Florida holiday without Disney???

[87SPD]

Hi there,

We are looking at booking Florida for me DH, my Mum and stepdad with our two children who will be aged 14 and 11. Thing is none of us are Disney fans!

But…. we like the thought of Florida in a large villa, private pool, Universal Studios volcano bay, space centre and just the usual novelty of being in USA for the kids and experiencing American dining, shops etc. We went to New York after Christmas and our girls loved it but looking for a sunny trip this time.

What would you recommend in terms of where to stay, who to book with etc? We love water fun so any water parks, water sports etc would be fab. Also beach days are a must too and obviously happy to drive everywhere.

Any thoughts on a non-Disney Florida holiday? Is it worth it?

x

will you be getting tickets for the two universal parks or just volcano Bay?

You'll have a great time if you do Universal parks, I went for 2 weeks and just did that instead of Disney (did Disney (Epcot) for 1 day as made a friend out there who worked for Disney) but we didn't miss not going at all.

You'll have a great time ☺️

There’s lots to do without doing Disneyworld, but it depends on what you mean by “not Disney fans”? The parks are amazing, and there is one quarter of one park (of 4) that’s very Disney. The rest of magic kingdom and the other parks are just amazingly well done theme parks.

So much more to see and do in Florida than just Disney.

Not sure what you mean by not Disney fans - if you think you’d enjoy universal then you’d definitely enjoy Disney, there’s a lot of groundbreaking rides there and 2 water parks, so would probably research before writing it off!

having said that, there is absolutely loads to do in and around Orlando so it’s definitely worth going without Disney (I just never would cos I love it!). There will be a lot of driving involved though - the beach is nowhere near Orlando and neither is the space centre.

not sure about water sports except at the beach - the lakes are infested with gators so wouldn’t be safe to go in.

as to where to stay, I’d probably use the map function on vrbo or similar to find villas that meet your criteria and budget then research the area using google maps to see what restaurants etc are nearby - you’ll need to drive a lot visiting those places so local restaurants is probably more important to you than location!

The Disney water parks are great and if you like water parks you’d be missing out if you didn’t try them. Otherwise there’s plenty to do if you want to avoid Disney but it’s worth remembering that there is more to Disney than just magic kingdom. Even if you don’t want a typical theme park you might still enjoy animal kingdom or a show or something.

If you’re considering sea world or worse, a swim with dolphins, please have a look into how cruel they are and avoid.

Loads to do without Disney but be prepared for a lot of driving! It's pretty easy to get around but traffic on Interstate 4 (the main road that you need to get anywhere) can be really busy at times and everything is quite a distance from each other.

I'd probably buy day tickets to Disney Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom just for the rides (and food!), but we've no plans to do Disney in its completeness if we do Florida - just Universal (both parks) and other stuff in the area.

There are loads of things to do in Florida. Airboat rides are really cool, I recommend Kissimmee swamp tours, International drive has many attractions, Winter Park is worth a visit. Kennedy space centre is very interesting. The nearest beach is about a 2 hour drive from Orlando, but driving is easy around Florida (although you do get a lot of traffic around the Disney parks and on the I4) My favourite beach is Clearwater, it has an aquarium nearby where they rescued a dolphin that was injured and made a film out of it, I think it was called ‘dolphins Tale’.

Perhaps consider a two centre holiday? Lots to do in Orlando without doing Disney, then perhaps drive over to stay in the Clearwater area to do Busch Gardens and the beach.

Or head down to Miami/Everglades/Keys. My teenagers absolutely loved Miami, we've been twice with them, and they would still far rather go there again than back to the theme parks.

The west coast of Florida is also worth a visit, lovely beaches, nature parks etc, plus shopping.

I've been to Florida loads of times and I've never done any of the theme parks. But if I were to, I'd do Busch Gardens.

The Gulf coast is lovely and has fantastic beaches. you can collect sharks teeth and walk down piers and see all the horseshoe crabs skuttling underneath. St Petersburg has the Dali Museum and a Russian submarine you can tour. The Everglades down south are worth a visit.

If you're planning to go in the summer book accommodation directly. Brits get charged peak prices in the summer when it is VERY low season there!

We’re booked villas via VRBO in the Formosa Gardens area and surrounding, but haven’t been there for over 5 years. It’s near to Animal Kingdom. Driving was easy and no issues with parking. Pool days in the villa were blissful watching ospreys fishing in the lake. The pool was enclosed so the wildlife doesn’t join you in the water.

Publix and Target were c. 10 minutes drive away and had plenty of things for easy meals if we didn’t feel like being out at a restaurant.

Pick-your-own citrus farms can also be interesting and normally have a good farm shop for local food. We bought orange blossom honey for the foodie relatives.

We only went to Disney Springs for dinner and a film as that was the nearest cinema. We aren’t huge Disney fans and the wander for an evening looking at the shops was enough.

Further afield try Winter Park for Victorian Florida and the gorgeous Morse Museum of Tiffany glass. There’s a lovely boat tour for the town and it’s peaceful.

Busch Gardens was a good day out and we did a couple of days at Universal. I think Volcano Bay was at capacity as it was so new so we didn’t manage that.

Head to Crystal River to swim with the manatees 🥰

We just came back from two weeks in Florida with teens.

We did 4 nights universal (it costed in better to stay as you get express passes) then stayed at Coacoa beach hired a house for 3 nights so we could chill a bit and do Kennedy Space station.

We drove via Miami to Everglades city for one night, airboat rides it was phenomenal.

Then drove up to Siesta Key for 5 days which was gorgeous.

And definitely do the three park pass, Volcano water park was amazing