Orlando & Florida - Questions & Answers (Part 1) *CLOSED*

gizmos

kaznelson wrote:

We are returning to Florida this year but are looking for a beach holiday. We are travelling with a 13 & 9 year old. Any suggestions to which is the best area along the Gulf Coast? & Best time of year. Last year we went in May but found the pool could sometimes be chilly.

The kids love snorkelling/watersports.

Any suggestions would be grateful

In my opinon you cannot go wrong with Siesta Key area - voted one of the best Beaches in the world, plenty to do along there as well - will be there myself very soon!!!

June would be a good time although it is the start of the hurricane season which runs till November.

Ynot_2

Have been looking for some tickets for the 4/5 flex pass and best price I could get was £106 for adults and £85 for the kids..anyone beter that offer or do you think thats a good deal guys...any help appreciated

lynn44

Rachie B
we have just booked our flights with my travel paid £573 (for 3 person) :j includes all taxes and charges and of course in flight meals... going end of april for 2 wks :T

Benny24

Ynot wrote:

Have been looking for some tickets for the 4/5 flex pass and best price I could get was £106 for adults and £85 for the kids..anyone beter that offer or do you think thats a good deal guys...any help appreciated

Just make sure there aren't any hidden charges, such a tax or credit/debit card charges.

Also make sure you are getting REAL TICKETS and not vouchers.
Vouchers mean you have to queue up to get the real tickets either at the park or at some ticket outlet. And sometimes the queues can be LONG depending on the time of year.

I would recommend you purchase from sites with real tickets, so all you have to do is walk straight into the park. Having looked at some reputable sites an Adult 4 park flex is £110 and a five park flex £135.

Hope this helps. :cool:

Col_in_LB

Just spotted some flights with First Choice Airways from Nottingham East Midlands today....flying out on 23rd Sept for a fortnight. Flight only was £1320 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

The same from Gatwick a couple of days earlier or later was a couple of hundred quid more!

cheers
Col

Ynot_2

Benny24 wrote:

Just make sure there aren't any hidden charges, such a tax or credit/debit card charges.

Also make sure you are getting REAL TICKETS and not vouchers.
Vouchers mean you have to queue up to get the real tickets either at the park or at some ticket outlet. And sometimes the queues can be LONG depending on the time of year.

I would recommend you purchase from sites with real tickets, so all you have to do is walk straight into the park. Having looked at some reputable sites an Adult 4 park flex is £110 and a five park flex £135.

Hope this helps. :cool:

Thankyou

I will make sure it is the real tickets instead of the vouchers like
you say..

Ta

honey28

Sorry for what may be a silly question but...
How do you know if they are "real tickets" or "vouchers"? I have some which are credit card sized - are these tickets or vouchers I bought them at park-tickets.com

ianjul

I have just come back with the family from Florida, doing the theme park thing !!!
Heres some tips for those about to go.
Firstly we did not do any of the Disney Parks as my teenage kids didn't want too, however Disney do similar things as the other parks eg. Parking & prices etc.
We flew out with American Airlines (Heathrow to Miami then change at Miami and internal flight to orlando), we stayed in a privately rented villa, we hired a Jeep 4 x 4 for the 2 weeks.
During our stay we visited the following theme parks.
Busch Gardens, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Seaworld & Wet n Wild.
We purchased our theme park tickets all online before we went.

All the theme parks charge for parking now. The price ranges from $6 to $10 dollars a day depending on the park. They do not allow you to take your own food or drinks in the park and search bags at the entrance, however it isn't that thorough, and bottles of drink were never questioned.
This means that the food & drink prices in the parks are quite high compared to outside, best deal is to buy a souvenir drinks bottle early on and keep getting it refilled up. The refills are cheaper.
The snacks bars and restuarants in the parks get busy between 1200 and 1430, so be prepared to que up to 1 hour to buy lunch.
The parks have lockers inside them, as on some of the rides you cannot take any baggage. Some you have to pay and others let you have 2 hours rental for free, then they start charging you !!!

Most of the parks now operate a Express queing system, each park is slightly differnt so check either online or at the kiosk on the day, but basically you can pay extra ($40 on a busy day) to get you an express ticket. This means that you skip the long queues. Basically most of the main rides operate two queues. One for normal park goers and the other for people who have bought the Express ticket. The express ticket gets you on the ride alot quicker, and I mean alot quicker. If you dont like queueing, or it is a busy day, then these are pricey but worth it. Officially you can only use it once per ride, however when we used ours that rule only ever kicked in during late afternoon, so if you arrive early and get the ticket it gives you plenty of time to keep going on the rides until they start applying the rule. Universal studios were the most relaxed with this ticket, Islands of Adventure were quite strict, only on the most popular rides, but if you just speak to the attendant they quite happily let us through again. We never got refused a ride.

Anyway I've rambled on long enough, post any questions and I'll answer them as best I can, we had a great time & wish we were still there !!!
We did the Cirque de soleil show at Downtown Disney, called La Naubo, that was excellent and would highly recommend it, worth every penny / cent !!!!

Enjoy !!

lynn44

Ianjul
many thanks for all the info... we are off in just under 2 weeks :j is the weather nice ... thunderstorms ?? we dont think we will be doing disney either this is the 2nd time we've been and not done disney, someone said its worth trip to Downtown disney ?
we have not bothered with hire car ( cant see the point if being parked all day, and now being charged too :eek: ) we are quite happy on the bus or I trolley
arriving at orlando airport doe's it take long to get through customs etc ?
did it work out cheaper buying your tickets here than on the gate or from the outlets ?

Poppy9

When we went in Feb we took food into Disney, Universal and Seaworld. Saw lots of other people with picnics too. They searched our bags but didn't question the food and drinks. I always put a water bottle on a lanyard around my neck from the car and refill from the water fountains in the park.

We always reason that if they did refuse entry due to food we would just return it to the cool box in the car and collect later.