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Last Minute Trip to Uni & WDW

Jul 16, 2009
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30 Rock
Hey all. It's been a while since I've been on these forums (probably since the Orlando United days). Long story short, I am now planning a trip for my sister and myself for next week. And I would greatly appreciate any tips, feedback, or suggestions regarding my plans. I have nothing booked yet aside from airline tickets and a hotel.

We fly into Orlando on Monday, September 16 and fly out on Friday, September 20. I figure that leaves us the three full days in between as full park days. My tentative plan is as follows...

Tuesday, September 17 - USF & IOA (with a park-to-park ticket & unlimited express)
Wednesday, September 18 - EPCOT
Thursday, September 19 - Animal Kingdom

My highest priority on this trip is to ride the Hagrid coaster. I know the attraction hasn't had the smoothest opening in terms of maintenance closures. So I hoped that a 1 day-2 park ticket with unlimited express would be a good investment to (hopefully) ride the Hagrid coaster and still enjoy our other favorite Uni attractions. What time has Hagrid been expected to open each day? Should I opt for just an IOA ticket to stay in that park to be nearby if Hagrid closes and opens randomly?

Additionally for Universal, were aren't considering HHN for this trip. My plan for the Universal day would be to start at IOA to get in line for Hagrid, head over to USF and use Express to knock that park out before HHN starts, and head back to IOA until the park closes.

I would have preferred to do two full days at Universal, but my sister is insisting on going to EPCOT for the food and wine festival. I can't really talk her out of it since we both do love EPCOT.

And finally, I am wanting to have a day at Animal Kingdom to experience the Pandora land for the first time. However, the projected weather forecast for next week seems to suggest rain most days. And I have gathered that DAK is not the best park for inclement weather. I am wondering if it might be best to purchase park-to-park Disney tickets for this day, so we could try to just do Pandora and leave for another park for the rest of the day? Or would a better plan be to skip Animal Kingdom if there's bad weather and try for another day at Universal?

And though I thought about it, I don't think it would be worth it for us to try and do DHS and Galaxy's Edge while we're down in Orlando this time around. The land will have been open for less than month and minus the E-ticket. Plus, my sister is not at all a Star Wars fan, so I'm opting not to drag her to a land that isn't completely open.

Now, what is most worrisome to me, given we haven't bought tickets, is everything to do with Disney's Fastpass+ system. I have not been to WDW since they have implemented this system. Am I to assume that am completely out of luck and will just have to stand in the regular line for every Disney attraction? Or, is there any hope that once I finalize our plans, we can scoop up other's cancelled ride reservations for those days?

I know this is a lot to plan in such a short time frame. I am very thankful to anyone that can respond to this post and help me out.
 
Hey all. It's been a while since I've been on these forums (probably since the Orlando United days). Long story short, I am now planning a trip for my sister and myself for next week. And I would greatly appreciate any tips, feedback, or suggestions regarding my plans. I have nothing booked yet aside from airline tickets and a hotel.

We fly into Orlando on Monday, September 16 and fly out on Friday, September 20. I figure that leaves us the three full days in between as full park days. My tentative plan is as follows...

Tuesday, September 17 - USF & IOA (with a park-to-park ticket & unlimited express)
Wednesday, September 18 - EPCOT
Thursday, September 19 - Animal Kingdom

My highest priority on this trip is to ride the Hagrid coaster. I know the attraction hasn't had the smoothest opening in terms of maintenance closures. So I hoped that a 1 day-2 park ticket with unlimited express would be a good investment to (hopefully) ride the Hagrid coaster and still enjoy our other favorite Uni attractions. What time has Hagrid been expected to open each day? Should I opt for just an IOA ticket to stay in that park to be nearby if Hagrid closes and opens randomly?

Additionally for Universal, were aren't considering HHN for this trip. My plan for the Universal day would be to start at IOA to get in line for Hagrid, head over to USF and use Express to knock that park out before HHN starts, and head back to IOA until the park closes.

I would have preferred to do two full days at Universal, but my sister is insisting on going to EPCOT for the food and wine festival. I can't really talk her out of it since we both do love EPCOT.

And finally, I am wanting to have a day at Animal Kingdom to experience the Pandora land for the first time. However, the projected weather forecast for next week seems to suggest rain most days. And I have gathered that DAK is not the best park for inclement weather. I am wondering if it might be best to purchase park-to-park Disney tickets for this day, so we could try to just do Pandora and leave for another park for the rest of the day? Or would a better plan be to skip Animal Kingdom if there's bad weather and try for another day at Universal?

And though I thought about it, I don't think it would be worth it for us to try and do DHS and Galaxy's Edge while we're down in Orlando this time around. The land will have been open for less than month and minus the E-ticket. Plus, my sister is not at all a Star Wars fan, so I'm opting not to drag her to a land that isn't completely open.

Now, what is most worrisome to me, given we haven't bought tickets, is everything to do with Disney's Fastpass+ system. I have not been to WDW since they have implemented this system. Am I to assume that am completely out of luck and will just have to stand in the regular line for every Disney attraction? Or, is there any hope that once I finalize our plans, we can scoop up other's cancelled ride reservations for those days?

I know this is a lot to plan in such a short time frame. I am very thankful to anyone that can respond to this post and help me out.
If the attendance is similar to the last few weeks, lines should be short for just about everything at WDW. You can still get fastpasses at the in park kiosks day of....but sometimes the most popular E tickets are gone.
 
And finally, I am wanting to have a day at Animal Kingdom to experience the Pandora land for the first time. However, the projected weather forecast for next week seems to suggest rain most days. And I have gathered that DAK is not the best park for inclement weather. I am wondering if it might be best to purchase park-to-park Disney tickets for this day, so we could try to just do Pandora and leave for another park for the rest of the day? Or would a better plan be to skip Animal Kingdom if there's bad weather and try for another day at Universal?

I did AK on a rainy day last year. It was...fine. Pandora has enough indoor space (glares at the FoP queue), but you probably won't want to take in as much of the land's "natural" beauty.

The rain stopped by early afternoon which salvaged our AK day for us. I don't know if I'd suggest trying a different park because of the commute time + ticket price differences at Universal.
 
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