First trip to Florida in August/September: flights & villa booked!

[Guest]

So... after deciding we would postpone our visit until 2018, the dim and dismal days of January caused some strange malfunction... and we've booked for summer 2017 instead.

We're a family of four - Mum, Dad (me) and twin girls aged 9. We've been to Disneyland Paris twice for 4-night/5-day breaks, when the girls were 6 and 7, and decided it was time for the big one! Three weeks from mid-August to early September.

Flights are booked (Delta Airlines).

Villa is booked (near Old Lake Davenport)

Park tickets bought (14 day 9-park pass, plus a booking for Discovery Cove)

And now we just need to work out what on earth we want to do... so, all advice very much welcome!

Our idea is to start the Disney Parks ticket on Day 1, and the Universal Parks ticket on Day 5, so that the 14-day tickets effectively give us 2-and-a-half weeks. Then, add on the end the Discovery Cove visit (in week 3) which also gives us options for SeaWorld.

A first draft is roughly:

Day 1: MK
Day 2: Epcot
Day 3: Water Park (Disney)
Day 4: Disney Studios
Day 5: Islands of Adventure
Day 6: Rest day? Possibly airboat ride
Day 7: Animal Kingdom
Day 8: Volcano Bay
Day 9: Disney Studios/MK
Day 10: Water Park (Disney)
Day 11: Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure*
Day 12: Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure*
Day 13: Epcot
Day 14: MK (last day for Disney)
Day 15: Rest day? Possible Gatorland
Day 16: SeaWorld
Day 17: Volcano Bay
Day 18: Universal Studios
Day 19: Discovery Cove
Day 20: SeaWorld/Kennedy Space Center
Day 21: Airboat ride/Gatorland/Shopping?!

Would love any feedback or suggestions

* Night booked in Universal hotel in between

[mummyroo1]

Congratulations on booking :-). Much exciting planning ahead. My opinion (for what it's worth) on your plan so far is you may find you want/need more days Disney and less days Universal. You have 4 full days set for Universal parks plus 2 at volcano bay. It is definitely possible to 'do' Universal in 3 full days and you could always go to one of the parks after (or before) your trips to volcano bay, if you want to revisit certain rides. MK on the other hand is definitely not a one day park (you currently have it planned for Day one, is this your arrival day?). We always plan at least 3 trips to MK including at least 1 evening to see the fireworks. We also like to revisit HS and AK on an evening after having been for our day at another time. This can be done at the end of a rest or water park day. If you don't mind paying for parking the atmosphere in the parks on an evening is really different to during the day, much more relaxing and I find them even more magical. The same is true of the Universal parks, the Harry Potter areas are a must see in the dark. For us Seaworld is a one day park so I'd be tempted to change your second seaworld day to a Universal day and swap your first Universal day for an extra day at Disney. Also have you considered moving your discovery cove day slightly earlier because in case of really bad weather they let you reschedule your trip but you only have a couple of days to play with. Maybe swap it for your rest day on day 15 so you have a few days to play with.

[Guest]

Thanks! Excellent feedback, much appreciated.

I should say that we have two Harry-Potter obsessed children, which is the reason that I've included so much Universal time! But I see your point, and will look if there's a different way to do this.

I think we booked the Discovery Cove in the last week because we will have no park-time left on our tickets. Not sure how easy it is to change dates, but might look into that too.

Day 1 is our first full day. Because of the flight times, we can't visit any parks on our arrival day (we get in quite late), so Day 1 is the next day.

I have to say, I have also not even thought about evenings and shows! The above plan is based on the main activity for the day, but we have read that we need to be flexible to move between parks for evenings to fit in the shows, parades, fireworks we want to see. I also have read that a half-day-water-park/half-day-theme-park can be a good way to spread the time, but I really have no idea how much time you need to move between parks (including getting out, driving between, parking, and getting back in!)

[mummyroo1]

Sorry I didn't realise you had discovery cove booked already. I'm sure it'll be OK.
Your daughters will love the Harry Potter areas. We found the queue for the escape to Gringotts ride got really short just before park closing. We stayed in a Universal hotel and popped in on an evening just to do the last hour riding Men in Black and the Gringotts ride. It was by far the easiest way to ride it. Plus Diagon alley has to be enjoyed after dark for full effect :-) We are huge Harry Potter fans too and love the detail of those areas.

[Excitedx4]

Congratulations, the only thing I would reconsider is moving discovery cove if you have bad weather you wouldn't be able to book in so easily as it the end of your holiday

[Guest]

Thanks. We might look into changing Discovery Cove - we have already booked the date (it's Mrs laz's number 1 activity for the whole trip!). Does anybody know if they are flexible for changing reservations - after all, it's still 7 months away?

[Guest]

Thanks mummyroo1. This whole trip started with us looking up options to visit the Harry Potter park near London! Then just having a quick look to compare with US in Florida... and then looking at what else we might do... and before we knew it, we'd booked flights! Just shows how much self-control we have

[mummyroo1]

Love the Harry Potter studio tour in Watford too, if you haven't done it definitely worth a trip aswell. Very different to the Universal offering but just as magical in my opinion. If you do go book an early slot as you can easily spend several hours there!

[Orlandomad]

Hi, my comment would be slooooow down - lol Make sure you remember its a holiday, its hot, busy and a 30 min drive to some locations. Do it in small chunks, mornings and evenings - that leaves plenty to do next time you return...

[ayles300]

Hi welcome to The Dibb!
Just a thought about day1 you'll be up so early in the morning but will flag by the afternoon especially the heat, we've always done a water park first to adjust to the temperature and to get over the flight, then hit MK but we were all still tired but forced ourselfs to stay to watch wishes (we only do one day in each park!) we now do MK later in the holiday as such a long day, we enjoy it much more this way as adjusted to the weather and sleep better.

You have a few water parks listed so they count as rests days to us but you may fine you would like a few more days just chilling at the villa then do a bit of shopping/ Disney Springs in the afternoon.

Like others have said try and change DC just incase weather changes or get there really early to get an early swim at least then if it rains you wouldn't of missed your swim!

You'll all have a blast!