is 4 and 6 too young to appreciate DISNEY, FLORIDA?

[noonar]

hi. i've just noticed that key camp have started doing holidays to florida.

am thinking of doing a week in kissimee, a week in st petersburg and 3 days in naples (everglades?)

the car and accomomodation is about £1200 (lodges on quality campsites), but the flights are about £2300. (during summer hols- for a family of 4) not exactly cheap, but sort of within our budget.

does this sound like a workable itinerary for children this young?
tia

i went when i was five for the first time and loved it sounds like good ages for disney once you get to 10 uuniversal parks are more fun

I hope so - we're doing florida at xmas. Only thing I would say is that you won't get anything near everything done in a week if you want to take the kids to the parks. We're spending a fortnight in kissimee, and planning to drive round the south coast and stop over one night down there somewhere, so at least we can do most of the parks.

They love Disney at this age. St. Pete is also very good (Take them to the Dali museum in Sarasota, its fab for kids)

Definatly do the Everglades. Are you aware just how expensive Naples is?

What I'm hoping is that they are still young enough to be really taken in by the magic of it all, whereas if we wait until they are older, it won't be quite the same.
Ours is going to be a surprise, we are flying on xmas day - I've done special invitations and airplane tickets from buzz lightyear/the disney princesses on the computer to give the kids when we have a fake xmas day a few days early.

My dd is 4 and when she was there is September she was beside herself. Honestly its a good time for them.

thanks, all.

tbh, i'm not really into the idea of water parks, epcot (sp?) etc. i'd like them to enjoy the disney characters- that would be the main aim. surely if we wait, they'll be too old for the disney characters. hmm...

didnt know about naples. how much food and spending money would we need for a week at disney, dyou think?

also, tbh, the camping , beach and everglades appeals to me and dh alot more than the theme parks. we'd do that bit mainly for the dds.

i guess what i'm really saying is that we fancy a holiday in florida, and could cope with disney for a few days. but it wouldnt be 'me' to spend my whole holiday at a theme park.

They'll love it but won't remember much of it.
YOU will be exhausted.
3 days more than enough.

I have been 5 times (only 2 with dcs!).

Dd this time was 4: she LOVED it.
There is something for every age to enjoy there. I wouldn't worry about people saying, "Oh, they won't remember it." What does it matter? If they enjoy themselves at the time, and you enjoy them enjoying it, then that's enough. "They won't remember it" theory therefore must preclude one doing anything at all, including Christmas and birthdays, with children before they are about five, lest they don't remember.

Anyway, only caveat - the summer is very hot. And very crowded. Trying to do the Magic Kingdom in 90 degree heat with thousands of other people is not fun. Since your children are little and you could potentially avoid school holidays, try to choose another cooler and less crowded time of year.

noonar, Epcot is fantastic! The best bit IMO. If you're not going to do that, you might as well go to Paris and save yourself a fortune.

Disney does have a campsite

fircone, sadly i am a teacher, so have no choice! didnt think about the heat, tbh and i must confess that i havent a clue what epcot is.

re going to paris- i fancy a holiday in florida, and disney would be a nice bonus, but i like the idea of chlling out at a beachside campsite more than disney itself. also, i find america an intriging place, unlike many.

are you saying that florida isnt worth going to unless disney is your main focus? (maybe shouldve made this point in my OP!)

I think Florida is well worth a visit. We've been a few times and the theme parks are always the highlight for us but there are lots of other things to do as well.

If you can go towards the end of August then it will not be quite so busy as the American school holidays are earlier than ours.

I think 4 and 6 is quite young for the theme parks but I think they will enjoy it anyway. It can be a very long day for them so just be prepared to cut the day short if they are getting too grumpy and tired to enjoy themselves. They will probably love the characters - an autograph book is a must. For some of the more popular characters you sometimes have to queue to see them - although you can be lucky as they do all walk around the parks at some point.

An hour or two spent having lunch in an air conditioned restaurant rather than grabbing a snack on the go is a good way to recharge their energy.

My favourite beach resort in Florida is Sanibel Island.

oh, and the Orlando Science Center is excellent

very interesting chopchop. will check out the florida school hol dates. any ideas how?

Florida has so much to offer. Take it from a native Floridian.

Deep sea fishing
Swimming with Manatees
Indian reservations
Baseball games
Kennedy Space center
Edison &hemingways homes
Beautiful beaches

I could go on and on

sounds great, paula. what do you think of my itinerary?

and any tips for getting cheap flights in august. dont want to pay 2.5k!

We went to Orlando for 2 weeks at easter last year, dd's were 6 anf 4 at the time and we had the most amazing time. A week at disney doesn't really seem very long though, I'd consider extending the time you have in Kissimee. I agree that there is other things that older children would enjoy, but if you wait until they are old enough to go on all the fast rides, meeting the characters won't be as magical, our 2 dd's really believed they were real.

Noonar, are those flights into Orlando. If you are visiting St Petes as well you could try looking at flights into Tampa which are sometimes cheaper. Also check prices of charter flights going into Sanford airport in Orlando. Not sure you will get much cheaper in August though.

Not sure where you can check US school holiday dates. I just know that we went for the last two weeks in August and the prices of some accommodation etc was cheaper than it had been in early August (and queues were shorter after the first few days of our holiday). My nephew went to school in US and he used to finish school in early June for about 10 weeks.

We took our DD at age 3 1/2 and she loved it and so did we! We went just after Easter (fortunately we could plan outside school hols then!)
Only prob going in the summer is the weather

• be prepared for lots of rain (but only in short bursts)and the crowds

ChopChop - my in-laws adore Sanibel too!

they will love it

and you can always go again in a few years time

I can't recommend cheap flights but I can recommend virgin