Florida with kids at Easter

[pateandbrie]

We're in the very early stages of planning a trip to Florida with kids at Easter (age 7 and 4).

Extremely rough plan is to fly into Orlando, do 4 (ish?) days in the theme parks, then go somewhere gorgeous by the beach with cocktails, seafood (and a kids club for a couple of days wouldn't hurt).

I know there are a bazillion websites, blogs, resources dedicated to all things Disney/theme park so I'm not really looking for recommendations on that just now - although I'm sure I will later - but am really hoping for suggestions of where to go for the second part of our holiday. As a pre-teen I did Disney and then Sanibel with my family and loved it, I think I'm looking for that sort of vibe, although looking at websites about Sanibel today I see a lot of it has been destroyed by hurricane which is devastating.

Open to any and all suggestions please!!

I think st Pete's beach is popular for a beach addition to a florida holiday. It's not too far.

How long are you staying in total?
4 days for parks really isn't much and Easter is one of busiest times to go.

A couple of weeks? I thought 4 days in parks would be enough, the kids are quite small so there's a limit to their tolerance. Although I do worry that we go somewhere else and they just moan they want to go back to Disney...!

You will find tickets for Disney are week long only (or they were last year). You end up with 14 days for the price of 7, but unless you have a Florida Resident who can buy you another option, that’s your lot. It is very expensive.

Frankly if you want to ‘do’ Disney, best to go for it and go full tilt

If your kids are quite small I would recommend spreading your parks over more days. As PP said you'll have paid for longer on your ticket

4 days is only 1 day in each park and it would be a long one if you wanted to do as much as you can (and there are a lot of rides at Disney that smaller kids can do)

We have been with kids at various ages, I found when they were younger staying at Disney resort and going first thing for extra magic hours so 8:30-late morning meant we could could do a lot of the rides avoiding the busyness and then could spend the afternoon chilling out by the pools etc. This type of model for the Orlando part may make it a lot more relaxing for you!

We did the gulf keys after universal this year. We stayed on siesta key.

I don't remember any resorts with kids clubs maybe one of the other keys did though.

Siesta key was gorgeous we stayed in the village.

My opinion is, if you haven't been before, you either do Disney or you don't do Disney. 4 days is not enough, if you're comfortably well off and likely to go to Florida in future then it won't matter, but if this is a box ticking thing to do Disney, 4 days won't do it.

Ok that's me told! Maybe I'm being a bit ambitious about the 4 days. Supplemental question then, if we do a week in Orlando and spread out the parks with some chill time, are we better being in a hotel or a villa? And if a hotel, does it need to be a Disney one? That might push DH over the edge 🤣

Easter is a lovely time to go, yes busy, Spring Break etc. we have been a couple of times at Easter, our DS’ were a similar age the first time we went. We didn’t do a two centre, there was just so much to do in Orlando. Have a great holiday.

If you want to do part days rather than a long go for it day the benefits of being in a Disney hotel are

1. you can get into the parks an hour earlier for extra magic hours. Rides are much quieter meaning you can get on more in shorter period of time (many small children rides have long queue they are not immune so this is still worth it) - meaning you can spend less time in the parks overall

1. Free buses from hotel to parks meaning you don't have to drive or pay for parking. This makes a model where you pop in and out cheaper and smoother

1. the pools are usually very lovely and have more small kid friendly low depth areas than villa pools tend to be

I mean there are other benefits too but that's more about taste/Disney theming

Villas are great for more space etc. but there is a travel cost which then makes the partial day efforts much more hassle.

We have done both so it's really what you want. We will probably go back to villas when our kids get older but we will find staying on resort easier whilst primary age

@Toomuch2019 that's really helpful, thank you ♥️

When I did a weeks worth of Disney with small kids, I rented a house with a pool and drove to Disney stuff every other day.

For the beach part, you’re right about Sanibel, that whole area took a beating. I’ve been to St Pete and Clearwater, each about 90 mins west of Orlando, and St Augustine Beach about 90 mins east of Orlando on the Atlantic. St Augustine is one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. I loved the beach there.

We're similar, two kids 6 and 4. Flying out Easter Friday for 10 days (the school break). Staying at a Disney hotel for 5 days, villa for second 5.

Trying to work out spending budget is hard but I'm assuming 300$ a day all in for food, drinks. Stuff is expensive and you need to tip 20%.

Flying with virgin.

Temp looks good for 25-28C

Also Disney favours the organised and those who know how to maximise the system.

Fine if you don't but if you plan to eat in any of the table service restaurants in the parks reserve your tables at 10:45am (5:45am) 60 days in advance of your visit. At busy times can get a bit like getting Glastonbury and Easter can get busy

If you want to get really geeky can recommend the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Seglinger & Len Testa (they release a new one every year and very good and up to date info)

Whatever you choose re your trip have an amazing time!

I'd stay at a park hotel. Too many benefits. We did 4 days at universal then the chill bit after.

I say chill, we did coco beach for 3 days to do Kennedy space station then drove to Miami, I'd skip that bit if I had the choice again.

The thing that we all loved was an airboat ride through the Everglades that was amazing (I'd recommend Captain Jacks out of Everglade city)

Then proper chill at siesta key.