Bare minimum expectations from family: 2 full days at UOR, full day at Kennedy Space Center, full day at AK, full day at HS, half day at EP, and half day at MK. Plus they want some “down time” for pool, explore resorts, whatever…
We have 7 full calendar days to work with, it’s Spring Break, so planning will be important.
Current Plan
Saturday: arrive in on late flight, check into Hard Rock @ UOR
Sunday: full day 1 @ UOR with Express Pass
Monday: full day 2 @ UOR with Express Pass
Tuesday: morning open for re-rides or wand work at UOR, check out of Hard Rock, afternoon/evening at EPCOT, check into Boardwalk
Wednesday: all day at Kennedy Space Center
Thursday: all day at Hollywood Studios
Friday: morning open for additional HS time or lazy/nothing, afternoon likely pool or exploring (Disney Springs, boardwalk?), evening is MK/Villians After Hours (goes until 1am)
Saturday: all day at Animal Kingdom (late morning start due to VAH night before)
Sunday: pack up, check out, fly home
I’m struggling with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morning…wondering if I should move KSC to Tuesday (take out extra time at UOR) and use Wednesday to have an easy/low key day at EPCOT. We could also do EPCOT on Friday morning (but only having a single day at HS seems risky - big Star Wars fans, plus TSL and MMRR, so I’m leaning toward keeping that as a HS ‘overflow’ time).
EPCOT I’m struggling with - we like the FW rides, but last time basically skipped WS with the kids (did FEA and 3 Cabelleros ride). If I squeeze EPCOT into Tuesday afternoon or Friday morning, we might not have time to explore WS if it turns out the kids are really into it. Kids are 8, 10, 13…I suspect 8yo will not be into WS on this trip either. And while I’d always take time in the parks over pool time, DH and the kids have explicitly requested “down time,” so I’m trying not to over-plan.
Also wondering if it’s easier to do very clear UOR then KSC then Disney or if a KSC day in the middle (bursting the “disney bubble”) is OK.
Ours is very similar down to the deluxe split stay (but RPR/poly). I changed my plan 11 billion times, and we are going 1st week in march, so here is what I did.
Arrival day: rpr check in, evening parks
Sun: all day UO
Mon: daytime legoland, couple hours to hit anything we missed in the evening
Tues: mk 9-330, afternoon pool
Weds: ak 12-close, pandora at night
Thurs: mk 8-2, break at pool, back for fireworks dessert party at 63p
Fri: HS half day 1, hoping to get an early BG because we have spa plans for the grownups starting at 4
Sat: hs half day 2, in case we dont get a bg.
I did HS that way because we couldnt get an SDD FP until 60+4 and in case something happens w rotr, we have a better chance to ride. AK was easy to get FOP in the evening on 60+1, so we took the am off.
We did legoland in the middle simply because we dont plan to leave the world once we are in it.
I like that you’re utilizing AH to make the most of your MK time.
If all they like is future world it might be worth skipping EP. Apparently the construction is bananas. Just a thought.
I doubt you will need Tuesday morning at UOR, 2 full days is usually pleanty for our family, and we are huge Harry Potter fans. I do think a full day at Epcot is necessary, but my kids have always been super into WS. I do think keeping it flexible for HS is probably going to be necessary just because the Star Wars stuff seems to still be pretty up in the air from day to day.
Test Track is DH’s all-time favorite ride (his MagicBand has a Test Track wrap!), and probably a top 5 ride for all 3 kids, so skipping entirely is probably out
The whole leaving the “bubble” for KSC is what got me thinking about reconfiguring the whole plan in the first place!!
And I secretly hope the kids will LOVE WS and we can explore…but trying not to get my hopes up, but create just enough flexibility to indulge it if it does happen
Good to hear at we probably won’t need Tuesday morning at UOR. I think that would help a ton in balancing the plan a bit better.
HS makes me so nervous!! I know everyone is struggling with how to plan it. I think I need to leave a decent window of time on a second day for anything we miss.
I think doing a half day at epcot is good then. If the only must is test track then the rest is gravy. My hope is that we dont need our second HS day and can go do test track, I know my DS would love it. And I’ve never been on that or soarin… fingers crossed but ultimately TSL and SWGE are the priorities.
EPCOT is probably the park where we disagree on the best/favorite rides.
Soarin is my fave, and I like FEA. Test Track is ‘meh’ for me.
DH and the kids love Test Track and 3 Caballeros, and hate Frozen (to be fair, the first time we tried to ride it it broke down just as we were getting ready to board).
Since we’ll be at EPCOT, I do want to eat at Space220. Plus Flower & Garden means bunches of amazing food stands (DH and I were there for F&G in 2019). So I really would like it if my kids would tolerate bumming around WS for a while!!
I don’t think you will need a third day at UOR. 2 days with express pass will be plenty. I would probably do Kennedy that day since you need to travel anyway. That gives you Wednesday to try for HS if you in in AM or just have more time at Epcot. I would probably try for RotR boarding pass though.
The last time we did UOR, we bought 3 day hopper tickets and ended up just skipping the third day for pool time and more Magic Kingdom. We also did Kennedy Space Center on our honeymoon and found it to be about a 3 hour experience for us (although we didn’t do the bus tour of the grounds).
If it were me planning, I’d check out of Universal on Tuesday and head to KSC. Whenever you’re done, you can head to Boardwalk and relax and settle into the Disney bubble once you hit the Boardwalk. One other thing to consider, are you renting a car? I’d be checking in and then dropping off the car to the rental company to save paying the rental fee and parking fee and just use Magical Express back to the airport on Sunday.
Confession: I’m going to F&G when DS and DH go to legoland. I told them they could go alone to have father son bonding time. Really I have absolutely zero interest going anywhere near legoland ever again and would love to snack around the world!!
Good idea. We did this on a split stay between UOR and WDW last summer and it worked really well to rent through Alamo and drop off the vehicle at the Disney Car Care Center and then get free shuttled from there to Pop Century. You pay a little more for the rental to be able to drop off there, but was well worth it for the convenience. We then used a one-way ME from Pop back to MCO.
Not sure when you went to KSC. We were there for the 1st time in 2012 and loved it. Seeing all the space shuttles is on my bucket list. I’ve seen the Discover in DC. And I saw the Atlantis this trip. The last one is the Endeavor in California and we live in California! I’m waiting for the shuttle to be in it’s permanent home before going.
We were there on December 20, 2019 to watch the rocket launch at 6:30 am. We spent the rest of the day with the Atlantis and Saturn 5/Apollo exhibits. If you didn’t take the bus, you didn’t see the Saturn 5/Apollo exhibits. They are awesome!
But I must say I don’t appreciate how KSC moves crowds. Slow.
We went in August of 2013. I guess I’m just not the target audience… I never had the space/astronaut excitement a lot of people do. We love spending a weekend in DC when we can and doing the museums, but I’ve skipped Air & Space in favor of the others every time for the last 10-15 trips or so.
I’m happy for you that you really enjoyed it though!
I think skipping the 3rd UOR and heading to KSC seems like the better plan.
I do think KSC will take most of a day for us, we’re definitely doing the bus tour and when we saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour in California a couple years ago we spent a LOT of time there…and they don’t have near as much stuff there as Kennedy has!
We’re flying in/out of Tampa, so we definitely need the rental car. But good call-out.
I mean I have bad theme parks an hour and a half from home, but DS is Lego-obsessed, so… now, WS or solo Harry Potter time?! I’m gonna make a game time decision but am leaning toward WS. Should dis springs factor in here at all?
