Disneyland Orlando tickets

[Floridatrip]

I posted reg a trip to Florida next Easter, 2 adults and 2 children 13 and 16. I am trying to price the holiday and looking at park tickets. My question is: Can we buy them at the gate, daily passes? What is the most cost effective way to do this. ? We are not planning to spend 2 full weeks doing parks; 4 or 5 days of parks at the most. And do we need to book the parks in advance?

It seems like a complicated holiday to plan.

I went about 10 years ago and it was definitely cheaper to book the tickets in advance.
Don't think you need to book in advance.
We went for 14 days and spent all bar 3 days in the many parks

Also, I hate being that person but it’s Disneyworld Orlando. This isn’t to be a crank but I saw someone posted thst they bought tickets for the Disneyland in California and then couldn’t use them in Orlando! Had to spend almost £2000 more on new tickets 😳
I would also definitely buy the two week tickets as so much cheaper! It’s roughly £-£150 a day per person.

It's looks like the deals atm is for 14 days for the price of 7. That's covering both Disney and universal in a combined ticket. So you probably won't save much if anything by buying individual day tickets.
Also bear in mind that you might actually be better off doing more short days or half days at the parks and therefore the two week passes would give you the option to go in more days.

Just returned. Ordered ours from orlandoattractions.com
cheaper than gate price and they do a promo that you can choose eg. Kids eat free card to use in some US chain restaurants. Tickets issued that can be uploaded onto the official disneyworld app

You will need to buy tickets in advance - check you buy Disneyworld tickets not Disneyland - attraction tickets often offer deals with free magic bands etc and you can pay them off. 7 days for 14 tickets are often cheaper than 4 day on the day tickets for parks. As of January you will no longer need to book your park days in advance do they will start on the day you first enter the parks. We always have park hopper tickets so we can switch between parks for fireworks/shows/food.

You currently have to book your WDW tickets in advance, but I believe that will have stopped by next Easter, so theoretically you would be able to buy tickets on the gate. Universal tickets can be bought on the gate.

However, it will work out cheaper to buy multi-day tickets in advance from an online retailer. I used Undercover Tourist most recently, for Universal tickets.

You need to decide how many days you think you’re likely to need, whether you’d want to park hop in one day, and whether those are just Disney or Universal too, and then price it up across the websites. It may be that it’s only a little bit more to buy 14 day passes which then gives you the option of spending a shorter time at the parks each day. The disadvantage is you’d need to pay for parking each day.

I get all my Orlando info from The Dibb website - they know everything there and are good at helping newbies.

It’s an expensive business these days.

Thank you everyone; will look at Disneyworld Orlando tickets. Will also check Orlando attractions. It seems the weekly passes are the best option, 14 gor the price of 7.

Glad we don’t have to book the parks in advance

4 or 5 days will just scratch the surface. You won’t get a good chance to see much at all but as others have said buy before you go and get 7/14 day passes. These will also include water parks.

Thank you. So there are 4 resorts:

Walt Disney World Resort
Universal Orlando resort
Sea World resort
Legoland resort

Children are 16 and 13 so maybe we just do the Universal resort?

I had this idea that it was all the same resort/Company. We want to see other things in Florida. DH and I are definitely not into scary roll of coasters.

It's not all rollercoasters. The parks are huge, you'll get more out of it if you plan and research properly but at the moment you don't seem to have a handle on what it is or what you want as a family. What made you decide you'll only do 4 days in the parks and then suddenly scrap Disney altogether in favour of universal?

I'd go back to the drawing board.

Buying at the gate is unlikely to be any cheaper tbh! The online tickets for 14 days are probably your best bet.

For universal there are three parks - two theme parks and one water park, the ticket will probably cover all three.

There's loads of rides that aren't rollercoasters in the parks, something to enjoy for everyone! I'd probably do a week at the parks and a week exploring elsewhere if you're wanting to break it up. It's an amazing place to visit!

Definitely buy in advance.
You also really need to research and make a proper plan. The parks arent just rollercoasters, they're huge, loads of amazing, immersive experience rides but 4 days will not scratch the surface.

Thank you. Yes, I am a bit loss, maybe this needs lots of planning and research; but I do know more now than a few days ago.

We want to experience the parks but don’t think we want to do 2 weeks full of parks. We want to see other things in Florida and as the kids are older I thought Universal is enough. Youngest child is excited, oldest one not too fuss, but I am sure would love it when there, said we already been in Disneyland Paris; dh loves natural scenery and exploring.

I must admit I have never been super excited about the idea of theme parks, lots of people and queues but as so many people think is great I thought maybe give it a try and decide for myself before oldest one goes to university; as I was the same with Disneyland Paris and I did enjoy the theme rides and have good memories of it; we went twice as had a year pass. I think I am getting more excited.

Maybe better to embrace it and do a full week of parks and a full week of other thing as I don’t think we will repeat it.

@Floridatrip

If you're planning on universal and it's in your budget I'd really recommend one of the three premier hotels (Hard Rock, Portifono Bay and Royal Pacific) if you're staying on property. You get early access to the parks by an hour normally, fast passes included in your hotel stay (these can be over $100 per day per person so vvv expensive!) and they make all of the difference. You can also walk into the parks or get these really cute little boats to the parks! Especially at Easter which is a busy time, having those fast passes included in your hotel stay will cut down on lots of queuing - makes it ten times more enjoyable imo!

You could even stay the full two weeks at the universal hotel and then take day trips every other day or so to somewhere else - the Kennedy centre or Clearwater etc, a mall day, a day trip to Busch gardens or into central Orlando etc, then it breaks the time up. Or do one week in Orlando then perhaps a week further down, Marco Island way (it's lovely around that whole area!).

Don't write Disney off because of your kids ages or having been to Paris. I wasn't going to go to Magic Kingdom for the same reasons but we had a free day so we went and it was my favourite park out of all Disney & Universal.

Watch Blackfish on Netflix and scrap Seaworld. I've never been to Legoland but I think it is best for younger kids? So maybe put that at the bottom of the list too.

That leaves 4 Disney Parks, 2 Universal Parks and 2 Disney Water Parks. IMO they need/deserve the absolute bare minimum of a day in each.

You say that you & DH don't like rollercoasters, but what about the DC? I know the holiday should suit everyone but it would be such a shame to be there and have tickets and then restrict the time in the parks so tightly. The parks are not all about big rides (esp. Disney). There's so much more to see and do in the Parks.

Disney world is 4 separate parks (all very different) and 2 water parks on its own. It’s about a half hour drive from universal, slightly less to sea world. The tickets are expensive so you really need to decide if just 4 park days are worth it.

Oh please research and plan as much as possible. Resources like the DIBB and uk Disney Facebook pages will give you a lot of help.

I mean this kindly, given you don’t know who runs what parks means you really aren’t ready. Not being prepared will result in you wandering around thinking you hate the place.

Dont underestimate the size of these parks. You will have full on days but then just want a pool
or water park half day the next. You need to plan. Things do change but if you have a rough idea on how the parks are running, it will help.

Disney is:
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Disney Studios
Animal Kingdom
and two water parks (Blizzard Brach and Typhoon Lagoon).
They are all on the same resort area but it’s massive. You can’t walk between them.

Universal is
Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure
Volcano Bay water park
You park in one car park for the Studios and Islands and another one for Volcano Bay.

Sea World is
Sea World
Discovery Cove
Aquatica water park
Bit I would not give them my money these days because of poor animal care.

There are lots of hidden nature gems not too far away too. Tibet Butler preserve is very close. Lake Louisa and Blue Spring state park aren’t far. And then there’s Merritt Island on the space coast. You might even see manatees there.

Thank you all; you have been very helpful. We are definitely not ready; will research it more as I only started a few days ago. Planning to book everything in September so hopefully that’s not to late.

It seems like there is so much to see and do and may need more days if we want to do parks, Florida keys and a couple of days in Miami. Probably 3 weeks in Florida but school holidays is only 2.

That is a lot to do. I think if you definitely want Miami and the Keys then you need to work out if you do Universal or Disney. You won’t do either justice in such a short space of time if you try to do both. Don’t do seaworld, discovery cove etc. Knock them off the list. If Miami is important then look at flying into Orlando and out of Miami or the other way round.

If you aren't mad on theme parks then, if I were you, I would spend three nights in one of the universal hotels that give you fast passes.
I would then spend a few days in miami and then 5 days chilling in the keys.
We've always done a week in Orlando doing the theme parks and then a week at the beach.

Agree. Definitely fly into Orlamdo and out of Miami if you want to visit Miami and the keys.

The Keys are a long drive from Orlando. We visited the Everglades (from Fort Lauderdale) this year but would probably stay in Naples next time. The Everglades are fabulous.

I hated driving in the FL/Miami area, and generally I’ll drive anywhere. Ridiculously massive roads, confusing intersections, deranged speeding drivers and the satnav wanted me to use the express lanes all the time.

Is there a reason you want to do Florida in particular? If you don't fully plan and embrace the parks then it seems a bit of a waste.

The Everglades and Miami are a long way away.

Other options - California. Spend 4 days doing Disney and Universal and then drive out to the national parks, Arizona or down to San Diego.

Singapore - 3 days doing universal etc on Sentosa island and then the rest Singapore itself or Bintan Island.

Tennessee - Dollywood and the Island at Pigeon Forge. You're on the doorstep of the Great Smokies there. Leave your hotel and be in the park hiking and spotting bear and elk within 10 minutes.

Planning is the key, get on the Dibb website as recommended by a pp and just start reading, you will start to get the hang of it all, and will start to realize what you want from the holiday. Big rides, small rides etc...
It's daunting when your first start because there is just so much but it gets easier as you start to understand it all.
We've just done 3 weeks at Easter so I have plenty of tips if you want them, but first place to start is the dibb.