To wonder why Florida is seen as the ultimate family holiday?

[Worriedkat]

A family we know are spending £10k on a summer holiday to Disney, and that's not even in a Disney hotel. Several other friends cite Florida/Disney as the ultimate family holiday of a lifetime, it seems to be the holiday to aspire to, giving your children wonderful memories.

I can't visualise it myself. All I can see is heat, humidity, long queues, toddler tantrums, exhaustion from the plane and time difference. It doesn't sound magical! What is it that makes the experience worth £10k? Or Aibu to think that maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be?

Even if a child believes that Mickey Mouse is real (which is a stretch) how on earth could they believe that he is 7 foot tall? He is never depicted as such in any cartoons. I think it's more aimed at parents than kids and kids just act the way their parents want them to

I never thought MM was real. I did however LOVE seeing the characters and getting a hug and a photo. You don't had to think they are real to be excited about them.

I love hiking holidays in quiet wild places. I also love Florida.

It's not just the rides in the theme parks but it's the space centre, the junk food the alligators and snakes, the manatees further north and the Everglades with Spanish moss dripping from the trees and Sanibel Island (pelicans and shells). It's all so different from everyday and there is so much variety in one holiday.

I baulk at the expense. The way I see it thats just under 20% of our Mortgage balance.

Would love to do New York or Canada though.

People dressed up make me really uncomfortable. I could not be hugged by someone dressed as a 7 foot Mouse.

I bet the people inside are boiling hot, fed up and on minimum wage.

Wouldn't spend 10k on it though, does it really cost that much now?

I really really don't like people dressed in those animal outfits so my opinion is possibly a little biased.

I think it is sad that kids are so interested in disney which is just a cartoon they see on the tv, surely it would be better to take them somewhere where they could experience how amazing our actual word is rather than traveling half way around the world to visit people dressed up as pretend charaters thet the kids know from watching tv?

A holiday with an afternoon or a day at a theme park would be fun but day after day of theme parks surely just gets dull?

GreenEyedGoblin
thank you that is very helpful!

It's an amazing place for a holiday - children and adults. There is so much more to do there than just roller coasters ! We've been 10 times over the last six years and as a family have some wonderful memories of our holidays there - something to suit everyone as the DT's have grown up

Ten times in 6 years?

Just this second booked our 6th trip to Florida. It is not about Disney and theme parks necessarily. Don't know how anyone can judge until they have been. Horses for courses ......

Go Parker!!!

10k? Wow. We have been to FLA several times and done fabulous two and three centre stays (Miami-Orlando-Anna Maria-St Petes-Clearwater etc) for 3/4weeks for a family for half of that. Thats insane.

I'd never do the proper Disney holiday where you stay in a themed hotel and go to the parks every day - just not our cuppa as a family - but we have had some terrific holidays in Florida. it wouod have been my idea of hell pre-kids, but its ot hellish at all. Its just an easy holiday, really. Great weather, kids are never bored, service is really good in the US etc.

We've stayed in apartments near the parks and maybe gone to a park 3 days out of a 14 day break, interspersed with water parks (some lovely water parks in Orlando), lounging by the pool etc. Its not much more expensive than a package to Spain etc and much better value for money, in my opinion. And if you fly into Miami or Tampa, you can bolt on a nice little city break, too. I absolutely HEART Miami!

We have also done some amazing trips to Anna Maria island. For all the Florida snobs...check it out. Its gorgeous. You can stick your Tuscan villa and give me a house on the beach in Anna Maria any time!

No idea...

I lived in Florida for 15 years and went to the parks 6 times. My fondest memory was when I won a Disney award in fifth grade and after the ceremony, my family and I had free admission to.... MGM. We took my 73 year old French granny on the Tower of Terror, and she fainted.

MrsPD and Parker - can you tell me how much you usually pay to go then?

I went in 2003 with DH and DS1 who was nearly 3. We paid £2300 for a villa for a week, flights and our tickets.

I price it up now for a couple of weeks for 2 adults and 3 children in the school holidays and its £7000 not including tickets and spending money.

Give me a villa in France or Spain for a couple of weeks and I am happy, as is my pocket when I have spent less that £2k.

I don't understand the appeal and I never will. However, we are going to the Paris one on the way to the Ardeche this summer... just so the children don't come on here in 10 years time and accuse me of social cruelty .

I see it as an expensive hurdle I have to jump before my real holiday.

I have been and I am judging.

Disney World alone is the size of manchester, 4 theme parks 2 water parks, 2 mini golf courses, down town disney and various hotels.

Then there is Universal, 2 theme parks and hotels.

Cheap shopping on designer clothes.

We loved our airboat rides and checking out restaurants as well as chilling by our own pool and our friends who live a couple of hours away from Orlando came for the weekend and we had a ball with them.

Heat is a factor for me. I have my whole holiday pain free and can rest at leisure. And we love theme parks. My first theme park was a six flags park called Darian Lake. I've been hooked since.

We as a family love Alton Towers but Orlando has a pull for us.

All in we spent £8,000 last year and it did us good as a family after a really shit 18 months. It gave us what we needed as I kept it as a surprise until 100 days before when we told the kids and their faces were delighted. They also appreciated the holiday very much.

Not sure when we'll get back but loving the memories from it.

Ooh Manchester. A nice city break with a bit of shopping?

We loved Disneyland in HongKong and I went there with the strongly held belief it would be over-priced and over- commercialized crap. It was lovely.

so 7k or 8k ?

I'm astonished so many people go when it's so expensive but I guess if you forego a holiday for 5 years it might be worth it

Oh yes I've heard the Hong Kong one is excellent

It is lovely, and my DC have adored it and never forgotten it.

have done both Florida and Paris, and i would say that Paris is just as good for littlies, although that opinion is very unpopular with regular Florida-goers online from the UK, who seem to have to justify their trips by sneering at Disneyland Paris and running it down (even though they haven't been).

Of course, Paris doesn't have everything Florida has, but the bits that they share are Just as good at Paris as in Florida.

If DLP had Animal Kingdom, now, I'd never bother with Florida again. Epcot I can take or leave. Seaworld I used to love, but then I watched Blackfish. Universal... only really love the Harry Potter bit. And why did they scrap Jaws? that was the best ride!

I'm not surprised that it costs that much (£5-10K) at all. When DP and I go on holiday, it's a week in Spain in June or September and that costs at least £1k for two people.

We could only do it for significantly less if we booked the flights and SC accomodation well in advance and didn't eat out very much.

So for a holiday that is twice as long, for twice as many people, in the school holidays and includes multiple theme park visits is clearly going to be much more expensive.

It doesn't appeal to me, but I can see the attraction to DCs - if I was going to spend anywhere near that much on a holiday, we would go to Hawaii, perhaps with a stop off in somewhere like New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles.

There's more to Disney than the kids stuff and there's more to Florida than Disney and the other theme parks as other people have mentioned.

I was one of the skeptical ones. One of my collegues goes every other year and I couldn't really understand why. I knew we'd end up going to Paris one day though, and when we looked in to going to Paris, and how much it would cost to do it properly (lots!) we thought we'd look at Florida just as a comparison, and we were very surprised that it wasn't that much more. The cost of a five star trip 4 night trip to Paris was pretty much the same as a 2* 7 night trip to Florida but with guaranteed sunshine. (We did book last minute which made a difference with the prices - Paris is a lot more expensive last minute)

As with any holiday, it can be as expensive or cheap as you want to make it. for Feb half term.....Flights are about 1k each return but you can get them cheaper if you book when they are released. A basic Disney hotel room is about £500 a week, a 1 bed disney villa with kitchen is £1600, a private villa with pool is about £500 a week (but you'd need to hire a car as well) Full disney park tickets are £289 each. They've currently got a free dining plan offer so that's most of your food sorted, so just spending money and tips on top. I'm guessing the family spending 10k are staying three weeks, and doing other parks as well which would bump the price up.

We loved our family trip to Florida, and have booked our next one. I can imagine us going to Florida every other year for the next 30 odd years, but our focus won't be on Disney, but Florida and the Atlantic side of the US in general. There's a reason why the old people retire there and it isn't Disney.