Disney Florida - I'm baffled and don't know where to start

[WelshMoth]

I've been reading the various threads up here - loads of great advice and tips so thank you! I'll keep reading those.

I've never even been to EuroDisney, so I have no idea of the magnitude of Disney Florida. I suppose I'm trying to get my head around the concept - is it one massive park? Loads of Massive parks? How do I even start to plan my days?

I just don' tknow where to start basically.
We have 2 weeks there in mid - end August.

This is the package we have....(DH booked - I was in work, so I have no real clue what's what):

Package

• Accommodation: Disneys Caribbean Beach Resort 10 days then Universals Loews Portofino Bay Hotel (4 days) - EXCURSION: 3 Park Universal Explorer Ticket - EXCURSION: Disneys 14 For 7 Ultimate Ticket With Memory Maker - OFFER: PDM - Special Offer - TRANSFER: Magical Express.

Also, am I being really thick, but what is the Magical Express?!

I'll have a look at the vid when DD gets off my PC!!

Its huge, but there's several separate parks so start by going to each one for a day then the water park (though half a day was plenty for me, we returned to one of the parks after. There's parades, activities etc all listed in the guide, ours was paper but now it's online. We found 5 days was plenty, you can have too much Disney magic! But there's lots of other things in the complex. Travel is by buses and expect to spend quite a lot of time travelling. Meals may require reservations, they didn't when we went but it was quite a long time ago, however more recent visits to Paris have been logistically hard for food unless you ate at McDonald's as queues are stupid or require reservations

Re the parks

Disney:

There are 4 very different theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
There are also two different big water parks.
The shopping and entertainment complex is Disney Springs. There is also Disney Boardwalk for other eateries.

Magical Express is the name of the transfer bus that will take you from and to the airport.

There is also Disney transportation between parks, hotels and Disney springs. These can get very busy.

Universal:

Your ticket covers all three of their parks: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are both theme parks. Volcano Bay is the water park. The two theme parks are joined by a food and entertainment area called City Walk.

Universal isn't part of Disney and is therefore not covered by the Disney transportation.

We've been to Florida around 10 times now and our 17y loves it. Luckily both me and dh enjoy coasters and theme parks too. We've also been to Disneyland Paris and California, the Universal parks in California and Singapore, and off to the Japan Parks in the summer.

Oh and get travel insurance yes, it won't get you your money back exactly but will help if flights are messed up. Expect nightly thunderstorms anyway, and sudden torrential downpours.

Re hurricane season.

In all the time we've visited we have only encountered one hurricane, Charley back in 2004.

It was fine. The parks closed at 2pm the day of the storm and reopened an hour later than normal the next day with nothing out of place.

It may seem overwhelming to organise your trip. We bought Brit Guide Orlando 2018 (think it's updated yearly to include new attractions). It gives good tips and helps you plan your days with an example plan. It helped us enormously. I didn't have the head to be trawling through websites looking for information.

@MummyParanoia101 It would totally depend on the time of year you went, if you were staying on site or off site. We stayed in a Villa, hire car, flights tickets in November 2017 cost us around 3.5k we are going next July, staying onsite, Disney dining plan and tickets (no flights yet) have cost us 5k. We first went when DS was 11 months and even then there was more than enough for him to do. DS will be 3.8 when we go next and there will be even more to add to the list. A 5 year old will be in their element!

I’ve been to Disneyhell at Florida and LA, Florida was crazy, 4 parks, I think you need two days in each park, we didn’t get to go to Epcot as we ran out of time.

Check your insurance covers natural disasters, I paid about £2 extra to add that to our insurance otherwise we would not be covered. You’d get back home no problem without it, the insurance would cover any extra costs.

The US really does not do a breakfast option at the hotel in the same way Europe does - they find it odd.

You will find a foodcourt when you can buy stuff but we normally take over a lot of cereal bars in suitcases to cover that (and gives us space for souvenirs on the way back).

Or we eat a nice breakfast and then dinner (2 meals a day) portion size is such that is fine for us

Also I bought all our park tickets via Attraction Tickets they were cheaper and I got a lot of cash back buying via Quidco

We used Uber to get to the parks - quick, cheap and no long queues.

The water parks are really fun and break up the theme park days - otherwise it can feel quite relentless!

We did it in October. My second trip (first when I was a child). I was completely overwhelmed but then read a lot on dibb and came up with a rough plan.
Top tips:
Use the transport provided on site - very easy and air con
Have a plan for each day including looking at the parks map and roughly plan ride order.. there are some rides that have very long queues so best to use fast passes for these ( staying on site you have an advantage and can book these 60 days out).
Book restaurants at six months or as soon as possible around each day.
Have rest days or rest afternoons factored in. We used the fact that we were in British time and got to parks very early and then often went back after lunch. Sometimes coming out again.
Be flexible - we did flex the plans - when we were tired, saw a short queue etc.
My husband was absolutely beyond sceptical and he loved it. My children talk about it every single day.
The planning was worth it

I recommend the Brit guide to Orlando

Staying on site will make it really easy - magical express is the coach transfer to your Disney hotel. Not sure how it will work on return if you’re at universal though?

You won’t need a car on property and now have to pay to park, so anything you might save by going off site to eat would be cancelled out by car hire and parking. Check out Disney Food Blog on YouTube and their website for amazing dining tips - you can eat really well at Disney.

As others have said, as resort guests you’ll all get “magic bands” which you link to your park tickets - you can then use these to enter the parks, to use your fast passes and as resort guests you can also use them to pay for stuff in the parks.

At Disney you can pre book 3 fast passes per person per day - these are for shorter wait lines. Once all your fast passes are used, you can book another one.

At universal your hotel comes with free universal express passes which give shorter lines for most rides. I suggest getting lanyards for the family so you can put your room keys and express passes in them to save faffing around at every queue. I recommend booking mythos in Islands of Adventure for food. There is also a good outlet mall called international premium outlets about 10 mins from universal and your hotel will have a car service (like a taxi) you can use.

Pack thin plastic ponchos for sudden downpours and really really comfy shoes (sketchers are popular)

There are water fountains all over the parks, and all the restaurants will give you cups of ice water.

Have fun!

This thread has been incredibly useful - I cannot thank you enough!

I'm going to check a few things with the travel agent so I'll definitely check the airport transfer back from
universals hotel.

Huge thanks!

We normally grab a cab (6 of us so Uber is same price) and it’s 50 dollars always remove airport transfer as more expensive

Download the my Disney experience app on your phone.
Link your reservation with your booking number.
Here you can book advance dining reservations (ADRs) at 180 days prior.
More popular table service restaurants def need booking early particularly the character ones.
You also book fast passes on MDE at 60 days.
The Disney parks are
Magic kingdom
Epcot
Animal kingdom
Hollywood studios
Each park has ride tiers for fast pass (google them), you can generally book one choice from A and two from B.
Once you have used them you can book one at a time through the app.
Use the free resort buses to get to the parks.
Universal is made up of City walk ( shopping and restaurants) and island of adventure park and universal studios.
Your room key works as an express pass in those two parks so join the express queue rather than the standard.
There are boats which take you from the hotel to city walk for the parks.

The Dibb forum is fab for all Florida.
If you have any questions feel free to PM me

Apart from Magic Kingdom which just has one tier

Also in a August Mickeys not so scary Halloween party is on which is great (but extra)

Also if you are there over the 29th aug Starwars opens at Hollywood studios, I imagine the crowds will be unbelievable.

207 days to our visit

I haven’t done it myself but as you aren’t on the dining plan it might be an idea to get a food delivery to your room. You need to pay a delivery charge and also there is a small onsite charge.
Food on site (because you are trapped) is expensive so I would get cereal/snacks delivered.

Get yourself magic bands as soon as you arrive and link them to your account and you no longer need to worry about carrying your tickets because you are wearing them. They also link to your memory maker and just need to be scanned for photos, both with the official photographers and also after rides.

Littlecandle as a resort guest that should be done automatically

I've never stayed in the resort - that is my idea of hell! We always get a villa and last year got the magic bands and memory maker with our tickets.

We stayed at the Disney beach club. It was fabulous. Quite how it would be anyone's idea of hell u don't know. The pool was fantastic, great location and the hotel v stylish. We liked it. Also got free Disney dining which we paid a supplement to upgrade.

hope you don't mind me gatecrashing! this thread has been really useful as we are looking at booking for August 2020 and have a quote for 5k from Disney for hotel, park tickets and dining. @Youvegotafriendinme where are you going to look for flights and roughly when do they go on sale? I'm just wary of book the resort but then have difficulty getting the flights to match up. Do you know if we were to go to Thomas cook and try and book a package whether we could get the free dining offer? thanks