Florida, Disney, Bahamas

[Floridatrip]

We are planning a trip next Easter 2 weeks to Florida; but not sure what to do exactly and where to base ourselves. Thinking 3 days in the parks, 3 days Miami? Not sure weather to do Florida keys or small cruise to Bahamas.

I would be grateful for advice from people who have been there.

@Floridatrip yes you will need a car everywhere. check driving distances and see how much time you need to get everywhere remember speed limit is often 50mph and strictly enforced. Be prepared to queue to collect a rental car at Orlando.
Its quite a long drive down the keys and at peak holiday times the traffic can be very slow. So I suggest you split the journey and stay at any of the small motels long the road. Just chill in a hammock and wander the seashore somewhere. Key West is amazing. Its like being in Central America. Chickens and cats everywhere. strong Hemingway theme. Not really any beaches its all rocky so limited options for swimming.
Not sure how interesting your kids will find it.
There will be people offering boat tours and fishing trips everywhere along the coast road.

Everglades are also weird and interesting. There is limited accommodation down there so pre-book it and pre-book park tours with the National parks service.

Just remember it is very hot and humid in Florida even at Easter so take your time, stay out of the sun at midday. Get up early to do things ( difficult with teenagers I know). Watch out for snakes and jellyfish.

Google St Augustine and the orange river.
Google central Florida state parks and St Johns river cruises. You can hire your own boat and go alligator spotting.
There is always crazy golf, ice cream and pizza everywhere.

hope this is helpful.

@Floridatrip Miami is fascinating for its architecture and walk the boardwalk on Miami beach. all humanity is there. the the great thing about Florida there are people there from all over the world. The bad thing is the lunatic Republican State Governor and the increasing trend to right wing politics.

Really depends on what you're after, mine were tweens. We did 2 weeks on site at Disney and Universal alone, it seemed the only efficient way to fully explore the parks whilst utilising the tickets (which are costly!) staying on site meant perks which helped with the queuing aspect (especially in Universal) but there are less perks these days. As your kids are older they may appreciate Universal over Disney anyway, you could do a few nights at a premium hotel, get express passes and get Universal done with limited queuing.

We plan to go back in a few years and take in much more of Florida; Miami, Ever Glades, Keys and maybe a drop into Orlando, but it's helped by the fact we soaked up the parks for the kids so don't feel the need to do them again unless we want to, but we'll likely do that in California instead.

I don’t think we are Disney and park mads, but have only done Disneyland Paris so I think It would be good to go an experience the ones in Florida as so many people have been and think is great. We also love natural scenery and beaches and the girls enjoy shopping too, good food and experience other cultures.

Maybe 2 days Miami, 5 Parks and 7 days the keys, maybe Key West including a day to Everglades.

Google said Miami to Key West is 3 hours? Maybe without traffic? And Miami to Orlando 3.30 hours.

We stayed 10 days, and got Disney tickets that allowed any 7 days in the 10 day period. I think we actually used 6 days, between the water parks and safari one as well as the 3 main ones (we went to Epcot and Magic Kingdom a few times each - some days did a water park in the morning and a main park for dinner and late evening rides and entertainment).

We also went on a canoe trip down a river about half an hour drive away - with a guide and seeing all the local wildlife, with a picnic and swimming at the end. Which was lovely and very different.

And a day at NASA in Cape Canaveral. Which was fascinating and not long enough for us!

Dd was about 6 when we went. We got an apartment in a complex which had a pool and had an outlet mall across the car park. And we went to a few other malls as well.

We felt at the time dd was too short for most things in Universal so didn't bother going there (but she could do most rides in Disney).

We were there for 4th July and it was hot and humid. Having the apartment was great to go back for breaks and having lots of swims to cool down. Drink lots of water and let kids run through the fountains that are scattered around - they dry out again in minutes but it does cool and refresh them! Even adults need breaks in places like Disney. We also had a renta car which meant we could get out and about when we wanted and weren't restricted to park buses etc.

One thing with Disney was they had maps of all parks in each of them, so we got these and planned the evening before what 1 or 2 things we'd really like to do in tomorrow's park, knowing it might mean long queues, but figuring out where there were food places near those or an ice cream stop just before joining a queue etc. Made it much easier for dd to handle.

We’ve been on a Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral , after staying at one of the Universal Studio hotels and a Bahamas one from Florida, both were very good.
We visited the space Centre on our way to the return flight home after the first cruise and the Everglades at the same time on the second cruise.
We also went on an airboat on the first holiday but not in the Everglades, it was somewhere else that was about an hours drive from the parks.
A cruise is a good idea as the prices are crazy in America at the moment.
Also as another suggestion we went to California Disney and then a cruise to the Pacific side of Mexico.

Dont base your expectations on Disneyland Paris. It's rubbish in comparison to Walt Disney World Florida. There are lots of good websites / FB groups with WDW / Florida tips you so you might want to have a look at those as well.

Also slight curve ball if you like scenery and exploring and want something slightly different, we are going to do an Alaskan cruise, they set sail from Seattle or Vancouver so great cities to add, and if the cost isn't too prohibitive I'm hoping we can do a Disney cruise as I'm a sucker for that stuff....(if you're not, Royal Caribbean is much cheaper!)

I think you want to do parks over a week which should allow for some chilling by the pool time.

then somewhere else.

I didn’t like Miami or the Bahamas (though didn’t do a cruise). Heard plenty of good things about the gulf coast and keys though.

The "keys" are quite long....I think 2-2.5 hours from one end to Key West.... From memory we stayed in Islamorada, then did a day trip to Key West...

Epic Universe, the new Universal Park, is pencilled to open 2025 so you might want to wait for that given your kid's ages.

Also, Easter is hell in the theme parks as the US kids are off school. If you need to go in Summer Holidays then consider last 2 weeks of August as they're back in school by then and the queues are bearable.