An Orlando Adventure, a year in the making

[SwissMom]

OK, so I am new here, and this is my first attempt at a pre/trip report.

We, me, my DD11 and DS8 will be off on our big adventure April 21 to May 5.

I grew up in Canada and have visted Orlando twice, once ca 1980 and again ca 1984. Bit of a gap here in my travels, and it is very different being the parent in organising the trip than being the kid along for the ride.

We live near Zurich, Switzerland, hence the Odessy nature of this vacation and the crazy amount of planning which has gone into it. The kids are good travelers though and used to the transatlantic flights as we usually spend a couple weeks in Canada visiting family every summer, though we have never done a hotel trip of this length.

School here is a bit differnt from North America as well. The kids have 5 terms of 7-10 weeks withh 2 week holidays between each term, and a 5 week break in the summer.

 

[SwissMom]

We have been to DLP once when DD was 3, travelling in late September (awesome time to be there), before she started school. Taking kids out of school here for a holiday is just not done. We loved DLP, but with school for DD, it is now basically impossible for us to go there when it is not school holidays.

We did Legoland Germany when DD was 8 and DS 5, with my BF and her DD7. We all had a great time.

So the idea of WDW and Orlando started way back in May 2017. I was considering what to do with the kids for their October holiday, and thought it might be fun to take them to Orlando to WDW for a week. (It takes loads of planning for me to get more than a week off at a time at work).

Once the reality of the price of flights, and a quick check of the prices my travel agent had for Disney (they are not specialists here, and seem to offer a pretty crappy exchange rate really), and a bit of internet research, I realised that this trip was going to need 2 things.

First, there was no way we could stay for less than 2 weeks, given the time (no direct flights) and expense of getting there.

Second, I was going to have to do the research and bookings myself if we were really going to get the most out of this trip...

 

[SwissMom]

So 2018 it was too be. The good thing is that I have 2 weeks extra vacation this year for a long service bonus where I work.

I had 5 choices of holidays:

Christmas/ New Year - likely to be too busy (flights and parks) and expensive, plus I associate Christmas with cold (the last time and only time I tried to escape the cold for Christmas I ended up in the middle of a natural disaster). Also harder to get the time off.

Late February - not a bad idea crowd / price wise, but hard to arrange with work.

Late April into Early May - With Easter being early this year, I hoped it would be less busy and crowded being away from other holidays in the US and Canada.

Summer - too hot for me for sure

Early October - still liked the idea of this time of year, but was unsure about hurricane season

So in the end it came down to April or October. We picked April.

Now it was time to look for flights...

 

[SwissMom]

Over the summer I had learned that the holiday airline here would be adding direct flights to Orlando starting in the fall. It felt like it was meant to be for us. But alas, the have only 1 flight per week, on Tuesday... not great for trying to get the most out of the 2 week holiday that the kids have.

So onto the internet I go, I need a good connection, and would prefer to connect outside of the US (honestly why would I want to connect through Chicago, and the head east again?)

The fastest total time is to use Icelandic and connect through Rekyavik. One day I want to fly via Iceland (and do a stopover and see it), but this probably not the right trip for that.

Only 15 minutes longer was a connection through Montreal, and the same price too. We know the flight to Montreal as we do it every summer, and I know we can clear US cutoms in the airprt there, so we land at MCO like a domestic flight... score. This will save more than 15 minutes...

One problem is the earlier departure at the end of the trip required to make the connection in Montreal back to Zurich.

A bit of clicking around later, and I am rewarded with a flight back, connecting through Frankfurt, departing on Saturday night, with the same airline alliance for a mere CHF 4.50 per ticket. SOLD!

 

[SwissMom]

Now we have plane tickets, but what will we actually do for two weeks in Orlando?

DS really wants to go to Legoland. DD says Seaworld, I want to see HP at Universal.

DS is not keen on Univrsal until he finds out that they have Minions and Doctor Suess. That boy loves his Lego and loves Minions. We all agree that we want a week at WDW.

Our first draft of a plan lloks something like...

Saturday - arrive late at MCO, book hotel near airport
Sunday - travel to Legoland, play there for the day and overnight there
Monday - Legoland, return to Orlando and get a hotel near Universal
Tuesday - Universal
Wednesday - Universal
Thursday - Seaworld
Friday - Seaworld
Saturday - rest / shopping
Sunday - move to WDW, stay on property
Mon-Fri - WDW
Saturday - flight home in the evening

Simple really... Now I just needed to book it all—

 

[SwissMom]

Then I discover these boards.. and Tim Tracker, and a few other sites and quicky realise that our split stays might need to be further split.

Legoland is not worth 2 days.

Volcano Bay looks awesome and is definitely better than a second day at Legoland.

Discovery Cove looks like more fun than a second day at Seaworld. DD really wants to swim with dolphins.

If we want to get the most out of our Universal days, then we should stay on property there to get the Express passes, and it appears that the benefit outweighs the extra cost of the hotel room.

We can get to Legoland for the day on the Legoland bus. We don‘t need to stay at Legoland.

We can pick up a few benefits and still have a reasonably priced hotel booking a Seaworld package.

There are some really cool looking mini-golf courses around too. DS loves mini-golf and would love to play a themed course as we really don‘t have that here. His favourite so far has been The Putting Edge, which is a rainy day thing to do when we are in Canada .

Needless to say, our plans need to change, but not our week at WDW...

 

[SwissMom]

So our plans are now:

Saturday - arrive late evening at MCO, hotel near Seaworld
Sunday - Discovery Cove
Monday - Seaworld
Tuesday - Universal, staying at RPR
Wed/Thurs - UO / IOA / Volcano Bay
Friday - Legoland, hotel on the I-Drive strip
Saturday - shopping / rest
Sun - Sat - WDW

Originally for WDW I booked Beach Club, as I like the idea of being walking distance to Epcot and HS, but with the new promotion in January, I was able to save quite a bit by chynging to Yacht Club

We have 7 day hoppers, and a plan to hit all the parks at least once.

Our plan so far:

Sunday - EMM at MK, leaving late morning and going to HS
Monday - AK
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - MK
Thursday - morning at BB the afternoon at AK
Friday - MK
Saturday - morning Epcot and an afternoon swim at SAB before we leave.

 

[SwissMom]

Then came the decisions about food. Both DD & DS are pretty keen to meet the big 5. DD does not like Princesses (apart from Snow White) but absolutely loves Mickey & Pluto. DS wants to meet Jake, and both would love to meet the Pooh characters. So plenty of character dining it is. From what I have read here, it is a good thing we are not too fussed about how good the food is, and that we all really like breakfast.

Having run the numbers, and even without snacks & mugs, I figure we comeout ahead on the DxDP, mostle because we are doing 2 meals on arrival day and 2 on departure day.

Our ADRs at the moment are:

Sunday: Fantasmic lunch at H&V, Sci-Fi dinner
Monday: Tusker House ROL breakfast, Rainforest Cafe dinner
Tuesday: Cape May breakfast, Coral Reef Lunch, Teppan Edo dinner
Wednesday: BOG PPO breakfast, Chef Mickey‘s dinner
Thursday: H&V PPO breakfast, Tusker House dinner
Friday: CP breakfast, Parade lunch at Tony‘s, HDDR
Saturday: PPO Garden Grill, Beaches & Cream late lunch

The 3 additional TS credits are planned to be used to share a QS lunch on days where we don‘t have one planned.

Any tips for good sharable QS in MK and AK? How is the QS at BB? Any favourites? Am I missing something?

Still a few weeks before our FP window opens so I still can change what does not work...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Following along! Your plans look great!