Pre trip report

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Wed, 05/16/2012 - 21:29

cadac

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Pre trip report

I hope this is in the right place.

I thought that I would share our plan so far for our September trip. It still has a few gaps but as my MNSSHP tickets arrived this morning I felt the Disney buzz so I thought I'd share.

I cannot find any extra magic hours yet (perhaps I am looking in the wrong place), so that will mean we will add hours onto evenings/mornings as and when. Here goes:

August 31st - Drive down to London Gatwick and check-in to hotel airport. Check in bags at the airline desk and find some where nice to eat. Have a holiday drink and off to bed.

September 1st - We can have a nice relaxing get up as we would have already checked our bags in. Have a stroll down to the airport and board our flight.

Arrive at Orlando Airport at approx 5pm local time, find the Magical Express/hire car and find our way to Coronado Springs Resort. Check in, settle into the room and take a look around the resort. Go for a bite to eat at the Pepper Market and off to bed for an early night as we will be tired due to time difference

September 2nd - Animal Kingdom - head straight to Expedition Everest as Jess has not been on this ride as of yet and is very excited. No plans for an evening meal as yet.

September 3rd (Labour Day) - This is a hard one for us, we have never experienced Labour Day so we are unsure on how the crowds will be. Jess is keen to get some shopping in early (I think she's mad personally lol). We plan to do a spot of shopping in the morning followed by an afternoon at Magic Kingdom with a 6:25 ADR at Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends followed by a VIP veiwing of wishes.

September 4th - Islands of Adventure, I wanted this to be an all Disney holiday but we have compromised a little with the shopping and with the days at Universal and as I quite like these parks it isn't so much of a hardship I will attempt to overcome my fear of the Hulk coaster. No plans for evening meal but I am tempted with an ADR at California grill

September 5th - Early start for Typhoon lagoon, spend most of the day here head back to the hotel and an evening on international drive and a trip to wonderworks.

September 6th - Afternoon and evening (possible morning as well) at Epcot with a 5:45pm ADR at Le Cellier and a VIP viewing of Illuminations.

September 7th - Morning shopping then off to Hollywood Studios with a 4:50 ADR at Mama Melrose and fantasmic package.

September 8th - Day at Epcot followed by an evening at Downdown Disney with an ADR at Planet Hollywood.

September 9th - Universal Studios

September 10th - 8:30 keys to the kingdom tour, afternoon is still to be planned.

September 11th - Blizzard Beach followed by and evening at Downtown Disney with an ADR at House of Blues

September 12th - ANother shopping day, or maybe not Hopefully a park hop day between Animal Kingdom and Disney Studios.

September 13th - Universal/Islands of Adventure mop up day

September 14th - Morning by the pool followed by an afternoon at Magic Kingdom and MNSSHP.

September 15th - Downtown disney and then home

I do feel there isn't enough disney but I would wouldn't I? lol

What do you guys and gals think?

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Wed, 05/16/2012 - 21:41

petriedish

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We have some plans in common...Animal kingdom on the 12th and mnsshp on the 14th.... We are in Disney from te 11 to the 19

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 02:13

JeffC

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WOW what a great plan!

You should be able to see Extra Magic Hours by going to this link:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/

Enter August 31, 2012 where is says View Hours for 10 Days Beginning:

Then do the next 10 days after that, etc. Do be sure to recheck them a few times, and again right before you leave, as they can change.

This is just a personal opinion, but I would be inclined to think 3 days at Universal/Island of Adventure might be too much. I think you could easily see and do everything in 2 days or less. But, we've not been there since Harry Potter opened, so maybe there is more, or you can find enough to keep you busy over 3 days.

Would love for others who've been recently to opine

Thu, 05/17/2012 - 02:00

Jess

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Great plans

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 02:11

Spook

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JeffC wrote:

WOW what a great plan!

You should be able to see Extra Magic Hours by going to this link:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/

Enter August 31, 2012 where is says View Hours for 10 Days Beginning:

Then do the next 10 days after that, etc. Do be sure to recheck them a few times, and again right before you leave, as they can change.

This is just a personal opinion, but I would be inclined to think 3 days at Universal/Island of Adventure might be too much. I think you could easily see and do everything in 2 days or less. But, we've not been there since Harry Potter opened, so maybe there is more, or you can find enough to keep you busy over 3 days.

Would love for others who've been recently opine

I went to Universal Studios this past January and we did both parks in a day. mind you, we didn't do all that many rides so we weren't waiting around in lines all day. I really liked Harry Potter but it was really crowded. It's not all that big either. If you plan on doing lots of rides 2 days would probably be good.
Have a great trip! I'll be staying at Coronado Springs in november

Thu, 05/17/2012 - 09:54

cadac

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Thanks guys.

I will be discussing the Universal/shopping days with Jess. Sadly I don't think it will have an effect

Have added an ADR at California Grill on the 10th at 9:15pm (Wishes is due at 10pm) so might even squeeze in Artist Point another day lol

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 13:40

Vettelover

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Sounds like a very well thought out plan BUT I am amazed that they will let you check in your baggage the day before your flight. Most of the airlines that I have flown (all in the US) have a time limit of about 6 to 8 hrs. before your flight to check in baggage.

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 15:05

cadac

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Vettelover wrote:

Sounds like a very well thought out plan BUT I am amazed that they will let you check in your baggage the day before your flight. Most of the airlines that I have flown (all in the US) have a time limit of about 6 to 8 hrs. before your flight to check in baggage.

Yes I was very surprised. The first time I did it was 2005. We stopped at the Hilton at London Gatwick and checked in our bags at the Virgin Atlantic desk at around 8:30pm.

We then were given our boarding passes and tickets etc and were told not to go into the check-in desk but another line two hours before the flight(which was around 10am the next day) where we went through the regular security checks.

The only downside is that you have no access to your bags, so you either have to not check in until the next day or wear some old clothes, check into the hotel leave your clean clothes in the hotel room, check in your bags and leave your old clothes in the room the next morning.

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 16:37

Kristen K.

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I am inclined to agree that 3 days at Universal may be too much. I wish you luck with that talk! The hotels on the monorail loop (Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and Polynesian) actually have some great shopping. Perhaps you could entice her with a shopping monorail crawl? If you go after 4PM you could include a stop at each bar!

Shopping is also pretty good at Hollywood Studios, so if she's inclined, perhaps you can get there a little earlier.

Thu, 05/17/2012 - 19:32

RobynPrincess

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We do bag drop at Gatwick the night before as well, where in the UK are you from?

Your plan looks good

I think there's still loads of Disney in there

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 19:41

cadac

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RobynPrincess wrote:

We do bag drop at Gatwick the night before as well, where in the UK are you from?

Your plan looks good

I think there's still loads of Disney in there

There is never enough Disney! lol I want to stay in the bubble!

We are from the Midlands, however I have family in Essex so we shall be driving down possibly on the Thursday night and doing a bit of shopping in Chelmsford before we head down to Gatwick. It just breaks the journey up a little.

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 20:39

Tony

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The plan looks fine to me. Allocating 3 days to Universal will leave you some time for shopping in the malls at that end of town when you've done everything in the parks.

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Thu, 05/17/2012 - 20:48

emmaanne

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I agree with everyone else about 3 days at Universal/IOA. We went this past March. We arrived at Universal before it opened and were done with both parks by 3pm. A lot of the rides at IOA are water rides and we didnt feel like getting soaked.

Personally, I dont care to ever go back to Universal/IOA, so you may find after the first day that you dont care to go back. It is a MUCH different feel from Disney. But thats totally my opinion.

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Fri, 05/18/2012 - 12:16

cadac

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After reading the thread about how much time to set aside for universal, and also reading bit on the internet I really can't see a need for us having three days there unless there is some freak weather or something.

In terms of cost we won't lose anything as the ticket we got is the same price as a standard two day pass so that is a bonus.

I think going forward we will keep that day free just in case but as time gets closer I think that day will change to another disney day, which Jess has already said that is probably for the best lol (can you tell who the boss is yet? ).

She won't move on the shopping days and is determined to get to an outlet and a mall.

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Fri, 05/18/2012 - 13:56

Jessi5989

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cadac wrote:

After reading the thread about how much time to set aside for universal, and also reading bit on the internet I really can't see a need for us having three days there unless there is some freak weather or something.

In terms of cost we won't lose anything as the ticket we got is the same price as a standard two day pass so that is a bonus.

I think going forward we will keep that day free just in case but as time gets closer I think that day will change to another disney day, which Jess has already said that is probably for the best lol (can you tell who the boss is yet? ).

She won't move on the shopping days and is determined to get to an outlet and a mall.

Make sure you take her to the outlet mall thats right by Universal/IOA! There's a Disney outlet store there that sells all the same stuff from the parks, but way cheaper!

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 14:09

cadac

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Where abouts is that Jessi?

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Fri, 05/18/2012 - 15:12

Tony

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I think it's this one... http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=96

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Fri, 05/18/2012 - 18:30

Jessi5989

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Tony wrote:

I think it's this one... http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=96

Exactly! its called the Disney Character Warehouse.

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