Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

Stew68

I should have said that we did go down to the space centre for the day and loved it. Apart from the getting there it is one of the cheapest entrance costs in the whole of Florida, if you have any interest in the space history you'll enjoy it, i'll see if I can upload some photos later in the week if anybodies interested.

redsandy101

jules6 wrote: »

Not sure if this is a silly question, but, regarding travel insurance how does everyone protect the cost of their park tickets if they need to cancel their holiday for any reason? I am looking at The Post Office Insurance but the advisor said they only cover upto £250 for tickets and £250 personal money. This is nowhere near what the tickets cost. Are they covered on credit card?

I took out normal travel insurance then following a hint here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/cheap-travel-insurance also took out cover from protectmyholiday to cover the airline going bust for £3 400 and Theme Park Tickets to the value £1800 for £25 for a family of five. Check it out as I am not 100% confident that I fully understand this whole insurance business.

Before purchasing insurance online I was so confused I went into an insurance agent in Town and asked for a quote for travel insurance which also covered the airline going bust and she told me that no such thing existed. After telling her I'd found it online she asked around her colleagues then phoned the insurance company coming back to tell me that it was possible but by then I decided I seemed to be as informed as her and went ahead online.

jeanniebeanie_2

Stew68 wrote: »

I won't comment on which parks to go to, its all a personal thing, my last trip (2 adults) we didn't do any of the disney parks.

To get down to the shuttle launch site is about an hour and a half on a normal day, I looked into it as there was a shuttle launch when we were there last November, a lot of the information I found about it said that it could take 3 hours to get down there because of the traffic and 4 to 5 hours to get back so we decided not to bother.

Hope that helps.

This is spot on. We drove down on a launch day a few years ago. Kennedy Visitor centre was PACKED, and the tours they would normaly do restricted for security reasons, so if you want to the whole centre you will need to do a second trip.

We went to view the actual launch from Cocoa Beach (a good free viewing point of the launch pad). The atmosphere was great- hundreds of friendly people with radios broadcasting the live countdown- a real party feel. Unfortunately a lightening storm suddenly arrived and the launch was aborted at minus 10 seconds!!!!!!!

The heavens opened and yes it took us 4 hours plus to get back in torrential rain in the middle of the night!

I can't say whether I would try a launch again or not (would NOT do visitor centre on a launch day without a launch ticket which I THINK is not refundable if launch cancelled)- you do get a distant view in Orlando anyway, but it was kinda fun and different.

Stew68

jeanniebeanie wrote: »

This is spot on. We drove down on a launch day a few years ago. Kennedy Visitor centre was PACKED, and the tours they would normaly do restricted for security reasons, so if you want to the whole centre you will need to do a second trip.

We went to view the actual launch from Cocoa Beach (a good free viewing point of the launch pad). The atmosphere was great- hundreds of friendly people with radios broadcasting the live countdown- a real party feel. Unfortunately a lightening storm suddenly arrived and the launch was aborted at minus 10 seconds!!!!!!!

The heavens opened and yes it took us 4 hours plus to get back in torrential rain in the middle of the night!

I can't say whether I would try a launch again or not (would NOT do visitor centre on a launch day without a launch ticket which I THINK is not refundable if launch cancelled)- you do get a distant view in Orlando anyway, but it was kinda fun and different.

That was one of the other reasons we didn't go down for the launch, we'd lose a whole day and if they cancelled it would have been a waste of a very valuable vacation day. We did see the shuttle from orlando which was good, but the photo could be anything:rotfl:

chocolateteddy

jules6 wrote: »

Not sure if this is a silly question, but, regarding travel insurance how does everyone protect the cost of their park tickets if they need to cancel their holiday for any reason? I am looking at The Post Office Insurance but the advisor said they only cover upto £250 for tickets and £250 personal money. This is nowhere near what the tickets cost. Are they covered on credit card?

Hi there I too was concerned about this but when I spoke to the post office before I bought insurance and have just rechecked by speaking to a different person they said
(bearing in mind we have bought a package all in- including tickets!)

For cancellation purposes our holiday is covered up to £5000 per person which would include our tickets

Once we are out there tickets come under personal money and documents section
which is £500 with £250 of that being cash (per person)
so since our disney tickets are around £200 each we are inside the limit as we will not be carrying a huge amount of cash on us anyway. so for us it is ok

Hope that helps a bit- we were told the amounts are per person - but I see your point if you are doing universal as well!! tickets would be above that.
We chose Post office because they are underwritten by Fortis and reading FH Brit thread on insurance they came recommended and Hubby being a postie got 15% discount and of course went through topcashback!!!!

I know some will say we were daft booking as a complete package but we got discount for belonging to csma and booking through the coop travelcare shop. then they undercut a quote which I thought was competive anyway and the disney ultimate tickets worked out £1 cheaper each than attractions direct prices for 2010.(not got 2011 prices yet) So we got the holiday we wanted for a price we were happy with and the park tickets thrown in as well, within our budget. Can't wait now only 13 months to go.

Birdy12

We're hoping to book to go to Florida in the next couple of weeks and are looking to book to go in December as I celebrate, ahem, a certain milestone birthday .

I've just read another comment about Florida on here and they said it was a bit chilly in November. This sounds so naive but, does the sun go away and hide in Florida in November/December?

We have been to Florida before, however, it was end August/beginning September and it was boiling (and humid). I would like to go again when it is at least warm.

Can someone let me know if it is still warm in December with, maybe, just a cardigan needed in the evenings?

Cheers, Birdy

Jem8472

I have only been during June but found this for you

http://orlando.about.com/od/weather/a/avetemps.htm

mumofjusttwo

Birdy12 wrote: »

We're hoping to book to go to Florida in the next couple of weeks and are looking to book to go in December as I celebrate, ahem, a certain milestone birthday .

I've just read another comment about Florida on here and they said it was a bit chilly in November. This sounds so naive but, does the sun go away and hide in Florida in November/December?

We have been to Florida before, however, it was end August/beginning September and it was boiling (and humid). I would like to go again when it is at least warm.

Can someone let me know if it is still warm in December with, maybe, just a cardigan needed in the evenings?

Cheers, Birdy

Florida can be tricky with the weather. We have been at the end of NOvember and been wonderful except having to wear a jumper at night time. Then I have also been at the beginning of January and ended up wearing coat AND gloves in the morning and being able to go swimming in the outside pool the following day.

. At the moment I know that people ore having to de ice their cars!!

jules6

Thanks chocolateteddy, you've reassured me. I was worried if we had to cancel for any reason we might not get the cost of the tickets back and you need to book things like Discovery Cove early!:j

KarenG

Birdy12 wrote: »

We're hoping to book to go to Florida in the next couple of weeks and are looking to book to go in December as I celebrate, ahem, a certain milestone birthday .

I've just read another comment about Florida on here and they said it was a bit chilly in November. This sounds so naive but, does the sun go away and hide in Florida in November/December?

We have been to Florida before, however, it was end August/beginning September and it was boiling (and humid). I would like to go again when it is at least warm.

Can someone let me know if it is still warm in December with, maybe, just a cardigan needed in the evenings?

Cheers, Birdy

It depends - you can be lucky or unlucky! This year it's been pretty chilly. The year I went (Dec 2004) we were there for 23 days, and it was only shorts and T shirt weather for 4 of the 23 days :eek: However it was pleasant most of the time, especially in the middle of the day. Having said that, the fortnight before we'd arrived they'd had a mini heatwave.

So it could be either!