Orlando with Kids

An Orlando week is a scheduling problem before it is a budget problem, and the plan below works backwards from the group rather than from the map. Three decisions shape everything that follows: how many days to hold, what the children can take in August, and whether the week is carrying a memory or a ceiling.

How many days

Four park days is the honest number for a first week, with a fifth day left open for weather and tired legs. Seven consecutive park days is how trips end early. If the holiday falls in the August heat, start at eight in the morning and keep the last evening hours, because the parks empty after five and those hours are worth more than the middle of the afternoon.

Which park for which age

Under six, Magic Kingdom carries the week, and a preschool day there shows how little riding a good day needs. Over eight, the argument turns to Universal, and the comparison page sets the two chains against each other on walking, noise and what a day costs once parking and the queue pass are added.

The ticket question

Hopper passes pay for themselves only when a second park has a named ride on it. The ticket page runs the arithmetic over four days, and the short version is that base tickets win for a group that sets its day at breakfast, while the hopper wins when a booking pulls everybody to another park at six.

Two afternoons that are not parks

The week needs one expensive slow day and one cheap one. The dolphin swim is the expensive morning and the only animal hour my children still repeat. The Epcot booths are the cheap version: walk the loop, eat small plates at five to nine dollars each and treat it as a late lunch rather than a ticketed plan.

Getting around

The buses between the parks start early and cost less than parking, but they add forty minutes to a morning, so I paid for parking on the two days that began with a reservation and used the buses for the rest. A taxi after a late show is cheaper than a second car for a week, and the drive back is never the part of the day anybody argues about.

A week that holds together

Day one is arrival, groceries and an early night. Days two and three are parks with the eight o clock start. Day four holds the pool and dinner outside the resort. Days five and six carry the two big parks, and day seven stays empty for the flight and the one ride everybody wants again. Dates decide the crowds more than any choice on this page, so fix the week you travel before anything else.