Calling all Disneyworld experts!

[donaldbump]

So...hoping to go next Feb 23 (do one covid!) for 2 weeks with 6 and 9 year old.
Itinerary so far...
Universal 4 nights - both parks and volcano bay.
Disney 6 nights - all parks except Epcot. No water parks. Day trips out to Space Center/Merritt Island and Blue Spring state park plus a chill day/shopping.
Pas de Grille 4 nights - art galleries in St P, beach time, trip to Fort de Soto and Egmont Key
What do you reckon? Want a balance between theme parks and seeing other parts of Florida. We like nature and outdoor stuff. And lovely low key beaches.

Questions....
I've not included Legoland and Epcot. Does this seem sensible? We have legoland near us here in UK and Epcot doesn't look that interesting for the ages that my kids are.
Is Florida aquarium in Tampa worth a visit? Busch Gardens? What about the Titanic Experience on I-Drive? All three look good but nor sure I can fit them in!
Is the Chip n Dale campfire signalong good? Orlando eye?

Accommodation - can't decide whether to stay onsite or not. I want to stay at Universal as it seems to offer more benefits. Then staying at Disney sounds good but it seems v experience and perhaps I might feel overwhelmed. I like the look of either Animal Kingdom or Fort Wilderness cabins if we stay onsite. Universal Cabana Bay is first choice for Universal.
We will hire a car as want to see outside of the parks so maybe a villa would be better?

Budget £10-12k ish. Hoping to get a good deal as we will book asap. Also not sure if cheaper to do it all direct or through an agent.

Hi all
Thanks so much for the info and advice. I think we need 3 weeks! We plan on going 4-18 Feb 2023 so should miss the busy period. I'll rethink Epcot and rejig amount of time in each park I think. Maybe one less day by the gulf coast too. Ideally would like 75-80% parks and 25-20% other as i think me and DH might be a bit done with it all if we just did parks all fortnight. I like exploring outside of the bubble too! But we are primarily going for Disney so better get our money's worth as it is crazy expensive!!

I'd quite happily skip going to Epcot every time. Not worth it in my opinion and not a great deal for your kids ages. Busch gardens however is my absolute favourite park, it's the best for big rides if that's what you're in to. What passes are you getting? Why don't you do the "definite" parks first then just decide on what you want to do depending on those? We would normally get the 14 day unlimited passes.

We stay at the Swan/Dolphin walking distance away from Hollywood and Epcot and we love it. Other park in the morning (booked in with parkpass now) all the benefits you get, pool in the afternoon then nice walk to Epcot in the evening for the world showcase and restaurants.

I find with Orlando there are no right or wrong things to do just figuring out what best suits you. It has taken time to figure out our balance (we tend to do 3-4 night Universal and 8-10 at Disney) and now go for the Dolphin.

Prices are INSANE though at the moment - our Christmas 2021 holiday was an amazing price probably 60% of 2019 but 2022 is at the moment 170% of the price we paid. So be aware of that

Yes Swan and Dolphin are so well located. I agree with the prices, we won't be returning for some time as a family of 5 tied to holidays unfortunately. I found one of my old invoices from a September trip over ten years ago - two weeks at the Pop with dining and tickets for £1400 for two of us!! I remember the flights were about £400 each. How I miss those days.

Yes and not quite so Disney that you constantly feel you are bombarded with it.

Also love the French Quarter theming but the buses are a pain. Christmas Day we finished in the Yacht Club Restaurant around 6:30 and then did an evening stroll around the World Showcase so the location is amazing.

Prices are bonkers now for Disney. We first went when ours were 5 and 3 which is more than 10 years ago now and we paid about £3500 for four of us for two weeks in a large savannah room (giraffes coming right up to the balcony) at animal kingdom lodge on the dining plan and this also included discovery cove and sea world.

Because of star wars and covid they don't need to tempt people in anymore.

I know you say you want to see other parts of Florida, but it would definitely be more cost effective and probably as relaxing to stay around the Orlando area, but build in some rest/low key days.

We did the Boggy creek boat ride one day round the everglades and that was a nice contrast to the theme parks.

Personally I'd not stay on site. We had an inexpensive condo with a super shared swimming pool and it was nice to be out of the busyness of the parks. We got up super early for the first week as body clocks still on UK time and managed to hit the parks before they got busy.

I loved Epcot but our 7 year old did not enjoy going round the different countries and got grumpy so it was a frustrating day.

We did two long days at Universal one at each park. DS really enjoyed it and as it's aimed generally at an older audience there was less of a queue for most things compared to Disney. Rubbish food though.

I'd say a day per park at Disney is fine. We stayed at the Yacht Club hotel which was nice, and good to have the earlier access to the fast pass bookings (may be less of an issue if they've reduced capacity for Covid). Definitely worth getting one of the Brits guide to Disney books or looking on FB groups as it's quite a logistical exercise if you want to maximise your time.

Our favourite rides were Na'vi River and Avatar (fast pass one and go to the other when the park opens), Soaring and Test Track (Epcot) and the 7 dwarves mine rollercoaster and Buzz Lightyear laser blast at the Magic Kingdom. I'm a bit rubbish at scary rides and thought Slinky Dog (Studios) was faster than it looked.

We moved to a universal hotel as you qualified for all day front of line passes for all the rides. My teens aren't big rollercoaster fans so we were a bit underwhelmed by Universal, except the Harry Potter rides which were very good. A lot of 3D simulator type rides which became a bit samey.

We loved the Kennedy Space center. We also stayed at one of the beaches on the west coast near Tampa which ended up being our favourite part of the holiday.

Different folks, different experiences... we love the food at universal.

We have a veggie amongst us and the choices are much better at universal. Panda Express, alongside Lisa's Treehouse of horror and Luigi's pizza place (both in Mels diner) have wonderful food. Luigi's Mediterranean salad is soooooo good.

Also our Universal hotel (Portofino Bay) wasn't nearly as nice as the Disney Yacht Club hotel (in our opinion).

To echo a previous poster all of the Star Wars stuff is at Disney's Hollywood Studios - don't plan on extra time at Universal Studios if it was to do that! I'm so jealous, my DD is only 2 and nowhere near ready for it yet but I'm dying to go back.

Are you happy to drive? That would open up more accommodation options like villas and then you don't have to move hotels in between Universal and Disney days.

Also if you have any Frozen fans you'll want to go to Epcot. I think there's also a Moana attraction opening there in The Seas area but not sure when it will be completed. I've done the Ratatouille ride in Paris and that is great too, younger kids would like that as well as adults.

We’re planning a Disney trip for Spring 2024 but getting in a lot of research now - we originally thought we’d do summer 2023 but something else has come up.

We’re using DIBB for advice as well as:

www.magicguides.com
www.ziggyknowsdisney.com

I went when DD was 10. Epcot and universal were our favourite parks. We went to the one with the castle (Magic Kingdom?) 3 times which was one too many visits for her.

I’m thinking of Swan/Dolphin or maybe the new swan Reserve, anyone tried it?
We used to stay at Bay Lake Tower but it’s harder and harder to book from the UK now and (as pointed out by pp above) Disney have removed a lot of benefits of staying on property.
Also my kids are a little older now (8-17) so close to Epcot and Hollywood Studios might suit us well.
I’m not looking until Oct 23.
I looked at the Disney offer but pretty unimpressed with the options sadly. Hotels are crazy money or don’t look great. BLT was a good balance of all for us. And loved the kitchenette and washer dryer! I would really miss that!

@pollina we do the Dolphin now. Much cheaper than Yacht and Beach and walking distance to Hollywood and Epcot. And most of the benefits (early opening time and booking in of restaurants and boarding groups) that remain

The only noticeable one is with transport - the bus to Magic KIngdom goes to the TTC and Animal Kingdom is slightly further out. For us not an issue as we just got the bus to the Beach Club and walked around! Our old magic bands still worked as wel

We had our third Florida holiday this summer, so in answer to some of your questions ......
We stayed at Disney hotel (deluxe) which was eye wateringly expensive. Having said that, it was a beautiful hotel (Beach Club) and the pools were fantastic. Also, being able to walk to Epcot and take a short boat ride to Hollywood Studios was great.

For us, the thing that made the Disney experience so crazily expensive was the price of food there. We didn’t have a car when we stayed there so ate exclusively at Disney restaurants. Even just grabbing a couple of coffees, soft drinks and a snack would come to $50ish, which is now about the same in £.

Also, bearing in mind we paid around $400 a night , there was housekeeping only every other day and it wasn’t a full clean. Quite shocking! I understand they have staff shortages but the lack of housekeeping should be reflected in the price.

Regarding Epcot, you really must go! Our new favourite ride at Disney is there.....Guardians of the Galaxy. Superb, joyous ride and I’m not that keen on rollercoasters!

You will have a ball....just keep saving your pennies for your spending money!