Theme Park Discussion / Orlando Trip Recommendations?

Hey guys, long time no see. Good to see some familiar faces still around!

I was hoping to get some advice on an upcoming (theme park centric) trip to Orlando. I'm going with myself and my girlfriend. We are in our late 20's and don't have any kids.

We have all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Orlando, this coming weekend. We already decided with want to go to Univeral Islands of Adventure for one of the days. However, we have 2 other days to spend on:

-Universal Studios
-Magic Kingdom
-EPCOT
-Sea World

Which 2 of these should we pick?

Any other things we should make sure we do while we are in Orlando? Any restaurants we shouldn't miss? Given our plan for IOA and two others, any recommendations or secret tricks we should know about?

Thanks!

-Kevin (Gymkid)

It is great to see you around, Kevin! Hope all has been well over the years.

Definitely good to see you're doing Islands of Adventure; The Harry Potter attraction is worth the price of admission alone (don't let long wait times scare you off here, dude!). I'd say you definitely should try for EPCOT. Its hard to see it all in a single day but you can plan out the things you truly don't have an interest in and see the highlights like World Showcase (my favorite thing to see at all the parks. Be sure to at least explore most of the countries!) and Soarin', etc. Magic Kingdom is always a classic as well, but with the new Fantasyland in construction, you'll probably be heading back for another vacation by the time they finish so you could put it off. If not, it'd be my choice over Sea World. In fact I'd put Animal Kingdom before Sea World (Everest!!?!).

Hope you have a great trip, man. Really consider EPCOT at least. Disney's most underrated park in my opinion.

Hey Kevin,

I guess the first question is have you been to any of the parks before? I'm always a fan of checking out new parks. I don't know what your money situation is, but it's a decent idea to combine tickets. But I'll break it down a little bit.

If you're doing IOA, it's a decent idea to do Universal too. I don't have a problem doing both parks in a day, especially this time of year, though some of that is doing the single rider line. At IOA you'll have Ripsaw Falls under rehab, thought I don't think that's a big deal. At Universal, all the Jaws area is down, but also not a huge loss. For things to do at Universal, you're looking at Mummy, Rockit, and Men in Black for more 'thrilling' type rides as I'd expect you're looking for. To me, that's a half day park, but combined with IOA you can have a pretty solid day. I'd recommend a weekend day if you're doing that as they're open later than 6.

Disney is best with a park hopper. Yes, it will run you more, but the flexibility of jumping around is worth it. Disney also has the longest hours in Orlando right now. If you look at Saturday, Magic Kingdom is till midnight, EPCOT till 9, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom till 7. So that sets you up for potentially 15 hours of park time. If you've never been to any of them, the parks will take a little longer, but for the most part you can breeze through some. To be honest, a Saturday is enough time to do all 4 parks if you really wanted.

Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are really half day parks to me. AK has Everest and Dinosaur and then after that a few average attractions and some very nice animal exhibits. HS has Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Toy Story (expect 120+ min line), and Star Tours, but that can be blown through in a few hours.

Magic Kingdom is of course the one with the most rides, and while it is geared towards the kids, it's still a lot of fun. I still find myself there once or twice a week. Currently Big Thunder Mountain is under rehab and you have all the Fantasyland construction. That said, there's still plenty to do and Space Mountain is easily the best coaster at Disney.

EPCOT is tricky because it's a different pace than most parks. The rides are pretty enjoyable, though I'd just toss Mission Space and Test Track into thrilling category, but for the most part it's very relaxing... the World Showcase has fantastic restaurants, but you should make a reservation early if possible and be prepared to spend up to $100 on the both of you depending where you go. I find EPCOT very relaxing, and the 'Illuminations' fireworks display is the best night show at Disney. I feel that I would maybe be wishing I had a park hopper if I was to spend a whole day there.

In short, Disney is fantastic, but a park hopper is really the only way to get the biggest bang for you buck there.

Now to SeaWorld. Of course, I will push this as I do love the park and work there. I'll try and keep this as objective as possible, however, so it's fair to point out that the manatee exhibit and the penguin exhibit are currently closed for our 2012 and 2013 projects. This weekend is also our Just for Kids event, so unless you're a fan of the Doodlebops, you'll want to avoid that area of the park! Still, though, SeaWorld is a great day out.. the shows are all fantastic and Kraken & Manta are two of the best coasters in Florida (Manta is the best in Orlando). You can easily fill a day here. Also worth noting is the all day dining plan for $30 you can eat all you like from 6 of our restaurants (SeaWorld has the best park food in Orlando, imo).

I would probably also mention Busch Gardens too. I'm assuming you're taking a car here or renting one, but that's the place to go in Florida for thrills. It's only an hour and 15 minutes away from Orlando, and is easy to make a day trip out of-- I did that last Saturday and managed over 20 rides while still taking my time. They have the best coaster collection in Florida and some of the best theming. Their animal exhibits are on par or better than Animal Kingdom's too (you can feed a kangaroo by hand!). They also have the all day dining deal, which is worth it for any full day at the park.

So there's my breakdown of them all... I'd probably rank them Busch, Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld, IOA, EPCOT, Universal, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom.


As for restaurants and stuff, if you like Mexican try "Agave Azul" right outside of Universal's property on Kirkman Rd. It's authentic and pretty fantastic. If you do Sushi, try "Sushiology" on International Drive or by the Premium outlets. I'd expect it might be too late now, but if you can make a reservation at O'hana at Disney's Polynesian, that's the best restaurant I've been to down here thus far. It's $36/person, but absolutely worth it. If you're looking for stuff to do after parks, International Drive is a decent place, though it does get very tourist-y. Magical Midway has a Star Flyer ride for $7/person, which gives some great views and is a lot of fun. Fun Spot and Old Town on Rt. 192 south of the parks also has 2 coasters and various other smaller rides. I'm not sure how late any of these are open, but they're a decent amount of fun.


I think that's a pretty good overview.. feel free to ask me anymore specific questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Hope you have a good time!

Damn Brian... your park going stamina is a wonder to me. That day at BGT I was half dead and you stayed for hours longer and were having a good time, lol.

Kevin, nice to see you remember us! Brian's advice is great. Steve's too. My advice would have sucked since I don't have much money and my park trips only happen when I can stay with family and get a discount on the park entry fee from Brian or Adix. For food I just go to McDonalds before going to the park

If you like coasters BGT is the place. Cheetah Hunt is the best coaster I have ever been on and all the B&Ms are as awesome as expected. For themeing IoA and Disney will grab you by the balls. Disney will aslo grab you by the wallet. Sea World... idk, have not been their since I was a kid to long ago... will need to change that soon...

I wholeheartedly agree with Brian about Busch Gardens and Disney. As a Florida passholder to both BG and the Disney Parks, I find myself going very often as well.
Busch Gardens is incomparable in thrills with the other parks in Florida. You simply won't find another park here with as many roller coasters and thrill rides. Not to mention, the lines now arent nearly as long as some of the Orlando parks, so you'll be able to ride several of the coasters continuously.

Disney on the other hand is absolutely unmissable as well. Epcot is by far my favorite park and the most interesting to me. But all of them are well worth the time and money. So like CP6 said, get a parkhopper pass!

-Josh

My top three parks in the area are IOA, BGT, and Epcot - not really sure how I'd rank them as they're all fantastic. But if BGT is out of the question, I'd probably recommend getting a parkhopper for day three and doing as many of the Disney parks as possible in a day - probably start at AK, then Disney Studios, then finish at MK (I'm assuming the closing times are something like 5, 8, and midnight, respectively). In fact, you could probably do the same with IOA and Universal Studios. In either case though it'd be a bit rushed, and you'd probably end up missing some stuff (especially if you did all 3 Disney parks in one day - you'd mostly just be hitting the highlights). Or you could just get a two-day parkhopper and do AK and Epcot one day, and Disney Studios and MK the other.

I'd say the time recommended per park (assuming waits are fairly short, as they should be right now) would be as follows:
Epcot - 1+ days for full experience (all rides, wandering World Showcase), 3/4 day for quick experience (most rides, quick World Showcase), or 1/4 day for major rides only.
Magic Kingdom - 1 day for full experience, 1/2 day for major rides only
Animal Kingdom - 3/4 day for full experience, 1/4 days for major rides only
Disney Studios - 3/4 day for full experience, 1/2 day for major rides only
IOA - 1 day for full experience, 1/2 day for major rides only
Universal Studios - 3/4 day for full experience, 1/4 day for major rides only
Sea World - 3/4 day for full experience, 1/4 day for major rides only
BGT - 1+ days for full experience, 1/2 day for major rides only

My last time in Orlando I visited on weekends while I was working in the area.
* The first weekend I only had one day, and just did Epcot from open to close.
* The next weekend I had three days in the other parks (one per day, non-parkhopper). I first spent a full day at Disney Studios, then went credit whoring at Old Town afterwards. The next day I stayed until around 7pm for Magic Kingdom (However, I wasn't feeling great and left kind of early, plus I've been to Disneyland enough times where it sort of paled in comparison. I also had tons of fastpasses for rerides, so that wasn't an issue). The last day I had to leave Animal Kingdom around 2pm, but I could've stayed until closing at 5.
* The next weekend I went to SeaWorld the first day, then went back to Epcot after lunch (I love Epcot, but having grown up in San Diego, I'm kind of bored with SeaWorld). The next day I'd allotted for IOA, but I had a two-day parkhopper and was able to do both it and Universal Studios in a day.
* The last weekend I did one day at BGT and went back to IOA and Universal for the second day (this time I was done with IOA by lunch).

So, my final recommendation would be:
IOA (& maybe Universal), BGT, Epcot (1 day pass)
or
IOA (& maybe Universal), AK/Epcot, and Disney Studios/MK (2 day parkhopper)

As for food, it's cliche, but I really liked Mythos at IOA.

Thanks to everyone for their time and excellent recommendations. I had a great (and busy) weekend and enjoyed the weather and unexpectedly short wait times.

I hadn't been to any of these parks before (but I was at BGT a few years ago).,

We ended up doing:
IOA
Universal Studios (because it was so cheap to combo in with IOA)
Magic Kingdom

In retrospect, I wish we would have done the Disney parkhopper, since we did kind of run out of major attractions and spending lots of the day on "2nd tier" attractions, especially since Thunder Mountain railroad was down. I've been to Cedar Point several times and even BGW and BGT, but was kind of surprised at how much multimedia is now incorporated into these rides (Spiderman, Harry Potter, Men in Black, etc). Definitely different than what I'm used to, definitely some great rides, and an overall great weekend.

I also am likely to be back in Orlando for my job in a few more weeks, so maybe I can hit SeaWorld, EPCOT, AK, and HS.


Thanks again and nice to see some familiar faces!