SuperBacon Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 9 hours ago, PunkStep said: Is it really? How come? Busch Gardens looks a bit of a trek from Disney World. We're definitely doing two days at Universal. Just a miserable experience. I really regretted going and just found the whole thing depressing. Definitely look into Busch. Superb every time I've been. 8 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said: I mean, this is probably not what Bacon meant, but it’s been a few years since Blackfish came out and I still can’t fathom anyone knowing Seaworld’s abuse of orcas and still being able to justify going there. I mean, this didn't help for sure. A debate about zoos, conservation etc is probably best saved for another thread, but fuck me it was particularly depressing seeing creatures that large in somewhere confined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members quote the raven Posted February 17, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2022 Onyx is kinda right.  The days of paying up and rocking into disney with little or no plan are long gone unless you happy to miss rides and or spend 3 hours in a line. It’s certainly not a relaxing trip if you have kids and parks to hit.  By the time uni opens the new park I think 2 weeks would be really pushing it to see everything.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Monkee Posted February 17, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2022 (edited) Raven’s right. At the moment (including water parks) you have 3 Universal parks, 6 Disney, 2 SeaWorld (excluding Discovery Cove), Busch Gardens, Lego Land and of course Kennedy Space Centre if you want to go out that far. If you did all of those that’s 14 days non-stop and the cost of a kidney, third mortgage and the soul of your first born child. You have to plan ahead if you don’t want to be completely overwhelmed when you get there. We finished our itinerary last night and have now got all the park reservations done. We can’t do any dining reservations for another 3 weeks yet and we have to work out what rides we want to book on Genie/Genie+ as well. I think I’d be a wreck just turning up and not having a clue about everything there is to do and see. Edited February 17, 2022 by Monkee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted February 17, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2022 It’s all in the planning.  Decide what’s important and plan around that.  You will never do it all in one holiday, that’s why we go back.   A lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted February 17, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2022 (edited) Lego Land looks fucking shite in fairness. Looks like a fraction of the park we have over here at Windsor. Will give the Universal water park a miss, seeing as we can (and will) go to Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach as part of our passes, even if the Universal one looks better. Was initially going to pick Seaworld over Busch Gardens, but starting to reconsider that. Kennedy Space Centre possibly if we have time. @Monkeewhat do you use to play your itinerary? Is there an app you like to use, or are you just going old school and using some sort of diary? Edited February 17, 2022 by PunkStep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Busch Gardens is only worth doing if you can drive there yourself, I think, as you can spend the rest of the day exploring the surrounding area/shopping/places to eat. The actual park is very poor, I think. A few very good rides, but definately somewhere you can miss if youre short on time/money. For the last two times Ive been there, Sheikra has been closed, and usually one of the other big rides has been shut down too, which has made the experience even worse. Think Ive been to Busch 5 times, and theres no atmosphere at all there. My main memory of it would be the initial 10 minute walk from the entrance to where the rides are, where theres nothing of note in between. Youre just walking for ages through lifeless nothingness. Sort of sums up the whole park for me. Â Agree with what others are saying. To get the best out of the trip, you need a huge amount of planning and a very detailed itinery. That said, with any city trip, thats the case. To get the most out of a holiday, say for example NYC, you need to plan that lots too, as if you just go rock up there with no plan, youre going to waste an insane amount of time wandering around or doing what you want inefficiently. @PunkSteptheDibb is usually the one people go to, and they have a very nifty itinerary builder where you can add times and places easily. The Dibb is pretty much THE place to go for all your Florida needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Monkee Posted February 18, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2022 (edited) 21 hours ago, PunkStep said: Lego Land looks fucking shite in fairness. Looks like a fraction of the park we have over here at Windsor. Will give the Universal water park a miss, seeing as we can (and will) go to Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach as part of our passes, even if the Universal one looks better. Was initially going to pick Seaworld over Busch Gardens, but starting to reconsider that. Kennedy Space Centre possibly if we have time. @Monkeewhat do you use to play your itinerary? Is there an app you like to use, or are you just going old school and using some sort of diary? Blizzard Beach is closed for refurbishment at the moment so you might need to keep an eye on when it’s reopening. I love a spreadsheet so I usually do it in Excel. Make it look like a calendar and have a list of what you want to do. Start plonking them in and you can see if you’re overdoing it or have space to squeeze in another park. We tend to try and do park > pool/water park > park > shopping/sightseeing > park > pool/wp, etc. Some years we’ve been there we wanted to so much we ended up doing 2 parks a day (hopper) or parks back-to-back and we were knackered. When we’ve finalised the itinerary I usually print a couple off in A5 size and then we stick one to the mirror in the hotel room. That way we know what we’re doing and, if something comes up like the weather’s shit, we know we can do a quick re-jig. Forgot I had this on my phone. Here’s the current draft. We can’t make dinner reservations yet so they’re on standby. Edited February 18, 2022 by Monkee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted February 18, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2022 Geeks….. Mine was about 8 pages, and I printed off snips of it and laminated them for my wallet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Monkee Posted February 18, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, johnnyboy said: Snap! Disney spreadsheets are the best spreadsheets. Early doors I'll even colour code attractions based on preferences before slotting them into my master plan.  I like your style! I can’t get down to that level yet until we know what reservation thingies (new FastPasses) on Genie+ we can get. Realised posting the draft above that we’d missed Kennedy Space Centre so we might pop that into Sat 7th. Bit disappointed with ‘extra curricular’ stuff going on outside of theme parks this time. We’ve done various sports games, concerts and swimming with manatees before but there’s bugger all on this time. Elton John and The Who are playing but my mate’s not arsed. And we looked at getting tickets for the Miami GP (Sunday only) but they’re only doing full weekend tickets and the prices are extortionate. Edited February 18, 2022 by Monkee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted February 18, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2022 32 minutes ago, johnnyboy said: Surely you won't know until the day of what Genie+ reservations you can make? Yeah. It’s a 7am open for reservations and it’s challenging from people that I know who’ve been over and used it. The other story which was sent to me was from people in the queue for Jingle Cruise. Obviously an attraction which with an overlay is busier then usual. People behind them didn’t want to wait 90 minutes so decided to lightning lane it. This was a midday. Paid for it, clicked on Jingle Cruise and the first slot was 19:30. Bloody awful that you can’t see the slots until you pay for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Coconut Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 22 hours ago, Dai said: Agree with what others are saying. To get the best out of the trip, you need a huge amount of planning and a very detailed itinery. That said, with any city trip, thats the case. I've survived and enjoyed the following cities without an excel table, so let's not pretend this level of planning is normal. London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Prague, Barcelona, Munich, Ooh Vienna, Washington D.C., Madrid and Athens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted February 19, 2022 Moderators Share Posted February 19, 2022 That's nothing compared the spreadsheet itinerary I've seen of one guy I used to work with. His was actually broken down by the hour for entry day of his holiday. It would stress me the fuck out but he seemed to enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted February 19, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted February 19, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, King Coconut said: I've survived and enjoyed the following cities without an excel table, so let's not pretend this level of planning is normal. London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Prague, Barcelona, Munich, Ooh Vienna, Washington D.C., Madrid and Athens. You can survive and enjoy a Disney World trip without an Excel table. You just won’t get as much done without planning. I’ve never done an excel spreadsheet for Orlando or Paris. But I can see why people do it and if they want to, why not. Edited February 19, 2022 by Hannibal Scorch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Coconut Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 30 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said: if they want to, why not. I was quoting someone who said it was necessary for a city trip and merely pointing out that it isn't but I agree, you can do what you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 1 hour ago, King Coconut said: London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Prague, Barcelona, Munich, Ooh Vienna, Washington D.C., Madrid and Athens. Everybody talk about Pop Muzik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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