Disney World trip - help!

[GoGoBoy]

Ok all you overseas park experts... I need your help. I am thinking about a Disney World trip next year (I've only been to Disneyland) and need to know your professional opinion on which are the parks I MUST visit in Orlando and which can be left out. Also, do you have any recommendations on where to stay? I think I'd prefer one of the Disney resorts but interested to hear other opinions. Thank you and let the excellent advice begin!

[Gazza]

The thing with Orlando is that if you skip any of the major parks, you are missing out, basically. All of them are at the top of the game, and all have particular star attractions that are worth the admission price alone. I'd put IOA as the #1 park to visit....Spiderman, Hulk, Dragon Challenge (And by the sounds of it, HP & the Forbidden Journey) are amazing, but all the secondary attractions are up there too. Universal Studios....Hmmm well I didn't spend that long in this park due to time restrictions, so I only rode Mummy, ET and MiB (lol). What did you think of USH? How badly do you want to ride rip ride rockit, Jaws etc? Busch Gardens is definitely worth it for it's collection of B&Ms, plus Cheetah Hunt is opening next year (Maverick style Intamin Launcher) Sea World....Have you been to the one in San Diego? If not then definitely go. If you have been to the one in San Diego, how interested are you in riding a new Flying and Floorless coasters? As for Disneyworld....I'd Say EPCOT and Animal Kingdom would be the two definite unmissables, due to the unique stuff at each (Test Track, Mission Space, Sum of All Thrills, Soarin' at EPCOT, Expedition Everest, the Safari, Dinosaur at AK) Magic Kingdom I didn't think was as good as Disneyland (No Indy D: ), nor did I think Disney's Hollywood Studios was as good as DCA. It's all relative of course, since we're talking Disney. The only water park I did was Typhoon Lagoon...The ride collection isn't that big, and for the most part its pretty tame, but Crush n Gusher and the Wave Pool are cool, but you go there for the lush theming. I stayed at Hotel 6 since it was a short walk from Universal, so don't take my advice

Edited October 19, 2010 by Gazza

[joz]

I'd say do all the parks, you'll only regret not doing one when you get back. As for where to stay, I'll give you my opinion; When I went to Florida, I split up my holiday into 2 parts, 'Disney' and 'everything else'. When I was doing Disney stuff, I played the Disney game and stayed in one of their 'value' resorts. I won't go into specifics, but it was great, and I say when you do Disney in Florida, stay at Disney. Don't even entertain the notion of staying elsewhere, they really are that good. The only downside is they don't make it easy to go somewhere else, so I stayed on property at Universal to do the 'everything else' part. Again without going into specifics, while the Universal hotel I stayed at was quite nice, on property at Universal is a waste of money, and I'd say if the Hotel 6 is across the road then that would be significantly better use of your money. Citywalk is a good spot, so close to Universal is definitely the place to stay, and there are reasonable public transport options (not great thought, at both SW and BG the bus left well before closing grr.) to get to the other parks from that area. Hope that helps, anything more specific you want to know feel free to ask

[BNErider]

I didn't make it to Disney World, but did go to IoA/USF. I stayed on-site for one night to take advantage of the front of line passes. I'm not sure how much they cost to purchase in the park, but would be well worth the money if you're on a tight schedule. The only rides that you can't use the front of line passes for is the Forbidden Journey and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (which isn't open at the moment). I do recommend hitting USF. It's much better than USH and spent about half the day there (with front of the line passes). IoA is great -- although didn't ride Dragon Challenge and some of the smaller rides. The Hulk has a great layout (one of my favourite B&Ms)... although I found the front to be quite rough. Don't get me wrong, the back isn't smooth, but I thought the back was more tolerable. Harry Potter is nice, but with all of the media fuss, I thought it'd be a tad more "Disney-like". However, my opinion might be skewed a tad because I had just finished two back-to-back TPR trips (plus visiting all of the LA parks), so I was starting to get sick of it all. I didn't hit SeaWorld, but wanted to. Manta is said to be a very good roller coaster, so I recommend going.

[Gazza]

although didn't ride Dragon Challenge and some of the smaller rides.

Really? Why not?

[BNErider]

As I said I was on a tight schedule. I had to basically do both parks in just over one day. I did everything that I wanted to do once, and Harry Potter twice.

[rappa]

Where are you going? I recommend October, good for weather and you can visit Universal Horror Nights which is in my opinion the 2nd best theme park experience in the world second to disneyland. If you were to miss anything it would be Busch and Seaworld. Universal is pretty good but IOA is the winner here. I also consider Wet n Wild a MUST if you like waterparks. It's unique themed attractions are great. Then, once you've done all that, (we stayed just opposite wnw) get yourself down to disneyworld, certainly after, not before. Here I recommend spare no expense, stay at a moderate resort (I recommend Coronado springs) and prepare yourself for the most impressive display of private infrustructure you can imagine. I didn't find anything at WDW better than Disneyland but the unique stuff is great. EPCOT and Animal Kingdom are cool. The food and wine festival at Epcot is unreal, and do the segway tour there. But it's all about being impressed by the scale at WDW. Many gems there, so give some more specific questions and Ill be happy to answer.

[GoGoBoy]

Thanks so much for all the info so far. I knew I could count on you guys! At first I was really just thinking about doing a Disney holiday only (say 4 or 5 days at the different Disney parks) and considering my knowledge of overseas parks is not all that great I had forgotten Orlando is actually theme park capital (shame on me I know). Thank you for reminding me just how many amazing parks there are. Although it is going to make deciding where to go a bit harder. I definitely don't think I want to do it all. Even I might get sick of never ending theme parks. I was thinking of saving a few days to check out other parts of Florida. For me personally I much prefer good theming to huge thrill rides. While I definitely appreciate a big coaster, I do find that as I hit old age (late twenties!) I'm starting to get a bit of motion sickness if I go on too many thrill rides. So well themed dark rides definitely appeal to me more. So keeping this in mind maybe I should ditch Busch Gardens and Sea World. I'm also thinking that Disney's Hollywood Studios could be scrapped in place of doing both Universal parks. Still more research to do before making any decisions. In terms of hotels for the Disney part I will def be staying in the Disney resorts (especially after reading the replies on here). I'm thinking about spending the extra $$$ and doing one of the top resorts like the Contemporary or one of the others. For the other part of the trip where we do Universal etc. I think we will stay in one of the hotels opposite Universal as joz suggested. djrappa - at this stage we will probably be going around August 8th as that's when my holidays are. I can always try and get a swap if that's a really bad time

[rappa]

August is right in their summer so it will be busy, keep that in mind. I certainly wouldn't miss the Disney studios park. Has some great stuff like Tower, Rock n Roller Coaster and Lights Motors Action. IMO you can do animal kingdom and studios in 1 day if you're pushed for time. As for resorts the top resorts are huge $$s, I would go moderate as they are great and sVe your $$s for some nice meals. The restaurant at the top of the contemporary is great especially if you can get a time and table to watch the fireworks.

[GoGoBoy]

Oh no I didn't realise Tower and Rock n Roller coaster were part of Hollywood Studios. Looks like I may need to increase my allocation of days at the parks afterall! There's just so much! During August, is one day at each of the major parks likely to be enough? Just how long do the lines actually get at these parks? Will we be able to get through the major attractions in one day? Is it worth buying 'fast passes' or whatever they are at all of the parks?

[rappa]

Can't answer your numbers for august, maybe check out micechat forums... In October Id say yes with one extra day to catch up what you missed... Disney fastpasses are free but yes use them. Splash, Space Mountain, Rockn, and certainly Test Track you will want them for.