Disney land some Basic questions

no.1swimmum

I must agree with 'sodamnfunky' I would not stay on international dive again - we are in the process of planning our 11th Florida holiday and looking at a villa for our family to stay in. If it is just you and your son then obviously a hotel room would be better value, we have stayed at the Disney hotels and they are fantastic, but can be a little on the expensive side depending on which hotel you stay at, one of the things that you need to take into account - will you be hiring a car, if not then I would consider a disney hotel as their transportation system is great, and free, buses transfer from the hotels to the parks and downtown disney, if you are hiring a car then the choice is yours really there are some good deals on hotels at the moment - saw one recently advertised at $1 a night - some of them must be struggling in this economic climate. If I can help with any more questions just ask:D

elektra-2007

Thanks for all your help...no im not clued up i just thought it was like "normal holidays" I think i will go for a package like virgin, will try look round and see. I like the idea of visiting all these other places like universal studios, sea world ect do i book tickets here or is it better to wait till i get there. If i want to visit these places should i hire a car?
I never realised it was this hard..im scared now!

Incapuppy

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1820085

FloFlo

Hi again, it usually best to buy tickets in advance as gate prices are usually quite a bit more expensive.
www.attractionticketsdirect.co.uk

Depending what time of year you are going can affect greatly the cost of your holiday.

Some people swear by hiring a car, we don't hire a car we stay onsite at Disney and then onsite at Universal studios. If we want to go anywhere else we either get a taxi or use Mears transport shuttles who are approx $14 return per person from Disney hotel to most attractions outside Disney.

At Disney World Florida there are 4 parks, 2 water parks, 2 mini golf courses, and Down Town Disney - shops, huge games arcade, great restaurants.

gregg1

we have stayed at 3 of the Disney Hotels - The Swan, The Boardwalk and the Carribean Beach Resort Hotel. Although the first two were excellent we found the Carribean brilliant and more suited to families - it was also more reasonably priced. Its location to the parks is excellent. It was beautifully clean, we had a lovely big lakeside room overlooking the beach and you could get excellent and reasonably priced breakfasts from 6.30am to enable you to get an early start if you wanted to. We got a pretty good deal pricewise with Virgin Holidays (although Virgin cocked up a few things such as not paying the hotel for our park tickets so we had a problem getting hold of them!).

You will find more than enough to occupy you in the Disney parks for two weeks. I would however suggest you give yourselves a break every couple of days and go off and explore other areas of Orlando/Florida. We found it was just too hectic to cope with every single day in the parks.

FloFlo

Hi Gregg can I ask what you thought of the Swan hotel, we are thinking of staying at the Swan or dolphin next trip due to its location and the fact it offers discounts for teachers.

Thanks.

bryal99

We returned from Orlando at the beginning of August - having had an amazing holiday. We stayed in Davenport - which was only a 20 min drive (hire car) in independent self catering accommodation. Although myself and DH love the heat it was too hot for the kids (10, 8, 5 and 3 yrs) and my ma (70 yrs) and they all really struggled. We did all 3 Disney Parks (Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom), the 2 Disney water parks (Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon) and visited Downtown Disney (Disney Quest and Cirque Du Soleil). We also went to Seaworld and Aquatica (Seaworlds water park). We had planned to visit Universal Studios (but fortunately had not pre-purchased tickets - we had for Disney and Seaworld) as my eldest caught (probable) Swine Flu and so that slowed things down for us ! We also went to Gatorland - which my boys loved and we did a Boggy Creek Airboat ride. All in all a holiday of a life time. If I had to say the best bit for me it was -Cirque Du Soleil and tho' the tickets were an extra and not cheap it was AWESOME as the Americans say !
I used the Tourguidemike site for information about park days and plans and I have to say the $18 or so was worth every penny and we benefited from all the information available on his web site. We also used the 'hidden Mickey' book which makes it fun for the kids and the unofficial disney book and also some good Orlando guide books which I borrowed from friends.
Our best breakfast outside Disney was at 'Cracker Barrel' - an American Restraurant and Country Store and my DH still talks about his Steak from the 'Outback Steakhouse' - yummy... (there are several of each in the area). We also visited the Premium Outlet Shopping Mall and did some serious shopping for labels......
We have also been to Orlando (pre kids) in May - weather probably more manageable for kids.
We have never stayed in a Disney Hotel in Orlando as we are a family of 6 and it always seems to pricey for us - also we like the independent travel side of things.
We DO however stay in a Disney Hotel when we have been to Disney in Paris as it is more convenient to be on site.
I believe that there are a lot of good deals out there, as Disney appear to be really struggling in the current recession. The car parks were never full when we were there.
Good luck and have a really good look for a good deal as I am sure you will find one !
I have a friend who annually does Disney in Orlando (a family of 6) in a Disney Hotel + Disney dining package and they swear by it !

gregg1

FloFlo wrote: »

Hi Gregg can I ask what you thought of the Swan hotel, we are thinking of staying at the Swan or dolphin next trip due to its location and the fact it offers discounts for teachers.

Thanks.

Can recommed the Swan - the Dolphin was good as well although only ate there - did not see the rooms. Good size rooms, clean, excellent service. It is quite a "calm" hotel compared to some Disney hotels. Only downside is that there are not many reasonably priced restaurants in the hotel, no-where to get a reasonably priced, early breakfast before hitting the parks like you could at the Carribean Beach Resort. Having said that, the location of the Swan is excellent, next door to Epcot. We caught the boat to the parks most mornings or the bus depending on which park we were going to. Lovely pool area as well. Hotel caters largely for the Japanese tourists (fantastic but pricey Sushi restaurant in hotel).

Interested to hear about the teacher discount - how does that work? Also, do you know if the discount applies to The Boardwalk - we loved that hotel as well.

Youngsandy

Just back from Florida where we had a fantastic time apart from Wet'n'Wild the place is dilapidated,I ended up with a 2" gash under my knee due to there being tiles missing in the exit pool at the H2O Disco flume,the first aid give was good, but the attitude of the management was awful.Considering I bled into the pool no-one asked if I had any illness that could be transmitted ie. HIV,Hepatitis etc.(which I don't) But they didn't know that, nor did they bother to close the ride until the blood was filtered out.So if your goin I would give the place a body swerve..

lynzpower

Hi again, it usually best to buy tickets in advance as gate prices are usually quite a bit more expensive.
www.attractionticketsdirect.co.uk

Although to be truly moneysaving keep an eye on the exchange rate, the tickets seem to be ever so slightly cheaper on the door right now, than to buy from a UK distributor.

Dont panic, OP, there is a lot to read.

Have you got the free disney dvd and little brochure that you can get off the diney site ( planning dvd) it will realy help you you sound all over the place. Also go to thomas cook and get a handful of brochures. -- lots of useful maps, pictures etc, to help you - a lot easier to use form the off than a website.

ALso why not ask at your local library if they have any florida guidebooks, we bought the Moon one this time ( we go to orlando in 2 weeks, I went as a child tho) but the AA one looked quite good and i think there is a Orlandofor kids one that might be useful to flick through too

Happy planning