Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

blue_monkey_2

Hi Julie,

I do know what you mean, right. Let's help you get the best out of this holiday possible!!

Dishes. Take plastic ones and plastic spoons. Yes, UHT milk is a good idea however you'll ne not able to take this in your case.

Cereal. It's pants over there and laden with additives, colours and SWEETS. Yes, you did read that right. Take your own from home - it's cheaper too.
Tea - take your own, that will be fine too.
Milk 0- you can buy fresh milk, get a 2pt a day and it'll last in the room. Leave it in a sink of cold water when you can and it'll last longer (can you tell we have been there, LOL) Get it from the supermarket after you come back from eating at night.

Can someone bring some coupon books back so she is prepared for when she gets there please. Julie, do you mind paying the postage for them as there are a lot, with different offers.

Parks - yes, you can get one day tickets. Do not buy them yet - let's see if you can get any offers (they did have Kids into Seaworld for $5 which went to charity with each adult ticket last year so hold on a bit for that)

Again, Disney - you can get a 1 day ticket but you need to go through the lists for the park to see what the children want to go on most.

Space Centre is down the Coast - I think it is Kennedy though, we have not been it's on our ist for next time.

In regards to height, there are some small rides and the heigths for the bigger childrens rides then are 42", it then goes up to 48". Can you go next year? This would give you longer to save.

You can go trick or treating for free at Downtown Disney but it is very busy. If you are there for a week, do you want to waste a whole afternoon and evening just getting a few sweets, the atmosphere is not brilliant there. I'd choose going to Celebration instead (just down the road from Disney). The Halloween Event at Universal is for over 16's and scary so make sure you keep away when they are on in case you kids get scared by costumes some might be wearing. Just to pre-warn you.

There is a Kids Eat Free Card you can get and it can be used in restarants on Universal City Walk so see if any of these come up on eBay.

I've got to do breakfast and get ready for school but I'll be thinking about this to see how we can help you get the best out of this holiday.

We also cut down on a lot of spends to save for our holiday. We now do one big shop a week and I take cash to do a top up shop once a week and only get £200 a month out of the cashpoint for 'odds and ends'. It really works and I think about what I am buying more!!

blue_monkey_2

johnnyroper wrote: »

B_M

I cannot stand mr crow either has £15 a month of me for nowt but that's another story.
It is just when I saw the picture with hat on it was the first thing that popped in to my tiny little mind.

Anyway on to proper subject I really must do the Disney pass thing before I go this time to get better price,I have prob asked before but forgot does DLP work the same with photo pass?

LOL, £15 a month. I know. Hubby is in Iron & Steel but there is just that thing of 'what if I need it' so we have not cancelled it yet. He does work in a different industry now though.

Photopass in DLP - no, sadly. They don't. Did you manage to get shares?

blue_monkey_2

Julie: Here is a Kids Eat Free voucher for Rainforest Cafe: http://www.rainforestcafe.com/rewardsCalendars.asp

I have heard that it is also available in T-Rex in downtown Disney but it was always heaving when we went. It;s a dinosaur themed restaurant. Might be worth you booking and ask before you get seated: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/t-rex/

Wherever you go, lunches are cheaper than evening meals so maybe eat at lunchtime, then go to Walmart or Target and they do HUGE subs for $3 - it would easily feed all four of you. Likewise, Subway do 'foot long' subs for $4.99, you can cut it into 4 then and have it in the evening.

Walmart sell polystyrene cool boxes. Have a look on the hotel website and see what you get in your room, or see whether you can hire a fridge and a kettle - that would be helpful. Or take a travel kettle so you can make your own tea and coffee. Maybe pack some Pot Noodles?

Simac

Morning,

Back in February, Attraction tickets direct were doing a free kids ticket to Kennedy Space Centre with every adult ticket. I've just had a quick look and the offer has been extended to the end of March. Maybe you could check on there when you have booked your holiday, as it's possible that the offer may be extended again?

On the Space Centre website it is $41 per adult and $31 per child. With the Attraction tickets direct offer it would be £50 total for 2 adults and 2 kids. The tickets are valid until the end of 2011 so you could book now for October I guess.

I've never actually been to the Space Centre, but this appears to be the basic admission ticket, it doesn't include transport or a tour. Those tickets are a lot more expensive. Worth keeping in mind I guess if you definitely want to visit Kennedy.

Hope this helps x

amanda40

The offer at seaworld last week when we were there was buy a day coome back for a year free!! - We had an orlando flexi ticket so didnt take advantage. Parking too is $15 a day so we tried to spend full day at the same park or park group ( seaworld and Aquatica on the same day) to save. I would take a travel kettle - we didnt have a kettle in our room, only a coffee maker and it didnt work out right so didnt have a cuppa for 2 weeks! Also take Ziplock bags with you ( or buy in Walmart) the bags of crackers, biscuits, crisps etc are all huge, so need to be split, we just took a wee bag with us every day and all our juice ( bought from Walmart). We took a picnic to the parks every day, well snacks and juice and no one batted an eye. I found the cereal exp and too bright too!

Miss_Cinnabon

JulieJesta wrote: »

Hello Again,

I've been reading up on the replies, thank you all! It is very appreciated. We were looking at June/July or October/November anyway so thats really decided that. I want to do Halloween!

With regards to "budget" I actually have no budget. ;-/ However aiming for October this means passports are the priority, then i'm going to eBay/carboot anything I have that I can. My son would love this, and would break his heart to be told now he can't go. To give you an approximate idea I earn £6.70 an hour, pretax, childcare at £3.25 hourly (after travelling time for a 6 hour shift I earn/takehome around £15 /£2.50 hourly .... we can not get tax credits etc... seems we are just above a margin or something. We do everthing "big" by shopping around, comparisons, then haggling or cashback sites. (sorry if that sounds like a sob story - just tryin to answer the question). Yes, I probably could avoid sovinier type items - but if my bots are hungry/need something it would be done.

As a few of you asked, my boys are 3 and 9 soon, both in July. The youngest is 3ft tall now so I'm thinking we might be ok regarding rides as he's on a growth spurt now (again). My eldest is 4 1/2ft (not that i've measured him recently to be honest).

I know the hotels won't have cooking facilities but we will probably cheat - proper meals once a day (eating out, most likely evening) and have cereal for breakfasts (uht milk, and i can pack my kids plastic bowls from home?) and the third meal being sandwiches (although i have noted the "picnic lunches" being banned at universal! Seems sandwiches are allowed, only if bag a certain size). Then things like croisants and fruit for the kids to snack on. Do we get things like kettles? I'm British, I NEED a cuppaT to function in the morning. :P Do they have real tea bags over there, or do they taste "wrong"? ;-)

We only have 7 days, so I do not really want to do the 14 day anypark pass thing-a-my-bobs. I was thinking mainly staying in universal studios, and the islands of adventure as we have passes for those, and we wanted one day at the space centre (sorry, can't remember the name.. cape kannaveral i *think* it was OH said) and one day at seaworld (I wanted to do this since i was small! It wasn't just the 6kg of free sweets mentioned and then photo'd above, honest!).
It seems we can only buy these as 2 week passes, not single days entrances, or am i being thick?

I hope I didnt miss any questions there?

October i think is the better time to go as june/july is just too hot, although you can still get heatwave's in october, first 2 times we went it was near 100 the whole time we were there

Kennedy space centre is fantastic we have been twice and just love it, more me than the kids :rotfl:if you can afford it then i would suggest doing the tour if you can and you will def see alligators on the tour (the guy asked if anyone on the bus has seen any gators yet, few said no so he pointed some out to everyone, omg :eek:) the tour is great and cant wait to do it again, we love the rocket garden, great bit for the kids there but would say try and pick a day where it isnt too hot, the first time we went the temp was over 100 and we just couldnt stay long as it was unbearable for us

Last time we went to ksc (on the tour) we got to see a shuttle on the launchpad and got to see the cargo that was due to go up to the spacestation, normally we wouldnt but because someone had made a mistake with the measurements then it was still there, this was in one of the huge buildings which is a part of the tour only, no photos were allowed though

you can get 1 day seaworld tickets http://www.seaworld.com/Tickets/Visitors.aspx or just buy when you get there

r.mac_2

jackieblack wrote: »

I agree with this, we had great service from the concierge service when we went.

What type of thing can you/did you use the concierge service for?

I'm already very excited about our trip and it's not until October! I've been reading articles on The Dibb and trying to keep up on here.

I've been to Orlando before and can't wait to introduce DH and LO to the wonder that is Disney. However I am trying to be realistic as to what we will be able to do.

We are only in Orlando for 7 days and have the beach part of our holiday to recover. At the moment I'm thinking of only going to Disney. LO is only going to be 2 and so I don't think she'll get much out of Universal. I want to be able to take our time and enjoy those magical moments. I'm thinking about either the 5 or 7 day Disney ticket. Probably won't do 7 days at Disney as we will want to be More relaxed than that and do some shopping etc but wondered if the 7 day ticket would leave us with flexibility for seeing fireworks and parades etc.

I am also eagerly awaiting being able to book a character breakfast at crystal palace with Winnie and friends.

Apart from that is there anything anyone can recommend for toddlers?

ButtonF1Fan

blue_monkey wrote: »

Julie: Here is a Kids Eat Free voucher for Rainforest Cafe: http://www.rainforestcafe.com/rewardsCalendars.asp

I have heard that it is also available in T-Rex in downtown Disney but it was always heaving when we went. It;s a dinosaur themed restaurant. Might be worth you booking and ask before you get seated: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/t-rex/

Wherever you go, lunches are cheaper than evening meals so maybe eat at lunchtime, then go to Walmart or Target and they do HUGE subs for $3 - it would easily feed all four of you. Likewise, Subway do 'foot long' subs for $4.99, you can cut it into 4 then and have it in the evening.

Walmart sell polystyrene cool boxes. Have a look on the hotel website and see what you get in your room, or see whether you can hire a fridge and a kettle - that would be helpful. Or take a travel kettle so you can make your own tea and coffee. Maybe pack some Pot Noodles?

Ahead of you on that bit. was thinking of pot noodles - not keen normally but we take them camping as quick snacks.

PROUDMUMMYTOTHREE

for those that have been with small children and for 3weeks how did the little ones cope did they get home sick we are undecided wether to go for 2 or 3 weeks
our girls will be 3 & 4 but not sure if they will get home sick we are going to salou in june for 2 weeks so that will give me an idea although there is much more
to do at florida

blue_monkey_2

mummyof3 - no!! My DD had her birthday there and she said she missed the presents (where is the rlly eyes smiley) but no homesickness at all. They did little cards to friends and things like that.

If you can go for 3 weeks I'd recommend 3 - after 2 1/2 weeks I felt I had done enough and was happy to come home - after 2 weeks there is usualy something I feel I have not dine yet.

Mine went at 3 and 4 for 2 weeks and they were fine. Ds has autism too but there is SO much for them to see and do there is always something to take their minds off it. Take a special toy though, mine sleep with a toy and blanket and so we take those to make bedtimes stress free. I have heard of people having them scooped up with the cleaning things so please be aware of this and leave them in a case when you go out for the day. Just in case.