Please come and tell me everything about Disney Florida.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Thinking of taking DD there probably next year though maybe end of this year. She;s currently year 5 so want to take her before starting secondary school. Thought that June afetr the Yr 6 Sats might be good.

Would be going for 2 weeks. Want to go to Disney, the Dolphin Cove place, Sea World, Universal (Harry Potter).

What else is there? How many days for each place?

Where should we stay, I want to keep costs down so would be looking at a Holiday Inn type place ratehr than staying in Disney. Will I need a hire car? If not how do I get from one attraction to the other?

Any recommendations for good travel agents/deals? Do I buy tickets for the parks in advance or when I get there? How much do I need to allow per day for food - is it expensive like DLP or cheap as its America?

Some general pointers:-

Would stay in the International Drive area; this is where a lot of the hotels are. The quieter end of I Drive is the section starting to the south of Sandlake Road (look at it on a map). Do not stay on I Drive itself north of Sandlake Road as that section of I Drive is all strip malls.

If you can book it all yourself online instead of using a travel agent I would do so.

Do your reseraches carefully and use Tripadvisor for updated reviews (see if people complain about the same type of issue) and photos of rooms. America has a lot of suite based hotels as well; you may want to also look at chains like Embassy Suites (breakfast for their guests is free), Hampton Inns etc. They'd probably work out less per night than the Holiday Inn. Hire car would be useful to get around.

Universal has two parks; you have Islands of Adventure (where the Harry Potter land is situated) and Universal Studios which is the original park.

Would say a day in each place and factor in some rest days as well during the holiday.

You need to bear in mind that once your DD hits the age of 10, adult prices for all the theme parks apply. She will pay adult airfare when she is 12.

Summer can be both hot and humid, it can also rain heavily in the afternoon but only for a short time.

Discovery Cove is something you would need to book well in advance and that place is not cheap. All the adults need to bring photo id with them on the day to gain entry (this is detailed in their website).

You would need to apply online for the ESTA (electronic travel authorisation) once the flights are booked. The Americans (bless em) now charge $14 (US) per application and all your party need an ESTA completed. No ESTA = no travel to the US.

Would allow money also for souvenirs as well as food. Its not as dear as DLP but that's also because of the more favourable £/$ exchange rate.

Discovery Cove is nice - we swam with dolphins there but it ain't cheap, and is run like a military operation. Don't even think about turning left down a path when you've been smilingly but v firmly been told to go right!
We were lucky because we did it no expense spared, stayed in a Disney hotel and got unlimited entry park tickets before we went. We spent nearly 2 whole days at Animal Kingdom but the dcs couldn't get out of Epcot fast enough - because of the passes though it didn't matter so I think they're definitely worth it - you don't feel you have to stay somewhere because you can just hop on a shuttle bus and go somewhere else. I'd really recommend trying to get them if you can.
We also went to the Cirque de Soleil show at Downtown Disney one evening - it was utterly fab!

We'd love to go back one day, but we'd never be able to afford to do it how we did again!

Also consider the water parks (2 Disney ones, and 2 non-Disney).

We're going for a fortnight and planning to do 4 main Disney parks, 2 water parks, IoA, Universal Studios, Seaworld. Oh and a day trip to the Kennedy Space Centre and Cocoa Beach. But we will potentially never go back and wanted to do everything!! You could easily just spend a fortnight at the Disney parks and water parks and not go to anything else.

I found www.thedibb.co.uk really useful.

Oh and definitely buy tickets in advance (some good deals for UK visitors).

Food wise - depends how much you want to spend! We are on a budget and planning to do our own lunch and dinner and just eat out once a day (at inexpensive places). If you want to go the headline Disney restaurants you obviously need to budget more!

we are going in april
staying at hyatt regency grand cypress next to the parks but not in them
haven't bought a single disney ticket - should I do it in advance?
going for 10 days but only planning to spend 2 at disney and then another at epoch and the rest of the time around and about or in the hotel pool!

epcot
grr spellcheck

We went for three weeks two years ago and spent two weeks doing the Disney Parks and Seaworld. Didn't bother with Universal as my youngest was a bit too young at the time.

We didn't stay in a hotel as we found villa hire cheaper - we had a 5 bedroomed villa with private pool for about £500 pw. I used VRBO to book. Booked all the park tickets beforehand as well.

We went in May and it rained heavily for part of our stay. The rainy season arrived early and we saw some very spectacular thunder storms - didn't stop us enjoying it though.

Of the two waterparks I much preferred Blizzard Beach - as did our children.

how old were yours at the time wales? mine are 13 10 7 and 5

Mine were 3, 5 and the eldest had his 8th birthday while we were there and tbh it was much easier than I thought it would be. We didn't bother to take a buggy as the house we rented came with one and the flight, although long, was much less painful than I'd imagined it would be. Have to say the idea of three children in a confined space for a few weeks filled me with horror and so, for us, having our own place to go back to made much more sense.

My middle child has ADHD as well other undiagnosed as yet problems and struggles to cope with change so, for him, having a stable base that feels homely is essential!

I would second getting multiple entry tickets. We found getting to the theme parks early, and going on the good rides (mainly the roller coasters)before the queues built up was the thing to do. Then we'd go on the less popular rides.

By the afternoon we were hot and tired, and went to one of the water parks to chill out.

Don't buy food in the parks. It is fiendishly expensive. We took in cereal bars for snacking. You're not supposed to, but unless you wave them in people's faces, nobody cares. Also take water bottles for everyone. You can refill them for free in all the parks.

multiple entry you mean tickets that let you go in and out of different parks on different days? Or just multiple day tickets?
the former are more expensive than the latter. I'll buy them if they are worth it - but do you just tend to go to one park on one day and another on the next?

Do check around, until the end of April you can buy 14 day tickets for Disney which allow park hopping etc. for the price of 5 day tickets, if you buy in the UK.

we are off in april too - see oyu there, freshmint

we are staying in a Disney villa - we were in two minds as to villa inside the resort, or vila outside, but we are going the whole hog and braving an attempt at a non-self catered holiday - the dds have food intolerances, but I have been assured many times that Disney can cope... willbe a nice change if all goes according to plan

we have bought tickets in advance - multiple park hopper type, as it is likely we will go to one park for hte morning, back to villa for a rest over lunch, and then out for tea/evening slot. dds are 6 and 4.

aha redis! see you there

mummytime - where do I get tickets from? Online?

The Disney site seems as good as anywhere. Travel agents may offer them too.

I looked for the cheapest hopper tickets I could find on the internet. There's a good book - I can't find mine now but called something like the Unofficial Guide to Disney - which has lots of websites and tour plans listed. I found it really useful. If I can remember the name I'll post it.

That's the name of it. Also google thedibb.co.uk for lots of information.

yes, the Unofficial Guide to Disney is good - massive though, a lot to wade through!

they have an app too, so you can keep an eye on queue length on the day...

Thanks for the advice, the multi-park hopper tickets look good so we'll get those. Am off to check out TheDibb.

If you can take a week out of school at the end of Jan/ beginning of February (as we did a couple of weeks ago) you'll need just a week to do the 4 Disney Parks and waterparks since the queues are just not there! We would disembark a very popular ride (e.g. Space Mountain or Expedition Everest etc) and rejoin the very short queue to ride it again within 5 minutes. The weather was warm averaging 74 degrees farenheit.

I would always advocate going low season and skipping school for a Disney break - why spend all that money and go so far to have the experience marred by having to queue for hours on end and be jostled by heaving crowds

Here are my top tips ... just returned from Disney

Register at Quidco and click through from their site to the Disney site and you will also get cashback on your Disney tickets.

Highly recommend Expedia as you can book hire car, hotel and flight with them and again if you go via Quidco you will also get cashback on your holiday. I couldn't find a better deal booking independently.

As per previous poster, Disney have an offer for 14 days multi-park for price of 5/7 days. We had these and they gave us tons of flexibility as you can come and go as you please. There's tons to do and they cover the waterparks too - you could easily fill a 2 week holiday with the Disney parks alone.

In a 2 week holiday, we went to Animal Kingdom 3 times, Hollywood Studios 2 times, Magic Kingdom 2 times, Epcot 1 time, Gatorland (nice as quieter) 1 time, Seaworld 1 time, Typhoon Lagon 2 times. We ran out of time for other attractions and there was still tons we didn't do in the Disney parks.

Take a cooler bag for packed lunches and you will save tons of money but especially time. Seaworld say 'no coolers' but we had no issues with a small cool bag for sandwiches and drinks (however no straws at Seaworld). Disney are absolutely fine with taking food/drinks into the park but they don't allow glass or alcohol - otherwise you'll be fine and we took a cool bag in every day we were there. We ate out at Magic Kingdom once and for 2 adults and small child, bill was over 30 dollars for fastfood, plus queued for half an hour - in low season.

Hire car is a necessity in my opinion unless you're in a Disney hotel and just doing Disney. Orlando is not made for walking/public transport.

Self-catering will help keep costs down. We stayed at the following place and loved it - we only ate out on our first evening and self-catered after that. There's a Walmart and a Publix supermarket within 5 mins drive.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g34515-d596339-Reviews-Lake_Buena_Vista_Resort_Village_Spa-Orlando_Florida.html