Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

vivatifosi

Blizzard Beach is closed until March OnePound, so you will only have a choice of Typhoon Lagoon.

As for the 16 degrees C, I'm guessing that is for the whole day (including the night when you won't be in the pool) as the day highs tend to be considerably higher. I've been to Typhoon Lagoon in January and it was quite nice. You do need to find a warm day though. All of the water is heated, so that is fine, but I found that I got a little chilly at the beginning and end of the day, getting out of the water into cooler air.

johnnyl

Can anyone help with my query below.

Going to Orlando next year and we are looking at predominantly None Disney places.

What we would like to do though is Hollywood studios and Blizzard beach and so we are looking for the cheapest way to do this.

Ive seen a magic your way 1 day ticket and then the waterpark add on option. The price was fine but the water park add on said "2 visits"

My problem is that I believe that the magic your way 1 day park is only valid for 1 day, and after that both it and the waterpark add on can not be used. This would mean that the theme park admission and the water park option would need to be used in the same day.

Do I have this right or does that combination allow theme park access one day / waterpark access the next day?

Thanks

cazmcf

Looking for opinions, We're heading to Orlando June'/July. We plan to buy the 14 day Universal Ticket, but wondered would you still buy a night in a Universal hotel to get the fasspasses? Or just try to get everything done within 2 weeks?

Birdie85

Fojo wrote: »

Hoping to visit orlando for 2nd time In april with 13 & 15 year old. Thought about cheapish hotel for most of the time but splurging on a universal hotel for 3 days to get early entry/'fastpass' universal tickets. Any advice how I'd go about booking a 'dual hotel' option like this? Thanks I anticipation for any help

We did this last time we went but instead of building our own holiday we found a really good package deal for our main base hotel and just booked the Hard Rock Hotel separately, although we only had 1 night there so the cost may not work out as well if you plan on having 2 or 3 days as the hotels are not cheap! At least keeping our other room meant we could just bring what we needed for our time in Universal rather than pack up everything, move hotels then pack it all up again and move back to a different room. Depends on what deals you can find as to whether or not it's worth it though.

cazmcf wrote: »

Looking for opinions, We're heading to Orlando June'/July. We plan to buy the 14 day Universal Ticket, but wondered would you still buy a night in a Universal hotel to get the fasspasses? Or just try to get everything done within 2 weeks?

June/July will probably be pretty busy so if you've got the budget, I'd stay in a Universal hotel at least one night as the Fastpasses will be a big time saver when it's busy and the early entry will mean you can be the first on the HP Forbidden Journey ride and the Rip Ride Rocket which don't accept FP. The Fastpasses are valid for 2 days on a one night stay, so get to the hotel early on check-in day, they can store your luggage if your room isn't ready, get the FP and hotfoot it to the park for early entry. We did this purely by chance last time as we were up early anyway and just assumed that we'd only get a FP on the day we checked out so it worked out really well and we've said that we'll always squeeze a visit to HRH in from now on! At least this way you'll be able to do most of what you want in your 2 main days at the parks and then can quite happily return a couple of times to do things you want to do again/missed at a more leisurely pace and enjoy some of the fun queues that you miss with FP.

meer53

cazmcf wrote: »

Looking for opinions, We're heading to Orlando June'/July. We plan to buy the 14 day Universal Ticket, but wondered would you still buy a night in a Universal hotel to get the fasspasses? Or just try to get everything done within 2 weeks?

We've been to Florida several times, for 2 and sometimes 3 weeks. We manage to fit everything in, Disney Parks, water parks and Universal. in 2 weeks without needing Fast Passes. If you have 2 full weeks just for Universal Parks, you'll have no trouble. We were there in July 13, the longest queue was for Harry Potter, it was about 90 minutes. It made me feel so ill, i never went on it again but the kids did !

We find that if you use the Single Rider queues the wait time is much shorter. We used this on the Transformers ride a few times, longest wait was 25 minutes and we all ended up together on the same ride anyway !

cazmcf

Thanks for the replies, I suppose the biggest worry for me is that the Harry Potter extension should be open, so I'm expecting it to be super busy. We're going for 3 weeks so I know we'll have plenty of time. I'm stupidly excited now that it's THIS year that we're going.

I might do a night in a hotel if money allows. We bought fastpasses the last time we were there (2007) but they've gone up so much!

I've just asked dd (9) would she do single rider, she just shook her head and said she'd be holding on to strangers!

We'll work it some how...

phague

Hello,

We are planning to book for Orlando for next October, but only for 1 week due to the school holidays Does anyone know if it is worth booking the Theme Park tickets in the UK, as it is only for 1 week, please? We would like to visit both Universal's, Aquatica and Busch Gardens! Most of the multi-park ticket options I have found so far are for 14 days.

Last time we stayed was about 6 years ago!

Thanks in advance!

pinkzebra

johnnyl wrote: »

Can anyone help with my query below.

Going to Orlando next year and we are looking at predominantly None Disney places.

What we would like to do though is Hollywood studios and Blizzard beach and so we are looking for the cheapest way to do this.

Ive seen a magic your way 1 day ticket and then the waterpark add on option. The price was fine but the water park add on said "2 visits"

My problem is that I believe that the magic your way 1 day park is only valid for 1 day, and after that both it and the waterpark add on can not be used. This would mean that the theme park admission and the water park option would need to be used in the same day.

Do I have this right or does that combination allow theme park access one day / waterpark access the next day?

Thanks

There are not normally any deals for 1 day tickets. Your only option really is to by a one day ticket at the gate, which is $95 + tax for an adult for Hollywood Studios, and $53 + tax for Blizzard Beach.

Disney is quite expensive for just a couple of days. The tickets work out much cheaper per day if you go for a few days, then you could get discounted tickets. For example, I have just looked on undercovertourist.com (through a discount link on the mousesavers.com newsletter - sign up for deals!) and you can get 4 days at Disney and 4 visits 'waterpark fun and more' for $339.95 including tax and delivery. These tickets expire 14 days from the first use. The 'waterpark fun and more' options can be used at the waterparks, disneyquest and the disney mini golf.

But I guess if you really only want 1 day at each, then a regular single ticket, bought at the gate, is the way to go.

pinkzebra

cazmcf wrote: »

Looking for opinions, We're heading to Orlando June'/July. We plan to buy the 14 day Universal Ticket, but wondered would you still buy a night in a Universal hotel to get the fasspasses? Or just try to get everything done within 2 weeks?

It will be busy - we always stay in a Universal hotel, even if only for 1 night. Yes, you could go back multiple times and use your ticket, but remember you have to pay for parking - which is $16 a day, or catch a shuttle bus (which can take a surprisingly long time, even if your hotel is close by).

The parking fees will soon mount up. When we were there (summer holidays 2013), the queues were generally between 60 minutes (like the Hulk and spiderman) and 3 hours (despicable me and transformers). Quite a few less exciting attractions (like twister for example) were only 10 minutes.

If you stay onsite, you get early entry to Harry potter, Dr seuss, Transformers and Despicable me. When you enter early, you will bypass a huge crowd of people at the gate that will be waiting for the gates to open at 9.

Then you will do Harry Potter, say. Then by the time you have done the Harry Potter bit, it will be busy. The fast pass is so great - in the heat of midday, the queue for popeyes river rapid ride was 90 minutes, and we just literally walked up to the front of the line, past all the people and walked on. Then we did it a few times more. I can see regular ticket holders getting really annoyed at the fast pass holders (and I would be too!), but that is the way it goes these days.

By the way, the hotel fast passes are free, and for unlimited rides for the length of stay (you just need to buy your actual park ticket)- the ones you buy from the park are for only 1 ride each.

We paid about £165 per night at the Royal Pacific. If you only stay for 1 night, you get 2 days of fast passes. You check in whenever you like - you just can't get to your room until mid afternoon usually. They will look after your bags. Also, if you only go for 2 days, your park ticket will probably be cheaper.

pinkzebra

phague wrote: »

Hello,

We are planning to book for Orlando for next October, but only for 1 week due to the school holidays Does anyone know if it is worth booking the Theme Park tickets in the UK, as it is only for 1 week, please? We would like to visit both Universal's, Aquatica and Busch Gardens! Most of the multi-park ticket options I have found so far are for 14 days.

Last time we stayed was about 6 years ago!

Thanks in advance!

This is what I would do (we have been a few times)…..

Sign up to the mousesavers.com newsletter. Every month they will send an email with a special link in it, for undercover tourist.com (a reputable ticket seller - we have used them several times and they have really good deals).

Ticket wise, there are a few options…

1. get a flex ticket - the cheapest I can find is $305.95 inc tax and delivery (about £192). Usual price is about £225

OR

2. Get a Universal ticket - cheapest I have found is $131.95 for 3 days (2 days plus 1 day free), or $150.95 if you want to park hop. Now those tickets expire in May, but I would be extremely surprised if they didn't do a similar offer afterwards, as these are the tickets we got last summer (these are from the mousesavers newsletter link to undercovercovertourist). Their normal discounted rates are as above, but only for 2 days.

Then in addition, I would get your Busch Gardens and Aquatica tickets from somewhere like Floridatix.co.uk (another place we use). Your tickets would be £82 for 14 days of unlimited entry - it also includes sea world too (which is nice and has a couple of good rides too) - so 3 parks in all.

so price wise, £165 for 14 days aquatica,bush,seaworld, and 3 days universal

or £192 for 14 days flex ticket.

Those prices are adult prices. Under 9's are slightly cheaper.

Note, parking is not included. If you stay at a Universal Hotel (not the new one though), you get free unlimited fast passes. (see my other post about that). It may be worth considering.

Hope that helps