Need advice before we book Florida holiday from anyone who has been please!

[howmuchchoccanIeatb4iexplode]

What tips would you give with regard to staying in hotel verses villa?

What parks are the best?

Are they far from each other?

Which flight company and travel agents were good to you?

Any other things we might need to know as we are absolutely clueless on Disneyworld but want to get the best out of this once in a nlifetime trip.

Thanks!!

Hotel = room, access to hotel restaurants (but not prepaid, even breakfast) + gym and other facilities.

Villa = room + kitchen, plus whatever facilities are available on your complex.

The Disney bubble, I call it.

anyway, back to the reality....

I went last in 2002 Hula and was appalled at how little there was for me to eat - we were in the parks all day every day for a fortnight and I actually came home weighing less!

Have you been more recently than me? Can you give me hope for our next trip?

Disney do a dining plan too so you can prepay.

Don't recall much option for vegetarians. I love salad and veg and was desperate by the end of three weeks for something that wasn't fried!

BibiThree - went in 2004 and 2006. I didn;t find the parks any worse than any other type of theme park/zoo/attraction place. And Florida itself was fine as loads of salads, veggie burgers, pasta dishes, etc.

That's good news, next time we go we'll have the children with us so won't be at the parks from open until close anyway, more time to look for nice restaurants etc. Thanks

Magic Kingdom in the evening is blissful, so much cooler and less queueing. We got there at 7pm and fell out of there at 1am one night trailing small children behind us!

The secret to Orlando, I think, is doing think you have to do everything. Work out your rough schedule and factor in some days or half days by the pool so you don't all get exhausted and grouchy.

I meant "don't think you have to do everything" not doing!

So for flights and villa for the four of us for a fortnight it would be about £3000. And then however much we want to spend on the various park tickets. I think that might be doable. How far in advance do you tend to book?

We're off on Saturday and booked a year ago last April, but that was because it was a good deal.

Brain overload

So there is Disney AND Universal to see?
Have just ordered one of those books so will get my head around it soon.

Please amend my plan as you see fit!

1. Book villa (best option with different age groups as lots have games room as well as pool)
2. Book flights prob with BMI/Virgin (I think they have come out top!)

3.Book tickets to Disney parks online when we have decided which ones to go to - or does one £200 ticket cover all? 4.Book carhire from Orlando airport

We've got a ticket deal from the travel agent for Disney &Orlando flexi-ticket9covers universal, IOA Seaworld, Wet n wild, and a dinner show for 2 weeks- £299 each, child was £249. So you need to build that into your budget.
Check out tripadvisor.com on the Orlando forum

Sorry, at Disneyworld, there's 7 parks; we only went into 1, the main one The Magic Kingdom, but there's 3 water parks I think, the Animal Kingdom and some others here's a link oh and epcot. Most ticket offices will try and sell you 7 day passes to Disney so you can visit one every day, it depends on how much time you'll spend in the parks. (you'll only manage 1 a day) and there's 2 parks belonging to Universal, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.

I booked the car hire online to collect from the airport (if that's what you meant) the queues for car hire can be bad depending on how many arrivals land the same time as you, not to mention the exhaustion of jet lag taking hold and tired children too.

Hi howmuchchocolate:-

re your comment:-

"I would of though a US airline was the tops for customer service"

Oh dearie me NO!. Many US airlines are just running one step ahead of chapter 11 backruptcy. Cost cutting all round has cost service to passengers dearly. Use a British based carrier like BA or Virgin. All other UK carriers will fly into Sanford which will incur another hour's travelling time to get to Orlando. WOuld use Virgin or BA over BMI (as they also have more planes if one has to go out of service for whatever reason).

A Disney ticket will cover the four Disney parks; their ticketing system changes yearly and they now charge by the day. DO bear in mind as well that any children over the age of 10 will be charged the adult price.

Universal have their own ticketing website; I would strongly suggest you use this and pay for your tickets online. You can actually now purchase front of line passes for a specific day; this will save you bags of time. As you are planning on travelling there in July you do not want to spend potentially half a day just standing in line.

I would actually consider getting the car the next day and not on arrival; the last thing you want to do is to wait in line for potentially an hour to collect your car after an 8 1/2 - 9 hour flight. Also I have read of far too many British families having accidents on arrival because they are also unfamiliar with both the roads and traffic conditions.

One of the MUST-DO's is a character breakfast / lunch or tea.

They have a Fab one at the Contempary Hotel (a disney hotel, on the disney resort) at the restaurant 'Chef Mickey'.

We did the breakfast and it was SO GOOD. Aside from the breakfast being lovely, you get to meet all the character's, and they come to your table and you have time for photo's etc. It was such a memorable thing for my kids, and they still talk about it.

This gets REALLY booked up, so if you want to do it, book it before you go. The last time I went, we were in Florida for 3 weeks and I tried to book at the start of the holiday and they were full up! So had to miss it last time

Oh and

1. SAVE UP

We will be there in 5 weeks (actually, 5 weeks today we will be at Disovery Cove).

Fly Virgin - book flights separate - collect airmiles and use off next years flight back to Florida!

Book accommodation separate - think I read that Mamablue has stopped at the Sheraton in Lake Buenavista. We stop at the Sheraton Vistana Villages on the really quiet end of International Drive. 2 bed apartment, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, washer, drier etc.

Personally, I would do one day park, next day pool.

My boys were not that bothered about Disney (possibly a boy thing?) although we did do all Disney parks the first year we were there. We also did all the water parks, Universal and Seaworld.

Last year we only did a water park, Islands of Adventure, Seaworld, Universal and we went to Clearwater for our middle weekend.

This is year we are doing, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Islands of Adventure and possible Cape Canavaril.

Hi Howmuch. Glad to be of some help. We ordered all our tickets through a website called Attraction Tickets Direct. They offer great rates and it is a lot cheaper than a travel agent. Also you would not want to waste time queueing for tickets when you get there. The array of tickets you can get is confusing so I would really spend time working out what you want to see before you buy the tickets.

We always opt for the 14 day unlimited access. They are expensive but it means we can visit as many parks as we like in one day and do not need to worry about only going to a park for a few hours and using a whole days ticket up. We found with children having a break from the parks for a couple of hours mid day was important and this means we do not have to go back to the same park in the afternoon. However there are lots of different options for tickets so something for everyone.

Just a tip regarding car hire. The boots (trunks) on U.S.A. cars are very small so I would recommend a minivan. Plenty of room for all the cases.

Eating in the parks is quite expensive and choice is limited but there are some fantastic restaurants around if you know where to find them. I can give you names and directions if you are interested later.

The first time we went before we had children we were bamboozled by all the information and differing opinions about the experience. I would recommend a book. Brits Guide to Orlando. Sounds cheesy but it will really help you get your head around the tickets, the parks and everything else.

If I can help with anything else I will. I am a bit of a Florida nut!! We spent part of our honeymoon there too!

Fab advice thanks all so much!!
Have put myself on email for villas and have waded through about 20 since last night - the quality is stunning isnt it. Am actally at the blase point of "only one with en-suite? think again pal" so many to choose from. Prices range so much too - from 840 for 2 weeks to nearly 2K!

Have ordered that very book mama! Will ring Virgin later as with so many of us I think i need to speak directly withthem.

Great tip re the character breakfast - would never have thought of that and my children - especially the 16 year old (not kidding!) would love that.

ooh this is getting exciting now!

mama can you tell me where you got your 14 day tickets from please? And what price they were if am not too nosey!
Have worked out that we will want 14 day tickets for disney, 2 day ones for universal, SeaWorld/Buscha Gardens/Aquatica ones, Kennedy Space Centre and someone has mentioned Pirates Dinner show is good.
For 2 adults and 5 children (2 of them teenagers) would £1500 be about the price for that lot?

Hi how much. We bought our 14 day passes from Attraction Tickets Direct online. We paid £144 each for the children(under 10) and £164 each for the adults. Have not seen the Pirate show, we will do that one in November. I can recommend Dolly Parton's Dixie show. Sounds cheesy but was fab , DCs loved it. Fast moving mock war between the North and South but with comedy parts too, loved it.

We enjoyed Busch gardens, lots of roller coasters for your teenagers but some good Kiddie rides too. Bit of a drive but worth it.

Quite expensive but I would recommend Cirque Du Soleil. Not at all like a circus but an amazing sights and sounds show. Incredible!!!!

There is so much to do, this will be our third trip with children and we still have not done everything!! Am getting excited now thinking about it. Sure you will find The Brit's guide book really helpful we did. Very good for finding out which days are busiest at each park and then you can plan your trips accordingly. Have fun, although I should warn you Florida is addictive!!!

Get a pass for the parks and go very early. Then leave at about 11 when it starts getting crowded and hot and go and do something else then go back again in the evening.

Don't forget Universal Studios.

oh and if you can afford it, I'd recommend paying extra for fastpasses at theme parks. It's the only way you'll guarantee to go on all the main rides in a day. Otherwise you can spend an hour queuing for a ride, that's a lot of wasted time.