How does this sound for a 12 night holiday? Critique my plans please

MeeskaMooskaMickey

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
I’ve seen quite a few threads discussing the merits of staying a week on site at Universal. We have booked for 12 nights as we are coming all the way from England and don’t like the thought of moving hotels whilst on holiday. We won’t have a car either so will be reliant on local transport. This is vaguely how I plan the 12 days going:

1 day discovery cove
2 days Seaworld
1 day Aquatica
1 day Florida Mall
1 day mall at Millenia
1 day Clearwater excursion
2 days volcano bay
1/2 day Disney (no park tickets, just visiting POFQ where we stayed before and evening at Disney Springs)
3 days plus some other evenings at the universal parks

Some of these days won’t be full days out, especially the shopping and water park days so if we get back early these days we are planning to pool hop and try out all the other universal hotel pools and diners. Plus time at citiwalk.
We probably won’t eat at many sit down restaurants, mainly self serve to save money and time. Does this sound ok? Enough to fill 12 days? Is there anything we have missed or are we overdoing anything?
Ideally we would also like to do a boggy creek airboat or day trip to Miami but we don’t want to overdo things and become exhausted! We are hoping this plan will allow for relaxation time too!
 
Doesn’t sound too much at all. We stay for 19 nights on our main trip and never get bored or tired out........but we don’t go to Seaworld or water parks.........not our thing :D

You’re not spending much time at the parks, I would cut back on Seaworld and do some more park time.......there really is so much to see and do at the Universal parks........

Mall at Millenia is our favourite mall, but it’s definitley not a full day. Couple of hours tops then maybe lunch, there are some nice places there. Don’t laugh we stopped going to The Florida Mall as there was too many tourists.....lol.....again, couple of hours which would be nice if you spend some time at the malls then pool or resort time at other hotels.

But, you will easily fill 12 nights........we never get bored there after 10 years!

And we travel from the UK too :wave2:
 
Ps should have said we’re staying at Cabana Bay! I’m assuming there is a free bus from universal to the Seaworld parks- hopefully this is the case. We’ll Uber/cab to Disney springs and the shopping malls.
 
Doesn’t sound too much at all. We stay for 19 nights on our main trip and never get bored or tired out........but we don’t go to Seaworld or water parks.........not our thing :D

You’re not spending much time at the parks, I would cut back on Seaworld and do some more park time.......there really is so much to see and do at the Universal parks........

Mall at Millenia is our favourite mall, but it’s definitley not a full day. Couple of hours tops then maybe lunch, there are some nice places there. Don’t laugh we stopped going to The Florida Mall as there was too many tourists.....lol.....again, couple of hours which would be nice if you spend some time at the malls then pool or resort time at other hotels.

But, you will easily fill 12 nights........we never get bored there after 10 years!

And we travel from the UK too :wave2:
Thanks schumigirl! I’m relieved to hear That we will easily fill our time - some things I have read suggest that universal is only appropriate for a few days! It would be awful to travel all that way and not have enough to do! I’m not keen on water parks either but the males in my family love them- they don’t have to worry about drying their frizzy hair afterwards!
Will probably reconsider how much time we spend at Seaworld- we are only really going there as the tickets are included with discovery cove, maybe one day or two half days will be enough.
 


Ps should have said we’re staying at Cabana Bay! I’m assuming there is a free bus from universal to the Seaworld parks- hopefully this is the case. We’ll Uber/cab to Disney springs and the shopping malls.

In the first page of the Cabana Bay sticky it has all the transportation details in there........:thumbsup2

Thanks schumigirl! I’m relieved to hear That we will easily fill our time - some things I have read suggest that universal is only appropriate for a few days! It would be awful to travel all that way and not have enough to do! I’m not keen on water parks either but the males in my family love them- they don’t have to worry about drying their frizzy hair afterwards!
Will probably reconsider how much time we spend at Seaworld- we are only really going there as the tickets are included with discovery cove, maybe one day or two half days will be enough.

I hear you on the hair.........I can look like Monica from Friends on her Caribbean trip in a heartbeat.......not a good look! Men don’t have that worry do they.........

I shake my head when I see folks comment there isn’t enough to do at Universal beyond a day or so........read up on a few trip reports from folks that have stayed there.........there really is a lot to do beyond wandering around for half a day doing a few rides that some folks say they only do..........

Have you checked the park maps to see what’s in the parks.......I’m sorry, I’m assuming you haven’t been before to Universal??? The website isn’t as good as it used to be, but it still does have some good info and park layouts.

And some really good stickies........damo has an excellent food sticky........
 
Hi I think your plans sound great. I agree maybe putting a little more time at Universal from Sea World. We did Discovery Cove from Cabana Bay this past summer. We had no car so we used Uber there. It cost us $6.00 each way for 4 people. It was quick and reliable. We did not use the tickets with Discovery Cove but next time I will at least do one day at Sea World and one at Aquatica. We did Volcano bay two days in the summer and enjoyed it. https://www.disboards.com/threads/summer-trip-report-finally-yay.3642765/ In my trip report is Discovery Cover and Volcano Bay days if you would like to take a look.

I agree we never get bored there and could spend a couple of weeks easy. Great advice to look at the park maps and rides. There is a lot of good information on this board and lots of people like to help.

Any questions please ask! Enjoy your planning.
 
If you are already planning on 3 park days I would check the price to upgrade to an annual pass- the price will vary based on when you are traveling and if you need to avoid blackout dates. The price to go from 3 days to AP is usually quite small. Then you’d have that in your back pocket and if you felt like hopping over to the park for an hour or two on a “nonpark” day you could. When we stay onsite for a week not every day is a park day but we have been known to pop in and out for a butter beer or for a quick ride.

With the AP you can also continue to look for APH rates at Cabana Bay and the discount on the room might pay for the pass upgrade too.
 


I think your plan looks like lots of fun! If you need something for a part day and it's of interest, I'd suggest Gatorland. I really don't think its a full day thing, but we spent about 4 hours there and really enjoyed it. Very "Florida" experience if that makes sense. They had some really neat shows and getting to see all the Gators was really cool, and a nice walk into the swamp area on boardwalks. I wouldn't necessarily schedule it in, but if you are there and finding you need something for a part day, I'd definitely consider it. Was a hit with our group which ranged in ages from 10 to 65.
 
Hi I think your plans sound great. I agree maybe putting a little more time at Universal from Sea World. We did Discovery Cove from Cabana Bay this past summer. We had no car so we used Uber there. It cost us $6.00 each way for 4 people. It was quick and reliable. We did not use the tickets with Discovery Cove but next time I will at least do one day at Sea World and one at Aquatica. We did Volcano bay two days in the summer and enjoyed it. https://www.disboards.com/threads/summer-trip-report-finally-yay.3642765/ In my trip report is Discovery Cover and Volcano Bay days if you would like to take a look.

I agree we never get bored there and could spend a couple of weeks easy. Great advice to look at the park maps and rides. There is a lot of good information on this board and lots of people like to help.

Any questions please ask! Enjoy your planning.
I loved your trip report, it sounds very similar to how we want to spend our time. I can’t believe an Uber to dc was only $6, that’s great value.
 
I think your plan looks like lots of fun! If you need something for a part day and it's of interest, I'd suggest Gatorland. I really don't think its a full day thing, but we spent about 4 hours there and really enjoyed it. Very "Florida" experience if that makes sense. They had some really neat shows and getting to see all the Gators was really cool, and a nice walk into the swamp area on boardwalks. I wouldn't necessarily schedule it in, but if you are there and finding you need something for a part day, I'd definitely consider it. Was a hit with our group which ranged in ages from 10 to 65.
Thanks I’ll look into gator land. My dh loves all the wild Florida stuff so I think that will appeal to him. One thing I’m most looking forward to about this trip is getting the balance between theme park time and time away from the parks. The only other time we have been to Orlando we stayed on site at Disney for two weeks which we loved but we did feel that we had missed out a bit on seeing other things that Orlando has to offer.
 
Your plan looks awesome!! You're taking full advantage of the Discovery Cove pass too. My family did that in the summer and we also went to Busch Gardens (Our pass included it.) Our original plan was to do SeaWorld only one day. But as it turned out, we were there from 9am to 10pm and it wasn't enough. So we decided to go back the next day from 12 to 6pm. And we didn't even do their three coasters!

I guess my point is to just keep your plan flexible, especially for a long trip like yours.
 
I would suggest you keep more time open to do shopping at Disney Springs, since it sounds like you are interested in shopping. There are many unique shops and restaurants there now, and it is still expanding. My daughter and I went 3 evenings there out of 4 on a recent short trip to Orlando just to walk around the shops and eat!

Also, if you want a day excursion and you are interested in the space program, Cape Canaveral (Kennedy Space Center) is a very easy trip. You can also go to the sandy beaches on the coast while you are there. I thought your water park fans might like time at the beach. You should be able to find a car rental for the day. Don't be too nervous! If I can drive in Ireland, you can drive here! LOL.

I second the idea of turning your 3-day Univeral passes into an annual pass in order to go to the parks if you find yourself with free time. AND - I feel your pain on the frizzy hair - mine goes frizzy just from the Florida humidity - no chance against a water park day!

Enjoy your relaxing holidays!
 

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