Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

blue_monkey_2

bungle888 wrote: »

Hi Blue_Monkey...Did you stay Villa or Resort? and what parks did you visit?
Planning a trip myself.
Thanks

Ready....

We stayed:
Week 1 - Hilton Grand Vacation club (amazing resort!!), 1 bedroom apartment
Week 2 - Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village, 1 bedroom apartment
Week 3 - Disneys Old Key West, 1 bed apartment

Parks: Seaworld, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens, Universal, Islands of Adventure, Fantasia Golf, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (why did it change from MGM anyway?), Florida Mall, Festival Bay Mall, Premium Outlets that used to be Prime, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach. Weather was cold for a few days so we did not get our planned trip into Aquatica and went to Celebration instead - that is a very strange place IMO.

Everything worked out fine, the parks were pretty quiet, most rides were 10 min wait max and the shows that were seated were never full, neither were the buses, weather was fab except for a few days. Although this happened one afternoon within 10 minutes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36461078@N06/5178954223/

Went to WWOHP on Monday morning and it was rammed - queue for Ollivanders was more than 2 hours, there was a queue for the wand shop, FJ was broken down (again) and we walked through the castle to have a look and that took around 45 mins and was slow. Went back a week later on the Weds afternoon around 3.45pm and walked straight onto FJ, no queues for the shops and less people. Flight of the Hippogriff was also a walk on.

Toy Story Mania is the busiest ride in the parks with queues for a couple of hours, followed by Space Mountain (saw one queue time of 200 minutes and just thought !!!!!!! How much time do you have to waste in the queue??

Random thought: Why do people queue for 60 minutes when fastpass is available for half an hour later??

blue_monkey_2

leew wrote: »

Does anyone know who's best to book a return airport transfer with from Orlando Int to International Drive?

Thanks.

Mears were the cheapest option I found, you can get a luxury SUV for $63 plus tip. You'll pay that for a taxi! https://secure.mearstransportation.com/ Choose the Luxury Vehicle option. If you check the price of the 'shuttle' you can see it is more or less the same price for 2 adults and 2 kids.

We had a Mears Luxury SUV on our last day and was told the price was $150. We ummed and ahhed but in the end went for it and we had him for 1 hour and 30 minutes, he got us from OKW, waited for us for 1 hour and 15 minutes at DTD while we checked in with Virgin and then we went onto the Poly for breakfast. Well worth the money - it would have cost more than this for a taxi to wait for us.

vivatifosi

Hi BM, glad you had a great holiday. Which of the three was your fave resort?

blue_monkey_2

vivatifosi wrote: »

Hi BM, glad you had a great holiday. Which of the three was your fave resort?

Hiya V, did you get my last message?? FC said HB to DD - was that what you meant on your message? It was lovely to meet up, I should be doing my Tesco order but keep on getting distracted...!!

Well, I am not sure. It was very noisy at OKW - people would come in at 11pm and put the spa bath on and we could hear all of them in the block, however, it was lovely to have otters and the birds outside the door. The bathroom was a little grubby though.

AKV was lovely, the room and it was very quiet other than the people next door making a noise - but it was quite a way from everything and the pool was cold.

The Hilton was really nice and we will definately go there again.

Hard to make a choice as they were all good in their own way, i could not pick a favourite.

However, Chef Mickeys and The Crystal Palace are VERY over-rated!!

bungle888

blue_monkey wrote: »

Ready....

We stayed:
Week 1 - Hilton Grand Vacation club (amazing resort!!), 1 bedroom apartment
Week 2 - Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village, 1 bedroom apartment
Week 3 - Disneys Old Key West, 1 bed apartment

Parks: Seaworld, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens, Universal, Islands of Adventure, Fantasia Golf, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (why did it change from MGM anyway?), Florida Mall, Festival Bay Mall, Premium Outlets that used to be Prime, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach. Weather was cold for a few days so we did not get our planned trip into Aquatica and went to Celebration instead - that is a very strange place IMO.

Everything worked out fine, the parks were pretty quiet, most rides were 10 min wait max and the shows that were seated were never full, neither were the buses, weather was fab except for a few days. Although this happened one afternoon within 10 minutes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36461078@N06/5178954223/

Went to WWOHP on Monday morning and it was rammed - queue for Ollivanders was more than 2 hours, there was a queue for the wand shop, FJ was broken down (again) and we walked through the castle to have a look and that took around 45 mins and was slow. Went back a week later on the Weds afternoon around 3.45pm and walked straight onto FJ, no queues for the shops and less people. Flight of the Hippogriff was also a walk on.

Toy Story Mania is the busiest ride in the parks with queues for a couple of hours, followed by Space Mountain (saw one queue time of 200 minutes and just thought !!!!!!! How much time do you have to waste in the queue??

Random thought: Why do people queue for 60 minutes when fastpass is available for half an hour later??

Sounds like you had a fab time!! I am still in the process...or should I say begining to plan our trip.
I dont have a clue so starting to look at the parks that I want to go to and from there I will figure out where to stay, whether it be a villa or resort...so much to do!!!

Never really fancied Orlando but what I have read so far it sounds amazing!

Love the pic btw...did that really happen in the space of 10mins???

vivatifosi

blue_monkey wrote: »

Hiya V, did you get my last message?? FC said HB to DD - was that what you meant on your message? It was lovely to meet up, I should be doing my Tesco order but keep on getting distracted...!!

I didn't get the message! I found out while at OKW that we had a crossed line with a room at the Yacht and Beach, so our calls kept going there. You would not believe the number of calls we tried to make to various places and just ended up talking to random people at the Y&B. So, it worked, FC said HB to DD? Yipee!! Everyone will wonder what on earth we are talking about;).

ETA: OKW is being totally refurbished at the moment, so rooms should be better in future if you want to stay there again. We always ask for an upstairs room as you don't get the noise transfer. Having said that, not as easy with children and pushchairs to lug up and down without lifts.

KarenG

Welcome back BM :T


I'm stuck on the FC, but guessing the rest is Happy Birthday to DD??

Put us out of our misery

chocolateteddy

Father Christmas?? Might be a bit early!!!

blue_monkey_2

chocolateteddy wrote: »

Father Christmas?? Might be a bit early!!!

LOL, it was Father Christmas and yes, it was her Birthday, not too early. Was at MVMCP. :rotfl: She went to BBB for her borthday treat and then onto CM. Why Disney feel the need to give everything such long names is anyones guess.

I was looking at OKW again last night but flights not out for 2012 on Virgin website yet. Can't be too much longer to wait surely? Not sure I'll be able to swing another 2 weeks off but maybe 3-4 days and overlap it with the half term.

It is terribly addictive this Disney malarky, isn't it...!! I do not feel the urgency to go back right now but we had such a wonderful time. Thought we might stay near St Cloud for a few days this time too so we can have some airboat rides and see the manatees, then go off to Orlando - I do not like the idea of wasting all those hours driving there and back. Not sure how we will fit everything in though, maybe just do the 'must sees' and give Seaworld and Universal a miss. I think I could do without Epcot too tbh but there is no way we could get away with not going on Everest or the Tower of Terror!! I am sure the kids would spend the entire holiday riding just those.

Please will my son to grow another 2 inches as there is no point in going back before then. Then the fun REALLY starts.

leew

blue_monkey wrote: »

Mears were the cheapest option I found, you can get a luxury SUV for $63 plus tip. You'll pay that for a taxi! https://secure.mearstransportation.com/ Choose the Luxury Vehicle option. If you check the price of the 'shuttle' you can see it is more or less the same price for 2 adults and 2 kids.

We had a Mears Luxury SUV on our last day and was told the price was $150. We ummed and ahhed but in the end went for it and we had him for 1 hour and 30 minutes, he got us from OKW, waited for us for 1 hour and 15 minutes at DTD while we checked in with Virgin and then we went onto the Poly for breakfast. Well worth the money - it would have cost more than this for a taxi to wait for us.

Hi,

Thanks for that but it's coming out at $111.00 for me! not sure why.

Shuttle is $58.00 which is good though.