Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

Smackey

Hi there, I am trying to plan a family holiday to disney in early December this year and have therefore been tooting at these boards and finding out all the brilliant tips and advice. My quandry is this, have found a holiday that seems a little bit too good to be true. Its with First Choice, 14 days in a private villa in West Stonebridge, Davenport. 4 bed, private pool etc. Includes free car hire but of course that means we will have to pay all the local charges etc upon arrival i.e. additional driver, car seats, however much CDW is these days . All for £3,192. So thats for 5 adults, 1 child, 1 infant. Flights are with Thomson and are at reasonable times. Is there something i'm missing here, apart from the disney tickets that is?

Also, re the disney tickets, a friend of ours has been to Florida before and said it is cheaper to buy the tickets from a booth in a mall on International Drive than to buy before you go. Anyone else done this, got any experience on this?

Many thanks in advance and apologies for all the questions

Ta

Sx

sausagedog

Hi

We have booked a family holiday to Florida in September next year and will be staying on resort at Disney. Their are 5 of us going - me, the wife and our three children who will be 8, 7 and 4.

We have been looking into getting the Express passes for Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure when we go there but they are $25.99 per person per day (on top of the ticket price). We have therefore been looking at staying at one of the Universal hotels for one night which we can get for $248 including taxes and for this we would all get the Express passes for the day we check in and the day we check out.

Does anybody have any recommendations on whether we need to get the Express passes and whether booking a hotel for the night is the best way to do this?

Thanks.

atro1

Smackey wrote: »

Hi there, I am trying to plan a family holiday to disney in early December this year and have therefore been tooting at these boards and finding out all the brilliant tips and advice. My quandry is this, have found a holiday that seems a little bit too good to be true. Its with First Choice, 14 days in a private villa in West Stonebridge, Davenport. 4 bed, private pool etc. Includes free car hire but of course that means we will have to pay all the local charges etc upon arrival i.e. additional driver, car seats, however much CDW is these days . All for £3,192. So thats for 5 adults, 1 child, 1 infant. Flights are with Thomson and are at reasonable times. Is there something i'm missing here, apart from the disney tickets that is?

Also, re the disney tickets, a friend of ours has been to Florida before and said it is cheaper to buy the tickets from a booth in a mall on International Drive than to buy before you go. Anyone else done this, got any experience on this?

Many thanks in advance and apologies for all the questions

Ta

Sx

I have never brought from the booths but I have sold them tickets and both times I lied!
And as it was suggested to me to do this I would think many have! So its buyer beware at the booths even if you do not get talked into a timeshare presentation.:cool:

giovanni

atro1 wrote: »

I have never brought from the booths but I have sold them tickets and both times I lied!
And as it was suggested to me to do this I would think many have! So its buyer beware at the booths even if you do not get talked into a timeshare presentation.:cool:

What do you mean both times you lied?

atro1

how many Disney days there were left on tickets.

blackpongo1

Sausagedog we had to buy these passes in the summer as there was no way we were getting on any rides q times 90 mins plus i dont know if the time you are going would be as busy may be some others mse's could advise more
HTH

sausagedog

blackpongo1 wrote: »

Sausagedog we had to buy these passes in the summer as there was no way we were getting on any rides q times 90 mins plus i dont know if the time you are going would be as busy may be some others mse's could advise more
HTH

Thanks for the reply blackpongo.

We are going 15th - 30th September next year. Does anybody know how busy Universal / IOA is likely to be?

Kenny_Powers_3

sausagedog wrote: »

Thanks for the reply blackpongo.

We are going 15th - 30th September next year. Does anybody know how busy Universal / IOA is likely to be?

It'll be quiet.

My fav time to go to Orlando is Sept/Oct and Jan.

aitch-aitch

sausagedog wrote: »

Hi

We have booked a family holiday to Florida in September next year and will be staying on resort at Disney. Their are 5 of us going - me, the wife and our three children who will be 8, 7 and 4.

We have been looking into getting the Express passes for Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure when we go there but they are $25.99 per person per day (on top of the ticket price). We have therefore been looking at staying at one of the Universal hotels for one night which we can get for $248 including taxes and for this we would all get the Express passes for the day we check in and the day we check out.

Does anybody have any recommendations on whether we need to get the Express passes and whether booking a hotel for the night is the best way to do this?

Thanks.

IMHO I don't think you do need them. We went to both IOA and Universal in Aug / early Sep this year - we followed the touring plans which are in the back of the "Unofficial Guide to WDW" and queued for 10 mins max. the only ride with massive queues was the new ride (sorry forgot name already - think was Rock n Roller Coaster) which had huge queues.

Also we met a cast member working in the childrens play area of Universal and she gave us free quick passes for any ride (apparently they each have some to give out each day at their discretion) so BE NICE!

nw_man

We stayed onsite at The Royal Pacific hotel at Universal this year.

The front of line passes were absolutely superb... but we did go at peak times.

Also, remember that some rides have single rider lines that significantly reduce your wait time. We must have gone on Men In Black 30 times.... first 5 or 6 we used our room key to get to the front, then we just went single rider.

Also the name of the new ride at Universal is the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit http://www.hollywoodripriderockit.com/#/home

Doubt you would need to pay for express passes in september.