Draft Itinerary

[ratmanscoop]

This trip's draft itinerary below. Any comments/suggestions?

This is not a group that will be returning so there's a lot to fit in.
Days 2, 3 and 5 are locked in due to prebooked extras.
Clearly FP+ time is not too far away for the Disney parks so I'd like to try and get the rest of the itinerary planned as best I'm able to in the next couple of weeks.

00 Fri 19-Apr: <Outbound flight>
01 Sat 20-Apr: Islands of Adventure 2/3 day
02 Sun 21-Apr: Discovery Cove
03 Mon 22-Apr: Busch Gardens
04 Tue 23-Apr: Typhoon Lagoon
05 Wed 24-Apr: SeaWorld
06 Thu 25-Apr: Aquatica, Medieval Times
07 Fri 26-Apr: Epcot
08 Sat 27-Apr: <Rest Day 1>
09 Sun 28-Apr: Kennedy Space Center
10 Mon 29-Apr: Magic Kingdom
11 Tue 30-Apr: Volcano Bay
12 Wed 01-May: Hollywood Studios
13 Thu 02-May: Animal Kingdom
14 Fri 03-May: <Rest Day 2>
15 Sat 04-May: Universal & Islands remainder
16 Sun 05-May: <Half day before return flight>


I originally had Epcot and AK switched round in this plan but opening hours AK have been reduced since my original plan so this way round gives us another half-hour.

My main concerns at the moment are:
- Fitting enough in at AK, in particular Flight of Passage. With the only showing of RoL after park close, I can't use my original plan of doing it last. Rope drop for off-site guests seems like a waste of time from what I've heard, so I wonder if we're lumbered with a 120 min queue for it we can't avoid.

- Hollywood Studios was scheduled for 1st May due to the 30th anniversary of the park in anticipation of something potentially exciting like with the 25th. Alas, so far apart from it being the opening day of the new movie magic show, I've heard nothing? Wondering if it'll just mean more crowds and no other gain in which case it should probably swap, perhaps with Day 15?

- We are all 30+ and as such anticipate enjoying Universal more. I'm just wondering whether, without extortionate express passes, whether we'll have enough time to do it all. I'm open to visiting US after we finish at Volcano Bay, but between two Disney days I feel that might be a bit much. Original plan for that day is to go straight to Citywalk and dine there after we're done with VB. I'm also not too keen on having US on the last day in case we want to revisit due to any closures.

[rafjen]

AK rope drop for off site can work but you need to choose a non EMH day and get there 75-90 minutes before opening.
Universal express are great but we would only do them as part of a hotel overnight. This can be great value for 4or 5 sharing a room. 2 days with expresse is grand without is still doable but then we can easily spend 3-4 days in universal- we love it.
Are you a big fan of water parks- Given how much you want to squeeze in I wouldn't devote days to water parks and then rest days- I would use the waterpark as my rest day, or visit parks in the afternoon evenings after the water parks.
Not sure how much the 30th anniversary will affect crowds- I think it can be quite understated- cupcakes pins etc.
Book fast passes on your rest days and evenings off the water park days- you can cancel closer if you don't need them.
I

[ratmanscoop]

Thanks for the reply, a lot to think about.

Good point about checking the EMH days for AK - the last time I looked, every single day of our trip was down as EMH in the morning. Seemingly that's no longer the case, assuming the currently displayed hours are accurate. Neither of the potential days for AK in the itinerary are showing EMH so I might see how we get on at rope drop. In the latter half of the holiday, I can see arriving before 8am being a bit of a struggle, but I'll see what the rest of the group think.
My personal feeling is that if we do manage rope drop, we won't be staying until park close, we'd probably do an early dinner in the park and then return another evening to do leftovers / rivers of light. I'm wary of encroaching on rest days though as I don't know how necessary they will be. I tend to get less tired than other people on these trips, so try to scale back from what I could cope with, but there's only so much you can do and still fit the Disney/Universal/Seaworld trio in a single trip.

Day 1 at Universal was a late change to the plan (was originally SeaWorld) as one of our party will not be visiting SeaWorld and I didn't want to exclude them from day 1 of the trip - we also have an add-on experience booked (penguins up-close) which would have cost considerably more on the Easter weekend.
On that basis I find it hard to judge what the queue levels will be like at Universal, with both visits on a Saturday which isn't ideal. Express certainly helped us in 2017 when we were visiting during the school holidays (this time we're only on the edge of them) but the queues weren't terrible without - the biggest rides were all 60 mins or less and we only ultimately saved a little over 2 hours for our $75pp. The only day I know I'd definitely find Express useful is indeed Day 1 on Easter Saturday - but $150 apiece, not happening!
The hotels idea would make sense for a more family-centric group but this group is two couples and 4 singles, two of which have their own rooms in their villa, so I don't think hotel rooms would be remotely cost-effective, never mind the hassle of transferring etc.

Water parks, I'm really not sure. I'm a big fan of them, as is one other of the group, the rest of the group are rather unknown (one member I know isn't that keen) - I won't really find out how the group gets on with them until our first visit, which I want to be TL. If everybody loves it, the other water parks will stay put. If not, we may end up splitting into multiple groups for the others, or maybe missing another out entirely in favour of a second day elsewhere. I've already swapped BB for a rest day in the itinerary due to a disapponting experience there last time and I don't think doing four is necessary.

As for using the water park days as rest days, DC is definitely fair game as a rest day, but I'm not so sure about the proper water parks. I intend to be there at 10am opening for all of them to minimise queues (especially Volcano Bay!) and there's still a fair amount of physical activity involved, climbing steps and all. Heading off to a theme park in the evening when it was supposed to be a rest day is something I'd prefer to reserve only in case of disasters related to weather etc. that require revisits.

I do hope to fill the full rest days with something, but what that may be will probably only be decided once everyone is up on that day. It could end up being something entirely different like mini golf or an escape room or something. It's their holiday too and I don't want to be too dictatorial about what happens when

For Hollywood Studios' 30th, I was hoping for something like this again - - but nothing has been forthcoming so far. Maybe I'll just keep that evening free and we can pop over if something comes up. It's enough of a drag picking between Fantasmic and Star Wars without that added complication!


Everybody seems to have their own opinions about how long you need to spend in each park. One day for each hasn't been too bad in the past, but at certain places, particularly AK, I think it's going to be really tight.