I have been dreaming of an Orlando vacation for my family for 2 years. Now, I have booked a reservation and am making plans for places to see and things to do.

We have a 4-night/5-day Disney Park Hopper package with Dining reservation. We'll be staying at the 101 Dalmations value resort which I thought my children would really enjoy even if we don't spend a whole lot of time there. Because it was less expensive, I opted for the 5-day park hopper w/ dining. This will give us freedom to come and go and will mean that we won't have to waste time going back and forth to the resort just to eat.

I am also planning on one of our days to be spent at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. SeaWorld has free shuttle service to Busch Gardens where we will enjoy an up-close encounter.

Because the SeaWorld/Busch Gardens day will be one less day to use our Park Hopper, I have planned for us to hit one of the Disney theme parks on two separate evenings.

Since I don't know if or when we will be able to return to Orlando, I wanted to pack as much as I could into the 5-day stay. For anyone who has been there and done all of the things that I've mentioned, I'm wondering if you can tell me if I am misplanning for our stay?

Thank you.

How old are the members of your family? I am a huge fan of Islands of Adventure at Universal. You might not want to miss spending a day over there and checking out CityWalk.
mod_ben

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You're looking at 4 hours on the road on your SeaWorld/Busch Gardens day. That's 1/2 hour drive from All Star (101 Dalmations) to Sea World, 1-1/2 hours from Sea World to Busch, and then the same time back. This is on a day that one park alone should be reserved for. I'd just stay at Disney. Utilize the Extra Magic Hours since you're staying on property ( Magic Hours Schedule ). There's a LOT to do at Disney alone, it's not just 4 parks. Don't exhaust yourselves and cheat yourselves out of quality vacation time. It's good you got the Dining Plan; it's a real money and time saver.

Don't know if I'm too late for this, but if you're staying at Disney and have never been... just stay at Disney. There are tons of things to do around Orlando but sometimes it's best to just take Disney slow (take breaks in the afternoon and hit the pool, then go back to a park)... and that way you don't feel rushed.

Actually, the most expensive item are the tickets of disney and universal studios. All other expenses such as hotels, food pale in comparison to that. So, you should try to save on the tickets as much as possible. Here is an interesting article that mentions a few simple tricks to save money on tickets:
http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com

It's hard to plan ahead when you don't have some examples of prices. I find the worst thing when traveling is getting to your destination and finding out that if you booked your entertainment(what ever that maybe) in advance you could have save as much as 40% off the ticket price. We are planning a trip to Orlando next fall so I'm trying to find out as much as I can in advance. When we went to Los Vegas two years ago I was upset to find out that if we had booked our day trip to The Grand Canyon ahead of time we could have saved 40%. So lesson learned, I'm checking things out in advance. Here is a link that I found very helpful orlando transportation I hope this helps you with your planning.
Cheers
Nancy

It is also important to save money on Hotel rooms. The best way to do that is to use Priceline. However, Priceline has a limitation that allows you to bid just once each day for an itinerary. Check out this interesting article that explains How to Bid Again in Priceline on same day