HELP needed planning my first trip

[Sarah84]

I've never been to disney before and don't have a clue where to start about planning when to do what parks and how long I need for each one etc, so I was hoping you guys could just give me a little help with a push in the right direction.
We land on a friday at 3.25 and as we are doing a twin centre holiday sadly we are only there for a week. We are 3 girls goign aged 21-23 and staying at the wyndham palace resort and spa if that helps when giving advice.
At the moment we think we deffo want to be going to the following parks:
Discovery cove
Epcot
Magic kingdom
Blizzard beach
MGM studios
Universal studios
Typhoon lagoon
Seaworld
and Islands of adventure
We are planning on getting the 3 day 2 park universal ticket, 5 day park hopper plus ticket and the discovery cove with 7 day seaworld ticket.

If anyone has any advice on wether they think we are missing out a great park or think we should get different tickets please say, also we aint actually goign till next september hahaha so long away but I get great enjoyment out of planning things and its never to early to start organising a trip like this esp as I have a few other holidays I need to start sorting out aswell.
Thanks in advance :D

[JuniorMickey]

I don't know how your going to fit that all into 7 days honestly. for a first timer, MK and Epcot are 2-day parks, 3/4 of a day for MGM, Seaworld, IOA and DC are each a full day. That's not taking into account the days needed for the water parks.....

[djhammon]

HI i agree with Junior Mickey there is a lot there to fit in to 7days

there is no way that you will fit 9 different parks in, in 7days otherwise you are going to miss out on a lot.

Regards

David

[windbag]

Mmmm, it does seem that your giving yourselves a very busy itinery for a week! You'd just be on the move all the time and not stopping for a breather or even the loo!! Perhaps you should consider one water park. We did Epcot and MGM in one day but we skirted round most of the lands in Epcot and only really did the rides there but you do miss an awful lot of interesting things. If you read the trip reports you may glean some idea of how stuffed 2 weeks can get let alone 7 days!!
I think the first thing to do would be to invite all of us up for coffee and bickies and we can help you plan!! LOL! How exciting however to be planning your first ever trip Lucky you.

[Musicmixer]

In my honest opinion for a FIRST time visitor with only seven days I feel that most of your time should be spent with the :ears: mouse. There is so much to see and do on Disney property alone that you can't experience it all in seven days. A side trip to Universal Studios, Seaworld, or Discovery Cove may be a good diversion for a single day, but I truly feel that at least six of the seven days should be spent at :ears: Disney. As Juniormickey said Magic Kingdom & EPCOT are 2 day parks each, and MGM Studios & Animal Kingdom are worth at least one day for each. Hope this helps. :D

[thistle1314]

You're certainly a lot younger than me so have that on your side but with the comments above you've been given some great advise. Some things will have to wait until your return visit - and believe me - when you've been once you'll come back. Good luck with the planning. Its really a lot of fun and I just wish I would have found this website before I went the first time. :)

[Wendy]

I agree, there is alot there for 7 days but for your age group and if you are all into the big coasters I would go with Islands of Adventure and save Universal for your next trip! :wink:
You can do some Disney Park hopping each day ( if you get Hopper tickets) but just make sure you choose specific rides/shows you want to do in each park and plan around those. Its do-able.

[Sarah84]

Thanks for all the advice, its going to take me a lot of planning but worth every minute, I havent even been yet but I deffo plan to return after my first trip :D

[Huntermom]

We've done tons of quick trips. It's only a 3 hours plane trip from here and we gets some really low fares. This works better if it's off season. The few times we've gone when the crowds have been up, we've haven't accomplished nearly as much and we are much, more tired after doing less.

What we'll usually do is split the parks up. We also start very early-perhaps not always conducive to young adults-but if there's a time change it may help. I find we can get more done before 11 than between 11 and 5. We usually start early, go back to the villa for lunch and then return to a park. Because Animal Kingdom closes early, we'll usually get it pretty much done by 1 p.m. then have a late lunch at the park. Go to the villa. We usually go to another park that evening.

We usually try to figure out the best park for the day of the week. For some reason, even when it's been crowded, we've found Epcot, pretty sparse on Saturdays. I don't think it's the first park people go to when they arrive.

We also don't eat during "regular eating hours" and have a sit down meal after we leave the parks-in off season, the parks close fairly early.

If you really want a taste of it all I'd spend a full day in the Magic Kingdom, split MGM and Epcot, do the Animal Kingdom early, rest for a couple of hours, and then go to a second park (MGM or Epcot) in the evening. If you could stay on site at Universal it would be great -even one night and you get two days at the parks-you get front of the line access all day. Then you can definately do
the highlights of both parks in one day then. If you have to make a choice, I'd do IOA if you like thrills, the studios if you do not.

I'd skip Sea World this trip and probably Disocvery Cove.

Also. re-think your tickets-some of those may expire. You'd probably be fine with a 4 -5 day park hopper (plus if you want a water park)and the universal 2 day ticket that never expires.

Understand that you will not do it all. But that's a good excuse for coming back. We've been multiple times and still have things we still have to do but it's nice to have some new adventures each time.

The worse mistake I ever made was trying to do too much at once. If you get tired-leave-you can go back or not- but I've found if we cross the line and try to do too much, we reach a point where we accomplish very little.

Diane

[pinkerbell]

:overhere: Hope you have a wonderful first trip, you will never forget that feeling of walking into Magic Kingdom the very first time, I've got a lump in my throat just thinking about it. You can either treat this trip as a military expedition (as most of us do!) or take it easy and not get hung up on what you miss this time.
I'd say plan, plan, plan all the way! Read as much as you can on this website. Check opening times of parks, times of parades and fireworks. I normally schedule my arrival and leaving times for each park on each day. Spend all your time now puzzling and plannig so you don't have to worry when you get there.
If you are going somewhere relaxing for your second week I'd say go all the way in the first week, you can soon recover! If you are going to get to do a lot of swimming in the second week seriously think about only going to one water park the first week.

[plutomad]

Hi, hope you have a nice time, i would propably miss blizzard beach and seaworld and even (dare i say) universal and ioa, and just concentrate on disney ( maybe do discovery cove), we would like to go to wyndham palace resort and spa, so when you get back can we have a DETAILED report on the place? have a great time you will love it!!!!!!!!!!!