August Planning

[Jen841]

Leaning toward:
1. Full week - 100% Disney 24/7 at Beach Resort with Dining Plan, 5 days of parks and maybe Lego Park (Legos R Us here at our house)
2. 4 days at Hilton with Magic Hours (Disney + Legoland) + 4 day cruise

Kids will be 6 and 9 and this is their first trip.

[clc053103]

That is a tough one. I personally prefer to say on site, but others swear by outside resorts. For first trip I think would want more time in the park over a split land and sea. Yur kids are a great age for either

[kboyle]

we are going 8/1-8/8 and doing a split stay between Universal & Disney. We are staying 8/1-8/5 at Universal Royal Pacific so we can get express pass/early access and HP breakfast, then taxi-ing over to Disney 8/5-8/8 staying at Beach Club Villas (there will be 4 adults & 3 kids).

This is our 2nd visit. I wouldn't stay offsite with kids, but that's just me. I agree with PP, for the first visit I would want more park time. As this is our 2nd visit to Disney (1st to Universal) we know what we want and don't want to see so 1 day at our selected parks (we don't need to do Animal Kingdom again) is enough, plus with it being so HOT during that time i'd allow for time to take breaks from the park and swim or nap/leave park.

[HallsofVA]

We went to Disney in August last year, and stayed onsite to make getting back to the hotel for a swim easier. We even ended up moving hotels from AKL to the Poly so we'd be even closer! We went back in December, and stayed at a Sheraton Vistana Village location, since the crowds, temps and traffic weren't nearly as bad (plus we had free nights through Starwood to use).

We did our august visit in conjunction with a cruise, and personally I'd take the cruise over more days in the parks. Better weather, more access to beaches and water, and shorter lines. Plus on the disney cruise, almost all the character lines are inside and air conditioned! (and not nearly as long). Ending the vacation on a cruise is a nice relaxing way to end it, since the parks always find us running around trying to plan everything and having to worry about where and what to eat. We try to do the cruise after the parks when possible, since it's sort of a vacation from the vacation!