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!!

Hi Mamablue,

Re your comment:-
"I can recommend Dolly Parton's Dixie show".

Sorry to report this but she sold her site about a year or so ago now to the adjacent shopping mall called Vineland premium outlets. Its in the process of being pulled down to make extra parking for this outlet mall.

You do not have to pay extra to get a Disney fastpass at the Disney parks; the only things to remember with Fastpasses is that everyone in the party needs such a ticket to access the fastpass ride. Also you can only get one lot of Fastpasses at a time; you have to wait for the time to expire before getting another Fastpass. Not all Disney rides also have this facility.

We went at xmas, it was lovely, and a lot cooler than going in the summer. Def get a villa. We stayed in a suburb 15 mins drive from idrive, in kissimee. Nice and peaceful, with local shops and our own pool.

The food there drove me nuts, so much crap, I felt really unhealthy. At least if you get a villa you can pack up lunches to take with you. We ate out in the evenings mostly, went to places on I-Drive.

I'd pack as lightly as possible and save money to go to the designer outlets, seriously cheap - we spent a fortune.

we flew with air canada via montreal/toronto. It broke upt he flight a bit and the service was fine and they were the cheapest we found.

You can buy cheap tickets from various outlets if you shop around. fastpasses are free. Get there as early as possible and you can get quite a bit of the kids rides done while the people staying on site are still having bfast. Then get fastpasses for the bigger rides.

I'd look at what else you can do, theme parks day after day can be a bit boring. There is a lvoely lake in kissimee with a good kids playground. We drove down to miami, stayed in a hotel one night and drove down key west.

Pirates show has very mixed reviews on Tripadvisor.

Attila. What no Dolly. We must have visited it just before it closed then. Lol though, we went to the Levi store at the adjacent shopping mall before the show. As we left I commented on how it could use more parking! Whoops. I will have to look at the show reviews on Trip advisor.

Atila. Tickets online are still being sold for Dolly's Show until December 2008?

Hi Mamablue

That's all above board. She has three other Dixie Stampede shows located in South Carolina (Myrtle Beach), Tennessee (Pigeon Forge) and Missouri (Branson).

Just imagining how realistic a North South mock war would be in the rubble!! Might be quite good

Chops thats where we ave been looking at Kissimmee. Villas are outstanding in quality! We have decided on 3 weeks in April - weather will be too hot in July.

Re the fast passes - do you get them free from Disney itself on the days you go then?

Fastpasses are free.

You insert your Disney ticket into the fastpass machines located outside the attraction. (The Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom and Test Track at EPCOT to name but two have Fastpass). You will then get back your original ticket along with a fastpass ticket (one fastpass ticket per person is needed to access the fastpass line) with a time that you can use for accessing the Fastpass line (Fastpass tickets have a one hour timeframe; you can access the fastpass line during the times shown on the ticket).

However, you can only get one lot of Fastpasses at any one time, some rides will sell out of Fastpass passes well before the end of the day and not all Disney rides have fastpass.

HTH

We have been in April weather was hot but not humid like it is in July/August. Just be aware that April is the busiest month for Americans to visit Disney for the Spring break. Which just means that the queues will be quite long. But that aside I am there are negatives to going at any time of year. You do not have to pay for fast passes in Disney it works like this.

1. go to ride you wish to use.

1. Find fast pass machine and insert your Disney ticket. One for each person who wants to ride.

1. Machine gives you another ticket with a time slot on ie. 1-2pm in which you can return and join the fast pass queue which is shorter and moves quicker than normal queue.

The really popular rides can run out of fast passes if it is really busy. So try to get one for your prefered ride as soon as you get to the park.
You can only have one fastpass ticket in a 2 hour period but as soon as that window opens ie. 1-2pm time slot for Space mountain at 1pm you can get a fastpass for Thunder Road railway at any time after one. You can only get a fastpass valid for the same day.

Hope that makes sense! Universal only operates a fastpass that you pay for. You buy a fastpass and can than go to any fastpass queue on any ride. I have never used this one.

Attila. Should we write a guide.

www.universalorlando.co.uk/tic_express.html

Mamablue,

You may find this useful; their system is different to Disney's and their express line pass operates in a totally different manner. A caveat re this system though, you will need the many digit number quoted on their reply e-mail to access the tickets (you type in this number on the keypad).

You can buy an express line pass for a specific day (blackout days do apply). We used this and they work well; saved bags of time the day we went to Islands of Adventure.

Yeah to the guide!!.

mamablue, yes sorry I meant universal fastpasses.

We go to Florida in November so although the weather is still great it is not so busy. We time it to go in the lull before Christmas but we get to see the Christmas specials, lights, shows etc. first before the Christmas crowds arrive. So we do not usually need to use the fast pass, in fact we often do not have to queue at all. Has been known for us to stay on rides for two or three turns, if we stay late.

Magic Kingdom is always busy but Universal, Islands of Adventure , Animal Kingdom and water parks are quieter. The weather is a cooler 75-80 degrees!

We will go at Christmas one year but think I would find the queues frustrating.

Hi howmuch.

Sorry haven't read whole thread but I just got back from Orlando yesterday and have just posted all about it on another thread "Orlando Disney in August-Good idea or not..........".

Sorry, not sure how to link it!

Am not an expert and it sounds like some people are a bit more sussed about some things than me but I'd be happy to answer any questions while it's fresh in my mind!

Hi needamassage hope you had a great time! Yes, i have questions for you!

Where did you get your tckets for Disney and Universal from and how much did they cost? I have seems some for about £220 each that are 5Disney parks and sealife/universal too.

Did you hire a villa and if so what site did you use?

Which flight company did you use? We have a quote for 7 of us for about £3.5k, but are very tempted with Virgin for about 4.9k but is so much more, not sure what to do.

If you ate out - which places could you recommend, good for children?

Thanks for any info

Hi howmuch!

I have just spent half an hour typing out a reply to you only to go and delete it!
I am such an idiot!

Here we go again(!):-

We booked everthing with TravelCityDirect. They use a charter company XL for the flights.

This is only a rough breakdown of costs from memory as DH has chucked out all the receipts!

Our villa was approx £850. It was 3 bed with a pool, overlooking a golf course on a quiet development. It was about a 20 min drive to Disney.

Our tickets I looked into a bit. I had a chat with a Travel Agent and also had a look on the Disney website (you can book them online and pick up your tickets when you get there). In the end, I booked with TCDirect a week before travel as they pricematched everything else.

We had 14 day Disney passes which were £164 per adult and I can't remember how much the child ticket was but not much less! We used our passes about 10 times so it was worth it for us as we would have a half day somewhere and then go to a waterpark and then maybe go back somewhere else. The 5 and 7 day passes are only £10 cheaper.

We also had 14 day Orlando flextickets which I think were about £127 per adult. This gives you admission to Universal and Islands of Adventure/SeaWorld/Aquatica/Busch Gardens. We didn't use this one as much and could probably have had less days on our ticket TBH. You can get different combinations with this.

Our flights were approx £400 with XL. As we were flexible with the dates and booked only a month before travel we got a discounted price for travelling in the premium cabin with was lovely and roomy - worth it if you can afford it! I was a bit nervous travelling with them as I hadn't heard great things about them re delays etc. but I have no complaints at all. Even the economy seats looked the same as Virgin or BA.

All together for the flights, villa and car hire we spent £2,600 which apparantely is pretty good.

TBH, we didn't eat out in the evenings as DS is only 4 and we usually had late starts so ended up eating at one of the parks then going home late.

Hope this helps!

Hi again howmuch!

Sorry used another name there-one of my psudenoms. I am needamassage-just gone and outed myself- oh well!

Thanks Twizzler that is a great help. Think I have finally got my head around the tickets and the prices I have looked at seem pretty similar to how much you said. That company you said have some offers on tho - Universal have the 2nd day free which is a good offer I think. I think we looking at £1500 for all the things we want to do.

Have booked flights with Virgin and the villa from a reputable website - think it was recommended on this thread.

Next to book is the car hire and working out what days to do what.

That Brits guide is going to be such a help, but we have 8 months to work it out!

Can anyone help? Am filling in the booking form for the villa. Am so scared that something will go wrong and we will get there and no villa is booked - scammed in other words. The owner asks for the flight number and arrival airport/times etc. Is this normal? Wouldnt he just need to know what time we are getting to the villa? What could he do with that info?