Florida October 2017 - help me plan :-)

[amidawsh]

DDs get a different half term to most schools so we are going to take advantage of this and go to Florida.
Firstly is this a good time to go? Oct 16th-27th approx?

We want to go to the space centre and harry potter. maybe universal studios. not bothered about disneyland.
Think we want a mix of lounging and theme parks.

any suggestions before i speak to a travel agent? i really have no idea...

Yes it's a Great time.
The dibb is a great source on info even if you are not doing Disney.

buy the books WDW with kids and Beyond WDW with kids. they are absolutely brilliant and will make sense of everything. I know of so many people that have got and used them - touring plans, tips and hints the lot.

thank you both so much

was thinking of flying to orlando, spending a few days doing the theme parks etc then driving to west beach.

does that sound do-able?

That sounds doable, don't go to sea world whatever you do. If you're even thinking of it, watch 'blackfish' .....

This is one of my favourite subjects!! We always go at October when we go, it's a great time. your plan sounds perfectly do-able. We've always booked through a travel agent but if you are comfortable booking yourself you can get it cheaper (saying that we couldn't this time - TA was cheaper)

ok we won't user18...

thanks boysnme a lot of the travel companies seem to fly mostly from Manchester. If we want to go from Heathrow or Gatwick, is there a particularly good one?

Sent you a pm

If you use netflights or skyscanner, and put in your dates and destination, it will find the best prices flights for you. We also found that this way we could fly into Orlando and out of Miami, which was great for us as we wanted to do a 10 days in Orlando and then 4 days on the lower west coast, so saved us having to drive all the way back up.

thanks budgiegirl, where did you stay on the lower west coast? any recommendations?

We based ourselves at the Embassy Suites in Estero, as they have rooms for 5, and a big shopping mall next door! Then drove each day to a different beach - Naples (which was my favourite) , Fort Myers Beach etc. We spent the last day driving the Tamiami Trail, stopping for an airboat ride in the Everglades, then then the afternoon at South Beach, Miami before heading for the airport in the evening.

If you prefer not to come as far down, friends of ours stayed at Anna Maria Island, which they loved.

sounds fab

We did 2 days st Universal Studios and stayed at a Universal hotel nearby do we could get fast track tickets and early entry for Harry Potter to beat the crowds - was worth it.

Also stayed on the amazing uncrowded, unspoilt beach at St Augustin on the north east coast. St Augustin is lovely and little known with european tourists.

Also stayed at Siesta Keyes at Sarasota which was lovely with a holiday vilkage feel.

thanks bambambini
was 2 days enough for universal studios?
good tip to stay at a universal hotel.

do you remember the hotel at St Augustin?

We aren't big park goers so didn't really go for the parks so 2 days was enough - especially with fast track - so less queuing. We did do 2 waterparks as well though which was a lit of fun.

We did 2 nights at a universal studio hotel to get the free fast track and early entrance then stayed 3 nights at a lovely hotel near disneyland (though didn't go)

St Augustine, we stayed In an apt in a condo right on the glorious beach. St augustine was only a 10 min or so drive away. There are plenty of hotels in St Augustine. I really loved it.

If you want to do all parts of Harry Potter, you need to have tickets for both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, as the Hogwarts Express links the two parks, with separate Harry Potter themed rides in each park.
If you stay in a Universal hotel and get fast passes, then you may find two days in enough in total. Otherwise, I'd allow 3 days between the two parks.