Help me plan Orlando (Disney) Vacation

DougWright · 07-21-2003, 02:39 PM

My wife and I are heading to Disney October 5-13.
She has never been there and I was last there before Epcott. We want to make the most out of the trip and I was hoping some people here would have some ideas they would share.

What I know… we will be staying on the resort and I think we are purchasing a 5-day park hopper pass.
For the other 2 days I want to try to squeeze in Universal Studios, Sea World and Kennedy Space Center. Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios looks to be a WHOLE DAY’S worth (plus they are having a Halloween party at night so we were planning on staying for that anyhow.)

So here is the question, can I squeeze Sea World and Kennedy into one day? Or is that stretching it.
Does anyone know about transportation from Disney to Seaworld and Kennedy. Should I rent a car for that day?

Any information about places that take Canadian Money at par would be appreciated. I am so lost and want to finish the booking now.

Thanks to all who help!

Greg_P · 07-21-2003, 02:51 PM

Hi Doug,

I'm definitely not an expert but I'm currently planning a trip for my family in October to Disney as well. Here are a few sites that have helped me greatly in my planning:

http://www.wdwig.com
http://www.mousesavers.com
http://disneyecho.emuck.com/

As for your question about Sea World/Universal/Kennedy Space Center in two days. I think that'd be tough to do. I've done all three of those places and they were pretty much all day affairs.

Hope this helps!
Greg

DonRoeber · 07-21-2003, 03:52 PM

My fiancee and I spent three days last year doing just Universal. I've been to Sea World before, and it's a single-day affair. Kennedy Space Center is a bit of a drive from Orlando, so it'll be near impossible to do. I suggest doing just Disney and Universal.

For what it's worth, I'll see you guys in Disney this year. My fiancee and I are going there for our Honeymoon. We're doing the Disney Honeymoon package for 7 nights. We're staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter hotel. We'll be at Disney from September 29th to October 6th. The whole thing was a pretty good deal, about $1300 per person, including airfare from Philadelphia.

Todd Hochard · 07-21-2003, 04:18 PM

Kennedy will be an hour's drive from Orlando (actually about 1:15 from Disney property), so doing Sea World and Kennedy in the same day will be fairly difficult, if not impossible. I'd recommend renting a car- it's not as expensive as you might think here- typically cheaper than many other US cities.
Also, Universal closes the parks, moves everyone out, and then re-opens for Halloween Horror Nights. So, you'll need a ticket for the day, and another at night.

You could use this to your advantage- go to Kennedy during the day, return to the hotel for a nap, then head to Universal for Halloween Horror Nights.

millercv · 07-21-2003, 04:52 PM

I am a complete WDW junkie so if you have any questions just let me know. Actually my wife and I will be there Oct 3-12th myself (along with my brother and his family and my parents) - we are staying at the Beach Club Villas (we are members of the Disney Vacation Club).

As mentioned above wdwig.com is an excellent reference. I would also point you to http://www.intercot.com for a very good forum filled with fellow WDW fans

Ok now for some general thoughts/tips/etc:

A 5 day park hopper will allow you to see just about everything, but the key to WDW is to plan. You don't need a "at 5:30 we have to be on Small World" level of planning but a general gameplan and tour order. The parks are BIG. Very Very Big in fact - if you backtrack it will cost a lot of time and wear and tear on your feet.

Plan on taking some breaks - if you are staying on property head back to your hotel in the early afternoon to avoid the hottest and busiest hours of the day. Then head back to the parks. Another option is to plan and make preferred seatings for a sitdown meal for lunchtime.

It is hard to find a bad meal at WDW but a few favorites if you are looking for a great meal: Le Cellier Steakhouse (Epcot in Canada), 50's Primetime Cafe and The Brown Derby (MGM), and Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge (especially for breakfast).

The first 3 days I would do full day Epcot, full day MK, a morning at AK and evening at MGM and then use the next two days to go back to your favorite parks.

Also there are Mickeys Not so Scary Halloween Parties going on then so you may want to look at them also.

anyway that is enough of this book - let me know if you have any specific questions

**HTF Ads**

Lee L · 07-21-2003, 05:16 PM

www.wdwmagic.com Try not to be overwhelmed and don't read how the rides work if you don;t want to know.

They have some excellent forums, including one about trip planning and one about dining, hotels, etc.

I too am a Disney junkie and I can confirm that there is no way to do Universal and Canveral in the same day.

Also, try to get a book called The Unnoficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Don;t waste your money on Disney offial Birnbaum guide.

Jeff Pug · 07-21-2003, 05:52 PM

the unoffical guide was the best thing I read when I went there. His philosphy of how to plan for rides will make sure you get to see everything you want to see.

I got a caravan rental car for 22 a day from priceline.com(all hail shatner

)

Ron Etaylor · 07-21-2003, 05:56 PM

I too am a Disney freak. Another site is disboards.com
Check that out(the others mentioned are good too). You can find so much Disney info it's unbelievable.

DougWright · 07-21-2003, 06:06 PM

Wow, what a whole lot of good information already... thanks to all.

I have a new question, the travel agent suggested we try this Dream Maker package and with it we each get 2 "wishes/day" on top of an Ultimate park hopper pass. I understand what the Ultimate park hopper does for me (compared to a 5 day) and that is very good, but I am curious as to what everyone thinks of these wishes.

For instance 2 wishes can be redeemed for "Cirque de Soleil's La Nouba" which we wanted to see any how and with exchange that worked out to 100 dollars for us. but most things only need one, so I was wondering are most of the things you can get comparable to this.

This is adding roughly $1600.00 Canadian to the cost of our trip, so we need to get $200 Canadian (roughly $150 US) of value/day for these 4 wishes... does that seem possible?

Pros: It would be nice to have some more of the paid up front, The ultimate park hopper is kind of nice compared to the regular.

Cons: I want to be sure I can the extra value out of these wishes.

The lady at WDW told me the Polynesisian Luau and the the Hoop-de-doo were able to be had for 1 wish (we want to do both...) does anyone know what else can be had as a wish, or what could not be?

Thanks again,

Leo Hinze · 07-21-2003, 07:48 PM

I recently got back from Disney, where some friends and I took part in "Drinking Around The World @ Epcot 2K3"

We went to each of the pavilions in Epcot and had a refreshing alcoholic beverage of the type apparently enjoyed by the citiz