Orlando Travel Forum

Hi all, I'm hoping you guys can help me to narrow down my options a bit. My wife and I will be visiting Orlando in May and as two kids who's barely grown up, Disney World is of course top of our todo list.

But then there are so many other parks that we'd love to see and we will only have five days to spend in the Orlando area. After consulting many travel guides and soliciting personal recommendations, we've identified these 6 parks as the ones we'd definitely like to visit:

Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom
Epcot
MGM Studios
Kennedy Space Center
Sea World

Problem is, that is one more park that we have days. So I was thinking we could visit two of these parks for only half a day and so squeeze 6 parks into 5 days. Would anyone care to suggest which of these two parks would be best visited in half a day and which we definitely don't want to spend less than a full day at?

Also, are there any other parks that you feel one should not miss out on? Just remember that with every new park recommendation our choices gets tougher ;-) Aaah well, I guess those are nice problems to have.

Thanks in advance.

When it comes to these parks, some of us never grow up. ;-)

It's so difficult to narrow down the choices. Everyone has their own favorites. I will say that I think it may be difficult to combine 2 parks - but since it's May, they should be opened later so it may work. By the way if you are there May 23-25th expect big crowds - that is Memorial Day weekend.

Kennedy Space Center is out of town so that will take a full day. If you're going to do and see everything in the park, then I think you will need a full day for Magic Kingdom. I have not been to Animal Kingdom or Sea World in many years but those would be my bottom 2 choices from your list. I also like Universal Studios better than MGM (but still like MGM alot) - and if you're a fan of roller coasters, etc., Islands of Adventures would be good. Check the opening and closing times for each park. I think they are open long hours at that time of year so you should be able to cover alot. Whatever you do, you will have a great time. And if you don't see everything, you just have an excuse to go back! Happy Travels!

You know you are going to get a different answer depending on who you ask...everyone likes something different . My suggestion is to try not to crowd too much into your time or you'll suffer Theme Park burnout.....been there and done that. Each park you've listed are very different . Magic Kingdom is classic Disney and my favorite . Kennedy Space Center is a whole day as it is a drive to get there, as Donna mentioned ..it depends on how interested you are in the Space program . It is quite good. I loved Animal Kingdom. Epcot Center was my least favorite ...mostly restaurants and shops, but I've travelled alot and been to many of the "real countries" .I would skip it or MGM .Have fun.

I dont know what you mean with "barely grown up", but consider that many of the games in Magic Kindom have limitation in heigh (if the kids do not get to a given high, they cant go in), but not in the small kids land of course. Epcot would get kids bored.

Three of the parks you mention are Disney, and MGM and Sea World are parks that are not Disney.

Kennedy Space Center is not in Orlando and will need a full day as others have said.

I have not been to MGM or Sea World, and it may be possible to do both of them in one day.

However, what I would do is take the three Disney parks and do the three of them in two days. You can park and take the Disney transportation between the parks. Epcot is less rides and more cultural than the other two

I'd suggest getting one of those books that tells you tips on how to see Disney World more efficiently - my daughter had one of those for our last visit.

Again - different answers from different people.
Depending on the age of the kids, I would sacrifice a day at the Space centre for a day in Universal Studios which my two boys (11 and 7 at the time) thought was awsome as did I.
The Space centre is a fair way out of Orlando and is a large site to visit (lots of exhibition items and the outdoor rocket park....) but may be wasted if the kids are very young.
We loved Sea-World - actually it pays to plan that for Day 1 because you are given a personalised timetable on entry, timed so you see everything by walking the suggested route and you get-in the shows at just the right time. As there is a lot of sitting as well as walking, it is the greatest way to acclimatise yourselves for the remaining time there.
You COULD visit Epcot straight after - if you are like me (we found Epcot a bit static and a bit cerebral compared with Magic Kingdom etc - but Hey! ..that be more your thing! Remember that there is a firework show on most nights which finishes about 9 or 10pm I think. After that the kids collapse into bed!
We read-up on it all using the Fodors' Guide book - it was VERY helpful.

Again - different answers from different people.
Depending on the age of the kids, I would sacrifice a day at the Space centre for a day in Universal Studios which my two boys (11 and 7 at the time) thought was awsome as did I.
The Space centre is a fair way out of Orlando and is a large site to visit (lots of exhibition items and the outdoor rocket park....) but may be wasted if the kids are very young.
We loved Sea-World - actually it pays to plan that for Day 1 because you are given a personalised timetable on entry, timed so you see everything by walking the suggested route and you get-in the shows at just the right time. As there is a lot of sitting as well as walking, it is the greatest way to acclimatise yourselves for the remaining time there.
You COULD visit Epcot straight after - if you are like me (we found Epcot a bit static and a bit cerebral compared with Magic Kingdom etc - but Hey! ..that be more your thing! Remember that there is a firework show on most nights which finishes about 9 or 10pm I think. After that the kids collapse into bed!
We read-up on it all using the Fodors' Guide book - it was VERY helpful.

Again - different answers from different people.
Depending on the age of the kids, I would sacrifice a day at the Space centre for a day in Universal Studios which my two boys (11 and 7 at the time) thought was awsome as did I.
The Space centre is a fair way out of Orlando and is a large site to visit (lots of exhibition items and the outdoor rocket park....) but may be wasted if the kids are very young.
We loved Sea-World - actually it pays to plan that for Day 1 because you are given a personalised timetable on entry, timed so you see everything by walking the suggested route and you get-in the shows at just the right time. As there is a lot of sitting as well as walking, it is the greatest way to acclimatise yourselves for the remaining time there.
You COULD visit Epcot straight after - if you are like me (we found Epcot a bit static and a bit cerebral compared with Magic Kingdom etc - but Hey! ..that be more your thing! Remember that there is a firework show on most nights which finishes about 9 or 10pm I think. After that the kids collapse into bed!
We read-up on it all using the Fodors' Guide book - it was VERY helpful.

I don't think they have kids, I think they ARE the "kids"..... :-)

That was my take on it too Donna. I think they are the "Kids". I'm with them on that , we went to Animal Kingdom on Sunday....and I was a kid again!!

Anita - we lived in Orlando for a time and I was worse than the kids wanting to go to the parks all the time... it was heaven. :-))

I agree with what most of the others have said, but would drop Epcot & spent a full day at the other parks that you have chosen. I personally don't think you can do two parks in one day, as it is better to do one park properly & have a great time than two poorly.It also gives you incentive to come back & do the one's you've missed another time. We've been back three times!!!
Islands of Adventure is also worth considering & is really good if you like roller coasters, adrenaline rides & cartoon characters. My wife & I are also big kids who grew up watching the Wonderful World of Disney.
PS don't miss the parades at Disney they are great,also book in & have at least one character meal if you wish to hug your favorite Disney character.
Hope you have a great trip.

This is a difficult question, because each of these could easily take up a full day. Unlike other folks, we loved Epcot(one of our favorites), and I feel it is worth a full day. We were there from 9:00 in the morning to 9:30 at night, and still ran out of time to see and do everything we would have liked to, and we are not shoppers, so we did not spend a lot of time in the gift shops. This is a land of fantasy mixed with reality, with its two main parts, Future World, and World Showcase. In future world you will explore science and technology in a fun, interactive way. World Showcase allows you to step onto the streets of other countries to experience cultures, music, traditions, authentic restaurants, entertainment, and see the architecture that you would find in each country. Street shows are common in the various countries. We had dinner in Morocco, where we watched a traditional dancing on the street, and traditional Moroccan music and dance in the restaurant. We ordered the Moroccan feast, which was unusual and delicious. If, however, you are mainly interested in rides, then you may not enjoy this as much as we did. But then, you will be visiting other parks with lots of rides, and Epcot will give you a great variety of things to do.

Sea World is another of our favorites, and will take you an entire day if you plan to see all the exhibits, and take in most of the shows. We did Universal Studios rather than MGM, so I am unfamiliar with MGM, but Universal also took us an entire day, and I believe they are similar.

As everyone else said, Kennedy Space Center is a ways out of town. We actually spent two days visiting the Space Center, so there is no way you can do it in less than a day. If you are truely interested in Space, this is a wonderful space museum. If you aren't that interested, then you may want to rethink this one, just because it is out of town.

Maybe you could do Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom together, but don't expect to see and do everything that is offered.

Animal Kingdom and MGM would be the two that would be best to try to do in one day. Give it a few years and Animal Kingdom will take a full day but since it is fairly new by Disney standards they have not added a lot on. It is awesome but probably would not take a whole day. A whole memory card for your camera but not a whole day.
Don't waste your time on the "roller coaster" at Animal Kingdom, wait is usually hours for a ride that lasts 30 seconds. Don't miss Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney, MGM or Animal Kingdom. Even if you don't eat there, you must walk through it. See my tips page.
MGM was not that impressive when I went several years ago. Not in the same league as the others on your list.
You left out Universal Studios which has one of the best roller coasters ever, the Rock 'n Roller Coaster. It is so different that NASA was studying its propulsion system as a way to launch rockets. However, not much else in the park was very interesting but that was several years ago.
You can barely do Epcot in one day. Kennedy Space Center is too far away from the others to do on the same day as one of the others.

I liked Magic Kingdom because I went by myself with my grandson early in the morning. I liked Animal Kingdom best because it had real animals and not Disney animals. I did a SCUBA swim in the big tank at Epcot and was disappointed to find that all the coral was fake.

I didn't like Epcot as much because I was more interested in actually going to countries and not so much interested in going to pavilions about them. It was kind of like a World's Fair I thought, and I would expect other people who actually travel (like here at VT) to feel less interested in that also.

Thanks for all the fantastic advice everyone. I'm sad to say that you haven't made it any easier for me really ;-) but that is not because your advice wasn't great, it's just that the parks are so alluring.

I have actually been to the four Disney Parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and MGM) before but that was many moons ago and it was all by myself. This time I will have my wife with me and I can't wait. Oh, by the way, grandmaR, I'm pretty sure MGM is indeed a Disney park. Either way, as Donna correctly pointed out, we don't have kids, we ARE the kids. The little bit of grown up in me do gravitate back to Epcot though (I thoroughly enjoyed it the last time I was there) but I'm starting to think that my wife would probably not enjoy it for the same reasons that I would, as with Animal Kingdom, so I reckon we might try to combine those two on one day.

If memory serves me, I recall that Epcot had "Mission Space", one of the best rides I remember. Also, I haven't been to Universal but I have been on the Rock-n-Roller Coaster which I'm pretty sure is at MGM. It's the one built around the Aerosmith theme isn't it?

At any rate, if we're going to do Epcot and Animal Kingdom on one day, would you suggest any particular order. I'm thinking that, seeing as Animal Kingdom doe not have a big fireworks show at night, maybe we should do Animal Kingdom in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon?

Again, thanks for all your wonderful advice.

Hi - I have been to Epcot several times most recenly 2 years ago. To me it started to feel a little outdated. It seemed so futuristic when it opened decades ago! I went to Animal Kingdom when it first opened - and really wasn't that impressed. Maybe it is much better now?

Yes, MGM is a Disney park - and the (Aerosmith) Rock-n-Roller Coaster is there (I think that's the best ride there, although Tower of Terror is cool too).

I agree with your plan for Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

Whatever you do, have a great time!!

No kids with you? Then DEFINITELY go to Universal Studios.
The rides are magnificent - not just the overtly scary ones - I mean ANY that are themed on the movie or TV shows - they are just so perfectly presented.
But - that Fodores' Guide book on Orlando is really worth the investment to help with the planning.
As I said earlier, Sea World is great and a perfect first day.

MGM and Animal Kingdom can be done in a day if you utilize your fast pass option and get to the parks at opening.