11 nights in Florida - what do you think?

[Undecided90]

We are off to Florida for the first time in October. We shall be there for 11 nights - Me, DH, DCs aged 7 and 10.

So far I have only booked the flights. The plan is to stay in a Disney hotel for 4 nights to do Disney and then a villa in a beach for a week.

Is this likely to be too short a time in Disney? Wher is a good beach resort for the 7 days? I am overwhelmed with information.

Thank you. Do you think 4 nights is enough time? We are there for Halloween.

Have a look on the DIBB forum , loads of info. You'll find out everything you want to know. Very helpful people on there with loads of knowledge!

I would say 7 days at Disney and 4 at the Beach. Otherwise you will miss out on a lot Epcot and Magic Kingdom really need two days plus you won't get the best value out of your park tickets.

For the Beach I would travel further down into Florida, somewhere like Sanibel Island.

I would do possibly 5/6 nights in Orlando and the remainder in a villa.
October is a lovely time of the year to go- we have been at Halloween and Easter but Halloween was the better of the two. They really go all out for halloween

We had 14 nights doing the theme parks . The DCs loved it, but for me it was too much, I wish we had physically moved accommodation to another location by the sea for 7 nights of the 14.

Disney is vast. We had disney tickets for 3 weeks in Feb, went into the parks most days, and still didn't manage to cover it all! The crowds were horrendous though.

We had 3 days in Disneyworld. My dc preferred seaworld. But they were younger than yours.

We stayed in a great villa with a pool, I found it online, about 30 mins drive from Disneyworld. This was a big hit.

We then stayed at Clearwater beach for a few nights.

Beware October weather, it's hurricane season.

We did 2 1/2 weeks, 5 days in disney hotel, then a villa and last week on the beach. Are you going half term holidays as we were finishing in parks then and it was getting pretty busy. Which parks are you planning for 4 days? Check out the dibb, really great forum for all things disney but beware to have you head overwhelmed!

Thanks all. We will be there for UK half term. Arrive Oct 26th. Wondering whether to do 5 nights Disney and 6 nights beach now. Not sure if we will be able to book a villa for less than a week. Pretty certain we will stay at Disney hotel

I really think it will be pretty busy, might pay to give yourself as long as you can get at the parks. We did Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood studios,Animal Kingdom,Seaworld, Blizzard beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Some days we'd do a park early in morning then head to a a water park in afternoon as they got quieter or shop then go to a park and stay for the evening and fireworks.

Wondering if we should swap it to duo the beach resort followed by Disney then. I will take a look at DIBBs. Thanks all.

I'd go as far south as possible for your beach break. We've been three times in October, and generally the weather has been good/hot for some of the time, but with a few cooler days thrown in. That's fine for the theme parks, but if you want to be on the beach, then it tends to be warmer further south. Sanibel, Naples and Marco island are all lovely.

Sanibel is gorgeous. I went there years ago and have not forgotten its beauty. It is famous for its shells!

Disney also have Vero beach, I've never been but I've heard others talk highly of it.

verobeach.disney.go.com/

We come to Florida most years, plus I grew up there, so we never spend more than about 4 nights in Orlando. This year we did MK, AK, HS and the two water parks. If you book your accommodation independently, you can book for as many or as few nights as you want.

If doing Disney, we stay at Windsor Hills (this year in a condo, which was perfect for our needs, but we've also stayed in the terraced houses and the big houses, all great, and the clubhouse with resort pool has everything you need).

For beaches, my favourite is the Gulf Coast side, and really you can't go wrong. Sanibel and Captiva are good for shelling, Siesta Key near Sarasota has the most amazing cool Quartz sand, Anna Maria Island is well set up for tourists. We stay about 30-40 mins drive away from the beaches, and it's about a 90-100 min drive from Kissimmee in Bradenton.

With kids 7 and 10 have you considered Universal, esp if they are at all into Harry Potter etc. personally I think Epcot is skippable, we only did half a day when we went as ours weren't that interested. Personally I would not visit Seaworld for various reasons.