Planning for WDW/Universal - oh man Disneyland is such a breeze!!

[sherilaine]

We just returned from a great week long trip to Disneyland. This was our 6th and shortest trip to DLR. We spent 5 days in DLR and 1 day at Universal Hollywood.

Well as much as we love DLR - with our kids getting older the talk has turned to trying something bigger. Now that means I am tasked with planning a trip to Orlando since I am the one who does all the planning and my family tends to just follow along and complain.

I have merely scratched the surface and already am so appreciative of how easy it is to plan a Disneyland vacation, never mind how much less expensive!! We are thinking we'll stay around 12 nights and do both WDW and Universal Orlando as it is so much bigger than it's Hollywood version and since my kids are now full blown Harry Potter nut-jobs!

I am wondering how many others felt overwhelmed when switching gears to planning an Orlando holiday vs. Anaheim? Any tips? I know there are plenty of you out there who have mastered both the land and the world!

I have already started doing some research on the WDW and Universal forums as I can't imagine how anyone can plan a trip without DISboards to help them!

 

[midnight star]

I’m hoping to go to WDW either late this year or sometime next year. It’s overwhelming just looking at the forums. My parents planned our WDW trips since I was a little kid when we went. My dad said they booked through a package one year and a travel agent a different year. I have a coworker who is down there now and I’m going to ask her how she planned everything. I have a feeling I will be one of those guests who will just wing it lol

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I'm in a similar boat - so used to planning Disneyland trips because we lived on the west coast. Now we live in Texas, and the family keeps asking about when we'll go to Disneyworld. There is a Girl Scout thing there in 2020 in October that I'm considering, but I don't even know where to start. Even the message board is intimidating at this point! But it is making me appreciate our upcoming spring break trip to DLR even more

 

[gottalovepluto]

• Give yourself lots of planning time
• When dining reservations open be on the computer booking the minute they open, which is approx 6 months out. When FP reservations open for you same thing. (And being CA I know that is an ungodly hour but do it or the best stuff will be gone.)
• Have your computer and your smartphone ready for booking ding & FPs. The system will crash, repeatedly, because Disney IT
• If staying on site find the thread for that hotel/s on the resorts section of the board to learn more
• Bussing everywhere at Disney sucks SO MUCH
• Universal Express Pass is worth it’s weight in gold. If you can afford even just one night a deluxe that includes the unlimited express pass do it. You’ll have the pass on check-in and check-out day (it doesn’t work at Volcano Bay)

It is so much more stressful. Booking FPs is the worst part to me each trip. But HP World is downright magical to HP fans

 

[sherilaine]

• Give yourself lots of planning time
• When dining reservations open be on the computer booking the minute they open, which is approx 6 months out. When FP reservations open for you same thing. (And being CA I know that is an ungodly hour but do it or the best stuff will be gone.)
• Have your computer and your smartphone ready for booking ding & FPs. The system will crash, repeatedly, because Disney IT
• If staying on site find the thread for that hotel/s on the resorts section of the board to learn more
• Bussing everywhere at Disney sucks SO MUCH
• Universal Express Pass is worth it’s weight in gold. If you can afford even just one night a deluxe that includes the unlimited express pass do it. You’ll have the pass on check-in and check-out day (it doesn’t work at Volcano Bay)

It is so much more stressful. Booking FPs is the worst part to me each trip. But HP World is downright magical to HP fans

Thanks!

I have already read the value of UP at Universal. We got spoiled our one day at Universal Hollywood and rode the Harry Potter ride 5 times with hardly a wait at all each time. Crazy. I think the kids are actually more excited about doing Universal than the Disney parks there but I know we will make sure to get our time in for Disney and see all the things that are unique there compared to Disneyland.

There are so many options for hotels - Disney seems to have a tonne of hotels that offer EMH there so I half wonder if it has near the value as it does at DLR?

The fast pass thing is by far the least attractive thing I have noticed - really going to miss MaxPass!!

 

[bettymae1121]

I'm going to recommend reading The Unofficial Guide to WDW (it also includes the Universal Parks!), the same authors also run the Touring Plans website. The book should be at your local library for free, but the thing is the size of a New York City phone book so you may feel it useful to spring for an e-book edition. The book is published in Aug/Sep each year so the current 2019 version doesn't have much info on SW:GE but the 2020 version should (if the land opens before it goes to press that is). The best parts of the Touring Plans website does require an inexpensive annual subscription but I find it's customizable touring plans to be priceless. The subscription is of course good for a year so if you buy it a few weeks after the 1 year mark for the end of your planned trip you can use it for both pre-planning and in-park use as it also includes access to their smart phone app. Again, the book and the web site/phone app covers both WDW and Universal, it's truly worth the small investment.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Thanks!

I have already read the value of UP at Universal. We got spoiled our one day at Universal Hollywood and rode the Harry Potter ride 5 times with hardly a wait at all each time. Crazy. I think the kids are actually more excited about doing Universal than the Disney parks there but I know we will make sure to get our time in for Disney and see all the things that are unique there compared to Disneyland.

There are so many options for hotels - Disney seems to have a tonne of hotels that offer EMH there so I half wonder if it has near the value as it does at DLR?

The fast pass thing is by far the least attractive thing I have noticed - really going to miss MaxPass!!

EMH at WDW is a joke. All like 25+ Disney hotels (& who knows which other partner hotels now) offer it. Don’t fall for it like I did on my first trip. (And I LOVE EMH at DLR.)

 

[HydroGuy]

We just returned from a great week long trip to Disneyland. This was our 6th and shortest trip to DLR. We spent 5 days in DLR and 1 day at Universal Hollywood.

Well as much as we love DLR - with our kids getting older the talk has turned to trying something bigger. Now that means I am tasked with planning a trip to Orlando since I am the one who does all the planning and my family tends to just follow along and complain.

I have merely scratched the surface and already am so appreciative of how easy it is to plan a Disneyland vacation, never mind how much less expensive!! We are thinking we'll stay around 12 nights and do both WDW and Universal Orlando as it is so much bigger than it's Hollywood version and since my kids are now full blown Harry Potter nut-jobs!

I am wondering how many others felt overwhelmed when switching gears to planning an Orlando holiday vs. Anaheim? Any tips? I know there are plenty of you out there who have mastered both the land and the world!

I have already started doing some research on the WDW and Universal forums as I can't imagine how anyone can plan a trip without DISboards to help them!

Lots of tips. I could go on forever but will try and stick to the top ones...

1. Something I heard about WDW on my first trip in 2006 and applied then and on every trip since - WDW is a marathon, not a sprint. You or your group (or all of the above) will likely be miserable if you try to do parks every day. You have to plan in down time. And, yes, down DAYS. Take whole days off. When my kids were young at DLR, and they wanted to go see a movie in DTD, for example, I would always say "No, you can do movies at home any time you want. Not at Disneyland." But at WDW, we do movies at the theater and spend lots of time by pools and even water parks there. Anything to rest our bodies and just cool off during warmer weather.

If I had 12 days at WDW and USO, I would plan at least 3 down days. So that means 9 park days and 3 rest/take-it-easy days.


2. Dig in and learn about MDE (My Disney Experience), FP+ (FastPass+), MBs (Magic Bands) and ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations). You can do that on DIS for free or on other free or paid websites (PM me and I will tell you the paid ones I recommend).


3. If you do not already know where you want to stay for lodging, learn about your options and make a choice as far in advance as possible. More than 180 days is ideal but I have never been able to do that myself. I am usually in the 2-4 months ahead time frame.


4. Plan to do some "WDW only" experiences. This can be shows or hotel dining or marshmallow roasts or, or, or.... and on it goes. There really is a ton.


5. If you are like me at DLR, you get a close hotel and you make rope drop almost every day. You take afternoon breaks. You park hop. You minimize all wasted time so you can maximize time in park and time sleeping/resting. Forget that at WDW or you will be super frustrated with how darn long it takes to make anything happen. Want to park hop? Be prepared to burn 75-90 minutes. Want to take an afternoon break? Be prepared to burn 2+ hours. You need to really relax about how much time is "wasted" or you will become a bundle of frustration.


After you get the above addressed, then take some time to learn important rides, shows, resort transportation, evening activities, etc.

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm going to recommend reading The Unofficial Guide to WDW (it also includes the Universal Parks!), the same authors also run the Touring Plans website. The book should be at your local library for free, but the thing is the size of a New York City phone book so you may feel it useful to spring for an e-book edition. The book is published in Aug/Sep each year so the current 2019 version doesn't have much info on SW:GE but the 2020 version should (if the land opens before it goes to press that is). The best parts of the Touring Plans website does require an inexpensive annual subscription but I find it's customizable touring plans to be priceless. The subscription is of course good for a year so if you buy it a few weeks after the 1 year mark for the end of your planned trip you can use it for both pre-planning and in-park use as it also includes access to their smart phone app. Again, the book and the web site/phone app covers both WDW and Universal, it's truly worth the small investment.

I agree with all of this.

 

[VandVsmama]

We just returned from a great week long trip to Disneyland. This was our 6th and shortest trip to DLR. We spent 5 days in DLR and 1 day at Universal Hollywood.

Well as much as we love DLR - with our kids getting older the talk has turned to trying something bigger. Now that means I am tasked with planning a trip to Orlando since I am the one who does all the planning and my family tends to just follow along and complain.

I have merely scratched the surface and already am so appreciative of how easy it is to plan a Disneyland vacation, never mind how much less expensive!! We are thinking we'll stay around 12 nights and do both WDW and Universal Orlando as it is so much bigger than it's Hollywood version and since my kids are now full blown Harry Potter nut-jobs!

I am wondering how many others felt overwhelmed when switching gears to planning an Orlando holiday vs. Anaheim? Any tips? I know there are plenty of you out there who have mastered both the land and the world!

I have already started doing some research on the WDW and Universal forums as I can't imagine how anyone can plan a trip without DISboards to help them!

I totally understand! We went to WDW for a week last summer and planning it was VERY overwhelming. Thank goodness for DISboards! I got a subscription to Touring Plans...that helped us minimize our wait times. We had a great time. But I must admit that I do very much prefer Disneyland's FP system over WDW's FP+ system. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of scheduling rides 30-60 days ahead of time. Or even scheduling dining reservations 180 days before you even arrive.

I think that the CS/QS food is better at DL. ADRs/dining reservations seem to be a major event for a lot of WDW visitors. It's easy to get sucked into the drama/fun/excitement of that.

Transportation takes a lot longer. It might not be that far as the crow flies, but time wise, it could take an hour to get places.

You absolutely should experience the Hoop Dee Doo Review at Fort Wilderness. Everybody should do that once in their lifetime.

 

[VandVsmama]

Other random thoughts in no particular order:

1. Meeting characters is more difficult at WDW. Every character meet & greet has a FP.
2. I'd recommend doing 2 park days in a row followed by a rest day. You're going to need those rest days.
3. You can probably skip getting park hopper tickets and save yourself some money.
4. You CAN do afternoon breaks, but going to/from your hotel takes an hour. Plan accordingly.
5. The free ice water at WDW tasted terrible. And it smelled bad. I underestimated how bad it would taste. Plan accordingly!
6. The flatbread pizza at Pinocchio's in Fantasyland is some of the worst pizza I've ever had. Your mileage may vary though!
7. Wish we'd had more time & energy to spend more time in Animal Kingdom.
8. If you'll be there at a hot time of year, don't underestimate the effect of the hot Florida weather on you. I live in AZ and I swear, I've never sweated so much in my life than that week last summer in June in Orlando.
9. If you'll be there at a hot time of year, just forget about wearing cute outfits. Go for hot weather survival wear.
10. Avoid whichever park has EMH in the morning. Go to any other park but that one.
11. If you're going to do ADRs, try sticking mostly to ADRs that are IN the park where you'll be that day and TS restaurants at your resort. That will minimize back & forth w/transportation.
12. Start listening to the WDW edition of the DIS Unplugged weekly podcasts. There's lots of great info on there.

 

[Arden01]

It's funny. I've been to WDW 3 times. I am planning my first DL trip this summer and feel totally overwhelmed!

PP's have already mentioned lots of good tips. In lieu of buses, we sometimes used Uber and it was great. I've always stayed on site for the 60 day fastpass window and 180 dining window. I love staying on site and Animal Kingdom Lodge and Beach Club are our favorites. I did use EMH (mornings only) a few times, but always hopped to another park in the afternoon. EMH works well in the morning (if you can hop), but not so well in the evening. Agree to always eat where you will be. I used easywdw and touring plans to plan. Their crowd calendars were very helpful. Our rule of thumb was always to rope drop, take an afternoon swim break or nap, then dinner and evenings in park. We always took a day off completely in the middle of our trip to spend at the resort. Sometimes we took another 1/2 day off in the morning and went to the parks in the evening only.

For Universal, I highly, highly recommend staying on site at a resort that gives Express Pass privileges. We stayed at Loews Portofino Bay and did the Club Level. It was fantastic and the Express Passes meant we could ride the Harry Potter rides multiple times. Club Level was wonderful and allowed us only to buy one meal per day. CL was plenty of food and reasonably priced.

I love WDW and hope you have a great time! I'm hoping I love DL as much - and I'm sure I will.

 

[wendlle]

Because we are from Australia when we visit WDW we usually go to DL as well in the same trip because we have to fly out of LAX.
I spend 10months sometimes planning for WDW and all I have to do for DL is book accommodation and that's it! we buy tickets when we arrive, add Max pass and off we go.
It's one of the reasons I love DL so much. Yes WDW is an entire vacation destination but boy it requires a lot of time.

 

[sherilaine]

Wow - you guys are all incredible - I can't believe how much help can be found here - Thanks so much!! I am very glad I am thinking about planning this WELL in advance - like a year!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

This recent thread might have some helpful info for you: Heading to WDW for First time. Need Help From DLR Vets..

 

[Disney127]

Wow - you guys are all incredible - I can't believe how much help can be found here - Thanks so much!! I am very glad I am thinking about planning this WELL in advance - like a year!

When we went to WDW during Spring Break in 2016, we planned ahead too, especially with airfare coming from Canada. We stayed onsite so that we can make FP+ 60 days in advance. Plus we liked being in the Disney bubble. We found some of the WDW hotels more affordable than DL. We did use EMH a few times. We would start with one park in the morning and hop to another in the afternoon. We also took breaks and went to the water parks. I kept track of our FP+ and dinner reservations on a spreadsheet. This was the year we had our Premier pass so we visited Disney 4 times - won’t be happening again with the prices of the annual passes nowadays!

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

I'm going to recommend reading The Unofficial Guide to WDW (it also includes the Universal Parks!),

I agree about the Unofficial Guide. When planning my first trip to WDW this book was very helpful. It covers everything you would ever need to know. It's a great place to start. I also started reading a lot of blogs on a daily basis. Still do! Plus the DIS boards, of course.

 

[tzeitel]

Our first trip to DLR (2011) I was so overwhelmed! We had been going to WDW for years and DH and I are ex-CMs (DH for 12 years!), so it was not a big deal to plan WDW. Since then we have been to DLR at least once every year. For 2020 I am planing WDW so last week I started looking around the WDW threads. I have no idea what I'm doing. I am sure it will come back to me but I am missing my easy DLR planing

 

[bettymae1121]

If I had 12 days at WDW and USO, I would plan at least 3 down days. So that means 9 park days and 3 rest/take-it-easy days.

I'm planning a 12 night trip for 2022 and this is exactly what we are doing! We don't do parks on arrival/departure days so we have 11 full vacation days, 3 of those will be "rest" days, 2 at the resort pools and 1 at a Disney water park. We'll be doing 3 days at MK, two days each at Epcot and AK, and one day at DS and we won't be hopping (it's not even about the extra money for hopping, it's the time it takes to do it). We're doing Universal as a separate trip down the line at some point. Not saying you can't do Universal on this trip, it's just you'll have to reduce time at WDW to do so, but please plan on at least 2 non-theme park days (and 3 would be better) during your trip - you'll thank us I promise!

 

[Vala]

Other random thoughts in no particular order:

1. Meeting characters is more difficult at WDW. Every character meet & greet has a FP.

Not "every meet", but a lot of them.

I barely do rides, so personally I loved having those FP to use on characters.