orlando parks for 4 days

[WineOhWhy]

We are going to the US this summer and DH has agreed to 4 days at the parks in Orlando (no more than this as not his kind of thing). We definitely want to do Universal (esp. Harry Potter) and Disney. Current plan put forward by a travel agent is to stay in a hotel at Universal which gets us early access to universal (helpful for Harry Potter). Will research further, but have some initial questions in case any one can point me in the right direction (DC are 7 and 8 if relevant).

1. If we stay in universal does that get us early access to disney too or would be be better to spend 2 days in a disney hotel and 2 in universal to get early access to both?

1. How easy to travel between the 2 (not sure yet if we will have car hire at that time)?

3 The universal hotel gives us free meals after 11. Why not breakfast?? Do you know if the free meals can be taken in disney or just universal?

1. If you had 4 days would you split 2 disney and 2 univeral or would you split differently or take in other parks? I think we do get access to a waterpark.

1. How do we minimise queueing time? DOnt mind throwing a bit of money at it. Do we get fast passes in advance or just when we get there? DO they actually make the queue shorter or does everyone get them?

1. Any other very obvious tips?

Any tips much appreciated!

Which universal hotel are you planning on staying at?.

1. No earlier access to Disney if you stay in a Universal hotel; Universal and Disney are two completely separate companies and have no links to each other.

(Would suggest you head straight for the Harry Potter land as soon as the Universal Islands of Adventure Park opens as it gets very, very busy during the day).

1. You could do with a car but a taxi will take you to the Disney parks from Universal. The highway is near Universal and that road will take you straight down towards the Disney parks.

1. Most American hotels rooms are room only so that may be why breakfast is not included. Again free meals in Universal can only be taken on their site. Also it probably would not apply to any of the restaurants on Universal's CityWalk.

1. Your children may well prefer the other 3 Disney parks i.e EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom to the Magic Kingdom Disney park as the rides and attractions there are more for their age (MK is mainly aimed at very young children).

1. At Universal they do sell front of line passes and express passes to guests. Although expensive they are popular and may be a blessing to buy in the heat of August. You can buy these via their website.

Disney is a different story. The Fastpass system will let people use a popular ride at a specific time so will give you an hour slot e.g 10.30-11.30. You can return to ride between those times and join the Fastpass line rather than the regular line. Bear in mind that fastpass lines can be quite long as well. The Fastpass system does not operate at all the rides but operates in all the parks. EVERY PERSON in your party must have a fastpass ticket from the machine located at the ride entrance in order for them to use the fastpass line (you put your Disney park admission ticket in the fastpass machine to receive a fastpass). Fastpasses are limited and can run out early in the day particularly for rides like Soarin' at EPCOT or Test Track (also located there).

Look at the Dibb's website and read the Unofficial Guide to WDW.

DO check out the height requirements for each ride in advance with particular regards to both Universal parks as they are strict on height and your children will not be able to ride if they are not tall enough. Website will give height requirement. BTW the Simpsons simulator ride in Universal is a work of genius. The Despicable Me simulator ride should also be up and running this summer.

You may get a better deal if you book the accommodation and flights yourself rather than leaving it to a travel agent.

Carry some wet weather gear like ponchos; it can rain a lot in August. Drink plenty of water as well.

Thanks so much for this. Just what i needed. Will need to double check which universal hotel it is, we just got agent to make some proposals to give an idea of potential cost and we are not necessarily planning to use them. Do you have a view on which universal hotel is best? In 4 days given age of kids (and fact they have been to disneyland paris), do you reckon we could just do the universal parks and the waterparks (which the kids love)?Flights etc are already booked as we are spending 3 weeks in Florida ( mainly Miami and the keys) so just have the Orlando bit to sort.

Agree with what Atilla has said except about MK. You just HAVE to do MK. If only doing two Disney parks I'd say MK and AK. However, as you've done DLP a lot of the rides are similar to MK so maybe do AK.

Can't help with recomendations for hotels as only ever stay in villas.

There are three main waterparks, two Disney ones, Blizzard beach and typhoon lagoon and then Searworlds park Aquatica which is the newest park.
If you only have 4 park days, you have a difficult decison. Good luck

I think you are going to be exhausted if you do four parks in four days tbh.

Our favourite parks were Islands of Adventure and Animal Kingdom. We also loved Aquatica and Tyhoon Lagoon.

Not stayed in a Disney hotel, so cannot comment - we have only ever stayed at Sheraton Vistana Villages on the south side of I drive (close to Aquatica) - had an apartment.

Hope you have a lovely time though.

Btw my kids were 15, 12 and 8 last summer and the older two enjoyed the Magic Kingdom most if anything.

Your DH may well change his mind about doing only 4 days at the parks given the sheer size/scale of them. You will pack an awful lot in if he sticks to 4 days only in the parks; you could all be worn out as a result.

Have newer stayed in a Universal based hotel but there are two on site; Loews Portofino Bay Hotel and the Hard Rock Cafe. Would not stay at the HRC given the ages of your children as it overall seems more geared towards teens and young adults. www.tripadvisor.com has recent reviews on both properties; photos are on there as well.

Waterparks like Aquatica for instance would be good to use given the heat of August.

Dh now. We wished we hadn't bothered with magic kingdom. Older boys. Thought was shit. Full of toddlers and girls dessed as princesses.

we loved animal kingdom the best out of the 4 disney parks. my kids were 11 and 7.

the water parks are fantastic. esp typhoon lagoon. try get there early though.
soarin at epcot was fab but test track scared the shit out of me!

MK was ok but not as good as AK. Hollywood studios was fun.
we went in early June last yr , it was a heatwave.40 degrees plus ! Ive never been so hot in my life.

we could only manage half days at the main parks.
get a hotel with a good pool. the kids will need it after walking around in the heat.

Another vote for going over to thedibb .co uk and researching there - all you need to know is there.

I would do 4 parks in 4 days if that's all I had. I'd stay 2 days in a universal hotel to get to the front of the lines and would also do an evening in wet n wild. Then I'd move to a Disney hotel for two nights and make use of the extra hour for hotel guests, in whichever park they applied that day. Advantage of the Disney hotel is the bus transport to and between parks . And staying close by ( and universal is a good 45 mins away) means you can be tyre at park opening.

My overall advice is to always be first there in the parks - even if it means you leave at 3pm and go and have a nap - you get so much done in the first couple of hours...

agree with gettingalife, get to the parks first thing when they open and the queues will be much shorter. When we go to AK we get their before it opens so when it does, we head to the far side of the park to go on the safari ride before it gets busy.

I would do I night at universal hotel it's easy to do both parks in 2 days & do 3 nights at Disney. Epcot our favourite park at Disney. Imo not worth doing MK if youve been to Paris. What about sea world, discovery cove. Your dh is mad to think you can do all that in 4 days. You will be exhausted.

You only actually need one night in a Universal hotel to get two days early access to both parks - we go in a fortnight and are staying onsite at Disney Old key west, mid way through the week we will check in to Royal pacific hotel at 7am, get our fastpasses, have breakfast then head off to IOA, they text you when your room is available, we'll stay till mid afternoon, have a swim and check into the room etc. then head out for something to eat and go into Universal studios for the evening show. On the 2nd morning we will go to US ( with fingers crossed that Dispicable me will be open).
You get unlimited fastpasses for most of the rides for the duration of your stay - only Forbidden jouney and rip/ride/rocket don't let you use them, I suspect it will be the ssme for Dispicable me too.
You can only get between US and Disney via taxi if you have no car, they are miles apart and there is no direct bus.
Two days is nowhere near enough for Disney , one full day for MK, One
day plus an evening for Epcot, a full day for HS and half a day for AK is the absolute minimum and I say that as a regular visitor, not a first timer.

Oh, and get yourself onto the DIBB website, the very best resource for Orlando there is.

Your DP is a selfish fuckwit to only allow the DCs 4 days there cos he doesn't like it. Tell him to suck it up or go on his own fricking holiday.

You don't say if DCs are girls, boys or both.

We did sea world and all the Disney parks and typhoon beach in a week with DDs7 and 10, they liked splash mountain and space mountain at MK, testrack at epcot,
Everest at AK is great, the safari is good, but we had to queue for ages. DD2 won't do dinosaurs, so we didn't do the other big AK ride.

Check universal hights, DD2 was too short, she was exactly on typhoon islands water slide limit, they checked and gave her a wistband.

That should say too short for the big rides at Universal.