Trip to Disneyworld April 2013

[macboyI Guess Donkeys Are Okay]

Guys, long time lurker, first time poster (well not really, I have posted, but not since like 2005!)

I am taking the family to Orlando in April, we are going to do a 7 day Disney cruise, and then 4 days in the park (we just have 4!)

I have many many questions, I have been to Disneyland 3 times, and I understand from people the size difference it hard to comprehend. We are going to skip the water parks and just do the 4 main ones. We are looking at staying at the Pop century value resort, and getting the bus to a different park each day. Is it feasible to spend time in one park in the morning, and then move to another? What are the crowds like in April, what kind of wait times will I have to look forward to?

What kind of shuttle service does Disney provide? Our Cruise gets in about 7.30am, will we be able to get transport to the Pop century hotel?

Cheers

[azza29Donkeys are my way of life!]

Can I recommend you take a look at touringplans.com - great site with plenty of advice on pretty much everything you're asking about. They even have a crowd calendar which predicts how busy it's likely to be and ride wait times.

[macboyI Guess Donkeys Are Okay]

Excellent site! Thanks so much.

[Bothepro24I Guess Donkeys Are Okay]

Magical Express should get you from ship to Pop Century with no problem. Make sure to get park hopper tickets, that will allow you to go to multiple parks per day. Yes, doing one park in AM and another in PM is a good choice, particularly when doing DHS and Animal Kingdom. I believe that doing Animal Kingdom in the morning with Hollywood Studios in the afternoon is a great way to spend one day. I've been going for over 20 years (more than 60 visits) and have found each of these parks to be 1/2 day parks at best. This will give you one more day to spend at either Epcot or Magic Kingdom where there is a lot more to see and do. Bus transportation is great, it will get you wherever you need to go with Disney, figure about 1/2 hour from hotel to whatever park your going to.

[macboyI Guess Donkeys Are Okay]

Thanks for the helpful info!

[IbztoneShe turned me into a donkey! I got better...]

Check out the app that touringplans.com has as well. For a small fee you can get optimized touring plans for every day of your trip.

[jray21Why do I still have a donkey title???]

Getting around - I also recommend park hoping. AK is a good park, but you can really be done early. We were there just a few weeks ago and stopped for lunch for an hour and still got everything done pretty early. The busses can be annoying and sometimes you may have to wait for a bit at the end of the night, but you'll definitely save money on parking and renting a car.

After cruise transportation - Disney does offer transportation from the boat to resorts. Last time I checked, it was $70 per person. You can also arrange private transportation on your own. Depending on the size of your group, it may be cheaper to arrange private transportation through a sedan type service.

How busy - It could be pretty busy. It's spring break time, so that can get pretty busy. I also look at the operating hours. 9-7 is usually the slowest times, 9-12 or 1am is the absolute busiest (Jan. 1, July 4th, etc.). During April, most of it is 9-10 which is pretty busy. But with FP is should be manageable.

Also, what Disney ship are you on? If your doing the Fantasy, make sure you check out Robb's trip report he just posted!

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63856