Travel Plans 2026

Gotta keep this one going... 2026 edition!

What is everybody up to this year in terms of travel plans, tentative or booked?

We kicked off 2026 with a (last minute) day trip down to Orlando for Epic Universe which was a lot of fun. Flew down Saturday morning, went to the park all day and back home the next afternoon. I had some flight credit to burn or else it expired and we lost it, so it worked out perfectly to get down there to see Epic and escape the cold frigid Ohio weather for a day and a half. Fantastic park!

Our next big trip is in April/May to South Korea. We fly into Seoul for a few days before taking the high speed train down to Busan (second largest city in Korea) for the second half of our Korea leg. We then fly over to Tokyo for the last 2.5 days of the trip, because why not? It wasn't really our first plan going back to Asia so soon after being there in November, but Japan won us over... It also didn't hurt United had some super saver Polaris fares we caught effectively for the same cost as an economy ticket to make the long flight much easier to deal with, at least going there. When in Japan, we might hit up Fuji Q this time, but probably will leave that as an audible when there to decide based on how the rest of the trip is going. We will for sure stop at Tokyo Dome for Thunder Dolphin if it is open (it was closed in November for refurb). Look forward to exploring Korea though, especially the food/cafe culture and returning to Japan at the end to do a little more new stuff and revisit some places we loved from the last trip.

Our late summer/fall trip is TBD, but thinking we probably go back to Europe somewhere. We have been kicking around a few different ideas and such, but nothing has been sticking just yet. I assume we will figure this out after our Korea trip just in case we get lured back in that direction or something completely different. Never know how one trip will inspire the next!

Small trip wise, probably a long weekend trip out to LA to go to Universal when Fast and the Furious opens and to visit some friends out there we have not seen in a few years. We also want to get back to NYC for a weekend to stay at the TWA hotel at JFK and do a bit more pizza-sploring around Brooklyn. The TWA hotel has been on our to-do list for a few years now.

Always subject to change of course, but it's fun to look back in a year from now and see how things actually worked out.

As far as theme park trips, I have a trip to Universal Orlando penciled in for Thanksgiving week. But I'm torn on it. I'd really like to visit Epic but it's hard to know if the hype will have subsided by then. My bigger concern however is having to reserve a day for Express Pass well in advance. If the weather is terrible the day we chose, that would not be ideal.

So perhaps we wait until spring break or Thanksgiving 2027? Maybe the hype will have settled a bit and we can be more flexible with our plans. Unfortunately my crystal ball is hazy.

I’ve got a big slate of travel planned for 2026. A mix of coaster and non coaster trips.

This month I’m traveling to Puerto Rico for my first “Vitamin D infusion” with my parents to make it through a long midwestern winter.

Feburary will see my first coaster ride of the new year as I use my Universal AP to celebrate Mardi Gras.

March will be my second Vitamin D infusion, this time on Marco Island, FL.

April will find me spending a week on Rocky Top enjoying Dollywood and Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

My international trip of the year is in May where I will spend 2 weeks in Italy exploring Rome, Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Pisa and Tuscany.

June will see my “Ohio Coaster Run” trip to CP and KI. My brother and nephew will join me at KI.

July will see two trips, one to Universal/Sea World Orlando, and one to San Antonio for Schlitterbahn, SFFT and Sea World.

August will see my trip to Williamsburg, and also an extended trip to Quebec City, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Bar Harbor, ME.

September has a Halloweekend at Cedar Point and my HHN trip to Universal.

October I’m crossing off a bucket list trip of driving down to the Smokies and then driving the Blue Ridge Parkway during the height of foliage season. After that I will continue southeast to Williamsburg and then to Orlando before turning around and heading north. Parks on this trip will include Dollywood, BGW, WDW (activating an AP here now that my Universal one has expired,) and KI.

November will see my annual Christmas Trip to Dollywood and SDC.

December will see another bucket list event ticked off as I hit Colonial Williamsburg’s Grand Illumination (and BGW Christmas Town) along with a a holiday trip to WDW.

Not as many parks as usual and no new parks, but I’ll be hitting some parks at times I don’t normally and honestly, I’m more excited for the non theme park trips this year, as I’m seeing a lot of new places on them.

Current plans include my customary thaw-out week at Walt Disney World in late winter, taking my daughter to Tokyo and TDR in May to celebrate her doctorate, a June trip to Sweden for work, and back-to-back weeks on Oahu and Molokai in the summer. I just saw that Information Society is a new band for Garden Rocks this year in April, and I am thinking about booking a bonus long weekend on our WDW APs for that one. (Yes, I am Of A Certain Age.)

We have SIX all-park platnium passes this year, so in addition to a few day trips to CP, we might make our way down to Kings Island for fall break.

I’ve got a couple of short cruises and a Tampa spring training trip (Yankees & Phillies) lined up over the next few months, and as usual, I always take several trips down to Orlando throughout the winter. These days, my Orlando visits aren’t really “park trips” anymore—I’ve beaten the theme park thing to death over the years.

Now my wife and I prefer staying at one of the nicer timeshare or villa resorts in the area, enjoying some relaxing pool days and treating ourselves to some good meals. And call us crazy, but we always take a road trip to Daytona to get our Buc-ees fix.... (yes, we are one of those nutjobs...)

At this point, I know Central Florida like the back of my hand, and from where I live in New Jersey it’s such an easy, relatively inexpensive, two-hour flight to escape the cold for a few (hopefully) warm days in shorts.

Looking ahead to 2026, the highlight will be a (sort of) bucket-list trip my wife and I are planning for December. We’re heading to London and Prague to experience the Christmas season, explore the European Christmas markets, and soak in all the holiday atmosphere—especially in Prague.

Overall, I’ve definitely outgrown true “park trips” and honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I actually "did" a theme park. But once a theme park junkie, always a theme park junkie—and theme parks was my career for over two decades, so I certainly still enjoy reading everyone’s trip reports on these boards.

I am in Mexico for six months, so a visit to Six Flags Mexico is on the agenda. If I can get the app to display my pass correctly, which has been a challenge. (Tangent: Six Flags' app sucks.)

When I return to NYC, probably the annual visit to Kinda OK Adventure, hopefully Dorney, and I'm headed to Ohio in August so at least Kings Island and maybe the Point. And Coney Island of course.

I'll be in Chicago in May, but suspect I won't be figuring out how to get to Great America.

I've just been to Six Flags Qiddiya City - and that, for the moment, is it.

I have a notion that I'll do something in Europe for my birthday later in the year. Let's see.

SteveWoA:

We then fly over to Tokyo for the last 2.5 days of the trip, because why not?

You're already there, might as well.

Touchdown:
2 weeks in Italy exploring Rome, Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Pisa and Tuscany.

Naples is wild. Watch out for the scooters in the quiet alleys.

My wife and I have a cruise in February that we booked because we had to cancel our trip to New Orleans because it was going to rain all weekend (it did). Southwest's cancelation policy is now to rebook 6 months after you bought the tickets so here we are taking a cruise during ski season.

We go to Europe in April starting at Disneyland Paris. Did you know you get park tickets free when you stay at one of their hotels? The city of Paris for a few nights, then Strasbourg to see some friends and do some side trips via train. We end at Europa Park for 2 days staying on site.

Nothing else planned this year. We are still trying to work out the fall. The plan was a music festival in Vegas and Horror Nights in Hollywood but the music festival was canceled because they closed the venue to put up a parking lot. The literally paved paradise to put up parking lot.

DLP is great, did that last summer. You’re timing your trip right at the opening of Frozen Land and the adventure promenade expansion along with a new fountain and drone show at the 2nd park. Staying on property is really nice there.