Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

blue_monkey_2

OMG - Minster, I just remembered now we talk about Halloween. SeaWorld do a Halloween Event and it is totally free. You will need to switch your days though - have you something special planned for your hubby at Seaworld on the Thursday?? You need to go to Universal on Thursday and Seaworld on the Friday 28th. We went on Friday and it was so quiet, there was no lines for food, loads of seats to Shamu show (we saw the 3 week old baby when we went), no waiting for rides, no crowds, it was brilliant. If you PM me your email address I will send you some pics that we took when we was there.

It starts at 12.00 (although park opens at 9am) and you get a goodie bag and go around and just find the treat stations and get loads of sweets a peanut butter. There are shows and people dressed up. My kids had such a great time and we bought a Spooktacular T-shirt for $10 as well. It is included in your admission price - even with the 14 day tickets.

http://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-orlando/Events/SeaWorlds-Halloween-Spooktacular

You pay to park there and, because of where you are staying, I would consider getting the i-ride as it stops near your suites and outside Seaworld and it'll be cheaper than the cost of a parking ticket.

blue_monkey_2

minster - I think this is the last one. The plan looks good.

You know, I get an A4 diary and I list everything down. My husband thinks I am nuts but we'd not see everything without it.

I list down what I am doing on what day, what time the parks close, what time EMH (we stay in Disney), what time the parades are on, when and where we are eating - everything basically, down to shopping.

When the parks close at 6pm we would go back to the hotel and shop. It rained really heavy one day so we went to the shops instead and jiggled a few days around that way but we still never saw the jungle jammin' parade.

Oh, and Dinosaur ride is VERY bumpy and VERY noisy, we did not know and my kids were absolutely terrified (as you'll see if I send you the links for pics!!). My kids were the same age as yours are now and they did not like it - and they are avid theme parkers. They even got me on Everest by telling me 'it just went backwards a little bit and slowly'..... gits!! We had about 8 goes on there all in by the end, LOL.

KarenG and Viv, if you want to see the pics from our holiday last year (wow, a year already) send me a PM. It's only an album link. x

blue_monkey_2

KarenG wrote: »

Yes you can definitely get the face value of the Ultimate applied against the cost of the Annual Pass.

Which view have you got at Bay Lake Tower....??

Sorry Karen, we got a Lake View.

Thanks for the info on getting the cost back, it is appreciated.

mintster

blue_monkey wrote: »

OMG - Minster, I just remembered now we talk about Halloween. SeaWorld do a Halloween Event and it is totally free. You will need to switch your days though - have you something special planned for your hubby at Seaworld on the Thursday?? You need to go to Universal on Thursday and Seaworld on the Friday 28th. We went on Friday and it was so quiet, there was no lines for food, loads of seats to Shamu show (we saw the 3 week old baby when we went), no waiting for rides, no crowds, it was brilliant. If you PM me your email address I will send you some pics that we took when we was there.

It starts at 12.00 (although park opens at 9am) and you get a goodie bag and go around and just find the treat stations and get loads of sweets a peanut butter. There are shows and people dressed up. My kids had such a great time and we bought a Spooktacular T-shirt for $10 as well. It is included in your admission price - even with the 14 day tickets.

http://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-orlando/Events/SeaWorlds-Halloween-Spooktacular

You pay to park there and, because of where you are staying, I would consider getting the i-ride as it stops near your suites and outside Seaworld and it'll be cheaper than the cost of a parking ticket.

Ha ha ha - I am the hubby! For some reason my son wants to take me to seaworld on my birthday (thursday 27th) - although I am not supposed to know about it!!!

Out of interest if anyone has flown with Virgin recently on the new Airbus - do you need an adaptor for your headphones?

mintster

Oh and I will be getting a diary!

blue_monkey_2

LOL, shhhh, I will not tell anyone that you know. Might be worth doing the rest of the day at Seaworld though after you have done your 3 hours at US, LOL. I was so underwhelmed. The Trick & Treating goes on til 8pm so you might be able to cram a cheeky few hours in.

I'll send the link over - most of the sweets in that picture came from Seaworld!!

It is on the weekend before too (look at the link I gave) so maybe you can jiggle around and go to Seaworld on the 23rd and go to Aquatica on 28th so he can still get lots of goodies. I promise you'll not have to buy any more sweets for the entire holiday! We got a ridiculous amount of sweets - we gave loads to their class mates when we got home so they could all have some 'american candy'. And I still have some Nerds and lollies left here today!!

And if you go Target they do these bags of nut mixes with M&M's, caramel chips, chocolate chips - they are gorgeous. We bought loads home but they are lush, lush, lush!!

5 1/2 months to go...... I am currently selling all of our [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] unwanted stuff on eBay and I've made about £130 in a week so far. I've not even touched what I have here. I am a serious hoarder so hoping to make £1000 selling [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE]stuff. LOL.

mintster

Matched betting is a great way to make extra cash - check out the GIOL thread.

thelawnet

blue_monkey wrote: »

LOL, I am on my way.....

I did not want to seem too bossy but we have done it a few times now and you get to know what maximises your time.

Are you not interested in going to the Halloween Party?

Also, as you are doing so many of the parks and are staying off site, have you considered getting an Annual Pass for one of you so you can get free parking at the parks (worth £11 a day) as you then get discounts off food and gifts too as well as other little discounts. I believe you can get the money of your Ultimate's refunded against the price of an Annual Pass but you might need to call and verify this. I have been looking an AP for our trip to see if we can save money. You can get one for $550 - around £343. Assuming you have an Ultimate for £230 then that is £113 more after your parking, once you start buying food and gifts you'll be making a saving. Maybe something to have a look at also. To save on parking you would be best off going to DTD on your first night and getting it sorted so you can go to MK early on the 1st day.

$550 is £350 currently, and probably a little more once you take into account currency costs.

Also the Ultimate gets you into the water parks (the poster has put down for Blizzard Beach), which the $550 annual pass does not. The $690 premium annual pass does, but that's stupid money

Mintster has 6, maybe 7 days at Disney, so say $98 for parking. That comes to $460 for 1 Ultimate Pass + parking, leaving you to find $90 of savings.

If you were booking accommodation direct with Disney, I think AP holders tend to get an extra 5% off compared with public discount codes, so for a week's accommodation at $200/night, that's $70, so you've easily covered it. But for the OP probably not, he needs to spend $500-$1000 on eligible stuff at Disney to make back the $90, personally I'd rather not worry about whether I was spending enough to justify the AP

The other thing of course the Ultimate Pass is not really the best deal for 7 visits in 14 days at WDW, a MYW 7 day ticket is $262, which is only £167, about £63 less than an Ultimate, the difference is no park hopping, water parks or Disney Quest, but mintster apparently doesn't really need any of those things, and the £63 pp saving will add up quickly.

blue_monkey_2

To the person who posted on the other thread - iwanttoberich - we have never used a car but I do not think I know of any company that offers actual excursions from the hotel to Kennedy that you can book from here, it is Kennedy only.

It might well be worth giving The Pointe a call because a lot of the hotels run their own excursions and you might be able to book that now so you have a seat. We stayed at The Hilton last time and they had their own bus and used to run their own day excursions and shuttles. I know Sheraton Four Points runs day excursions too as there was a list on the wall when we arrived. Give them a call and ask them.

The other option would be to hire a car for the day. I am told it is easy as long as you stay in the middle lane..... LOL. We shall see.

nuttyp

I think its attraction tickets direct that do a Kennedy deal with tickets and transport, if you want the airboat ride as well it about £60 each. They only do the trip on a thursday fo rthe airboat ride tho. Didnt get to do it last time, so think we are all going to have a day out and do it this time.

Does anyone know what would be the cheapest ticket for disney for 5 days plus 2 days waterparks. Would i be right in thinking that the magic your way ticket works out slightly cheaper that a 14 day ultimate? Were going for 14 days but have got tickets for universal, discovery cove and kennedy so these will take up at least 4 days. Do the days have to be used with 14 days on the MYW tickets??

any help greatly appreciated.