Edited: Help me plan my 8 day trip with first timers.

[mickeyhereicome]

Trip is Sat-Sat, 5 Day Disney, 2 day universal, 1 waterpark day. I made some decisions so looking for some more help. I decided since my niece is really starting to get excited for Disney we better do a Disney park first. Since it will be Saturday we picked AK. Sunday MK closes at 4:30 so that is out and Epcot is flower fest so that is out. Would you do Island of Adventure on Sunday or the waterpark? The rest of my thoughts are below. I based some of my choices on Under cover crowd calendar but I realized everything is unpredictable now.

Sat- AK
Sun- I of A or waterpark
Mon- HS
Tues- MK
Wed- MK
Thurs- EP
Fri- I of A or waterpark
Sat- US

Original: This will be my 20+ trip to WDW but my sister’s family's first trip ever. We are a group of 9 and staying off property. We will be visiting both WDW and Universal. We have 5 days for WDW (not hopper) and 2 days for Universal. Our WDW tickets also came with a water park day. We will be at Disney May 13-22, with 14-21 (Sat-Sat) available for parks. We will do each park once and MK twice plus use the water park pass. From looking at crowd calendars and how I’m used to going to WDW I’d pick the Universal Parks for the first weekend and then do WDW parks starting on Monday. However this will be my niece (6) and nephews (9,12) first time at Disney and my sister is really hyping up that it is a Disney trip. So what order would you do? My sister says she doesn’t care what I pick but I’m afraid her kids (especially the younger two) might feel a let down? Please help me make this a magical trip for them.

 

[CarolynFH]

The Universal parks have more thrill rides, so you might consider whether the kids are adrenaline junkies (and tall enough to ride) or not. If they love roller coasters and thrill rides, I'd probably do Disney first and then Universal, on the theory that Disney's lower number of thrills might be a letdown after Universal.