Orlando... Disney? Universal?

I'm scheduled to be in Orlando for work January 7-9. I'm thinking of extending that to fly in on Friday evening, and spend 2 days with my wife at some of the attractions. 

So... if you had 2 days to spend in Orlando that are weekend days, on January 5 and 6, for two adults (one of whom may not drink), what would you do? Some things to note: 

• My wife loves Disney. Goes often with her friends. I've never been, and it is my idea of a personal hell. However, I am willing to do it for her morale right now. 
• I am a HUGE closet Harry Potter fan. While you would never know it unless you talked to me about it, I love everything Harry Potter. I would love to hit the Harry Potter World.
• Other than how to walk from the hotel I always stay at for business to our office in Orlando--and stop at the Wendys on the way--I know nothing about Orlando. Been twice now, but they've been filled with business the entire time.
• I hate crowds. Willing to deal with them for my wife right now. But is 1/5-1/6 going to be insanity?

Just had a thread on this:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-orlando-fl-disney-universal-etc/145025/page1/

Did something similar many years ago, slept in a hotel outside the parks and spent 1 day morning to night in each park.

GameboyRMH said:

Just had a thread on this:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-orlando-fl-disney-universal-etc/145025/page1/

Did something similar many years ago, slept in a hotel outside the parks and spent 1 day morning to night in each park.

Thanks

And go to Charley's steakhouse on International drive near the convention center. Best steak I've ever had...

If you like Harry Potter you will love Universal.

I haven't seen the movies (aside from them being on the background) or read the books but have been to Universal twice with family/friends that have come into town that are big fans.

I have to admit they did a real good job with attention to detail and even watching the people who are into it is pretty enjoyable. This is coming from someone who generally avoids crowds/lines etc.

The Christmas Holiday is the busiest time of the year in Disney, you may still be getting some of the crowds.  I go over MLK Day every year and its not too bad, so you will have to see.  If you hate crowds, go to Fort Lonesome...not Orlando. : )

If you decide to go, book it NOW and get your reservations and fast-passes secured ASAP.  They may already be gone by now, and if so, spend more time seeing shows and parades and eating.  Just eat at off-peak hours and you'll be fine.  Or, use free Disney Transportation to leave the park and head to the resort hotels for meals.  Same amazing food, much smaller crowds. 

I am not a Harry Potter guy, but I hear the park is amazing.  The giftshop at the airport is enough to make me want to go.  Last time I was a Universal, I thought it was awesome.  The car stunt show was the highlight for me, but that was several years ago. 

International Drive is fun for a stroll, every restaurant you can imagine. 

Skip the parks. Just skip em. Drive to Kennedy and pay for the launchpad tour, or drive to Tarpon Springs and spend the day there. Orlando has nothing to offer.

Hp world and universal in general is waaaaay more adult geared. Doesnt have the same magic as Disney though. I've been piles of times and I still am excited every time I go. Especially when haunted mansion is involved. 

Mndsm, If we were to do one day at each, Saturday at one Sunday at the other, how exactly would you recommend we do this? Ticket/pass wise, fast pass, universal fast pass... where to stay? Keep in mind this is for Friday night through Monday morning. Monday morning we'll check out of wherever we're staying and make our way to Maitland for my actual business trip. 

Sorry,  was at work. 

If I were doing this for a Friday to Sunday, check out monday, one day at each park- I would stay between parks. Find a middle hotel. Typically I would recommend a Disney hotel if you're staying there the whole time, but it's really not worth it for one day. Somewhere off i-4 between the two. The holiday inn that used to be a Nickelodeon property isnt a bad plan.

Fast passes. I *think * universal charges for the upgrade. If you want to do any hp stuff- you're paying for it. Disney will give you 3 free with admission. The sooner you book the better chance you have.  Focus on e ticket rides. Any of the mountains, snow white, etc. Peter pan will have a ridiculous wait, but its not essential (though it is wildly out of date). I generally walk on to haunted mansion, people move, carousel of progress, small world, pirates, etc.

If you decide for sure, let me know, I'll take a deeper look into what's out there. 

As far as crowds- you're in business. Everyone vacates right after new years, and pop Warner doesnt usually cause a problem til later. January is a killer time to go. Weather is great,  crowds are low, etc. 

AClockworkGarage said:

Skip the parks. Just skip em. Drive to Kennedy and pay for the launchpad tour, or drive to Tarpon Springs and spend the day there. Orlando has nothing to offer.

Go see the most powerful machine ever built. This is not a mock-up, it was the back up launch vehicle for the Apollo program. And it's been lit; they did a full duration burn prior to delivery.

Theme parks are fine. This isn't imaginary, and it's amazing.

While the space stuff is right up my alley and exactly what I would pick, this isn’t for me—it’s for my wife. 

In reply to mtn :

If it's for the wife, consider staying on property, just for the immersion. I suggest the contemporary. While there are nicer hotels (yacht and beach, as an example) the contemporary is awesome and sort of encapsulates the whole Disney vibe. Plus, you can see mk fireworks from there, catch the train to avoid parking,  and all sorts of stuff. 

When were there my wife said that as much as she enjoyed the harry potter stuff, Kennedy space center was her favorite..

Mndsm is spot on.  And again, as I said in the other thread, I'm a huge Disney fan too.  I don't care for Universal, so I can't comment on that.  I'm not a fan of staying on property, I love staying off property.  If you're going to do one day in each park, I'd recommend staying right off I-4 somewhere, like Mndsm said.  Use a site like VRBO.  There are tons of places right along Rt. 192 that may fit your needs.  You can get a 2 bedroom condo for well under $100/night. 

Disney will be crowded, but it always is.  It won't be as bad as before the holidays, but it'll still be crowded relatively speaking.  As noted, get Fastpasses as soon as you can.  If you can't get them now, don't sweat it, the day you're in the park they'll be easy to get, as people drop their plans. 

And in your original comment you said Disney is your idea of personal hell, though you've never been.  I'm not at all implying you have to fall in love with the place.  Not in the least.  But I would encourage you to walk in with an open mind.  If you walk in with the strong mindset of "this is hell", then that's what it's going to be.  If you walk in open minded, maybe it won't be as bad as you expect.

Unless you are an absolutely jaded, cynical human being, there is truly something magical about Disney World.  This is greatly magnified if you have children.  The benefit of staying within the park is that Disney is very good at looking after the needs of their guests.  Getting around is easy with their fleet of busses, and the grounds are kept fanatically neat and clean. 

I know they run a variety of package deals including lodging and food.  Investigate these, although options may be limited for the short duration you are considering.

BTDT with Disney 10 years ago when the kids were little. We enjoyed it, but have no desire to go back. We know several families who go back every single year, though. I will say this, though: No detail is too small at Disney, whether it's the parks, the hotels, the stores, whatever. Everything is geared toward keeping you happy and immersed in "Disney Magic". All the better to extract money from you, of course, but the attention to detail is impressive.

We are looking at going down there the last week in March for the kids' last spring break as high schoolers. Probably spend 3-4 days in Orlando at Universal (kids have never been), and a day or two over at the Kennedy Space Center. That's a Dad thing that everyone else will just have to tolerate. 

Apparently my last message. You have a message mr mtn

Klayfish said:

 

And in your original comment you said Disney is your idea of personal hell, though you've never been.  I'm not at all implying you have to fall in love with the place.  Not in the least.  But I would encourage you to walk in with an open mind.  If you walk in with the strong mindset of "this is hell", then that's what it's going to be.  If you walk in open minded, maybe it won't be as bad as you expect.

Hey, I'll try to enjoy anything. Generally I'm a pretty happy, chill guy. But my idea of a vacation is going to where people aren't--vacations with a lot of people around generally stress me out. I usually don't care for over-produced things, or overly fancy things. 
 

But hey, I love rides, I love many-if-not-most Disney movies, maybe I'll buy a tiara and get into it. I know I'll enjoy Epcot if we end up there.

mtn said:

 maybe I'll buy a tiara and get into it.

That's the spirit!  And be sure to practice your "princess wave."

mtn said:

Klayfish said:

 

And in your original comment you said Disney is your idea of personal hell, though you've never been.  I'm not at all implying you have to fall in love with the place.  Not in the least.  But I would encourage you to walk in with an open mind.  If you walk in with the strong mindset of "this is hell", then that's what it's going to be.  If you walk in open minded, maybe it won't be as bad as you expect.

 

Hey, I'll try to enjoy anything. Generally I'm a pretty happy, chill guy. But my idea of a vacation is going to where people aren't--vacations with a lot of people around generally stress me out. I usually don't care for over-produced things, or overly fancy things. 
 

But hey, I love rides, I love many-if-not-most Disney movies, maybe I'll buy a tiara and get into it. I know I'll enjoy Epcot if we end up there.

I'm with you on that one.  I hate crowds, I avoid them when possible.  But, at least for me, Disney is something special.  The crowds don't bother me there. 

Disney is not hell. Hell is where the interesting people go.

All the Disney employees, or "cast members" I know always referred to it as Mouchwitz.

If you want some real fun, take a drive to Celebration, Disney's perfect planned community. It's so creepy that even birds won't go there, they have speakers hidden in trees to play bird songs.

Disney is one of those things that either you get, or you dont. At it's very core, it is a business. And that is the business of selling perfect dreams to the young, and young at heart. That's why the captain America lookalike knows sign language. That is why winnie the pooh knows how to work with disabled children.  They want everyone to have the most magical day they can. 

To that end, it costs a TON of money to produce. I remember reading a statistic that it costs something into the 7 figures a day just to light the place. Or the fact that I know there are close to 1000 iPhones for staff to use, at y&b alone. Or the fact that they can turn an entire theme park from halloween to xmas, In around eight hours. Truth be told, Disney makes almost no money on admission. They make all their money on the ears and the pretzels and the 14$ Turkey legs. So sure, you pay 150$ to walk in. That's JUST to keep the place lit. Combine that with the millions they're spending all the time to improve, retheme, paint, update, etc- Disney ain't cheap. But I will argue forever that Disney sells the single most immersive experience you can get. Nowhere else will a flawless Mickey mouse show up to breakfast.  Nowhere else will belle be perfect at 7am. Universal cant do that. Busch gardens can't. Six flags can't. 

Now if you're not a Disney fan, you wont get it. It's always hot, it usually rains, the lines are disagreeable at BEST for anything but the least desirable rides, and the prices are insane. Theres no getting around that. I have an extremely unfair advantage that I haven't paid to go to a Disney park. Ever. (Almost. I did pay for Disneyland like 15 years ago). It does not change my view. I've always liked theme parks, and Disney is the best of the best. 

For the people that are miserable working there- I know several. Truth be told, it is an incredibly thankless job. Guests are by and large, heathens. Unwashed masses that believe they have cart blanche because they forked pver am obscene amount of money. And they will do ANYTHING they can to get over on you-  including outright lying. The stories I could tell about the magic files....With Disney more than any other job on this planet, you have to love what you do. If you're a housekeeper,  you have to love perfect corners and dust less TVs and whatever else. If you have a glow cart and a ridiculous outfit, you have to be the glowiest glow cart glower possible- or your life is terrible. My favorite recently was the exit ride op on pirates. He was singing "small world" to the riders. It was hilarious. 

And really, Disney is like anything. Plenty of us will gleefully spend 2 grand and hundreds of hours polishing a turd for a shiny trophy and maybe a magazine cover. Theres a whole bigass thread of people that buy tiny little stamped toy cars by the bucket load. We all have our tics.  I'm not sure I could change anyone mind, nor would I really want to. I'd gladly be party to a Disney day if people wanted to see it from my side. It's all in perspective.  

I've always wondered what the daily operating costs at WDW are, for the entire property.  Think of all the cast members (staff), utilities, vehicles, maintenance, etc...  When people complain about the admission price, while I agree it's expensive, I sort of roll my eyes.  The money they spend every day must be staggering.

We have a family friend who grew up in Kissimmee and has been a cast member for about 10 years now...and also works at Universal.  She loves working for Disney.  It has its' downsides, but on the whole, she loves it and is probably a lifer.

Klayfish said:

I've always wondered what the daily operating costs at WDW are, for the entire property.  Think of all the cast members (staff), utilities, vehicles, maintenance, etc...  When people complain about the admission price, while I agree it's expensive, I sort of roll my eyes.  The money they spend every day must be staggering.

We have a family friend who grew up in Kissimmee and has been a cast member for about 10 years now...and also works at Universal.  She loves working for Disney.  It has its' downsides, but on the whole, she loves it and is probably a lifer.

It gets crazy when you think about hskp.  They will be making 15 bucks an hour soon. Think of how many rooms Disney has.