Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

tonymc

sheilavw wrote: »

hello,
my daughter is planning a holiday to florida in april 2011 (somewhere around the 8th for 10/14 days) she is going with three friends. they are all aged between 18-22 and are students so are on tight budgets! where can she find cheap flights? she is staying in a villa owned by one of the friends family so accommodation isnt a prob! also, she wants to visit the parks - thats what theyre going for (which are the best?) and especiallys wants to visit the harry potter theme park, because shes a big fan! where can we find cheap park tickets? are there any that incorporate all the parks including the harry potter one?
many thanks!!

Hi,

With regard to flights, using the http://matrix.itasoftware.com website, flights for 14 nights departing on the dates shown for one-stop flights ex London to Orlando:

06/04/11: £455 out via Washington, return via Montreal with Continental
07/04/11: £494 out and return via JFK with American Airlines
08/04/11: £666 out and return via JFK with American Airlines
09/04/11: £840 out via Chicago, retuen via JFK with BA/AA

As you can see, if your daughter could go a day or two earlier, could save up to £200 each.

With regard to the accommodation, as noted in other posts, please do check the location of the villa. It is unlikely that there will be any public transport should the location be a significant distance from Disney. If the villa is nearer to Disney, check www.golynx.com for the Orlando area bus services where you can view a map of the routes and the timetables.

With regard to tickets, these can bump up the holiday price significantly. There are several "packages" that cover Disney, Universal and Seaworld (can cost around £400), but for 14 days it may be better pulling together a package yourself.

As an example, 14 day 2 Park Universal tickets can be had for £80. For Disney, UK 14 day Ultimate tickets covering unlimited admission to the 4 theme parks, 2 water parks and allowing you to move between the theme parks on the same day will set you back around £240-£250. However, the US Magic Your Way Base tickets (if they are only planning on the theme parks and can do without moving between theme parks on the same day or the water parks) can be had at 10 days for around £170.

If you want any further info on tickets, please PM me and I will be happy to try and help you.

sheilavw

Thank you all for your replies.The guy who's family own the villa I think is over 25 so may drive, the others will be 18 19 and 22 years and it will be their first visit. My daughter is extremely keen to do the Harry Potter park , I think they are looking to do about 10 days so would probably get passes for 7?

vivatifosi

blue_monkey wrote: »

I have a sickness phobia poet..... Even going onto a ferry is my absolute worst nightmare. Even the thought of being trapped onboard and not being able to escape feeling sick brings me out in a hot sweat....

Seriously bm, ferries are far worse because they are smaller and the North Sea is far rougher than the Caribbean or Med. Even the really big ferries that go to Scandinavia are about 1/6th-1/8th of the tonnage of the smaller Disney ships.

The trick is to go for a cabin low down and at midships. Ironically the more expensive cabins at the top rock more, as do those front and back.

babymoneyblagger

sheilavw wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies.The guy who's family own the villa I think is over 25 so may drive, the others will be 18 19 and 22 years and it will be their first visit. My daughter is extremely keen to do the Harry Potter park , I think they are looking to do about 10 days so would probably get passes for 7?

We came back from Florida in August and just wanted to let you know that WWOHP is in Islands of adventure universal and not a separate park (just in case they thought it was!), it is not very big at all, queuing can be horrendous (pending on time of year going, in Aug it was 3 hour queue for wand shop), and in such a small area it was frustrating to try and move around, forbidden journey was a great ride though!!

For park passes I would get the flexiticket (pending if they are doing seaworld, aquatica, IOA, US and busch gardens?), if only doing IOA and US then think about getting the 2 park ticket which lasts 14 days and you can park hop (go to both parks in 1 day, if u so wish!), they work out quite alot cheaper than the flexiticket.

KarenG

sheilavw wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies.The guy who's family own the villa I think is over 25 so may drive, the others will be 18 19 and 22 years and it will be their first visit. My daughter is extremely keen to do the Harry Potter park , I think they are looking to do about 10 days so would probably get passes for 7?

Good news if they have someone who can drive

I have to agree that the queues can be awful getting into (and on rides) the Harry Potter section of Universal's Islands of Adventure, but I would say it is a must do for any Potter fan

FluffyFiFi

Can anyone help me with a bit of advice please. We only have the paper part of our driving licence as we've never had the photocard, could this be a problem?

We are not going until August next year and are staying at the Caribe Cove Resort in Kissimmee. Has anyone stayed there and was it any good? We have a three bedroom apartment which looks lovely in the photographs. There are four of us going, myself and dh, ds (15) and dd (13) so having rooms each will be lovely.

We haven't made our minds up about what parks we want to go to and I was thinking the children might have outgrown Disney, but DS says not and wants to go. Any thoughts of what parks would be best, last time we were there we went to Universal and loved it, this time I want to go to IoA as that looks like it would be great for us all. DD wants to do the Discovery Cove swim but this does seem very expensive.

I really want to go to some of the Disney hotels for a meal, can anyone recommend the best ones. I don't mind splashing out on one or two expensive meals but would like a good view. Husband really likes his steaks but I prefer the seafood. Does anyone know if it is possible to use the Disney transport from resorts to the parks if you are not guests?

Thanks.

socrates

Looking to visit Disney World Florida on 1st April 2011 for 10-11 days.

Two adults and one child (12)

We do not want to drive at all - so I guess staying within Disney would be the way forward using the shuttle services.

I have performed several searches from the various websites BUT there is so much information thrown at you that I just cannot seem to get a clear idea of what to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions - where to stay within Disney and a specific link to a package available?

blue_monkey_2

KarenG wrote: »

Good news if they have someone who can drive

I have to agree that the queues can be awful getting into (and on rides) the Harry Potter section of Universal's Islands of Adventure, but I would say it is a must do for any Potter fan

Tell them to go to HPW in the afternoon - Forbidden Journey was a walk on, Dragons was a walk on, as was Flight of the Hippogriff (more for smaller kids though). Village was much quieter too.

We went in the morning too and the Forbidden Journey was 75 minutes queue time. There were lots of people there in the morning and was even a huge for Borgin & Bourkes but there was nothing when we went in the afternoon, it was just much easier to get around in the afternoon.

KarenG

blue_monkey wrote: »

Tell them to go to HPW in the afternoon - Forbidden Journey was a walk on, Dragons was a walk on, as was Flight of the Hippogriff (more for smaller kids though). Village was much quieter too.

We went in the morning too and the Forbidden Journey was 75 minutes queue time. There were lots of people there in the morning and was even a huge for Borgin & Bourkes but there was nothing when we went in the afternoon, it was just much easier to get around in the afternoon.

I only went to HPW in the summer, and luckily as we stayed onsite we had early entry so didn't have to contend with the queues. But, there were queues of up to two hours to get into the land, even through to mid afternoon. The only time there wasn't a queue was early evening. I think the poster is going at Easter (??) so if anything the queues could be worse, rather than better than the ones I experienced.

BM, am I right in saying you went late October? That's a relatively (I know it's all relative nowadays!) quiet time, isn't it?

Not saying your advice isn't good, just that my experience in summer didn't match yours. For example, we saw queue times for Forbidden Journey posted as 150 minutes (!!!) compared to your 75 (in the morning).

KarenG

socrates wrote: »

Looking to visit Disney World Florida on 1st April 2011 for 10-11 days.

Two adults and one child (12)

We do not want to drive at all - so I guess staying within Disney would be the way forward using the shuttle services.

I have performed several searches from the various websites BUT there is so much information thrown at you that I just cannot seem to get a clear idea of what to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions - where to stay within Disney and a specific link to a package available?

It's hard to recommend anything without knowing some specifics. Disney hotels vary from reasonably cheap (sub $100/night) to massively expensive ($500+/night). Do you have a budget in mind?