Orlando - is this too much for 10 days?

[roses2]

We will be visiting Orlando May half term for 10 days and I was hoping to get some feedback on if this itinerary looks ok or if we are trying to cram too much in.

I have two boys 8 and 11. They love rides & animals. No interest in character dinners etc. We are staying offsite. No plans for fancy dinners, probably mostly take outs and as little food as possible in the parks. We plan to buy Genie but not Universal express pass.

No clue how long people typically spend in parks before dying of exhaustion!

See photo attached.

I hate that people have shortened it to just "Kennedy" 😣 even travel agents apparently.

Haven’t read the full thread but we go every few years (originally as a couple, then with a 15 month old and last time with a 4 year old and 4 month old). Last time we just did disney (14 day holiday) and we needed the full 13 days at the parks. We were out for 12/13 hour days most days and used the water parks as rest days. We still didn’t do every ride but we didn’t have genie plus.

Contrary to the negative feedback I received here, I just returned yesterday from my 10 day trip and did everything on my list. We were not knackered at all. What helped was:

• We woke up at leisure every day except Discovery Cove - we rarely got to a park before 10/11am. We generally stayed 10.30am - 6.30pm at the parks then home to the pool and had take out
• We hired a villa which helped with sleeping as we were not stepping over each other if one woke earlier than the other

Seaworld was really great. If you think they are cruel try Disney Animal Kingdom. Animals out in the open in 35'C heat with little shade so they could show them off to the Disney fans.

It's such a shame that parks are allowed to treat animals like this.
But I guess while people keep going to see them, they always will.

Well done for continuing to support the exploitation of animals. So long as you thought it was great and less cruel than other places I guess it's all good.

Seaworld was really great. If you think they are cruel try Disney Animal Kingdom. Animals out in the open in 35'C heat with little shade so they could show them off to the Disney fans.

That doesn’t make supporting Sea World OK. What a great shame you didn’t take comments on here on board and try to educate yourself or your children. It’s very sad.

This!!

This.

I think if they love the rides etc you will need a couple of days each for parks you intend to visit.
There is so much to see/do. Even with the genie app you will still spend some time queuing. Universal more so.

Also, you will def need rest days.

Sorry, just seen you've been and done it! Well done for surviving, glad you had a great time!

"Seaworld was really great. If you think they are cruel try Disney Animal Kingdom. Animals out in the open in 35'C heat with little shade so they could show them off to the Disney fans."

Oh well, that's alright then 🙄. Wait til your kids watch Blackfish, realise how old that documentary is and wonder why their parents thought that was just fine.

You couldn't have more choice of activities in Florida. The people who choose sea world and discovery cove with that in mind are more than a bit thick.

I cannot stress enough how good this advice is about Mission Space. How that is a ride that people go on for a good time is beyond me.

@roses2 I read this thread out of academic interest as I’ve never been to Orlando but I don’t really understand why you asked for advice if you intended to ignore it all? I don’t mean about Seaworld etc (although that sounds awful to me) but about the parks and scheduling. Some helpful posters gave you some thoughtful suggestions, including ways to save money, and you seem to have taken great pleasure in ‘proving them wrong’.

We alternated days.
1 day amusement park, 1 day water park
Disney’s water parks are as much fun as the amusement parks with rides.
https://www.disneyworld.co.uk/destinations/water-parks/
Plus it meant a day off our feet and a day not sweating through our clothes.

You can get Disney admission packages that cover their amusement parks and water parks. May will be hot enough.

Don’t be tempted to drive to the coast to a beach though because May is sea lice season. Sea lice are teeny tiny baby jellyfish and they can cause a painful rash even through your swimming costume. I am only mentioning because Kennedy Space Center is right by Cocoa Beach.

Well I think you're have awful morals and should be ashamed of yourself to be honest, but at least you had fun, hey!

Enjoy Seaworld! If you see another distressed animal attack a keeper, that will at least help you make memories. How lovely. Enjoy your holiday looking at tortured animals

Bully for you. You’re coming across as a thoroughly unpleasant person. Your poor DC.

We went to Florida last year and there’s no way my DC would have even of stepped foot inside Seaworld as even from an early age they would have said it was cruel. But hey as long as you thought it was great!

As for animals being out in the heat for Disney fans, yes Disney does have animals so they are not much better but they aren’t making them perform for tourists multiple times a day and they were trying to keep them in natural looking habitats and try to do a bit for conservation and education. I don’t remember thinking any of them were not given shade. There was a bit where I did see a dolphin in a tank and I did have tears in my eyes (yes I wrote an email) so unnecessary, animals should not be put on display for our entertainment.

Come on. I don’t like Seaworld but it’s a bit hypocritical to say ‘animals shouldn’t be put on display for our entertainment’ in a post where you also describe going to Animal Kingdom and (I assume) The Seas at Epcot.

You either believe in that or you don’t.

The Seaworld in Florida does do this:
”were trying to keep them in natural looking habitats and try to do a bit for conservation and education.”

Seaworld Orlando has rescued over 2,000 sea turtles as well as 734 manatees. They have a full marine hospital and private rehabilitation pools. They are then put in very large natural habitant type enclosures until fully ready to go back into the wild.

Seaworld the dolphins have private habitats, they aren’t on display in a tank. You only see them during one of the handful of performances done in this massive salt water lake. They don’t make the dolphins do all the performances or any. Yes they are trained to do them, but they just open the water gate and if a dolphin decides not to swim through, then they perform with whichever dolphins feel like going into the lake. Their training and performances are exercise…like you’d train a dog for a dog show.

Editing to add the dolphins at Seaworld Orlando come from Discovery cove which is a dolphin rescue and are usually dolphins too disabled to be released into the wild.

Yes to mission space being hell on earth. It ruined my Epcot day.

I can do all the big rides but this made me unable to walk or think!