So here’s the thing, visiting Orlando, the mecca of themeparks is on every themepark enthousiasts list. Just like me it took me a while to get there, being from Belgium it’s not exactly nearby. Plus it requires a lot of planning and saving money. I finally made it in 2017, and there will be many blogs to follow on this subject, because even though it’s been a while, I still have lots to tell! But let’s kick off with the first questions you need to ask yourself when you go on your first themepark trip to Orlando:
1- When and how long are you going?
So you want to visit Orlando, you want to book your flight. First thing’s first, when and how long are you going? Still no exact idea? This is an important question! It’s good to know that hurricane season in Florida lasts from June to November. However we still went on our trip in September, because sometimes you can’t choose just any date. So it’s not completely crazy to go during these months. You have a higher chance of sudden heavy rainfall and we did have hurricane Irma which struck right before we left and made us change our plans (#panicmodeon). I’ll go more in to detail on that in another blog, but for the themeparks it didn’t affect our plans. One advantage is that Florida is quite used to hurricanes, so yes there is a risk, but also everything is up and running again very quickly, but if you have the option, going outside the hurricane season would be advised, also because the temperatues will be nicer. In September it was still VERY hot and coming from Europe it’s not quite a type of heat we are used to. So those are things to take in mind!
2- How many days will you visit themeparks?
Next up, how many days of your trip do you want to spend on visiting themeparks? Most of us don’t just go for the themeparks. I’m a huge fan, but being a travelcoaster I want to explore other places as well. So if you have decided on when and how long you are going, you need to determine how many days of that trip you want to spend visiting themeparks. We only went for around 2 weeks in total, so we decided on visiting themeparks for 5 days total.
3- Which parks do you want to visit?
Now this is a tough one. There are SO many amazing themeparks in Orlando, you have ofcourse the different Disney and the Universal parks, but there is also Busch Gardens and many waterparks. So there are A LOT of options. So how to pick which parks you want to visit? It’s not easy, and you need to accept first of all that you can’t see and do it all on your first trip and will have to come back 😉 oh well challenge accepted ;)! So what park are you drawn to the most? Personally I’m a Disney fan, so seeing as much as I could of the Disney parks was a must. Our friends were Harry Potter fans, so Universal was also definitely in. Volcano Bay was just brand new back then and looked amazing, so in the end we went with 2 days Disney, a half day at Volcano Bay (to take a bit of a break), and then again 2 days at Universal Studios. To people who are not in to themeparks, this looks like an insane amount of days to spend at themeparks, but let me tell you… It’s absolutely nothing. Disney World has 4 themeparks, 2 entertainment complexes called Disney Spring and Disney’s Boardwalk and 2 water parks. Universal has 2 themeparks and 1 waterpark. Sounds crazy? Not gonna lie, it is! So here you have to make another decision, do you want to see a little bit of everything or do you want to take it easy and really take your time to enjoy just 1 or 2 parks? It’s hard I know, so no clue? Here’s how my planning looked as inspiration:
Day 1: Magic Kingdom
Day 2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios & Epcot
Day 3: Volcano Bay
Day 4: Island of Adventure
Day 5: Universal Studios
It was a crazy schedule, and clearly I wanted to see as much as I could. I did not see everything at Hollywood Studios and Epcot, because we choose to parkhop that day. I also gave up visiting Animal Kingdom, which I did not visit yet unfortunately. It’s all about how you want to spend your vacation. If you want to go on a chill family vacation, choose few parks and take your time, enjoy your hotel and the entertainment complexes. Are you going with a couple of friends, all themaparks fanatics, then you can make your schedule more intens. It’s whatever you want to do. And just remember… Accept that you won’t see it all on your first trip, that woudl take weeks. You will need to make some choices, but the fun part is that each time you visit you will discover a bit more of the Orlando themeparks!
4- When will you visit which parks?
For this question, I found an amazing website called Undercovertourist (https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/). They have a crowd calendar, so it’s easy to see on what day you can best visit each of the parks, which helps a lot with planning. Easy Peasy! No need to break your head over this one.
5- Where will you stay?
Now you are already quite far, you have selected your parks and when you want to visit them. Now you need to figure out your stay. This question is mainly one about budget. Themeparks are expensive, but you can’t change the prices, but for your stay there are many options. Staying onsite has many advantages and there is nothing more magical than having the complete Disney or Universal experience in one of their amazing hotels. There are many hotels with different themes (especially in Disney World) and also in all different prices ranges, so there are some value options, but in the end staying onsite will be more expensive than staying offsite, if your trip is really on a budget like ours. But if you have the budget to spend, go for it! I would highly recommend it. However, staying offsite can be just as great. For example during our visit to Disney World we stayed at the beautiful hotel Sonesta Suites ES Lake Buena Vista (https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/sonesta-suites-es-lake-buena-vista.nl.html) that was very nearby and had buses leaving to all the different parks at many different times, so it was very convenient.
6- How will you get around?
Like I said ofcourse the onsite hotels, but also the offsite hotels offer buses and other options to get to the parks, so there is no need to worry about this in advance. If you are staying onsite, check your options and offsite you will be able to take a bus to any park and if we wanted to be quicker or go somewhere else, we used Uber. Uber is very popular is the US, so it’s very easy to use. Sometimes it can be tricky to find your driver, but most of the time it worked just fine.
7- What do you need to book in advance?
So you have figured out a lot out by now, time to book and plan some things in advance. The absolute minimum is tickets for the parks and for Disney World your dining plan. Booking tickets is quite easy via their websites, you can go for a vacation package, separate tickets per park or you can go for park hopper tickets. It depends on everything you have determined in the previous steps. I would say that taking a park hopper ticket is interesting, it is more expensive, but it gives you more freedom if you want to change your plans last minute, which can always happen.
Now for both Universal and Disney it is interesting to install the Apps and link your account. Again especially for Disney this is necessary to make reservations for your restaurants, and here it’s also really necessary. In Orlando we just decided on the spot and choose a spot on the CityWalk. Disney World is not that easy, you can always try last minute here but it will be a lot more tricky. Breakfast you have at your hotel, for lunch you can find something in the parks, but after a long exhausting day you don’t want to stress about finding a place to eat. Also some restaurants are so popular like the Be Our Guest restaurant, so if you want a spot here, you need to book weeks or even months in advance. The app is very easy to use, you can plan and cancel easily.
8- How do you prepare for a day at a themepark?
So you have the basics planned now, exciting right?! I LOVED planning my trip, you don’t need to plan all the details, but for me especially for those kind of trips, the more you plan, the less stress during your vacation. And planning everything we discussed is really the minimum. There is so much more you can do to personalize and plan your themepark vacation, but this is a great start.
To finish of this blog, you have arrived in Orlando, tomorrow is you first day, what’s in your bag to the parks and how do you prepare for your day? You will be gone all day, so bear that in mind. If you stay onsite you might be able to come back to the hotel, but best to prepare yourself that you will be gone all day, so that means preparing for it all: What do you wear? Dress for the heat, but take a light sweater for the evening and a poncho for the rain because that can happen at any time of the year. Wear comfortable shoes, those people who survive on flip flops, lord have mercy I could never! And then all the other essentials: wallet (with dollars and a creditcard that is open for the US), phone, sunscreen, sunglasses, sunhat, water bottle, medication/bandaids, maybe some spare clothing (we got surprised by heavy rain, so you might be happy with a dry shirt or socks) and whatever you need to survive a day in the hot sun! Something that I also took, were the park plans of the Undercovertourist with all the must-do’s, they have plans for all parks and different number of days, so it’s really convenient to take with you (https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/magic-kingdom/). You can ofcourse do whatever you want, we did that as well, but it’s nice to have a plan with you as a first visit at these parks can be overwhelming.
Good luck! Let’s hope we can visit Florida again soon, but now you can already start planning!
the travelcoaster 