Orlando park tickets

[MaggyNoodles]

Hi everyone!
We're planning a holiday in Florida later this year and are thinking about possibly doing a few of the parks.
We'll only be there for a week, will be staying about an hour away, and will only want to visit 2 or 3 parks (hopefully including a water park).
For various reasons, we won't buy tickets in advance, and if we do go, won't go for the whole day.
Is it possible to buy tickets on the day at any parks, and are they cheaper after a particular time?
Or, is there one pass that might suit us.
I've been trying to do my own research but it's overwhelming!
Many thanks.

7 years ago you could buy tickets at the gate ( Typhoon Lagoon ).
It’s the most expensive way I think, but obviously in your case ( as was ours ) we only wanted one or two days in the park.

one thing to be aware of is ‘child’ is anyone 9 and under.
Maybe 11 and under, but you get the idea.

You won't be able to do Disney as they are running a reservations system at the moment.

You can buy universal tickets on the gate I believe but it is expensive.

Not sure about the other parks.

As a PP said you reserve your Disney parks in advance now, so you would need to check the park you want to visit is available, purchase the ticket then make the park reservation.

You can in theory still buy them at the gate if you're lucky enough to want to go on a day when there's availablity.They also have flexible pricing, so the busier the park us the more they will charge you. You also then of course run the risk of going to purchase then veibg told there's no availability.

Universal is easier and you can pay on the gate as long as it isn't full, but again they have flexible pricing so hard to budget for if that's a factor.

I would ask on the DIBB forum. However you cut it though, it'll be very expensive.

We did one day in Universal in January
Was approx £560 for one adult and one teen

Disney are stopping day reservations in 2024 so depends when you go

But I'd buy a week for whichever you think you'll spend more time at
We chose Disney as more options

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful. We're 4 adults as far as tickets are concerned, but mental health issues will dictate when and whether we're able to go on any given day.
Where is the best place to get a week pass from? Honestly, my head is 🤯 from all the googling. Direct from the parks, or through an agent?

Alternatively, has anyone ever stayed on the space coast and not bothered at all with Orlando? Did you regret it?

i think the journey will take much longer than you think. Cocoa beach to magic kingdom is coming up as 1hr 15 minutes, plus you need to add on parking time, waiting for the parking bus to take you to the entrance, bag search.
I’d extend for a few days and do 5 nights Orlando and 5 nights cocoa Beach. Then you have the opportunity to dip in and out of the parks at will. If you stay in site, the people who get overwhelmed easily can always go back to the hotel.

If mental health issues serious enough to dictate the day are a factor I would not do the big parks, they are super stressful!!!

There's smaller parks, attractions and calmer areas which may work out better. My knowledge is 20 years out of date but even then it was crazy busy especially the water parks and I'm told it is now twice the number of guests (not significantly bigger)

Join a Facebook group called It’s Orlando Time. Someone else on here recommended it recently and I’ve found it very informative. There are lots of exceptionally knowledgeable Florida fans on there, very helpful people.

If one of the party has a disability look into the Disability Access Pass at Disney and the Attraction Assistance Pass at Universal. Both are aimed at people who might not cope with a long queue. At Disney you get given a time to come back equivalent to the current wait time. At Universal you can go in the express line if the wait is 25 minutes or under, or get a return time equivalent to the current wait time if its longer than this. We used it for my son with ASD and it was such a help

Great advice everyone, thankyou so much.
Our accommodation is already fixed and no diagnosed disability yet. It does all sound too much and very overwhelming for us.
We've made the decision to swerve Orlando and have a more relaxed kind of holiday.
@jkld and @x88mph thankyou for the website and FB group recommendations, I'm starting to put a much less stressful itinerary together already.

@MaggyNoodles DIBB is great, although it's set up as a Disney forum lots of the members do other areas of Florida and sometimes swerving Orlando altogether so I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice there.

The Kennedy Space Centre is brilliant and so much quieter than the main Orlando parks. You will have no problem getting tickets on the day (unless of course there is a shuttle launch lol)
We had a great day there, lots to see and do and the whole place was just really interesting, friendly and relaxed.

Thanks @PoptartPoptart KSC is our main reason for visiting. Good to know we could get tickets on the day.

Shuttle launch?

Look for the ‘lunch with an astronaut’ tickets at KSC.
If nothing else, you get a buffet style lunch inside an air conditioning room, and you snaffle a few bits n pieces for the rucksack later.
Plus an astronaut, likely a retired one.

When are you going? If you like wildlife the Merritt Island wildlife refuge is well worth a visit. We saw manatees in February, as well as alligators and many different birds, but I am not sure if they are there year round.

Mental health issues might qualify your party for a DAS pass at Disney parks if they would make it difficult to queue. You queue virtually instead and are given a time to go back to ride. It covers the affected party member and their group up to 6 people. It doesn’t need to be an officially diagnosed disability, just that it would make it difficult to queue. It’s approved via an assessment over the phone or when you get to the park - can take a while though, I know someone who was on the phone for 10 hours!

@tanstaafl we have everything crossed for a launch while we're there. We're lucky enough to be able to watch from where we're staying 🤞🚀
@WiseUpJanetWeiss this is definitely the kind of thing we're now planning, and have booked a few things. Thanks for the tip!
@Littlegoth We've pretty much made the decision not to go to the big parks. I'm not sure our family member would engage with a phone assessment, but this is useful information for anyone else following this thread for sure, thankyou.

Silver Springs is a lovely day out. About 1.5 hours from cocoa beach.