Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

lolabugx

blue_monkey wrote: »

What is it you want from your holiday?
Do you want to hire a car? If you are in a villa then this is essential as there will be no PT.

Can I suggest that you do a week on site in Disney so you can do all of the parks on their transport system, and then a week near Universal so you are near all of that.

Your budget would be something that determines where you stay in Disney.

We found some nice apartments at http://www.thepointorlando.com/ This is pretty much on top of Universal, SeaWorld (free bus from there for BG), Wet & Wild, Aquatica, shopping, the i-ride trolley and bus links.

If you stay at Disney you can get a bus to/from the airport so it might be worth doing what we are doing. 4/5 nights Disney hotel, 7 nights in an apartment near Universal, 2/3 nights at Disney - this way you can get the free shuttle bus to and from the airport - called Disney's Magical Express, but this does need to be booked 24 hours before you need it (you can do it online). Then when at your apartment/condo/villa you will have a washer/drier can do your washing so you do not need to take so many clothes with you. When you leave one hotel you can check in early at the next one and leave your luggage at the next hotel and go off and do your day as usual, then go to your room later in the day when it is ready or just chill by the pool. You just get a cab between hotels.

If you are not going to have a car, these people offer tours with transport: http://floridadolphintours.com/packages

It is perfectly do-able without a car and this year will be the first time we ever have one.

Thanks so much for your advice. Funnily enough I have been researching accom and came up with The Point too!
Now can you reccommend anything within the Disney area too.
Thanks so much

blue_monkey_2

lolabugx wrote: »

Thanks so much for your advice. Funnily enough I have been researching accom and came up with The Point too!
Now can you reccommend anything within the Disney area too.
Thanks so much

What is your budget, we have stayed at All Star and hated it, we stayed OKW which was nice but they are expensive. This time we are going for Port Orleans Riverside. Or, if you have children look at the Caribbean Beach Resort Pirate Rooms - they are around £200 a night though, be warned for the shock now, LOL, but they are the ultimate Disney and what I would expect Disney to be about.

There are some Royal Guest rooms being refurbed for Feb time at Port Orleans Riverside but I am not sure if they will be ready, you might get lucky, check the Disney website to see if they come up for your dates.

Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach are around £150 for a standard room.

If you have a look on Expedia you can get a listing price per night - you can get 10% cashback with Exedia for the room,s but do not rule out the Disney website as they often have offers on there.

If you book to stay at Disney you can get free dining for your stay if you stay for 5 nights or more, but you must buy your Disney tickets from them to get this offer: http://www.disneypackages.co.uk/wdtc/ You get a certain amount of meals, the type of plan you get depends on where you stay for the week. Old Key West is usually on offer for these dates and they give you a good plan as well.

I hope that helps. Stay at Disney for the first bit of your holiday, it saves hassle with getting your Disney tickets which are linked to your room key when you check in.

iwanttoberich

lolabugx wrote: »

Thanks so much for your advice. Funnily enough I have been researching accom and came up with The Point too!
Now can you reccommend anything within the Disney area too.
Thanks so much

Hi lolabugx

I have just arrived back in the UK yesterday. We spent a week in Orlando before going to my home country in the Caribbean for Xmas. We stayed at The Point Orlando. It's perfect for your family. The one-bedroom suite was bigger than my last two-bedroom flat!

The suites contain everything you'll need - cooking utensils, microwave, cooker, washer & dryer, huge fridge, TV in the bedroom and living room, free internet.

If you're not renting a car, just buy I-Rider tickets for the time you are there and you can ride the trolley any amount of times (as an example, it was $6 for 3 days). The only attractions you can't get to are Disneyworld & Universal Studios, but the resort has a free shuttle there. Because we didn't want to go to Universal at 8.15am, we took a taxi ride which only cost us $8, and we waited for the shuttle back.

We used Florida Dolphin Tours to go to the Kennedy Space Centre. It was good, but very young children may not appreciate it.

There are tons of eating places within walking distance of the resort, and a huge outlet mall that you can get to on the I-rider.

Unfortunately, the resort does not have a shuttle service from the airport. We used Mears http://www.mearstransportation.com/ for transport - $30 each return. A lot of the hotels have the same name, so make sure you know the address of where you're staying. Our driver made 2 wrong stops. It was really quite funny when he stopped and opened the van door and everyone just looked at each other wondering who was getting off.

I highly recommend The Point Orlando to anyone going out there.

blue_monkey_2

Hi iwantoberich - was it after my recommendation you went? I am glad it was so nice there. We have decided to stay in our timeshare (we are in a holiday club and they have opened a new place in Kissimmee, seems daft not to stay in it if we are paying for it) instead.

Can I ask about the Kennedy Trip - did you do the one with the Airboat ride? We have been looking at that ourselves so would be interested to know some more. Ta.

broonbear

i.o a had to close their doors at lunchtime wednesday and thursday the park was full ,

Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom were also full on wednesday, 3-4 hours queue for space mountain aaahhhhhhhhhhhh ! that doesn't happen to often

Kaz2904

Hi there, I haven't been on here for some time. We told the children on Christmas day that we are going to Florida. I can't wait and nor can they . Having looked at ticket prices, we have decided not to buy the 14 day Disney ticket. SiL is thinking about getting a 1 or 2 day ticket to Disney. We don't seem to be able to find any prices and wondered if any of you could tell me a rough guide for a 1 or 2 day ticket.
We are going for the 5 park combo ticket, a day at Daytona, a day at Kennedy pace center and the air boat rides at boggy creek. I don't think we'll have time for disney too!

blue_monkey_2

It's about $100 for the adult gate price to get into the Disney park for just one day, $90 for children - very expensive, not many people buy on the gate. We left our tickets at home and paid $180 to get into Blizzard Beach (they refunded us when we got back to the hotel and showed them our tickets.

You'll be surprised what you have the time for when you are there. It is a long way to go and to not make the most of.

Have a look at Magic Your Way Tickets, you'll not pay much more for a 3 day ticket and then additional days can be added for $5 if you decide you do want to go other days - this does not allow you to park hop though so bear this in mind, with the Ultimates or Base and Hopper, you can do 2 parks in one day.

iwanttoberich

blue_monkey wrote: »

Hi iwantoberich - was it after my recommendation you went? I am glad it was so nice there. We have decided to stay in our timeshare (we are in a holiday club and they have opened a new place in Kissimmee, seems daft not to stay in it if we are paying for it) instead.

Can I ask about the Kennedy Trip - did you do the one with the Airboat ride? We have been looking at that ourselves so would be interested to know some more. Ta.

Blue_monkey, The Point Orlando was one of 3 or 4 that we had narrowed down our choices to based on Trip Advisor reviews, but your recommendation was the deciding one. I told my daughter that people on money saving expert were usually honest and reliable about things. I certainly was not disappointed.

We didn't do the airboat ride, mostly because we didn't have enough time as we wanted to do some shopping as well. We actually booked our tour through Viator, who sent us a link to confirm with Florida Dolphin Tours (apparently they are the operators in that area). When I confirmed with Dolphin by giving them my purchase order number they sent me the e-ticket and details of the pick-up point.

Dolphin are only responsible for transport to Kennedy Space Centre and the entrance tickets. The driver will tell you what to do - where to meet for the journey back. The space centre has their own bus tour which takes about 2 hours - you go to 3 different places and you can stay at each as long as you like and take any of their buses to continue on, much like a hop-on & hop-off bus tour. Do that first, then you'll have time when you get back to the main centre to see all the displays and IMAX movies etc. It's a very nice day out. On the journey back, the bus showed a movie, which I thought was a nice idea as it was dark outside.

It's all very organised and efficient. I hope you have a brilliant time.

blue_monkey_2

I am pleased you had such a lovely time, as I say, if we had not been staying at Encantada then that is where we had chosen too. There is always next time though.

Thanks for the advice about the tour, we have been looking at this, purely to avoid the hassle of driving really and being able to look at the scenery and things around us. It always seems such a waste when in a new country if someone can drive for you so you can appreciate your surroundings. The tour I saw had an airboat ride as well and I thought we could get the 2 things done at the same time. Thanks for letting me know about it, it is really appreciated.

Also looking at the one with the Manatee Swim in the Crystal River that Virgin Offer, plus an eco safari - there never seems enough time.

KarenG

blue_monkey wrote: »

Hi Karen, Good to see you - sorry I missed your post earlier. We have not stayed POR before but are really looking forward to it, it looks a nice relaxed resort with things to do and there was not a huge amount at OKW so we decided to change. I am not sure which one we will get, they do not start the refurb til next month with Oak Manor first, followed by Paterre Place. Not sure whether they will be full phase by the time we arrive so we have not even been able to choose our view as those rooms might not be done. Or we might be one of the very first people in - which would be amazing!!

The one thing I have found is that having been so many times I am in the place of 'will not bother with that, or that, or that' and it feels like we are going to be 'done' in such little time. Kind of strange feeling I have to admit.

Ohhh, you are in for a treat! We've stayed at the FQ and the Riverside (I much prefer the Riverside, don't know why, just prefer the theme I guess). The new rooms look stunning!!

I like being able to kick back and relax a bit more now, we used to do the theme parks commando style, but so much more fun now to be able to do them in a more leisurely way. What view have you booked at BLT? Are you SV, LV or MK? If you're LV do you know the room types to request to have a chance of a bit of MK view? Do not miss the chance to watch the fireworks from TOTWL. I can't imagine it's going to be there forever so use it when you can.

We've only done SV - points don't go far enough for the others - but oh my we love it there :cool: