Staying in Disney hotels worth it ? ( plus a few more q)

[Rosa]

Been to Orlando pre children and we are thinking of going in Dec. DDs 3 &5 ( In love with Mickey and all princesses) We have stayed on I Drive and parked / shopped ...However with dc its all a bit different.... and confusing- meal plans ,points,character dining ....
On a 14 night holiday would you stay 14 nights in a Disney hotel ( or is it just tooo much?) Or would you do 7 night I drive and 7 nights in DIsney? Or wouldn't you bother at all?
Park wise for this age I am thinking Epcot,Disney (obviously) Animal Kingdom,Bush Gardens,Sea World and possibly Universal ...Am I thinking right or have I forgotten any ? It might be a bit cold for the water parks- will have to wait and see when we are there.
Plus would you book direct or would you say go with Thomson or Virgin or anyone else? We are not on a limited budget but we are not top of the range either. ( and I don't want to do any cleaning and minimal cooking or even better none!)

All help very gratefully accepted. As I am abroad I am reading brochured etc on line ..not the same thing as having in hand.
Thanks

Some general info:-

If you want to go in December I would book this asap. The early part of December is far less busy than at Christmas. I would actively avoid visiting the parks on Christmas day due to the sheer volume of people who visit. I have been to the Magic Kingdon on the 25th Dec - never again!!!.

Would not bother with Universal as your children are very young and these parks generally are catered mainly for older children/teens. You'd be better off visiting the Disney parks and sticking with those and Sea World.

It may be too cold to use the waterparks; infact a lot of them are closed in the winter months. Also the last couple of years in Orlando in December have been unseasonably cold.

Busch Gardens is situated at Tampa Bay which is about 90 minutes to 2 hours away from Orlando. A bus leaves Sea World to take people down there daily (its a free transfer).

A Disney hotel would be fine for visiting the Disney parks but you will not find it easy then to access I Drive or go to the malls in the area unless you hired a car. Public transport in that area apart from Disney buses is non existant. You may therefore want to consider a two hotel break with a week at a Disney hotel and some time spent on I Drive (would recommend the Embassy Suites on I Drive). If on I Drive as well stay to the south of I Drive, do not stay north of Sandlake Road.

Thomson fly to Sanford which is about an hour further out from Orlando. Only Virgin and BA fly direct into Orlando. Their fares can vary greatly; do a cost comparison of both websites.

The ESTA (electronic travel authorisation) is now mandatory for ALL visitors into the US and they now charge $14 US per application made.

HTH

Thanks for that - we are going pre Christmas for the lack of queues and the pre Xmas sales ( well post thanksgiving anyway)!We will be hiring a car for sure .
DH and I already have the ESTA as we got it before a charge was made. The dds have yet to get passports.

Hi Rosa,

Pre Christmas is good in FL as it is on the whole a lot quieter than at Christmas time. It can feel quite cold first thing in the morning on occasion though so be mindful of that.

When you receive the passports for your children do not forget to complete the ESTA form for each of them.

WHat would you suggest re the hotels ? I am ok on teh general info as have been several times before ...Its just never with dds!!!!

Advantage of Disney hotels is
a) the theming - really makes the stay magical
b) Early Magic Hours - resort guests are allowed into the parks on a rotational system one hour earlier than ordinary guests and therefore beating a lot of the queues
c) free parking at the parks (I think it's now $16 a day for non-Disney guests)
d) free bus/water transportation between resorts and parks

BUT - most invaluable is

e) you can nip back to your room for a quick nap/swim/collapse and then go back in the evening. This is vital with young children who cannot keep going all day and start to flag and then everyone gets fractious.

A good source of information is TheDis - it's a US site concerning everything Disney - but it has brilliant UK section.

we are going at Easter.

we are staying onsite for a lot of the reasons gramercy stated - we can go to the park early, head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap and back again for the evening if we need to (w are hiring a car, not relying on free buses)

we are staying at Old Key West - a one bedroomed villa, which works out best for our needs (well. a 2 bed would have been nicer, but not worthe the cost difference)

if you stay in a disney hotel you can get all your purchases delivered to your room too, rather than carting them about. and the dining plan options are good too - quite cost effective if you are planning on eating at disney.

gramercy whats the site please? --I have tried thedis.com and come up with a link site.
Thing is the parks many of the waterbased ones we won't be doing. Sea world is furher out so it will mean a day out for sure. So really The hotel would be great for Epcot and The Magic Kingdom and yes as you suggest with the eating plan which is probably the best for 2 little ones....
Keep the suggestions coming ..Thank you !

DIBB is a great site for this , it stands for disney in a british accent.
We just came back from here and stayed in I-drive. Our kids are older than yours so we spent more time in Universal than Disney, but would whole heartilly recommend saying at disney for at least some of it, and wish we had.

I couldn't believe how huge the place is!

Next time we would Villa/2 hotel it for sure!

www.disboards.com is the site

silverfrog - we are big Old Key West fans. In fact I wish I were there now...

THe site is fab have had some great info from there far better than Trip Avisor for specific disney questions - Thank you . Think we are going to do 7 nights on I drive in the suite kind of places so can get over jet lag etc then move into a disney deluxe for the second week. Am looking at teh Grand Floridian, ( as tehy say the Xmas decs are out of this world) the Polynesian or Wilderness Lodge I think ......Probably will do flights with Virgin and maybe the accom if its cheaper than going direct.

I think Wilderness Lodge is brilliant - rooms somewhat on the small side, though. Getting boat over to Magic Kingdom is fantastic. Wildnerness Lodge has v good family restaurant (can't remember name) and a snack place which is handy.

I would second fact that Universal Studios is not v good for small children. And Harry Potter is still manic, such that there is timed entry to this part of the parks. If you stay at a Universal hotel (they are v nice, btw) you get the fast pass system for free (have to pay if you're a day guest) and, I believe, early entry. Plus you can walk from hotel as car parks at Universal are practically in Cuba.

Dh might go to Universal for a day on his own but otherwise I guess we will probably miss it - sad as we had some great rides there in the past ..pre children.
Just waiting for a few price quotes and then have to get head round dining plans and meal booking.....to do the final add up and then add in extras etc and then decide.

We went in January with a 22 month old. We stayed at Disney and it was fantastic, as everything was so easy.

The free buses and boats were very good, and the Dining Plan was fantastic for our needs and was included with the room / park tickets. The luxury of not having to carry our purchases around with us as Silverfrog mentioned was also a bonus. I also liked only having to take out our room keycards rather than credit cards or money, as they worked as park tickets, dining plan credits and for charging to the room.

We booked through Virgin. I have been before through Thompson and wouldn't again, as the plane was so much better with Virgin.

Don't discount the Hollywood Studios Disney Park for small children, as they have a lot of Playhouse Disney stuff there, including a show, and a great soft-play themed on Honey I Shrunk The Kids, amongst other things. The Pixar parade was also very popular with my DD.

I wish I was going again!

We went last December for the first two weeks - was waaay busier than I expected so plan on getting to the parks early to make the most of the day! The Dis boards were great for planning... If you decide to stay in a Disney hotel look up "Pop Warner week" on the boards to see where NOT to stay - those cheerleaders can be loud (we met lots of these groups in the parks at night).

We stayed at a Disney hotel (Coronado Springs) mostly because we had a great discount - it was great and I loved having the Disney bus system. However it was a looong time to spend in a hotel room, without the option of a small kitchen, plus we got very cold weather so spent more time in our room than planned. I think if we were to do it again we would either do a split stay (Disney/I-Drive) or stay at one of the I-Drive hotels with kitchen in room; eating restaurant food gets old very quickly!

Thanks for that - I recall similar events in the past - in fact on booking in the past, not in Disney I checked that they did not have any of these groups staying as they took over the place in hoards and sat in corridors in large groups til all hours .
I am also looking at the 1st 2 weeks of dec how cold was it last year ? I am thinking lightweight clothing in the day and then jeans sweatshirts in the evening .....need more?
I am swinging towards 1 week I drive probably in a suite place with a kitchen then 1 week in Disney hopefully in a deluxe place ..MInd you I can't seem to find any discounts as I am hoping to book that week direct.
I have been in touch with 4 operators as we want to do something a bit different that a package and its not available on line its been 3 days and only 1 has replied..Thought there was a crisis on ..Obvioulsy not !

Rosa, we got a really cold spell (for Florida) with temps at times down to zero C at night and 10 in the day (though we did get a few warmer days now and then when swimming was attempted). We live in Brazil, though, so were in full-on winter gear at times!

Best thing was having easy-to-pack layering stuff (light jacket, fleeces...) which we could shed as the day warmed up and didn't take up too much backpack space.

It was very pretty, btw, with all the Christmas decorations up... If you're going deluxe, google photos of the Wilderness Lodge and the Floridian at Christmas, so lovely!!!! (we went visiting and I fell in love with the Wilderness Lodge)

I've stayed at the Wilderness Lodge - it's lovely, a great pool, the Whispering Canyon Cafe is fantastic for children and the boat to the Magic Kingdom is really convenient.

I am in the process of booking the first 2 weeks in December for us including DS who will be 3.5 by then.

We've decided on a villa (not booked yet) but probably at Lake Buena Vista.

I just couldn't stand the thought of 2 weeks in a hotel room with DS. Villa gives us proper living space and private pool.

We did consider Disney hotels do DS has children to play with on days off but we feel there is more than enough for him to see/do at the parks that on a day off he'll be quite happy for some quiet time.

We will hire a car but are used to international driving so ok with that.

gregs- I am swinging towards Virgin or BA as I have european flights to put in as well . The charter companies don't seem to have flighst from Gatwick and Thomson from Manchester quoted me more than Virgin !
I think we will do 1 week in an apartment found a big one on I drive direct at a good rate and then we might do a week in Disney . However still waiting for the quotes to come back in...... They are being so slow !

have a look on skyscanner for your flights, you can find cheaper options on there if you are flexible with the dates.

I think it is only Virgin or BA that fly outwith our Summer. Virgin fly from manchester as well as London. BA just London.

We have more options from here to Gatwick so I can be more fliexible. I will have another look at the site - I have been on so many this week I can't remember however Virgin seems to be cheaper direct.