Right age and What would our budget need to be?

[cleomummy]

Dh and I are debating if we should go to Disneyland Florida next year or wait another year. If we go next summer, will that be too hot? Dcs will be 7.7 and 5.5. Obviously if we went the following year they would be 8.7 and 6.5. Which age do you think is the best in terms of coping with the heat, waiting, walking, and enjoying the experience and getting the most out of it?

Also, another factor is if we can save enough. We want to go for three weeks. We are lucky enough to have air miles so wouldn't need to factor in flights from the UK.

Proposed schedule was;

Fly to Florida and do Disney world 5-7 days enough?
Fly over to San Francisco to see Dsis.
What could we realistically do for the remaining two weeks around there? We want to do a bit of a road trip. But not too much or too far as dcs young.

What budget would we need? Planning on staying in mixture of villas and hotels and with my dsis for 5 days.

It's not just the heat it's the humidity and the queues and the organisation and pre planning needed to get the most out of it! There are 6 Disney parks plus 2 water parks. We did 9 nights Disney, 1 night Kennedy space centre (fantastic, this is a must, you meet an astronaut, you see a space shuttle etc), 5 nights captiva island with dolphins, chilling out etc.
Disney is exhausting so rather than cram it into a few days, spread it our with pool days and water parks, you'll get more out of it.

Went last summer with a 3.5 year old (was brilliant! We have booked for next year when DC will be 5 years old.

Your kids are at a great age to go, no need to leave it longer - there's loads to do for younger ones.

We tend to do 7-10 days in Disney and then spend a week travelling around a bit and have been to Clear water, tampa, Naples, Everglade city & the Everglades , Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Key Largo, Key West. Depending on what we have time for. Hoping to get a ferry across to Bahamas from Miami next time.

Thanks for the replies.

Sounds amazing. We would definitely need to go over to SF to see my dsis and spend the rest of the holiday on that coast. I am wondering if 3 weeks will be enough.

Could you give me an idea of how much you spent please, not including flights.

What about flying to LA and going to Disney California instead, then driving up the coast to SF and flying home from there?

Why Florida then California? My choice would be to forget Florida, leave it for another year as the little one will enjoy better, fly to California in winter when Disney is less busy so avoiding excessive heat, pay the premium to skip the queues, research the other places you would like to visit between L.A. and San Francisco and have fun planning your vacation.

Cost will be more than you bargained for.

That was my original plan to go to Disney California but Dh thinks that Disney California isn't as good as the Florida one.

We only want to go once really, it will be a bit of a once in a lifetime holiday for us and I want to try and tie it all in together. I wouldn't want to pay the price again to do Florida as a separate holiday

Are they much the same or is Florida lots better?

We went when our daughter was four and she was definitely not too young. She loved it. And we were surprised by how much we enjoyed it too. There is a lot of walking though, and she ended up on my husband's shoulders quite a bit.

Are you sure you will be able to use air miles? I have thousands of the bloody things as they are so difficult to spend.

If booking for next year you need to book now to get the good deal on the dining plan etc etc. (it's free dining plan, Photos, etc at the moment). Just booked myself

Book into a Disney hotel, so you get fast passes and limit queueing time. It also means you get extra magic hours, again worth their weight in gold for cutting queue times.

With the dining plan you can then get some princess meals, which are a much better way to meet characters than queuing!

I'd do a night or two at Hard Rock Hotel Orlando, to do all the Harry Potter stuff at Universal. It really is great and with Hard Rock you get unlimited fast track onto the rides so while its not a cheap hotel, very little queuing required. in fact I think 1 night hotel gives you two days fastpass access to the universal parks. You just need to buy entrance tickets.

"Once in a lifetime" you may find as they get older and are interested in different things they want to go on more roller coasters.

On an age note I took the Ds's several times to Disney Land Paris - the last time DS1 was 6.5. He can remember NONE of it. But that said they both loved it. I even took him on the Peter Pan ride to jog his memory....nope.

Thanks for the replies.

Tickingthebox- you mind me asking me how much it cost you, how many going and for how long?

Well..... Disney isn't cheap...

We are 4 "adults" so one 11yo, one 14yo and DH and I.

5 nights at the beach club in July 2020 is £2185 (NOTE Deluxe Hotel, the basic ones are much cheaperl)
You get free Standard Disney dining - so all meals (I can elaborate if you want, but basically you only need to pay tips at restaurants), and all free photos which is invaluable!. (basic hotel is free breakfast, moderate not sure, deluxe, free food). Animal kingdom lodge is £1850 - lowest priced deluxe.

I then upgraded the dining, - but you really don't need to do this. That was +£580....I wouldn't bother though I just did as want to do some specific character restaurants which need more dining credits.

Tickets added in were £1580, but this is 14 days so doesn't increase if you go an extra night

The cheapest rooms in Hard Rock are (I think) $399 but 100% worth it for the fast pass you get for universal. We will do 5 nights here as well, and from memory Universal tickets for 5 nights are about £900.
You have to add meals in here...or go rock star and pay a bit more!!

I would fly to SF to see your sister first and then remain in CA. You could travel into LA from SF and go to Disneyland in Anaheim. Disneyland and WDW are very different parks and each have their own unique attractions.

It is little to no point starting in Florida and then having to travel across country (there is also a three hour time difference between SF and the East Coast). I would therefore suggest you start at the furthest point i.e. SF first and work eastwards.

Apart from that US internal flights are expensive (especially when compared to UK carriers) and you will be charged extra for hold luggage (per case).

Summertime in FL can be very humid and thunderstorms every afternoon can be a real possibility.