Disney with a 7 and a 9 year old... can you help?

[SupermarketMum]

I've got two boys aged 7 and 9... we're spending 8 full days in orlando next year... if you've spent a similar time, can you help me understand...

• should we get the 7 or 14 day pass? will we need a day's "break" from the parks?
• is it worth getting universal tickets too? I worry the 7 year old will be too young as he's quite a young 7 year old if you know what i mean!

I’ve just come back. Missing it already! We went for 15 nights, but hopefully I can still help you get a feel for what will be right for you and your time there.

Disney and Universal offer slightly different things. Disney isn’t known for its thrill rides. It does have some, namely TRON at MK, Guardians at EPCOT, Expedition Everest at AK and Tower of Terror and R’n’R at Hollywood Studios but they are not as extreme as Hulk, Velocicoaster and Rip Ride Rockit at Universal. So if your DC like the major thrill rides like my girls (8 and 6 and tall enough for it all) do, then Universal is a must. Universal also has Harry Potter, which might be influential depending on your DC’s tastes.

You could easily fill 8 days just at Disney (1 is enough for AK but you need 2 or more for the others really. Then there’s the water park (only one open at a time at the moment). However, you would be exhausted! It’s pretty intense. The parks are huge and there is a lot of walking involved.

Some people need break days. We don't, we also park hop (with 8 and 4 year old) so spend morning in one park and afternoon/evening in another.

I would look at universal height restrictions, they're higher than Disney so may depends on how tall your DC are.

If you go to universal it's worth staying a night in the hotels that give you express passes (hard rock, portafino, and there's another one I can't remember)

The third express pass hotel at Universal is Royal Pacific😊

We have been twice. First time DC were 8, 7 and 5 and we did 8 days straight in just Disney.
Two years later we did 2 weeks and split between Disney and Universal. My youngest at 7 was not tall enough for all the Universal rides. Also i personally don't think you need as long at Universal..3 days covered it for us. We stayed on site with express passes which help and also allowed early access one morning to HP World which was brilliantly atmospheric..
You'd be hard pushed to do Disney and Universal in 8 days imo.
We didn't have rest days except for a water park day. And we too park hopped. We stayed on site near Epcot and could pop to that very easily.
It is very tiring.. my younger 2 never made it to the evening fireworks at MK even the second time we went. They were too tired. Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios is early in evening and they enjoyed that.

Also look into Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes at Disney. This is particularly useful at MK and HS and for Guardians at EPCOT (which has a virtual non-paid queue currently which can mess with your schedule) and Avatar at AK.

It is not cheap, but it can help you do more with less time. In low crowds you can also stack up bookings while sitting by the pool in the morning and get loads done in an afternoon with very little queuing. You have to really know how it works, but there is plenty of advice out there. I love Disney Touring Blog which has strategies for this.

Getting the most out of Disney does tend to involve a lot of planning!

Thanks for all the tips - will read them a few times over and do a bit more research. I’ve been to disneyworld twice but never did much planning - so I’ll invest a bit more time this time around to make the most of it!

With 8 days I’d just do Disney - that’s four parks plus water parks so will easily fill the time. What’s the price difference between 7 and 14 day passes and have you go 8 clear days - no travelling on them etc?

I would stick to Disney unless your 9 year old is into Harry Potter which is worth visiting Universal for. You are there for 8 days so it makes sense to get the 7 day pass unless the 14 day pass is a deal where it is the same price? The days at Disney are long, hot and tiring. You can easily walk 20,000 steps a day and be standing around in queues in the heat. That is especially tiring and can be overwhelming and emotional for children. Give yourself plenty of breaks. With the sheer size of the parks you could be at Disney for 2 weeks and still not feel 'done' so don't set your expectations to try and finish it all in 7/8 days. Definitely do a water park one day and visit Disney Springs.

Park Hopper is pretty important, as sometimes, switching parks partway through is more enjoyable than just one park/day, especially with the weather.

We went twice but it's been several years. First time we stayed off-site and the second time, at a Disney Hotel. Even though they are pricey, we enjoyed the on-site trip more. We went in December though, on the second trip, so the hotels and parks were decked out.

I don't think that for 8 days you need a "day-off", unless you really want to enjoy a water park. Not sure if you can fully experience Disney and Universal in 8 days, so I'd just pick Disney this time. It depends on what you want in it all.

They used to have a Pirate Adventure that costs extra and we felt DGD was too young (she did other extras), but it looked like SO much fun. So, check into the "extra experiences" if you think your DC would enjoy doing one.

Disney can be wonderful or horrible. I think planning, yet being flexible, helps as you can see what all your kids might want to do. Character breakfasts, the dinner show, etc. I loved both trips, even though I am jinxed. First time we went, I ended up quite ill with a kidney infection (they wanted to hospitalize me) and the last time, severe strep throat (first strep infection since 1976). My DGD is too old to go now, but would love to try one more time (as long as I can skip the "It's a Small World Ride"--😜)