extended trip!!

Hope this info helps.

 

[Punkss]

This sounds more like what i want to hear (the truth or not?!?) as stated we are not ones for rushing especially not on holiday!

I don't to upset Laura22 but it sounds like she is much faster than me at these kind of things! :lol:

Thanks again guys!

PS We really did want to stay on site but in the end it was just too expensive (even with POP century resorts) we wanted more money to go to restaurants and buy things.

 

[awallaceunc]

I think your schedule is perfect, use all your time at WDW.

I have to kindly disagree w/ whoever said you can finish Epcot in less than one day. I think you need 2 on less crowded days, and one could argue for 3.

An important thing to remember is that yes, crowds will be smallers, but operating hours won't be the best, either. But I think what you've allotted for works well.

The only comment I made is that you'll be hard pressed to spend and entire day at AK. If you do absolutely everything there and take your time, it will take all day (but no more), but look over it first. If you're not interested in doing it all, you could spend more time elsewhere.

I wish I had as much time as you! lol

-Aaron

 

[Laura]

LOL...you are right though. I do tend to go pretty fast. I'm not much of a sightseer so I just go from ride to ride and when everything has been ridden I'm done!

If you enjoy seeing the sights then certainly take your time.

But with that said, I still think you should cut back on the time you spend in the theme parks and find some other things around Disney to do with the free time. There's so many great dinners at the different resorts, there's dinner shows, there's mini golf, the boardwalk, you can rent boats and go for a ride in one of the waterways, you can see Cirque Du Solei, all kinds of stuff!

The way you have your itinerary now you have 8 days of nothing but Disney parks and 1 day in Downtown Disney. I would try to alter that and have it be 6 days of parks, 2 days of Disney sightseeing (doing the mini golfs, some character dinners, etc) and then I'd spend 1 day enjoying the other things to do in Orlando. But that's just my own preference.

 

[Punkss]

Yeah i can see thats a good idea maybe taking a break in the day to see the resorts and stuff but there would be gaps in between otherwise my poor girlf would die of exhaustion. :lol:

We were thinking of a relaxing day at Cypress Gardens, also a day at the malls, the water parks, also it 14 days so were going to drive to the beach (as in by the ocean). Also a day off around town and evenings in Kissimmee.

 

[awallaceunc]

I'm an advocate of getting their 30 minutes before it opens, and staying in the parks until closing time. A lot of people want to leave during the day, but I see that as a huge waste of time. It takes a loooong time to exit, travel to wherever you are going, and then come back into the park (way longer than most anticipate). There are air conditioned places to take breaks in the parks, and you're sitting indoors for most shows and rides. But I guess if you really, really need a daytime nap, take a quick as possible one, but I just view it as a waste of valuable time and money.

-Aaron

 

[HennieBogan1966]

First of all, have a great time. I took my Wife there for her first trip on our honeymoon. It was very special, so take lots of pictures. Secondly, we were there in Dec for our trip, so the hours for each park are shorter. And while the crowds are much smaller comparetively, there may still be longer lines at the more popular attractions. The other thing to consider is how much your girlfriend may want to take in all that is Disney. I wouldn't worry to much about time constraints in any of the parks. Just take your time, soak in everything that's changed over the years since your last visit, and don't worry about how many days, hours etc.

The other thing is have you checked into the price comparison of the tickets you purchased against the Annual pass, as has already been mentioned? The savings for on site hotels with annual passes is almost too good to pass up.

Lastly, leave your car the last place you plan on stopping at and use Disney Transportation whenever possible.

 

[marypoppins68]

You mentioned a day at Cypress Gardens. Cypress Gardens closed last April and is due to reopen sometime this fall. It may not be open yet when you visit so you might want to have an alternative to the Gardens in mind.

 

[JohnMan]

You're going at a perfect time. Our last trip was Sept. 16 2001 (yeah, we still went). It was a little slower than usual then for obvious reasons.

Well the only thing I would do is only go to Universal Studios for one day. IOA rules, but the studios are a little lame in my opinion.

Also more than a day at MGM may be much but if you like the more trilling rides MGM is the place.

Have an awesome time!

 

[StevenT]

I understand fully that you want to experiance Universal and I'm all for it. But in all honesty you will NOT be able to find enought to do at Universal for 2 full days. I'd do 1 day at Universal, maybe 1.5 at IOA, it's a little bit better. Devote that day you knocked off Universal to another day at the Magic Kingdom, trust me you'll want it.

Universal is honestly lacking in attractions. You have the new Shrek 3D movie thing, the Mummy Returns Coaster thing that is supposed to be pretty cool, then Men In Black Alien Attack, Earthquake and well... that's about it. I honestly did everything between opening and shortly after lunch (this includes multiple rides on MIB).

It's not that I hate Universal, more that I prefer Disney so much that I have only been to Universal once and IOA twice while I go to WDW multiple times a year (I live 3 hours away ). Have a nice vacation, whatever you decide to do, I'm sure it will be fun!

One more thing to remember while on Disney property. Use the transportation. I absolutley never use the car once I arrive at my hotel. It is aprox. 30-45 minutes depending on traffic from Disney to Universal.

 

[JTFerret]

I agree that Universal could be done and well over in 3 days. You have listed Sea World as 1 day. Have you considered doing Discovery Cove with another day (Sea World owned...swim with dolphins)?
My family uses the water park days to go to night time fireworks shows - Fantasmic, Wishes, Illuminations - so that on the days we are at the parks doing attractions we can use the fireworks shows to not wait in lines. Same thing with parades, after you've seen a parade they are the perfect time to do attractions while everyone is standing along the parade route.
While you want to keep time to be spontaneous you should also plan which shows you wish to see (Festival of the Lion King, Beauty & the Beast, etc.) and which meals you wish to do and plan some of your days around those. For example if you are lucky enough to get Priority Seating to Cindy's Royal Breakfast than you would obviously be better served staying at the Magic Kingdom that day.
We love to see everything we can, including parades and shows and doing those can eat up a lot of time!

 

[Punkss]

OK I can see what you're saying about Universal everybody. And i must these plans are not set in stone (that would be a bit crazy for the reasons above! So we will have to see, maybe my friends were wrong because admittedly they went August so queues would be long, therefore i have the luxury of time.

I think we may spend longer at IOA than most because for the first ride on any coaster i am scared witless and don't enjoy it so therefore i always go on a second time is possible! And then i really enjoy it!!

OK Thanks for your help guys it really is most appreciated by myself and Luisa (my girlf!). Just really looking forward to it now, i think it about in the mrnings to get myself going for work!

 

[johnvree]

Good plan.

We just got back from a two week stay. Previously, the most we had ever done was a week. I have to say that the extra time makes a huge difference. It really allows you to enjoy the more subtle aspects of the parks and to rest when you need it.

As for your plan, 3.5 days on Universal property does seem like a lot, especially since it will be off season. But I can tell you that I wish we had done an extra day there. You could easily lose a day and a half at each park. I thought IOA was pretty amazing and would have liked to soaked it in more. The theming is top notch.

Good luck and have fun.