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My Spring Break 2019 Trip Planning Thread


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Figured that I'd like lots of input from members everywhere, so I'm not posting it in Ask Alvey.

 

Anyways, I have a HUGE Spring Break 2019 trip coming up, and I need the help of experts.

 

I have visited Disney, Universal and SFOG once before, all of those parks in June 2015. So keep that in mind when responding, I have visited those parks once before so there are some rides and attractions that might be ok to skip.

 

So here's the deal.

Saturday, March 23 - Leave home. The first part of this trip is with my high school band program, so we're taking a bus down, and we leave that morning.

Sunday, March 24 - We drive through the night, and arrive at Disney that day. We have some time at the parks the rest of the day.

Monday, March 25 - A full day of fun at the parks.

Tuesday, March 26 - More of a performing day, but still some time at the parks.

Wednesday, March 27 - A full day of fun at the parks. The bus and most of the band program leaves that evening, my sister and I staying back for the rest of the trip.

Thursday, March 28 - Both Fun Spot parks and SeaWorld Orlando.

Friday, March 29 - Busch Gardens Tampa.

Saturday, March 30 - Six Flags Over Georgia and Fun Spot Atlanta, and start the drive home.

Sunday, March 31 - Finish the drive home.

 

My first big question is how can I make the most out of those 2.5 days at Disney? Which parks should I visit, what rides are worth it, how long at each park, how do I make the most of it? Also keep in mind that I have a park hopper pass this entire time. I just want the best time at Disney during this duration.

 

Unfortunately, with only one day at Universal, this is another hard question. How can I make the most out of one day at Universal? (with a park hopper pass) Where do I eat, what do I ride, etc.

 

The only current plans for the 28th are the Fun Spots and SeaWorld, but is there anything else on that Orlando strip that is worth doing on that day? I'll take recommendations on attractions or restaurants.

 

Busch Gardens is a full day, thankfully, but same question. Rides and places to eat, how to save money (helpful question for every day)

 

And finally Six Flags Over Georgia. See the above dates for the questions I have when visiting the park.

 

Something to keep in mind is that I can be a credit whore, so something I'd like is to achieve every credit at every park I'm visiting, which I know can make some enthusiasts roll their eyes but I always like picking up creds.

 

Any help based on the questions I asked is appreciated! I can't wait to hear what all of you have to say!

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Tampa to Atlanta is a 6-7 hour drive. Unless you're leaving Tampa at like 4 in the morning you won't have that much time for SFoG/Fun Spot ATL. Otherwise seems reasonable.

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Tampa to Atlanta is a 6-7 hour drive. Unless you're leaving Tampa at like 4 in the morning you won't have that much time for SFoG/Fun Spot ATL. Otherwise seems reasonable.

We'll be driving a little farther north up to Gainesville the evening after Busch Gardens, probably should've mentioned that in the main post.

 

Anyone else have any tips, recommendations or strategies for these parks?

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^How much freedom do you have at the parks when you're there with your school? I thought usually those groups are pretty scheduled out and told where and when to be.

We have some scheduled meals at specific places (The school hasn't filled our families in on that schedule yet), the only one I know of so far is a group Hard Rock Cafe dinner the evening after Universal. I'm pretty certain that we're allowed to go on our merry ways at the parks themselves as long as we meet up for the scheduled meals.

 

Do you have the ability to link your tickets reserve any Disney Fastpasses in advance?

 

Are you open to buying the Universal Express pass?

Both of those would be additional expenses, but because of how expensive this trip is already going to be, unfortunately, probably not.

 

The credits I'm missing at the three parks I've visited already (to help with planning)...

Disney World - Space Mountain (Alpha side), Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog Dash, and both sides of Primeval Whirl.

Universal - Pteranodon Flyers and everything at USF except Escape from Gringotts.

SFOG - TwiCy, Goliath, Superman, Blue Hawk, DDD and their kiddie coaster.

 

The Fun Spots, SWO and BGT will be new parks to me.

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The reason that I asked about linking the tickets is that I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) you need to link the ticket to your account to book Fastpasses in advance. If your group just hands them out when you get to the park (and I'm guessing that's what they'll do) the advice about how to tackle the parks will be much different than if you physically have the ticket now and you can reserve three rides in advance per day.

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The reason that I asked about linking the tickets is that I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) you need to link the ticket to your account to book Fastpasses in advance. If your group just hands them out when you get to the park (and I'm guessing that's what they'll do) the advice about how to tackle the parks will be much different than if you physically have the ticket now and you can reserve three rides in advance per day.

I emailed the band program about it, and yes, we will be getting some Fastpasses at Disney, which will be a big help. I'm still not sure about the Universal Express Pass, they haven't gotten back to me on that.

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at SFoG, the "kiddie coaster" Joker, seemed to have a long line, when it was operating (it was down one whole day when I was there, but had been up the prior day)

 

DDD has terrible capacity (and personally, I did not care for it). . but if you want to ride it, I'd suggest hitting it early, before the line gets formed. . otherwise you'll be standing there a long time instead of riding other, better, things.

 

 

Goliath rides in the evening were a ton of fun too.

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Okay everyone, I have a full schedule.

 

Day 2 – Sunday, March 24, 2019

Included Meals: Breakfast, $30 Disney Dining Card Budget for: Souvenirs

 

6:45 am ET Hotel Check-In.

9:00 am ET Transfer to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. You will be provided with a Disney Ticket Wallet & Dining

Card en route.

9:30 am ET Visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

At your leisure, transfer to Disney’s Hollywood Studios via Disney busses. Please allow yourself

up to 1 hour for transfer time.

Visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

8:00 pm ET Everyone should now be in Hollywood Studios.

9:30 pm ET Transfer to your hotel.

10:30 pm ET Student Curfew

 

Comfort Suites Maingate East

2775 Florida Plaza Blvd,

Kissimmee, FL 34746

 

 

Day 3 – Monday, March 25, 2019

Included Meals: Breakfast, $30.00 Disney Dining Card Budget for: Souvenirs

 

7:00 am – on Breakfast available at your hotel.

8:30 am ET Transfer to Disney’s Epcot Theme Park.

9:00 am ET Visit to Disney’s Epcot Theme Park.

12:45 pm ET Exit Epcot and transfer to Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

2:00 pm ET Disney’s You’re Instrumental Workshop!

4:30 pm ET Load your instruments on the motorcoach and transfer back to the park.

5:00 pm ET Enjoy the rest of the evening in Epcot.

9:30 pm ET Transfer to your hotel.

10:30 pm ET Student Curfew. Chaperones will check rooms to make sure students have everything they need.

Private Group Security from 10:30 pm – 6:00 am

 

 

Day 4 – Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Included Meals: Breakfast, $30.00 Disney Dining Card Budget for: Souvenirs'

 

7:00 am – on Breakfast available at your hotel.

9:45 am ET Transfer to Team Disney.

10:00 am ET Meet your Disney Talent Coordinator at Team Disney & warm up for your performance.

11:00 am ET Concert Band performs at the Marketplace Stage in Disney Springs.

11:30 am ET Transfer back to Team Disney to load your instruments and change clothes.

12:15 pm ET Transfer to Disney’s Ticket & Transportation where you can take the monorail, ferry boat, or

Disney bus over to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

1:00 pm ET Visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

10:00 pm ET Take the ferry boat back to Ticket & Transportation and transfer to your hotel.

11:30 pm ET Student Curfew.

 

 

Day 5 – Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Included Meals: Breakfast & Dinner Budget for: Lunch & Souvenirs

 

7:00 am – on Breakfast available at your hotel.

8:00 am ET Check out of your hotel and transfer to Universal Orlando Resort.

9:15 am ET Visit to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure.

6:15 pm ET Meet as a group in front of Hard Rock Café, located between the main entrances of the two

Universal theme parks.

6:30 pm ET Hard Rock Café Orlando.

 

After the Hard Rock Cafe dinner, the rest of the group leaves for Illinois again and, as I said, my family is staying back for the rest of the parks.

 

We get three fast passes per day per park, so we need to be choosy with which three rides at each park I'm choosing.

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Every ticketed guest gets three Fastpass Plus reservations per day, that's just how it works.

 

If your director(s) / trip planner(s) won't be distributing tickets until right as you're en route to Animal Kingdom, you're pretty much hosed with regard to being choosy about what you want to do. Your ability to book (and availability of) Fastpass experiences before your visit is dependent on linking your ticket and room to your MyDisneyExperience account.

 

Based on what you just laid out, you'll have to link your ticket to MyDisneyExperience immediately upon receiving it, or book it to a Fastpass Plus kiosk. Then you'll make reservations for whatever happens to be available that morning, as well as whatever is available for your EPCOT day and Magic Kingdom afternoon.

 

That all being said, availability might not be as bad for EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, considering you're visiting on weekdays.

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Every ticketed guest gets three Fastpass Plus reservations per day, that's just how it works.

 

If your director(s) / trip planner(s) won't be distributing tickets until right as you're en route to Animal Kingdom, you're pretty much hosed with regard to being choosy about what you want to do. Your ability to book (and availability of) Fastpass experiences before your visit is dependent on linking your ticket and room to your MyDisneyExperience account.

 

Based on what you just laid out, you'll have to link your ticket to MyDisneyExperience immediately upon receiving it, or book it to a Fastpass Plus kiosk. Then you'll make reservations for whatever happens to be available that morning, as well as whatever is available for your EPCOT day and Magic Kingdom afternoon.

 

That all being said, availability might not be as bad for EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, considering you're visiting on weekdays.

We are allowed to pick our rides 30 days prior to the visit, so 1 week from today I will be able to choose those three rides for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, the day after Epcot, and another day later the Magic Kingdom rides.

 

Sorry, I should've included that in the initial post.

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We are allowed to pick our rides 30 days prior to the visit, so 1 week from today I will be able to choose those three rides for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, the day after Epcot, and another day later the Magic Kingdom rides.

Got it. Some things to keep in mind:

 

Fastpass reservations for Avatar Flight of Passage, Slinky Dog Dash, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train are just gone, they're typically booked 60 days out by resort guests. I don't know how long you're willing to wait to get the credits but expect to wait at least an hour and a half each.

 

Frozen Ever After, the EPCOT Character Spot, Soarin' Around the World and Test Track are "upper tier" experiences and you can only reserve one Fastpass between them. The same is true for both Pandora attractions at Animal Kingdom and all three Toy Story Land attractions at Hollywood Studios.

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You don't need to skip Frozen Ever After since you can do single rider on Test Track and rope drop Soarin'. Unless you want to ride Soarin' twice or ride Test Track with someone just Fastpass Frozen.

 

Welcome to destination f*cked on Flight of Passage. You won't be able to hit it in the morning, fastpass it (most likely, though try every day) or ride it at night so you're going to have to wait. My only advice is that it's worth the 180 minute line.

 

PS: I guess after dinner at Hard Rock you can go back in to the parks right? It looks like a 9:00 close.

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You don't need to skip Frozen Ever After since you can do single rider on Test Track and rope drop Soarin'. Unless you want to ride Soarin' twice or ride Test Track with someone just Fastpass Frozen.

 

Welcome to destination f*cked on Flight of Passage. You won't be able to hit it in the morning, fastpass it (most likely, though try every day) or ride it at night so you're going to have to wait. My only advice is that it's worth the 180 minute line.

 

PS: I guess after dinner at Hard Rock you can go back in to the parks right? It looks like a 9:00 close.

Now I'm even more upset the full day park is Epcot, if it's that easy to navigate... I'm not sure if I'm allowed to park hop that day, but I might have to just wait 180 minutes on the first day for it.

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Cheer up. Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll only be 120 minutes.

 

In all seriousness if you reserve Navi River Journey for one person and try to modify it constantly in the days leading up to your trip you might get it but not only do you need to get it but you need to get it for very specific times so the odds aren't in your favor.

 

I agree that making Epcot the full day park for a bunch of broke high school kids who don't have the money for fine dining and are too young to drink is an odd choice. Maybe the adults who are running this operation threw themselves a bone and did it selfishly. I mean... I would have if I were them.

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Cheer up. Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll only be 120 minutes.

 

In all seriousness if you reserve Navi River Journey for one person and try to modify it constantly in the days leading up to your trip you might get it but not only do you need to get it but you need to get it for very specific times so the odds aren't in your favor.

 

I agree that making Epcot the full day park for a bunch of broke high school kids who don't have the money for fine dining and are too young to drink is an odd choice. Maybe the adults who are running this operation threw themselves a bone and did it selfishly. I mean... I would have if I were them.

 

 

I kinda understand the full day at EPCOT.

 

High School Kids, exposing them to all the culture in the World Showcase.

 

if you're watching the movies/seeing the performances, going into each pavilion, and even just browsing in the shops? yeah, it can be a learning experience.

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Okay everyone, the Fastpasses went up today for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. At Animal Kingdom, the three rides I'm choosing are Navi River Journey, Expedition Everest and Primeval Whirl (I'm a credit whore)

 

At Hollywood Studios, I'm already going to choose Rock n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, but what should that third ride be?

 

Slinky Dog Dash and Flight of Passage have already been sold out.

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Skip Fun Spot Atlanta. Disclaimer: I'm not a credit counter. Seriously, SFOG has some good rides and I wouldn't take time away from this park for one lousy kid's coaster at Fun Spot. Maximize your time at SFOG that day.

 

Busch Gardens, you've probably been told already, but ride Cheetah Hunt and Cobra's Curse first as they will get the longest lines.

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