Advice on a trip to Florida

[MizzyDazzy]

We are planning a trip to Disney Florida in October this year.

We will be staying in a Disney hotel for the first week and then want to move to a villa for the second week. We’re not sure which areas to look at for the villa.

We will still want to visit some Disney parks the second week, like the animal kingdom, as well as the space centre and universal alongside some more relaxing days.

We don’t mind a bit of a drive to these places (we plan to hire a car) but want a nice area with good restaurants ideally in the evening.

Any suggestions would be great thanks.

I’m a specialist in booking this. If you’re looking to go over October half term then brace yourself as flights are ridiculous this year. Be careful that you get a named villa, I won’t sell allocation on arrival but a lot do

And with a villa, wherever you stay it’s likely to be a treck over to universal and Kennedy is on the coast so at least an hour or more to get there

We’ve been to Orlando 3 times, we rented villas each time, you do need a car, then we went to the coast and stayed at a hotel, we booked through Virgin who offered 2 accommodation stay holidays. We’ve had villas in Kissimmee twice and once a bit further out, but close to the main I road to get to Universal.

if your going to the Kennedy space station, consider an afternoon at Cocoa beach too, nice beach to chill on and see the cruise ships sail out

That’s a stretch. Do you really expect people to boycott the US? By that logic, no-one would travel anywhere ever. This is a holiday chat, not a geopolitics debate.

We have always a villa at Windsor hills. It’s v close to Disney and near a Walmart and lots of restaurants.

its about half an hour to universal. I would consider booking a night at a premium universal hotel for the free fast passes and early park access (though this doesn’t count for Epic universe)

Give your head a wobble. You wouldn’t go into any city centre, even at home based on your post.

We did the same a few years ago. I can recommend Debbie’s villas for booking a villa.

However we did say if we went again we’d do the whole time in Disney. The amount of traffic you sit in. It was so much better being on site. Also felt safer

@LowdermilkPark. Actually yes I do think we should boycott the USA unless it’s to visit family or for work. No way should our tourism money flow there. The only thing that trump cares about us money, if nobody visits there more pressure will be applied to kick him out

I don’t think attempting to guilt-trip strangers on a holiday forum is the lever that changes US politics.

Also, millions of Americans who don’t support the president rely on tourism to pay their bills.

FWIW: I reckon the only force that changes Trump ADmin mind is when the stock markets tank. Wall Street is the only stakeholder that TACO respects or heeds.

Thank you, yes already priced up flights and it’s ££

Sorry not sure I understand what you mean by a named villa, do you mean knowing which villa on a resort you will be getting? We were planning on booking through booking.com. Thanks

Don’t book a villa on that.

Use a company like Debbie’s Villas, Air bnb or VRBO. Or a named villa with a reputable company (not Virgin). But I’d usually go for the first three

We booked a Marriott villa - serviced like a hotel but had our own kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, swimming pool. It was lovely! Was cheaper than Airbnb, Debbies etc when we went last year.

Marriott Villa Lake Buena Vista Orlando

Other hotels like Hilton also have villa style accommodation within their hotel complex. They are all listed on booking.com.

We enjoyed wild florida. About 1 hr drive. We just did the airboat tour and wildlife park. No drive through safari. Really enjoyed it. Great to see the wildlife

Booling.com and the likes of are middlemen that operate a platform and are not travel agents in the usual sense of the word. You can do what they do quite easily yourself.

Always read the fine print (especially cancellation policies), check reviews for specific properties, and consider comparing prices with booking directly with the hotel to avoid potential headaches with customer service or pricing.

Is there a particular reason that you want to switch to a villa for the second week? I only ask because it’s likely to waste most of a day of a very expensive holiday. If I were you, I’d do one or the other. We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort for two weeks last year (in September/early October) and it was fab. If you choose there, ask for the Trinidad section as it’s right by the Skyliner and close to the quick service restaurant and pool.

We also didn’t really rate Kennedy Space Centre, especially for a whole day. I agree with the PP who said that if you go, combine it with something else.

Keys to the Kingdom- Amazing
Epcot After Hours- Crap
Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party- Amazing
Sweets and Treats Dessert Party (Magic Kingdom)- Amazing
Beak and Barrel- Fab
Geo 82- Loved it
Steakhouse 71- Fab

If you go to Universal, Consider a night at a deluxe hotel. We always go for Loews Royal Pacific. You get free unlimited fast passes for every night of your stay (including check in and check out) for everyone in the room. Check loads of sites before booking as I found them going for between £460-800 but the included passes outweigh the cost of the room easily.

I’m sure she will.

Off you pop with all your bitterness and nastiness 👋 👋

I can’t advise on areas, but my main Disney advice is to get there as early as you can and don’t plan on staying the whole day if you’ve got two weeks. It’s hot and exhausting and overwhelming for grown ups never mind children. Plan to stay til
lunch, have a siesta then do something else for the rest of the day.

We’ve been twice with teenagers and each time stayed in Clearwater Beach. We wanted relaxation as well as theme parks. The theme parks are full on and tiring so we spread them out. Clearwater is 90 minutes drive to Orlando. Busch Gardens is brilliant and close to Clearwater. We went twice and this was my teenagers preferred day out.

Clearwater is gorgeous. We had a villa with a pool, which the teens loved. There are many excellent restaurants, the beach is amazing. There are boat trips to do and we hired jet skis. You are close the Honeymoon Island, which is an incredible stretch of beach.

We wanted to make the most of a stay at a Disney hotel for fast access to Magic kingdom so on the monorail ie Grand Floridian or Polynesian, which will set us back about £10k for the week. We then thought we might want a slower pace / break from being in Disney and cheaper accommodation option for the second week. Looks like we can get a villa for the second week for about £2k. So not sure our budget (or sanity) will stretch for 2 weeks at a Disney hotel.

That’s fair enough. The Poly is so gorgeous, I would check whether the GF is still undertaking building works though. It’s very expensive to stay there and you wouldn’t want your stay to be ruined because of that.

Another thing I’d recommend doing is a resort hopping day. If you get the dining plan (not sure if it’s still free at the moment) you can go to all the resorts and have a look round/try their restaurants/bars. That was one of our favourite days actually. Nice and chilled out plus we got loads of pics taken including the iconic Cinderella shoe pic at the Grand Floridian.

I personally wouldn’t pay for the dining plan. We only had it as it was ‘free’ with our room but otherwise just go with the flow. Don’t miss out Disney Springs. We loved the Polite Pig, Earl of Sandwich and Gideon’s Bakery 😋

Ooh, I could talk Disney for hours!

Pick a cheaper disney hotel and it will balance out.

We stayed at a moderate and it was fine. The buses are SO frequent. Or pick one near the skyliner. You dont need to stay by the monorail. That's honestly crazy to spend that much when you're barely in the room. To then spend the next week in traffic!

How easy is it to get to the Magic Kingdom from other resort areas? Would you need to stay there all day really i.e. couldn't pop back easily?