Florida and Disney recommendations please

[ViktoriaPlzen]

I’m looking for some advice about booking a 2 week holiday to Florida/Disney please, as I have never been there.
Looking to go some time in late May/early June 2024. As I do not wish the thread to be derailed, I will state from the off that; yes, I will be pulling the children out of school, I will be honest with the school, I expect to be fined and I am NOT interested in any debate about kids going on holiday during term time, I have made my decision.

I’m looking for recommendations of areas to stay. We’re looking for a Villa with a minimum of four bedrooms as there will be myself, DH, our two children who will be aged 5 and 9 and PIL’s. We’d also like to have enough space so that BIL and SIL who are resident in the USA could come and stay for a few days.

Flexible on departure airport, preference would be Birmingham but also willing to go from Manchester, Heathrow or Gatwick. I’m aware that there are a number of airports in Florida - which are the best to fly into? I’d like a maximum of a 90 minute transfer time from airport to accommodation if possible.

Parks - which are worth visiting and which ones would you not bother with? Over the course of two weeks we’d like a mixture of theme park days, waterpark days and beach days.

Car hire or rely on Uber? How easy is Florida to get around? I don’t have much experience of driving on the “wrong” side of the road!

Budget is £15K for the four of us.

Thank you

There's actually a Walt Disney World topic which you might find helpful. Only noticed it this morning when it popped up on my active threads

Oh thank you, I had no idea! I’ll have a look.

If you want beach days you'll likely need to hire a car as Orlando is central (unless there are excursions) you could perhaps tag a beach break on at the end.

We are doing 11 nights Disney and 3 nights universal, only breaking those up with the on-site water parks, we are not adding any other theme parks for this trip as that'll be plenty (2 days each Disney park, 1 day each water park- if both are open, and 1 day each universal park with express passes).

We didn't bother with car hire as we are saying on site and with car hire prices rocketing and how much you have to pay to park on site it didn't make sense to, that said staying in a villa with a bigger group I absolutely would, just don't forget to factor in parking costs and travel time as the traffic is quite bad in parts of Orlando depending on where you stay.

We stayed at a villa in Championsgate in 2019 and the villa resort was excellent. The villa had 6 bedrooms and a pool but there was also a large pool with kids slides and lazy river on the villa resort. There was a clubhouse that did evening meals as well. We booked through Virgin and hired a car. We never used Uber. The resort was The Retreat at Championsgate. There are private rental villas available on the resort if you wanted to book yourself rather than a package deal.

Your best bet would be to head over to the thedibb, it’s dedicated forum for all WDW trip planning and info. There is a villa communities map there as well. It’s been a while since we rented a villa as we hated the traffic on the I4 but we have previously stayed at Cumbrian Lakes and Windsor Hills (booked through Virgin holidays). Windsor Hills was the closest to the Disney parks. If you’re going to rent a villa, then I’d recommend hiring a car as public transport is pretty much non existent and you’ll be relying on Ubers or Taxis to get anywhere. If you stay onsite at Disney or Universal, they provide free transport between their resorts and their parks. Note there are no villa communities in Orlando itself, you will find them in Kissimmee, Celebration, Davenport etc. However there are plenty of town house and condo communities in Orlando.

We normally fly into Orlando International (MCO). It’s the biggest and closest and most airlines like Virgin, BA or the American carriers will take you into MCO. Some holiday companies like Tui fly into Sanford, a smaller regional airport about 30mins from Orlando. We’ve also flown into Tampa with BA once, it was about 1.5 hrs drive to Orlando. I’ve also known people to fly into Miami but this involves a 3-4 hr drive to Orlando.

Park wise, we pretty much love all of them and tend to do both the Disney parks and Universal most visits. However, first timers might find this too much and may prefer to do one set. If so, I’d suggest doing the Disney parks as there are more options and you get more bang for your buck. If you buy your 14 day Disney tickets from here, you get access to 4 Disney parks and 2 water parks - Magic Kingdom is the most classic, very family oriented and you will find the best parades and evening fireworks here. Epcot has some of the best rides in my opinion especially now with Guardians of Galaxy as well as the world showcase and good food, particularly during festivals like Arts or Food and Wine. Hollywood Studios has Galaxy’s Edge if you’re into Star Wars, I’m not particularly but the theming is done very well and Rise of Resistance is one heck of a ride. Animal Kingdom is also good, great Safari plus Pandora with Flight of Passage which is one of the best rides. Then you have the water parks - Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard beach, we prefer TL over BB.

Universal Orlando current has 2 parks plus a water park. This is where you will find the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, with rides and attractions split between the two parks and the Hogwarts Express connecting the two. If you’re adrenaline junkies, the best rides her are Hagrid’s Motorbike adventure, VelociCoaster and Hulk. Their water park (Volcano Bay) is in my opinion better than the Disney ones. In 2025, they will open Epic Universe which will be themed around Super Mario and rumour has the Fantastic Beasts Franchise.

I would highly recommend a 1-2 night stay at one one of Universals deluxe resorts (Portofino Bay, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific) as this gets your whole party express passes for nearly all the rides in the two parks (but not at Volcano Bay). I’ve known people to book a room in the middle of their stay and not use it just to get the express passes. - 1 night gets you 2 days worth of passes, the day you check in and the day you leave so it’s particularly good value for large groups.

Outside of Disney and Universal, there are Discovery Cove which we’ve done a couple of times, SeaWorld (controversial), Busch Gardens and the Kennedy Space Centre. You will need to travel out of Orlando to somewhere like Clear Water or Daytona for a beach day. We did a 2 day visit to Anna Maria Island a few years ago and it was amazing.

HTH and enjoy the trip planning!

Thank you all so much, this is amazing