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Planning: A Trip to Orlando

Harv

Harv

TS Member
Wow, seems surreal I should be typing this but here goes. Next October, I'll be visiting Orlando for 10 days. I'm 15 minutes from Disneyland, which is amazing to say the least. I never imagined myself visiting and consequently haven't paid massive attention to the theme parks in Orlando. Would somebody please summarize, for a fellow enthusiast, what the best way to spend those 10 days would be?
 
Harvey. said:
Wow, seems surreal I should be typing this but here goes. Next October, I'll be visiting Orlando for 10 days. I'm 15 minutes from Disneyland, which is amazing to say the least. I never imagined myself visiting and consequently haven't paid massive attention to the theme parks in Orlando. Would somebody please summarize, for a fellow enthusiast, what the best way to spend those 10 days would be?
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Firstly, you aren't visiting California so it's Disney World not Disneyland ;) *pedant alert over*

Secondly, I suggest you do a search on here for other threads about Orlando/Florida as there has been plenty posted over the last year and a half on the subject and I'm sure you'll find most of it useful.

To summarise though, how you spend the 10 days depends on who you're going with and how much you want to do. It's possible to do nearly all of the major parks in 10 days if you want, however you'll likely want some rest/shopping days. The parks you really have to do though are:

  • All four Disney parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom) - although if you really had to drop one then it should be Epcot because that's the worst of the four.
  • Both Universal parks (Islands of Adventure and Hollywood Studios) - these are a must, IOA especially as it's probably the best park in the world for dark rides.
  • SeaWorld Orlando (very close to Universal) - for the shows and Manta/Kraken.
  • Busch Gardens Tampa - this is about an hour's drive from Orlando but is definitely worth it. Montu and Kumba, two of the most highly regarded B&M's reside here, as well as Sheikra, Cheetah Hunt and Gwazi (if it still lives by then).

That's eight parks that you really should do, which could be done in 10 days at a push. As I say, it all depends on your company though - if they are as enthusiastic about parks as you then you'll have no problem ;)
 
And you're attending during Halloween Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream at Universal and Busch Gardens respectively, which are separately ticketed events entirely.
 
I'd give Disney five days, Universal three days, SeaWorld and Busch a day each, and not bother with LegoBland. :)
 
Plan some days of downtime - the parks have long hours and they are busy, tiring days.
 
Here is a post that I did a while back for Scott:


I have been to Fl twice and never visited Disney. Just did not see it was worth the money just for a few thrill rides. I want big thrills and not to bothered about all the details.

So you could decide to do one lot of parks or the other, it will save you a decent amount of cash. Most of the parks discount multi day passes with I think 2 week passes being about the best value. So if you are only going for 2 weeks its pointless getting 2 weeks of Universal/seaworld and 2 weeks of Disney.

There are plenty of places that sell tickets. But watch out for the dodgy ones.
http://www.orlando-ticket-deals.co.uk/
(Its been nearly 3 years since I have used that website. Don't know what they are like now)

We got ours from here and it worked out cheapest for us to get Universal 2 park ticket, Discovery cove ultimate ticket that then covered the rest of the parks as we wanted to do DC anyway.

I would really recommend Discovery cove, its an amazing day and a beautiful and relaxing place to be. It looks expensive but if you work it out with tickets to Seaworld and Busch its not that expensive for an all inclusive day out.

I found a good place to find info was on the trip advisor Orlando page. But there used to be a few Disney drama queens over there so it got rather annoying.

I have stayed in a hotel just off idrive which at the time was a Marriott and it was very nice. There was a daily bus transfer to Universal (after opening time) and there was one back in the afternoon and one in the evening. But Taxis were so cheap from there, all under $10 no matter how slow they drove :p

Seaworld was easy to get to on the buses. I would recommend Lynx buses rather than the I trolley. Lynxs goes a lot further and you can get to Disney using them if you want. I trolley just goes more or less up and down Idrive and has rubbish air con and is normally packed with tourists. On lynx they have good aircon and you get to mix with some locals. With tickets there is a free transfer to Busch gardens which is ok.


This is handy for an idea of buses in Orlando:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g34515-c116996/Orlando:Florida:Bus.Services.On.International.Drive.html


I have stayed in a villa which was good. Nice lot of space, nice quiet area. But the cost of a car was a bit expensive when you have to factor in (at the time) $15 a day parking at the parks! It was ok for us as at the time there was 5 of us so splitting the cost of everything brought the price down but if it was just me and the wife I am not sure I would get a car.

I would think that using the bus and the occasional taxi would be far cheaper. Might not be so good on time but if you are trying to keep costs down I would think that its the best way.

There are some apartments that are called vista cay that are just off idrive. They are smaller than villas so might work out cheaper.

When you get there go to a walmart or something and buy a big pack of bottled water, when I went bottled water in the parks was I think $3-5 for a 750ml bottle and when its really hot its amazing how much you can drink.

Get a small cooler and take some food in, its amazingly expensive in the parks. This can be more difficult in a hotel room with no kitchen equipment but some hotels do have fridges you can have in your room.

Budget Budget Budget and try to stick to your daily budget.

Also get more people to go with you to get the cost down.


There are tons of awesome restaurants to eat at and that can be a large bit of your costs of a holiday. But they are awesome! Olive garden being one of my favourites for a cheap meal Panda Express is awesome, as you might have seen me being tagged in the photos on facebook :p

Feel free to PM me if you want. I will try and keep up to date on here but I am a bit slack when it comes to checking the forum.
 
Alastair said:
although if you really had to drop one then it should be Epcot because that's the worst of the four.
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Personally Epcot is my favourite of the four parks at Disney so it's interesting to read what other people thins. Everyone's opinions differ so my advice to the OP would be to try and do everything if you can, you might like something other people dislike and vice versa so there's no point dismissing something you haven't tried yourself. There are a lot of attractions across all the parks that personally surprised me and far exceeded my expectations.

As others have said, the Lynx buses are far better than the I-Trolley although slightly more expensive for a journey.

Definitely plan down time, as much as you will probably want to spend all your time at the parks you will get worn out very quickly. Personally, for down time I like to have a lie in, possibly go to a water park or something that isn't particularly active and then go to a park in the evening when it's cooler for a couple of rides and then the evening show.
 
As people have said above, make sure you plan downtime. 10 days is quite a tight window to really experience Florida, particularly as there is so much more on offer than just theme parks.

Disney is worth it, whether you're really into it or not. It's not often you fly halfway across the world to the region where the founding theme parks are, and for the price you pay you really have an all encompassing immersive experience. If I was to suggest you cull anything it would be Seaworld and Busch, the latter being a pretty average park that benefits from a couple of good coasters.

Outside of theme parks, you should check out airboats in the florida creeks/lakes etc. Also water parks for relaxation time, although bear in mind it is the peak rainy season.
 
My one tip would be you can not do everything, so don't try.

There is always something new to go back for the following year. As tempting as it is to go to your favourite attraction first, let the jet lag wear off before you go.

Ian
 
Make use of the late openings. For example, assuming you have Disney hopper passes, animal kingdom in the day, they Hollywood studios at night. Tot is awesome at night. Epcot could be done in one evening IMHO.

Car hires pretty cheap, so I would recommend a car if you are comfortable driving abroad. The roads are so easy! It's lovely being able to come and go as you pease and also have a 'safe place' for supplies and a change of cloths should the weather change or you are sweating from re-riding hulk all day ;)

BG:Tampa is a must for me. Only one day mind, just hope all the coasters are open. A side note to this, if it's forecast any type of storm, even if it doesn't materialise, don't go to BG:Tanpa, stay at Disney. They will shut Montu and Sheikra.

Sea work is easily done in a day, manta & kraken are worth it alone. Again you could go sea world in the day then get to Epcot in the evening for example.

Universal. Now I think these are the two best parks. If give 3 days for the two of them and try and visit city walk in the evening, it truly is a great place.

I know I'm echoing what has already been said, but you must visit Disney. Although I'm in agreement with Jem, I'm more interested in thrills, you just can't go to Florida and miss disneyworld. It's where 'magical' really makes sense. Disney in the evenings is my favourite time to visit. Be warned though, it rarely gets quieter in the evenings, infact it's regularly busier.

Hopefully the parks are not too busy when you go, but make use of the free fastrack at Disney as soon as you arrive at each park.

Lastly, enjoy!
 
smudge said:
A side note to this, if it's forecast any type of storm, even if it doesn't materialise, don't go to BG:Tanpa, stay at Disney. They will shut Montu and Sheikra everything.
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Corrected. :)
 
^^

Haha yep! That's right! My dad and I drove from Orlando to Tampa to go to Busch only To find out all the rides were closed. So we drove back to orlando and went to IOA! :)

We only went for exactly seven days. It was hectic and we only got to go to:
Islands of Adventure
Universal Studios
Sea World
Wet'n'wild
Disney Hollywood studios

I would advise you to definitely try at least one of the water parks, preferably Blizzard beach or Wet'n'Wild. They are both Awesome and if you are going to a park everyday while you're there, it's good to have a calm and exciting day at the waterpark! ;D
 
I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree Jon. You should have replaced Wet'n'Wild with Magic Kingdom! You can't go to Florida and not go to Magic Kingdom, it's a rite of passage :p
 
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. We have an itinerary kind of sorted but have a problem; we have 5 Disney parks (not bothered about Typhoon Lagoon) to get through in 4 days. We want a full day at Blizzard Beach and Magic Kingdom, but don't know how to split Animal Kingdom, MGM and Epcot into just 2 days. Which two parks are best to try and fit all in one day? We are really desperate to do all of them. :p
 
Harvey. said:
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. We have an itinerary kind of sorted but have a problem; we have 5 Disney parks (not bothered about Typhoon Lagoon) to get through in 4 days. We want a full day at Blizzard Beach and Magic Kingdom, but don't know how to split Animal Kingdom, MGM and Epcot into just 2 days. Which two parks are best to try and fit all in one day? We are really desperate to do all of them. :p
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One I would say to split is Epcot, to be honest there are not a great deal of rides etc and you could blitz through most of it in half a day. The issue is.. the other park... Animal Kingdom and MGM (Hollywood Studios) are full of stuff and can get pretty busy. Out of the two I would say AK has more half day possibilities than MGM.
 
Harvey. said:
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. We have an itinerary kind of sorted but have a problem; we have 5 Disney parks (not bothered about Typhoon Lagoon) to get through in 4 days. We want a full day at Blizzard Beach and Magic Kingdom, but don't know how to split Animal Kingdom, MGM and Epcot into just 2 days. Which two parks are best to try and fit all in one day? We are really desperate to do all of them. :p
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Personally, ditch Epcot, do AK for one day, then the other do Typhoon lagoon in the day then visit MGM in the afternoon/evening.

You could even visit Epcot after AK if you have the energy.
 
It depends on your preferences really… if you're solely a coaster fan and near enough exclusively there for the thrill rides, I guess you *could* give Epcot a miss. Mind you, look past the thrill rides at Hollywood Studios and there's not really much on offer either, if its a quiet day and you utilise Fastpass+ HS can easily be a half day park and as can AK (which bear in mind closes MUCH earlier than the other three)

As I said earlier, it depends on your preferences. I personally love Epcot as its a very different type of Theme Park - I could spend a day eating and drinking round the Showcase alone. In contrast though, i've managed to do all four Disney Parks in a single day too and still build up a decent ride count, so its your call on how much you would want to fit in at each park.

In your time frame I would personally do MK first, then AK in the morning and HS at night (for Fantasmic which is a don't miss), a more relaxed third day at Typhoon then finally Epcot last as dinner + Illuminations makes an awesome end to a holiday. You can even head back over to MK a final time as its frequently open until Midnight and beyond and tends to clear out a great deal after Wishes.

Its up to you though, that's enough of my waffling for one day :-[
 
Epcot is boring. I wouldn't go back if I was going back to Orlando - the only good bit is the fireworks!
 
Test track is good (not been since the re-theme/update) but apart from that, completely agree that it's balls. There are much nicer eateries and bars outside of Disney if that's what you want to go for. I Wouldn't go Epcot again.

I find that AK can be a whole day (if took at a slow place including re-rides on EE) and is probably my favourite Disney park in all honesty. HS doesn't actually offer too much in terms of rides, and is hell when it's busy, although TOT simply can not be missed.
 
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