Anyone been to Florida recently?

[guessmyusername]

We are thinking of a trip to Florida, in particular to Disney late next year and are looking for a bit of advice from anyone who has done it recently. Were you able to fly from Edinburgh, or did you have to go to Glasgow, or even Manchester. What travel agent (online or other) or airline did you use.

To complicate matters we are thinking of stopping off in New York on one of the legs for a few days so if you have done that how did it work out?

Any hints/tips gratefully appreciated thanks

We were just in Florida this September/October - actually for our Honeymoon :-)

It is difficult to fly direct from Edinburgh, I think there are flights but not all year round and can be more expensive.

We have been to Florida a few times actually. Flown from Glasgow 3 times and Manchester once. I have also booked through TUI, Thomas Cook, and Virgin before. I prefer Virgin as the extras and general level of service is higher, but so is the price.

Thomas Cook is usually the cheapest but we didn't have a great experience with them so likely won't book again with them. Likely a one-off, but yeah.

We had planned on getting to New York from Orlando but just ran out of time. It is fairly easy to get a flight to New York from Orlando, you will just need to do some planning etc.

Hotels... Disney hotels are expensive and usually don't offer anything more than other hotels at Universal Studios or Internation Drive (Main tourist area). The best hotel we have stayed at was the Universal Aventura, it's very affordable and the hotel is very nice, modern and has all the usual facilities you'd expect. Not to mention walking distance from Universal parks. Disney can be the slight issue as they don't run buses to Disney from Universal, but we found Lyft and Uber would get us to Disney faster than any bus and usually cost around $10 to $15 for the whole family.

As for tips... Buy your park tickets while in the UK from UK authorised sellers. Buying in the USA is very expensive.

Make sure you plan proper rest days, even just days that are slower and not in the sun all day. It can really get exhausting at the end of a two weeks on Florida without a few days of chilling out. We usually have our rest days at Malls and just take it easy and that works for us, but even a day at the pool would be awesome!

Another tip would be to book fast pass for rides you really want to ride. Some days can see the new Avatar and Toy Story queues jump to well over 2 hours. There is a snow white roller coaster which is always above 90 minutes wait times when we visit.

If you have any questions just let me know. My friends and family know me as the Orlando expert :D

Thank you, very informative!

We love Florida! We've had 2 packages through virgin and when there was a problem with the flight we were well looked after so have booked with them again for next year. A lot of people find that you can book it separately by yourself for less but to be honest I've never found cheap flights for the school holidays and when I priced what we have booked I couldn't beat Virgin's price. Be prepared to haggle with them though - they will find extra discounts to get your booking!! I live near Manchester so can't comment on flying from anywhere else. What parks would you think of doing? As the previous poster said do plan some rest days!! On facebook there's a page called, "It's Orlando Time" - lots of information on there.

We went this year (aug) and I recommend having a look on the dibb, they are amazing for tips and information on everything in Florida from theme parks to weather to driving over there. Our first trip was 2017 and I didn't have a clue and thanks to all the tips I picked up we had a great time. If you plan on staying in Disney property it can feel like planning a military drill as any dining can be booked at 180 days before and the popular restaurants book up then and can still be difficult to get. We flew with TUI both times and recommend the dream liner highly and both times flew from Birmingham so cant help with flying from Scotland sorry. One thing I will say is apply in plenty of time for your etsa and be very careful your on the official site as it should be $14 but some 3rd party sites offer the service but don't tell you it's over $100 and you don't know until the amounts deducted (another tip from the dibb)

Yes, and we are off again in May next year.

For a trip like yours, can I recommend using dial a flight? They Taylor make holidays, and we have never been able to beat them yet.

If you PM me I can send you the details of the guy we use.

Also, I recommend using the forum "The Dibb" you will find some great tips and recommendations on there.

As a Florida veteran with over 10 trips under my belt , I would say if you are focussing your trip on Disney then stay on site . The transportation is so much easier and you can pop back for a swim / rest in the afternoon.

Hi, check out BA website, you can look at the prices for multi city flights and if you add in a hotel and / or car you only need to pay a deposit at time of booking. We have not flown to Orlando with BA but have flown with them from Edinburgh to Washington & back from NYC, couldn’t fault them and got a great price (all booked on line).

We’ve been to Orlando a couple of times with Thomas Cook, and again I think they’re great for the price, ok there’s no free alcohol on flight but that doesn’t bother us. First time we booked a package flying from Glasgow and stayed in at the Rosen Inn on International Drive and it was great. Next time we flew from Manchester as it was so much cheaper than from Scotland during the school holidays, booked our own hotels including a Disney Hotel for part of the holiday and we benefited from the free dining (need to book whilst offer is on & I believe it’s finished for 2019). We got the train to / from Manchester airport the day before our flight, stayed at an airport hotel and had a nice relaxing morning before flying. The train home is so much better than a long drive up the road after an overnight flight.

As previous poster said, buy theme park tickets in UK before you go as they’re cheaper