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.

Thank you; will research into October; that would certainly give us plenty of time to plan

We did both April and late October/ early November in Florida. Both are busy periods but for us were manageable crowd -wise, but only due to planning and paying for express past (or genie plus @ Disney). We did go to the beach and swam in early November, for us 25 degrees was still lovely and hot - the locals didn’t swim though. Evenings in late October were lovely and warm but sometimes we needed cardigans and jumpers.

April was hotter for us - nearing 28-30 degrees. Brilliant for the water parks, our favourite day was Discover Cove and if I had only one week in Orlando I would definitely include it. We also had a week on the beach in April and it was perfect weather so beach-stay wise I would say April is better.

If you buy the genie+ then watch the YouTube videos about how to play the slots. You can get it so you just walk onto each ride in quick succession, have lunch, queue up another load of slots and do the same in the afternoon. But some people don't get the hang of the slots and spend hours waiting for things still.

We just did 10 days at Florida this year and after trying many combos we just bought the 14 day pass for the price of 7 days.

We planned to water park or Disney park every other day.

We went at Easter and on a sunny day it is so hot so after trying to do a couple of day time visits we stopped and started going to the parks at 4pm and enjoying cooler evenings instead. And the plus side is much shorter queues.

My children had a teacher training day before starting back so we flew back on the Monday night (they did miss a day) but they weekend was the nicest quietest time we had there. The US schools don't have an
Easter holiday like us but lots of parents make it a long weekend and take kids out of school so Easter weekend was super busy.

Also look into queue jump options too. That weekend after east weekend - even prices for queue jump tickets reduced.

Then day times were at the pool or water parks.

Just seen your update on the keys and Florida - years ago we drove from Orlando to the keys.

We did it in a day but it was a tough day. You really want to hit the keys in day light to experience the amazing bridges. And once you get onto the keys the speed limits are actually quite low so the journey slows right down

Thank you. After a long English winter I think I would be looking forward to sunshine and beach so will leave it for Easter; if it gets too hot will do the parks after 4pm and do water park in between,

I am going to star writing things down in a notebook to get things out of my head as there are lots of information and good advice.

Do parks in the morning as soon as they open until it’s too hot and busy. If it’s a hot day it will still be hot at 4, and crowded, and if you do stay on site you don’t want to waste your early entry.

Many of the rides have air conditioned indoor queuing areas and the outdoor ones are mostly shaded and have misting fans to keep guests cool.

Are you sure about legoland? There is a near identical one in Windsor (assuming you are from the UK) anc your children are older than their target age.

Also, Disneyworld is 4 parks (magic kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood studios, animal kingdom). Universal is 2.

Thank you.

We are likely to stay offsite; maybe buy the express and genius plus.

What are people favourite parks including the water parks? If we decide to do both Disney and Universal we may have to be selective as only have 6 full days of parks; unless we decide not to Miami in which case we will have 8 days.

Also, do people think Miami is worth seeing if we are going to Naples and expending time at the beach.

I have always have an image of the Florida parks being super crowded and hot hence never thought of going until now as want to do it before DC1 goes to uni.

If I am being honest, I prefer Paris to Magic Kingdom!

We prefer Universal Studios. If we did Orlando again, our main focus would be there including Volcano bay and we’d stay at a main hotel to include express pass.

We would do a day at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars. The rest of my Disney fix would be at Disney Springs.

Thank you. I think we will do universal only as we did Disneyland Paris twice when they were younger and we are only staying 6 days in Orlando so not worth spending 2k plus on tickets.

I think we got a plan now:

Arrive to Miami, spend 2 nights

Drive to Naples: Spend 6 nights, visiting Everglades and other tours, places near by.

Drive to Orlando, spend 6 nights doing Universal parks, pool, maybe a bit of sightseeing nearby depending on how park mad the kids get; parks will be our main focus.

Fly to London from Orlando.

Thank you all; you have been very helpful. We will keep reading, researching about navigating the parks, things to do and places to visit but I think we are ready to buy the flights soon at least and look for accommodation.

Don’t think we will do Legoland. Went once in the UK and It put me off theme parks for awhile but the kids were little, the queues were massive and all I recall was carrying DD2 who was still a baby.

I haven’t been to WDW, except Disney Springs, for many years. The last three times I have been to Universal only, and just for 2-3 days as part of a Florida exploration trip.

I would like to go back to WDW, especially Disney Studios, at some point, and I have an unaccountable soft spot for Epcot, although all the Genie business (new since I went) puts me off. I like a plan, but I like to be spontaneous within that plan.

However, I don’t think I could not do Universal! The heat and the crowds can be a bit much but you can make the most of your time by being there before the gate opens (it usually opens about 15 minutes before the posted time, and the car parks and cafes in CityWalk open way before that) and blasting round for the first two or three hours, then chilling and taking in the scenery.

I don’t really like water parks, so I can’t help you there I’m afraid. Also never been to Miami and I don’t see the appeal of cities so I’m not much help there either.

Your latest plan sounds pretty good to me!

Latest plan is great.

If you want a bit of Disney, there is always Disney Springs if you want a bit of Disney shopping and atmosphere.

Great. Will add it to the itinerary in Orlando.

Sorry not had chance to read all the replies but just wanted to say that the Kennedy Space Centre is really great and maybe something to consider.

We went to Florrida last year. We only did one Disney park as we only wanted to see the Star Wars part at Hollywood Studios. We bought day tickets from Orlandoattractions.com. We spent a day at the Space centre and a day at Busch gardens. We got these tickets in advance from the same website. I wouldn’t recommend Busch gardens we weren’t impressed with it. Then we spend 6 days at Universal so bought the 7 day pass (but actually got 14days). My children are massive Harry Potter fans. Universal is amazing and we really enjoyed it. The queues were long but it really didn’t feel that bad. The apps are great and tell you the live queue times. We then had 4 nights on the coast before flying home.