Disney Orlando in August - Good idea or not - plus Villa or staying in Disney Hotel?

[pepsi]

DH and I are hoping to take ds8 and dd6 to Orlando this summer. It will be in the school holidays. I have been many years ago to Orlando, but never with children. I know it will be hot but how bearable is the heat over their. Also DH wants to stay for 2 weeeks in a park hotel, whereas Im unsure about how we would cope with having to get up for breakie every day. Although being in a disney park does have its benefits in being able to get away for a break in the hottest part of the day or go for a swim. Ive been looking at stuff about Orlando and I find all the choice rather overwhelming. We have been to Paris and stayed at the Hotel New York there but I didnt feel it had the disney magic about it so if you know of a hotel that really has the disney feel please let me know. Thanks all.

Have fabulous time!

Thankyou!

Thought you were packing..... like I'm doing the ironing!!! ha ha

Hi- oh definatly worth it! 2 yrs ago we took ours, who were dd6, dd4 and ds 16 mths at the time. they all got chicken pox just before we went too, can you believe it?! Spots on the photo's!!
All had a brilliant time...but the staying arrangements, we did a downtown 'suites' place for 4 nights- so we had 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room etc more space- i think it was quality suites or something, only a few minutes to most parks, then we drove down to a villa on the gulf coast for a week of sun, sand & relaxation and luxury with pool etc...lovely. Then back up to orlando for the parks again. we found we needed the break as too many late nights!! after a week away we were all relaxed for a last 3 days of disney madness, and we stayed at caribbean beach. This was NOT worth the money really, as was very small and basic a bit old really and the disney facilities for eating at the hotel resot was very pricey- like about £20 for a proper breakfast for us! Considering how food it is to buy your own food in the USA that was a LOT! We never used to resort facilities as we were too busy up to parks and back late etc, so i would not do that again to be honest. Having a character brekkie is well worth the money 0- i think it was grand floridian we had ours at- but unless you have a generous budget and can go upquality and money not important i would save the money and go for an out of disney hotel or a villa...have a great time!

oh sorry.for got weather! Heat at this time of the year is okay. hot but not ridiculous- where we are off this year its currently 40 degrees!! It is very hot, but lots of rain to cool things off. The rain doesnt ruin things, dont worry. Its quite wierd if you havent experienced it before..its really hot and then it clouds over and just pours with rain for half an hour- everybody pulls out their rain poncho's- and you learn why they made croc's (the shoes!) then it stops and the poncho's go away and half an hour later its bright hot sun and the rain puddles have dried up! I think it rained on all but 2 days of our 2 week holiday but didnt stop anything, plenty fo hot beach days pool etc..you just need poncho's for disney really- get them from a wallmart for about $5 when you get there!

pepsi - i have stayed at the polynesian which was a great location - yet pricy, we came home during peak times to our hotel room to avoid burning which was great, negatives were us all crammed in one room. for us a villa for the space is a lot better.
we normally stay davenport area for a villa as its just off the i4 so has good access.
the heat can be bad, i have travelled end of july and waited 2 and half hours for teh ET ride, personally i try going in our winter months now to avoid the long queues! and hot weather.
cat me if you need any further info.

www.windsorhills.biz is lovely!

Very hot, will almost certainly have stormy weather...Florida is so much better out of summer season, seriously!

Hi all!

Got back yesterday from 2 weeks in Florida and said I would report back so here goes!:-

WEATHER - Very hot when sun out about 30ish but it rained probably 12 afternoons out of 14! Sometimes it only lasted an hour, sometimes less but one afternoon it went on till 9p.m. so rain ponchos are a must! You can buy them from Disney/universal for about 6 dollars.

Also, misting water fans are good for keeping everyone cool which are about 18 dollars.

PARKS - TBH, we enjoyed the water parks the best. Blizzard Beach was our favourite. The other was Typhoon Lagoon and we didn't make it to Aquactica (Seaworld's new one). It might be an idea to do them in the morning and then head off in the afternoon to the theme parks when it's cooler (see weather above!). We had quite a few afternoons sitting in the rain at a water park!

Animal Kingdom and The Magic Kingdom seemed to be the best for the smaller children. Didn't spend a great deal of time at MGM (if your kids like a lot of cartoon characters it would be good for them though e.g. Cars, The Incredibles etc. and also Toy Story characters (although the queue for this was horrendous so a fast pass would be a good idea).

Only went to Epcot a couple of times for short periods but would say that if you have young children they won't be that interested in "the world" as there are no rides! (or maybe it was just our DS!) There are some other interesting things for them here though near the park entrance and the fireworks are amazing!

Seaworld is quite good if you or your children like animal shows. There is the Killer Whale Show (Shamu) and the Dolphin and Birds Show (which we preferred to Shamu) and Sealions Show(which we missed). There are two really good rides, Kraken-an amazing rollercoaster and a Water ride, journey to Atlanis but smaller children (under 42cm) wouldn't be able to ride. This park wasn't a favourite with us but I suppose everyone likes different things! p.s. It's really big so a lot of walking. It was dark when we left and we couldn't find the exit!

Universal/Islands of Adventure - I do like these parks but they were spoilt for us by the queues. They have an express lane now but you have to pay (It's about 45 dollars per person for the day which we thought was a bit steep). This made the ordinary queue very long. Some kids rides had wait times of an hour to an hour and a half. We gave up with Universal on the day we went (which was an extremely hot day all day- no rain) and ended up going to a water park.

Busch gardens - Didn't make it here either but it seems to be one that you need a whole day for or even two days!

ACCOMMODATION - If you have young children I think a villa is ideal. If your kids are older and want to be in parks morning, noon and night(you get extra magic hours until 2a.m. when you stay in a disney hotel!), then that might be better for you. It wasn't a problem for us getting around. It was only 20 mins down the freeway to Disney and it was nice cook something fresh if we felt like it and also have lots of space and a pool!

FOOD - The food options seem to be burgers, pizza, chips, hot dogs etc. with the odd salad but next to no vegetables. You can find more varied menus if you are prepared to look around and take your time but like us, if you have young children sometimes you are in a hurry. I would take plenty of snacks and drinks although when they see all the ice creams etc. that's all they seem to want! For the three us of we usually spent about 20-30 dollars at meal times.

TICKETS - Best to buy these before you go from your travel agent or direct from the Disney website.

Our DS is nearly four and he is tall for his age but he was just a centimetre off the 42cm height requirement for a lot of the faster rides so there were a lot he couldn't go on. There are lots of different height restrictions and they are very strict about them.

It seems really confusing before you go but it does become clearer when you get there and I had a lot of helpful info from other mumsnetters.

I'm sure I've missed loads out but I'd be happy to try and answer if anyone has any questions.