Florida - am I being realistic?

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We are planning a Florida trip with DC 17 &12 we've never been before and not sure that we will go again so need to fit as much in as possible.

We plan to stay for 17 nights and want to do the following:

Disneyland - all parks
Universal
Cape Canaveral
Air boat trip - Everglades or similar
Beach - Clearwater beach for 2/3 nights

Our plan is to rent a villa/condo on one of the Orlando resorts, have 2 nights in Hard Rock Universal hotel (for the express passes) and relocate to the beach for the last 3 days for a relaxing end to the holiday.

My worry is that the list of things we want to do is unrealistic and is going to be completely exhausting.

Any thoughts?

My other question is whether it's worth paying extra for premium economy seats? DH really wants to do this because he's tall and wants to be as comfortable as possible.

i would book 3 weeks we booked 3 weeks it was still not enough time lol .Get the disney seaworld ticket its cheaper.Then get a day or two ticket for universal wile out there .But if you want to stay in hotel get a two day ticket that's a nice idea.Tourist Information Center will help you theres one in orlando .

https://www.orlandoattractiontickets.co.uk/Ticket/Disney-SeaWorld-Park-Switch-Ticket

car rentals be careful most say one price online then add several grand of charges over there.National car hire i found to be most trust worthy.We used kayak to find car rental and flights .We used airbnb ,check the reviews of course .

For clearwater we just did a day trip ,like any beach trip we left early in morning its a 2hr drive not bad for a day.It was lovely

Such a nice trip but give your self time to relax at were ever your staying .Plus time to go to shops,explore ,get lost in wall mart lol

What time of year are you planning on going?

That's a good list of things to do! You can do it, but you need to plan the days well and prepared to feel a bit tired imo 😊

How tall is your DH? We're both over 6ft over here and anything but premium / business is agony long haul, especially if someone in-front reclines. Premium is even touch and go depending on the plane!

Disney - all parks

For this I'd probably see if you can get in touch with a Disney planner or similar if you don't have the time to plan it, to do all of the parks / all of the rides you want to minimise queues you'll want to look at pre booking lightening lanes and perhaps restaurants? There's really clever ways of plotting your routes around the parks and pre booking lightening lane slots so you minimise waiting in queues 😊

Universal - there's two parks here plus a water park and at the age of your DC probably more thrill rides for them, they might want to spend more time here than Disney depending on their likes? You can do each of the universal parks in a day with the fast pass, but it's a lovely place to take at a more relaxed pace and really enjoy the rides / theming.

Definitely agree with the fast passes from hard rock, you also get to use a cute little water taxi to get to city walk from the hotel. Utilise the early entry to the parks and you can normally get a ride or two done before the rest of the parks are even open (we did velocicoaster 3 times before they'd let everyone else in!) and it's really fab. At Hard Rock you'll also have use of their booking concierge who can get reservations at the city walk restaurants (like toothsome and big fire) that can be harder to get last minute!

Everglades boat trip is doable in a day, but a long drive depending where abouts you're staying.

Yes that’s do-able

i think premium economy is significantly more comfortable than economy but depends on the price you’re being quoted as to whether it’s good value or not.

windsor hills is a good villa complex near to Disney

an alternative would be to ditch the beach at the end and build in more rest or water park days in Orlando

What time of year are you planning on visiting?.

PE seats are better for the legs re circulation if family members are tall.

Given your DCs ages I would reconsider actually visiting all the Disney parks (MK in particular is aimed at younger children) and instead only visit Hollywood Studios for the day (as this park has the new Star Wars land and attractions there). All parks are generally a lot busier on Fridays and the whole weekend.

I would also spend two days at Universal dividing this further into seeing one park per day. Consider also adding Busch Gardens in Tampa to that list if you are planning to be in the Clearwater/St Petes beach areas for any length of time (as this is connected with SeaWorld a combined admission ticket can be purchased).

Re Cape Canaveral and NASA I would check in advance what events on site or rocket launches are on for the day you propose to visit. It may be possible to be a part of a tour where a former astronaut is present for you to ask questions of, this should be booked online in advance. (If you are over the age of 55 you can purchase a senior ticket re admission).

As the Everglades is far more accessible from Miami (its about a 30 minute drive from there) I'd skip this altogether.

We did 3 weeks one year and did most of the parks (stayed overnight at hard rock too). We made sure we had rest days in between and we just about scraped everything in. It's tiring as it's so very hot and humid there so you will need to have a pool/rest day to recuperate.

We went back 4 years ago for two weeks and didn't do any parks except Disney springs - we just pottered about . Definitely go to Clearwater as it's lovely and can be done in a day. I preferred this as it wasn't as rushed and we didn't feel like we had to go anywhere to get our moneys worth.

I love Disney stuff , but the parks are a bit meh IMO. I had a 4hr old and 6yr old when we went the first time and they didn't seem overly impressed with it. Apart from the Star Wars bits and Toy Story. Universal is much better and they much preferred it.

We are long term expats and regularly fly long haul. My 6'5" husband manages fine in economy as long as he has an aisle seat.

We really enjoyed a Busch Gardens too - it's a nice drive and th park has some good rides.

We often find that the extra legroom seats, or exit seats, are cheaper and give you the extra space.

Thanks for all the replies I'm working through them and compiling a few supplementary questions.

We are planning to go over Easter 2024 and 17 days is the maximum leave my husband can take. Additionally our dates only mean the DC will miss 3 days just before the Easter holiday starts, fir once the inset days have worked in our favour.

At Easter, there's spring break + Easter holidays so it can be mega mega busy, I'd just build that into your time frames 😊

The Everglades are great, but a long drive from Orlando. I did an airboat tour there whilst driving through after staying in Naples and then on towards Miami. There’s nothing else there except gators.

The DIBB is a great source of advice and information. It has a forum you can ask questions on etc and a lot of people there have been many times so know all the tips and tricks

I think that's fine. We had 6 nights in Disney and 3 in Universal at Easter and managed to do what we wanted. Then had a few nights in Naples and did the Everglades etc. Did all the planning ourselves. We didn't do Seaworld etc though.
I loved planning it all - the Disney bit needs it!

Good Friday in 2024 is on March 29th.

Easter is peak season in Orlando and for the parks as a whole. Airlines also have cottoned onto the fact that many schools now have the first two weeks of April off regardless of when Easter falls so airfares rise around those weeks too.

Often cheaper to fly into Miami - not a bad drive up to Orlando or stay the first night there.

We planned in water park days as "rest" days. Honestly the best water park is Volcano Bay at Universal. The "lazy" river TeAwa is the life jacket one and rapidly moves you along complete with mini tidal which lifts you. Also Krakatau water coaster is hands down the best water ride I have ever been on. If you stay on site ie Hard Rock you should get early entry with an hour before the general public are allowed in. They open some slides so you can get on them. As you will have FOTL (front of the line) for Universal it makes it easy to go into a park on the afternoon and not feel like you are queuing for years. Favourite rides Hulk, The Mummy (we know the dialogue) and Transformers is epic.

The Dibb is brilliant for all things Disney. Last time we went was 2019 and my sons were 16 and 13 although we have been several times before so we know what we want to do and where to eat. There are lots of YouTubers who tour round both Disney and Universal so you can watch those and get a feel for it all. Hard Rock is a great hotel in terms of location and also just a cool place. Always music playing. We have stayed there back in 2016.

It is exhausting even when you take it easy but totally worth it. I would advise PE seats, Dh is 6'3" and just about squeezes into economy but we fly Aer Lingus out of Dublin because it works out cheaper than flying direct from UK airports, so we fly into Dublin and back out. You clear customs and immigration in Dublin so land at MCO and just collect your luggage and leave. Possibly worth looking into. As you are hiring a car consider flying into other airports nearby which can work out cheaper.

Easter it the busiest time to go but as long as you know that then you are prepared. Plus you won't have the really high heat or humidity. We have been at Easter, May and then our favourite time to go, August. We are looking to go back but with Ds1 at uni and Ds2 at sixth form we can't get dates aligned.

Hi OP - I think you may be pushing it, especially at Easter when it can be very busy due to Spring Break.

However, I think as long as you appreciate it will not be a relaxing time it is doable. I would maybe re-consider the Everglade trip as that's a long way away from Orlando. If it's the airboat you really want then there are plenty of operators in Orlando/Kissimmee - it won't be the true wilderness of the Everglades but it's still a proper airboat trip.

I would recommend combining the Kennedy Space Centre trip with your 2/3 nights at the beach, as they are all in the same place.

And yes, if the price is bearable I would definitely pay for premium economy. It does make a difference.

That's doable, we had a similar programme but in 14 nights.

Yes, it might well be exhausting - but it is worth it. Not point going all that way and not do everything you want to!

That's definitely doable and if you're worried about being exhausted from back-to-back days in the parks, why not do Disney, then Clearwater Beach, then back to Orlando for Universal and a day trip to Kennedy Space Center? That way you won't be doing theme parks day after day with no respite? The water parks are really different anyway and a lot more relaxing than the parks, so you could break up the walking/queuing days with water park days in between.

We did an airboat trip with Boggy Creek tours, which we did as a day trip from Orlando:

It's completely doable so long as you do t expect it to be a relaxing holiday. We've never done rest days other than classing a water park day as a 'rest' day tbh. We've paid a load ignominy and made the most of those tickets. Long days but fun ones. You can rest when home 😂

The space centre is fairly relaxed too compared to the theme park days.

No need to go to the everglades for an air boat ride. I can recommend wild florida. It's about a 1.5hr drive away

Wouldn't get me doing in 17 days 3 weeks yes