Help! Park tickets decisions to be made and I'm struggling!

[tad_tad]

So I'll be heading south on Saturday, 1/26/19 and staying offsite at the Sheraton Vistana Villages. Landing at 2:30 pm, so probably no park attempts that day.

Staying until Sunday, 2/3/19 and flying out pretty early. So once again, no parks that day.

It will be me, my girlfriend, her teenage daughter, my tween daughter, and three more of my kids who just make the "kid" age cutoff. So all tickets will be for four adults and three children.

We'll have seven full days. My kids have never been to Orlando. I've been a bunch of times. She and her daughter have been to a couple of the Disney parks and Universal.

I'd like to do two Universal days (I don't need the two parks in the same day) and as much Disney as we can muster (for which I feel very strongly that we do need park hoppers). There are just so many options. So many ways to buy. My head is kind of reeling as I've only ever done this for two adults. I'm trying to find the best way to do it without wearing everyone out (it might be nice to have a "break day" or two to just relax at the resort). I'm also trying to do it without breaking the bank, but seven people is a lot!

Any advice, thoughts, or direction would be greatly appreciated. :)

[buzznwoodysmom]

If you only have 7 days to do parks and you want to do both Disney and Universal you won't have much time for breaks. You could sneak in one day off if you only do a 4 day Disney ticket.

We love Universal as much as Disney, but those parks days can be somewhat of a break. Those parks are far less demanding and crowded than Disney, and usually close hours earlier than Disney does. You could possibly be done with each Universal park by mid afternoon and get a break in on those evenings.

I find the Disney park hopper most useful when you are staying on site, the parks have longer hours, and you can take advantage of any extra magic hours or late regular park hours. The time of year you are going often sees earlier closing times, so you may want to check park hours to see if there is enough time in the day to make hopping worth it. I also find if you only have 4 park days it's sometimes better to focus on one park per day, rather than waste time hopping. When we have more than 4 days we just have more time to hop around and still get to do every thing we want in each park.

Based on your info, if it were my family we would do one or two days at Universal and 4 days (no hopper) in Disney with a break day somewhere mid trip. Because my kids love Harry Potter they would insist on the two parks per day ticket there!

[NY GOOFY]

I would definitely go ahead and get the 5 day ticket without the park hopper. Once you get past 4 days the price to add extra days is very little. The price difference between a 4-day ticket and a 5-day ticket is about $14. I personally would spend the extra $15 per person and get the extra day. This way if you decide to go to a park for a little while (we will often go for a bit just to do 3 rides with fastpass that we didn't get on a previous day) or even just for dinner, you can. Even if you don't wind up using it, it is only $14 per person out the window. Best of luck.