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

Weggy

depends what you want from your visit. We had time to get round everything but only managed one show (one where they feed chicken to some gators and crocs) but we saw enough. Oh, also had time to have our pic taken with a baby gator.......

Murphy_The_Cat

With the notable exception of a few posters (recently weggy & bargainaholice) there is page after page of people who appear to have done nothing (or very lttle) in Florida other than fast track their money from their wallet to the Disney Corporartion.

Have people not toured ?

Visited the Keys
Kennedy Space Center
St Petersburg
Beaches
Fruit Farms
Miami
Daytona
The entire Gulf Coast
Hired a car and drove to see what they could see
Scuba dived
gone fishing
visted museums
aquariums
golf
hiring a convertible
hiring a Harley
Jest Skiing
hangliding behind a boat
go across 7 mile bridge
visit the southern most point of the continental United States
sun bathe
the Everglades (& visit gatorland)
& I'm sure a lot more other things to do other than emptying your wallet with Disney.

Just my thoughts.

MTC

Col_in_LB

I've been out to the Orlando area 4 or 5 times in the last 2 years.....so far I've managed to get to the Magic Kingdom once, for one evening just to see the Wishes fireworks display. Yet to set foot inside any of the other Disney parks, and only been to Universal for a day, for both.

Like you say - there's loads out there in the REAL Florida. Personally I love the winery on the US27 a couple of miles up the road from my villa

cheers
Col

funky-footprints

the only reason i went to florida was to take my kids to meet the characters of Walt Disney. I used this site and the DIBB to get the most help possible for a Disney novice.

We had a week before that in North Carolina and have been there before, we did a lot more there, but this thread isnt about North Carolina. x

We have friends who live in Tampa and when the children are older we aim to see a lot more of florida through thier help, in the mean time with a 3 year old and 5 year old Mickey calls !!!

Murphy_The_Cat

funky-footprints wrote:

We had a week before that in North Carolina and have been there before, we did a lot more there, but this thread isnt about North Carolina. x

Hi ff

I know what you are saying, but neither is it just about Disney.

MTC

jonnno

Hi everyone
We're planning a once in a lifetime trip next year for 4 of us (kids 10 and 8). We're only gonna do Florida once so want to get it right. We can't decide when is the best time to go. It has to be school holidays (I work in a school) so to fit in 2 weeks there are only 3 times of the year when we can go: Christmas, Easter and summer.

We have ruled out Christmas, which leaves Easter when it is very, very busy; or summer when it is very, very hot.:undecided

Discuss

Col_in_LB

Purely for the temperature side of things - I would pick Easter. Will be warm, perhaps even hot but low humidity - summer is a killer for that, and it becomes so much less enjoyable.

cheers
col

Dumyat

we've been at easter....wasnt too bad. first week americans were on spring break - second week the parks were empty. Weather was very pleasant and warm. if we had been smarter we would have avoided the big parks that week and just went the second week.

Weggy

Murphy_The_Cat wrote:

With the notable exception of a few posters (recently weggy & bargainaholice) there is page after page of people who appear to have done nothing (or very lttle) in Florida other than fast track their money from their wallet to the Disney Corporartion.

Have people not toured ?

Visited the Keys
Kennedy Space Center
St Petersburg
Beaches
Fruit Farms
Miami
Daytona
The entire Gulf Coast
Hired a car and drove to see what they could see
Scuba dived
gone fishing
visted museums
aquariums
golf
hiring a convertible
hiring a Harley
Jest Skiing
hangliding behind a boat
go across 7 mile bridge
visit the southern most point of the continental United States
sun bathe
the Everglades (& visit gatorland)
& I'm sure a lot more other things to do other than emptying your wallet with Disney.

Just my thoughts.

MTC

Third visit to the US, all for vacations. Previously spent 3 weeks in Texas (yep TEXAS!), visiting places like Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Fredericksburg.... visiting places like the JFK assassination site, Reunion Tower, the Stockyards, Sixth Avenue, the Alamo.... just to name a few.

This trip, we spent 3 and a half weeks in the US. Started with a long weekend in New York, seeing the usual sites (Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building) before moving onto Washington DC for a couple of days. Again saw the usual sites but also went to the National Aquarium, the Arlington National Cemetary. Then spent the remainder of the holiday in Florida. Here's the list of what we saw there: (hired a car for the duration of the Floriday holiday, and stayed in a private villa in Davenport)
Gatorland
Couple of days in Miami.
Miami Beach
Stayed in a Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood (the Florida Hollywood)
Went on an airboat tour
Snorkelling
Kennedy Space Center, and Astronaut Hall of Fame
Clearwater beach
Mini Golf on several occasions.
Old Town Kissimmee

(didnt do jetskiing - not covered on my travel insurance)

But, if I want to spend money at the Disney parks, then I will. Oh, and for the record, Disney parks are far more cheaper than our theme parks at home. They are also far larger, more customer driven, and offer much better value for money than our embarrassing equivalents.

Murphy_The_Cat

Weggy wrote:

But, if I want to spend money at the Disney parks, then I will. Oh, and for the record, Disney parks are far more cheaper than our theme parks at home. They are also far larger, more customer driven, and offer much better value for money than our embarrassing equivalents.

Dead right weggy, your money is there to spent as you want it. My point was that there is a massive amount to do in Florida other than lining Uncle Walts pockets. The vast, vast majority of posters on this thread seem to concentrate on ONLY Disney.

MTC

p.s. how did I miss mini golf off my list ?

also going back to Washington DC - what a place to visit, and nearly all free as well. we went before 9/11 and had a tour of the Pentagon as well - absolutely fantastic, don't know if they're still doing it though