Tips for Disney Orlando please :)

[StarRose]

Never been and no idea what to expect!

Have the option of one week or two in Orlando - which would be better?

Where are the best places to visit with 7 yr old dd?

Should I look at buying tickets for the theme parks now, or wait til we're out there?

Any tips would be great :)

I'd do one week then head down to miami and drive through the keys.
2 weeks in Orlando is a sensory overload!

We have three weeks set aside for Florida. Her dad lives out there and the original idea was one week in Orlando with him and his ds (age 13), and then a week with his family in Fort Lauderdale (probably doing some day trips to Miami area). However, I wanted to make sure she got the most out of it, so have been thinking about an extra week in Orlando just the two of us... though I think we'd both quite like a nice quiet beach somewhere :D Just don't want her to miss out on Orlando as I don't know when we'll get to go back...

You need 'down time' in between park days as its so relentless and knackering so 2 weeks would be best IMO. All the Disney parks have plenty to keep a 7 yr old entertained, and the water parks are a good way to relax in between park days. My DD was 7 when we went last year and she loved the Harry Potter bit in universal studios but her favourite was Suess Landings (I got her into the books before we left, and she loves the films). There is also sea world too. There was loads we didn't get the chance to do.

Would we be silly to miss Universal? She's really not into anything film at the moment - more Disney Jr and animal mad.

Thinking we might get the Disney 14 day pass and SeaWorld/Busch Gardens one...

We only went to one of the universal parks, completely left the other. As much as Suess Landings was our favourite it's probably not worth the admission alone, or if your DD isn't into that. The dinosaur stuff is great though, but they have loads in the animal kingdom park as well so again you have that sort of thing covered elsewhere.

I'd probably just go for 2 weeks at Disney. Do have lots of down time.

Don't let your dc fall asleep on the drive from the airport. They will wake up full of the joys of Disney at 1am :-/

We did 14 days and didn't see all of the 4 disney parks. Dd found the heat oppressive and we couldn't be out in the middle of the day. (we went in May so not even the hot season,) We had a villa with a pool 15 mins drive from the parks and chilled out there from midday til about 4pm.

Even a 7 year old may need a pushchair (we saw many many older kids in them) the ones you can hire from Disney seem big enough for an older child. The distance from the car park to the park entrance alone was a long long walk.

Ok, so next question is - where's a good place to stay? Probably only need accommodation for one week and doesn't have to be fancy. I've seen some places have a free shuttle bus to parks. Which are the best areas to be close to Disney/SeaWorld/Busch Gardens?

We also went for first time last year, I think 2 weeks is good, plenty of down time between parks. Mine are a bit older but loved Universal ( think all tickets are cheaper when brought in uk, I might be wrong)
There is a Brit guide to Orlando that we found really useful. You can get it on amazon.

Withalittlesparkle carry on talking about Orlando if you want, I'm all ears. It's our first big holiday and I really want to make the most of it :)

Lolaismyfavouriteandmybest one thing I am slightly worried about is the heat - I'm VERY fair and my dd doesn't like being hot... but I won't think about that right now... :D

We are all fair too, coped in August by going out in morning or late afternoons/nighttime. Aircon is great everywhere and the queues are undercover and air conditioned. Sometimes we joined a queue (any queue) to get out of heat!
Plenty of water/sun cream/hats. Take it easy.

We stayed on international drive too but wished we'd stayed at one of the Disney hotels. Purely for the all day buses you can get at anytime. We had a shuttle from our hotel too but they were restricted to morning and evening. If we had had enough too early we had to get a cab back. What I'd have preferred was to go early to park, head back to hotel to cool in pool when really hot then head back for a late night to see the fireworks etc. we did that towards the end and it was soooo much better. I guess it comes down to finances and preference but the cost of cabs made the saving at our hotel not really worth the extra hassle. Next time I'm going for Disney hotel then maybe a few days at a universal hotel. If I win the lottery of course.