Florida 1st timer

[Allbymyself123]

So never been to Florida in my life. My kids will be 16 & 12 this year & thanks to some inheritance we can finally have a decent holiday (never been abroad as a family) thinking of Florida they’d love universal particularly the Harry Potter parts & mario & also maybe some disney like star wars etc but i’ve got no clue where to start!

do i book it all individually or is there a company with package deals? Do i need something like a 14 days pass for parks? Where do i book that? Limited to (Scottish) school holidays so worried about the heat and being on the go all day. Also worried about queues and how busy it will be!

where to stay? What to eat? How much spending money? Please can someone talk me through it like an idiot and where to start please?

Also is 2 weeks enough?

Looking online it seems common to spend £12, 15, 20k?

genuinely curious how you only managed to spend £1k - how long where you there for? I can easily spend half that on a uk break Mon-Fri

I think at this late stage you’ll find the direct flights from Edinburgh to be really expensive.

I am currently sitting on the tui website. 14 nights, indirect virgin flights from Edinburgh on 24 June for 2 weeks staying at Universal Endless Summer resort in a suite (giving kids their own space) is just over £7k. You need your tickets on top of that. It’s an about £500 more if you don’t want to take the kids out a couple of days before the end of term. You get free transport into the Universal Parks included.

Quick look on Virgin website, same dates and hotel etc but direct flights is £12,700!

Stay at one of the universal hotels for a bit to get the fast passes for universal parks.

Tbh going to Orlando and doing the parks is a military operation. You need spreadsheets that work out busy times in the parks, which restaurants to book when and how you will manage park hopping and you need to watch about a million YouTube videos to work out how to use the fast pass system. If you can do it well you won't queue. We've been at peak times and not queued for more than 20 mins in the busiest of rides.

Ocean Florida are good for first timers as they can organise everything and are competitively priced. Hayes Travel deal with them if you have one local to you.

I think it depends on what hotels you want as to how much you’ll end up spending. The tickets are a fixed cost really. We’re doing a once in a lifetime trip this year too and I expect to be on £20k by the end including all spending money. I’ve booked everything separately as I wanted something specific that virgin couldn’t provide (a short club level deluxe stay in the middle) but if you want a more simple split stay if you go to a store they can sort it. We’ve spent more as got premium economy flights too. We’re on site for 18 nights split across two Disney hotels then a universal as I didn’t want to drive either and booked discovery cove and Kennedy separate. Still debating how to get to Kennedy but will maybe go over budget by a couple of hundred to get a private transfer. I’m excited but apprehensive that the kids will just be overwhelmed and stress us out so trying to make sure there’s plenty of time for relaxing and not feeling like we have to do everything!

When do you want to go? Will it be the summer holidays or could you do another time?

@Allbymyself123 so the £1k was for food etc, not included park tickets in that
we ate our cheaply in the evening with a couple of ‘nice’ dinners thrown in
kids Chose a treat a day in the parks eg an ice cream / milkshake
we bought breakfast stuff in Walmart/publix and snacks for the parks
we also hired a car so no transport costs

Thanks. Thats similar to rough prices / itinerary just looking roughtly so far. Has to be summer holdiays we go. Then need spending money so expecting at least £25k which is mental but def a one off for us

Hi, we have been to Florida for the last three years and planned it all ourselves. We normally fly with Virgin Atlantic, on arrival at Orlando airport we jump in an Uber, to the hotel (20 minutes on average) we like the Universal Lowes resorts, we stayed at the new Helios this year it was amazing and you get to enter the park one hour before other visitors. We went at the end of October and it was very quiet. There’s also free shuttles to the other Universal Parks, so you really don’t need a car.
We also stayed at Disneys Animal Kingdom which we really enjoyed and there are free shuttle buses to all the other Disney parks.
I booked our hotels through Virgin holidays, hotel only, really easy.
I hope you have a great time 🙂

So, in July it will be insanely hot and humid, but you already know that.

You could stay in a really nice 2 bedroom apartment at the Marriott Cypress Harbor (for example, very close to Epic) for £3k for a fortnight. £1.2k each for flights at that time of year takes it to about £7K.

14 day Universal tickets will be about £500 each, so we’re up to £9k.

Car hire would be probably around £1k, plus parking at the parks ($30 per day), so using Ubers will likely be cost effective if you aren’t planning to explore. If you only want a short time at Disney, consider not getting the 14 day Disney but just getting a couple of day tickets (you can price them up on Undercover Tourist - it’s a US site).

So £10-11k so far?

Eating in the parks is expensive, but it is what it is. The supermarkets (I recommend Publix over Walmart) are also expensive - think M&S prices for Tesco quality - but self catering can keep the prices down. Nothing fancy or difficult - pizzas, veg burgers and salad for example.

I’d also definitely recommend the DIBB to help you with all the options. Clearly if you want to stay on site at Universal for a couple of nights that will bump up the cost but may be worth it for FOTL access (included with some hotel packages) and the experience.

We went in April 2025, and we only did Disney because we did not want everyone to get theme park fatigue. My kids are younger though, in your shoes I would do Universal.

We flew into Miami because it was cheaper but it was quite a drive, I think DH regretted it. We stayed in a Disney hotel for 8 nights with a package that included one meal a day either in the parks or in the hotel. For me it is worth the extra money to have the early entry, the easy transport options, no worries about parking, the meal plan offers - I am not convinced that overall it actually costs much more.

Then we went to an external hotel for 5 nights with breakfast included, and did some shopping malls, the space centre and Gatorland.

I think we spent about £10k on flights, car hire, park tickets and hotels and then supermarket shops / meals out on top of that.

I’d urge you to reconsider Disney - it’s 4 massive parks and only a small amount of one of the parks is princesses/ fairytales. My kids are young adults now and still love it. It’s worth researching the 4 parks and how different they are/what they have.

I prefer to be offsite in a villa - more space, privacy and better food options, but is it tricky without driving. It is really easy to drive there though - roads are big and well signposted.

we usually stay a night or two in a premium universal hotel for the express passes and early park entry and universal was 3 days max for us (one for each park and a third day to revisit favourite rides), but that was before Epic opened.

avoid Easter, your 16 year old will have exams coming up and most schools run revision classes in the holidays.

Also remember getting esta clearance has got a whole lot harder, I know two people who have had them revoked for social media history so far … for following Facebook pages that tell the truth! Eg alt national park service. Rather than theme parks why not look at Canada, such an amazing place to visit in summer, they actually want you to visit and it’s cheaper there (the USA is horrendously expensive to eat or visit anywhere)

I love Canada, and would strongly recommend it, but it really isn’t cheap any more.

And I don’t believe you that anyone’s ESTA has been “revoked” (do you mean denied?). You don’t even have to put your SM details into the application at the moment.

No you don’t 😆

With that budget, and with you not having been before, I would prioritise making the trip as easy as possible for you all.

Fly to Orlando (Virgin are by far the best airline on the route, upgrade to Premium Economy is well worth the money)
Book Private transfer from airport.

Do 6 nights at Universal, I would recommend the Hard Rock Hotel. You get a whole heap of onsite guest benefits and it’s a fantastic hotel for older children and teens. Your first day you can chill, explore the Boardwalk and head to one of the parks late afternoon for a no pressure “first look” (it can be quite overwhelming so doing that, instead of heading in full on and exhausting yourselves is my biggest piece of advice).

After your stay at Universal, get private transfer again to one of the onsite Disney Hotels (Animal Kingdom Lodge would be my suggestion for a Wow experience with your budget). Spend the remainder of your holiday there and do a park a day. Epcot is bloody huge, so prepare for that to be a draining day and sandwich it between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.

Thanks!

has to be florida (universal over disney if its only 1) & summer & we’ll just have to roast alive 🙈 can’t do easter hols as exams start after them & they are earlier this year & only 1 week in october so does have to be July!

is a week enough for universal? I did look at hard rock although it was much more? Possibly a package deal? Then look for a 2nd hotel for 2nd week?

happy to spend up to £30k (spending money!) if we get a few weeks in a nice hotel and the main parks etc.

A week is plenty for universal and if you do stay somewhere like Hard Rock you get free fast passes which can be worth their weight in gold. Not all universal hotels offer that though so research it. If you have fast pass at universal, you’d likely do it all on 4 days.

edited to say the increase in cost for hard rock will be because they offer fast passes, or certainly they used to.

Hard Rock is definitely worth the money. It’s right next to Universal, you get early entry to the parks and the pool area is a great place to chill out and relax. The Guest Express passes are a Godsend and totally change your Universal experience for the better.

You’ll have a wonderful time - we went when our DC were that age. We stayed in an AirBNB appt with a pool which was a very short drive from parks, and spent a a week in ORlando. Parking was no problem at the parks. We also spent a week on a key not far from Clearwater. Airbnb appt right on the beach, just gorgeous very quiet but 5 mins from the resort so lots of bars and restaurants but peaceful during the day. We went to some fab Nat park islands, Alcadesi was magical - Caribbean vibe. Snorkel trip with manatees in a river. Watching wild dolphins from a boat. All just fab!

Mate, don’t spend £30k. You can do the whole lot for £12k without too much budgeting and you never know, you might feel better about long haul holidays after this trip.

Imagine having enough left to plan Singapore, Borneo, Japan or anywhere else a few years down the line

Thanks but i have zero desire to travel at least not anywhere else long haul! The kids haven’t either but as they get older & want to experience mor they can use some of their money if they want to do that. We had a savings account for each anyway and i’ve put some of the inheritance in that so they’ll have some funds there.

From what i’ve looked at so far and pricing to stay hard rock i do think we’re going to come in £20k+ especially with spending money as i’m not going all the way over there & counting the pennies daily or worrying about feeding on a budget. I just had no clue when it came to planning or time scales for parks etc.

Really? Even doing the easy way of booking with TUI I’m getting universal endless summer and even animal kingdom lodge with flights and theme park benefits at £6-8k for 2 weeks in August 2 adults, 2 teens.

It’s honestly not worth any more than that 🤣 can not imagine spunking £30k on bloody Orlando for no reason whatsoever. £15k will cover it easily

yes really.

not asking you to imagine spending though - it’s my money. Having never been before & wanting to make the most of it & not worry about money over there i’m not expecting it to be cheap & i’m quite “happy” to blow the money if need be.

I looked at hard rock. In july. It’s 3 kids (12, 12 & 16) with direct flights & i was getting it about £13k just for that for 2 weeks? Would also need to pay flights / hotel to London as none showing from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

14 day pass was over £2k

£30 per person per day for food is £150 thats nearly £2k before any other spending money.

so yeah i think £20k is what is looks like

I think you need more per day for food. Have you looked at the dining packages, if they are available they are fun to have?