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?

Sounds like a great plan Sparkling :D

We will need one of those mahoosive winnebago things Litha.

Can't due a road trip without one

There's a lot of snobbery around it, let's face it - 'but why would one go to Disney when one could visit the Colosseum and eat artisanal pasta?' I went to Florida when I was 15 and it was completely amazing. I will definitely take the DC but probably not till they're older - 10 ish- because although they're then past believing Mickey is real, they have more stamina for the long days and appreciate Epcot etc more. There's a lot more to it than just the Disney stuff.

As a Floridian, I would like to voice a mild objection to equating Florida with Disney. Any time "Florida" appears in the title of an OP in MN, it is almost always only about Disney. I live two and a half hours from Disney World and I have not been there in more than 20 years. There is so much more to our state than Disney.

I dont know anything about Disney being the ultimate family holiday to aspire to but I do know that its such great fun its understandable people want to go there. I went last year with my brother and sister in law for a fortnight and apart from a few very nice restaurants, Florida Mall, and one of the outlets malls we saw nothing except Disney for two solid weeks. I didn't really fancy going, I just looked upon it as a chance to spend time with a long lost brother and my fab sister in law who have gone every year for 6 years. I loved it, it was completely different from any other holiday Ive had and we're going back this year for a week after we've been on our cruise, at my request. We dont stay in a Disney hotel because we like our food too much and we prefer to cook or eat out in a nice restaurant so we self cater in the Sheraton Beuna Vista resort, its really nice and minutes away from the parks.

Fun wise, well before I went I was a cowardy custard middle aged granny who had never been on a scary ride in her life - now I will go on anything and not just the once. Princess wise - nah, they're not for me, or perhaps that should be they weren't for me, but the little shows and the sing songs were magical. What were the best bits? Well that would be me and my brother linking arms at a show one evening and singing Zippididoodah together. We weren't together as children and this was something I just can't explain. And another magical moment - well that would be lining up to have our pictures taken with the Minnie etc and Goofy dancing a Minuet with me. I burst into happy tears. It was that kind of few moments and I'll never forget it.

There was so much to do and so much to see, and you really dont have to buy into the Disney Shopping experience, we didn't and we didn't miss out.

10k for a holiday? If you have that to spend then its not an unreasonable amount to spend on a holiday, in fact I'd go as far as to say that with flights, car hire, hotels, park entrance and other bits that are holiday norms then a 10k cost for say a family of 4 is good budgeting.

Florida/Disney isn't for everyone but we're all different and I suspect there's many a person who would secretly love to go there and can't so they get all hoity toity about it instead. Its a bit like iPads for kids and an awful lot of parents pretending they are great parents because the kids dont have them for holier than thou reasons when the bottom line is if they had the money a lot of their kids would.

My son is 4 and not really old enough to "get" the whole Disneyland thing yet, if he turns out to be one of those kids who is desperate to go, i'd love to take him if that coincides with me winning the lottery.

Personally, I love Disney, but i hate rollercoasters, extreme heat and would need to be sedated to sit on a plane for that length of time. My friend went with her parents when she was younger and did the Kennedy space centre, Universal Studios and Disneyland and she talked more about Universal Studios than anything else.

I love Disney, my kids love Disney. We first went when dd1 was 4yo and ds was 5. The look on my daughters face when her favourite character (stitch) gave her a hug I would have given my right arm to see. The photo we have of her with him and my son with jack sparrow are their prize posessions, even now they are 8&9 and know they weren't the real deal.

This is a bit snooty. Who cares how other people spend their money?

Florida is glorious. Been many times with our children and foster children. We will be child free in a year or so, but will probably still go back to Florida in a few years time.

Well, I don't get it.

Not out if snootiness, just like I don't get the obsession with football, or golf.

Florida and disney? My idea of hell.

Ha ha Brave Potato - you wouldn't like it at our house then.

My DS's ultimate holiday is anything to do with football. I have offered Disney and. Universal to him a few times, but he is not really bothered. Last year we went to Rio to watch England v Brazil - had an amazing week.

On Saturday we are off to Florida, but to Miami, as England have 2 pre-World Cup friendlies. I did plan to take 2 days out to go up to Universal, but DS has been invited to go and watch the team train and he will be able to get autographs and photo's with the squad, the next day he is being a mascot and walking out with the team at the Equador game and the day after he wants to go to a fans forum, where Roy Hodgson will be.

We just won't have time for Universal now. I was a bit disappointed, but DS would choose anything to do with football.

I have already started a savings plan for France 2016 (providing England qualify).

It's each to their own at the end of the day. I have friends who do Florida and Orlando every year without fail and others who think it's naff.

I went there as a child (in the 80s) and whilst it was great, I don't remember it as being THAT fantastic. I was just as happy playing on the beach. Parents can do so much to try and create this fantasy dream holiday for a kid, but half the time the kid doesn't even know or care that much.

Orlando is hell, utter hell. Coming round in Busch Gardens, after having passed out in the heat, I couldn't comprehend why anyone would pay thousands of pounds for what is essentially Alton Towers, only hotter.
I was there for work and only the fact that it was free, and I could jump all the queues, made it bearable.
Fractious children queuing for hours in an atmosphere akin to standing under a hot shower, to go on a ride no better than Oblivion/Nemesis etc. The hard sell in all the gift shops (Harry Potter being the worst in that bloody wand shop).
Plastic fakery everywhere - worst offender being a hotel that is modelled on a fake Sorrento complete with a fake canal and plastic Vespas.

Overpriced food and drinks, the inability to ewcape to a "real" place, the horrendous way animals are treated at Seaworld, the petty rules everywhere you turn (no jogging in the Universal complex, for example)... Sheesh. It was horrible.

I reckon people save up for years to go because they fall for the Disney marketing, then splurge thousands on it and can't bring themselves to admit it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Some of it is fun - v nice pools at the Hard Rock hotel, for example. And I really enjoyed Wet and Wild. But it's nothing special!

Florida is fab..... in October or May for us. The thing that really appeals is that it does have everything...

Theme parks - disney and univesal + many others
Museums - Kennedy space centre + many others .. watching a rocket take off and feeling the rumble all the way through your chest...
Wildlife - kayaking in Blue Springs National park - wow. Airboat riding in the local lakes and rivers, blue cranes in the garden!!! at the villa....
Beaches - Cocoa beach, Gulf coast beaches, great if you like beaches
Mini golf- themes are fab, you can spend a whole day goofing around cheaply..
Water parks - they are soooo good..
Food.... anything you like cooked anyhow you like... cheaply..
Shopping - able to buy pre-teen outfits that don't make the girls look like either tarts or Boden/Stepford kids. Proper branded stuff for decent prices
Language - no problems - we almost speak the same one.

Stay in a villa, have a screened pool, lie back in bath-tub warmth looking at the stars.. even the sky seems bigger over there...

(ours cost £7k for everything tickets/food/car/villa/flights for 4 for 14 nights)

10k for a Disney holiday!? Not even on property!? How big is their family?

I don't think it'd necessarily 'the ultimate' family holiday, but it is bloody good fun.

It's a shame it's not closer. Take out the air fares and it reduces the cost considerably. Then you could just go for a weekend and test it to see.

I think some kids are just more able to go with the magic than others. I think that's why you get some kids who totally believe in Santa at 9/10/11 and others who start questioning it at 4.

DC3 once leapt out of his moving buggy because he saw someone dressed as a giant teddy handing out leaflets in a shopping centre. It was a really, really bad suit and there were other children in the vicinity who were very . He totally went with it though, Disney would blow his mind.

And Mickey, at least in Paris, is not 7ft tall. He was about 5ft. which in a way was more disturbing.

If you don't like Disney you shouldn't go there, but it really shouldn't be hard to understand that different people like different things!

It's a good thing that not everyone thinks that Disney is the best thing ever or it would be even busier than it is. People that like it should be grateful

StarDustInTheWind your holiday sounds amazing! Very much like the holidays of my childhood.

As a Floridian, I would like to voice a mild objection to equating Florida with Disney

I don't blame you in the least Nothing wrong with enjoying Disney is that's what people want, but it's a shame to see just one type of thing in a whole (beautiful) state

Speaking personally, it's the sheer customer manipulation at Disney which I couldn't stand; I'd only be able to hear the "corporate script" so often before throttling someone

thanks whois.... our holiday was the best we have ever had, a "proper" holiday with so many headline moments..

I secretly giggle at the people who think Florida is just Disney, leave the nice wide open spaces with all the great things that there are in Florida, in the nice weather (Spring or Autumn) just for us....

( I wouldn't come to middle England to go on holiday just at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor park, so why the heck would I go to Florida just to go to Disney.. )

We went to Florida once our DC were old enough to appreciate it.

We hired a car, a villa and went all over the state, to the Everglades, NASA and the theme parks. We made the most of our passes, by getting there as soon as they opened and usually going to one of the water parks late afternoon as well, to wind down.

We've also been to the Caribbean, Europe and various other places over the years, so they've had a wealth of experiences.

The one holiday they all loved was Florida. They asked if we could go back but my DH and I would rather pull our own teeth out.

There's a lot more to Floroda than the parks!

Miami, The Keys, the west coast, The Everglades - all fabulous with or without children. Our favourite holiday destination bar none, we'd live there if we could.