Florida itinerary- thoughts?

[indiesearcher]

Hello all,

I'm looking for advice on the rough schedule below before I plan it any further!

Travelling in early-mid February next year with DH and 2 DC (7, 9):

6/7 days Orlando - 2 days Disney, 1 Universal, 1 Kennedy. 2 rest days, maybe a water park.

Drive to Sanibel island.

3 nights Sanibel. Is there much to do except beach bum?

2 nights Miami

Fly home from Miami.

If we were to squeeze in an extra day or two where would you do it?

TIA!!

More time in Orlando unless you really love the beach. Go to Sea World.

Sadly can't stomach Sea World now (and I LOVED it in my youth, actually went on two career camps there etc).

@Nannyamc

Did this many yrs ago. Disney × 4 enough..clearwater × 6. 12 and 8 loved clearwater more. Found Disney tiring.

I think this must be roughly how my dad played it when he took us a few times. Maybe 7/7. We loved St Petes... this is many years ago though!!

Don't go to sea world.
I agree with a pp a trip on airboat in the Everglades is great.

I wouldn't waste two days on malls.
You could do Disney springs one afternoon/evening.

Sanibel/Captiva Island is lovely as well as Ding Darling Nature Reserve, you can hire a boat and go fishing, there's a sea shell museum. We do mostly relax round the pool & go to the beach there though. Where are you staying in Sanibel? There are some great restaurants.

I'd definitely increase time at the parks - there's so much to see and do, so I think it's less overwhelming if you give yourself as much time as possible.

Hollywood studios is great and Epcot worth a half day. We did two days at universal and didn't manage to go all the rides we wanted to.

Disney springs definitely worth a visit.

As a PP said, look at The Dibb website for tips. I spent a lot of time planning our trip, but it meant that we managed to experience lots of shows, rides and attractions with no stress so it was worth it.

These tips are all so helpful - thank you all! Manatees - yes please!!!

@indiesearcher We usually do just a week in Orlando and have either focused on Disney or universal each trip.

This year we did universal and had a 4 day ticket but didn't end up using the 4th day because we had done everything we wanted to do. We didn't do volcano bay though.

We have done one day at Magic Kingdom which was ok but didn't get much done (despite being there from rope drop until fireworks) and this was without children in tow and early 2020 pre covid so also without the crazy crowds I've seen there at the moment (though hopefully crowds will have calmed down by next Feb). So I would just say not to go with high expectations or skip it and go back for a Disney trip when you will have time to make the most of it.

We did 7 nights in Orlando and 7 nights in Naples.

In Orlando we did
3 days universal - both parks + volcano bay
1 day Disney which was enough for us - magic kingdom, when we went you could buy day tickets on the gate but not sure if it's the same since COVID!
1 day Kennedy - I agree it's a must!
2 days shopping/other things - mall at millennia, premium outlets, Disney springs, a crocodile place which the name escapes me

Lots of people do 10-14 days in Orlando and struggle to see how people fit it in less, we couldn't afford any longer there (and a week near the Everglades was equally as important to us) and we fit everything in well and had a fab time.

@BlueSpottedGiraffe your trip sounds ideal - just what we have in mind, brilliant to hear it worked for you!

I'm looking at Universal Endless Summer resort (surfside), and also the Loews Sapphire Falls. Does anyone know if the endless Summer (budget) hotels are ok? Photos certainly look lovely!

Dont do kennedy centre its not worth it

I disagree. It is worth it.
I would add a trip to somewhere where you can see alligators. We did an airboat ride.

We aren't parade people, so when we went to Disney parks we'd be at the gate for opening time ( easy as your body clock still on UK time) and whizz round all the rides using fast passes once it started to get busy ( about 11). We'd have an early lunch then relax at the pool in the afternoon.

We still ended up having a few non park days in our schedule, to get over the sensory overload at Disney . I suspect that you'll feel rushed for the Orlando parks bit, I've not been to the other places so I can't comment.

Hi Op, we're just back from a 10 night stay in Orlando mid feb. Our DC are 12 and 10 so just a little older than yours. We stayed at Cabana Bay which we all loved! Shuttle buses down into universal city walk almost constantly and Volcano bay is literally next door. It's aboit a 10-15 min walk if you fancy walking. I did get a shuttle bus to Endless summer one day as I wanted to go to the walgreens across the road and it looked great too, very similar to Cabana Bay.

We got the 14 day Universal pass and it was worth every penny. We were there every day. Either doing the parks first thing with the early access that your hotel grants you or going up for a slower walk around in the evening time. If your kids love Harry Potter you will want to do both parks as it's spread out over two parks with Hogwarts on one side and Diagon Alley in the other, you can get the Hogwarts express between them both.

We did 3 days at Disney only because we didn't want to go the whole way there and not do Disney. It's very expensive for what it is and out DC preferred Universal but they appreciated the experience. Their favourite was probably Hollywood studios because of the two bigger rides and then all the Star Wars stuff. For Disney tickets we found one website that sold them by the day - Orlando Attractions.com and bought 3 park pass from then. Everywhere else seems to only sell 7/14 day tickets.

We spent a morning at Florida mall but we wish we had have had a full day there. Lots of afternoons we spent by the pool which was heated so a nice temperature in Feb. We had such an amazing time! Just be aware that presidents days falls in February and it was very busy that weekend with American holidayers. We were very glad we have done the main rides earlier in the week as the queue times were massive once the presidents weekend rush hit.
Hope some of this helps.

Also meant to say Volcano bay was brilliant! We went on a cloudy Saturday and it was empty. We didn't queue for any of the rides and did every ride about 2/3 before the park started to get anyway busy. I was worried it would be cold as it was cloudy and mid feb but the water you drop out into is so warm! It was definitely one of our favourite days.

What is nice @indiesearcher is that we all seem to be suggesting a very similar itinerary for you!

I love all the Universal Hotels - because of the location on International Drive it is well located. Sapphire Falls is a deluxe hotel at a reasonable price (it was built to the same spec at the more expensive hotels but on completion they realised they couldnt add express passes). Lovely theming and walking distance to the parks. Rooms are two double beds though which is a downside

The Surfside is built on the old Wet n Wild site so further out and needs a resort bus to get there (frequent) but does offer a 2 bedroom suite if you want more space

If you get a ticket that covers your stay (good value) both mean you can visit somewhere in the day and pop in later. Or take advantage of the early morning opening. We found that getting there for early morning opening meant that in the first 2 hours you could get a lot done and then go off and do something else.

@Aquamarine1029

More time in Orlando unless you really love the beach. Go to Sea World.

Don’t go to Sea World. I can’t believe someone is recommending it.

We stayed at Cabana Bay which we all loved!

We stayed there. I didn't love it. The rooms were nice, but I hate huge, impersonal hotels. I much prefer the small family run places that we stay in when we holiday in the Med. I realise that you aren't going to get that in Orlando, but I wouldn't stay there again.

It was very convenient for Universal though, and the shuttle bus was brilliant.

Personally I would want longer in Orlando.
You can just stick to the HP stuff in Universal but do doth parks- start in one then take the Hogwarts Express across. So that would be a day.
Kennedy is brilliant- full day there.
Disney- I would want a day in each park, love Animal Kingdom and there’s so much new stuff in Hollywood Studios. But Magic Kingdom is Disney so couldn’t miss that! I like Epcot too but guess you could miss that.
Definitely a water park day.
I’d say a week in Orlando at least and that will be a busy week.
Gulf Coast- I love Anna Maria Island and you can shop from there- malls at Sarasota and Ellenton outlets.

One night in Miami if you are flying from there would give you enough of a vibe which gives you another day to play with.

I would say 2 days at magic Kingdom, one to go first thing in the morning and the second visit there go in the afternoon and stay til the fireworks at the end of the night. If you're set on only 3 days at Disney I would say magic X 2 and animal x1 (plus Hollywood if adding a 4th day) Volcano bay is best water park. Id say 3 days for universal too, especially if you have Harry Potter fans. Make sure your universal park tickets are the hopper ones where you can go to both parks in same day, then you can take Hogwarts train to the other park. Do it, even if it's just for the Hogwarts ride and you get straight back on to go back.

@RampantIvy Well that's the thing isn't it? We're all different and as the OP was looking at Endless Summer I was giving my opinion on a similar hotel. You won't get small family run hotels in Orlando.

You need more than 2 days at Disney. I did a full 14 days there!