advice please?

[arcanetrivia]

Dear Internet (or at least the subset of it that comprises my flists):

enotsola and I are considering tacking a trip to Disney World onto the beforetime or the aftertime of our trip to Infinitus. Being natives of two points quite far from Orlando (California and Nova Scotia by way of Ontario), we are the cluelessest of n00bs^* and gravely in need of your sage advice:

1. How many days would you suggest spending at Disney? We did three days in Disneyland last summer and that was actually a touch too much time since we were fairly bored by "California Adventure" and aren't much for watching musical performances, parades, etc., but I feel Disney World may be quite a different story. Even so, I am considering three days, in an effort to keep the expense of all this at least slightly in check. But if that's really, really, really not enough and even one more day would make a difference, tell me so.

2. Do you think it would be better to do it before or after Infinitus? We are currently leaning towards after because I think Disney will burn us out more than the con, and I don't want to be physically and mentally exhausted just as things are starting (plus have wrinkles in my robes from them being packed so long *wink*).

3. We're going to do our darndest to stay in the (expensive!) on-resort hotel for Infinitus, but I'd rather go somewhere else while we're visiting Disney, if it makes any sense to to do (i.e., if we can find a cheaper non-resort hotel/motel -- my intuition says "of course you can" because on-resort is always sky-high, but for all I know proximity to Universal Studios comes cheap compared to any reasonable proximity to Disney World). However, I don't even know where to start on this besides going down to AAA and saying "help!" which will lead them to try to sell me a vacation package.^** Any suggestions for hotels? Also, for the purposes of this question, consider ease of available transit or shuttles; the two parks are about 20 miles apart and we'd need to get from one hotel to the other (once) as well as from the hotel to Disney World (and back to the airport, but I imagine airport shuttles to MCO aren't hard to come by in this area). I imagine a lot of places have either private shuttles to the park or stops for some kind of local dedicated transit line (like the one in Anaheim that loops past a bunch of local lodgings and then stops at Disneyland), but the point is that I don't know whether we'll bother to rent a car, so we may not have utter freedom of transportation.

---

* Except to know that we are going to hate hate hate the weather, and hope to all that is good and merciful in the universe that the hotel for Infinitus takes its air conditioning more seriously than the Parc55 did, albeit that's understandable given the sparse need for air conditioning in San Francisco.

** OTOH, that might turn out to be the right idea; we took a package for Disneyland which was decent, and they have far better value ones for Disney World, including a whole bunch of actually-meaningful meal vouchers and things.

Comments

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I live in O-town and I've worked at WDW, though it was awhile ago.

Staying on property at Disney is usually a good idea. They have some nice hotels (like the All Stars and Pop Century) that are not too expensive, and frankly you'd probably only save about $20 a night staying off-property, and you wouldn't get meal stuff, and you wouldn't get into the parks early, and you'd have more of a commute.

I don't know much about Universal hotels though.

Regarding the parks, I can personally spend AT LEAST an entire day at each, so that's four days, but if you know that one in particular doesn't interest you that can save you some time.

Also, Universal: Two parks. Regular Universal Studios, which from what I can tell is just like the Studios in CA, and Islands of Adventure, which rocks and has lots of coasters and stuff, but unfortunately you still won't get to see much Harry Potter stuff because they have built these big walls. If you do go to Islands, which you should, do not miss the Dueling Dragons coaster if it is open, because that is going to be repurposed into the HP world, and it is the best place to catch glimpses of the HP stuff that is being built.

LMK what else.

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

We went to Florida for a week and spent two of them in Disney--Magic Kingdom and Epcot...two at Universal's different parks (actually the best time was had at these!) a day at Cape Canaveral and a day at Sea World and it was the best vacation...I really think anymore time in any of those places might be too much.

Personally, I Wouldn't Go

[karendetroit.livejournal.com]

I've been to both. Orlando as a child and adult, California as a mother. Of the two, I liked California better. I like music and pagentry, and hate plastic and concrete, which is what Orlando is, mostly. The weather is better in California, too. No humidity.

California had brick and some charm, at least. but I'm not going to either ever again if I can help it. See the Busch gardens, or Weeki Wachee, if you must tour Florida, or Cypress Gardens, if it's still there. Or just an orange grove. Something natural.